Riding the Bullet
Ten days into the new year allready. Technically the next decade won't start until next year, but after looking back at this one I'm calling it done now. First, a little background, then the reason for my Steven King reference will become apparent. About twelve years ago I was living in a small resort town on Lake Ontario, very nice place, tourists in the summer and you could ski down main street in winter without meeting a soul, pretty cool. Anyway I eventually met and became engaged to the wrong woman and wound up with a down payment on a house neither one of us could afford and some ever growing credit card bills. the financial stress and our basic incompatability led to our breakup, probably for the best.
After crashing at my brothers place for about a year I bought the place I'm in now, at the time it was ready for the cover of Crack house magazine, boarded up windows, ancient mechanical systems, no insulation etc. but it had two rentable apartments, enough income to cover the mortgage, and I was watching a lot of Bob Villa's tv shows at the time. Well ten years later most of the remodeling is done, the interior has been totally gutted and rebuilt, modernised and brought up to code, and except for a few bad tennants, the income has largely paid for the whole venture as well as allowing me to live for free, I've amassed the ultimate collection of tools, and a pretty good workshop where I build some really cool stuff ( Halloween animatronics, hot rods, and motorcycles). It's been a very long haul but mostly worth It. About a year ago my mom had a serious stroke and was diagnosed with alzheimers, my brother and I have been doing our best to keep her out of the nursing home, she lives in a retirement community near me and loves it there, we go over twice a day and a nurse comes twice a week, but I'm not sure how much longer she'll be able to stay. Today began with a call from one of her neighbors, she was extremly upset and trying to get them to call one of us (lost her speech from the stroke). Things turned out ok, she was just confused and needed some company so we went for a ride around town. Sometimes life is like Hitchhiking across Maine on Halloween night, maybe its best to ignore the monsters and just keep walking.
After crashing at my brothers place for about a year I bought the place I'm in now, at the time it was ready for the cover of Crack house magazine, boarded up windows, ancient mechanical systems, no insulation etc. but it had two rentable apartments, enough income to cover the mortgage, and I was watching a lot of Bob Villa's tv shows at the time. Well ten years later most of the remodeling is done, the interior has been totally gutted and rebuilt, modernised and brought up to code, and except for a few bad tennants, the income has largely paid for the whole venture as well as allowing me to live for free, I've amassed the ultimate collection of tools, and a pretty good workshop where I build some really cool stuff ( Halloween animatronics, hot rods, and motorcycles). It's been a very long haul but mostly worth It. About a year ago my mom had a serious stroke and was diagnosed with alzheimers, my brother and I have been doing our best to keep her out of the nursing home, she lives in a retirement community near me and loves it there, we go over twice a day and a nurse comes twice a week, but I'm not sure how much longer she'll be able to stay. Today began with a call from one of her neighbors, she was extremly upset and trying to get them to call one of us (lost her speech from the stroke). Things turned out ok, she was just confused and needed some company so we went for a ride around town. Sometimes life is like Hitchhiking across Maine on Halloween night, maybe its best to ignore the monsters and just keep walking.