Good NEWS!

 ...No one is dead, though, so don't worry.

You might have read my last post. It's been a crazy couple of weeks.

Today, Informed Delivery told me that I would be getting a piece of mail from my mortgage lender. I was hopeful that it was an updated escrow calculation, because I'd just looked last week to see that our payment amount changed last year in May and knew we were getting close to that time.

I was excited because we had finally managed to merge our three lots last year (after asking about it in 2018 and being denied due to a snafu, then thinking it was impossible until someone recommended I try doing it in 2023 when I was protesting our value -- as I have every year).

WELL, I was right. That's what it was. And the good news is that our monthly payment is going down by $350! We're within $200 of what the original payment was, before property values soared, then we refinanced it and got it down a bit, and then it went way up again. I'm grateful. This will be a huge break for us.

BUT what I was not expecting was... A FAT REFUND CHECK FROM LAST YEAR.

I suppose that makes sense: We underpay and we have to make it up. But I guess I just assumed they'd keep the overage in escrow to pay next year's. 

Oh my gosh, what a giant relief.

It covers the car, all of the maintenance guys, and the trip we're taking very soon.

But don't worry; I'm not going to get too big for my britches.

Even as I opened this up to write this awesome post, the keyboard on my laptop stopped working, so this is how I'm managing at the moment:

It is always something, is it not??

Still... a pretty uplifting afternoon, all things considered.

A Note About a Thing that Happened Today (and why my house might smell like ozone)

We had our biannual HVAC check today. As the guy was looking at the attic half of our heat pump, he noticed some "organic growth" (mildew) on the unit. He took a very blurry picture, but you'll get the idea:

The solution is to install this UV light system both on this unit and the other half, so they work together. We could do just one or just the other, and neither was cheap. But there was a small price break for doing both. It really seemed like a no-brainer. Not something we actually wanted to do, but, ya know... homeownership!

Anyhoo, James and I were both talking to the tech, and asking questions. Once we got to the end, I looked at James and asked, "What do you think?" 

Folks, my man looked straight at me and said, in front of God and the a/c tech, "You're in charge of the money, so it's up to you."

When I tell you how many years of trauma that undid for me, please understand that I'm not exaggerating or overstating it in any way.

If you have a man who isn't confident enough to hype you up like that, then I am very sorry for you. I've been there.

I hadn't planned to spend hundreds of dollars on a heat pump repair, but even so... pretty good day. Pretty pretty pretty good.

The world doesn't want me to buy things today

Except for our oven (which we're going to simply throw out and not replace as soon as James builds me a cabinet to hold an induction burner), we've replaced every appliance in our kitchen since we bought the house 6 years ago. The garbage disposal was supposed to have been replaced by the seller but wasn't, the fridge and dishwasher died, and the microwave was murdered by a power surge (the day we activated our solar panels, and the company that installed them reimbursed us for a new one, so no harm/no foul).

Sadly, the dishwasher I chose was garbage. I don't know what to tell you. I'm a cheapskate. I spent a very few hundred dollars, not realizing that LG is widely known as a crap dishwasher. We've had issues with it pretty much from the beginning, with the door making a LOUD noise when opening and closing. Also, the fat doesn't get enzymed away, and instead builds up in the nooks and crannies of the drawers, and all over the floor of the dishwasher. When I go to "rinse off" the filter, it makes me want to barf. I have to wear gloves, because holding it leaves such a layer of orange, thick, sticky fat that if I use my bare hands, there's no effective way to wash it off. And it grosses me out that we still put our dishes in there. They come out mostly clean, but the idea of it is sickening. I spend almost as much time trying to clean the dishwasher as I would if I just hand-washed the dishes (which wastes water, so I try not to).

We decided that the time had come to bite the bullet and spend a few extra hundred dollars on a more reputable dishwasher. I had looked at several and finally found a model that seemed to work for us. I called the local distributor and he helped me make sure we were getting the right one (this one has a water softener, so hopefully that will help keep the enzymes active enough to wash that nasty stuff down the drain like it's supposed to do. The sales guy said he'd send me an estimate for the washer and installation, I'd get 3% off if I wrote a check, then they'd call to schedule as soon as they'd gotten a picture of the check from me. Cool.

But he didn't send me an estimate. And, sadly, after about noon, I didn't get a chance to do anything so I guess I'll call him back in the morning and follow up.

The guy who's been mowing our yard since 2018 has been getting busier and busier, harder to nail down. We often go two weeks beyond when we actually need the yard mowed, and I feel like I'm harassing him. So we've been talking about buying another electric lawn mower for a while. The one we had before only lasted about a year and a half before the battery wouldn't fully charge, and I learned that you can't get a replacement because both the lawn mower and the battery itself are no longer manufactured. I knew the lawn mower had been discontinued when I bought it. That's why it was on such a great sale! Again, I DO NOT LIKE TO SPEND A LOT OF MONEY. But in this case, it bit me in the butt.

So today, I looked at a bunch of reviews and ended up picking out a mower and an extra battery (having to charge 3/4 of the way through the job is a real bummer). What's wild is that the battery alone costs 4/7 the price of the lawn mower! Anyhoo, I ordered it from Lowe's and then realized a couple of hours later that the sale hadn't gone through. They requested a different payment method. I got James's credit card and tried that, but it didn't work, either. Turns out that both Apple Card and the Amazon Visa we have declined the charges, probably because instead of processing it as one sale, they charged the battery and the mower separately, and two several-hundred-dollar charges in a row at a place we rarely spend that kind of money looked sus. We informed our banks that they weren't fraudulent, but I have to wait to call Lowe's tomorrow and have them process the sales.

I do hate spending money, but today I really tried to! The internet just didn't want to let me.

Then this other thing happened that was pretty significantly cooler.

We had a Panda Express coupon that expired today, so of course we had to use it (savings!). D had requested PE this weekend, actually, so it was a perfect time to get a discount. We'd pre-ordered food and I ended up there about 10 minutes before it was supposed to be ready. I ran in to use the restroom, as Mal and I had been running errands for almost an hour at that point, and then Mal mentioned that he was hungry. We'd just picked up groceries, and he wanted to go out to the car to get a Clif Kids Z Bar, then go back inside and wait for the food. He ran like a crazy person through the parking lot, and a man getting out of his car seemed amused by it.

When we got back inside, Mal practically inhaled the granola bar before noticing this cute panda plushie that was for sale at the cash register. He brought it over to show me, and I told him that he couldn't just walk off with it and asked him to put it back. He said, "But I kind of wanted it." I told him that I'd see how much it was when we got our order, but that he needed to put it back until then.

A couple of minutes later, the gentleman we'd seen in the parking lot walked over and asked me if it was okay for him to give Mal a gift. I said sure. He asked Mal's name, then said, "I want to tell you one thing: Never take a present from a stranger if your mom isn't around, okay?" Mal said, "I already knew that!" The guy said, "Good. Here you go." He'd bought Mal the panda! It was so sweet.

On the way home, Mal said, "That guy gave me two things: advice, and a stuffed animal!"

The (hopefully) rest of the story about the leaks

Today, we finally had all of the fans and dehumidifiers removed. They'd taken the ones out of the bedroom on Tuesday night, but the bathroom was a lot more soaked. We can't repair the water damage until the insurance appraiser comes out, which will be another week and a half. Fun times.

The "unrelated" shower leak: We'd called someone out to look at the shower a couple of weeks ago. The handle was dripping, and it's not a huge problem; I just didn't want it to shoot off in the middle of a shower. We know this is possible from the time I flushed the toilet and the cold handle blew off of one of the sink faucets in that bathroom. Our water situation is weird. Anyway, the plumbers said it was likely the cartridge, said they'd order one, and promised to call the next day to schedule. I followed up early the next week, but it ended up being over a week before they called back. By the time they came out, there was water in the bedroom floor (and under the bathroom tile; we'd had some re-grouting done and apparently they used silicone instead of grout, because it got wet and came up. Good help is hard to find.). The replaced the cartridge, said that the handle was still leaking, but that it was okay to use the shower because he ran it with the faceplate off of the faucet, and it was not leaking into the wall. He said we likely needed to replace the shower valve, and he asked us to get the valve ourselves so it would be cheaper. We also thought maybe it was the overflow drain, so ordered a new gasket for that. Meanwhile, I used the shower a couple of days later. The following morning, there was water in the bedroom floor again.

This happened to be the morning of the water heater line leak. So instead of just running our fan, we had serious equipment in there.

We got the valve in, the floor dried, and I called the plumbers to see when they'd be back out. They were booked for the whole week. I didn't want to have to turn the water off to the house, but we also didn't want to risk a plumbing leak putting more water into the floor. I found a new plumber who was able to come out that day. He cut a hole in the drywall (sound familiar? we just did this in the laundry room after the freeze), prepared to replace the valve... but there was nothing wrong with the valve. He did do something to the handle, though, and it's not leaking now, so that's neat. He recommended we call a roofer to see if there were a roof leak.

One came out the next day. He didn't find anything. So I called the plumber and asked him to come out the next day and check the drain. James had crawled under the house and looked to see if there were anything obvious there. It was definitely wet under the drain area. The plumber came back out, and they happened to look up on the roof. The flashing that had been around the drain vent had been chewed through by an animal... at least that's my guess. What do you think?

WHY the roofer did not see that is beyond me. But since we knew that, I hustled off to Lowe's to get stuff to repair that. I did a craptastic job, but it will work for now. While I was up there using way too much silicone sealant, it was thundering profusely.

So now we just wait until we get the insurance settlement. To meet our deductible, we ended up using money I had budgeted for our October vacation that is now not going to happen. I guess it's good that we had it.

We're trying to decide what to do about the stupid water heater being in the stupid attic. We're looking at Water Cop. We have to do something. 

The Continuing Saga of Money Anxiety

In December 2019, I posted about my "hemorrhaging money" concerns of the day. It's been better since then, but the past few months have been a lot.

First, we had our porches and trim painted early in the year. It wasn't cheap, but it was necessary. 

Then there was the thing with the freeze where everyone had to make preparations and repairs. Fortunately, as far as we know, our only issues were a broken hose bib line (and do-it-myself drywall repairs) and the 500L's windshield. However, we're noticing now that our second-biggest tree in the front yard probably mostly died, as only a few leaves have popped out near the main trunk. The tree was already a hot mess, dropping giant branches every time the wind blew, ever since we lived here. Apparently, that's what chinaberry trees do. But there's a smaller one in the back yard that looks pretty dead-ish, as well. I could cut that one down myself over time; the one in the front yard is going to be expensive to remove. And we might have to pay $100 just to get a building permit to remove it! A DEAD TREE!

--Sidebar: The chinaberry also drops TONS of messy berries all over the yard and roof all seasons of the year. It rained several inches last weekend, and James and I had noticed the time before when it rained that there was water pouring out of the end of one of the gutters. This weekend, I noticed that NONE was coming out of the downspout. We decided to clear it out mid-rain because it was was supposed to continue to storm all weekend. When we work on the gutters, it's my job to clear them out, and James's to hold the ladder so I don't pull a Pappy (as me about this inside joke, if you're not familiar). I reached down and found a big muddy ball of chinaberries damming up the downspout. I pulled them out, and ALL of the water that had filled the entire gutter SHOT OUT of the downspout... slamming right into my ladder anchor, AKA James. We were in the rain anyway, but he got it a lot worse than I did. Not having that problem would be a balm to losing a mature tree from the front yard.--

James has a new hobby and has been buying tools and material for that. This is a good thing! He never had time to pursue an activity with regularity when he had to commute. Like, he could brew a beer or make some cheese every year or two, but he's getting to hone his woodworking skills most days, and that's pretty cool for him.

I bought a bunch of supplies for our future dog. Rudy had to get mouth surgery. Now Aish has some weird scabby things and is going to the vet tomorrow.

Then my camera broke. I decided not to spend too much to replace it because, geez with the spending money. I bought a much less expensive replacement. And the pictures sucked. So I bought a more expensive replacement, only soothing myself that for $300, I get a 5-year no-questions-asked replacement warranty (if I'd had one with my old camera, I could have replaced it at no cost; I had it just over 4 years when I dropped it and it landed at an awkward angle, cracking the housing... but already the LCD screen had stopped working, and there was some lining coming loose in the lens).

We had to add a rider to our homeowners insurance when I realized that our solar panels were not covered by our general policy. Our property taxes are set to go up quite a bit this year because the valuations are so much higher now that the real estate market is bonkers. It's entirely possible that our insurance is going to go up because the cost for construction materials has tripled over the past year. That means our house is likely under-insured and the provider will notice that soon, especially if the mortgage-holder points it out to them.

So.

I decided to try to be more conservative in my spending, and cut back. I informed James of the situation. I've even talked to Mal about it, because he always wants more stuff.

We were all on the same page.

Then D wanted to get a twin bed, downsizing from a queen to have more floor space. I was fortunate to find a frame and box spring on Buy Nothing, but still bought the top mattress and bedding. Last night, D requested a new desk and office chair. D has been using the computer mostly in bed for the past couple of years, and I think this will really help alleviate some neck pain. So, of course, I went out today and got those things.

The frustrating part is that I feel like James makes "enough" money that I shouldn't feel this much uncertainty. But it definitely seems like it's always something, and I wonder what we'd do if James didn't have the job he has now.

I also wonder if my preoccupation has to do with a scarcity mentality left over from genuinely not having enough to make ends meet. Regardless, I hate the feeling that money flies away, out of our control.

I've thought about money a LOT this past year, especially as the pandemic revealed and worsened the financial gaps in our society. We were definitely one of the lucky families who kept up employment and were able to stay in our house. There's no reason for this. There's no moral explanation for why a computer programmer's job is safe during a global outbreak, and a bunch of servers' jobs aren't.

When we had the porch painted, I was talking to some people from church about it, and how it was a maintenance item that ignoring would have lead to the need for more significant interventions down the road, but how guilty I felt spending what we did when some people don't have anywhere to live. Our ministry intern basically said, "The problem is a society where individuals fall through the cracks and can't get help. It's not one person's keeping up their property that means someone else gets evicted, but there's definitely something wrong when you as an individual feel like any money you spend is threatening someone else's safety."

And he's right, but he's also wrong. Money is a zero-sum game. The money I have is necessarily not had by someone else. We try to be generous, and I often struggle with feelings both that we're not doing enough to help other people, and that we really can't do any more without jeopardizing our own ability to live and react to unplanned expenses. 

This week, I've heard several things that make me realize, "Oh, yeah, we are NOT the rich people."

There was a story on Code Switch about a demand sent out by some black Vermonters last year telling their white neighbors to go ahead and start on some reparations by sending money directly to individuals' CashApp accounts (which I completely support, by the way). I loved how the notice was worded. It boiled down to, "You might think you can give $50 and not feel it, but you need to feel it. You should give enough that it impacts your own financial status." I mean, that's what wealth distribution is all about. And some people really took this seriously. One couple immediately gave away $1000 each to four different people. Then they discussed, "What does it look like if we give $20,000? Or $200,000?"

What?! One of them was in a post-graduate program! And they have $200,000 cash AT ALL, much less that they might be able to give away? Okay, no, we're NOT rich.

We couldn't afford a second home, not for vacations and not even for rental investment. Heck, we couldn't even afford another property. In fact, if we had to buy our own home today, we could not!

Oh, then I had a gentleman (the generous guy who gave me the twin box spring and frame) tell me off-handedly, "I've spent quite a bit of time in Asia, and..."

Well, unless James got transferred, we couldn't afford to spend "quite a bit of time" in Asia (though I'd certainly love to!).

A couple who is in a community group to which I belong recently sent out a picture of a trip he and his wife had taken to Botswana where you can book this experience where they set up a bed for you in the middle of the desert so you can star-gaze all night. Like they put a brass bed out there, make it up, put rugs on both sides, and cart you out there. It sounds amazing. I can't imagine how much the whole trip must cost. We're just not at a place to be able to do that, either.

I don't really know where I'm going with this. Basically, I guess, living is expensive, and we're lucky that we can scrape by, and it's not fair that some people can't while others have $150 billion. I heard someone on the radio say that they didn't believe in an all-powerful god because if there were one, it was the worst planner ever: "You get a Tesla, you get a tumor." I feel that, and I don't know what to do about it, and I guess sometimes you just have to sit with the discomfort of it.

Nature Taking Over

One of the things we really loved when we first bought our house was the mini "nature trail" that was right behind our back fence. It became pretty clear after the first year, however, that the people who owned the property before either did a lot of upkeep or just did a bunch of clearing right before selling the house.

Here's what it looked like in January 2017, the month after we moved in.

That "rail" is the remnant of a platform and step down into the grotto. I can't tell whether it started coming apart from age or if the Lower Colorado River Authority, which owns the property ours kind of surrounds, told them to take it down and they half-assed it.

Anyway... want to see it now?

BEHOLD! The triumph of NATURE!

While I'd like to be able to access the back part of that lot without having to be super wary of snakes, I also like the wildness coming right up to our fence. Here's one of the gates three and a half years ago.

Here's what that area looks like now.

Is there still even a trail? We have no way of knowing.

It would cost a lot, either in time or money, to un-wild that portion of the lot. I'm not willing to do it. I love how, in a few years, we won't be able to see the fences at all.

Especially as our neighborhood grows, in terms of new homes, the better "hedge" we can have from having to stare at development, the happier I'll be.

Grow on, wild plants. Grow on.

Lots and Lots of News

Looking back to reference the post I did about not coloring my hair anymore, I was a little shocked to find it was all the way back in June! Can one be "a little shocked"? Anyway, I was surprised. It's been six months! And my hair wasn't awful; the red had washed out and I was left with just some kind of inoffensive orange. It wasn't bad, but it was also noticeably darker than my new growth.

Typically, this wasn't a huge problem. But sometimes, mostly when I was with my parents and so one of them took a picture in which I was bent down talking to Mal, so that all of my hair fell forward... well, there was a lot of roots going on.

I LOVE THE ROOTS. It is this sable brown with the occasional silver strand. I did not love the contrast of the colors, which most people assured me was not grotesque. I think I've been helped by the fact that dark roots are in fashion right now (I even noticed that in the final Descendants movie, the kids with purple and blue hair also had... black roots. They did not in the first two films; it was all color all the way.)

Anyway, I was fortunate enough to get some input from my neighborhood on NextDoor and found Megan at Hair's to You.

A hair salon in an RV, you say? Perfect for me! Long story short, here's the final product. Hopefully the brown will stay with me for months to come. We just used a color-depositing dye, no stripping, and she didn't color ALL of the top layer, so my washed-out color kind of acts as highlights.

Here's a picture of me last week versus today. Again, not looking at the crown, it's not as dramatic as the reality; you'll just have to trust me.

Also, because I think the second picture, which has a noticeably-darker under-layer (which I dig), is still a little light, here's another angle. The one above was taken during daylight, and the other later at night. You get an idea of how much darker it is here.

Okay! Enough pictures of me!

In other news, our heater gave up the ghost last night.

That's not entirely true. It works-ish. What happened was that it got VERY cold (and snowed!) and after cycling nonstop between the heat pump and auxiliary heat, it froze up and shut down. When that happens, apparently our stupid Nest "smart" thermostat doesn't charge because its charging relies on the heater or a/c to be functional (??!!). SO we woke up in a cold house and with no thermostat. I quick-charged it a few minutes with a USB cable, checked the breakers (they were fine), and then plugged the thermostat back in.

It was 58 degrees in the house, and the heater came on when the thermostat was back in working order. It stayed on so long, though, that it drained the battery of the thermostat very quickly, and so I started doing a little routine. I'd set the heater to one degree above whatever it was. When it caught up, I'd take the thermostat off and plug it in a few minutes. Then I'd put the thermostat back on and raise the temperature another degree.

Doing that, I got it back up to 68 in a few hours. I could tell, too, that the heater had gone out at about 2:00 AM, so it did work part of the night.

We've known that we needed to replace the unit. It's had an inordinate amount of problems since we bought the house (like the a/c guy shouldn't need to come out twice a year... something I learned after we replaced the inside unit of our heater in Sherman, too... we'd sunk SO MUCH money into repairs), so last December, we'd gotten an estimate to replace it and had budgeted to do it in November.

However, I did not want to repair what happened last night, because I don't think it's fixable long-term. Additionally, the unit is old enough that the refrigerant can no longer be sold as of January, so if we got a leak, we'd be at the mercy of hoping someone had some left over in their inventory. Also, there's some questionable repairs already done, like someone installed some kind of jumper that is only supposed to be there temporarily, but since it works, the serviceman hasn't wanted to mess with it. I'm pretty sure it's original to the house, which was built in 2007.

So, on Monday we're getting a new heat pump. Hey, did I mention spending a ton of money recently? Oh, and the company has a 12-months-same-as-cash finance deal going, so we can actually pay for it in November and that will be cool. I know a lot of people caution against "same-as-cash" offers (and the interest rate is 18% after that!) but we WILL pay it off within a year.

Finally, I've been thinking a lot about a vacation we're taking later this year in which we'll be flying. We don't fly often; I think we've averaged once a year since we've been married, and I had only flown once in five years or so before that. I understand the environmental impact of flying is high, even though I've never seen a breakdown of how it differs from driving if you have to top two nights and stay in a hotel where linens have to be washed, etc. I always just see a gas comparison.

Anyway, when I was trying unsuccessfully to find a comparison of ALL of the associated factors, I came across an article on how to lower your impact if you do "have" to fly. One tip was to take a nonstop flight, which we are doing. I basically will not take a trip, especially with a kiddo, if I have to layover. I realize that if we ever want to go to Montreal, we'll probably have to (or we could drive, but that seems like torture). But, anyway. So we're good on that front.

The person who wrote the article also mentioned that you can go online and calculate the carbon footprint of your flight (ours is just under 2.5 cubic tons -- YIKES). I found a couple of reputable places where you can buy carbon offsets for different projects, and I did that. They have a lot of them that recapture methane from landfills, but a lot of those were fully funded. We did one that helps clean up boreholes in Rwanda so that water doesn't have to be boiled before people can drink it.

I heard on the radio today, specifically regarding airlines, that they're going to have to change how they operate. The lady said, "They can't just buy carbon offsets and continue to do business as usual..." And I realize this about our lives, too. It maddens me beyond belief when politicians point to the economic impact of things like the Green New Deal as a reason not to support it. Reversing the climate impacts we've wrought on the earth will take sacrifice from people like myself who are imminently accustomed to being comfortable. I get that. I'm willing to do it. Our economy is not more important than the poorest of people who cannot deal with increasing temperatures. They don't deserve to die so our GDP stays high.

All of THAT to say that we will be looking more seriously at future trips and might forego flying at all (though we did put a deposit down on a vacation in 2022 that requires a flight... and we might just forfeit the deposit? We'll have to see), but the carbon offset is a way to mitigate it a bit for the time being.

Also, the new heat pump is more efficient, so even though we're on all green energy at the moment (even with the stuff we buy from PEC), in case the next owners aren't, that'll be something, too.

#workinprogress

Mo' Money, Mo' Problems... Not Really

We purchased our house just about three years ago. So it is that everything is renewable this time of year: pest and termite plan, homeowner's insurance, flood insurance, quarterly waste removal. Also, my automobile registration renewal. Since we're arriving at our home-owning anniversary, we are celebrating tomorrow with the emptying of our septic tank.

I had a septic tank at my house in Sherman; we lived there for seven years and didn't do boo to it, which brings me to a point I'd like to make: Life is cheaper in the long run for people who have enough wiggle room to do preventative maintenance. In Sherman, we got lucky, I suppose, that our tank functioned as it was supposed to for nearly a decade. Although it's only about $500 to have a septic tank emptied as a routine, once you have backing-up-into-the-house mess, it can be ten times that much.

I kind of understand the idea that when you are not "rich," life can be simpler. I never truly wanted for much when we were on a very tight budget. There were times I'd have liked to have gotten D bigger, nicer "stuff," but also had fun finding super bargains and leveraging mystery shops and other side hustles into surprises here and there.

However, it's just so much less stressful not living on the razor's edge of poverty. I got pulled over yesterday and released with only a warning (a benefit, I believe, of being an older lady) and although I was annoyed with myself for not noticing that I was doing 12 over, I was not particularly concerned about the financial impact of any ticket I might get. I remember having a near-nervous breakdown after having gotten a $200 ticket in Las Vegas when I was single. Paying it would have required making money materialize out of nowhere. I think I ended up using a credit card and was perpetually a few hundred dollars behind, which I HATED.

In addition to the house stuff, I just bought my first set of multi-focal lenses (for which our insurance paid some, but not most). D has started with a new therapist and we've had expensive intake sessions (again, yes, insurance... and it's good. It covers mental health. But not all.).

It seems like this happens every year: It feels like we're just hemorrhaging cash. And that is anxiety-inducing to me, just out of habit. Then it's a little disconcerting when we get to the end of the run... and it's fine. I don't ever want to waste money. I budget and try to spend wisely. Also, some of the stuff we're spending on is just fun: I recently paid a major part of our 2020 family vacation. We're getting ready to take a short trip where we'll have hotel and car rental expenses.

That's good; I guess it's all good, actually. It's good to keep our house up and functional (having taken a bath on the sale of the Sherman house, I have experienced first-hand the downside to ignoring maintenance).

In short, I'll just go ahead and confirm what people who are poor suspect: It's a lot nicer to have at least a little bit more money. It's nice to be able to tell my kids "yes." It's nice not to have to double up on the wash loads at the laundromat so you can have enough left over for a single soda. It's nice that I don't have to ignore those boards that have rotted through. It's nice to have the freedom to be somewhat generous. To have a routine check-up or dental cleaning as an option.  It's a lot less stressful. (And a study has shown a money/happiness correlation... to a point.)

I guess maybe the problem comes with making or having a *lot* of money, and then feeling like you have to live a certain lifestyle. I can see that being a joy suck.

I don't totally know what I'm trying to say here. I sometimes wonder if there would be a point at which I would stop really noticing out-going money from our household. If there is, we haven't reached it yet. I'll be glad when the bills die down a bit in a month or so. We'll be fine, of course, but right now, I'm really feeling it.

EDIT THE NEXT MORNING: I awoke today with the horrible thought of what if we built the pigeon loft on top of the septic clean-out?! We avoided every visible clean-out, but what if we missed "the big one"?? Stay tuned...

Homeowner's Week of Fun!

The past few days, we've definitely felt the full brunt of home ownership.

First, after some on-and-off really heavy rains Tuesday, that night, we had the windows open as it was gorgeous out (immediately after rains are often the only times it's not ick humid... except when it is). There was a very obnoxious noise coming from the neighbor's yard, maybe? I asked James what it was, and I went outside. It was to the east of our house... As I was looking to see if maybe someone was using a saw or grinder, I saw the light on the mystery box at the back of our fence lit. Uh oh. All I knew was that it was ours, it had something to do with the septic tank, and that can't be good.

I had no idea what to do, and more than concern over the septic was concern over how to make that box STOP MAKING THAT NOISE, and how much is it going to cost to get someone out here at 7:30 at night? I looked up the name on the box, and tried to find a way to shut off the noise, but neither proved helpful. So I called non-emergency police and said, "I'm sorry, but I have no idea what to do here..." They put the fire department on the line, and that lady told me I'd need to call a septic service. By the way, the reason I called local authorities in the first place is that our septic tank is kind of "governed" by the Lower Colorado River Association, and they were closed, so I didn't know if there were a protocol about which I was not aware.

AND THUS, I called a generic septic service. They told me that I could indeed turn off the alarm myself, and then I needed to give the drain field time to dry out, as it was likely saturated from the rains plus my having done laundry. I didn't realize that we needed to try not to put a lot of water in the system during heavy rains. I had a septic tank for 7+ years in Sherman, and never ever heard that.

Anyway, I went back, and, sure enough, there WAS a "silence" switch. I hadn't looked really thoroughly because 1) it was loud, 2) there is a lot of growth, including poison ivy, back in that corner (probably outta do something about that), and 3) I was kind of freaking out.

After 24 hours, the light was still on, and that was a problem. The stuff I'd read said 10-15 hours and the light should go off. It also said the alarm gave us 24-48 hours before it would reach critical mass. So something needed to happen.

A tech made it out on Friday (yikes!) and, as it turned out, the drain field wasn't saturated. The septic pump was burnt out. It was kind of funny: The tech gave James the price for the pump, and when James said, "Yeah, of course... what am I going to do?" the tech kind of laughed and said, "Yeah. You have to."

As a consolation prize, here is a thing I saw in our yard this week.

During this same time frame, our Nest thermostat gave us a warning that something specific was going on, complete with a URL to look up. I did, and it gave me trouble-shooting tips, THEN asked me to do some wire stripping and reattaching, that I did not feel comfortable with doing. So I called them, and they talked me through some stuff on the phone, and between what they can tell on their end and what I was able to read from our system, they were able to determine that the original message error was gone.

However, at that point, our actual air conditioner wasn't working. I'd reset every breaker when we were doing the thermostat stuff, but the house wasn't cooling down. It took us about 45 minutes, but finally, for some reason, at some point when I flipped the breaker, the unit came back on. So that was a fix without having to spend any money. Yay!

Saturday, we'd come back from a walk or something when I started wondering why there was so much Chinaberry debris in our front yard. Looking up, I realized that a large branch had mostly broken off and was just wedged in. Heavy winds, and it would come down. We tried stuff with our ladder, rake, etc. and it didn't work, so we had to buy one of those telescoping-handled saw/branch snipper thingies. The only ones I saw in Lago Vista were chainsaws, and those were $400-600, so James went into Cedar Park and got a hacksaw thing for like $50.

I was able just to manhandle the branch down, after a few tries, standing on the porch and therefore under the roof so the branch wouldn't maim me (yes, I wore goggles). Then I realized there was ANOTHER branch above that one that was also dead. James came out and helpfully pointed out that I didn't actually have the thing fully extended, which would have helped with the first branch, but was absolutely necessary with the second. I had to saw that one off, as the break was on top of a branch, and the dead part was pretty securely wedged in.

That was a work-out! But it finally came crashing down, and Mal even helped me clean up the front yard of all of the sticks and leaf bunches.

Between that maintenance stuff and then my spending 4 hours Friday mowing and weed-eating, then James spending really untold hours all weekend planting irises a neighbor gave us, we've been feeling very much like fully-fledged homeowners.

And while we're outside working and enjoying stuff, here is a little record of what our back yard looks like right now, if you're interested. I took the video to mark this for posterity's sake, so if you don't want to watch it, I'm not even offended. Also, the wind wasn't that bad; I need to get a muffler for my camera, or a remote mic with a cover.

Lots of other stuff, but we'll save that for another time. Happy Easter, and have a good week!