I was back to work in late October and able to submit an invoice on November 1.
But, some glitches.
AND … here we are the week before Thanksgiving and I am skint! No cash for turkey :) !!! A large receivable …
Thanks to my local bank, who I have banked with here in Montana for 25 years … a small bridge loan with the Jeeper (17 year old Jeep … good grief!) as collateral, I will have turkey money on Monday.
And, I have news that the glitches re my invoice might be resolved as well … pending key persons being NOT on “vacation” pre-TDay.
Still … it looks to be that all will be resolved by early December latest.
Good grief.
I have had embarrassing and somewhat humbling/humiliating conversations with my creditors. Thankfully, 44 years of good behavior has paid off and to a “man” (bank, etc.) they have all said: “oh, a one off, we trust you”.
Still … RATS! Mostly, I am mad at myself. At the start of the hiatus, I believed in the 30 days and continued on my normal path. Many things I could have/should have done differently.
Water under the bridge.
I cannot change the past.
What I CAN do is learn from it … hopefully!!
And never fear … my pantry is full of food for me, for Emmett and Auggie. No one is going without.
But, I do know and maybe now better understand, what many, many people … without the resources I have … might be experiencing. It gives me a new perspective on food insecurity, housing insecurity … INSECURITY in general. It is not a comfortable place to be.
So.
Maybe I needed to learn a lesson in insecurity that I did not think I needed to learn.
Perspective changed.
I hope some lesson(s) learned.
This Thanksgiving will have meaning unlike any Thanksgivings in my past.
I was told last Monday that I would have a new contract with my “bread and butter” client. I don’t have it yet, but we are back to work tomorrow and hopefully all will be “signed, sealed and delivered” this week!
Crazy! July 1-October 21. Nothing played out as I was told. Process was beyond frustrating. A large part of the challenge was that I was not able to speak to 2 of my best friends: my work colleagues … to avoid collusion in the process. Outside of my work group, I do not have any “tech” buddies as in people with who I can discuss programming and tech gadgets/paradigms. So, in addition to the frustrating process, I felt somewhat isolated from the technical. Not completely, as I was doing some other work and learning in conjunction with another consultant … we just had to avoid discussion of the process details. But, the need to be careful in communication so as to avoid even the appearance of collusion … it was a bit of a strain.
Thankfully, hopefully, over.
And I will say that 95% of the time, I was in a good place of enjoying a different routine, enjoying a VERY relaxed schedule, enjoying exploring “what if” the contract did not happen and just enjoying what turned out to be a very pleasant summer and despite 2 “Winter storms”, a gorgeous start to Autumn.
The things that helped keep me in the good place: Auggie and Emmett and time outside with them!!!, the opportunity to learn some new things, a few RV visitors that got me talking about everything and Phillipians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
And then 4:8
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
So.
And now, here we are.
The owl was right. Well, I knew all would be well. What I didn’t know was what shape “well” would take and that is the uncertainty that in those 5% of the time … the kind of panic time … was difficult.
And overall, really, the worst case was not life threatening to any of us (Auggie, Emmett and me). There were and are fall back options.
I learned an incredible amount of things that I thought I knew :)
But primarily: count my blessings, enjoy what I have and my dear cat and dog and the beauty of where I am: EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.
Yep! It is end of September, we are barely past the Autumnal Equinox and we have a … these are NOAA’s words: “Historic Winter Weather Storm Warning”.
Hee…
We have been preparing!
Not a full stock at all, but plenty for my normal burn … … the overflow. Under the tarps is a plethora of split, dry firewood in case the garage adjacent supply is not enough.Wild Thing is back in her spot! Today, 9/26 … cloudy, off and on rain, off and on blustery … we await the storm!
Outside, besides firewood, I have removed all batteries, the power washer and other things that should not freeze … from garage to house. Hoses are drained. We are Winter ready :)
Chiles and Pumpkin processed and ready for freezing.
Inside, various vegetables/fruits has been processed and frozen. The Winter pantry stockup began some weeks ago and I am in good shape for whatever Fall/Winter brings.
So, I guess meteorological Autumn started 9/1, but the Autumnal Equinox was Monday (9/23) and 1 day into Autumn we have a Winter Storm warning: hard freeze, wind, cold and snow are forecast for Friday and Saturday.
On 9/12, the full moon and clear skies had me down to road to see sunset and moonrise.
And this week, with the forecast of a Winter storm, I have been getting firewood situated, hoses drained, everything that should not freeze prepped and brought inside. I have a list to be completed by Friday morning.
But today, Tuesday … a gray, gloomy morning turned sunny and we enjoyed!
I am over the moon with how well Emmett is doing off leash and that we are now able to enjoy all being outside in the yard: chasing grasshoppers, chewing on sticks, just being together outside – HEAVEN!
We had a spectacular day. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny before things start segueing towards the Friday night/Saturday Winter weather. Meanwhile, we will enjoy and prepare.
A little over 14 years ago, I bought “Wild Thing”, my Winnebago Adventurer 33V. An RV. A Winnebago! On almost my 50th birthday. How cliché !!!
If you’d told me 15 years ago that I would have a Winnebago and that I would LOVE RVing, I might have told you that you were crazy.
Let me be clear. I do not “camp”. I like my creature comforts: hot water, inside plumbing, electricity.
Wild Thing (because she moves me :) ) is really a 330 foot (slides out) 1 bedroom, 1 bath rolling house. When I bought her, I had a full time/1 year work contract, was between stick houses and kind of thinking “was there somewhere else I would like to live?”. It was a perfect opportunity as well as since a 5 years previous car trip with pets … cross country and mostly in a different motel every night … I’d been looking and thinking about vans, trailers, Class C, truck camper. I seriously looked and dithered for 5 years.
Cleaning drawers of mice droppings … ewww
And then, July 2005, I walked into an RV dealer and said I’d like to look at Class C, no slide but with leveling jacks. The sales person said: “Why not a Class A”. I said, “well … a C is kind of like driving a truck which I can do.” He responded: “Have you noticed all of the old folks at the wheels of Class A’s??? Let’s take a ride!”. So we took a Class A from the dealer, south along the northwest shore of Flathead Lake. You know, it is a funny thing… you sit at the wheel and all behind you follows. And, OMG! – the big windshield and the height … as a solo driver I realized that I could see more from an “A” than I would from a “C” or a van and I was sold.
YASS!!! The shower.
Back at the dealer, we looked at some older “A’s” … no slides, jacks. The Winnebago was next to one of those … slides out. I looked. I was smitten by the kitchen and the shower. I am a lousy “poker face”/negotiator. Bottom line, I paid more than I probably should have but honestly … NO regrets.
The kitchen
Fast forward 14 years later. I’ve full timed for 7 plus months, travelled 4-6-8 weeks per year and then 4 years ago, my dog Bear was unable to negotiate the steps. I looked at options for entry assist and ultimately decided to not RV and give him his final year(s) in my no steps, 1 level, home in the woods. January 2018, his poor old body was done. In April 2018, Emmett came into Auggie’s and my life. Now, with Emmett doing well on house manners and leash and off leash, I started thinking about RVing and getting Wild Thing in shape to travel. And then the work situation.
Living room and lounge area :)
As I am cleaning up “Wild Thing” and addressing several maintenance items … and dealing with the work uncertainty … I have been watching a variety of YouTube channels … looking at various YouTube/blogs/Instagram/Books about various topics has been so helpful in helping me think about “next steps”. At any rate, one of my favorite YouTube channels is CreativityRV: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCigPwB_DERbV5BlwV4OY9mw/videos
Did I mention the pantries ??
Robin from Creativity RV is a great speaker/youTuber/RVr !! I thought I knew a lot. I have learned a lot and via another viewer responding to my comment, I found Boondockers Welcome: https://www.boondockerswelcome.com/
Boondocking is “parking” an RV at a spot with no hookups and thus subsisting off battery power (often solar assisted), generator, on board water, on board propane: dry camping. Boondockers Welcome is an organization that allows people like me with property that allows me to have an RV park for a few nights on my property, match with RVrs that like to Boondock. As a host, I do not receive money, but I do receive credit for membership dues at Boondockers Welcome so that when I RV, I can stay at other hosts.
Canola Harvest
I joined as I thought it would be fun and interesting and I really did not overthink other than … I have room.
From my first guest just after I signed up to my second guest last week to welcome emails from other hosts to blog comments and private emails … I am a bit overwhelmed at the support that came to me at a time that I did NEED support although I didn’t realize it :)
It is something that has happened time and time again: during a challenging time in my life, when I think I am dealing with all of it … and then an opportunity to actually talk about it with people who have NO stake in the outcome … and other stuff shakes loose. That is what happened and it has been good.
My work situation is still unresolved. It was supposed to be 30 days, it is now 60 days and I imagine it will be another 30-60 before anything is decided at my long time client.
Moving on! It is September 2: Labor Day Holiday and I’m taking the holiday! And then, I’m working much more seriously on several ideas I’ve explored in the downtime. I need to get back to work!
Meanwhile, I am so very grateful for all of the small events and explorations and conversations that have inspired, motivated and taught me to look at various options.
“From CBS Sunday morning: Barbara Van Cleve is 84, born and bred in Montana, and she still runs cattle with the best. She is also a photographer with a passion for chronicling the ranching life she learned as a child, especially the lives of ranch women. Barry Petersen reports.”
I want to be Barbara Van Cleve’s BFF! Because … she is passionate about ranching, horses and photography! Passion being the key word. I am always drawn to people who are passionate about some good thing. I do not know Barbara except via a short CBS Sunday morning video. But she is a person who LIVES. To me …. a hero, a role model, a reminder that no matter how things are in my life, for myself to always return to those things that I love.
THAT – living life with passion, with heart – THAT is living the God given life and I hope, hope, hope that I NEVER forget that!
