Considering Putting A Tip Box Icon On The Blog...

...but I won't do it. I could use the money though. Today, I shelled out $3900 for repairs to my chimneys due to Super Storm Sandy damage. That included a lot of damage and expense for something that my insurance company refuses to cover; even though it was damage from the storm they say it was not. Yet, the repairmen say it most definitely was and the estimate I sent to the insurance company stated as much. Oh well, I see a long drawn out fight coming up.

Then there is the 11 or 12K we will soon be paying for a remodeled bathroom. Part of our kitchen ceiling recently collapsed due to a leak in the bathroom someplace. Tiles falling off the wall or something like that. Other issues too, so we need to get it repaired and figured since it is over 20 years old we will do a complete remodel. Then there is the kitchen too. Got an estimate for cabinet resurfacing because we were told it would be much less expensive (and mind you, our kitchen is tiny - not many cabinets). The resurfacing estimate was $11,963. That was from Homer's Depot. I told my wife that the estimator was out of his mind and that I could buy all new cabinets for under$3-4K and that there is no way labor to take out the old and put in the new would be all that much. Then we got an estimate from a kitchen and bath contractor (same place we got the estimate for the bathroom). It was thousands under the Home Depot estimate, much closer to what I had thought would be reasonable, even a little less. Looks like we will be getting the kitchen done too. I see a big chunk of our life savings going down the kitchen sink's drain and another big chunk going down the toilet. Add to that what went up the chimneys in smoke today and I feel almost destitute.

Who knows, I suppose it is possible that I will get lucky and find a better paying job; I could use one. I certainly have been looking for one but none have been forthcoming. If not, then maybe we will hit the lottery; any one of them would be fine by me. The prize does not have to be hundreds of millions - a mere hundreds of thousands (to put into our bank account) sure would be nice though! Never had much luck with lotteries though so I will keeping looking for a better paying job (and of course buy a few lottery tickets each week).

Perhaps, there is another way. I could start begging like it seems most of America does lately but somehow I don't think I really could bring myself to do it. So, it seems, there will be more ammo purchases for quite the while - at least until I get all that contractor work paid off.

All the best,
Glenn B