The restaurant has been steady all week and the tipping gods have smiled on me. My dear sis floated me a loan for a week and all was peachy til my stinking oven went out. When I was a kid an oven would last twenty five or thirty years. Mine's broken three times in under sixteen years and was brand new when we bought the house. I gave it two days, thinking maybe it just had the flu and didn't feel like working. I tried several times to light the pilot with my fingers crossed to no avail. I called a repairman who I used years ago for my washing machine. He was an appliance repairman for Sears for decades and now just does side jobs in his retirement.
Must be nice, the only thing I will be doing at this rate after my retirement is heading to the funeral home to have my makeup done for my farewell party. Actually I am going to be cremated so guess I'll just head straight for the bon fire!
Ziggy has continued to find an escape route out of the yard at least once a day. I've been working every day and patching his escape holes when I can. First day I have off I'm going to buy another roll of wire and run the length of the top of the back fence. That will make the fence over seven feet high. Dang, the boy's a jumper. Six feet is nothing to him. When I go to open the back kitchen door he gets so excited. He puts his paw on Charlie's back seemingly to push fatty out of the way when the door opens and once out the door, leaps like a deer over the mud surrounding the back deck. He bounces like Tigger to the back of the yard and if a squirrel or rabbit happens to be frolicking on the other side of the wire fence he clears it in one attempt in a split second with such grace it's hard to be mad at the little demon.
He ate a pair of my earrings today. There's another dollar wasted at the Dollar Tree. I hope they weren't real pearls.
Ziggy has gotten better since we got the crate. When we all have to leave the house we put him in it. He isn't thrilled at first but every time we come back home he is laying down and doesn't even get up til we unlatch the crate. I went to work the other day and walked by the "Crate Room." (Massey's old bedroom) All three idiots were just standing inside of it. Well, Charlie was stretched out on the floor of it but Ziggy and Ham were both in there too. Go figure?? I've caught them doing that several times since and need to snap a picture. It's like they are saying "We like our Crib."
So it seems my oven wasn't on strike or mad at me for not using him enough but was actually broke. I looked at him and said "Welcome to my world."
The repairman came this morning and took his innards out in emergency surgery. He left to get the new part...the ONLY part. Dang, there ain't much TO an oven in the way of parts. He returned an hour later and replaced the part. My ole boy fired right up!
Yesterday I put together baked beans and put two pork tenderloins in a pan and took them to work with me three o'clock. I had the cooks put them in the oven and Massey came by the restaurant at four when she got out of school to pick up dinner. Yes I am a resourceful momma...especially when we are out of bologna and fish sticks.
When the oven doctor doctor told me today the part might be around a hundred dollars before he left to go get it, I got nervous. I had sixty bucks in cash and nine dollars in my checking account. When he left to go get the part I came clean with him. I told him I could give him sixty bucks and could my husband post date a check for Friday, when he gets paid? He was so nice and said that was fine...makes me wonder if he reads my blog? I gave him the cash and the check and you know what? He said "How about I wait til Monday to deposit the check?" I told him to take all the time he wanted!
To some I may seem pitiful. To me I feel blessed.
Went into work again today at three...had a rough shift and came home thinking "How am I gonna make this happen?" The kids had cleaned and vacuumed and even done the laundry. There on the kitchen table was an envelope addressed to me.
Thinking it was a bill, I opened it to see who wanted money now, and low and behold it was a stub telling me I had a direct deposit from my new job last weekend going in at midnight. (Dang! I had forgot about that!) It was just enough to cover Mr. Oven's surgery , gas money for the weekend and some grub for the house. I can even pay my sis back!
Here is my my point. Never give up...never quit trying...and never be ashamed to accept offers of help. You can always pay it forward when you are able and always SHOULD. Trust me...I will!
It's crazy. When I think we are gonna sink and go under, we are lifted at the last minute. When I fret about how we are going to make it happen...It happens.
I'm back to working seven days a week but it is such a breeze now. Two relaxed days at my new job and five sometimes demanding days at my old one. I've finally gotten smart and simply rest until I have to get up and get things done. When the kids were little I worked seven days a week for six years just to keep them in the school district I wanted. I did that for them. I'm doing THIS for me.
You wait and see...It's gonna happen for us.
Til next time...COTTON
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