Unexpected Visits

Phil had been talking about coming to town for a while and he finally did! It was a quick trip -- which is about the only sort of trip Phil knows how to make -- so he arrived Thursday morning and left Friday morning. In that time I met up with him for lunch with another friend/colleague of his. It would have been great to spend more time with him, but it looks like he might be back again. Or at least he's thinking he'll be back again soon. I'll let you know what happens. He seems to be doing well and I can't wait to get the chance to talk with him more.

If you recall, last week I mentioned buying a new washer and dryer -- and then discovering that our water heater was leaking. So, this weekend we had a plumber come in and install a new water heater for us. He was supposed to show up on Friday, but things went all screwy, so he showed up on Saturday instead. He went right to work and was happy to see thatI was willing to help out. "We" finished draining the old Sears 66-gallon tank in about a half hour, then dragged it out (drained more water (and rust) out of it outside) and hooked up the new tank in about an hour-and-a-half.

He charged us a pretty reasonable amount for labor, but the whole thing cost much more than we could reasonably absorb at the moment, so money kinda sucks right now. Just in time for GenCon! Ugh.

Really, I'm pretty stressed about money at the moment, but I'm sure it'll get better soon. The paychecks are coming frequently, but it's still pretty stressful at the moment. I write about this mostly to get it out of my head, where it's been circling for a while and taking frequent detours to make stressful runs through the pit of my stomach.

That's all for now.