What A Monkey Wrench In Our Lives

Long story. Bear with me. Rick has a friend, or should I say, as of yesterday, an ex-friend, from the Atlanta area. They go back more than 25 years. Golf is the thing with them. Anyway, Steve called on Monday and said, "You need to get me a hotel room in Chattanooga for a couple or three nights. I'm coming up to play golf." So, since I work the hotel points game, I booked him into a very nice, new, Holiday Inn for 3 nights. He called back a bit later and said, "Is it OK if I bring a friend?" Well, Steve is married, but, we didn't object. He showed up Tuesday with Stacey in tow. He had just "rescued her" from Myrtle Beach, SC. We went to dinner, we treated, and put them up in the hotel. Rick and Steve went out before 8 AM the next day to play a round of golf. When they finished, Rick called and asked me to pick him up from Steve's hotel. I was waiting when they pulled up. Steve got out of his truck with a pillow and a shoe box in his hands. He shoves them into Rick's hands and says, "I really have to go to the bathroom. I'll just go here in the lobby." So, he disappears down a hallway. Rick found me at the computer, checking emails. We chatted. He had this pillow and shoe box and put them down on a chair. We waited for Steve to come back from the bathroom. Remember, his female friend is upstairs waiting for him. Ten minutes go by and Steve doesn't come back from the bathroom. Rick went to check on him. The restroom was empty. Rick went outside and Steve's truck was GONE!! He immediately called him and found that his phone had been turned off. He brought this woman from SC to Chattanooga and just dumped her! He hasn't been heard from since. She has no home, no place to go, and she's in our hotel room. Nice, huh? So, Rick and I have decided that the only thing we can do is to take her into our home for a period of time. We went out and bought her a bed today. She's still in the hotel tonight by herself. We'll go get her and all her worldly goods she brought from SC to our house. We don't know her. She admitted that she has been clean and sober for two weeks. TWO WEEKS!! What are we doing? Anyway, she is going to move into our tiny little house tomorrow. I can't even pronounce her last name. My heart goes out to her as she has no support system at all. Her parents live in NC and they say, no, you cannot come here. She has 2 ex-husbands and two children who live with their dads. Nobody wants her. Nobody wants to help her. She's all alone with $8 in her pocket, no car, no place to go. I can't stand the thoughts of her going back on the streets and making it that way. No, I won't stand for that. We are doing the right thing, although, I feel a bit scared. I just think that for the grace of God, I should be in her shoes. I'll be in touch more often for the next little while to let you know how this drama unfolds. Rick is ripe to talk to Steve if he ever answers his phone or calls. I don't think Rick will ever hear from him in his life. This is just too extreme to ever recover from in their relationship.

Still Kicking

Snagged a new client this week. We have 10 papers from them to serve this week or next. That's about $600 for the week. We usually work about 3 hours per day at this. I would like to work 6 hours a day. Need more clients. Rick has been out pounding the pavement for new clients. He's really good. I have a stack of coupons on my desk from the past 2-3 weeks I've clipped, but, gotten no farther with them. I need to enter them in the HCW database for trading, file them in the binder, and USE some of them! I guess I need another golf trip to get caught up. I had to break down and buy reading glasses a couple of weeks ago. I could no longer read the exp dates on coupons. I wear bi-focals anyway as I can't see anything farther away than my hand in front of my face. Now, the near vision is almost gone. I'm telling you, gettin' old ain't for sissies! Summer is only about 3 weeks old and we've had 100+ weather for days and days on end. I'm just in Tennessee, for goodness sakes. It's not like I'm in Florida. Step-mother got out of the nursing home on July 4th. She's still in a cast. Her leg just won't heal. She will probably never walk again. I don't know how she's going to care for herself and her brother. I just stay away. I can't take it. Rick promised that he would have the boat repaired, checked out, and in the paper for sale by Sunday. This boat has been a boondoggle from the very beginning. I'm sick of fixing it, looking at it. I just want it gone. It's a classic; 1978 Glastron-Carlson 17 ft. power boat. Original Mercury outboard. Rick's in love with the piece of junk, but, I'm serious, it's going! Anyone want a really cool boat?