Lately, 7.11.09

Things are getting better. Most of the outstanding invoices I was waiting on when the crisis hit have since been taken care of, and I already sold one Opus & Bill ornament at a respectable Buy It Now price to an enthusiastic collector. So the immediate crisis is past. I’m still concerned about making the house payment at the end of the month, but I’m trying very hard to trust in the Lord’s provision and not stress out about it. For one thing, the others are all going to sell, and hopefully toward the end of the auction tomorrow the bidding will heat up. No Craigslisters have offered us a price to beat what the scrap yard offered us for the Buick, but the amount the scrap yard will give us will still help. And I have plenty more collectibles and vintage goodies that I’ll be getting ready to either eBay or post in my Etsy shop tomorrow. I also accidentally made a really cute bracelet the other day (I was trying to make a collar for Boudica, but I didn’t make it long enough), so I’ll be making more of those for the shop.

On the work front, the one regular Task Wrangler client is keeping me busy, and thanks to their referral, I just signed a new client who I think will have plenty for me to do for weeks to come. If I can just rustle up two more steady clients of that caliber, we’ll be in good shape. If I can find four more, we’ll even be, dare I say, comfortable. For now I just need to focus on keeping these two really happy so hopefully they’ll spread the word and bring in more referrals. I also need to find time to write some more articles-for-hire for Demand Studios. Their pay isn’t the greatest, but it’s easy money, or at least it would be if I could stop being such a perfectionist and stop taking several hours to craft a 500 word how-to article.

So I’m a lot more optimistic than I was a week ago. Getting through this month is looking doable. There’s still August to scrape through, but I’ll worry about that when it gets here. One day, one month, one house payment at a time. The hardest part is not being able to take care of things when they go wrong. Our air conditioner, for example, isn’t cooling the house, but I don’t know where we’re gonna get even the $60 to cover the home warranty service call (and as handy as it’s come in, I’m pretty sure renewing the year of home warranty service that came with the house isn’t going to happen). And we need to repair a tire for the car (did I mention that, on the way back from the bank when I went to put in some cash borrowed off of our only active credit card to fix the overdraft mess that started this whole crisis in the first place, I got a flat tire? “When it rains, it pours” is a cliche because it’s true, and that’s why it’s used so often. Sheesh). But those are merely inconveniences, thankfully, and they can wait until funds are flowing a little more freely again.

Thanks to all of you who offered sympathy and encouragement. It helped me keep my perspective.

Looking forward: later today I’ll be posting the audio version of the first episode of This Old Haunt — that is, if the file doesn’t get completely erased after almost two hours of recording and editing just as I’m about to finish it, like it did the other day. The rest of the weekend, despite being tempted to languish in the wilting heat with a book and a tall, cold glass of iced tea, I’ll be getting the next episode, both written and audio, ready to post on Monday, and also getting the above-mentioned items ready for my shop and eBay.

What about you guys? What are you doing to beat the heat and/or the economy?

[Originally posted to Daydream Believer.]