i helped unload the tiller out of toms truck last two saturdays ago :-D
i'm good, several really good things have happened since the first of the year, and the crappy ones that happened weren't even speedbumps really, they worked themselves out.
1. finally got a job thru the union again. methinks it'll be over next friday though... still making ass-loads of money for the time it lasts, luckily the cell phone job is gonna fly me out the following monday for work again. should be at least 2-3 weeks maybe even a moth. hopefully they send me to Minneapolis again so i can sneak down to Rochester and check out houses for the move up there in April, although hitting up philly again or NY would be cool.
2.me and the wife are moving to MN in april (as mentioned) this will be a return to home for me for several reasons, i believe i can find much more steady work there with my union, it's a lot quieter up there and i'm ready to settle down into a place. i've been looking and talking to several people about contract for deed sales (as suggested by tom) and found several perspective sellers. generally the gist of it has been drawing up paperwork for a 36 month lease of a thousand dollars a month or so, and then a balloon payment for the remainder of the house by the time the lease expires or forfeiture of the 36 months of payments as 'rent'. the balloon payment would be in the form of a loan from a bank for the remainder of what is owed. the 36 moths of payments would be considered a hefty down payment, allowing me to get the payments on the loan to around 600-700 dollars. the places i've been looking at are in the 80-100 thousand dollar range, all of them in rural-ish areas with lot sizes similar to and about the same distance dooleyville is from the nearest 'city' and several of them on lake front property, and several of them with large 'shops' (i call em pole sheds) with roll up doors and suspiciously enough space for me to stash a lift. if everything goes alright, dooleyville may have a sister city of dudlextburg in MN.
3. just found out 4 days ago that i'm gonna be a daddy. this makes me a mixture of incredibly happy, excited and scared shitless all at once. not scared that i cant afford a kid, or that its gonna be too much to handle, i'm just scared i'm gonna have someone completely and utterly dependent on me and my income and my choices for a LONG time.
i'm sure i'll be okay, and i'm sure every parent goes thru this the first time they find out they're gonna be a parent.
thats about it for now.
just for kicks, i'm wanting to throw out the idea of a meet either the end of this month or sometime next month. kind of a saturday thing.
i'd be willing to offset the cost of food/drinks to the tune of like $100 bucks. just kind of like what we all did in october, meet up, hang out, watch mike work on and clean his car, try earnestly and futily to buff the burned off clear coat on my car, ogle nick's turbo set up, make jokes, speculate about the '10 SHO, eat, and either go to pavillions and then a drag strip or whatever ya know...