Get it in early, I've got things to do. Trying to get this done as soon as possible again. It's before 9:00 on Friday and I am at work once again. Nothing to do, but I thought if I pretended to work, when everyone else arrives, they will think I am doing something. Just had the director come in and ask if I had much to do. I mistakenly told her no, so I am sure they will be reviewing my contract soon.
I do have to go down to the problem children again and try to fix their computer one more time. They seem to have problems every week and it is always something that is easy to fix but takes a long time to do. So, I spend a lot of time down there and people wonder where I have gotten off to.
But it makes it look like I am working so it all works out for the good.
I have convinced William to abandon the motorbike plan. I told him there was no one going to let him learn how to ride a motorcycle if he could not already balance on a bike. Plus, it is more expensive than he thinks, and he was going about it backwards. He was buying helmets and riding gear before he even had a bike.
I talked him into buying a new bicycle instead. Had problems with that, though. We went to a couple of cheap stores, Kmart and Big W. They had bikes that are more affordable that most places so I thought for a first bike, he could buy one from there. Big W had a couple of good ones, but Kmart had close to nothing, and it was more expensive. It was a better bike but the one at Big W was bigger, or taller. He is convinced he cannot ride a bike because he is too tall, so he needs the biggest one he can find. Problem was, they had a really big one and one that was one inch smaller that was also pretty good. The smaller one was about half the price as the big one. He chose the big one. It cost over $400 dollars. I paid for half of it, but I was only planning on spending about $100 dollars so this was a burden. Of course, he had the money burning a hole in his pocket, so he was willing to pay whatever.
I told him we could go to another store and keep looking but he was having none of that. He was tired of looking, only two stores, and he was going to buy it no matter what. So, we came home with a $400 bike. It is nice, a bit heavy as you would expect it to be lighter for that money, but it is a good bike. Or I think it is. Been a long time since I looked at bikes and I do not know all the technology anymore. It has front suspension and quick release tires and disk brakes. Don't know if that is an advantage or not but it seems fancy. It has 21 gears, or gear combinations. I always thought 10 were too many but these are kind of complicated and I do not yet know how to change them or what they do. The controls are thumb controls, and I cannot figure out what they change when you use them. He is not ready to start changing gears yet, he is still learning to balance, but if I get a chance, I will run through them and find out what is happening when you change gears.
He has only attempted to ride it once. Not very well. I think he is going to think it is too hard. It is, especially with him being so tall. He seemed to be under the impression that if he can go fast, it will be easier. But he is nowhere near being ready to go fast. I had him just sitting on the seat and trying to coast down the hill. Not trying to peddle, just coast down the hill. He can only go five feet before he puts his foot down. It will be a long time in learning how to ride, but I expected as much. I told him it would take about a year before he was ready to think about a motorcycle again. If he works hard at it, he can learn it in six months, but he is not working hard at it. I told him he could stay home from school today if he spent the time practicing on the bike. He won't do it, but if his mother makes him, he might.
I am just hoping I can steal the bike when he is not there to try to ride some. It has been a lot of years since I rode a bike, but I have been thinking about getting back into it as soon as I can. This will be a real opportunity if I can get him to give me the combination to the lock he put on it. So far, he has refused, and I have not insisted but maybe I can figure it out when I get a chance. I am sure he just does not want me riding his new bike, but if he doesn't ride it, someone has to. Maybe if he learns, we can start going together. I hope so, that would be great. But it will be a while.
Maeghan lost another of her friends. She was hanging out with her a lot but the other girl decided that school was too hard and she dropped out. That is the second friend she has had at the school that dropped out. She says they will get together outside of school but that never happens so she will be trying to find someone else to hang out with I suppose. She does have her old art school friends but she has only been out with them once or twice and I am not sure how often that will happen.
Maeghan did finally go to the day care and apply for a job, or asked if she could work there for free for her class. They were more than happy to have her. She doesn't start until January but since she does not have classes anymore, all she has to do is get her work experience before she graduates. I think the plan is to have her work two days a week and then move up to three if she can handle it. Not sure what she will be doing but she said they were happy to have her. It is only a few blocks from our house, so it is convenient for her to get there. I don't think Juanita, or anyone else, realises that it means we cannot move for another year. Not that I want to, but when they see the price of rent go up in a few months, they are all going to start screaming for us to move.
It went up $40 a week last time, for a six-month contract. I expect it to go up more this next contract, probably to over $500 a week. With all the economic issues and the prime rate going up all the time, it is expected to double in the next year. Juanita and the others think the rent increases are just the owners being greedy, but I have tried to explain that with that amount of increase in the rates, what they are paying is going up by more than what they are charging us. They have to raise the rent or risk defaulting on the house loans. No one seems to believe me, but I see it happening soon. Not sure what we will do then. I say we have to pay it. The housing shortage is very severe and having a house, even an expensive one, is cheaper than trying to find another, that will be just as expensive, and with no guarantee that we will get it with all the people already looking for a house. It is going to hit us hard, and I worry about it all the time. But there is nothing to do about it, so we have to live with it. It will be hard when Juanita tries to charge the borders more. They did not like it last time but without their money, we cannot afford the new rents. I hate having them live with us, but we need the money.
But let's try to find some good things to talk about. Nope, can't think of any. Angie turns forty next week. She is depressed about it. I plan on getting her a baby's dummy. I am going to tell her it is as close as I can get to making her feel younger again. It will either go very good or very bad. Since it is from me, I hope she appreciates the humor, but probably not. We are going over there on Sunday but her birthday is not until Tuesday. I think I have to cook or something but I am hoping to get a pass again, like last time. Last time, they had a BBQ. I stayed out of it. Sat and did nothing the whole time. I think they looked at me a couple of times to see if I would take over, but I refused, so they moved on. It went reasonably well. It was very hot and we were outside with no shade, so that made it worse, but I ignored the heat and just sat there trying to stay out of the conversations that kept spinning towards me. I did a good job and only got involved once or twice.
In the end, they wanted us to take Shayla to work. It meant we would have had to stay there for another three hours, so I started looking bad and they decided we should just go. I was willing to take her, but I wanted to leave and go somewhere else where it was cool, but I did not want to make it seem like I did not want to be there, so we just left with little or no problems. I would not have minded, but it was hot and there was not room in the house for all of us. I would have had to be polite and stay outside anyway. So I made excuses and we left. stopped for a snack on the way home. Spent too much money on donuts and did not get anything for myself. I still had to cook dinner when I got home, so I was trying to stay well enough to do that.
Hopefully, this Sunday will be ok. Not sure what the weather is supposed to be like but I know the last few days have been hot. 33 to 34 degrees each day. Not really hot but it is the first hot of summer, so it feels hotter than what we have been used to. Not sure what will happen Sunday. We got her a popup gazebo for her birthday. I am hoping we don't have to put it up for her, but I am sure we will. I don't know how big it is but it should provide some shade if it is hot again. It will probably rain, but it will protect us from that also.
I think I am going to be going now. It is time for coffee. I wanted some orange juice but I don't think the cafe has any. I will have to settle for coffee and some toast. Shouldn't be too bad. Will probably have to do some work after that. I will go visit some of the trouble spots and see what I can do. Maybe no one will be there. That is not going to happen, I am sure. I have enough of typing, so this will be it.
Remember
It will all be ok in the end, and if it’s not ok, then it’s not the end
Until next time,
Later