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Our carpet is no longer a carpet but a lose collection of threads that the best sweatshops in East Asia could not put together. Looking at it from above and it doesn't resemble a carpet at all but an old sea map complete with a picture of a sea monster in the middle. Or that's our dog. She's fat and somewhat hideous and we love her.
I have lots of wood working tools. I used to build stuff before we had kids and before I quit my job. I have a planer and a joiner, very much needed in making benches and custom cabinets. I have a special tool that squares mortise joints. I have very sharp chisels. They are all dusty as they no longer get much use. Wood is expensive, oak is expensive, African zebra wood is expensive.
My car doesn't have AC. But it's paid off. I have vowed to drive it until it no longer can run. It was top of the line when we bought it 11 years ago. Turns out, suckers stick very well to leather and then leave little stains that the kids like to call "that time Dad got mad." And yet, we kept doing it, I kept giving them suckers. I don't understand myself.
My flipflops cost 2 bucks. My shorts have paint stains on them. My t-shirts have fraid collars. I am currently sitting in a chair that should probably be classified as a torture device.
This is all according to the master plan, the wonderful, wonderful master plan.
4 years ago we lost the second half of our income. This was intentional, as we wanted someone at home to raise the kids. That someone was me. We knew that we would have to make sacrifices, we welcomed them. Our carefree 20's were behind us and now it was time to pay for them. Pay for them hard. Prekids was carefree. Bookstore once a month? Yup, let's do that and drop 200 bucks each time. Library, what's that? I want new clothes, let's go get new clothes. Garage sales, let's not do that, who does that? Who wants to go to the resort in Mexico!
Then kids come along and things change. The responsibility of life starts staring you in the face. Things start making you think. College funds, new cars for teenagers, weddings that a father will have to pay for for his daughter. Those things, life things.
So Hossmom and I made a pact. We would become conservative, we would get rid of all our debt, we would make sacrifices for our family and our children. We would Dave Ramsey this bitch. And that's what we did. And now things have changed. There is light at the end of the tunnel. I see something, it's small, but it's there.
It's a small light that says that soon we can get a new couch. It's the light that says hey, new carpet can be done pretty soon. A new car, yup, let's start looking at new cars. The sacrifices have worked, the climb out to responsibility has been worth it. The kids are growing up well, they don't seem to have been affected at all by our spendthrift ways. They will never even remember second hand shoes or when I blew a gasket because they broke something yet again. Life, suck it, take that! Hossman wins!
Over the last year I have repaired my yard. I have built my own screens for the house rather than having them custom built because our windows are a weird dimension. I have painted half of the inside of the house with colors that we actually like and picked out. Little by little, piece by piece, savings by savings, things are almost there, so almost there. Debt free life, full of prosperity and new furniture. There is nothing that can stop us!
Hossmom came downstairs. "Honey!"
"Yes babe?!"
"The dryer is broken."
Motherfucker. The 12 year old dryer.
Well played life, well played.
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