Back in 1999 when the y2k bug was a big thing I wanted to start my own consulting firm but I didn’t. Now for a year I have been self employed as a independent computer consultant. I need to concentrate on being the boss and find enough clients that I am the boss with several consultants under me and live that dream now. Okay Blue Bloods is on I need to go for now.
This has been a busy month with the goat kidding season starting and ending. I started a new client today in the Woodlands and loved the day. My only problems was I had to pick this week to get a cold. I didn’t bring a lunch today because I wasn’t sure what the setup was so I did a bing.com map search and found a Which Wich sandwich shop close (243 ft). The map said go up the intersection and turn right. In reality it was to the left… Never can trust these map places.
On the baby goat front Freckles had one boy that looks like Dezzi was the dad. Lucy had twin boys one looks like her standard babies, she has had three that have looked the same but the other boy definitely Dezzi’s because he looks just like him except the coat color is lighter. The Jersey had a boy that looks like her with some extra markings. Not sure how the dad was but during the fire Monday – Wednesday she could have got with Billy after that it could have only been Dezzi.
Now the TWC is wanting back the Christmas Present we got.. Unemployment ran out in August then all of a sudden (just in the nick of time) they said I was eligible for 2400 more. Now they want 1011 of it back. Well they will just have to get in line with everyone else. Leave it to the government to screw things up.
As far as the day went, I had a hard time sleeping. When the alarm went off at 6am I reset it for 7am. Got up, took a shower, feed the goats, milked Lucy and collected eggs and sorted them. I had breakfast and then went to the woodlands. What a day.
Monday morning I got a call from a recruiter at around 9:30 am wanting to send me on a face to face interview at 1pm in the Woodlands. went to the interview and spoke with three different people. I fell like it went very well.
Today I got a call from another Recruiter scheduling me for an interview on Thursday downtown. Downtown is cool with me since I can take “The Woodlands Express” $10 a day and no traffic and no parking. Bus stops right in front of the office building. I just might be able to knock out another novel while riding back and forth to work.
Shortly after that call I was called again to schedule a phone interview with another party at the company in the Woodlands on Wednesday. All I can say is maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel
We have decided that it is time to sell our Boer buck “Billy” . If he doesn’t sell on Craigslist by Friday he goes to auction Saturday morning. I will just take my girls somewhere to be bred when the time comes. He jumped the fence this morning and chased me down. I’m tired of dealing with him.
Haven’t got any calls on Billy. I will be glad when he is gone becuase anytime I go outside I have to be aware of his location, can’t take a chance on him sneaking up one me.
On another note, our lights have been flickering a lot lately so I called San Bernard Electric Coop at 11:45am to report it and in less than an hour they were her. Shut the power off for 5 minutes and replaced several cable and connectors on the transformer. No more flickering.
I got up at 4:30am and did the chores (fed the goats, watered the chickens and gathered eggs) then went to start my first day as a parts delivery driver. First thing is I HATE traffic in Houston and it is more stressful than worrying about not being able to pay the bills. Then there are the idiot drivers. I will say that after ten hours of it I have a whole new respect for those that do it everyday. God bless those than can do it.
They always say bad things come in threes but it seems we really had a set of double threes. It started the first week of December. He have been on the government “HAMP” program to help us make it through the two years of unemployment. The acronym stands for “Home Affordable Modification Program”. They say if it sounds to good to be true, it’s not. If you are out there and might be considering it, DON’T. Let me explain so others of you out there that might be considering it. They do lower your mortgage payment for up to a year but what they don’t tell is what happens. I will use round numbers just to keep it simple. Say you mortgage is $800 a month and they lower it to $500. You make your payments on time for the full year. Then you will get a notice at the end of that year that you no longer qualify for the forbearance plan and that $300 a month reduction has now turned into $7000 past due including a year of late fees(even though you were never late). Along with that notice you will receive a breach letter. Just to back up to two months before this happens they will send you packet to fill out. You send in every intimate detail on how you are going to be able to make your mortgage payments the wait. I our case they have asked three times for more documents which delays the process. It is now 01/14/12 and they finally sent it to the under writers (we hope). We listened to Suze Orman on the View and she gave the same warning. She said that in 90% of the cases the bank says “screw you” (my words not hers). Wish I had heard that before we signed up for the program.
Next event that happened was our 2 1/2 year Nubian Buck Dezi stopped eating and I started monitoring him closely. He did starting eating two days later but i noticed he looked bloated. We gave him penicillin, B12 and some corn oil hoping to get him through this. He has always been a finicky eater even when I was bottle feeding him. It had to be a grey nipple which are hard to find. As he grew we had to be very careful we changes in his diet because he always reacted to the slightest change. On Dec 30th he began to falter and we gave him more penicillin. It was after midnight and I went to check on him and found him lying on the ground moaning. I went into his pen and sat down next to him and took him in my arms and held him. He stopped moaning and looked up at me and I knew he was saying good bye. I went to bed and found him dead when I checked on him after I got up.
When Boo got up she turned on our big screen TV and it didn’t turn on. The lamp had went out. If you buy the lamp from Conn’s it will cost you $429. I found one online for $65.
One of my client’s was over 120 days past due and another was 60 days past due and I have been trying to get them to pay. One client, a software company did send $500 but that was only a third of what he owed. The other client a shirt company still hasn’t paid.
This week the owner of the software company had a heart attack and is still in the hospital. To make the citation worse he was moving his company to a new location and the new place wasn’t ready on time and they had to move out of their current location on 12/31/11. Now I am their only contact with his customers.
We are so hoping for things to start looking up around here. This week I went and applied for a job that only pays $10 and hour. Still waiting to here from the other companies that I have interviewed with.
Totally exhausted today. Most likely anxiety, had third interview with a company in Cypress. Have finished up with two of my clients and I am sure that the third one will not pay me. I have always had issues when waiting to find out if I will get the vehicle I am trying to buy or waiting to see if we get approval for the home loan. Now it is will I get an offer from a company I have interviewed with. Had 3rd interview with a company today and came home did chores then tried to get Money updated so I can apply to get our mortgage reduced permanently. My PC decided to be a bitch today and I spent most of the day trying to deal with it’s issues. Plus we had to take our new puppy back to Animal Rescue place to get her spayed, which is required or they take the animal away from you. Once it was done we were told she had to be contained for a week. Not allowed to run or jump or any activity. Poor thing is so sad, she can’t run with the goats or just be let out in the morning to go do her business. Still not able to write.
This was suppose to help me write but so far it hasn’t… Hell I can’t even post here every day… too busy just trying to make enough money to pay the bills.
Now is when the Muslims buy goats for their religious rituals but I don’t have the goats that I can sell at the price they are willing to pay..
On a different note..I gave in and paid the $50 so we can go to my 35 year class reunion. May need the networking for some more Independent Computer Consultant work.
We have three of our goats that are going to show in the Montgomery County Fair in I think March 2012. One of them is actually offsping from our herd.
Tomorrow is check in day for Mr. Goat. I know I am nervous but I’m sure Kayeigh is more so. I was so proud when one of our goats won it’s weight class in March but this time it is personal. To Kayleigh, best of luck girl.
I will be at check in and I know Mr. Goat will make the cut. Next years income will depend on how our goats do in their shows. The majority of them will show in March of 2012. I am still looking for contract gigs but we are learning how to survive in this down economy. It has been two months since the last unemployment check and we have paid all the important bills. Just maybe with the farm and a few programing jobs I can make a living for us.
