Feast or famine

Sunshine is a mason. No, not the super-secret fraternal order descended from the knights Templar. Bricks, blocks, and stone. Which means that our finances, like those of anyone in the construction industry, are rather feast or famine. We have these ups and downs, cycles of more work than we can get to quickly, waiting on payment for work that has long-since been completed, and "what am I going to have for my employees to do next week?". I've long since gotten used to it, and I've learned not to freak out when we're in one of those down-swings.

That doesn't necessarily make it easy when we have weeks like the last two. It literally got to the point of scraping all the loose change and dollar bills from the nether-reaches of my handbag and going "OK, I have seven dollars. What can we NOT live without for the next four days?" (answer: milk and dog food, because as much as I want cookies, mah puppeh needs to eat.)

Today, we are at the peak of the up-swing. He got paid yesterday. I can assure you that most of it is already spent or spoken for. As a matter of fact, I should be balancing the checkbook and paying bills right now instead of talking to you. I'm hopeful that we find enough left over after necessities that we can go get that awesome new entertainment center we found the other day, because I am starting to worry that the table the teevee lives on is going to snap under its weight. So, I really should be balancing the checkbook to find out how much money we don't have.

Fuck it, another five minutes isn't going to hurt.

Today, I get to make a run to the big-box-warehouse-discounter store. Because we need prescription meds, giant bags of almonds, and Tide.

Yes, Tide. In the big-box-warehouse-discounter store sized bottle. Because I cannot use anything but Tide or my skin reacts horribly. Because the dirty laundry has been piling up for far too long, and I cannot navigate the bedroom without risking life and limb. Because Sunshine is running out of clean underwear.

I hate going to Sam's Club. However, Sunshine has been out of his meds for over a week, and with blood pressure like his, that's beyond dangerous. Also, I really don't want to break my neck tripping over dirty clothes, so, Tide. I'm grateful for The Borg and her tips for making Sam's Club more tolerable.

So look out Twitter, I'm going shopping. Because after two weeks of famine, this weekend is feast.