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The Year in Review
Where we were before.
Although it was 2004,
Jim's heart attack foretold the end to our lives in California.
One of his bosses performed a bed check the first day he was in the hospital,
despite my request no visitors for three days,
as if he expected Jim not really to be there in the hospital.
Where would he be? A true workaholic, they kept him in restraints for a couple days,
because he thought he was needed at work.
That boss was not Jennifer, it was the man that caused Jim's heart attack through acute micro managing:
he is lucky I wasn't there when he showed up at the hospital,
two days before Jim was supposed to have visitors.
When Ford started downsizing, somehow we knew the path was going to lead us out of state.
I wasn't happy at work, either.
Somehow, "Customer Relations Manager" never seemed
quite accurate for what should be on my office door.
Jim recovered from his heart attack and was laid off by Ford October, 2005.
We immediately started seriously checking out property in AZ that we had looked at for fun before.
Jim came back and showed me pictures of two properties.
My response, "I want the one with the front porch."
I didn't even realize the magnitude of the view until we moved there.
We packed up the coach, hooked up the Festiva and
I followed Jim in our loaded "new" '88 truck from Craig's List
to get here just in time for Christmas
2005.
Then, the real festivities began.
Jim tried to find people to work on the house, but
ultimately, except for plumbing and the kitchen tile,
he had to do it all himself.
(Delicacy prohibits us from discussing the painting job done on the house.)
Somewhere in all this we found ourselves a dog from an ad posted in a laundromat.
January 6 will be our first anniversary with Ruby!
The following may be surreal, but rehab on the house went so fast, much of it was a blur.......
My only paying job in AZ so far has been hawking pizza at the Renaissance Festival.
I knew there must be a God, after all my trials and tribulations in the working world,
that I would not have to add up anything more complicated than $4 pizzas
and send the complaints to the supervisor.
And I knew the God loved me when he gave me the nice young man
in tight leather pants as a partner for the season.
Of course, as no good deed goes unpunished,
I was made to suffer the last weekend by being put in charge
of the bread bowl kitchen at Kings.
For $.75/hr more, it wouldn't be worth it for me to manage a kitchen this year,
when I could spend my weekends out front, selling food and watching the Festival go by.
Too much fun working out front.
We lived in the coach for about six months while Jim made the house fit to live in.
The front porch will be the next project.
Jim has handcrafted new porch rails from the old ceiling rafters.
We also have a new column to replace the 4X4 (with the house number on it).
Now, we have Christmas. Not done, but getting there.
Check out our other pages to see what we have done with the house.
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