Parking

The past weekend was nice, weather-wise, and then we had a few sunny or partly sunny days during the week. Now we are back to rain today and likely again Saturday. Sunday could see an improvement with some sun once again! All this means is a day or so working inside but then there are things like laundry and cleaning the apartment to do anyway. Overcast and rainy weather is normal for this time of year with the odd sunny day thrown in here and there.

In other news, I've decided to return the parking tag and remote since I have no idea when Brad will get here and this action prevents having to pay for parking for another month when there is no vehicle present to justify the expense. This is $40 a month saved. I plan to re-arrange parking once I have a better idea when he is going to show up or leave it until Brad does arrive. With the latter, he'll have to park his car on the street for a night or so until the new parking arrangements are completed.

The new cell phone has not been activated pending his arrival. Despite this, I am paying extra each month and am locked into a contract for the duration. The only reason that I got the phone in the first place was for Brad's use and the only reason I would have gotten one since I already have a cell of my own. Anyway, things happen but I plan to retain the phone and again activate it once he does arrive. It'll be for his use so Brad can easily contact me or others, like family and friends.

There is new as far as my storage items are concerned. I have brought the payments up to date and hope to have what I plan to keep in the new apartment before Christmas. The rest will be auctioned off to pay off the credit card which was used to arrange this payment. It was that or have the mover send everything to the auctioneer and have absolutely no control on what is kept and what is sold off. All this mean a very tight budget for the next month or so, or until Brad arrives and is settled. You've got to do what you've got to do!

Well, its time to get ready to get dressed and leave for work. This is day five but there is the weekend to look forward to and the possiblility to sleep in on both Saturday and Sunday. There is no getting up at 5 am on weekends. Have a good weekend! More to come!!! - Volker

Storage items

Today I received an email from the mover that his my stuff in storage since last October. This was in answer to an email I sent them on the status of an auction since I couldn't pay the fees to get my things out of storage. The auction hasn't happened yet but I do have a short time to come up with the money, just over $4,000, a hefty chunk of change for anyone that is short on cash while paying rent, utilities, paying off debts and having money left over for groceries. I had expected Brad to be here by this point which would have made everything move along much faster and smoother but this is the way things have worked out. To be fair to Brad, I didn't mention this issue to him in our many chats on msn or the few phone calls we made. I wanted him to proceed across the country at his own pace, without pressure. Neither of us foresaw the car problems which ended setting our plans back some. Now since not hearing from him since about mid-September, I am hoping something else hasn't come along to set things back even further. A friend of mine in Australia hoped that he would show up by Christmas. I certainly hope she is right for all our sakes. However, as bad as things have appeared to date, I recently access to another credit source which wasn't the case even just over a week ago. The plan now is to use it to pay off the storage debt, get access to the stuff at the movers, and then sort through the items in order to determine what is to be auctioned off and what is to be kept. There is a lot of stuff that can be auctioned off that is more than I actually need. Too bad I didn't auction much of it off before I moved from Surrey to north Burnaby in October 2007 but we all learn from our mistakes, or so we should! I hope to sort this all out in the next couple of days and get it all behind me. The stuff I choose to auction will pay off the debt to the creditor or much of it. Meantime, this will end the need to survive in the new apartment with just the basic necessities and not much more! More on all this later. - Volker