When it rains it pours

Just when you think things will get easier, life has a way of making sure that doesn't happen. We buried grandpa and things went smooth despite a bunch of family being here. The bad economy showed, not too many donations at the funeral but its OK, we will get it all paid for and the funeral home is working with us. Grandpa prepaid a lot of things so that helped, but some things went up since he did this 10 yrs ago.

JR grilled a lot of meat for the family and it went over well, except for his sister Bobbie. I almost killed her with brisket. JR made his special "5 alarm" rub and no one knew Bobbie was allergic to cayenne pepper. Lucky for us, she touched it to her lips to check temperature and realized at that point there was cayenne in it. Her lips swelled like a bad collagen injection ( Angelina Jolie would be jealous) and turned a shade of red I wish I could find in a lip stick. This is not a common allergy, so I'm glad we didn't get to the 911 stage if she would have got it in her mouth.

I had a talk with my son Austin and found out he has had no hot water in a while. The gas was turned off because he couldn't afford it. Now it made sense why he was coming over a lot to use the bathroom and bathe the baby. I couldn't let my 11 month old grand-baby live like this, it broke my heart to see Austin trying so hard and getting further and further behind. He has no health insurance, so when he got sick, he couldn't pay the huge bills and now they are garnishing his minimum wages. Its hard enough to be on your own making $7.25 per hr but to raise a baby and a wife on it, pay rent and bills then have garnishments of 33% of it, its impossible. They are all 3 moving into the basement this week. Now it will be 7 people in a 2br 1 bath house.....bringing back memories of when they were all small.

JR went back to work on Thursday but after one load, he was stuck at the terminal with no freight again. This happens more and more lately and with him being off for 5 days with the funeral and prep, this was not going to help me when payday rolls around. I picked him up Saturday morning and brought him home for the 2 days. Its better for him to eat at home than spend money in a truck stop or vending food. I took him back to work this morning and he went in for his DOT physical. Its required every year to keep his Class A license to make a living.
He had a heart attack at 41 so he has to get this every year instead of every 2 yrs like other drivers do. He took his medicine last night, took it again this morning, and took an extra blood pressure pill right before the test and still failed. His blood pressure was 170/105. Far above the "standard" of below 145/100 they want to see. JR has never been normal. As a child he always ran a fever, they did tons of tests and finally the doc just said its normal for him. He argued with the DOT doc and of course he didn't win. They gave him a 90 day temp permit and told him to make a doctors appointment. He will be out of a job in 90 days so I need to start working on finding a new job for him.

We found a place we want, its a gas station, restaurant, RV park, storefront and apartment. Only problem is not having the 200 THOUSAND dollars to buy it. I have heard many people say "That's a deal for that much stuff and the land that goes with it" but for someone who has never seen THAT much money in her life, it may as well be 2 million. I am talking with some people at the Economic Development Council so I guess I need to keep my fingers crossed. JR wants to turn the store front into a driver lounge and barber shop for truckers, he knows what they want and what they need on the road since he has been a driver so long. He can grill like a mad man so the restaurant wont be a problem, and the boys can run the gas station. Mystic and Sandra can cook and I can do the marketing still cut hair. It would be a true family business as we have something for everyone to do. I have 90 days to make this happen or everything will fall apart. If he is out of work more than 2 weeks, we will lose everything we have, and that's not much. I know the economy is bad but Jesus, didn't think it would get this bad for us. I looked in the paper and there are no jobs that pay more than minimum wage, we cant all live on that so my stress level is high as it can get. Necessity is the mother of invention so nothing pushes me like a deadline. Bring it on 90 days, bring it on.