Latest in the days that try men's souls is my car. Although I usually don't buy extended warranties, they had one through Chrysler called the "bumper to bumper wrap". It cost a chunk. (I think like $2 grand), but basically, it extends the manufacturers warranty forever. It's already pretty much paid for itself. I figured I would have this car for 5 years and probably 200,000 miles. So, I wanted to do what I could.
It had been leaking. Not much at first, but now, finally, enough that it's leaking onto driveways, etc. Everybody loves the guy who leaks oil on their driveway. So, I took it today to get it fixed. It only costs $100 for the deductible for the warranty, which is a fraction of the cost of the repair.
My rear brakes needed to be replaced, though. About $400 clams. Yikes. And they say the front will need to be done sometime in the not-too-distant future.
I put a lot of miles on my car, though. So, it only stands to reason that it needs maintenance. Still, I could find other things to do with the money, especially after shelling out $2 grand for a root canal and new crown. If it isn't one thing, it's another.
Work is going okay, but we're going to have to cut back to 4 day weeks here soon. I hate to do it. It really hurts some of the employees. Trouble is, the alternative is to lose their jobs, entirely.
I figure I've got some really hard weeks ahead as I try to keep the business going until the Winter gives us a bump. Again, the trouble this year is that last Winter didn't give us a bump at all.
Historically, we have had about 3 times a year where we have more business than we can handle. We have an employee we hired in Summer of 09, and it hasn't happened once for as long as he's worked for us. It's been a year and a half of unusually mild weather and although a lot of people are happy about it, it's just killing me.
We'll have to start selling things off. That will help us tide ourselves over for a little while. We do have some money coming in, too. In theory, we should pick up a little work. Though, in theory, we shouldn't be in this shape to begin with because in theory, the weather we've had has been exceedingly unlikely.
It's hard not to be discouraged. My house is all torn up and looks like crap. It's got one pretty major thing that need to be dealt with. As-is, it distinctly has the feel of a house that's being renovated.
I've been splitting wood the past couple of days ever since the electric company took down one of the dead trees in my backyard. The emerald ash borer has been killing all the ash trees up here. Bastards. So, they left the lumber and I've been splitting it, which has been a little workout and has been somewhat of a stress reliever.
Beyond that, if things get slow, my guys can work on my house, but the trouble is, I don't have much/any money for materials. So, they'll have to do a lot of painting, I guess. That's been a good luck charm in the past, though. Usually, right about the time they get things all torn up, we get some business.
I shipped off the last of my nice guitars today. I don't play much electric guitar, anyway. I still have my nice acoustic and would prefer not to sell it off. It's pretty beat up. Probably wouldn't go for much money.
It's getting a little discouraging these days. This area is so depressing. My house is depressing. My business is depressing.
I firmly believe that God never gives you more than you can handle but experience has shown me that God thinks you can handle intense agony for a very long time, followed by death.
Really, in the grand scheme of things, I'm still a very, very lucky guy. Just whiney. Things aren't so good right now, but I still own my own business and it still has great potential. Out of the past 5 years, 3 of them were great, 1 was okay, and 2 have been bad.
I wasn't in business long enough to build up some reserves to weather the bad times. I was also way too slow to react when things took a downturn. This will teach me a lesson for next time. I just hope I see some good months again here, soon.
In the mean time, I could really use a break.
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