08 February 2011

House of Cards

The trouble with a house of cards is it's awfully darn fragile. A mishap that would barely cause a ding in a sturdier structure will likely bring the whole thing down in a heap. It's a precarious balancing act.

The house of cards at Bob's Books and Adult Day Care is coming down at the end of the month. Bob is closing up shop. Scarecrow is looking for a job; either one that will allow him to care for a disabled partner on-site, which seems pretty unlikely to me, or one that pays well enough to have someone else take over the job.

By unfortunate coincidence, my COBRA subsidy ends at the end of the month, too, so my health insurance will go from pretty reasonable to pretty scary. After three months of that, continuing the policy will cost 150% of what my employer pays. I'm pretty sure we couldn't do that, even if Scarecrow still had a job.

I knew from the beginning when the COBRA subsidy would end. I knew the situation at Bob's Books, while more open-ended, couldn't last forever. They were nice while they lasted. We were lucky to have had them for as long as we did. I'm grateful. I really am.

So. What next?

I'm going to take a couple more days to get over feeling like I just swallowed a large rock. Read some escapist literature. Watch some really stupid movies. Then I'm going to balance my checkbook. It's a control thing. After that, I'll take a look at the budget. Just to see where we're at. Knowing is better than not knowing, kind of thing.

We can do this. There are a lot of people who are a lot worse off than we are.

It'll be an adventure.

4 comments:

  1. Oh Zoom. Wow. "An adventure", eh? Well, there's a solid attempt at a stiff upper lip or lemonade or ... something. I wish you guys the best at finding a creative solution. And, yeah, I find escapist activities to be high on my list for a few days when encountering the "big stuff" before looking it in the eye.

    Take care,
    Donna

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  2. I have a painting of Don Quixote on my bedroom wall as a source of sanity for me every night and every morning through decades of caregiving and living in a perpetual house of cards ... "Should it not be so, I say, oh cousin, Patience, and shuffle the cards." —Don Quixote de la Mancha.

    Caregivingly Yours, Patrick

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  3. Any new updates for us? Hope it is working out. Changes really throw us here into - well basically panic situations sometimes - then a few deep breaths later - I remember a story where the tag line was "you can't eat an elephant in on bite".

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  4. Great attitude! I looked at this because it was listed under coping. I think it helped a little bit. Thanks.

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