Morton's Monday (When It Rains It Pours)

Since the end of March, we've been dealing with Punkin's behavioral issues, and actually making some headway.  It may be baby steps, but it's progress nonetheless, and I'm grateful for it.  But it seems to be the only progress our family has been making for the last few months.

Just the other day, a friend was telling us that ever since tax time, she's barely been able to make ends meet, and that is just not like the typical year.  I had to agree with her.  Our typical tax refunds usually grant us the ability to pay all of our monthly bill balances to zero, make a few loan payments, make one larger than normal purchase (usually a needed household item), treat ourselves to an Olive Garden dinner, and have enough to put away for our annual trip to visit family in Baltimore.  This year was somehow different.  We caught up on our balances, and bought one large ticket item (new bed sets for my girls, that I found on Craigslist).  There's no money for summer vacation, and the loans are still outstanding.

It certainly doesn't help that Hubsy's job completely cut out his overtime, having him take days off to cover the extra hours that he ended up having to put in.  It doesn't help that our Princess was just given a third prescription for her struggle with Turner Syndrome, and our insurance company doesn't cover half of all the lab work, and none of OTC health products she needs.  It doesn't help that our energy costs in this terribly inefficient rental keep going up.  The weather patterns this year are partially to blame, as we've had to jump straight from the heat to the air conditioner... I never got that yearly Springtime opportunity to shut the whole system down for a while.  As a new homeschooling mom, I've had to make larger home/office supply purchases.  Food costs have been steadily rising, and my local store has just not been promoting the awesome sales that they used to.  So, as I think most blue collar American families have been, we have been struggling.

This morning, as soon as Hubsy clocked in to work, the regional supervisor handed him his hat, and gave him "the boot".  I won't even go into how unexpected it was because Hubsy is the best damned Maintenance Supervisor they've ever seen, and I have witnesses.  I won't talk about how this is the worst possible time for that property to lose the only person who knows what's going on with all the vendor changes and construction contractors.  I won't talk about how he was retained on this property because of his exemplary skills, through the sale of the property and two management changes.  All I can say is that none of the other property employees or residents, and countless contractors and professional connections can hardly believe that my Hubsy was the one to get canned, and not the people who are actually responsible for any aesthetic shortfalls the building may have suffered.  In short... the world seems to have turned upside down overnight.

Yeah, we're angry and asking a lot of "why" questions to the rain clouds as they glide overhead and wring themselves out on our faces (literally, it's been raining for three days).  But I really hate to complain.  These things are happening to hundreds of American families every day, and we're no different.  But there has to be reason.  I can't begin to guess what it is, but hey, that's the way the Universe works.

...and now I've got some stranger (friend of a friend) insulting me on Facebook because I disagreed with his opinion on the nutrition and safety of genetically modified food.  Dude, really?