7 Things Down, 50 Zillion to Go

After having a small meltdown this week related to home repairs and my finances, I am finally starting to breathe again.  Sort of.  It helps that the heating/cooling people came this morning and fixed the bedroom heating and cooling unit.  I have a brand new unit for free courtesy of my home warranty.  One item scratched off my list.   

I am also starting to see some light at the end of my tree limb, weed, crazy yard tunnel.  A great guy named Jim has been showing some yard love at my house.  Jim is the type of guy who sees what the tree wants and does it.  He thinks of the emotional baggage that comes with a misplaced rosebush and doesn't hesitate to say, "Let's rip it out."

Really?  We can rip it out?  Phew.  I thought the world was going to end if I ripped it out. 

Jim is a yard magician, the Yard Whisperer, the friend to tree and cactus alike.  While I hesitated to hire someone to landscape my house and help me get control of this yard, I honestly don't know when I would have the time because I'm so busy trying to keep random shit working.  It's kind of hard to do yard work when I'm trying to keep the hot water heater from burning my house down.  Fire and destruction or pulling weeds?  Tough call. 

Thanks to Jim, I can mark several things off my list, including:
Landscape
Landscape More
Landscape Again
Cut tree from above fireplace

The total is now 5 things off the list. 

Kip saved the day this weekend by scratching off the 6th thing on my list: haul broken outside furniture left here by the former evil spawns of Satan to the dump.  Thanks Kip.  Goodbye double lounge chair thing that has been in my way and bothering me for months. 

Tomorrow I will mark off item 7: replace broken hot water heater.  Once again, free hot water heater a la home warranty.  Unfortunately, I will have to shell out some cash to avoid future home-burning-down issues.  The cash outlay definitely adds to the feeling that I am hemorrhaging money faster than they can print it. 

When will I have to stop paying for unexpected stuff?  Never?  Crap.