Me and the Best Congressman Ever, Lloyd Doggett, at the AIDS Walk a few years ago
I’ve had 2 financial disasters this year. First: the Homeowners Association passed a special assessment, and my part is $18,000. Background on that is that sometime in the 1990s (long before I bought this place), they put siding on the buildings. They did it wrong, and water has been damaging the buildings all this time. The contractor who did the work is long out of business. Yes, we pay a management company to take care of the exterior of the buildings but this is magically not their fault. There are over 100 owners in this complex, statistically speaking at least one must be a lawyer; failing that, at least one must be able to afford one and no one suggested suing the management company, so I’m going to go with “magic” for it not being their responsibility. Anyway, I have to pay $250/month every month for basically the rest of my life (there’s interest if I pay monthly).
Then, my a/c broke. Like, completely broke and had to be replaced. The company was nice and is financing it. That’s another $150/month.
So, $24,000 is more money than I can ask even a big community like Daily Kos to donate. I have a venmo: at Becky-Helton, if anyone wants to help with next month’s payments but for a big total like that, I need a 2nd job. My day job is M-F from 8-5, so it would have to be evenings & weekends. My car….. the “check tire” light has been on for a couple of months, and besides, buying gas to do GrubHub or Uber Eats seems counter productive. I can’t stand for long periods of time, so even though the grocery store down the street is hiring, that seems like a bad idea. I have no artistic talent, don’t know how to sew or make candles or any of those crafty things. Does anyone have any ideas? I opened a Mechanical Turk account, but I’ve only made about $10 there. Seems unlikely to get me $500/month.
It was suggested I should include my location. Sorry! I’m in Austin Texas. Skills: writing, 20+ years of customer service work, super reliable — I’m the first person at my office, every day — if I’m not 15 minutes early, I’m very nervous. I use Excel and other database software daily.
And if you know me at all, you know I love U2, so I’m including a video so you know this isn’t an imposter.
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