Snapshot: Us

Administrivia: I am sorry for the paucity of posts. This has been a crazy month and there's no letup in sight. The details are boring unless you're me -- a guy with a sudden herniated disc and a need for bifocals (with friends and family considerably worse off), making strides at work while dealing with the traditional pre-Easter craziness, and on the good side, lots of visits to and from loved ones to liven up life.

One detail, though, may be of interest to you, and it can be summed up thusly: DON'T GO ON DISABILITY. And if you do have to go on disability, DON'T GO OFF DISABILITY. In fact, it's probably best to just avoid the entire thing.

What's best is not always what's possible. A thing many people don't know about disability benefits is that mental or physical ailments are not sufficient grounds to access them. No, you must be financially disabled as well. They make certain of it. And then going off disability: well, you need to cultivate the attitude of feeling lucky you have a job to go back to, because Eva makes less money working full time than she did not working at all.

Eva is almost through her graduated return-to-work program, and by all accounts is doing just fine. Her days are hard, but she is persevering through them.  Our finances, though, have taken a hit, and they were none too good to begin with.

So we're taking in a tenant.

A friend, really, and it's a win-win situation for all concerned. We're slowly decluttering in preparation (there's a fast way to declutter, but it provokes anxiety even those not prone to anxiety as it is).

Living with other humans is one of those exceedingly rare things of which I can truthfully say I have much more experience than my wife. I've had great housemates (one of my best friends, twice) and terrible housemates and all manner of in-betweeners.
It's an adjustment, to be sure. A robe has been procured, and the cleaning regimen is slowly stepping up in time with the decluttering. I'm pretty laid-back as housemates go: basically, so long as I have my 'morning' time in peace, I'm golden.

That's life in the house with the Breadbin in it. Actual, albeit sporadic, posting to resume shortly.