Unclogging Vs Hiring someone to Dig it for you

In case you have a well.... don't bother to try and unclog it.  It's cold, uncomfortable and pointless.

Hiring a well guy to dig it is expensive, but much easier.  We tried to save money and all we really did was waste time.  We can't afford it, after last fall/winter we are tapped out with left over debt, though a good chunk is paid off, it still lingers.  So, though we hate to do it, we have to rely on Jason's parents to dig us out, get the pun?  Not very punny, I know.

It really puts you in an uncomfortable place when you know you have no choice, and you know because of you and your choices that are costing someone else a huge amount.  If this had happened next year, we probably wouldn't be in this situation.  But it always seems that this is the way our lives go.  Maybe one of us mocked being stupid-stitious one too many times.  It seems that no matter what something bad happens to us.  I can't remember breaking a mirror or walking under a ladder, but we do have a black cat and we can't help but cross her path.


One friend asked, "Why do bad things always seem to happen to good people?"  Though I appreciate his sentiment, I don't know how "good" we really are.  Not that we are bad either, but we could be better.  If we were really good or perfect, we would have a $1mill (or more than we have anyway) in savings and investments because we'd have followed every prompting, every piece of advice and every recommendation from anyone and everyone who gave us good advice.


So a huge THANK YOU! to Jason's parents who are once again helping us out in a bad situation.  I don't know what we'd do without them!  They have taught us to be better parents, given us an example of the type of grandparents we hope to be, they have helped us over and over again and forgiven us when we've been dumb.  When we are hurting they there with a positive attitude trying to help us see a bright side.  They have done so much and I don't know how much I want to write here, because I don't want to be rude.  But I know every thing they have done, I have forgotten nothing.  And I'm grateful for such good and loving parents!  I hope that someday we can repay them for all that they have done, both financially and emotionally.

For those who have helped Thank You!
The Cousineau's- Thank you for the water, for paying the bill, for the manual labor, for fixing the snow blower again!  Thank you for being such good grandparents and parents, better than we deserve!
The Longs- Thank you for showers, use of the washer and dryer and water!
The Metzgers- Thank you for the much needed water!
The Willinghams- Thank you for the paper bag, the water cooler and the refills!
The Stevenson's- Thanks Eric for jumping down the well twice!
The Otero's- Thank you for the sump pump, and the manual labor!
The Sacco's- Thank you for the food and water!
The Robbins- Thank you for the water and water coolers!
The Bodily's- Thank you for listening!
The Callanta's- Thank you for listening and relating!
Chris and Shari- Thank you for calling, caring and listening!
The neighbors- Thank you for telling us your horror stories and helping with water and buckets.
And a Thank You to all those other's who will help, and those who want to help, and those who have offered to help, but I have had to turn them down as we were already getting help.
If I have missed you, it's not intentional!  It's just hard to remember everyone who has helped and offered because we have received so many offers from so many directions, that it is hard to remember everyone!


And the biggest THANK YOU! goes to Heavenly Father, for giving us such a wonderful family, such wonderful friends, for giving us trials and tribulations- even when we'd rather not have them.  For forgiving us when we ask for it, even if we don't deserve it.  

1001 Things you need a well for.

1 Water
2 Doing dishes
3 Doing laundry
4 Cooking
5 Wiping down your counter
6 Mopping
7 Flushing toilets
8 Cleaning up dog mess
9 Showering
10-1001 everything else in life

Though, I can't list them all, I do know them all now that our well has gone dry.  And I have to say, I'd rather be without electricity than water.  The pictures I'd have to show for this particular thread, wouldn't be pleasant, so I'm not taking any.  If you ever run into a situation like mine, you will thank me for it.

So my day Tuesday goes like this:
Can't sleep cause I'm not feeling well, get about 2 hours.
Drive Jordan to school because once again, she's late.
Miss the usual gas station and have to go to a new one.
Try to buy on credit, cause there's nothing in the bank, and can't.
Try to pay by check, but J has the checkbook.
Go home to dog poo on the floor.
J has to use his gas money and write a bad check to cover $20 additional to pay for the gas in the minivan.
We gather bottles and cans to recycle to pay off the last $4 of the $64.50 gas bill.
Get home, thinking all is well. (No pun intended) But dog has diarrhea on the kitchen floor.
Madison is at a park with Ben and Bailey, and get diarrhea too.

The best part is, we have no water to clean anything!

This is probably one of the worst days of my life.  What do I do?  I cry, yes.  But I also laugh and feel gratitude!

I'm grateful because when J talks to neighbors they are all willing to help anyway they can.  I talk to friends from when we were little, tween and teenager and they are praying for us.  How could this get any better?  I don't think I have ever had so many people praying for me and my family!  We have been given food, so we don't have to try to figure out how we can cook.  We have been offered showers, help with laundry, water to flush, water to drink and cook with.  We have been blessed by so many just by their concern and thoughts!

Though this is nothing compared to what others must go through, this has been tough.  But it could have been a million times worse.  When this all started going down hill and I thought I'd be depressed, but I thought about the example of my Bishop, and other friends & family (whom I don't feel it would be right to mention by name) and how well they went through their trials that were so much harder.  If they could go through so much and still be alive, smile even when it hurts and keep a positive attitude, then I would too.

I'm so lucky to have so much love in my life, towards and from, my dear friends and loving family.

I love you all!  And I'm thankful for you!

May God bless you as he has me, with plenty of trials!

Homeschooling Blues

Why are there some days that no matter what you do, you just can't motivate yourself to do anything.  And then, you have to, some how, motivate your kids to do their work.  Ho hum.  What I want to do today is go shopping.  I need to get a few groceries, just a few basics that we are low on, like crab meat.  Ok, maybe not totally basics.  But I really want crab dip!
So, I like to listen to this song when I'm having one of those days that just need a bit of motivation.

Make sure you turn off the music at the bottom to watch this video.



I think today we will work on measuring, fractions, following directions, portion control, and the convection heat.  In other words, we are going to go bake a cake.  I'll publish the picture later today.

Even more picture from the NYCC

Something got in the way of my flash and I can't crop the picture! :(

This guy was such a ham!  Thunder cats, HO!

I think having a mask lets them be more...outrageous!  I love it though!

I saw a few people wearing this hat and all black.  There must be a reason for it....

I love Pocky Sticks!  Not sure what Pocky Chocolate is though.

I don't think this butterfly girl has a costume on, but tons of guys were taking pictures of her.  She obviously enjoyed the attention!  Then the other two in the picture aren't looking, but I got three in one.

Storm from the X-men.  My personal favorite.

No idea what these guys were, but they posed and looked neat.

She has a pet person!

Who you gonna call?

Pirate, anime, and comic characters.  Another three in one!

It was really had to keep people from walking into the frame as your taking someone's picture.  Even when they were posing!

The Powder Puff Girls!  My girls were that for Halloween once too!

Ashe with Picachu

No idea what he is, but the stuff on his face scares me.

Someone's costume was coming undone, so the girl in pink was fixing him up.

Thor with his girlfriend, and a giant purple and yellow guy.  Notice that his hat is almost touching the ceiling?  Yeah he was that tall!  I'm guessing 10 feet.

This was a last second pushing through a crowd and so my flash was not on, but I got Mario with his brother Luigi, and the girl in from was with them, but I don't know who she is, the Princess maybe?

More picture from the NYCC

The first Cosplay costumes I saw that morning

One of the many Cosplay costumes

One of the many interviews that went on that day.  Aren't these guy weird looking?

This is where we were headed, The Press Room!

The IGN Theater is down.  The line behind the sign goes into a room packed with people and then out the door.  Upstairs is the convention center.

Eric and Doug heading downstairs to the Press Room.

Jason on his was down to the Press Room

You can see the line behind Jason.

Eric is now in the press room preparing the computer for recording podcasts.

Action figures that you don't play with

Dark Horse publishes Comics, some Jason even likes.

This is for you Doug!  A Stan Lee image

Buy your Cosplay or Halloween costumes today!

Not sure what this guy is supposed to be, or the girl with the bunny ears.  I don't read Manga

This guy in the suit has no sense of humor.  And he was selling posters for $3500+

You can see the crowd and the decorations put up to advertise

Doesn't look natural, but I like it anyway

I don't know why I took this, except maybe the person I was going for ducked in between a group of people and I missed him/her.  That happens a lot with such large crowds and so little space.

Raz Al Ghoul, or something similar in spelling.  There were many tables with the free comics and buttons set out.

More pictures to come at a later date.  Also, we are thinking of going to the Boston Anime Con and/or the Boston Comic Con.  Both in April of next year.

New York Comic Convention

Welcome!

We go to the Comic Book Convention because Jason loves comic books and his friends are very good to him.  Because Eric runs The Fedora Chronicles we are able to go on a Press Pass.  Jason and Doug go as a writer/journalists.  They are able to have fun, do interviews and totally enjoy themselves in their Geekhood.  Eric is less into comic books but enjoys the people and the high energy.  He goes to the panels to listen to the speakers.  I go to take pictures.  This year he went to a panel with a speaker who discussed voice-over work.  When asked for volunteers he got right up and walked to the front.  Didn't hesitate at all.  A young woman, obviously a college student, really wanted to go up, but raised her hand instead.  Eric told her to go up with him, but she was too nervous and missed out.  Poor thing!  Eric on the other hand was asked to do a small child voice, a child's laugh, and then to sound like a chicken.  He got totally into it!  Afterwards, the speaker got his info and asked if he'd be willing to do voice over work!

Doug

Doug brought some comics that he planned to sell.  He got $13 for a X-men Origins- Wolverine.  Not bad.  The other's weren't sold. :(

mixer

This is the 4 channel mixing board.  We were able to plug in 4 microphones to do podcasts.  Except we only brought 3 microphones!  People were very eager to be interviewed for the podcast.  Some were podcasters themselves!  If you are interested in listening to the podcasts, please go to The Fedora Chronicles and listen!  They will have a new podcast weekly.

Woman who works at MSNBC and Forest of Fear in Tuxedo, New York

The woman being interviewed above was interviewed shortly after I arrived from walking the floor.  I missed the couple before her, they were dressed as vampires.  They are actors in the Forest of Fear in Tuxedo, New York.  They don't have a website that I have found, but you can check them out on you tube.  Though she doesn't want her job at MSNBC mentioned on the podcast, keep work and play separate, she did let us know that she is a journalist for MSNBC.

The line to get in. Note: it's not the entire line, only as much as I could fit in my lens

 The line was already building up to a crescendo when we arrived at 9:00am.  The doors don't open until 10am!  This picture was taken at 9:30am.  There is a lot more line, but the wall was in the way and the floor.  This line lead out into a giant hallway which lead outdoors.  They said that this year was 300% larger than last year.

I took this thinking the kids would like to see the dolls.  Then I looked closer at them at home.  The kids won't be seeing these closely.

 There were all sorts of wares.  Costumes, t-shirts, dolls, comics, posters, chainmail jewelry and clothing, and so much more.  An entire blog post could be posted listing only what was available.

This guy was paid to be in the suit.  This is not Cosplay.

 There were so many things to see!  Famous artists, products for sale, people dressed in Cosplay, people in costume to advertise a video game or movie, a car and a motorcycle, and much more!

Another person paid to be there.

 I had Jason pose with this guy because I got the kid with the other one!  It seemed that everyone who dressed up was there for one reason.  To get their picture taken!

These two are Cosplay types

 Here I caught Spiderman and the girl behind him not posing.  They were posing seconds before.  I did get him posing afterwards, but you can't see her in the picture and I liked her pink outfit.  Don't worry, you'd never catch me in that thing!

Curt Shilling started a video game company with Todd McFalane and R.A. Salvatore,  38 studio's.
R.A. is one of J's favorite writers.    The guy in the green shirt is just a fan boy.

 Jason applied for a job at 38 studio's.  The company is here in MA and was in the same building that Jason works in!  Unfortunately, the HR guy who submitted the Ad didn't really know what he was looking for.  So he kept getting people like J to apply, but they needed someone with a completely different set of skills.

Jason posing with the Black Beauty

 Jason absolutely loved this car.  It was neat.  This is the car used in the movie, The Green Hornet, coming to a theater near you!  Follow the link for the official site and release date.

Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!

 Not everyone who is into Cosplay wears weird stuff.  This guy is completely normal with his "Slimer" on his shoulder and hundreds of dollars spent on the costume.

Chainmail outfits...very tempting to get the necklace on the bottom right!

 This girl is showing off and selling chainmail clothing items and jewelry.  It looked really neat!  I'd totally want some of it if I have any possible use.  But it would be wasted on me.

Doug, Voice-over-woman, Eric Rendering King Fisk.  Eric was offered a possible position doing voice overs by this woman after he volunteered during a program about voice over work.

 This woman has a name, but either I forgot it or missed it.  She was glad to see that the Fedora Chronicles has a woman on the team.  She had only met Eric and Doug until I arrived with Jason.  She asked me why I wasn't wearing my Fedora, and I told her that I have a cloche, but it's too hot to wear it.  She was very sweet and I would be glad to see her again.

This guy was absolutely HUGE!  Must have been 8 feet tall!

 This guy and three other guys were at least 8-10feet tall.  There is a guy dressed up as Thor and with normal boots his head was almost touching the ceiling.  Just amazingly tall.  That stuff coming off his back, in the picture, were wooden swords.  About 5 or 6 of them, and all huge and heavy!

More Cosplay.  Her gun was 8 feet tall!  

 This girl's gun was made from foam, so it was very light.  Her outfit it based on a Manga character.  Manga is a Japanese cartoon art style that is huge in America and Japan.

I found this company!  Retro-a-go-go  They are now sponsors of the Fedora Chronicles.  Cute stuff!  Rock-a-billy, Retro-30-50's, and all genre's, horror, classic, pin-up, ect.

 This company is my new favorite online store!  I wish I had money to buy some of everything!  I love the retro stuff!

Jason and Eric when we first arrived at 9:00am

We arrived at 9am, parked and walked to the convention only two blocks away.  But that meant that we had to leave J's parents at 5:00am, and Eric who came from New Hampshire had to leave at 4am!  All of us were so excited we didn't get to bed until midnight!  Jason not until 1am.  So we were all short on sleep.

Leaving the Convention at 7:30pm

We decided that we should go out to eat and drive Doug home.  The food was bland.  Sorry Doug.  He recommended the place.  It was Chinese food.  I've never been a fan, but I like Vietnamese soups, and the soup on the menu had the same description.  But totally different flavor.  On the way home it took us an hour just to pay our toll for the George Washington Bridge.  That's one hour of going 0-2 miles per hour, just to pay a $8 toll.  And there were no gas stations open!  So by the time we got back to J's parents we had to borrow J's dad's truck and a 5 gallon tank to go and get gas from the turnpike so that Eric could make it to the closest gas station.  No offense Doug, but we won't be driving you home next year!

My very good friend did offer to let us park at her Uncle's apartment in NY city, then it will only cost $35 a day for parking.  Much better than the $50 we had to pay.  I hope we don't have to take a taxi to get from the apartment to the comic con though!