Oh my aching knees!

Well, I am officially old. Last week I went to the doc and after waiting for four hours for about 10 minutes of doctor time, I found out that I have arthritis in my knees. I figured as much the way they ache.

This week I am back in Williston. My knees were feeling pretty good by the time Sunday rolled around and I tore down the site without too much trouble. Got done around 11 and by the time I got my house ready to go and the truck hooked up, I made it into Williston around 2 in the morning. So I got some sleep and got my house set up Monday morning. That is always a chore at this site because the entire lot is on a slope. My house still isn't entirely level but it's close enough that I can deal with it for a week.

This has not been a good day for me. After Sunday's work, I worked all day Monday doing a whole lot of nothing because the tent didn't get set until 7 at night. By then I was beat what with dealing with the fence and setting light towers. So I worked until 10 and finished up the next day. I didn't get done Tuesday until around 3 in the afternoon and by then my knees were screaming. So today I was looking forward to taking a rest and getting my clothes washed. The boys also desperately need baths as they are just gray from the parking lot in Gainesville. But Doug came rolling in around 10 with his pressure washer. He sat down to talk to me for a bit and thats when he told me there would be no event next week. So that means that I'm going to be out of work for the next five weeks. I told him, that's it, that I need to find another job. He understands. He offered me $10 an hour to wash the cars for a little extra loot but after three hours I'd had enough.

When your body is in pain, you can stand it better if you have a positive mental outlook. But I had taken a pretty bad shot with the bad news about work and it made the pain in my legs unbearable. So I told him I couldn't do it anymore and he took over. But after a while even he was tired and he's going to hire a couple people from LaborReady to finish the job tomorrow.

I retired to my house and broke down. After a while, I can only take so much bad news. I missed the hearing for my appeal to the unemployment office for my denial of benefits when I was out of work for those six weeks in September because I didn't get my mail in time. So the case was dismissed. I'm almost certain they're going to want some money back. And now I'm not going to be working for over a month and it was too much worry.

But after a while, I pulled myself together and went online to look for work. And I think I've found something with Air Photo. This outfit takes aerial photos of people houses and farms and then sells them the pictures. The send me 100 pictures of different houses and I go to the owners to see if I can sell them the photo. They cost $169 for an 11x14 matted and framed picture. I get to keep 30% which comes to a little over $50. If I can sell two pictures a day or 14 a week, I'll be making the same amount of money as I do working for D2W. The man I talked to says the average is about a third out of the hundred will sell so that's decent money. I can do this work during my down time from D2W and still stay with them for my benefits.

Things may work out after all.