It’s been 9 days of pet sitting, so far, and I have to say I still think it’s a pretty sweet gig. I feel like I’m running a lot, never home, but the pet sitting part is a breeze and these two dogs have won my heart, not that that is a hard thing for a dog to do. The pit bull mix is such a sweetheart…she is my little pal. The chihuahua mix is a sweetie, too, but, as tends to be the case with so many of the little dogs I’ve met, she has a little bit of a Napoleon complex. She tries to ‘correct’ the pit mix by nipping at the pitty’s mouth. Another tribute to how sweet the pit is…she just stands there and lets the chihuahua do what she does and waits for her escape route away from the nipping. Sometimes, these ‘corrections’ are to say “Hey! Stop getting in my way of this human. She wants to pet me, not you.” They are good dogs.
The radiant heating system went out the other night. Of course, this happened to be the night that it snowed here. It wasn’t a night that I had scheduled to stay with the girls, but I stayed so I could keep them from freezing. The house is equipped with a nice large wood stove, so I had that going. It was pretty cold in the morning, but we didn’t freeze and I got the stove going first thing in the morning. I also hit the reset button on the heater and it seems to working, somewhat, though not the way it is supposed to. The heater guy is coming on Monday to fix that.
My Enzo is not liking me being gone so much, especially at night since he likes to snuggle up with me. I’ve been trying to take some time to just hang with him, but it’s sort of hard to do. Luna and Achilles are missing me, as well, and want my attention, too. New things, new way of doing things. I’ll get it sorted out.
I found out last weekend that the major part of my income is ending at the end of the month. The condo common areas will no longer be a part of my detail. The HOA has decided to hire on someone to live on site and have cleaning the common areas be a salaried position. The property management company the HOA hired on thinks I’m doing a great job and doesn’t think the HOA is taking the right path on this one, but the property management company doesn’t have a say in HOA decisions. The HOA is wanting someone more full-time so this person can pretty much spend their days walking the buildings and cleaning what they see needs cleaning. I guess this position will also include minor maintenance. It’s not a bad plan, honestly, seeing how messy these buildings are/get, it just really sucks for me.
So, what did I do? Well, after convincing myself that panicking isn’t going to be helpful (yes, I’m still panicking only its background noise instead of blocking my view), I began searching for how to fill the income gap. I stumbled across Thumbtack. Thumbtack is an app that helps you find the right professional for the work you want to do, anything from painting to house cleaning to pet sitting – pretty much anything you would hire someone for, even personal training. As a professional on the app, I receive requests for quotes, send a quote (along with 4 other professionals) and then wait to see if the person requesting hires me. The only hitch is, in order to send quotes, you must have credits on Thumbtack.
There are credit packages, the lowest priced one being 20 credits for $30, which doesn’t seem horrible to me. From what I can see so far, most quotes cost one credit. I’ve seen a couple that cost 3 credits and a couple that were free, which of course I bid on. I want to buy the $30 credit package but…well, money is tight and I have to figure out how I pull the $30 out of the budget.
The van is parked, for now. A close friend of mine was getting rid of her 2005 Camry and, when she found out that I didn’t really have a vehicle to get around (beyond the 12 mile radius, no freeway zone I’ve kept the van in), she offered me her Camry for $500, which she is willing to take in payments. The car has almost 300,000 miles on it, but I know most of those are freeway miles and she has taken care of the car and kept on top of the maintenance. I have to admit that, in the short amount of time I’ve been driving it, I have come to love the car.
The worst thing about the Camry is it likes to lock you out of it. Of course, this happens when the keys are in it. Yes, I have already had that happen and 45 minutes of trying to fight my way into it without success left me only one option: break out the little ‘wing’ window in one of the back passenger doors. I have no shame in admitting that this solution brought me to tears. I finally have a car I trust and I had to damage it. I will be cutting out a piece of plexiglass to put in the hole for now.
So, yeah, things look like they are changing around here. Whether these changes are good or not so great is to be seen, yet, though I’m hoping its all for the best. I’m doing my best to keep my eyes open to the potential opportunities these changes may open up for me, despite wanting to just sit and scream in full on panic. Wish me luck!
Have a great day, Everyone!!
Dragonfly Gypsy USA 