Cable TV

For around three years now, we've been living on a shoestring. A very, very tight one.

We'd lost a small business - very small - that we owned and ran. Walter started it in 1997, shipping new furniture to customers out of state who bought things here in Florida. I say *We* but it was mostly Walter, of course. I'm not much of a furniture deliverer!

I did the books, what there was, and called customers to schedule deliveries. Even that took a lot out of my limited functional time, my little bits of relative *health.* I wasn't any part of the business when Walter started it, but that's how it worked out. I didn't like it, but hey, shit happens.

We'd survived terrible business losses from 9/11, and downsized, and after a year or so we'd finally built our orders back up. But in times of economic uncertainty, the first thing sensible people do is to stop unnecessary spending. Like buying a whole new furniture set for the vacation home.

And who can blame them? They're doing the right thing. Spending your family's money that way would be irresponsible.

When a certain news item hit the media, our shipping orders dropped from around 20 per week to 1 per week in the space of 10 days. If I remember right, this was around August, 2002.

I do remember, with perfect clarity, the news that put a screeching halt to that type of discretionary spending: We were going to war with Iraq.

We tried to hang on through Christmas, our busy season, especially since we still had a chance to sell the business for a pretty good sum. We were trying. But on December 19, 2002, Walter was at the tail end of one of those big multi-vehicle collisions, out on the Long Island Expressway. Not his fault, but that didn't change a thing. Our last significant asset, a big rig, was totaled. Walter was - astonishingly - ok, just bruised up a lot. Emotionally, it was very hard on us both.

It was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Walter made it home in time for Christmas. We liquidated the business as best we could, and didn't file bankruptcy. But the insurance money and other proceeds still didn't nearly cover all the business debts we'd personally guaranteed.

So we've been drowning in debt ever since.

Walter drives for a big firm now. Me, I'm still on disability, and always will be; I'll keep getting worse from here on out. Then Walter was on Worker's Comp for 15 months. He'd had a shoulder injury that needed surgery. So less income there, while my own medical expenses go up and up.

He's back at work now, thank God. Just in time for this new Medicare D to wipe us out again financially. We'll be sort of ok on the rx costs for a few more months, then it'll hit the fan.

And last summer we had this awful series of hardships, one after another after another...just awful. They kept coming like the hurricanes, in waves off the ocean, washing over us, like they would never stop.

The last one from the summer - I don't want to jinx this here by supposing the troubles may be over for a bit - anyway, that was Hurricane Wilma. When the trees fell on the house, and everything else.

I'm pretty calm about this sort of thing. I don't know why. All I can say is I'm glad I am. I was alive and had food and some water, and the house still stood. I couldn't get to an emergency room, but I had all I needed to home-doctor my minor wounds. Walter was on his way home, bearing gifts like water, bleach, charcoal, gasoline, and his strong and smiling self. I knew we would make it through.

Now, we have the first of three insurance checks we'll be getting for hurricane damage. It's small but it's very good to have. A second check is being held hostage by the mortgage company over some computer-type idiocy. It'll kick loose one of these days. The third check will come after I file the supplemental claim, the one for the furniture and so forth, as opposed to damages to the building that the adjustor filed directly. The *supp* is almost done, too.

It looks like it'll actually be enough to make a dent in all that debt.

I do a 6-mvonth budget, and we live by that sucker. Mr. Budget. For three years, we've lived on so very little, pouring all our funds into making payments. We cut everything off or out that we could. Including cable TV.

The goal was to refinance the house. But when we finally applied, our credit was still shot. We'd been rehabbing and renegotiating debt for so long, years really. We were one point - one - below the minimum credit score the mortgage holder required to approve the refi. With a couple month's good work we could bring it up enough to refinance and pay everyone off.

Then one of those setbacks hit. We emptied our bank accounts to help out family. In the process, we missed making some payments, and lost all chance of getting the mortgage refinanced. And I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat, even knowing what I know now. I bet you would too.

So.

Here I was, a couple weeks ago now, sitting right here where I'm sitting today, looking over that budget. I'm allocating the insurance proceeds towards debt payoffs. I could see something else there too. I could see that even if that third check isn't so hot, we can do one thing for ourselves that will really improve our lives. It'll cost about $50 more per month, net. $50. We can do that.

I ordered up cable TV.

We haven't had cable TV for three years.

For someone who's chronically ill, sometimes bedridden, who loves to read but is sometimes too sick to even do that - even if you're not a TV fan, maybe you can see that cable TV can make a difference in that sick person's quality of life.

I never watched much broadcast TV when I had cable. I live a simple life, not a lot of possessions or expensive hobbies. When I was younger and working I blew money on college tuition and travel, but that's about it.

I did usually get basic cable, so I could watch things like Court TV and Discovery and science shows and the History Channel and The Weather Channel. I love The Weather Channel. Hey, I'm a gardener.

I'm also a blogger.

I want a faster internet.

So we got cable, and also broadband. We can shut down the second land line, which is skyrocketing in cost here in Florida. All told, we'll end up paying around $50 more per month than before.

But lord God. What a difference in my life.

I installed the new modem yesterday.

Me. All by myself. (almost!)

Me, the technophobe.

And now some things are gonna change.