Half way through March 2011.
Just finished a bout of hurting the one I love - not my best moment. The stress from all the shit that's happened this year has been huge, and the adrenaline has worn off and it seems that there is none left in the tank...
Why so stressful? you ask...
The year started with the big "moving in together" Two houses in to one, two teenagers joining two more teenagers. After packing up my house and organising the moving, the actual day involved getting all my stuff to the new house, then getting all of M's stuff to the new house - big day, lots of decisions (Are we using my washing machine or hers, does the plates go in this cupboard or the other) - Sounds silly, but when there are a lot of these questions it eventually gets to you.
And then the 22nd of February - a 6.3magnitude earthquake rocked our city, killing (number not finally confirmed yet) possibly more than 200, and injuring many more. Our new home was now unsafe. An un-re-enforced brick wall was shaken to bits with a lot of it in the neighbours driveway - and during one aftershock narrowly missing her! So we evacuated the kids and started to move ourselves (M and me) into the sleep out in the back yard. Thankfully the sleepout is more of a large studio (no water services though). That didn't matter just then as the whole area didn't have water - or power for a short while.
We didn't sleep!! - A night away at my parents (an hours drive away in Ashburton) allowed us to get a good nights sleep and showers. Then back to our home and started moving stuff out of the house - very nervous about the cracks opening up and the brick wall coming down, along with the house. We managed to shift everything out and get stuff stored either in the Studio/Sleepout with us, or at friends places.
An insurance building assessor arrived a week after the quake and said - Shit! that wall had better come down and a timber frame put back up to make the place safe. He got a team straight on to it and there instructions were to make it safe. However, the house then became unlivable as the kitchen and bathrooms became unserviceable due to the bits they had to take down. No guarantee of when the "actual" repairs would be done - hell - most of the city is needing work done.
So we moved in to a place that wasn't damaged - lucky to find a house to rent! Third shift in 5 weeks - Did I mention that shifting is stressful?
We have put the kids in the bedrooms, and M and I sleep in the conservatory. Not that pleasant for us, however the kids are reasonably settled.
Business? Well it was looking like 2011 was going to be the best year for me. It might be still, however, every business is working in these strange times and even if they hadn't been affected, their staff usually have, or their customer base is affected. So, we will have to wait and see...
I'm not huge on this blog thing, however, I do like reading other peoples thoughts and musings on various topics. Maybe I should get into it and use this as a vehicle for my thoughts on various topics.
Do I care if anyone stops by and reads - no, that's not the point. I will just write as if I'm speaking to a bunch of people who get together for drink and like to "shout at trees" as a form of therapy.
Ciao
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