My new PO or SM maybe even that real cool one with the orange dial

So bare with me here. When COVID started I was working in a homeless shelter. Things got really intense the cook quit and people just stopped showing up for work. It got really bad. I mean I’d end up trying to find someplace to sleep for three hours as I’d be stuck at work for 48-72 hrs at a clip. FYI when you work at homeless shelters the pay is pretty bad. Things got so crazy the mayor of the town actually came in to talk to those of us who were willing to work. He said he put in for emergency funding and if we stuck with the place he “wouldn’t forget us”. Then we started getting bonus pay, not much but I figured “well they probably don’t get much anyway” and I had already decided to stay regardless as they were considering closing the shelter if they couldn’t staff it. So I stuck it out, at least through the worst of it but was offered a different job at another high stress low paying place but by that time COVID was better understood and they had people working again.

Well fast forward to to a few weeks ago, I got an official looking letter from the city that shelter was in with a very nice letter, an apology for not giving me my proper COVID pay and a check that would cover a number of my “dream” watches. Ha ha

Ok here is, as Shakespeare would say, lay the rub. One of my current jobs is landlord for a group home for guys recovering or living with TBI (traumatic brain injuries) now I really like these guys and when I’m not at work I’ll often spend time at the place fixing all the stuff they break but this time they went next level on me and decided the best way to clean the house was flushing things. I need to replace six feet of sewer line from the foundation. I pretty sure it’s 4-5 feet underground. I only got one estimate so far but damn it could get me a titanium one. So of course my wife was stressing as we need to pay for the line. I said “oh, I forgot to tell you about my COVID check and went on with a big line of BS about how I was going to deposit it but forgot. I mean this happened seven days after i got the check so I do have plausible deniability.

so if you took the time to read this TLDR I will enclose a pic of where my dream watch will be four and a half feet under ground carrying fecal and other matter. I have just pledged to no longer make any plans regarding purchasing watches any longer. I’m just going to see what “flows by” Edit:shoot I kind find the picture I took where I was standing in the spot where the sewer line runs so here is some pics of the damage done in the basement when they clogged the line and what I’m going through tearing everything up, lovely watch.

Ha ha found my watch. Yup my brand new “dream watch” will be four to five feet under where my feet are

Life has a way of stepping in and ruining plans to buy watches. So far, sewer line backing up, roof leaking, unexpected car repairs all took a chunk out of what I hoped would be a nice watch.

my wife is a social worker, I couldn’t do what you do or she does, but I’m glad to know there are people like you out there helping. Thanks for doing the truly important work we all tend to take for granted.

What am I missing here - the drains got blocked at your work but you paid for it out of your own pocket?!

I wondered this too, I’m assuming it’s his property. I could be wrong of course.

No I own this home and rent it to a company that treats people with TBI. I do work in a related field and I have worked with clients who have TBI’s in the past and they really are quite horrible as much of the time the damage is irreversible and sever.

So after my day job working with schizophrenia, schizoaffective, bi polar and dual diagnosed I’m often at this place as they do some crazy damage. I have become an expert wall hole patcher. TBH a few years ago I probably could have repaired this sewer line myself renting equipment but this is not a few years ago and I’m pretty sure my shoulder would fall off if I did.

To clarify I don’t mean the people suffering with TBI are horrible I mean the TBI’s are horrible. Yeah I’m not surprised I confused people with that long rambling post I was just getting out frustration and still had poop on my shoes when I wrote it.

Ok after you make a long bitchy post about woe is my I can’t get the watch I want I just saved a couple thousand in this repair process which will help. I became friends with this guy just through meeting him at the vet numerous times. We always ended up talking for long spells about pets and he is a local so I run into him once in a while. Saw him at Walmart the other day he was wearing a shirt with a plumbers name and #.

So of course I greeted him, asked him how his cat was and then inquired about his plumbers shirt. Sure enough he has his own plumbing company. Met him at the rental today he gave me a quote more than 3k lower than my initial one. I’m telling you it pays to be friendly with everyone you meet. It’s how we should be anyway but you can find help and contacts in the weirdest ways. Darn I gotta ask him about watches now of course. He is probably sitting on like 12 NOS of the rarest most sought after vintage watches he wants to sell me for ten bucks.

ok there is another story I probably could have told in two sentences but I write in book form as I want to make sure you can picture it in your mind.