Well it ain't pretty but here goes my tale of woe.
My wife and I owned a professional dog training company in Tucson and we were crankin along so well after the first year that we decided to go ahead and have our daughter. about the time she was born we figured we could also afford an inexpensive home as well...so off we go to find a nice, small, affordable 1000 sqft house. Everything was bangin on all cylinders until about April of 2007 when the economy in Tucson started to nose dive pretty aggressively. Six months after we turned the key on our new to us hous, and 9 months after my daughter was born, we wen from 15k a month to roughly $600 a month and almost no phone calls...it was bizarre. Needless to say, I promptly got a full time job at Home Depot to insure we had some money coming in so I could float us through the bad patch...nope...the bad patch never ended. I made it nine months before we had to make the decision on trying to sell or foreclose...hardest thing I have ever had to do. To that point I had never been late on a bill and the overwhelming notion of "losing it all" with a new little girl in my life was traumatic to say the least.
Oddly, the relevance to the camel back is here: After getting hired on at Home Depot my truck was broken into and the swiped my blue camelbak which happened to contain a Desert Storm 550 cord wrapped knife and a small 380 we used to take out in the desert on hike just in case. I had forgotten to remove it before leaving the house...1/2 a mile away.
That said, we ended up losing the house, shutting down the company and trying to make arrangements with creditors and the mortgage company...we couldn't even sell the house since the real estate market had crashed since we bought it...the house next to us sold for 100k less than it was purchased for...so they foreclosed on us.
Ended up moving to Durango, CO were my best friend lives and we had to move with our 3 dogs and baby 4 times in the first 2 months because the landlord at our first place screwed us over and left us an empty lp gas tank and we had no money, this was March 2008, right after one of the worst blizzards in the last decade. I had to beg the lp company to fill it off route so my kid didn't freeze...with money I really didn't have. I ended up having to sell my two remaining guns to heat the house and feed the family...which at that point I did happily...thankfully the Redhawk 44 and the Winchester Model 70 got me more than a few scheckels to do so.
At least I had a job...until Depot in Durango screwed me over and nepotism beat me out of a promotion..>So I got a highly coveted gig at UPS where I kicked ass as a seasonal driver...I knew I would get the one opening they had available since they liked me so much...until they had a hiring freeze the week before my seasonal was up...3 months of unemployment and job hunting later I finally got a driving job with a couple of very unstable people here in town that lied to me about pay and benefits in order to keep me from leaving for a stable job with a different company.
Cut to March 20 this year when I was t-boned making a delivery in Farmington, NM and then spent 4 months rehabbing from full body whiplash. I was doing 10 crossing a country road and this teen came flying over a blind hill doing 60 and hammered me...I thought I was going to die...thank god for small favors, I made it to the ER fine and walked with severe whiplash and major bruising. My boss yelled at me over the phone at the scene of the accident for damaging his vehicle then hung up.
I didn't go back after rehab...
I applied for a gig here at the 911 center and out of 90 applicants 4 beat me out for the 4 openings...then they got laid off 3 months later.
I applied for a job with transit and got it only for them to eliminate the position the day they would have hired me on due to city budget shortfalls. The HR chick called me and said they wanted to hire me but they no longer had the position.
I ended up doing odd jobs for my buddy's brew pub and doing some web design for people on the side until I got my current job, Deli Chef at a super market here in town. I love it, they love me, they pay me well enough to live and feed my girls and I got a roof over my head.
Strangely all of this with a BA in Poli Sci and 3 years of grad school.
So it could have been worse, and at times it felt like it was. Those of you that are parents and have been in a dire situation understand the depths and extremes your mind goes to when you think your child's well being is threatened.
In the middle of all that mess I was incensed that some animal would break into my truck and take one of the few things I used regularly, that knife and pack.
To be honest, it felt good to vent that, even if I don't get it.
My beautiful wife and daughter have a roof and food and benefits now so I have all the necessities. Everything else is gravy.
Merry Christmas guys and thanks for reading my baggage.
