Saturday, January 28, 2006

Charlotte Area Lawn Care Company

Unmentionables (or, unmentioned anyway)

There have been so many things going on in so many different 'camps' of my life lately that I find myself forgetting to mention things.

>>1<< My husband took over a lawncare company on January 1st. That's right, he's now the proud owner of all sorts of professional grade lawncare equipment and a trailer, and a leaf trailer (that one's cool, it's like a big vacuum - but then, I'm easily amused) and one beast of a work truck. He bought the company from his old boss who went back to work in the airline industry (he's an airplane mechanic actually.) We'll be making payments forever - and the truck needs a new driveshaft, but it's a start! Before he took it over they had 66 weekly contract jobs, both residential and commercial, but the majority of the contracts ran out at the end of the year, so he actually only has 13 active contracts right now. He could sure use more work, especially this month and next, during the "off season."

Any of my Charlotte area readers need some lawn work done? Seriously, email me - he does it all, his rates are totally reasonable and estimates are free ;)

So yeah, we're business owners. I say "we" like my name's on it - Oh wait, my name is on it. He's decided on "Sunshine Lawn Care" for a name. Sunshine is what he's called me for as long as I can remember (:D) Isn't he sweet? Yup, so he does the grunt work, I handle monthly invoices. I'll be the one to design his business cards and letterhead and all that artsy fartsy stuff too.

>>2<< We did rapid refund on his tax return this year, and just bought a new-to-us van. He just brought it home today, and I've barely had a chance to look at it - but it's a pretty girly purplish-pink color inside. The interior is really nice, and the whole 2 minutes I spent sitting in the passenger seat when he brought it home were soft comfy minutes. The back seat turns into a bed (hee hee) and there's a place for a TV - but no actual TV lol. Anyway, it looks nice, and I'm sure I'll get to ride in it soon. It'll be great for trips, which we'll be making a couple of soon. Scott wants to go see Randy in NY pretty soon, and he'll probably opt to drive to Boston whenever Randy is well enough for the transplant.

>>3<< What's left of the refund money is going into home repair projects. The plumbing in this house is a wreck. We have to replace (or maybe repair, I dunno, I'm no plumber) the main drain pipe under the house. He fixed the bathroom sink today, and the shower stuff will be next, after the main pipe. It should really be the landlord's job to fix all of it, but to be honest, I can't face dealing with him any more than I have to right now, so we'll just do it ourselves and save ourselves the headache of listening to him bitch about all the money he'd have to spend on fixing stuff WE fucked up (seriously, he blames us for the AC and the furnace, which were both broken when we moved in. I have no doubt he'd swear we did something to make the pipe under the house rust out, just like he swore we did something to the septic system that made him have to plug us into city sewer.)

>>4<< My niece is pregnant! She's 22 and this is her first. She's only like 6 weeks along (which means she got pregnant right after I had Nova!) and the poor thing is scared to death. They aren't married, and they weren't planning to have a baby - hell, she was on the pill, but the pill doesn't work very well in my family. Anyway, she's overwhelmed and terrified, and there seems to be a bit of concern over whether he's going to stick around now that she's pregnant. So we're happy for her and worried about her, and she hasn't quite figured out how she feels just yet.

>>5<< I had my belly button pierced about 7 years ago. When I found out I was pregnant with Terra I took it out and hadn't put it back in since then - what's that, about 3 years or so? Today, I found my belly button ring. The damn things shows up from nowhere every so often, but this time I decided to see if I could still get it in. What the hell right? So, somehow my hole managed not to close up and I put it back in. I'm sure once my belly's flat again it'll be cute. I'm pretty unimpressed for now though.

OK, it's time for bed now. Night night!

4 comments:

  1. This might be common knowledge, but be sure your husband advertises and/or makes connections with any nearby military bases that have on-base housing. So many military families move so frequently that they don't purchase lawnmowers and such and prefer to use a company. Also, if you get several gigs in one area - you save on gas :) Congratulations!

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  2. Wow E! So much in this post! Congrats on the business ownership. If ever times get tough in NC, send him down to Fl. We do lawns all year round. My parents guy charges them $100 a month and hasn't been by but maybe twice since October. Easy money.

    But seriously, owning a business is so much more rewarding than simply working under someone else.

    Congrats to your niece. Maybe she and my little sister should get together. The lonely young mother's club, or something. I'm sure that whether they significant other sticks around or not, she'll find all the support she needs in her family.

    And that's cool about the piercing. I had mine done once, long ago, too. But I couldn't stand it and took it out after only a month or so. It gre shut almost overnight. I find it amazing that yours is still open. Wow!

    Anyway, gotta go feed the munchkin. Thanks for sharing all the goings on. And yeah, I totally understand the doing the house repairs yourself rather than listening to the landlord bitch and moan. He sounds like a total kook anyway.

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    ReplyDelete
  4. Whew! Lots going on. The belly button ring. YOu're braver than I am:-)

    ReplyDelete