h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I figured that it was past time to do an update that has nothing to do with obstetrical information...

First off, housing issues. Some of you have read some of this before, but not many, as I kept it pretty much to 2 threads only. So you few can just skim over this part.

We currently live in a 2-bedroom, rental-assisted apartment (pretty much the equivalent of council housing, I think) for which we have to do paperwork proving income a minimum of once a year--more if income changes, or you need/want to change apartments (this complex has 1, 2, and 3 bedroom apartments, and 3 bedroom townhouses.) Well, since we'll be adding another person here pretty soon, and Faith's room is too small to add a crib to, we need a 3 bedroom. Also, our annual recertification was at the first of the year, and it takes a few months to get the ball rolling, so all the paperwork was started in October. Anyway, we have since learned that we may make too much money to live here. Problem is, we don't make enough to rent anywhere else. HUD doesn't count stipends, which is technically what Tom's income is, so our affordability limit is low enough that we can't rent more than a 1 bedroom, which is way too small for 3, much less 4! Illegal, as well... And our HUD voucher's expired now, anyway. For a bit, we thought we were fine for staying in our current apartment, and would just need to wait a bit for my income (regular, sick leave, and my 6 weeks of post-partum disability) to dry up, and then we'd be able to change over (assuming there are any 3 bedrooms available at that point--they can't hold on to "our" new place for months, now that it's finally ready...) We're actually looking into buying a place, as that has the potential of being cheaper than rent right now, but all we would be able to afford would be a mobile home in a park, so we'd be renting the land the house sits on, and we had an interesting financial situation before the lending market tightened up, and I wan't going to be taking a bunch of months off (at a minimum) then either, so I'm not certain we could get a loan, other than an owner-carry. And of course, most of the really inexpensive mobiles ar either too small, or in a senior park, which won't work because I, as the oldest in the house, am 20 years too young!

Now for more interesting stuff...

Tom and I managed to get away for 4 days to a nearby town, as a last child-free fling for awhile (I'll be breastfeeding again, so really can't go away overnight for about a year...) Faith stayed with her grandparents and with friends of the family that, if Faith's predictions are right, will be in-laws in a couple of decades, so she had fun, too. Tom really needed the time off, as well, because he's been workin 7-da weeks and been on-call the entire time since the ministry he works with opened an emergency shelter at the fairgrounds. I allowed him to take his phone with him only because he's trying to sell a vehicle, but I enforced a no-shop-talk rule while we were out of town--not that that was difficult.

Thanks to several gift cards to the same store, and unspent birthday money, we now have a Wii, and all 3 of us have been enjoying it immensely, even if it did claim that I'm 56 (which would be old enough to get me into a senior park)! Ah, well, I've always sucked at tennis and baseball...

I have been informed that I'm having a baby shower thrown for me, and have been strongly encouraged to open a registry at WalMart, which I have, and have filled it pretty well with everything but clothing and blankets, because I've been given lots of those, and haven't gone through them yet to see what I have--I'd been planning to do that after we moved, since we'd been going to move "at any time" since November!

I think that's just about everything...

Thanks, Amy.

That's a great post, and I feel that you've brought me up to speed admirably.

Now, as for Faith's prediction of inlawhood in a couple of decades, is Faith perhaps in love with a boy in the family in question?

Well, Faith's been "going to marry" S for over a year now... I told R (S's mom) what Faith said when she first said it, in a "Isn't that cute?" kind of way, and R has taken it far too seriously It's a standing joke that S and Faith will marry, and that Notepad and J (S's younger brother) will also merry.

Childhood sweethearts sometimes do marry, but it has to be reckoned a longshot. Then again, who expected Elizabeth II and Prince Philip to marry?

So, it looks like we'll have a 3 bedroom place after Notepad arrives (probably not the place that we had been expecting)--On January 4th, the residency guidelines changed, so that a family of 3 can't have a 3 bedroom-there have to be 4 of you. But we definitely won't be homeless

Very dear Amy. Thank you for the lovely long letter giving us the news about the housing problems. Oh dear! it is disconcerting, but hopefully it looks as if you will have a house - if not the house of your dreams - before the latest arrival comes.

:ife is so hard for the young nowadays. You do not menti0on too much about your four days holiday. Was it a success and where duid you go to.?

Intrigued to see that Faith has already decided on her future husband. !!

With much affection to you all.

Christiane and K.

AlsoRan9-


christiane and Keith.

The vacation was fairly quiet, but it was nice. Mostly resting and walking.

"Intrigued to see that Faith has already decided on her future husband. !!" [AlsoRan80[

It beats waiting in a very long line.

Hello Amy,

I was curious about your current housing situation. Last time we talked about it was perhaps a year or more ago. Anyway, it was before there was official talk about sub prime mortgages, credit crunch, and bancruptcy. Et voila, I popped in and found the answer right away.

It seems that at the mo you're caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. Not that I can offer any help but I can suggest that for the time being you put the crib for the baby in your own bedroom. Friends of mine did the same. The little girl was none the worse for it. My friends were living in this rather pleasant house, but it was the property of his parents who lived in another city. His younger brother was still studying in the same city my friends live in, and he occupied the top floor of the house. One floor down were the bedrooms. One for their oldest daughter, one for the granddad on mother's side from Poland, and one for my friends themselves. On the floor beneath that one, was the livingroom and kitchen. So, lack of room made them decide to put the crib in their own bedroom.

As the years passed by, it did become a little awkward. By that time the youngest brother graduated in the summer and he was planning on going on a bicycle trip to France. Around the same time he received a postcard from a female friend who had been staying in the US. She and her American boyfriend had split up and she announced that she was coming home. I found the card on the doormat and put it on the stairs that led to his rooms.

The day arrived the youngest brother left for his cycle trip. I happened to be around that day and was pleased to meet his holiday companion, a lovely girl. I waved them goodbye when they set off to France. They had told me that they would pass his parents place in the south of Holland and stay there as well for a night or two.
Then, just about an hour after they had left, the telephone rang. As I was alone in the house I picked up the receiver and hee ho! there was this girl from the US.

She said she had just arrived from the States and she needed to speak to her friend urgently.
I was adamant: No, he hadn't left any information about where he could be reached.
She insisted that it was an emergency.
I declined. I had no information whatsoever about his whereabouts. My goodness, she was a pushy girl.

Anyways, all's well that ends well. After their return from hollidays the youngest brother and the lovely girl moved in together in another house. The oldest daughter moved upstairs. The youngest got the bedroom of the oldest. A few years ago, I was walking in the park with the dog and as I was about to cross the road a couple on a bicycle passed. He drove, she sat on the back.
This happily married couple were humorously bickering about in which restaurant to eat. They never noticed me.

Why am I telling this? Don't know.

If you go back a couple generations, you have a time when it was not unusual for people to have no fixed residence. Houses tended to be roomy, and there would often be a room somewhere that a friend could stay in while visiting -- visits were often open-ended. Harpo Marx is said to have imposed on his hosts' hospitality rather too much at times. A century or so earlier, in Concord, Massachusetts, there was a man named Ralph Waldo Emerson whose standards of hospitality were very high. He inherited money from his wife, who was generous enough to bequeath it to him, and he put the house and fortune at the service of more than a few eminent writers (Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott, Hawthorne, etc.) to the ultimate benefit of American letters.
Skipping back to the mid-20th century, I enjoy reading about the 1940s, when people would post notices in the local newspaper about their being away visiting so and so, or at their summer homes, so their sociable friends will know enough not to call on them in town.

Oh, the crib is squeezed into our room for now, and we'll be getting a bigger apartment soon, so we'll survive 2legs has been off the hook for visiting for a bit, though, until we get settled

its ok amy i will badger and pester him in may for you.

oh there is a Glasgow meet this weekend, would "you" like to be there (i will redraw you without haloween costume)

mini

Sure, thanks!

Nag him about CO monitors and smoke detectors, too

Dont worry Amy, if i make it to the May meet he will get a severe talking to. infact i might have a smoke detector i can give him (my former flatmates dad is a fireman and gave us free smoke detectors, and there was one spare) will have a look when i am next at my parents house.

I will Redraw an "Amy" tomorrow in preperation for the weekend.

mini

Sounds good

Ah yes, I remember 2legs hospitality quite well. I may go and visit him tonight and pester him again with my continued presence in the next two years.

Perhaps not.

Do you live near enough to 2Legs to visit him?