*** 2007.08.14 PM update:

I just talked with my sister to get calibrated on the situation. She says unless something else goes wrong  between now and the time we get our money for the land we should be OK without any more outside help. I don't believe in removing things from blogs after they've been posted so I'll leave this here for posterity but unless I update it again please ignore it. (Tips are still welcome but the emergency seems to be over.) A  big thank you to the gent who put money in my PayPal account Sunday, and to everyone who has in the past. I haven't forgotten and when and if those retroactive Social Security benefits come through I'll pass the money on to some good causes, either Soldiers' Angels and Valour-IT or some other similar group if it makes more sense at the time.

*** 2007.08.14  early AM update:

My sister called the contractor who wants part of our place yesterday morning and accepted his verbal offer. He's saying now it will take a few days to put something together in writing and I'll sleep a lot better after that happens.

I called the lawyer who's handling my Social Security appeal yesterday; he said a couple of weeks ago not to sign anything without talking to him again. He hasn't had any luck speeding the process up. If I didn't know he doesn't make a cent until I get my back settlement, or if I don't live long enough to get it, I'd wonder if he's really trying.

I received enough via PayPal Sunday, all from one person, to hold on a little longer on but I'm not sure how long. If all it needed to cover was food and gas I'd figure on it lasting till my brother in law gets paid Friday but my nephew needs school supplies and a pair of shoes before then (school starts Friday) and I don't know how much that's going to cost.

I'll repeat again what I've already said a couple of times: If there's anyone reading this who can help out I'll be more than happy to treat it as a loan and pay it back when we get the money for the land we're selling. Unfortunately I have to add the caveat that if the agreement to sell the land falls through it might be months before I can pay you back.

*** Saturday evening update:

I knew when I wrote the original part of this post things were getting bad, but I didn't realize how bad or how soon. (My sister has this bad habit of trying not to worry me until things are really desperate.) I knew earlier that my sister was taking Mom to a payday loan place this morning (the same one where I paid the interest and renewed my loan 10 days ago), but I didn't know she planned on pawning her wedding and engagement rings on the way home, nor that when she found out how little they were worth Mom would end up deciding to pawn hers too. I don't know anything I could have done to stop them if I'd known the game plan in advance, other than posting a more accurate description of the situation sooner. The situation in a nutshell is that we're selling part of the place Mom and Dad bought 50 years ago last month but we won't have the money for a couple of weeks. In the mean time several things we'd put off paying till the last minute had to be paid all at once, leaving us without enough to even make it through the weekend on, let alone the next couple of weeks. Even after this morning's events we're still going to be out of grocery and gas money within a very few days. We need help desperately.

As I said in the earlier part of this post, what we have at this point is a verbal agreement with the contractor/developer who wants part of our place. I'd be glad to treat anything anyone can let us have at this point as a short-term loan, including any reasonable interest rate, but I also have to add the caveat that if our supposed buyer backs out on his verbal offer I won't be able to pay you back until I get the retroactive Social Security benefits my lawyer's still confident I will, and if he's wrong about that I may never be able to pay you back.

I'm ready for my padded room now. Please help if you can.

Everything below this point was part of my original post.

Yeah, I know. Time for one of Taranto's mixed metaphor alerts. Sorry about that.

Background here, here, here and here if you're interested.

Shorter background for those of you who don't go back and read those older posts:

The triangular property with the red X in it is our place, all 2 1/2 acres of it. When we moved here in July of '57 Lawrenceville was a lot farther away than it is now. The house with the red dot on it was the only thing east of us on the south side of "Old 50" for over a quarter of a mile; everything else south of the road in the above picture is new within about the last 15 years or so, including James St. That big building just right of center near the top is a Wal-Mart that's been there around 15 years (I was living in Texas when it went in so I don't remember exactly when it happened.) Construction (more accurately just ground preparation so far) for a new Super Wal-Mart located somewhere in that big field behind the smaller Wal-Mart that's there now started about three weeks ago. Not too long before that the contractor responsible for raising and leveling the area where it's going to be came by wanting to buy part of our place, then he decided he wanted all or nothing, then ... things have been in a state of confusion waiting for him to decide what he wanted to do and trying to decide what we'd be willing to let him do. (See those earlier posts for more details.) Part of the hold-up has been waiting for the neighbor who owns that larger field between us and the road to decide whether he wanted to sell it, which it turns out that he's willing to consider but not at a price the contractor's willing to pay. Yesterday we got a verbal offer from the contractor to buy most of that field with the X in it and part of the back corner of our place. He wanted an answer by last night but my sister ended up calling and telling him we needed till Monday to think about it. He's not offering as much as we know he would have if he could have gotten that land in front of us  -- he'd really like to build a road across that place and our east field  -- but he's offering enough to make a difference in our lives for a while. As some of you know,  we've been operating in the red for most of the last two years due to my sister's cancer surgeries, a fire about 18 months ago, then more recently because Mom's health hit the point where she really needs my sister home with her at about the same time my sister lost a job she'd had almost 10 years for going to work too exhausted to think clearly once too often. We've managed to hang on, barely, with help from what little advertising revenue my blogging brings in and a lot of help from some good-hearted people who've donated money via PayPal when we really needed it. (You know who you are. Please know you're appreciated). If we sell the part of the place we're talking about to the contractor and put the money someplace safe to just draw on a little every month when we absolutely have to we should be able to get by OK for a couple or three years, maybe longer. If my lawyer's prediction is right and I end up getting Social Security Disability benefits retroactive to not too long after I got too sick to work we should at least be able to get by that long, then be in pretty good shape for good after that. Even if my lawyer's wrong, I'm less than 5 years from being 62, when I can start drawing Social Security whether they admit I'm sick or not -- I know my pension will be smaller if I start drawing it at 62 than if I wait till I'm older, but with my health problems and family history it's probably the right thing to do. With a whole lot of luck the money we get for selling off part of the place might even last that long.

OK, so that was the good news. The bad news is we're broke again right now and at best it's going to take a week or two to get the money for the part of the place we sell. We aren't in danger of going without electricity or internet service, having my car repossessed, etc. for another month or so but food could become a definite issue. If there's any one reading this who can help we could really use it. I'd be glad to treat it as a loan to be repaid when we get the money for the land, with the caveat that if the contractor backs out of the verbal offer he made yesterday you'll have to wait till I get that Social Security back-settlement to get your money back, and if my lawyer's wrong about getting that eventually you might never get it back.

There's a PayPal button on my sidebar and another one at the bottom of this post if you're looking at the individual archive ("permalink") view. Please?