[I wrote this shortly after midnight this morning then for some reason saved it as a draft and forgot to publish it. I've re-dated it to reflect the time I wrote it, not the time it actually showed up on the site.]

Driving home from Evansville yesterday and sitting under my favorite red tree recovering from the trip, three words kept running through my mind. "We made it." After years of struggling, including some times I'm not sure I'd have survived without the kindness of some people who know me only through my blogging, we made it. I'll never be country club trophy wife rich but I have enough money in the bank and enough more on the way that I'd have to make some incredibly stupid mistakes to ever end up struggling to make ends meet. Not that I haven't made some incredibly stupid mistakes in the past, but I think I learned enough from them to avoid repeating them.

I called the Vincennes Social Security office before I hit the road yesterday morning. According to everything they were able to pull together after I called Monday they're convinced I still have about three times as much coming as the check I got Monday was for but they can't explain why I got a check for that amount and it may be a while before I know. My favorite theory for now is that the check I got Monday was sent to correct the Mar '03 vs. Mar '04 problem and I'll be getting a check for the rest of what they owe me sometime within the next month or so.

I still have a lot of thinking to do to decide how much of what I got Monday to spend, and on what, before I get the rest of my money. I have a crew coming later today to clean up that corner of the pasture we did the sloppy job on a couple of weeks ago but beyond that I haven't really made any firm decisions. For one thing I haven't talked to Chad for a couple of weeks and I don't know what's going on with the job in Texas he either is or isn't going to be leaving town for sometime. By the time he leaves here tomorrow I'll know more. I think I want to leave most of the remaining fence work for F4TR and his friend, then have some combination of Brad, Chad, Kyle and Taylor finish whatever doesn't get done that weekend later. In the mean time I may have Brad and Chad add some circuits and outlets to the house, remodel the bathroom, install that freeze-proof hydrant, and some other things like that. I also need to get my sister to make some phone calls to track down some information for me; I wasn't real good at that sort of thing even when my lungs were healthy and getting out of breath like I do doesn't help a bit. I need to get some top soil hauled in to have someone spread around in the low spots in the barnlot, I need to get a load of gravel hauled in to have someone use to fill low spots in the drive, we have gas lines that need replaced, Mom needs a decent hearing aid, etc, etc, but without price I can't even get started deciding what to do soon and what will have to wait for the rest of my Social Security back settlement.

Time for some more lawn chair time, then some sleep before Brad and Chad get here.