Good day
Today went swimmingly well.
At work our freelancer, who specializes in restaurants, gave me a gift certificate to the upscale seafood restaurant we have as a client. When she said she'd give me a gift certificate, I assumed it would be one of the Tax Day promotional ones for $10.40 (get it?), and was thinking of how I might angle to get a couple of extra so I could afford to take someone else. I never expected it to be for $75. That should more or less cover dinner for three people, so I think I'll take Joe and Norm next week.
And it kept getting better at work. Yesterday morning, the president of the firm sent out an e-mail encouraging everyone to work hard so we could all leave early Friday. I didn't quite know what to make of this. I thought by leaving early we might get to leave a little before 5, possibly in the 4 to 4:30 range. Nope. I was out the door and to the train by 3, and home by 3:30. I was so taken by this impossibly good luck that I felt an overwhelming urge to go to my brewpub of choice, Goose Island, for some celebratory libations and half-price, "Hoppy Hour" specials. Their baked pretzels -- both the traditional variety served with Düsseldorf mustard and the stuffed pizza one with cheese and marinara sauces -- are scrumptious. And the two beers I tried, a German-style bock and a Dublin stout, were good (though the potently smooth bock did make me feel a bit woozy).
To top it all off, I won't have to fork over most or all of my next paycheck to pay our gas bill. Through a variety of quirks, oddities and other strange happenings, we've only paid $100 toward our gas bill since we moved in last September. In large part this owes to the gas company, Peoples Energy, failing to send us a bill till December. So for three months we hadn't the foggiest idea how much gas we were evidently using, and how much they were charging us for the privilege. So, by the time we got a bill, not only was it high because we weren't being as energy efficient as we could be (namely, we weren't leaving the heat off for most of the day), but it was astronomical because we had nearly three months' worth of bills coming due. We balked at this, we bitched about it, then we tried to rectify it. We began severely limiting our gas use and even went to the trouble of enrolling in LIHEAP, a program that helps low-income folks pay their utility bills. Since I wasn't working at the time and Joe was making a pittance, we seemed good candidates to qualify for at least something. And they told us we'd find out about getting assistance for 30 days. That was nearly two months ago. We paid $100 to help placate the gas company, but all the while we've been waiting to find out if we'll get any relief for our bill. Then, yesterday, we received notice that our gas would be shut off on the 19th unless we anted up. And at this point, it isn't pretty. I estimated that to cover my half of what we owed, I would essentially have to hand all but a pittance of my forthcoming paycheck to the gas company. So, I began to resign myself to a lot of belt-tightening over the next couple of months. But today Joe finally talked to someone at Peoples Energy who gave us some answers. Among these was that LIHEAP had gone broke. No help there. But, mercifully, we won't have to pay our entire outstanding balance next week, just our current month's gas bill, plus a calculated portion of our balance per the terms of their payment plan. It'll still be a big hit, but a more manageable one. Really, I was just happy about the prospect of not having to spend so much money at once. And I think it'll work out OK in the long run since, presumably, our gas bill should decline significantly as summer approaches and the temperature rises. We leave the heat off most of the time anyway, so hopefully it won't be too painful to pay.
With any luck, tomorrow we'll score tickets to see Billy Corgan's first solo performance. That would be smashing.
At work our freelancer, who specializes in restaurants, gave me a gift certificate to the upscale seafood restaurant we have as a client. When she said she'd give me a gift certificate, I assumed it would be one of the Tax Day promotional ones for $10.40 (get it?), and was thinking of how I might angle to get a couple of extra so I could afford to take someone else. I never expected it to be for $75. That should more or less cover dinner for three people, so I think I'll take Joe and Norm next week.
And it kept getting better at work. Yesterday morning, the president of the firm sent out an e-mail encouraging everyone to work hard so we could all leave early Friday. I didn't quite know what to make of this. I thought by leaving early we might get to leave a little before 5, possibly in the 4 to 4:30 range. Nope. I was out the door and to the train by 3, and home by 3:30. I was so taken by this impossibly good luck that I felt an overwhelming urge to go to my brewpub of choice, Goose Island, for some celebratory libations and half-price, "Hoppy Hour" specials. Their baked pretzels -- both the traditional variety served with Düsseldorf mustard and the stuffed pizza one with cheese and marinara sauces -- are scrumptious. And the two beers I tried, a German-style bock and a Dublin stout, were good (though the potently smooth bock did make me feel a bit woozy).
To top it all off, I won't have to fork over most or all of my next paycheck to pay our gas bill. Through a variety of quirks, oddities and other strange happenings, we've only paid $100 toward our gas bill since we moved in last September. In large part this owes to the gas company, Peoples Energy, failing to send us a bill till December. So for three months we hadn't the foggiest idea how much gas we were evidently using, and how much they were charging us for the privilege. So, by the time we got a bill, not only was it high because we weren't being as energy efficient as we could be (namely, we weren't leaving the heat off for most of the day), but it was astronomical because we had nearly three months' worth of bills coming due. We balked at this, we bitched about it, then we tried to rectify it. We began severely limiting our gas use and even went to the trouble of enrolling in LIHEAP, a program that helps low-income folks pay their utility bills. Since I wasn't working at the time and Joe was making a pittance, we seemed good candidates to qualify for at least something. And they told us we'd find out about getting assistance for 30 days. That was nearly two months ago. We paid $100 to help placate the gas company, but all the while we've been waiting to find out if we'll get any relief for our bill. Then, yesterday, we received notice that our gas would be shut off on the 19th unless we anted up. And at this point, it isn't pretty. I estimated that to cover my half of what we owed, I would essentially have to hand all but a pittance of my forthcoming paycheck to the gas company. So, I began to resign myself to a lot of belt-tightening over the next couple of months. But today Joe finally talked to someone at Peoples Energy who gave us some answers. Among these was that LIHEAP had gone broke. No help there. But, mercifully, we won't have to pay our entire outstanding balance next week, just our current month's gas bill, plus a calculated portion of our balance per the terms of their payment plan. It'll still be a big hit, but a more manageable one. Really, I was just happy about the prospect of not having to spend so much money at once. And I think it'll work out OK in the long run since, presumably, our gas bill should decline significantly as summer approaches and the temperature rises. We leave the heat off most of the time anyway, so hopefully it won't be too painful to pay.
With any luck, tomorrow we'll score tickets to see Billy Corgan's first solo performance. That would be smashing.
posted by Alexander Dubcek | 20:49
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