It is another absolutely awesome day today. I am so glad that spring is finally here. I think that I am more glad to see spring this year than normal. I am not sure why. Maybe because I have spent so much time in Maryland over the last several years during the winter and really didn’t this year.
I slept in a little this morning but not very long. The phone kept ringing and that makes it awfully difficult to sleep. So I headed down to the office to get some work done. I am just wrapping up getting Eric’s new desktop for the office all set up for him. It is more than twice the speed of his last desktop so he should be pretty happy with it. He is still only moving from a PIII-450 to a PIII-1000 but it is still quite a leap.
My accountant called today and Min and I have to stop in to deal with our taxes. They are being e-filed. We are getting almost $1,300 back! I didn’t even know that I had paid that much this year. That made me very happy today. That money will really help around here. Next year we hope to do even better since both Min and I are doing so much volunteer work down at the school. That should really help.
I called Eric to see if he wanted to get some coffee and sit outside today but he had an “emergency” with a client in Elmira and he had to run down there for the day. I went out onto the deck early this afternoon but discovered that it is much colder than it looks and it really isn’t good weather for sitting around outside yet. Maybe next week. According to the weather channel, it is only fifty out today but feels like forty-four. That seems about right. It is supposed to be even colder tomorrow. Ho-hum.
For some reason, Google has bumped all of my pictures. That really sucks. I used to be so easy to find. How fickle they are.
I got Min up and we went out to Perry to take care of our taxes. Boy does it ever feel good to be getting a nice refund this year. After filing our taxes we went over to the Silver Lake Family Restaurant and got some dinner.
On the way home from dinner, Min and I stopped off in Leicester to visit with the family. Everyone was hanging out at Grandma’s. Dad was there. He just got in from Ohio where he was all weekend. We hung out until around 9:00 and then headed home so that Min could get off to work.
I got home and discovered that the awful contract that I have been working has been postponed AGAIN! I have had enough. I contacted the subcontractor that I am working through and told them that we were either getting a retainer or renegotiating my rate and terms. I expect that I will rapidly become far too expensive for this game to continue. But really, how bad could it be? It isn’t like this project is going to move forward anyway. I need to get my money and get out. I refuse to be left holding the bag when the bottom drops out. I have been in this game for too long to not see the writing on the wall. I used to not want to leverage what advantages I had but I have been screwed too many times over the years and it is time that all those hard knock lessons paid off. I might end up losing the contract all together, that is a real possibility. But the reality of the situation is that two weeks ago I turned down the work and was looking elsewhere for opportunities. Then they made a bunch of promises about the project starting and I caved. Foolish me. Well, now all of that is over. I am in the drivers seat and we are in for a ride. I have always threatened to try the continuously increasing rate strategy – they get a few days to go to contract at one rate and if they don’t pull it off, the rate goes up and we start again. Eventually, I get so expensive that it isn’t even worth considering me. Which would be a problem if I cared about getting the job. But since I don’t, they are not in a happy place. I will keep everyone up to date as this saga unfolds.
Dad is meeting Min and I are 8:00 for breakfast so I need to get to bed.