Into the Belly of the Beast

I own a small truck. An S-10 I bought for $500 from a coworker. I only used it a few times before I lent it to a friend that needed better transportation. When a beat up, rusted pickup with no tailgate is "better", you know the situation wasn't ideal.

Because I'm going to need as many ways to move stuff between storage units and from the garage and yard, I reclaimed my little truck yesterday. I checked to make sure that transportation wasn't going to be a problem. It wasn't, so the crap truck came home.

Once back in my possession I took care to fill the tank and check the lights. I'm still getting reacquainted with the clutch and the engine sounds that indicate when to shift gears. I never got a good chance to learn the ins and outs of this vehicle the first time I had it. That will change over the next couple of months.  I'll likely spend at least one round trip a day ferreting things from the house to storage, to the other storage and back again.

Tonight wasn't a ferreting trip, though. It was an exploration.  I hadn't seen the inside of the existing storage unit in two years. My memories of the contents were lovecraftian at best. Nightmare images of boxes and stacked fixtures haunted me as I drove over. I was glad the S-10 is a standard because it took my mind off what I was going to see.

In reality the space isn't that bad.  There's a walkway in the center. That immediately indicated to me that there was hope I could get to anything I decided to grab and move. I was also surprised how many of the fluff I'd ordered in was still there.  Maquettes, busts, sealed boxes of cards and figures, all of it just there and easy to find.  The first few sets of ads I put up will be much faster to create than I had feared.

Everything is dusty, of course, and plenty of webs and other indications of spider and insect activity are abundant, but not so much so that I fear an infestation. That part won't be too difficult to deal with, either. In all I'm pretty happy with the condition of things. I think I'll be able to deal with most of it on my own, as long as the truck holds up, that is.

Things Done and Calls Unreturned

The first thing I need to crow about is that everything I intended to do today got done.  That doesn't happen terribly often. It's one of the things I want to work on the most:  Getting things done.

The darker side of today's schedule is that I am still waiting for an answer from the storage company. I asked for a discount beyond the half-month they offered.  I'd rather not double pay for the two months I estimate it will take to transfer the contents. I was told that only the owner could make that decision. That's understandable, but considering he just sold a large swath of prime development land, I think he could let me keep $300 dollars.

An even darker realization came when the attendant admitted to me that the only options for new storage units aren't in the area, but are at the new facility north of town. There will be no quick trips back and forth across the yard.

Another task I set as a priority was to sort out what I needed to do for the IRS. I looked and I think that I can make a decent dent in my obligations without tasking my finances too harshly. In looking through the mail, I came up with the idea that instead of squeezing my finances any more than they already are, I'm going to try and use new money. I'm going to try and improve my income with the purpose of paying off these debts.

Some of that income will be from taking more reviews.  That's an easy one.  I'll try to get an extra review or two each week.  The next most available source of income is the storage unit.  I'm not sure how much I can make by selling off stuff, but it's worth a shot.

I'll need to come up with a few other income sources in the next couple weeks.  I'll have to see if I have any better ideas than the ones I am able to come up with right now.

One side task I hadn't intended on was to order a vegetable juicer. I'm not looking to do anything as radical as a juice cleanse, thought I'm not completely opposed to the thought. I'm more interested in using vegetable juice as a supplement.  I know that I could be healthier if I could eat healthier. For some reason, eating raw leafy greens irritates my stomach.  I'm hoping that juicing them will remove whatever property it is that makes my stomach upset.

It is an expensive experiment, but it's one I think I need to try. The box is supposed to be here Wednesday. If so, Thursday morning will be my first try at it.

A Loose End

Coming home after a trip to Nebraska, I found a stack of mail waiting for me. One conspicuous set of envelopes was addressed to my former business from the IRS.

One of the lessons I learned running a business is that you have to be very diligent with record keeping. This is not something at which I excel. In fact I've been terrible at it.  In many cases I could be considered one of the worst record keepers in recorded history. (The joke is a bad record keeper probably isn't IN recorded history.)

I've known for a couple years that I was going to have to deal with flawed tax returns for the store at some point. I'm making that point tomorrow, mostly because I have the day off and already have to do a few errands that will prevent me from spending the entire day on any one task. So, after I take the kids where they need to go and collect the dogs that need to return home after a stay with the vet, I'm going to get out and deal with the zombie corps of my store.

First on the list is to get a face-to-face meeting with the staff at the storage company and see what my options are. The unit housing the physical remains of my store has been sold and will be demolished on September 30th. Being one person, it's going to take a massive effort to move everything out, even with more than sixty days notice. There is an option to get a price break on a newer unit, but I need to know how much it will cost me, and whether I can get free rent during the overlap.

I'm also going to need to find the last set of keys to the unit, which I don't have.  Without those it's going to be hard to get in and survey the contents.

Finally, I have to try and sell anything and everything I can out of the storage unit so I don't have to move it.  The less I have to move, the more likely it is I'll get out of the unit before I end up in the hospital with a strained back.

Then, once I have a better grasp of what is happening at the storage unit, I'm going to call up the IRS and see what I can work out.  Altogether a great way to spend a day off.

This is what I mean by life debt. I've let this whole store closing be a burden on my psyche for too long.  Years now.  Before that the operating store was a source of anxiety and consternation. It was a release to close it down, but I never paid off the debt, so I had to deal with that.  The monetary debt is one thing, but the life debt is another.

Clearing out these debts is one of the life-changing shifts of focus I need to make.  I'm tired of carrying it all around on my neck. I doubt I can get rid of it all at once, but if I can eliminate a few of these debts I'll be happier and probably healthier, too.