Chapter 4: The Pipe That Cracked The Camels Back
Over the next 6 months we noticed more things wrong with the house. Not big things, just a lot of little things. The leaky faucet in the bathroom, the rusted out drain pipe under the kitchen sink, the water pipe for the kitchen sink that froze a little too easily, and the water heater that wouldn’t make hot water in the morning unless you ran it for 2 min then gave it 15 min to heat up some new stuff. During that time winter had set in and the house was getting quite chilly. The NIPSCO bill had started to climb and we decided to get some things to help save some energy. I got some fluorescent light bulbs, water pipe wraps, and a new thermostat. Well as helpful as that was, it was no match for Anastasias love to be warm while wearing as little clothing as possible. I’m all for her not wearing any clothes but when I come home and start sweating, it’s too hot. Well as I predicted, the NIPSCO bill shot through the roof. It seemed to climb about $50 every month and my wallet couldn’t take it. I started to stay up late at night and wait for Anastasia to fall asleep so I could turn the heat down at night. That helped out a bit but NIPSCO would have the last laugh. The next month’s bill came and I got smacked in the face for $350! That was it. I put my foot down and told Anastasia that as much as I loved the skimpy clothes she liked to wear, she was going to have to start bundling up because the heat was going off.
After the heat incident I began to notice a strain on our relationship. We didn’t seem to get a long as well and Anastasia spent more and more nights at her moms house. Well I was ok with that because her and I were not in a relationship and I had a new girlfriend who liked spending the night. Having a house to yourself is nice when there is someone who wants to spend naked time with you. Well on Super Bowl Sunday Anastasia, my new girlfriend, and I made dinner and started to watch the game. I took out the trash and noticed that water had collected and froze in the bottom of the garbage can. Stupid me had forgotten to put the lid on all the way and snow had goten in, thawed, then froze. I took the can downstairs and turned it upside down in the utility sink to thaw and drain. Well what I didn’t foresee was the trash can was now top heavy and it fell out of the sink and landed right on the drainage pipe and cracked it wide open. I went downstairs to see what that noise was and noticed what had happened. This was bad. With the pipe cracked, we couldn’t use any water in the house! Well after telling Anastasia this news she blew up and screamed, “I hate this fucking house!” She then left to go to her moms house. That was kind of scary. She had gotten mad at the house before but never like this. I started to wonder if she would come back. I had visions of her moving out and leaving me with this house and all its bills all by myself. Well I fixed the pipe the next day and sent her a text letting her know it was safe to come home. She came back 2 days later and didn’t say hardly anything to me for another 2 days. Things had changed.
Then there was a light at the end of the tunnel. After months of my parents saying, “Your uncles house is almost done. We’ll be getting started on your house in a couple of weeks.” my dad finally finished up my uncles place and would be starting on my place next weekend. I was so happy I could hardly stand it. Well unknowingly to me it was already too late. Anastasia called me to tell me she had had enough of waiting and had made other living arrangements. My life flashed before my eyes. I was on my own. I had visions of not making the mortgage payments, losing the house, and being forced to move back home with mom and dad while I feebly attempted to climb out of debt and rebuild my trashed credit. I begged my friends to move in with me so I wouldn’t have all these bills to suffer through by myself but nobody wanted to move out of their parents nice, warm, and cushy houses. DAMMIT!!!! Why couldn’t any of these guys have horribly mean parent like I did and want to move out.
Well the move out date came and Anastasia packed up all her stuff and was getting ready to leave. She was generous enough to leave me with a TV stand and a redbull display case. She also left her grandmothers table and chairs in my garage because she didn’t have enough room in the truck for it. She said she would come back for them in a few days. It wasn’t until 20 min after she left that I noticed she still had her keys and garage door button. What a bitch! You move out, you leave your keys. End of story! I don’t care if you paid up till the end of the month. You screw someone over like that and you lose all coming and going privileges. Well I showed her, I unplugged her garage door and hid my spare button. Even if she did come back for the table, there was no way she was going to get it without going through me and leaving her keys. Stupid bitch. I never should have gotten this house. It was too late though because she was already gone leaving me with a house that I didn’t want in the first place and a mortgage payment I couldn’t afford. My worst nightmare was coming true.
So the next few weeks were really the roughest part of this whole ordeal. I went to work and came home. I hardly ate, I barely slept because of the nightmares I was having about being alone and poor. The only thing that kept me going was my girlfriend who stayed over 3 or 4 times a week. As wonderful as that was, I still had this pain in the pit of my stomach because I knew I would never be able to afford this house by myself. Well my parents came to the rescue. I know I talk a lot of shit about them and the crappy childhood that they and my sisters gave me, but I’m beginning to wonder if they saved all the niceness over the years for a time when I would really need it. Well the time was now and I gotta say… they came through in the nick of time. Mom came by with groceries once a week and dad and I began working on the upstairs. The only downside to all this generosity was the fact that I had to see them every week. Oh well.... it was a small price to pay for food and hard labor. Now all I needed was more money for the mortgage.
For many many years I have been a devote Atheist and believed that there was a logical explanation for everything that happens in life, but even I was beginning to wonder if there was a higher power out there looking out for me. My phone was ringing once or twice a week with computer jobs, and my copy center manager at Depot was taking a vacation which meant 40 hours for me! I thought to myself, “I might just be able to pull this off.”
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