Bad things and good things and I'm not sure how much more of this mother-effin' craziness I can take but at least I'm leaving for vacation on Friday.

J and I have both felt like we're in a long, difficult stretch, in terms of the strain on our finances and the ages of our kids and stresses of work (mostly his) and how it just feels like life is piling on.  And has been for the past year.

The fact that he's been in Vail for over a year now, except for that 6 week stretch in Denver, after which his company totally dicked him over.

The fact that our Hawaii house is still upside down on the mortgage, and even with the rent we collect on it, we're still losing $1000 a month on it.

While we pay over $2000 a month in daycare.

And I'm home with the kids during the week while holding down a full-time job.  And J works long, exhausting hours, and tries to get home during the week when he can, and then on weekends.  So the kids don't see their daddy as much as they should, and the house is always in shambles, and we're always exhausted.

The Vail job is almost done, so we assumed that the guys still working up there -- the ones whose competence required them to fix the mistakes of the dipshits whose incompetence was rewarded with assignments in Denver -- would be transferred to jobs in Denver within a couple of weeks.

And there's this house in the neighborhood that's been on the market for months, and the price has been drastically reduced.  It's really pretty.  A cute Victorian built in 1896, right in the middle of a great block on a pretty street with shops and restaurants.  A nice little yard for the kids to play in.  Walking or biking distance to the office, or the best bookstore in Denver, or the park, or the pool.  Across the street from the coffee shop.  Two doors down from a hardware store and a grocery store and a post office and a diner.

It's seriously cheap.  It needs a lot of upgrades and renovation, but it's got great bones and the potential to be spectacular.  And J and I could do the bulk of the renovations, particularly with his construction know-how.

But we've got a lease on our rental house through February.  So we'd have to figure out how to swing all of that.

We could figure it out, though.  We think we really want this house.

But when J got to work this morning, he was informed that there are no jobs in Denver.  Instead, all of the competent guys who have been team players and have stayed in Vail to help the company finish the job, and finish it right, have been given the option of being transferred to a job in Alamosa -- which is 4 hours away, in the middle of fucking nowhere -- or be fired.  And they need to decide today.

So do we suck it up and deal with really shitty travel for another 5 months?  Do we collect unemployment for J and hope he can find a new job soon?  Do we take the Alamosa job and look for a new job in the nonexistent spare time we have, and then tell the company to piss off as soon as something comes up?

And somehow, at the same time, try to snap up this house, which I think is a rare opportunity to get into a fabulous neighborhood for a ridiculously small amount of money but a ridiculously large amount of work?

I believe this is called "paying dues."