what do the Meese think of this?

Aids Walk 2018
First draft of a diary for the orange place – there’s a lot more people over there – asking for help: picture is one of me & Congressman Doggett at a past AIDS Walk

I’ve had 2 financial disasters this year. First: the Homeowners Association passed a special assessment, and my part is $18,000. Background on that is that sometime in the 1990s (long before I bought this place), they put siding on the buildings. They did it wrong, and water has been damaging the buildings all this time. The contractor who did the work is long out of business. Yes, we pay a management company to take care of the exterior of the buildings but this is magically not their fault. There are over 100 owners in this complex, statistically speaking at least one must be a lawyer; failing that, at least one must be able to afford one and no one suggested suing the management company, so I’m going to go with “magic” for it not being their responsibility. Anyway, I have to pay $250/month every month for basically the rest of my life.

Then, my a/c broke. Like, completely broke and had to be replaced. The company was nice and is financing it. That’s another $150/month.

So, $24,000 is more money than I can ask even a big community like Daily Kos to donate. I have a venmo: @Becky-Helton, if anyone wants to help with next month’s payments but for that much money, I need a 2nd job. My day job is M-F from 8-5, so it would have to be evenings & weekends. My car….. the “check tire” light has been on for a couple of months, and besides, buying gas to do GrubHub or Uber Eats seems counter productive. I can’t stand for long periods of time, so even though the grocery store down the street is hiring, that seems like a bad idea. I have no artistic talent, don’t know how to sew or make candles or any of those crafty things. Does anyone have any ideas?

3 Comments

  1. {{{anotherdemocrat}}} As a situation, I think it sux. As a diary, I think it’s good writing. I know there are writing or editing gigs out there that actually pay money but I don’t know where they are or how to find them. I wish I did since that’s at least a viable answer. Check your grocery store anyway. They may have something you could do sitting. It’s worth a shot. You might also ask the folks you’ve been working with on the AIDS fundraisers all these years. Not for money but for ideas. Or openings. You never know.

    Since this is not exactly a fundraiser diary, I don’t think you’ll need to worry about whatever the newest rules are at DK for a fundraiser diary. I would suggest that after you post it you put a link to it in every diary you normally interact in (that is permissible anyway) as close to the posting time & as close to the top as possible if they don’t have a community links comment to hang it on. And do it every day for at least a week so you can catch everybody.

    Holding you in The Light. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  2. First of all, I’m very sorry for your bad luck. That totally sucks. Have you thought of a “Go Fund Me”? I’ve been out of the work world for so long that there’s a lot of stuff I don’t know about.

    Writing term papers for college kids who lack the ability to write? I once made $30 an hour writing term papers for a guy (English was not his native language), who took in his college lectures through his ears rather than his eyes. I’m the opposite. Anyway, I wrote the papers, he was happy, and the editorial agency paid me, so I was happy.

    Resumes are probably all done on video nowadays. I used to run a resume service out of my house. Of course, there’s Task Rabbit, which you could do from home. The first time a guy came out to set up my website, he did it in person, but the second time he did it through a program that let him control my machine so he could do it from his home.

    Do you pet-sit? Could you feed people’s goldfish and birds in your condo building while they’re away? That doesn’t require much physical strength. I’ve often wished for someone to sit with my dog for a couple of hours. I did have a dog sitter, who sat with Monty on the sofa and watched TV with him. She took him out once an hour and was company. She now charges $45 an hour instead of $30, so I bloody well don’t use her any more.

    Will try to think of more ideas. I can’t get a Venmo account, they didn’t like my password. Do you have a PayPal account?

    There was a woman on DK who wanted a $10.000 funeral for her daughter. It’s a terrible thing to lose a child, but mah Gawd, if you have to ask the community to help for a fancy funeral, that is the outside of enough, in my opinion. It’s like wanting a $25,000 wedding when you can’t afford anything but a church hall and homemade cake.

    Will try to think of more ideas but other than being an Influencer on Tik-Tok or YouTube, I’m just out of ideas! Good luck!

  3. I think you should get help from Dkos readers – who have supported all your efforts for others over the years. Can’t hurt.

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