Less than 24 hours to go until the settlement. Except for that I’m not really going to go to the settlement. I’m going to show up on my way to work to sign the papers early. The Hub is the one who is going to sit down with the new people and the realtors and the lawyers etc and transfer the keys at 4:00 in the afternoon. Then, onward and upward. Don’t look back.

There’s a lot to look forward to. Paying off our credit cards, and NEVER HAVING ANOTHER CREDIT CARD AGAIN! My car payment will be caught up, the oil company will be paid, the medical bills taken care of. No more alarming phone calls from vaguely threatening guys named “Buster”. No more arguments with the mortgage company

Moreover there’ll be a little, though certainly by no means a lot, of breathing room in our budget and I can do the million little things I’ve been putting off: I need a hair cut, my eyebrows done, the dog is in desperate need of a bath, the car needs an oil change. It may be possible to do some of the body work the car requires. It may be possible to buy a few items of summer clothing someplace besides the Goodwill Store. Of course, we’ll get all the stuff we’ve been putting off for The Hub’s business: the LLC, some accounting software – all of that stuff comes before the dog bath of course, though, if you could smell the dog you might think we have our priorities confused.

We tried to get him used to the garden hose over the weekend, with the idea in mind of giving him a bath at home, but he wasn’t having it. Even on “mist” he gave us a decidedly cross look.

And then he just smelled like a damp dirty dog.

Still, things are looking up.