Bit of a break...

Me?  Not in a very happy place lately. It seems that I've got a lot of things going on that I'd find difficult individually... added all up, and it's a bit more than I can handle.

Mostly, I've got issues at work that I'm struggling with.  It's not the new job.  Unfortunately, nothing with the new job has progressed, so I'm still in the old position and dealing with... stuff I can't talk about here.

There's the diet issue.  I've figured out that all the health problems I've been having are stemming from an intolerance for salt.  I've had to cut salt out of my diet as much as possible; which basically means that I've had to cut out anything that's premade or processed.  Canned foods, deli meats, cheeses, baked goods, sauces, dressings, condiments, pop, and even some bottled waters all have added salt.   It's gotten to the point that I can't eat anything that I don't make myself from fresh ingredients.  I didn't think I ate out very often,  but I've come to realize how much of my social life revolves around meeting friends at a restaurant or pub.  Not being able to eat out has been hard.

Then, there's the house stuff.  I finally went to a lawyer to discuss taking legal action against the guy who built the house.  I've paid out over $30000 in repairs for problems that resulted from the builder taking shortcuts or not doing as he should have done.  The lawyer very kindly explained my options; all of which are more likely to cost me money than to get the results I want.  I think that if there was some way the builder could be forced to be accountable, I'd probably take legal action, even if it cost me money.  However, there's no way to enforce court decisions or collect on the money that the court deems I'm owed without spending another boatload of money, on top of the legal fees.  In the end, I decided that I couldn't handle the additional stress or costs of taking this to court without a guaranteed outcome.  (To be clear, I have no doubt that I'd win; I just don't have any confidence that anything would come of it.)

At the lawyer's suggestion, I contacted the Canadian Home Builder's Association.  I wrote them a letter, listing all of the problems that I've had with the house, the actions (or lack thereof) taken by the builder, and what I've had to have repaired on my own.  They read my letter, and I'm told it was discussed in depth during a builder's council meeting.  Ultimately, though, they all agreed that the house hadn't been built properly, that I'd been horribly taken advantage of; but that nobody on the council was in a position to assist me.  "Sorry about your luck."

Finally, I'm fighting with the guy who did my roof.  In general, I'm happy with the job and think the roof looks good.  However, there are two spots that don't look right to me, where the rubber membrane is exposed and a weird kind of flashing that looks like duct tape is exposed.  I told the roofer, and his response was to say that it looks fine to him.  So, I told him exactly what doesn't look "fine" to me, and what I want him to do about it.  He responded with an explanation of the materials that he used.  Yesterday, I wrote him back an email to say that while I don't doubt that he used the best materials, they still look bad in some places.  I then went for a walk in a neighbourhood that has a number of tiled roofs like mine and confirmed that none of them have the same problems as what I'm seeing on my house.  I sent the roofer the addresses of some houses that I feel were done right, and asked him to compare those to my house.  We'll see what he says.  Back and forth, back and forth.

As I told a friend this morning, I'm sick and tired of being on the losing end of no-win arguments.  Other people are taking shortcuts, cheating, playing games or just plain lying; and I'm being told that I should sit back and take it because that's the way things are.  I don't want to take it anymore.

So, I'm crabby.  I'm a little beyond crabby, actually.  I'm stressed out and I've got a permanent case of the shakes.  Coming up with something positive to say, making fun of myself or finding little stories that might be amusing... that hasn't been very easy lately.  I never meant for this blog to be where I'd come to bitch and complain; but that's all I've got right now.  So, I'm going to take a little break for a while.  I need to regroup, and get my head on straight.   I'll be back when I'm a little more pleasant to be around.