I can’t believe my luck!

I bought a Sunday paper and was sitting outside my room enjoying the weather when the owner of the motel walked up and asked how I liked it there.  I told him that I was trying to find a small apartment to rent because I needed something more than just a motel room.

Well he told me that his neighbor had a small apartment over their garage that had just come open two days ago. The guy that had rented the place had really trashed it and it needed some repairs before they could rent it again.  That started me thinking.  I asked where it was and if he thought it would be okay to go by and see the place.  He gave his neighbor a call and said to be there in 45 minutes.  It was only about 2 miles from where I work.

When I got there, they told me not to expect too much and took me up to see the apartment.  Yeah, that guy had trashed the place pretty bad and these were elderly people that had rented to him.  I made them an off they didn’t refuse.  I offered to do all the clean-up and repair what he had messed up for the deposit and at least the first months rent.  They agreed!!

Most of the stuff I would need to make the repairs I could get off of the job site from the dumpsters.  It was scraps mostly but they had already told me that if there was something I needed, it was okay to take it.  I HAD AN APARTMENT and guess what else, it was furnished.  Some of the furniture was messed up but nothing I couldn’t live with or fix.

It was a one bedroom, one bathroom and a living room, dining room, kitchen combination.  The power was included in the monthly rent and it was only $350 a month.  Man am I lucky or what?

Arizona, here I come

When I got here, all it took was one look at this small town and I knew I was home.  All I had done was took a picture of Arizona, cut it out and threw a dart at it.  Where ever it stuck, that’s where I headed.  It took me 3 days to get there from South Carolina but I made it.

I got a motel room, a news paper and a burger and started plotting my course.  The first thing I looked for was a job.  There was an ad in the paper for a carpenters helper.  It didn’t start you off very well but it did say that the pay rate was dependant on what you could show them that you could do.  I got a good nights sleep and was at their door at 6:30 a.m.  I didn’t know the ad had just come out that very day I got the paper.  I was hired by 7:30.

I was on my way!!  They told me what time to be back in the morning and introduced me to the guy I would be working with.  He was a pretty nice guy and we got along great the whole week we worked together.  He stuck me on every odd job he could find just to see what I could do.  I must have passed the test because I got a $5 an hour raise the next week.  I felt like I was on top of the world.