Recent developments

Recently Jennifer and I have been really trying to step out and find a place of our own.  This is a little nerve racking because we barely make enough money to cover what little financial responsibilities we have.  The thought of adding another $350 a month (minimum) is a little intimidating.  Having said that, we know we need to do it.  We’ve been married for 20 months and have yet to live on our own.

In New Zealand, we were living in a flatting situation.  When we decided to start making a move towards getting our own place, we found out Jennifer was pregnant and the decision was made to move to the US. With that in mind, we stayed in the flat until we left New Zealand to save money.

When we arrived here, we stayed with Cindy for about two months, then we lived with Bill for about five months, after which we moved back to Cindy’s, which is where we’ve been for the last four and a half months.

So we’ve been looking around a little bit.  Jennifer was down at the store when someone who happened to be a real estate agent mentioned that there is a trailer on sale in Bonnyman for $11,000, land and all.  That’s right, I said $11,000!  At the moment we’re thinking very hard about getting it because we could have a loan of that size taken care of within 10 years.  We need to go down and take a look at the place so we know exactly what we’re dealing with. We want to make sure that we aren’t going to buy a lemon that’s planted on a square foot of land. It’s very likely that we’ll try to get the place because either way, the loan payment will be quite low.  We’re hoping to work on a package that might absorb some of our other debts, which will ease a little bit of our financial burden.

Another thing that is sitting just on the horizon, is the very REAL possibility of Jennifer taking over the store full time.  This is both exciting and terrifying.  Bill is currently in the process of getting involved in building and operating a bar somewhere in Northern Tennessee, with his girlfriend, Brenda, and some other guy from down in Tennessee.  

This would be great for us, because it would essentially mean Jennifer will have a full time job and we would get some of the profits from the store as well.  Even better, Jennifer would be able to develop the business and tailor it to her liking, which would be great for her.  We often talk about ideas we think would really help get more people through the doors and make sales, so we’re quietly hoping that this all unfolds the way we hope it will.

What makes this all terrifying is that my capacity to work will be severely limited.  Having said that, the longer I bowl, the more I want to be involved in the industry in some way. I would love to learn how to run a pro shop and drill balls and really learn about how to lay a ball out to achieve a specific reaction, on a specific condition type, for a specific bowler.  The whole idea gets me excited.  The next step from there would be actually owning and operating a bowling center.  At the moment, this is all a dream, but it’s something I really want to do.  Over the next year or two, I really want to make moves towards learning how to run a pro shop, and I’ll go from there.

Watch this space…