This is the first article that I've wrote since our re-incorporation as 490 Outreach! The name change had to do with some trademark issues of the last name, but this name is un-trademarked, fully available, and as of Friday the 31st of March, ours according to the Secretary of State, for the State of Illinois! (Watching our bank account, the fee for this was removed by the SoS yesterday, and that's Secretary of State!)
We got the name from Matthew 18:22, where Jesus is letting his disciples know that you don't just forgive a man once, or even seven times, but rather seven times seventy times. And in the rehab business, that is only barely enough times. That is due to an alcoholic/addicts facility for hitting rock bottom - then breaking out a pick ax and digging to a new bottom, knows no bounds.
I've known some you'd think could not go down any lower, but before you know it, they're going to be tunneling down so far that they'll come back up the other side speaking Mandarin! And if you wonder how I can know that, or if I exaggerate, then all I can say is, "Ni hao!"
What to share today? Well, the good news is the electrical work proceeding apace, that's been a big help. Shout out to Garvey Rice and also Brian Davis! To date we've two more lights and two more outlets and more to come! Also, the box is generally safer than previously, and that's a big plus.
We also got more of the ceiling in the basement, and that has made it look a bit nicer. Thank you to guest Rich for the donation of scrap drywall from his contracting work and the labor of he and guest Armandos in putting it up!
On the other hand, we sometimes feel down, as if no matter how hard we try, we aren't really getting through to the guests. Maybe it's the fifth time opening the door of the sober living home and smelling the smoke and seeing the energy drink cans with ashes on them. They know better then to use ashtrays since I started throwing them out. Or maybe one of them using an electrical heater when we insist on them just using the gas furnace which more than adequately heats the whole house. (Our electric bills would frighten you. I know they frighten us.)
Or maybe it's when for the seventh week running a guest doesn't have a program fee. The day before the fee was due again, the basement she was staying in flooded. Three inches worth. Fortunately I was able to move all her stuff to the shed for safe storage. When she finds another place, I'll deliver it. She found another place immediately, at least temporarily.
I was talking with her boyfriend today. He asked if she came up with the past due by next Wednesday, could she move back in. Well for one, I said, I wasn't sure if the basement would be cleaned up by then. For two, given that she hadn't been able to come up with the fee for a month and a half when everything was given to her, I wasn't sure how she'd be able to do so now.
This was my polite way of saying "no". As he was aware of some of her rule violations, some he knew that I knew of, others he didn't think I knew of, he was fine with that. I've not heard from her other boyfriend yet.
Truth is, the basement will be ready again by the end of next week. The back up was not due to any structural defect but by someone placing a ping pong ball in the drain hole of the basement. And stuffing a sock down in there after it. And then placing the drain top which is meant to fit loosely on it - but putting a rug over that so it fit firmly.
Can't imagine what could go wrong there. But I've learned from experience that if there is a new and whacky way to do something that will mess things up, and yet still not violate any rule you wrote down, a guest will find it. I guess I need a "don't put a sock down the sewage outflow pipe, then a ping pong ball, then make sure it's jammed in good" rule.
Well, gloves, shoes I'll never wear again, rolled up jeans, a steak fork I'll never use again and a paint handle I might use again after a lot of rinsing off, and the aid of my wife, we got it. Remarkable what you can do when you don't have an electric eel, a plumbing license or any skill at all, but your own home depends upon it!
I got the sock out. My wife got the ping pong ball out. Time will fade our disgust. One does what one must.
Then we both went upstairs and washed our hands and took turns showering (our laundry is on the first floor so that was handy.) What an ordeal. But was it enough?
We went back downstairs, like two kids slowing easing into a haunted house, not sure what will jump out at us....
...and the water had gone down! No more three inches of water! Soaked rugs, but already our basement, which we had known to be a dry basement, was already drying out! I gloved up again, got all the old rugs out, did the whole laundry and shower thing again, all before 5pm! What a day!
Sunday will be some time for cleaning. And spraying. I have a sprayer with a gallon of bleach in it, and don't worry, I diluted it with...another gallon of bleach! I've a new mop, too. And clean rags. And disinfectant. Come Sunday, I'm ready for action!
So that's bad news - a flood due to a guest being weird - turning into good news! Problem guest moved out, basement to get a thorough cleaning, then be ready for two male guests. (We swore we'd never have a female guest again last time, but sometimes it's hard to say "no".) The next time will be male guests, though.
Besides then that good news, even better was the visit we had earlier this week from the Parole Department. We had a guest here last summer who'd been doing real well, clean and sober, working regular, doing everything he was supposed to do. Regrettably, as is so often the case with recovering alcoholics/addicts, he had a lingering charge against him that he had to arrange a plea and do some time for.
Admirably, instead of running like I've sadly seen some do before, he faced it, went to his court dates with an attorney that he had hired from his wages (our fees are so low that he could afford a pretty good attorney since he could throw 90% plus of his check at him each month!) and negotiated a sentence that has him out...with good behavior and all...and time served....
...this June! It hadn't been sure, but yet, he is getting out, and the Parole guys were over to look over the place and go over the requirements for his early release. It'll involve us having to get a landline phone installed, but that's fine. Once out, we know he can get back on track like he did before. We've kept in touch with his girlfriend, and he'll have a good support network when he's released.
Her and us!
We tend to have a 10 to 20 percent success rate, and we know that he can be one - and will be one! So we had been sad that he had to do that time. Honestly, I had wished there was a "ombudsman" for criminals so I could appeal to him and say, "He used to be bad, he used to deserve this, but it would do him no good now!" But accepting punishment for previous actions while an active addict is part of being a recovering addict, so that's okay.
What other good news? There's our business cards! Those are all done! And looking good! Oh, and best of all?
I heard from the Chamber, they want to do a long quote of a testimonial I had wrote on what membership in the Chamber of Commerce means to me! It will be in their magazine "Update"! With my picture! Now, really, I don't care how anyone cuts that, that's "arrived"!
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