Lovely, a great rainy sky to welcome me to this new day. Perhaps it was to serve as a sign of the direction in which the day would go, or perhaps things would turn around. Maybe.

I got a wakeup call today at about five til 8. My wonderful girlfriend was waking me up an hour ahead of time as I had a customer who needed a switchout. Yes, I asked my loving partner to ring me ahead of my normal time of waking so that I could serve a customer bright and early. Thus is the life of myself, and many other people employed by the business known as "Rent To Own."

Not too bad, I normally open my store at around 10 o'clock, so I figured if I took care of this customer at 9, I'd have plenty of time to make it to the office. The customer in question was in need of a different mattress, some service on her rail supports, and a repair of a knob on her dresser. Didn't sound like too much. I got to my store, well actually its my parents' store, but I run the damn thing, so I'll just call it mine. Regardless, I got to my store at about 9:05. That should give me plenty of time to packup a new mattress and head out to the customer's house. As I open, I check our mail; lots of bills and a payment from an out of town customer. That's always encouraging. Trips 30 miles out put a drag on us so its good to have people who actually pay. As I step in to my humble store, I notice an envelope. Inside is a check for $150 from a past due customer. The check is post-dated, and is only half of the amount the customer was committed for, but in this business, sometimes we take what we can get. Walking toward my desk, I grin, and notice our leaky roof has left me a soaked carpet, and a puddle of water in front of the area where my customers normally stand. Obviously a sign of great things to come.

After cursing a few times due to my leak, I loaded up the new mattress for the customer. After grabbing a few pieces of hardware and tools, I head over to her house. The service call doesn't take too long. I notice that the bolts on her rails are all lose, so I give them a good tightening. I wish I could say the same about the handle off the dresser. That thing must have been made of aluminum, as I managed to completely break off the remaining piece. Luckily, I had the same bedroom set in inventory, so I assured the customer I would have it taken care of today. I left her home, feeling better about the day, hoping for the best.

Several hundred dollars later, (I know it sounds small but so are we and that's what we bring in), I found myself going over run sheets and trying to obtain committments for the upcoming weekend. I managed a few, but also had to schedule a pickup. Finally, I get some help to empty the buckets I used to collect the water which seeped through my roof. Someday our landlord will fix it, I swear. A bit later, my father and owner of the business arrived to make a delivery for me and continue collections and make the pickup I'd scheduled. I spent the rest of the day trying to get ahold of a customer who sent a post-dated check (we get a lot of these don't we?) for next month. The sly woman did not answer, but she will hear from me tomorrow.

We're looking ok for the month. We finished the day bringing six accounts up to date, paying out one, and closing out two. Doesn't sound all that great, and its raining again as I conclude this. I guess all I can do is hope for better tomorrow. Sometimes that's all we can do.