Duelist-Im glad you got to put in a few hours recently. Im still praying that you (and all the other furloughed people) can go back to full time real soon.
--I have been working many many hours lately, which is nice compared to my lay off this spring.
>>>>Chitlins, you didnt need to explain. I was basically just commenting on a previous post, AND just trying to have a little fun with ya. I do understand though, I have a mechanic Dad and a mechanic Son. Son and I did all the work on my Jeep in his garage, I did all of it while I was laid off, only cost about $300 in parts. Just for kicks though I had him roughly figure the repair in shop time. Well shop rates are $110 hour, We spent close to 25 hours in total so You can do the math there. --- In other words. YES you certainly save money doing repairs yourself (when you can). However Im sorry if I offended you at all, I certainly wasnt trying to do that. I think it is wonderful that you can do things with the family.
I dont get the chance to do much anymore. My wife no longer works, so its just me bringin home the bacon now. She babysits, but its like pulling teeth to get money for that these days. We dont ever get a whole week off anymore. No way you could get 5 sets of parents to take the same week off, especially since 3 of them work in the same place (only 4 workers there anyway, no way 3 could leave the same week). I get 3 weeks, but generally in the spring I use up 2 weeks because we get slow at work in spring. The other week I take (usually) on various Mondays. We go to Branson on those weekends since wife usually dont babysit on Mondays. (And wouldnt you know it), Im off on Fridays, the day she usually has all 7 kids.
Anyway we still plan on getting 2014 passes. It is really the only "get away" we get. BTW: That is also why we like our little camper. We have a fav. campground that is only 1 hour away from home. Makes a real nice Saturday getaway. Branson is 3 hours away, sometimes that is just too far, sometimes it is perfect