Waiting for the Tioli's Bailout Check

On my sister's blog she has a post entitled "Passing on the Joy," which I first took as "Taking a pass on the joy." I don't much like Christmas, and this one has been more challenging than most stress-wise.

Besides what I've already written about in previous posts, we've had economic difficulties to contend with. Our sales for the year are down almost 20%. Doesn't sound too bad till you figure that amounts to over $132,000.00. (We're down $13,000 just for the month of December so far). For a mom-and-pop-shop, that's a lot of bill paying power that we've had to do without, to the dismay of our creditors.

Some of the creditors are making appropriate adjustments to our accounts, extending terms, going interest-only, and so forth. Others are quite a bit less understanding, threatening all manner of legal action and leg breaking (well, maybe not leg breaking). It's stressful to talk to the well trained collectors, they know all the answers. We default to: "We're trying to stay out of bankruptcy, if you push, we'll go down and you get nothing, if you're patient, you'll get paid."

So you might be expecting us to take a pass on the joy. We're not though. We're happy and grateful. We've risked everything we own, all our savings, our house, our cars, our investments. Worse case scenario: We lose all our stuff and have to start over. We get to keep the things that really matter, though, not to put too Pollyannaish a spin on it all. And that's enough. And besides, when you're okay with the worst case, what can anybody do to you?