It feels sort of anticlimactic, after all of the turmoil and stress it took to write the bid up, but this morning, my next three years’ worth of future was casually approved in a Board of Supervisors meeting.

I sort of knew it would be, as I was the only bidder, and they can’t very well not cover this system. I was feeling fairly superstitious for the last month about assuming that I’d got it. I had plans in my head about how I was going to move on with this next phase of things, but I hadn’t acted on any yet. The most I’ve done is a little window-shopping for a service truck, without any looking in person. I had no contingency plans at all for catching myself if they turned me down.

But it’s all good. I gave myself a little raise, much of which will be eaten up by the new truck. I’m growing out of my pickup, and it will be promoted to my personal vehicle, with maybe a business trip or two in its future. The rest of the raise is going to be squirrelled away into the house fund. I’ve been working on year-to-year contracts for more than ten years now, and that’s not a very stable platform from which to jump into a mortgage. Three years confirmed, now, that’s a little better. Unfortunately, lenders are a little conservative about handing large chunks of money to the self-employed, and want to see two years’ worth of receipts (last I heard) before they’ll take that chance. Which is fine; I can wait and save up a down payment in the next year and a half. And I probably won’t be applying alone then either.

I suppose now that they’re paying me all of this money to run the water system, that I should go get back to work. I’d like to stay employed, after all.