The Eagle has landed

I have an apartment.

It's on the disreputable side of town (such as that is here -- I don't live in a really big city, so even the bad side of town isn't as bad as it would be somewhere else.)  It has one bedroom (which I will give to the boys when they are with me, and sleep in the living room).  I don't have any of the utilities turned on yet, so it's going to be a day or two until I can really move in (maybe the weekend).

But the monthly rent is half what our mortgage is.  Right now I am still paying the mortgage too, for "our" house where Wife is living -- I agreed to that in the short term in lieu of interim spousal support.  Or maybe "agreed" isn't quite the right word.  It would be more accurate to say that I told Wife that's what she was getting from me; then when she complained, I pointed out that for me to pay the mortgage was already twice what any court in the state would award her, so she could damned well live with it or else sue me and get a worse deal in exchange.  Maybe finally, after decades, she'll have some motivation to rein in her spending.  (Sorry, where was I?  Oh, right.)  

Anyway, I have stopped paying any share of the house's other bills.  And it looks like we might be able to sell the damned house itself for enough to clear our debts -- including even the crazy credit card debt Wife has been running up over the last couple years -- and have a little bit left over.  Maybe enough to pay for another year of the boys' schooling.  Or at least I can hope.

It's progress.  I suppose I should be glad of Wife's tantrum a week and a half ago, because it got me off my ass and into the real estate market.  And staying with Debbie in the interim has been very sweet, even though we've both had stuff to do so we haven't been able to sit and coo at each other.  It's been very much "normal time" and not "special time".

It's still been sweet.