Just got my Ancestry workup back, and… no surprises.
Just my mom and dad’s Generic Western European “ethnicity”.
I’m so disappointed.
There’s always been a family legend that we had Jewish ancestors (and we have a probably-Jewish surname). Nope.
And that rumor about an island off Scotland? Sorry.
And no African, no Aboriginal, no Native Anything in the mix, not even the Danes that my grandma claimed descent from.
Just plain vanilla, when I was hoping for some rocky road.
It doesn’t take very long for the interesting ancestry to get diulted to undetectable. My father is 3% Arab. I’m 0%. The DNA tests are unambiguous that he’s my genetic parent, but the strings that identify that ancestry are too short by the time they get to me.
Which is the main reason I’d like to dig up my great-grandparents and have their DNA tested. Unfortunately, this is not as easy as it sounds.
Yeah, but why’s it have to be my blood?
We are experiencing Chigger Summer in my part of Kentucky. Never had a problem with the six-legged wingless Trombiculae before, but after experiencing numerous lower extremity itchy bites I finally figured it out.
With judicious use of Deep Woods Off and always wearing socks and shoes when venturing onto the lawn and into the garden I think I’ve gained the upper hand on the little monsters, for now.
At least the ticks and mosquitoes are having a subpar season.
Exactly.
It’s like the parable of the pig and the chicken discussing breakfast.
You gotta show commitment, not mere interest, in your DIY.
The reason pros don’t bleed on their projects is for them it’s just work. Some interest; no commitment.
Several years ago, I woke up one day with blisters on both lower extremities. Most were small, dime-sized, but some on my ankles were the size of quarters. I went to an urgent care facility and the doctor had no idea what caused them. She just told me not to pop them.
After much internet searching, I found the cause. My workplace was in a wooded area and there was a mass of blackberry bushes on one edge. The day before I had picked a bucket of blackberries after work. Chiggers love to hang out in those bushes. Lesson learned.
I’ve known for years that the lawn at my in-laws house was a chigger haven, and always avoided grassy areas if possible. I’ve never had much of a problem in my own yard, but holy crap – a few weeks ago I was out pulling weeds, and a day or two later my legs were just covered in chigger bites. I quit counting at thirty while I was putting anti-itch cream on before bed.
I’m working on a Sunday. Not cool. On a grant I have zero faith in that I resent having to write at the last minute.
My beloved Wee Weasel has started doing this thing where he bursts into our bedroom crying in the middle of the night. It’s usually Numberwang. This morning he launched himself onto my bed screaming, “Blue bead! Blue bead!” There’s always something he’s trying to do with his toys that’s not quite perfect and he freaks out. Spouse Weasel indulges this by getting up and helping him resolve the issue, which in my opinion makes it worse, so that’s gonna be a conversation. I slept better when my son was an infant. Seriously.
I’ve been kept waiting for long periods of time on a number of occasions, and waiting with my late wife for her appointments on even more, and nearly all the time I’ve been okay with it. After much trial and error we found doctors who were willing to listen to us, and that came with the territory of them being willing to listen to other patients as well, which put them behind. But it was better than the alternative.
That being said, there was one doctor I did “fire” in part because of scheduling. I arrived for an appointment to be told that the doctor was running two hours late. Two hours! I suggested that since I lived close by I would go home and come back. The person in charge of the office explained that I would lose my appointment altogether if I did that. I asked why. I didn’t get a good answer. I then suggested that it would have been nice to have gotten a call from the office when it became clear that the doctor was running that far behind. The person in charge explained that they didn’t do that kind of thing. I asked why not. I didn’t get a good answer. I left and eventually found a different doctor (to be fair, I had some concerns about this guy’s treatment of me already). I can forgive a lot, but this was just ridiculous.
Just saw this. What a stupid process.
I’m at the beginning of the whole SS spousal survivor benefit thing, so I read your account with particular interest. (And dismay.) It took being on hold for over two hours over parts of two days last week before I finally got ahold of a person. Once I did, the person I reached was extremely knowledgeable and helpful, and it became clear to me during the course of the conversation that I will be best off waiting to apply for spouse survivor benefits till 2027 or possibly later.
So I’m certainly grateful for the information.
But not looking forward to trying to claim what is rightfully mine in about four years (or maybe more)…
Good luck. Hope it works out, and with a minimum of fuss and feathers.
I had a similar experience the first time. And after all that waiting I got an idiot who told me bad info; good thing I was more knowledgeable than she and knew it was BS. So I didn’t actually proceed with anything for her; just thanked her for her advice & hung up.
The second time I tried I called at the instant they open: 8am eastern. I was on hold about 3 minutes and got somebody who was fresh as a daisy and, as I said above, totally expert. Worked great.
You might keep that trick in mind.
Sorry to hear about your wife. That can’t have been easy. {{Brotherly hug}}.
If you are still working and make any sort of reasonable wage, waiting until you quit working is by far the smart move. My wife died a bit over 2 years ago and I’m only now applying for survivor’s benefits because I’m only now retiring from my W2 job. I’ll ride on her benefits from now until I turn 70, then claim my much larger ones.
The only situation I know of where claiming benefits while you’re still working might make sense is if you had dependent(s). And I don’t know enough about that situation to provide advice; I only know it might make a difference in your planning if it applied to you.
My unrelated mini-rant:
Get off work late and start the car just before midnight. Got about halfway home and signs say “Freeway closed 2 miles ahead at [exit]. Use detour.” Great. Lotta construction on this freeway, and late night closures are not unusual. Me being on that freeway at that hour is thankfully rare though. Oh bother.
Yep, we all get funneled off an offramp. With no signs at the top about what to do next, or where we can later rejoin the freeway. Cars going every which way and everybody antsy. Or drunk / wasted. Gee thanks, FDOT.
Clean out the garage!!! Or let me do it!!!
I am tired of hearing ‘that was my grandmother’s’. It is irrelevant.
She is dead. Accept it.
Getting rid of her stuff is not dishonoring her memory. Storing it in the garage with the dust and spiders is not honoring her memory.
She will not be hurt if you get rid of it. If she exists on another spiritual plane, she will NOT be caring about the state of her meager belongings on this plane. SHE DOES NOT CARE. And you don’t like the stuff. You are only aware of it when I ask if I can get rid of it to make some room in the chaos that is our garage.
Second month in a row, kid needs to borrow the rent. This does not bode well for the future.
Slight amendment if I may …
This does not bode well for
thehis/her future.
The impact on your future is up to you, not to them or their landlord or their job or …
Back when I was having trouble getting rid of ‘inherited’ things, I started taking pictures of things before sending them to Goodwill or the trash. It helped. I can’t say I’ve looked at the pictures, much, but they’re digital and available on my computer. They don’t take up any space at all.
That helped me a lot too.
That’s a good idea. And you could tell Fear Of Closure spouse that you’re taking them to Goodwill, and if either of you decide you really need it back, it’ll be on the shelves there in a week.
May not be with Goodwill, but I’ve taken so many books to our local bookshop that I do see them months later (and think “Hey, that’s a great book! I should buy… oh, oops.”).
AT&T’s refund processing SUCKS.
We paid the phone / internet fees on the condo we just sold, for over a month, before we sold it. The final bill was just 3-4 days before we turned off service entirely. So, we overpaid to the tune of over 90 bucks.
They issued a refund well over a month later. Not to the source the payment was made from (which was our credit card). But by mailing it to the address on record - which meant it got forwarded via USPS to my sister-in-law’s house.
She sent it to us - which puzzled me, as we couldn’t cash a check made out to my in-laws. Turns out, it was a prepaid credit card for an odd amount. OK… best way to deal with those, we’ve found, is just add 'em to our Amazon account and send ourselves a gift card for that amount.
Tried to activate it online. Website (not AT&T) refused to respond.
Called the number. It didn’t like the ZIP code I put in - likely I just took too long. This routed me to a human.
Who asked my name. I said “so and so, on behalf of so and so, who is deceased.”.
Agent: “Is the account holder available?”.
Me: “No. He’s in an urn on a mantelpiece”.
Well this meant they could NOT activate the card, but instead had to mail a check to his estate.
I pointed out that nobody was at the address on record. So he took down my SIL’s address. And maybe, in 2-3 weeks, she’ll have a check made out to “the estate of …” and maybe she’ll be able to deposit it into my in-laws’ joint account.
Sadly, it’s too late for me to just do a chargeback on my credit card for the amount in question.
They really do NOT want to give anyone that money back.
So in a few weeks, my
It’s 4:45 am and I’ve been awake since 2:00. And tonight I have a red-eye flight. This does not bide well for the next few days.
And I still to finish packing, including all the unexpected* gifts.
Shipping, not packing, is the best solution for excess gifts. Yes, doing that internationally is expensive, slow, and hassle-ish. But often easier than struggling with too many overloaded and over-heavy suitcases at airport(s).