peedin, sage, thank you for the kind words. Miss Butter was the most personable of the pasture pets, but we still have one mini horse left, and a donkey, so I’ve been spending more time with them. It’s something we should have made more time for all along. That’s how I’m going to find a silver lining in this.
Mini rant: I keep getting ads claiming Tennessee candidate Phil Bredesen wants to cancel my employer-provided health insurance.
Um… Good? Because the American health care industry is a massively corrupt goddamn scam? And a disaster so unique that nobody else in the civilized world has to put up with it? And I have the best health insurance in America anyway?
I can’t comprehend what target demographic they think I belong in. It makes me laugh that they’re trying to tell me this is a ‘Con’ when in fact I view it as a ‘Pro.’
Yeah, I’m seeing ads from KS-3 where Sharice Davis is being accused of the same thing (in this case, she wants to make it illegal). Not mentioned is it would be replaced with some form of single-payer. And of course, some people probably would end up with worse coverage.
Of course, the bill shouldn’t (and presumably doesn’t) make it illegal/force cancellation. It should just sign everyone up for single payer and remove the tax deduction for the employer sponsored plans. I would imagine that 99% of them will go away on their own if that happens.
And wouldn’t need to remove the tax deduction, because most employers would drop their plans anyway.
A ‘bear’ is specifically a state trooper because a lot of the troopers in the US wear a Smokey the Bear hat.
You also have the County Mountie and Local Yokel.
I lived in a rental place where the landlord kept sending this truly horrible man, I think a friend of his because he was utterly incompetent, over to do all repair work. Not only did he -repeatedly- let himself in without notice or knocking, which is illegal under UK law, at one point he was supposed to be repairing and painting the fence, and decided, as it was raining too much to paint, to just dig up all my flowers while waiting for the rain to stop. They weren’t in the way of anything, there was no reason in the world for him to be doing it. I went out and yelled at him, he got really angry, said how the hell was he supposed to know they’d been planted, he thought they were weeds (he was digging up a pink geranium in full flower) so he was doing me a favour, so I should shut up and be grateful. I was in my pyjamas recovering from back surgery at the time, which is pretty much the only reason I didn’t go punch him. He also once let himself in to my bedroom while I was out, when he was supposed to be painting the outside wall.
In retrospect, I should probably have phoned the police and tried to get him banned from the premises. It was the first place I’d rented, so I didn’t realise how unusually bad it was.
More up-to-date minirant: I had a favourite stovetop espresso pot, had it for years but the rubber seal had got old and leaky. Couldn’t find any replacement seal except one costing more than the pot, so I’d stopped using it.
Then last week, on holiday, I found a pack of the exact right seals, same size, same make (plus replacement filter thingy) in an Italian supermarket. Triumphantly bought it, bought it back home, went to get the espresso pot out the cupboard I thought I’d put it in, and… it’s not there. Can’t find it anywhere.
I was sure I’d bought it with me last time I moved, but I’ve now looked everywhere it could even faintly sensibly be and there’s no sign. Bah.
Today would have been a good day to stay in bed.
Water Heater? Leaking
Furnace? No workie.
The TiVO ate it’s hard drive
Still not enough blood in the caffeine stream. Procrit doubled. Ouch.
Went to Lowe’s to get a furnace filter. You would think I climbed out of my encounter suit when I asked for one 19" x27.75".
The good news is I ordered a Cylon to clean my floors. What could possibly go wrong?
Went to (part of) a ballgame last nite for work-related reasons. Even though we didn’t stay the entire game because of rain, still feel like crud this morning. Headache coming on, sore throat coming on, everything feels somewhat off. And the allergy remnants from a pregame stopoff at a House 'O Cats has left my eyes dry like the Sahara.
I’m sure I’ll be a joy to be around in today’s meetings.
This mornings joy started with a early call from the nephrologists office, they want me to see the hematologist, so I had to call my GP for the referral. 3 blankets compensated for the lack of heat last night.
The thing about depression is, it’s treatable. And it gets better.
Except when it’s not. And when it doesn’t.
I wish people would stop pretending that that’s never the case.
The hope that it is treatable and that it will get better is what some people need to keep going. To keep going to therapy, to keep taking their medicine, to keep going on living. I can’t tell if hope helped when I was in the pit but it help when I start feeling the darkness closing in.
I have an anti-rant surrounded in bitterness. I have been paying my student loans religiously for 7 years. I have worked hard and missed only one payment. My interest rates on my private loans were creeping up and and up and up and I decided to try again to consolidate/refinance my loans. In the past, I couldn’t refinance because credit wasn’t good enough and my debt to income ratio wasn’t low enough. (Btw, the reason my debt to income ratio wasn’t low enough was because my student loan payments are FREAKING EXPENSIVE!).
But, finally, after much work and toil and not really feeling like I’m making a dent, I have been approved for a consolidation loan for my terrible private student loans. A giant weight is being lifted off my chest. A weight that was only there because of down right exploitative practices. (My highest interest rate crept up to 13% this year. 13%. I know I signed up for this when I got the only loan I could which ended up having a variable rate but, damn!)
I realized a week ago that my school and property taxes are nearly 10% of my GROSS income.
I knew they were high, but oh my og, that’s … high. It makes it difficult to save.
A 13% interest rate sounds fucking predatory. 
Petty office rant of the day: the person responsible for this month’s safety inspection of the office area has decided that visible computer cords are a violation of the “housekeeping” requirement. No, not cords that cross over walking areas and create a trip hazard, or visibly deteriorated cords…this person doesn’t like that so many cords are visible when the back of a person’s desk is facing the door to their office. 
Why is it in the 80s with humidity in the 60s at the end of September? This better be the last of this type of shit.
Hey, if one of you smart folks would like to make a million dollars, please invent something that will keep eyeglass hinges from catching single hairs and breaking or pulling them out. I think it would be really keen if such a thing existed.
My son saw an ophthalmologist yesterday, and he says that there is no optic nerve pallor. However, he also wants to do surgery to correct slightly crossed eyes. We’re going to try vision therapy for a bit first, but I am so relieved about the lack of pallor that I can’t even get super concerned about the surgery yet.
That’s wonderful news! 
One day at a time - hopefully the therapy will do the trick, and he won’t need surgery at all.
Crossing appendages on the therapy and on the kid’s general health.
This referencing Christine Ford & Kavanaugh. It is very rare for me to get angry at arseholes on the internet, normally I just regard them with cynicism. Occasionally bait them until they get banned from whereever they are spewing their bile. I don’t often get riled up.
But this guy has two daughters. I wonder how he would feel if they were “sqeezed”.
I want to find him and punch his fucking face in.
Decided to take a look into the GD thread about FoxNews today. I powered through page 1 and skimmed page 43, whereupon my Muse of Ranting didst provide inspiration for the following:
I Filed For Divorce 3 Months After My Wedding Day
Why is this whiny-ass, deluded crap on a fucking news site. Hell, did these people know each other at all???