A mutant variety of the measles virus can invade the brain. I’m wondering if there is a new mutation that is less destructive to the brain, but takes over and makes people think measles isn’t a big deal. It would explain a lot.
On other days, I say that of course antivaxers sympathize with brainless viruses that exist as parasites on others. They have so much in common, after all.
Heh. I have Asperger’s and ADHD and am no stranger to depression. It’s like when I’m not completely apathetic I worry about inconsequential shit.
Anyway - I looked cute and was comfortable and we had a great time.
What kind of Subaru do you have? I’ve replaced my front headlight on my Outback before and all I did was pop the hood and go through there. Of course, mine’s a 2001 so they’ve probably complicated it since then.
I have officially lost all patience with every-damn-body in my whole fucking house. Tony is helpless and grumpy. Girl 2.0 has a broken foot, and won’t listen when I tell her to wear the damned walking cast, because she’s gonna kill herself with the crutches. The little girls are destructive and loud and messy and annoying. The Spare Girl seems to think that all matters must be discussed with Tony, despite the fact that Tony is gonna have to ask me for the answer (example - location of boxes in the storage unit, how to fix bathroom clog, etc.) The Spare Mom seems to have some notion that creeping around the house trying to “stay out of my way” is somehow preferable to just being part of the family. And the damned dogs won’t quit barking at the neighbor doing yardwork.
Okay, Boy 2.0 hasn’t gotten on my last nerve yet. He’s my ally, and my biggest help around the house. He finishes his junior year of high school tomorrow, and will be gone before I can blink my eyes, and I don’t know what the hell I’m gonna do without him. He’s practical, and sensible, and gets shit done. I honestly think that he’s changed his college plans just to stay close enough to continue helping me as needed (not living at home, but attending the hometown university.) I hate that, even though it’s a good university and we can afford to send him there an all. I just don’t want him to feel obligated to me when it ought to be the other way 'round.
Also, the insurance company rep has turned into a giant wanker. Two years and one day after Tony’s wreck, workers comp started contesting every effing thing that the doctor recommends. I sincerely think that someone in the county’s HR department has something to do with this. But the HR rep doesn’t seem to understand that our attorney filed paperwork reserving the right to sue the county. (Statute limits us to a two year window to file suit. But apparently the attorney knew better than we did. That’s why she gets paid the big bucks.) I’m at the point of thinking that will be necessary. Tony remains to be convinced, but he isn’t getting better, and I don’t foresee him being able to return to a physically demanding job as a deputy sheriff/dog handler. I hate this.
Is it time to run away from home yet?
Speaking of insurance wankery…just how in the hell does one go about canceling home and auto insurance policies??? I made damn sure I had the replacement policies in place before contacting my agent’s office by phone. I was informed that I needed to submit a notice of cancellation to them listing the policies to be canceled and the effective date of the replacement policies. I have emailed them and snail mailed them, with no response. :mad: I had an easier time canceling cable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ann Hedonia View Post
Oh God, this week sucked
It’s my brother in North Carolina, calling with the news that my family home , where I grew up and where he and my 89 year old mom and my niece live, just burned to the ground, killing the dog. .
An update…a long one
So I went and spent the week before Memorial Day with my family. Mom is a total wreck – she is trying so hard to cope and deal with everything and she can’t and she breaks down every 10 minutes. It tears my heart to pieces.
When I was down visiting I felt like nothing was getting done. We looked at a few houses that came up short. Then Mom would decide she needed 2 or 3 random items ……….one day it was an electric toothbrush, spiral notebooks and bedroom slippers…… and I would spend most of the day driving her around and helping her through the painfully slow process of finding these things. She is very particular and wouldn’t let me just go out and buy them for her. It was an extremely frustrating week.
Anyway, it was the week before Memorial Day and I assumed the insurance people were doing their work. Mom had 2 phone numbers, one for the insurance claim and one for someone that was supposed to find them furnished housing until our house can be rebuilt. They also suggested that we look for ourselves and then give their housing agent the address of the property and she would negotiate it. They had this we do everything, you don’t have to do anything !! spiel.
Herein lies my rant
So I came back home to New York on Monday and spent Tuesday and a Wednesday trying to with this housing agent. Further conversations revealed the following.
They were not a division of State Farm as my Mom had been lead to believe. They were a separate company.
Their Idea of “taking care of everything” consisted of finding addresses on Zillow and attempting to negotiate a 3 month lease. If they succeeded then YOU had to go see the property, pass all credit and background checks, pay the application fee and sign a lease. The three month thing was especially absurd as there is no way our house will fixed in less than six months. The honest truth is that if a rental property is empty and they’ll take a 3 month lease then the property sucks.
Then they would rent you a houseful of furniture and housewares (they “work with” local companies. )
They take care of all rent and furniture payments and bill your insurance company – for God knows how much. And our “Additional Living Expenses” benefit has a fixed maximum.
When I realized this I was raging outraged mad furious. This was last night – I was literally fuming so hard I couldn’t sleep a wink. I was up all night with smoke pouring out of my ears waiting for business hours to arrive.
So far today I have:
Had a long talk with our insurance agent, in which I expressed my concern with the whole 3 month lease thing and got her to agree to a 6 month lease. I also informed her of my intent to fire the housing relocation company.
Told the housing relocation company that I no longer required their services.
Called a rental housing development that I had already scoped out because they have a selection of appropriate vacant houses and routinely offer 6 month leases. I arranged for my Mom to come over and pick a house.
Got the preliminary monthly estimates for rent and furniture rental costs and gave them to the insurance agent – they were instantly accepted with some surprise ( probably because most people use the scammy relocation service and she’s used to their inflated pricing. )
Filled out an application for the rental house my Mom picked out.
Searched for a good furniture rental company. I finally found one that specializes in furnishing temporary apartments instead of one of the Rent-To-Own type places – there was a tremendous price disparity —the Rent-to-Own places wanted $125 a month for a couch, the place I picked gave me complete furniture for Living, Dining and Master Bedroom for $175 a month. I also got rental pricing on all dishes, sheets, towels , pots and pans, utensils, a washer/dryer, and vacuum cleaner.
Had a conference call with reps from UPS and Amazon regarding the computer I ordered from Mom last week which disappeared en-route. The conference call wasn’t a big deal but if you’ve dealt with either company you can probably imagine what I went through to get to the point were I got a phone conference with 2 actual USA based customer service reps at the same time.
Hopefully I can sign a lease tomorrow for June 1st and get furniture and housewares delivered on June 2nd or 3rd. I’m going to let my family go out and buy their replacement TV sets – it’ll give them something somewhat fun to do.
So, apparently I can be productive as long as I am 700 miles away. At least I finally feel like things are getting done.
Are we really really really sure the floods in Texas aren’t God’s punishment for Chuck Norris, Rick Perry and Ted Cruz?
Blasphemer!!! Chuck Norris is a god!
Lacunae Matata Toy have been a saint through this whole ordeal. By this time, I would have tossed spare girl and spare mom out. I’m serious, they sound worse than my Tony and I’d never even consider sharing living space with him.
Ann Hedonia I didn’t send sympathy when I first read about the house fire and dog dying because I didn’t have words. I don’t have them now, all I can do is send internet prayers. Horrible, terrible things have happened, but you are doing a really good job at dealing with it. I admire your strength and resourcefulness. Thank goodness that you are able to help the way you are.
It now seems like the floods here are very minor, but they are still ticking me off. There is NO place for the fucking water to go. Houston is a concrete jungle without plans for water run-off. My Beloved Butthead put sandbags along the doors, but we still need to let the hounds out into the pond to do their business. We tried to convince them to do their business on newspaper covered with kitty litter and they just looked at us like we were out of our minds.
Our floors are always wet and the hounds are muddy and poor Karen is spending all of her time cleaning the floors and stressing about the other things she thought she needed to be doing.
I know it helps none now, but I once had a dog that I trained to jump into the shower if he needed to “do his business” and no one was home to let him - saved the carpet when our dogsitter fell through because she went into labor at almost the exact moment I did.
And Ann? Sending you all good wishes. It sounds like you are kicking ass and taking names, but it must be so frustrating and sad, especially when you can’t always be right there to help.
I’m busily spreading the theory that the Texas flooding is simply the opening wedge for Jade Helm 15 and the takeover by the feds. Because my nutjob friends need more fuel to add to the fires going on in their crazy heads.
My patience is being tried. I sent the furniture package details to my mother.
In my thinking, the rental housewares package is a godsend. It consists not only of sheets, towels, and dishes but dozens of other items…shower curtains, alarm clocks, pot holders, salt and pepper shakers, clothes hangers, a coffeemaker, iron and ironing board. A pre-designed package put together by the rental company. And they did a good job of it. All for one flat rental price.
Mom doesn’t get it. A long conversation that goes like — why are we renting a colander? We don’t need a colander. Can they take it off? You mean I’m going to have to store a colander I don’t want for 6 months? And Emma doesn’t need an alarm clock tell them to take one off ( the package includes one per bedroom ).
As if it’s not hard enough already. No, Mom - the package is what it is. If there’s a freaking colander you don’t want to see I guess I can find someone to store it but really…
It’s going to be a long day.
On the bright side
On a hunch, I just stepped on the scale and 8 of those pesky 10 pounds I’ve been wanting to shed are gone. I do not recommend this as a weight loss program, though.
Ok, I figured it out.
Obama fired up the HARP project to completely flood out Texas.
Why? To reduce mobility and prevent organized resistance to Jade Helm.
Yeah, in my previous Outback, changing a headlight bulb took seconds. But in the latest model, they decided to go for the streamlined modern look on the front end, so the headlights are positioned at the extreme sides of the car and can’t be reached from inside the engine compartment. Instead of putting in some kind of access hatch (which would have required removing the battery, but still would have been better), Subaru decided that one of the most common and safety critical maintenance operations on the car be rendered next to impossible.
I didn’t use the word “demented” lightly.
I got up half an hour late this morning. So I was late for work, my daughter missed her preschool bus and I got chewed out by a supervisor. Fuck it all. Most off all fuck this stupid company that rewarded me for working for their ungrateful asses on Memorial Day by cutting out hours on me this week thus cutting out any fucking overtime I was going to earn for working on Memorial Day. I hate this fucking economy and the greedy, petty, creepy little pettifoggers who run it.
Hugs and blessing to all of you who are going through stressful family stuff. I’d have run screaming for the hills by now.
My mini-rant - This is the 3rd cold I’ve had in 4 months. I think it may be an all time record for me. I guess it’s time to get some immune system supplements…
{{{Ann Hedonia}}}
I think my CPAP machine (or maybe my subconscious) is trying to kill me. When I woke up this morning, I still had my mask on, but the machine was off. This does not help me sleep, not at all. And I was exhausted last night. Who knows how long I was breathing through a (useless) mask, wearing a chin strap to keep me from breathing through my mouth?
…but today I’ll make an exception. I saw my PCP today, to visit about how I’m handling my lymphoma and the resulting anemia (clanking along pretty good, the cancer is “indolent”), and by the time I left I was referred to Neurology for a consult. A quick check with Dr. Google and it’s clear she’s ruling out Multiple Sclerosis.
really, world? You wouldn’t do that to little ole me, would you?
Note to self: prior to next car purchase, compile comprehensive list of maintenance actions I expect to be able to perform; check actual degree of difficulty for each item on list.
About six or seven years ago, a former neighbor of mine bought a Ford 500 after her Taurus was totalled. Her husband was a former mechanic who did all his own maintenance. When he looked the 500 over he said, “I opened the hood. I shut the hood. I said, ‘Honey, you’re going to have to take this thing to the dealer to get your oil changed.’”
It was a profound admission of defeat. And a sad realization that all new cars are moving towards the “take it to the dealer to fix minor problems” model.
Hey, whoever has the Nikki Tikki voodoo doll, can we make some sort of arrangement to have you not poke it next month? You can poke me extra in July if you agree to leave me the hell alone for June.
This month held the following delights: Car accident #1. Entirely my fault, I was rushing to get to an appointment and hadn’t slept solidly for three nights because I was staying with an insane dog who sleeps for 2 hours at a time. Slow response time = rear ending someone. This accident will cost me my $1000 deductible x 2 because damage from a prior accident (that I never made a claim on) makes repairs from this accident impossible to do correctly. Plus the cost of a rental for 10 days while they’re fixing my car. My boyfriend and I broke up this same week.
*Dad in the hospital. Released after staying overnight for observation with no real diagnosis other than “maybe you ate something funny? LOL, we don’t know”.
*Ex-husband has stopped paying the credit card bill and is ignoring all attempts to contact him. This bodes poorly for him keeping his promise to restructure the mortgage to release me from it, although the fact that he’s been making that promise for 3 years made it unlikely anyhow. Extra fun points that I’m getting phone calls from creditors for his girlfriend, meaning somehow her finances are mingled with his and they aren’t good.
*My oldest dog, the one my heart and soul belong to, had a seizure. Missed work that night to stay home and watch him for the 12 hour observation period my vet recommended and while he has been perfectly fine since, I need to take him in next week for (expensive) blood work to see if liver or kidney issues caused it. Or maybe it’s a brain tumor! Or maybe it was just one of those old dog things and there’s no preventing another one! Who knows?!
*Car accident #2. I wasn’t driving this time, a car nailed us at an intersection, totaling the car I was in and giving me a nice whap on the head from the air bag as well as a goose egg on my leg and a very sore chest where the seat belt caught me. I’m moving very slow today.
The money I have saved for a downpayment on a house will now go towards fixing my car, paying off the $4500 credit card bill that the ex has flaked on, figuring out what is wrong with my pup, and if there are any shekels left, hiring a lawyer to help me deal with the mortgage issue. So I should be able to move out of my mother’s house and be a functioning adult in about… oh, 5 more years. I’m grateful that I HAVE the money and won’t fall deeper into debt dealing with all of this shit, but DAMN. Whoever I pissed off, I’m sorry already. Can we call it even? PLEASE?!
*literally. As in, on anti-psychotics.