Try to remember...(the month of September?) (Sept. minirants)

The BBQ Pit
241

Showing is today, burial tomorrow. I would have opted for cremation for her had I been the only immediate survivor (and in talking with my aunt and uncle, found out this is what they prefer for themselves), but the situation with the stepdad is kind of… unique. His first wife, also deceased, was the daughter of funeral home owners, and she had the kind of funeral you’d expect for someone who grew up and lived in that world. He’s basically recreated for my mom a service identical to the one his first wife had (the exact same casket model and vault and in his former in-law’s funeral home, plot in the same part of the cemetery). He’s in a weird spot since any “lesser” service, for him, would be showing a lack of respect for mom in comparison to his first wife. So, it’s expensive.

Despite the cost, I’m willing to defer to him on it all. He’s the one good man my mom ever had, and he took good care of her while she was in incredibly poor health.

ETA: I’ll probably be calling in a favor from my ex-fiancee, and see if I can’t get one of her family lawyers involved on the medical bill aspect of things. Those are liable to be far higher than the funeral costs, but I don’t think my stepdad would think it’d be a lack of respect to my mom if we can do some hardcore negotiation on those and settle that cheaply.

242

Student Driver, you are a really nice person.

I tips my lid.

243

Whilst returning books to the local library, I glance through their book sale section. They have quite a few audiobooks, so I take a closer look. Three of the titles are pretty heavily wishlisted on my bookswap site. Score! :smiley:

I glance through the case to make sure all the CDs are there, and notice they are copies of the CDs. They are the original cases, so I figure they duplicated them for circulation and have the originals in the back. Probably just forgot to switch them back when they pulled the books from circulation. Last time I bought audiobooks at the library, they were the original CDs. No biggie, I think, I’ll just have them switched out when I pay for them.

Except they won’t. Nice volunteer lady goes to the back of the library to check with an actual employee. She comes back and tells me the books have been pulled from circulation, but the library has decided to keep the originals and sell the copies.

Wait, what? Howzzat again? :eek:

I tell her I’m pretty sure that’s not legal. Could I possibly have a word with the employee who gave her this information? Oh, she’s coming right out? Great!

Employee: Yes, we’ve pulled those audiobooks from circulation. Yes, we’re going to keep the original CDs, but you’re welcome to buy the copies we made.

Me: No, I don’t want to buy copies. I’m prettry sure that’s not legal, even for the library. Y’know, those copyright people are downright vicious, and I’d hate to see the library get shut down over this.

Employee: So, you don’t want them, then?

Me: :smack::smack: No, thank you. I will buy these hardbacks, though. ::hands over money::

::Employee takes audiobooks and sets them behind the counter. Makes no move to go to the sale table to pull any of the other books on CD::

Seriously? Seriously!?! You thought this would be okay? **Seriously!?!?!? **

You have signs all over your public use computers warning about copyright infringement. These signs say the library will get into huge trouble if anyone illegally downloads music or videos on library equipment. So I know you have heard of copyright law.

Look, I’ll admit I’m disappointed that I couldn’t get that unabridged Tom Clancy novel for $1. I’m also pretty sure ‘fair use’ copying doesn’t cover making duplicates to lend out so your originals don’t get hurt, but it’s been a while since I looked into it. Case law may have moved into your favor here.

I am damn certain selling pirated audiobooks is illegal.

244

I am tired of pretty much every loaf of bread I buy being dry already when I open it.

245

I’ve been on Weight Watchers for a while. Lost some weight, kept it off, whatever. Lately I lose some one week and then find it again the following week. Not the point of this minirant.

Because of the weight loss and also because I’ve been using a lot less salt, my fingers have shrunk, and my wedding ring has been way too loose. We’re talking “move the ring to my middle finger on cold days so it doesn’t fall off” loose. I’ve been meaning to get it sized down, but didn’t want to spend the money. Plus, some days I’d have tortilla chips and then it’d fit better. :slight_smile:

You can see where this is going, I bet. Two nights ago, I did some dishes and then drove to pick up my daughter from school, and in the car I realized my wedding ring was gone. Don’t know just when it slipped off my hand. Checked the sink, checked the front yard, checked the car. No mas anillo.

Fortunately, I have several silver rings that approximate a wedding band in design, so I’m wearing one of them temporarily while I wait to see if my actual ring shows up. I’m using the smallest one - the others are even bigger than my wedding ring was. This one used to fit only on my pinkie, and was really a little tight even on that finger.

Why can’t my GUT shrink like this?

246

Start wearing a snug-fitting metal band wrapped around your gut, and you’ll notice any size changes more quickly. :smiley:

247

If your mother was at a catholic hopital, ask about any charity programs they might have for people with very little income.

Chef Troy, it’s because your gut loves you and wants to keep you warm.
I wish my gut loved me a little less.

248

It was a research hospital (actually, several hospitals) affiliated with IU. That said, I have done negotiations with non-religious and for-profit hospitals before, and they’re often pretty willing to lower or dismiss bills for people who take initiative and don’t just try to hide the bills. After the initial shell-shock of this weekend’s events, I’m feeling a lot better about the financial aspect of things. This is gonna be hard, but it’s something I can handle. And I’m going to go ahead and apply for my MA and MS programs, even if I can’t get in this spring.

As an aside, when I had a severe, fast-acting eye problem that (temporarily, thankfully) caused blindness a few years ago, I ended up in the Catholic-based St. Francis health system. I went in with 80% co-pay insurance and quite a bit in savings, let the doctors know that money was no object, and opted for aggressive and expensive treatment. I was willing to spend whatever it took to save my sight, as well as go through a long series of exams and tests to figure out what had caused the problem. I could round up nearly $100,000 between my savings and credit lines, and if worse came to worst, could probably get at least that much on loan from my ex-fiancee’s family. (Good idea to not burn bridges after a break up!) So, I could afford up to $200,000 in copay, and the doctors were quite aware of this. “This treatment is more aggressive, but more expensive, and…” “I can pay for it. Do it.”

I regained my vision, and after getting the itemized charges, I was anticipating a $20,000 copay, far under what I’d been prepared to spend. I was happy, got the money together, and waited for the bills. And waited. Eventually, I drove to the various offices (St. Francis proper, Indiana Eye Clinic, internal medicine specialists, etc.) to just pay my bills and get them out of my hair. In most cases, all the charges had been waived; the internal medicine specialists, to whom I should have owed $1000, charged me $150 or so for the bloodwork. I actually spent more on tires for my car. Dunno if that’s standard at Catholic-based (or other charity-based) hospital systems, but I was impressed. They got a heft charitable donation from me that year.

249

Ridiculously mini rant: My Transpass fell out of my pocket while I was (ironically) running to catch the bus. Now I have to either give up the month’s discretionary funds budget or walk 16 miles a day until October.

250

Student Driver, you are a class act.

My rant: Somekitty got into the cabinet in the 2nd bathroom and shredded the toilet paper and paper towels, then closed the cabinet door behind himself. (well, not really, the doors have spring hinges…but it sounded good) When I painfully bent over and reached in to get another roll, I got a face full of fluff.

I suspect Steve the house feral. My other cats just shred the paper on the rolls and sleep in the cabinets.

251

Holy crap, is that what cats do? My dogs ignore almost everything, including the toilet paper (even when I try to get them to get toilet trained and use a roll…).

252

Some cats do that. Our cats have never bothered with toilet paper or paper towels. They have other tools in their arsenal to make our lives miserable…

253

We can’t leave a roll of paper towels lying around, because Charlie (husband’s male cat) will kill it. Charlie can reduce a full roll of paper towels to half inch pieces in a very short period of time. Other cats have other targets.

Charlie is also the reason why we have to keep ballast in all the trash cans, because he LOVES to tip them over and root around in them.

254

THAT’s got to make you popular with the trash collectors…

255

All of our cats are inside only kitties. So Charlie’s hobby of tipping over wastebaskets and strewing the trash around doesn’t affect the outside cans at all. And ever since we’ve learned to put some old scrap metal in the bottom of the wastebaskets, he can’t tip them over.

256

Very consistently works for me too. :slight_smile:

257

Or at least take a backup. Preferably someone big and muscular and cranky.

258

Second the query about rabies shots, also wondering about your last tetanus shot.

259

It was pouring rain yesterday and the mailman, instead of putting my mail in the box and shutting the lid, put it in sideways and left the lid open. My daughter sent me an actual postcard and I would have loved to read it but the fact that it was soaked and stuck to a flyer made that impossible :frowning:

260

Came home last night to a house that reeked of cat crap. Bad enough that Al often does not deign to cover up his own leavings; this time, he left a long snake of a turd draped oh-so-artfully over the side of the litter pan. Damn thing looked like it was trying to escape. Maybe it was trying to get away from its own smell.