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 |  Pearls of wisdom, inappropriate thoughts and the occasional rant. |
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I've had a real shitstorm of a morning. (Note to self: find out where that term orginated.) I woke up early and kind of sad because today would have been my dad's 58th birthday. I can't even imagine how he would look. He's been gone 20 years now. Seems strange. After deciding there's no point in going back to bed just to have the alarm go off in an hour, I set about my normal routine. Silly me, I should have stayed in bed. I checked my bank account while trying to figure out why the temperature dropped ten degrees over the course of an hour. (That normally means tornado weather is approaching.) Not only was my secret savings account zero, but my checking account was also negative $216 because Geek Squad renewed my membership after I canceled it last month and took my debit card off the payment list. I took the card off because I was told it could take 8 to 12 weeks for them to unenroll me. Of course, there's no record of me requesting to terminate the membership. That would be too easy. I called the bank to dispute the charges and was told that it's only preauthorized. But they took the $100 in my savings account to knock down the total from $316. They have to wait for it to actually post before I can file a dispute. Which can take 3 to 5 days. In the meantime, I'm racking up $35 a day in insufficient funds fees. If that wasn't bad enough, at 7am there's a loud rapping on the front door causing the dog to bark. (Regular knocking she ignores.) Still my ratty pajamas, I peek out the window to see a KKP maintenance truck (the property management company that owns our house). Fuck! Last year, KKP adopted a new "no pets at any of their properties rule". This was about a week after Ravyn's dog, Mitzie, died. There was no way I could just get rid of our other dog, Trixie. We've had her since birth. Plus, my depressed daughter had just suffered a serious loss. So, I was served with papers informing that I have 24 hours to pay rent, plus $25 a day in lates fees, and a $50 processing fee. What the fuck? I left a check in the dropbox like I've done for the past 4 years, on March 30th. So I call the office, but they don't open until 8am. I spent an hour crying, praying, and generally working myself into a panic attack. Nevertheless, I went to pick up my Hubby from work at 8am and had to wait an hour for him because he forgot to tell me there was a meeting. I don't have a cell phone (Well, I do, but I cut service last month to save a little extra money. Brooklyn turns 18 & Ravyn turns 15 in June.) so I couldn't call KKP while I waited. I then spent an hour strictly cursing. I'm just fucking pissed by the time I finally get someone on the phone. Turns out, my rent check got lost after I dropped it off last week, but before the management company got it. "It might have slipped behind the dropbox, but we'll never know." Seriously? Just let me say, the reason I use the dropbox at the laundromat is that the office is located 50 miles away. The one time I mailed my check, it took 12 days to get there. (Besides having the monopoly on being the Slumlord for more than 50% of the rental houses, they also own the only laundromat in town.) Now, thankfully, my bill paying account is separate from the one now in the negative, so I still had the original amount. (Although I did have to pay $35 to stop payment on the missing check in case it turns up.) I calm down a bit and offer to pay it over the phone. It's not as bad I thought. Of course, that's going to be an extra 5% of the total amount as a transaction fee. Not only did I lose $35 because they lost the check, but I also had to pay an additional $293 in order to not be homeless in 24 hours. Good thing I had $300 in our actual savings account. Yeah, after our initial one year lease was up, we had no choice but to become month to month renters because that's the way they like it. We have no legal protection and can be pretty much be evicted whenever they want for whatever reason. Plus, our rent has been increased three times even though they refuse to repair anything. We have to move out in order for them to do any work. But since there's no place for us to move to, we've been stuck for 3 years. I've ranted plenty over the housing shortage in this town and the fact that we don't have a lease, but this is just next level bullshit right here. So here I sit- the checking account I use for groceries and everyday expenses is negative (adding up $35 a day too), my secret savings account is empty (not really secret, but Hubby calls it that because I'm always squirreling away a few dollars here and there), our bill-paying checking account is empty, and our actual savings account has $7 left. Scratch that, we need bread and milk. At this point, I just don't know what the hell to do next. Yes, I'm grateful we have a roof over our heads for the rest of the month and I'm grateful I bought a few groceries yesterday. But damn, we were just getting ahead. Now the safety net is gone. I honestly don't know how we'll be able to come up with the $5000 deductible for my hernia surgery. My plan was to slowly save and by January I should have it all. Why the fuck do I keep getting knocked on my ass? I'm trying very hard to control my emotions. I don't want Ravyn worrying. So I guess I'm going make another pot of coffee, take a long shower to muffle my sobs, and come up with a new plan. Lord, I'd really like to add a dash of whiskey to my coffee. But now's not the time for that. It's time to nut up or shut up. Well, it will be right after I write my daily 24 syllable poem before it gets any later. Good grief, I'm falling behind on everything today! |
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but seems to be okay today. I worry about my poor circulation, scrub my toes with a soft bristle brush, watch discoloration come and go. I probably need new arteries or veins but hey... "Heathcare" USA (enough said?). I may be better off trying something here in Thailand. But still... wish I lived in a country that had adequate patient based healthcare. Thailand and Taiwan mostly do, but I can't access it. First world systems like Europe, Canada and Australia do, but again, I can't access it. 