My Sanity Needed Vents

[Widow2015]

22 hours ago, Margm said:

Good news for me and my sister.  No cancer showed on the PET scan, so she will take a chemo "shot" I think that was what it was, for awhile once a week.

Marg:  What wonderful news for your sister and you.   Dee

[kayc]

On 10/3/2023 at 2:00 PM, Margm said:

Good news for me and my sister.  No cancer showed on the PET scan

Great news, Marg!

[kayc]

Karen, I don't see the reply I left you yesterday...my UHC Advantage is all I have, it supplants Medicare rather than supplements it.  I do not have both.

[KarenK]

I understand now, Kay. I think my definition of Medicare Advantage has been wrong. I didn't realize it worked that way. I've always thought that was what my plan is, but I looked at my card. It is through AARP/UHC and is called AARP Medicare Supplement Plan F. I'm fortunate that the company I retired from pays part of the premiums. Couldn't afford it otherwise for sure.

Still surprised that your portion for the surgery is so much though.

[kayc]

Truly.  Me too.

[kayc]

Kodie and my birthday today!  Here's my birthday boy!

[kayc]

Not only have I had a month from hell but so has my daughter, I think hers even tops mine.  Talked to her and hers last night, omg!

Her apartment building hired roofers who took the roof off and then it POURED RAIN!  Yep, water damage all over top floor, where she and eight other tenants reside.  Workmen in and out, tar on her carpet, ruined her rug.  Also said they might have to temporarily move but there's no where to go, all the motels are full because of Autzen games.  They still haven't let them know.  Damage in the walls every room but hall bathroom and kitchen.  She has kittens and lots of expensive plants, how?!!!

To top it off, in switching phones her ten year old contact list downloaded onto her new phone, none of the numbers are any good.  I told her I would send an email to everyone on her current contact list before her phone dies and give them her new number and have them email her back on it, at that time she can replace or add them to her contact list.  It'll be a pain but not as bad as not having their number!

Her brakes started squeaking, she got the part and made arrangements to bring it up to her brother's to put it on today, all while not knowing if she'd have to move.  It started squalling real bad so he told her it needs rotors too, so she got them.  In the midst of all this, her brain wasn't working and she left her debit card somewhere in their machine, the bank put a hold on it, she just got it back.  What a nightmare, plus working all the time!  Where the hell is their inheritance when they need it!  Stupid lawyer and CPA are taking forever, been nine months since the house sold, no sign of anything yet.

Me, I've been dealing with laptop issues constantly the last month.  I filed a dispute for OneDrive l the while it was DriverSupport, had no idea they're hitting me $10/month for life!  Uninstalled them both, and hoping they truly cancel the ongoing payments.  FINALLY got into their portal, it's very barebones, doesn't show the credit.  Can't cancel the dispute, need to call the bank but it's a weekend now.  This is just constant.  Oh the challenges!  

I told Melissa not to worry about my birthday, we'd catch up when things calm down.  Praying she makes it to my son's okay.

Melissa's BF Finley has worked his tail off all over the country and his job had him in the hole so he quit and got a better job in construction, so proud of him, he only applied to three and this was the higher paying one and he doesn't have to leave the state!  Essex just got a good man!  I think it's been stressful for them with all the stress Melissa is under, I've never heard her sound so through the roof!  If she was older I'd worry about her having a stroke.

So Kodie and I are on our own today, Finley wanted to get together with me today but I don't want to take up his day unnecessarily, will wait until it's a better time for them both.

[Widow2015]

kayc:  Happy Birthday to you and your sweet boy.  Am so sorry to read Melissa's story.  She and Finley are surely being tested with all this bad luck.  The apartment building must have some kind of insurance that would help meet some of replacement costs of ruined furniture, etc. for tenants??  Let us know when she is back home safe, wherever that is.  Keeping all of you in my prayers.  

Your laptop saga is more than I could content with.  Unfortunately, we are so connected to our computers that we can't just throw them out of the window and forget about them. Hugs, Dee.

 

 

  

 

[kayc]

She hasn't moved yet, still waiting to hear back from them, meanwhile they keep her life on hold?  It doesn't work that way, she has to get her brakes on, her car is her livelihood as she is self employed and has to travel to her work.  Praying they weather this storm, they've been together quite a while, much of it long distance.  I hope he can remember her sweetness.

Thank you, Dee.  It's been truly challenging.

Meanwhile I was able to donate to a neighbor who needed raw meat for their dog, he's 150 lbs and a year old, that's a lot of food!  They brought me a dozen fresh eggs!  

[Margm]

My mom always loved learning something new.  Even into old age.  I still have my "new" senior phone I have not started up.  It is so easy to use the flip phone.  Got the new case where I can carry it in my big pockets. On top of that our bank/credit union sent out news they would be closed for 3-4 days (we still could use all our ATM's, online banking, etc.)  Went into the bank and the tellers were replaced with computer things on the wall, no people.  You talk to a little person, real person, in the picture.  Does not help, my shaking.  But to their favor, someone to help.  The picture that was put up about the old woman with the man telling her how to "go on-line" really is reality now.

I took my son over to Walmart in the "city" because the meds make him afraid to drive.  Know he will not worry about my trips to Arkansas if he does not have to go now.  Will talk to my regular doc and see about scheduling cataracts surgery in November.  The problem is getting all my sick folks well enough to drive me.  

Kay, I'm glad your daughter has found someone.  I always begged my sister to have a companion of some sort.  Can't make someone do something they do not want to do.  My kids only have each other (and me).  They say they want a companion like me, and their dad had.  They lived with us, it was not all roses and tulips.  But I sure wish they had someone to help them and be there for them like Billy and I had each other.  

Happy Birthday Kay and Kodie.  Hope today is better.  I never liked birthday celebrations.  Billy did.  Just another year tacked on and those still living born before 1945 are in the 1%.  Somehow maybe I ought to feel good about that, but I sure miss a lot of people that did not make the 1%.  

Somehow Dee, I tried remembering what would take the place of computers if we threw them out the window.  We do not have the big front porches anymore waiting for the neighbors to come sit and visit.  In a lot of cases, we do not even know our neighbors.  That small town living is gone, along with a lot of other things.  

 

[KarenK]

Happy Birthday 🎂 to you and Kodie!

So sorry your daughter has been hit with everything at once. When it rains it pours, literally for her! Surprised that the roofing company planned things so poorly. Guess they don't bother to check weather forecasts.

 

[kayc]

Talk about feeling old! I just spent over an hour on the phone with Amazon trying to figure out how to redeem the gift card my sister sent me.  The lady was foreign and hard to understand, but thankfully had the patience of Job...it took every ounce of it.  I took pictures of the gift card and emailed them to her but she said she needed them texted.  I don't know how to do that.  I scrutinized my cellphone, never found how.  Finally when I told her it didn't look like any gift card I'd ever had it was bigger, she said I needed to open the package.  Mind you it had the gift card # on it but nothing marked claim code.  I finally found you can open it (it was welded shut with glue) and THEN discovered the claim code!  I'd been ready to give up and toss the damn thing.    Glad I didn't, $ is $ to me.  I need to have my neighbor show me how to use this stupid phone, copy/paste, reach my contact list, etc.  
God I feel old.  Super old!  

58 minutes ago, KarenK said:

Guess they don't bother to check weather forecasts.

That's what I told her!  I couldn't believe they'd be so foolhardy.

Poor Finley, guess he's never seen Melissa like she is...neither have I, she usually takes things in stride but this was a bit much for anyone.  I wanted to tell him to remember how sweet she usually is, she sounded close to a stroke.  

[Widow2015]

3 hours ago, Margm said:

Somehow Dee, I tried remembering what would take the place of computers if we threw them out the window.  We do not have the big front porches anymore waiting for the neighbors to come sit and visit.  In a lot of cases, we do not even know our neighbors.  That small town living is gone, along with a lot of other things.  

Marg:  I agree with you about there being nothing to replace computers, but I keep dreaming about those days where people were out and about in their neighborhood or sitting on a front porch visiting, sharing and laughing with one another.  My grandkids are growing up in a world totally foreign to when I grew up.  

 

3 hours ago, Margm said:

I took my son over to Walmart in the "city" because the meds make him afraid to drive. 

I am afraid to drive because of the other crazy drivers on the road.  A couple of weeks ago I found enough courage to meet a couple of ladies for lunch.  I was on a three-lane state road and was in the far-right lane travelling 45 mph - the posted speed limit.  On my left was a small work van.  I don't recall if there was a car in the far-left lane.   After a few miles I noticed a noisy motorcyclist behind the van on one of those "crotch rockets" - I think that's what they are called.  I could tell he was getting annoyed there was no way he could get around us because he kept racing the engine.  Just as I started to increase my speed and give him some room to get around the van, he zoomed by between the van and my car.  I couldn't believe it.  I related the story to my son, and he said that maneuver is actually legal in some states, but it is not legal in Washington state.   It has something to do with the type of engine these "crotch rockets" have.  Well, to me it gives me one more reason not to want to get on the road.  Dee  😱

[KarenK]

I quit using the in town freeways years ago when I was still working. Too many lanes and cars going too fast. I was okay out on the highway going to the cabin, though. The latest thing is wrong way drivers. How drunk or stupid can you be? Some of these are in the middle of the day, all causing fatalities. After retirement, I just stayed in my familiar neighborhood. Now I don't drive at all, of course. Maybe some day? I always loved road trips to new places wanting to see what was over the next hill.

[Margm]

I took a short road trip to see where my grandmother was born.  It is just a black and white sign now, no houses but one that was lived in and one brick home that the vines and vegetation we have here in the humid south had covered.  It looked like a ghost house but not many years ago it was modern.  An old car was sitting there too and I'm sure years ago it was driven.  And, this part of the country, this country road, paved, was where my grandmother came from.  It was a big family at one time, but no sign of where it could be.  The road changed and had Arkansas road numbers.  All my folks on that side lived right on the Arkansas/Louisiana line.  My depression opens up if I think too much on "what once was" and I was so into genealogy that I would stay up all night just following a clue.  But that was before Billy left. Now I never look at Ancestry.com.  My cousin took it to great extremes with galleries of pictures (I helped), histories, etc.  Once I found my grandmother's baby sister that my cousin knew nothing about (cemetery, naturally).  Now it makes me sad.  I know I have to buy a memorial stone and have it engraved.  I have the cemetery plot behind my mom and dad's, next to my aunt and uncle's but I was gonna wait on them first.  They are both 90 and still take short walks each day.  Not sure I've got that long.  Makes me despondent to do this, but I sure don't want to make my kids have to do it.  Well, enough of this feeling sorry for me, going to go read my paranormal books.  I tried reading my old authors and was bored.  I kind of like the wolf shifters and witches.  

“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” ― C.S. Lewis

I think he was talking to his niece when he said this, and he did not mean it in the way I am taking it.  No blood and guts, you can get them w/o all the romance, and they are free on my Kindle.  I think I read seven in two weeks in a series.  Weird probably.  I am.  

[kayc]

13 hours ago, Widow2015 said:

I keep dreaming about those days where people were out and about in their neighborhood or sitting on a front porch visiting, sharing and laughing with one another. 

My neighbors do just that!  Any wonder why I still live here!

My son got my daughter's brakes on last night, he said it's a good thing she got there when she did, nothing left of them and the squealer had fallen off is why she got no notice.

My son tried calling me last night but I was asleep, I hadn't been sleeping all week, too much stress and it really caught up to me, didn't do anything on my birthday, very quiet.  Had a slice of Nordic Bread and a cup of soup, that's it.  

 

[kayc]

• Kodie had a good birthday, a dog friend stopped and played with him, he got a playdate later with Jazzy, got treats, went on our walk together.  Here's his birthday smile!

[Margm]

6 hours ago, kayc said:

Had a slice of Nordic Bread and a cup of soup, that's it. 

Sounds like a perfect birthday.  

[Widow2015]

16 hours ago, kayc said:

Here's his birthday smile!

kayc:  Love looking at that sweet smile.  You are so blessed.  Hugs, Dee

[Widow2015]

16 hours ago, kayc said:

My son got my daughter's brakes on last night, he said it's a good thing she got there when she did, nothing left of them and the squealer had fallen off is why she got no notice.

kayc: Glad all is well with the brakes on your daughter's car.  Hopefully you and yours will have a better week.  I think you all have earned some good luck.  Fingers crossed.  Dee 🙏🏼🤞☘️

[kayc]

Me too, hoping to have a quiet uneventful week.  Hoping this for you all also!

[kevin]

Great picture of Kodie

[kayc]

Thank you, Kevin, I think it's my favorite.  Funny, my phone camera said I needed to take it all over again. Are they nuts?!

[kayc]

On 10/2/2023 at 11:43 AM, KarenK said:

Going back to dentist in 2 weeks to make sure everything lines up, I guess. Not sure when I get teeth.

How'd it go, Karen?

[KarenK]

Teeth not lining up properly in mold yet, so back to the lab. Will try again in 2 weeks.

How are things with you and Kodie? Is winter close by? We're still having some 100's here. Should cool down after Halloween.

Have been watching all of "Dallas". Never watched the whole thing back in the 80's. Good ol' evil J.R.  Fun seeing some of my favorite old western stars like handsome Dale Robertson in a few episodes. I met him many years ago at  a western show here along with several others.

Hope everyone is doing well. Been pretty quiet here lately. Sill hoping to see Gwen here some night.