Screwed by the Liberals Again

In case you missed it, the liberal government passed some new health insurance laws again last year that went into effect this year.  (https://help.ihealthagents.com/hc/en-us/articles/20207003806871-New-Short-Term-Health-Insurance-Law-Rules-for-2025) 

Let me set you the stage for how this effects me (and possibly you)...

For the last several years, I've been using short term health insurance.  It bypasses the Obamacare mandate, which makes it way cheaper.  I can't afford health insurance any other way, so there I am.  It's not great, but it's better than nothing.  Every 6 months, I would have to sign up for a new policy.  When I got the email saying my insurance was expiring, it seemed like it was the wrong month to renew, but I shrugged and got on with signing up.  That's when I noticed that all the new policies were 3 month with a 1 month extension.  I guess when I signed up in March for my new policy, I missed that fact.  Okay, fine, whatever.

I went into the site, did my thing, found my policy, and went through the process of getting my new policy.  5 days went by while I waited for my acceptance.  Instead, I got an email saying my application for new insurance had been 'withdrawn'.  Unfortunately, I got the email right before I went to bed, so there wasn't anything I could do about it (which didn't stop me from obsessing over it all night).  And time was ticking because my current policy would run out on the 30th.  

The next day, I contacted the company that manages this crap - ehealth, I think it's called - via chat message on their site.  The gal told me she couldn't help me and I would have to call.  So, I called.  I got a really nice lady who calmly explained to me that the law had changed last September and, in addition to the policies only being for 4 months each, they cannot be from the same provider twice in the same year.  They withdrew my application from United Health because I can't have them again this year. 

The only other companies offering short term insurance in my state... because, ya know, Obama fixed it so we can only have certain companies offering insurance in our states... are unheard of to me.  And either of them only offer indemnity policies instead of regular policies (PPO or EPO).  

I picked one and submitted a new application, because what choice do I have?  Even if I could afford to get a regular policy, you can't sign up for one of those outside the month of November.  (Obama again... although in all fairness, it's not just him. It's him and his cronies.  And Biden and his handlers.)  

So, as long as my application got accepted, I would have insurance.  Until 10/31.  (It was accepted, btw. So yay, I guess.) Then I'll have to go with the other unknown indemnity company for 4 months before I can go back to UH.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  On the upside, the new policy is cheaper with better coverage... except for the indemnity thing where we'll have to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed by the insurance afterward.  

While I was doing this, I accidentally ended up in the section for regular insurance quotes, and discovered that the cheapest of those was $750-ish a month.  Almost twice what I was paying UH and more than 3 times what I'll be paying the new company.  That's like half our monthly income.  

Yes, I know some of this is my own damn fault, right?  I could crawl to Obamacare and beg for alms, but my hypocrisy only goes so far.  Come November, I might have to debase myself and do that or choose to go insurance-less.  

I'm a healthy gal.  I can go without insurance, right?  (Don't worry, I'm not that stupid.  Bad things have a way of happening, especially when you temp fate by going without insurance.)

This Damn Internet Thing

It seems like the entirety of my brain power has been allocated to thinking about this damn internet thing.  We're having a speedy morning with Brightspeed pulling a .33 rather than its usual .1 to .18 (it's supposed to be like at 10 and yes, those are decimal points in our actual speed).  

This makes Starlink extremely necessary.  Hubs works online and if he can't pull his materials, he can't make any monies.  I work online, too, but people buy my books whether I'm around to see it or not.  The only time this slow stuff would harsh my day is when I'm trying to upload manuscripts and covers, so not right now.  

So, we have Starlink... Well, we have the equipment anyway.  In order to install the equipment, you have to use an app on a smartphone.  So, I went out and bought a smartphone from Tracfone as well as a 1G/30 day card for data.  We tried the app.  It isn't getting us past 2% completion.  Either the app is crap or the phone is.  And since everyone else is getting their apps to work, I suspect it's the phone.  It could also be the fact that, like the internet, cell phone signal sucks here and it's not actually connecting to anything long enough to be successful.

Hubs has been climbing all over the roof.  He's also been watching every video our current internet allows him to watch (with frequent pauses and clocking and stuttering... I'm surprised he hasn't gone insane).  We even reached out to someone in the hopes that they could help us, but in the end, we opted to keep forging ahead on our own.  It's out problem and we will solve it.  Or we won't and we'll ship all the Starlink stuff back.

Part of me is afraid the only way any of this will work is if we cut the tops off all our trees, but everything we've read and watched and heard says we have enough clear sky to make this work at least a little bit.  Perhaps not as great as someone with no trees, but still better than Brightspeed.

If this doesn't work, I'm not sure what we'll do.  I guess it's all part of living in the sticks, this not having good or reliable internet.  I thought about HughesNet.  Then I spoke to a gal not far from me who has it and she says it sucks.  I thought about getting a mobile hotspot, but the ones I've looked at are problematic for what we require.  It's all a huge pain in the ass.  I guess what I'm saying is that if this doesn't work, we'll muddle through as best we can with what we already have.  =o\

Don't mind me.  I'm just venting.  I'm looking forward to being done with this so I can focus on writing and editing again.  At least that's the hope.  For all I know, this is just the latest distraction my brain has latched onto to rationalize not working.  Or maybe it more like... "Why am I depressed?  Because the internet sucks... definitely not because I'm wondering if I suck."

Deep Thoughts for a Tuesday

"If you have to apologize for something more than once, it's a behavior.  Don't apologize, change the behavior," I say to myself as I get ready to type 'I'm sorry' once again for not posting regularly.  Derp.

I'm seeing things around the webz that make me go 'Hmm'.  (And yes, I did have this song in mind when I wrote that.)  A lot of the things have to do with politics.  Some of the things have to do with writing or publishing.  They all make me scratch my head and wonder what the hell is wrong with people.

I saw a funny meme that I wanted to share, but FB had removed it between the time it showed up in my newsfeed and when I went to share it.  Why?  Probably because it actually spelled out the word Fucking instead of replacing the U with a *.  Means the same thing, derpy dudes.  Everyone from like 3rd grade on up knows what the f*cking means, so why be all 'oh my goodness, I need a fainting couch' about it?

Personally, I'm more offended by rampant stupidity than by swearing.  

People who use till to mean until instead of 'til irritate me.  You're shortening a word.  Use the apostrophe - don't add another letter to the end.  =op

Yesterday, I was watching that 'after the first 48' show.  (Not sure of the name, too lazy to look.)  There was this lady whose son was shot down in cold blood.  Her oldest son had been killed the same way a couple years before.  She was actually advocating for the man who murdered her second son to get leniency because she could tell he was really remorseful.  Derp.  Oh, well, she's still got two other sons.  They'll probably die in some violent crime, too, because it's attitudes like hers that keep the cycle going.  

Justice = equal treatment across the board. For EVERYONE. You get the same treatment as I do as Johnny Celebrity does as Percy Poorfolk does.  Know justice, know peace.  Ya know?

I'm full of piss and vinegar this morning. LOL, I'm actually in a pretty good mood.  I'm jus' sayin'.

Thursday This n That

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is now my favorite movie.  If you haven't watched it yet, I highly recommend it.  It's was made as a tribute to Harold Ramis and it totally rocks.  I can't explain what it's about without dropping spoilers.  (I tried.)  The main character is this girl, Phoebe, who's smart and funny and courageous.  She makes friends with this boy who calls himself Podcast (and steals the show).  And it's set in Oklahoma.  With ghosts and strange things happening.  I find something new to love about it every time I watch it.  If you even slightly enjoyed the old Ghostbusters, watch it.  

The saga with the phone was over... and then it wasn't.  Last Wednesday, it was fixed.  Monday morning, we had no dial-tone again.  They're supposed to be working on it, but the one tech told Hubs they're having trouble finding parts for equipment as old as we have in this neighborhood.  Fortunately, we still have internet.  (Albeit only slightly speedier than dial-up speed some days.)   :shrug:  With the way this is pissing Hubs off, we may end up chucking the landline altogether and using our cellphones instead.  Which sucks.  Have you ever tried to carry on a long conversation on a flip phone?  Hand cramps in a major way.  I need a cell phone that looks and feels like a handset.  Better yet, give me one that looks like an old receiver from a corded phone.  I could talk for hours on one of those without getting all crippled.

Speaking of crippled, I pulled a muscle in my calf when I went for a walk on Monday.  So, I've been limping which threw my gait off and now my hips hurt.  Growing old is so much fun.

Trash dude is here picking up our garbage.  

Speaking of garbage... last night Hubs went to take the trash up to the road and discovered the hard way that paper wasps had built a nest in a crevice on the garbage receptacle. He was stung twice - on his thumb and on his forearm.  Benadryl gel was applied followed by ice packs. Needless to say, the nest is now a smear on the concrete and the bottom of my shoe, and one wasp was flattened.  The other one made its escape.  War has been declared.  No truce in sight.  To paraphrase Sean Connery in Untouchables, you sting one of mine, I kill a hundred of yours.

I hear Hubs moving around.  For once, I got up earlier than he did.  Neener neener boo boo.

We've named Lumpy's fawn Speedy.  And her grand-fawn - Sissy's baby - is Patches.  

And on that thought, I'm outta here.  Have a great day and feel free to leave some comments with your own this n that.

The Brightspeed Saga

If you haven't been following along on Facebook, or don't actually use Facebook, I'm currently having issues with Brightspeed - the phone company in these here parts.  It's reaching 'epic saga' proportions at this point.  (Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but hey, I'm a writer. We exaggerate stuff.)  

Let's see... a week ago yesterday, we woke up to no dial tone.  Nothing.  But we still had internet - which travels along the same lines as the phone, so go figger.  I was not in the mood to call the phone company, and I assumed someone else would do it.  It's never just us when these things happen.  I called in the afternoon and learned NO ONE had called.  :shrug:  I was unsurprised.  They gave me an appointment time of Thursday between 8am and 5pm.  Woohoo.  

Wednesday afternoon, I picked up the phone to see if it miraculously healed itself and the phone read-out said 1 missed call.  Well, if we're missing calls, then we have phone.  Yep, dial tone.  But we couldn't figure out how we could've missed a call because we didn't hear it ring.  Shrugging, we figured we must've been out in the smoking room at the time and went merrily on with our day.  That night, we're watching TV and see the phone light up like it's getting a call, but it's not ringing.  Okay, well sometimes it does that when the satellite is reaching out for data.  Except the answering machine picks up and starts giving the standard greeting.  So it WAS a phone call.  It happened two more times that night.  Hubs and I used our cell phones to call the landline, and it's not ringing.  

Thursday morning, I reach out to the Brightspeed technician - cuz I was smart enough to take down his number from one of the many other times we've needed service.  I tell him that we have phone but that it's not ringing, so we still need a service call.  He comes out.  He works on it off and on Thursday.  He works on it off and on Friday.  Late Friday afternoon, he tells me that he can't finish fixing it that day, but they'll be out on Monday.  If time allows.  He also kinda hints that his supervisor is telling him he's already spent too much time on this issue, so it seems like anyone getting out here is iffy.

Monday... I get a notice that a technician will be here between 1:45 and 5:45.  A totally different tech than before shows up at 1:45 and he's out messing with the box on the outside of our house.  He's got his supervisor on the phone with him and they're bouncing ideas, I guess.  Then I get a call from the supervisor telling me that the tech's butt-set is ringing outside, so the problem has to be inside the house.  (Inside the house problems are the responsibility of the customer, and cost like $99.)  Whatever.  The tech comes in and starts messing around with our jacks and wiring inside the house.  Still, no ringy-dingy.  Then he decides that it has to be the other jack in the house that's causing a problem with the jack our phone is plugged into, so he's in the office now messing with that jack and wiring.  Still no ringy-dingy.  He leaves to go check the big box at the beginning of our neighborhood.  When he returns, he lets us know that the problem ISN'T just us after all.  Several other houses in our neighborhood have the same problem.  Which he can't fix that day.  His supervisor will be out personally on Tuesday to fix this.

Today... As I was typing this, I got an email and a text message that they are very sorry but a technician cannot come out today.  The appointment has been rescheduled for tomorrow.

We have some of the oldest equipment on the Brightspeed lines and they're having a tough time finding parts to fix it.  Seems to me the answer would be to replace the old equipment - which might be pricey at the start, but it wouldn't certainly cost less in the long run when compared with the amount they're paying in labor.  Short-sighted turds.

Anyway, if you've read this far, thanks for letting me vent.  There's really nothing we can do but ride it out and continue to demand the service we're paying for.  Unfortunately, crappy service seems to be the norm rather than the exception these days - across the board and not specific just to Brightspeed.  They're just a symptom of the larger disease.  =o\

ETA: Final Update... fingers crossed... I got a call and the phone rang.  It was the tech letting me know it was fixed.  When I sat down at my computer, I had an email that the tech was working on it and another one sent two minutes later that it was fixed.  I guess whatever it was, it was quick fix.  Thank you, Brightspeed techs for working the problem until you resolved it.  Now, if only you can fix the internet so it's not so damn slow.  

Thursday This n That

Still not dead.  

Yesterday, Hubs got the idea to cover the car ahead of the impending ice doom.  We used the boat cover (boat don't need it... it's in the garage with our Jeep).  While we were in the process of putting the cover on Cally Cavalier, a big blue RAV (Rural Assault Vehicle... looked like a little Humvee) pulled into the driveway.  She was looking for her little dog.  I recognized the car as one I'd seen parked in the newly-sold house here, so yay, met the new neighbor.  She seems nice.  Oh, and Hubs had to walk over to turn on the heater in the well house, so he stopped at her house to make sure she found her little dog.  She did.  Happy ending.  Yay.

Not sure yet if we got any ice yet, but we still have power, so yay.  We are as prepped for potential power outages as we can be at this point.  And Cally is about as wrapped against ice as we could make her.  Especially considering she's wearing a camouflage cover designed to be on a 15' boat.  I should take a pic of her in her new outfit.  (Yes, I talk about my car like it's a person.  I've had her longer than Hubs.)  

In the middle of the sleet-pounding we were taking yesterday, I looked out the window to see two deer standing in the woods, covered in white.  Poor babies.  Hubs went out to feed them.  He's such a nice guy.  He put out extra rations for the birds, too.  

Speaking of birds, we had a bunch of them hiding out on our covered porch during the worst of it.  Poor babies.  Winter is hard on animals, especially here where they aren't really used to it.  

Shit's happening in the world and I don't really want to talk about it.  Or think about it.  

I had to make a call to customer service for a nationally known company.  The gal I got barely spoke English.  Like I could understand maybe one in ten words out of her mouth.  I kept asking her to repeat stuff and she'd say it louder, but it was still mostly unintelligible.  It was like talking to a cricket on crack.  Chirp chirpchirpchirp CHIRP! CHIRPCHIRPCHIRPCHIRP.  I had called to ASK what would happen IF I closed my account - like timeframe and billing, etc.  Before I could figure out what she was saying, she closed my account.  I was all like 'NO NO NO', but it was already done.  Just as well, I guess.  I don't want to do business with a company like that anymore anyway.  The next call was to see if I could set up an account with a different company - now on super short notice so I don't have any break in services.  When the gal there answered the phone, I could've wept for joy because she spoke English.  She set me up and there's won't be any break.  Yay.  Would've sucked if she'd told me I had to wait a month.  

You know, I get why companies send their phone trees overseas.  But for pitysakes, find workers who can speak the language your customers use.  You wouldn't hire ME for a customer service line for Mexican customers, would you?  No habla.  (And no, the above cricket wasn't speaking Spanish.  It was just an example.)

I snagged a bucket of cheap ice cream the other day.  Neapolitan.  The last bucket the store had at a price I was willing to pay.  It's pretty tasty... but it has a weird after residue.  Like fat coating the roof of my mouth.  Sorry, that sounds gross.  But it's true.  I'll eat it all, of course, but I won't be buying that brand again.  Ever.

Okay, I should probably wander off to other parts of the web.  Have a great day.  And feel free to leave your this and that if you're so inclined.  

Chaos Diaries

It's been a long time since I did a Chaos Diaries post, but I figured this fit.

I went to Wallyworld yesterday.  It was a fuckin' zoo.  And the price of damn near everything had jumped since my last visit.

Furnace filters... the kind I usually buy at $8+ are now $11+.  (I got a lesser filter for $4+.)

Burger...  90% lean is up to about $5.60 a pound.  

TP... a 12 pack of the Great Value is over $11.

Printer cartridges... the smallest single black is over $21 now.

Suet... the 8-pack of good stuff is almost $10, up from just under $7  (I bought 4 cheap singles at $1.22 each - they used to be 98c.)

To ameliorate the cost of those more expensive things I HAD to buy, I went cheap on some other stuff, but man.  I still walked out with less and paid more.

Going cheap, I bought chicken thighs instead of breasts.  And a whole chicken to roast.  I found pork roast on sale!  Got a huge one that I can cut into easily 5 meals.  They were out of pork burger, which I've been buying because beef is so damn expensive.  I need to buy a meat grinder, I guess.

They were also out of a lot of stuff.  The antacids I usually buy?  Nope.  Picked up a big jug of a different flavor.  (And the price of THAT was up.)  The tissues were almost gone.  I'm buying the cheap stuff because the name brand is pricey, and I got two of the last four boxes.  So many empty spots on the shelves that the cashier said a friend had remarked 'the grocery stores need to go to a grocery store'.

On the upside, I was nice to an assistant manager who was looking particularly harried and she opened a lane just for me.  Another gal checked me out and then went on her merry way.  Sometimes it's the little things.

So, I leave the Big W and go to the feed store.  They're out of whole corn.  Again.  Still $2 higher than I was buying it a year ago.  I ended up getting chopped corn for $9.55 a bag.  (10c more than whole.)  I also bought a bag of birdseed.  The 25 lb bag of cheap seed was nearly as much as a 50 lb bag of sunflower seeds used to be.  

I'm sure you're all facing the same stuff.  I'm just venting.  Or commiserating.  And I'm longing for a couple years ago before the Chaos started, before we got our new feckless leader, when things were looking up and the price of everything was going down.  

Which reminds me... gas was $3.06 a gallon yesterday.  Up from $2.99 last week.  Up Up Up from the $1.78 I was paying prior to inauguration day last year.  Hubs just said it's gonna keep going up for a while here yet.  So hang onto your asses.

But it's not President Sniffy's fault.

Be Warned: I'm Cranky

Late last month, we cancelled our trash service with Republic because they'd jacked up our rates again.  For the umpteenth time since they took over our service a couple years ago.  During my cancellation phone call, the gal informed me they were charging us $30 to come pick up their container.  I was suitably pissed and told her no.  When they took over our service after buying out our previous trash company, they never said anything about anything to us.  We had no contract with the old service and no contract with the new company.  They're the ones who stopped by and removed our old container and replaced it with one of theirs.  After much wrangling, I finally agreed to $15 just to be done with it.  They said they'd pick up the container on the 7th.  Hubs put it out to the road on the night of the 6th, just in case they came early.  No one showed.  Hubs called again and was told someone had stopped by but we didn't have our container out.  Umm... whoever said that was a lazy, no good, lying sack of crap who most likely didn't want to drive all the way out here for one container.  Mom was the office manager for a trash company for 13 years, so I know how some of those guys can be.  Anyway, they set up a new pickup time and actually came.  Friday, the bill for my container pickup fee arrives and they've tacked on a $5 fine for not having the container out.  GAH!  I'll be calling them today.  :flexes claws and bears fangs:

We were awakened in the middle of the night by a particularly large and loud crack of thunder.  It's been booming and raining ever since.  Pouring rain.  Deluge rain.  It's January for pitysakes.  

I'm ditching my PO box, so if any of you have that address, shitcan it.  I got a PO box because the newsletter services all require you to put an address at the end of your newsletter for some lame ass reason, and I didn't want the world at large to have my home address.  I haven't sent out a newsletter in forever and the only stuff I get in my box is junk mail and the two local papers, which we also get here at home.  At this point, having a PO box is just a waste of money.  

Since I haven't been sleeping, last night I figured why go to bed?  I played a little poker and then opened my manuscript to begin rewriting the beginning.  On a non-cranky note, it went well.  Duke is sounding more like Duke now.  Of course, it would've helped if I'd had a firm idea of who the MC was when I wrote the beginning.  :shrug:  The words come when they come and we fix them later.

I did eventually go to bed.  I was tired.  And then I laid in bed for an hour or so before I fell asleep.  The story of my life right now.  I broke down and bought some ZzzQuil, but I haven't tried it yet.  Stuff like that messes me up for days afterward.  I don't have time to be messed up for days right now.  When the not-sleeping makes me more messed up than I would be if I took the stuff, then I'll probably break down and take it.  For now, I'm still functional.  Just tired and cranky.

Thursday This n That

I went fishing yesterday.  It was cold, it was windy, and chances were that the fish wouldn't be biting, but I really needed to blow the gunk out of my pipes.  You know the days - when you feel like throat punching the world and so you yell at the cat.  (Kira doesn't care, but it's still not a good thing to do.)  It worked... it usually does... and I came back in a better mood than when I left.  And HAH, the fish were biting.  I only caught one undersized bass, but I was getting loads of bites.

While I was gone, Hubs was raking leaves.  The guys were working on building the house next door and they waved him over to talk about stuffs.  While they were talking, Hubs learned that the one guy's lady is from Michigan.  He didn't remember the town exactly, but it's about an hour north of Detroit.  And when he was telling me what he thought he might've heard, it sounded like a town pretty near to where I grew up.  Not THAT would be totally 'small world'.  This bears further investigation, because if she actually is from there, it would be total old home week.  And if she isn't, it's still pretty small world if a gal from Michigan moves next door to two other people from Michigan in SW MO.  Know what I mean?

Back to yelling at Kira.  That's the thing about cats versus dogs.  You yell at a dog, and they are totally effected by it.  You yell at a cat and they're all like 'you got a problem, it's your problem not mine'.  If Kira could flip me off, she probably would.  On her way back to bed.

Oh, while I was out at the lake, I saw what I thought was an abandoned goose egg laying amidst the detritus from our last big rain.  And I thought 'wow, something that fragile survived all the wind and the rain and everything', so I picked it up to bring home.  Then I noticed it wasn't an egg at all.  It had spots top and bottom like a seed pod of some sort.  And it was empty.  When I shook it, it rattled.  Upon doing some internet research, I learned it was an Ozark Nest Egg gourd.  They only grow around the Ozarks near rivers and streams.  Cool.

My work email has been down all week.  Something about the provider getting hacked or something.  They're routing as much as we can through alternate addys and they're sending stuff through my private email, but because it's down, they aren't getting what they're supposed to be getting - ie most of the spreadsheets I do.  Blerg.  Hackers should be dipped in honey and staked to an ant hill.  They never think about who they might be hurting when they do their crap.  Little guys like me, that's who.  Little companies like my family's business, that's who.  And even if they go after big companies, that shit rolls downhill to the consumers.  The little guys.  :steam:

I saw a great blue heron yesterday.  Beautiful birds.  Not the prettiest of noises.  Anyway, he honked/grunted at me as he flew by.

Okay, that's about enough out of me.  What's up with you?

Thursday This n That

I saw a commercial the other day for some kind of old people product wherein the lady laments that she's on a fixed income.  This phrase has irritated me since my long ago telephone fundraising days.  I mean, the majority of people have incomes that are fixed - as in they don't change from one paycheck to the next - so I've never been exactly sure why anyone thinks that's a thing to lament.  You know how much money you'll have, so you can budget accordingly.  You want to lament something?  Lament having a non-fixed income where you're not sure how much money you'll be getting and whether you'll have enough to pay bills when your next check drops.  Non-fixed income is why I have never been good at working on commission.  When I have to worry about making enough money to not eat dogfood, I get all tense and weird and can't sell shit.  And buyers can smell the desperation. 

For the record, working on royalties is like working on commission.  Except I'm worrying about where I'll come up with editing funds and not whether I'll be eating dogfood.  Hubs makes sure I don't have to eat dogfood.

Dogfood really should be one word.

Why are some things compound words and other things aren't?  Who makes the rules for that stuff?

Speaking of words, I refuse to put apostrophes in words that didn't use to have apostrophes.  Hallowe'en?  Oh, hell no.  Hawai'i?  Don't get me started. My blog editor is red-squiggling the hell out of those words with the apostrophes.

Oh, yeah, almost forgot.  Happy Halloween!

You know, I didn't really care who won the World Series.  I mean, I was leaning more toward Houston because of leftist DC, but I don't really like the Astros either.  Then the Nats fans had the gall to boo the President.  Then I was really rooting for the Astros. Not sure who won because I went to bed before the end of the final game.  :shrug:

When I'm out and about in the world, I literally don't notice anything about you - your skin color, your eye color, what you wear, tats, piercings, etc. - unless you give me a reason to notice you.  And usually the reason I notice you isn't a good one - you're loud, you're obnoxious, you're standing and talking in the middle of a grocery aisle leaving no room to pass on either side, your kids are running amok. I'd rather have good reasons to notice you - your cute and respectful children, a happy smile turned my way, a cheerful word - but it's your choice.  If you're old or look lost, I'll help you.  Unless you seem like a shit, then you're on your own.

Anyway, I think you've heard more than enough out of me.  What's the this-n-that for you today?

Thursday This n That

Sleep deprivation... It's real and it's deep, man.  There is not enough coffee on the planet today.  I think I need a java IV.  STAT.

Have you noticed the vape commercials on TV?  "May contain nicotine."  They can't advertise cigarettes on TV, but they can advertise that?  I also saw an ad for something like a nicotine pouch you can put in your mouth.  But they can't advertise chew.  Now, I'm not advocating getting rid of those product ads.  I'm just saying if they can advertise, the others should be able to also.  I find the hypocrisy irritating.

Speaking of commercials, have you noticed they've upped the number of them?  Used to be like 3 maybe four commercials every fifteen minutes.  Now it's like 5-7 every ten or so minutes.  And if it's an old show from back in the fewer commercials days, they chop it up and suck parts out of it to allow for the commercials.  Or suddenly an hour long show is like an hour and fifteen. 

The neighborhood guinea hens amuse me.  The other day I was driving out and saw them all sprawled in one of the neighbor's driveway, sleeping and doing their feathers and just generally chilling out.  They're such funny little things.  Of course, sometimes I have to stop and remind them to get out of the road.  Move along, ladies, before someone squashes you flat.

Which reminds me of a funny thing I've seen around the webs.  It goes something like 'Be decisive.  The road is paved with flat squirrels who couldn't make a decision.' 

Speaking of which, I hit a squirrel a couple days ago.  It came from the other side of the road and stopped in the middle.  Then it gave me this horrified, scared look and proceeded to run in front of my car.  I had hoped it would manage to be in the middle of the car, but one of my wheels must've got it because I could see it in the rearview, laying there in the road.  If it had simply stayed where it was or run back the other way, it would've been fine.  But no.  Stupid suicidal squirrel.  And I know there are millions of squirrels, but I always feel bad when I hit one. 

I also feel bad when I hit butterflies.  Lucky for me, it's fleeting or I'd be driving around feeling bad all the time.

I finally remembered to clean my computer vents.  It's running much quieter now.  Whew.  I so do not need a crash right now.

And on that note, I'll let you get back to your morning coffee.  Bottoms up.

Thursday This n That

Hubs and I were looking for something to watch on Sunday night, so we checked out The Miniaturist on Masterpiece.  Wow, was that ever weird.  So, afterwards, I went to the internet to see what it was all about.  Read the reviews of the book.  From the sounds of it, it doesn't get any less weird, so we're done watching.  Plus, it's 'critically acclaimed', which always makes me want to run.  If I'd done the research beforehand, we wouldn't have wasted an hour being confused.

I didn't do a post on Tuesday because it would've either been 'business as usual' or 'heavy-duty ranting'.  BAU seemed inappropriate for the day.  And HDR seemed pointless. 

Two weeks ago a package was supposed to arrive at my home address through the USPS.  It never showed.  It wasn't sent with tracking, so we had no idea where the hell it went.  Inside was some work for me to do and a check.  After waiting, the office re-copied all the paperwork and cut me another check.  That package - exactly like the missing one - arrived Monday.  I took the check to the bank on Tuesday and while I was out that way, I skipped over to the post office to check my PO Box and clean out the usual crap.  (I never get real mail there. I only have one so I can have a physical address to use online without putting my actual address out there.)  Lo and behold, the missing package was in my PO Box.  Some numbnuts had taken it upon themselves to rubber stamp it with a notification to let people know my address was a PO Box.  Umm... it had an actual physical address on it and we receive mail here, so I'm not sure what the hell...  As you can see, I'm still pretty riled up about the whole thing.  Just deliver my freakin' mail to the address written on the goddamned envelope, will you?  Luckily, the office did not stop payment - which costs them $30 a pop - or I would've been really pissed.

On the upside, I have an advance payment on my next group of work.  (Office wanted to do it that way, and who am I to argue?)

Living in the back of beyond has many advantages and a few disadvantages.  Like the local businesses can't find quality help.  Or maybe that's not just rural.  It seems like the quality of the workforce is dropping everywhere. 

Speaking of which, my local Wallyworld seems to be having issues.  There are whole sections of shelving with nothing on them.  For instance, I needed mousetraps.  I went in one week and there were no mousetraps, so I brought it to someone's attention.  They said the computer showed they had 11 in the back, but since they came in 16 packs, that couldn't be right.  They were sure there'd be some next week.  Next week, still no mousetraps.  I found the manager for that area - she's a cool gal - and showed her what was going on.  She was still showing 11 in the back, and yeah, that wasn't right.  So she was going to order another 16.  I told her to order more than that because mouse season is approaching.  She did so.  Lo and behold, the next time I went in they were flush with mousetraps and I bought 12.  (We go through a lot of mousetraps here.  Those buggers love our garage.)  So, are the empty spots on the shelves all there because they think there are more in the back, but there aren't?  Computer error?  Maybe.  But shouldn't some human be checking on that?  Makes me want to go work down there just to fix the errors.  Know what I'm sayin'?

Yesterday morning, Hubs found a toad in his bathroom.  Not sure how the little bugger got in there.  It was sitting on his toilet seat between the lid and the seat.  (We keep our lids closed so Kira won't be tempted to play in the water.)  Now the question is: If a toad can get in, could a snake also get in?  :shudder:

Okay, well, that's probably quite enough out of me for one day.  What's on your radar today?

Thursday This n That - Commercial Edition

The Liberty Mutual commercials irritate the crap out of me.  OMG, you ran into someone and your insurance company raised your rates?  How dare they?  Poor baby.  What about the person you ran into?  Screw them, eh?  Talk about giving in to the entitlement philosophy and the idea that actions shouldn't have consequences.  Gah.  And the one where the kid can't change a frickin' tire and he's screwed because his dad's insurance company won't pay for someone else to come change it for him?  Seriously?  Him, his dad, and his friend... Morons.  In fact, Liberty Mutual makes it seem like all their customers are morons and they only want more morons as customers.  Their 'accident forgiveness' means all the customers without accidents are footing the bill through higher rates.  If I had Liberty Mutual, I'd drop them and run. 

Yeah, commercials these days annoy me.  How many commercials with obnoxious, snotty, entitled kids does a person have to sit through?  They all need spankings.  And loss of privileges.  And if I ever talked to my parents that way, I'd be in deep dirt.  Gah. 

Again, actions with no consequences.  Makes me want to scream.

And what about the commercials where the man is an idiot but his wife is oh-so superior. 

And what the hell is it with the length of commercial breaks these days?  Used to be a maximum of three minutes worth of commercials.  Now it's five to eight minutes.  Blerg.  Stupider commercials and more of them.  Whoopee.

Ahem.  I seem to have been a little testy when I wrote this post.  Not enough coffee and a poor night's sleep.

Suffice it to say, I love the mute button.  And the Jump button on my remote with another good program set for backup.  And barring that, good books to read during commercials. 

Damned Inconsiderate

It's time again for another ranting post about vacationers. 

I live in a resort area.  And yeah, we kind of knew what we were getting into when we moved here.  Summers and the holidays they envelop mean extra people in the neighborhood, extra traffic on the road, and a decrease in common courtesy.  We were not prepared for it to be this bad, though.

I posed the question yesterday to a few locals while I was out and about: Why are people on vacation so damned inconsiderate?  No one knew, but they all agreed.

Oh, I'm sure vacationers lovely at their permanent homes.  They probably pick up after themselves and are respectful of their neighbors' need for sleep.  They probably don't drive like freakin' maniacs and are polite in their local stores.  Their dogs are on leashes and they don't stop to stare at their neighbors' homes/yards or in their neighbors' windows.  They might even drive a little slower in their own home places*.  (Maybe not, but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.)

But they go on vacation and they lose all sense of decorum and civility. 

My poor gals at the smoke shop/bait store/booze emporium looked positively frazzled yesterday.  They said they'd been slammed for days.  As I drove up, a gaggle of women were loading cases of beer and bags of ice into their pickup.  Eight cases of beer and twelve bags of ice.  And just before they left, one ran back inside to make sure the place would be open on the 4th.  Two days later.  Two days, people.  192 cans of beer in two days.  All I can hope is that they weren't bringing that party anywhere near me. 

And this particular holiday comes with sound effects.  Large tents have sprung up along the highways nearest the towns, proclaiming they have the loudest and biggest fireworks ever.  :insert Lurch groan:    I was sitting in my home Sunday night, trying to enjoy Endeavour on Masterpiece, when the evening's warzone ensued.  They probably didn't even consider that some people still had to get up and work on Monday.  Nope, not a whit.  And I even said it out loud when a golf cart full of whoopers and hollerers drove by.  "Hey, some of us have to work tomorrow!" 

At their respective nest holes, wherever they may be, the vacation birds are probably silent on Sunday nights.  Because that's how civilized people behave.  But, like I said, they come here and lose their everlovin' minds. 

It doesn't help that Independence Day falls mid-week this year.  So, there are 'holiday weekends' on either side of the actual holiday.  Twice the partying for the same price, I guess.  Woohoo.

Anyway, I beg you, if you go on vacation reserve at least a tiny part of your brain for thinking about the people around you.  You can have fun without being, as my favorite smoke shop worker put it, a-holes. 

*Holy shit, people, are you trying to vacation at the speed of light, or what?  "Vacation faster, vacation harder"?  Slow down and enjoy the view, for petesakes. 

Data Collection... Or Lack Thereof

First off, let me warn you ahead of time.  I didn't sleep well, I woke up too damn early, and I haven't had nearly enough coffee to be a courteous human being.   If you're down with that, please proceed.

I keep seeing and hearing about Europe's new data collection (supposed protection) law.  I'm unmotivated to do a goddamn thing about it.  It's Europe for petesakes.  They're on the rapid slide to a police state.  I'm here in the US, I never plan on visiting the EU, and I don't do police states, so they can kinda kiss my lily white cheeks, if you catch my drift.

However, since Blogger and the rest of the collective care and I use their services, I guess I should probably give a great goddamn about it.  I'll be researching it later when my brain is more fully engaged to see if and how this effects me.

But here's my less-than-informed answer to it all.  I don't collect data on my blog visitors or my newsletter subscribers.  Blogger collects data, which I rarely bother to look at.  And my newsletter service collects data, which I also don't bother to look at.  Sometimes I might see a jump in visitors to the blog and wonder why and then go to Stats and see where all the hits are coming from.  It's usually Eastern Europe.  Not sure what they're looking at over there and I don't really care other than in a purely curious way.  Like 'hey cool, someone from Lithuania has read my blog'. 

My general blog visits average around 35 people a post.  Sometimes it jumps to over a hundred.  Woohoo.  I'm burning up the internet there.  I have about a dozen newsletter subscribers who haven't seen a newsletter from me since sometime last year.  (Sorry about that, guys, but newsletters are a pain in the butt and since almost all of you stop here, too, I'm just repeating myself there.)

So, let's say I don't jump through all of the EU's hoops to adhere to their silly law.  What's the worst that could happen?  They find me guilty of something over there and request extradition from the US so they can punish me for doing something I don't actually do?  I'm almost at a point in my life where I'm ready to say "Bring it".  So much has gone wonky and stupid in this world, I'm about ready to take my chances.  I think if it weren't for the fact that I'm married and my actions might bring about ramifications for my husband, I'd tell them all to take their GDPR or whatever it's called and shove it where the sun don't shine. 

Ahem...

Anyway, right about now - since the law takes effect on the 25th - you'll be seeing people asking for you to resubscribe to their newsletters so they can make absolutely certain they're adhering to the law.  I'm ignoring those, too.  I don't actually read 90% of the newsletters I'm signed up for, so I probably won't notice if they stop arriving.  If you've signed up for a newsletter and you get it and you decide you don't want to get it, you can always unsubscribe.  It's not that hard.  If you stop at a blog, this or any other, and you're worried about having your data collected, don't visit there anymore. 

I can't speak for anyone else, but I know your data isn't being collected by me for any purpose.  And if Blogger is worried about it, they can certainly stop collecting data on my behalf.  No skin off my ass. 

And as I said before, I haven't researched this and I'm grumpy, so if I've said anything above that is incorrect or whatever, deal with it.  I'm off to find more coffee before my head implodes.

Consider the Source

I read a news story this morning about a thirteen year old girl in California who killed herself because, in her words, 'they called me ugly'.  WTF?  Seriously, WTF?

:climbs the soapbox:

When did we get to the point where we allowed the words of others to have such an effect on our lives?  I mean, sure, when I was younger, I got picked on.  I got called every name but white, and while it certainly didn't make me happy, it didn't drive me to thoughts of suicide.  (Other things might've but that's a story for another time.)

Then I grew up.  And I came to the understanding that the words out of other people's mouths only have as much value as you allow them to have.  Or, as my mom put it, 'consider the source'.  If someone you don't know or don't like, calls you a name, then the name is meaningless.  If someone you do know and like calls you a name, think about whether the name fits and if it doesn't, then the value of that person ought to decrease in your eyes - not the value of yourself.  If it does fit, and you don't like it, work on changing that about yourself. 

I went 'round and 'round with the Kid over this point.  Because, you see, sometimes it has nothing to do with what a parent might say when the world is pushing everyone to take every word of every other person into account.  She would come home crying because some little dipshit said something nasty to her, and I'd try to explain to her that they were wrong and they were dipshits and she really needed to ignore them.  But I couldn't fight the culture that told her the opposite all day every day.  So I yanked her out of that culture and homeschooled her.  It didn't solve the problem - which was ultimately her perception of the value of valueless people - but it did give her a break so she could thrive without their interference. 

The thirteen year old girl wasn't the first such news story and it won't be the last.  A week or two ago, it was a ten year old.  Before that?  Hundreds around the nation.  And what goes unreported are the thousands who live with that crap every day, thinking about how worthless and ugly and stupid and whatever they are because some dipshits told them so.  Dipshits.  They're letting their lives be ruined by what amounts to nothing more than dipshits. 

I won't get into the kids who, because of the above, kill others.  They are dipshits, too.  It's like a fucking disease - dipshitenza.  Where you spend so much time thinking about what the dipshits have done to you that you become one, too.  Or something. 

All I know is it pisses me off.  It's been pissing me off for years.  And there's not a damn thing I can do about it, except take to this blog every once in a while and rant.  I can't change the culture. 

But it does need to change.  Maybe if we all decide we really don't give a rat's furry white ass what other people think, we can make it change little by little.  Teach your children not to put so damn much stock in what other people have to say and think.  Teach them to consider the source. 

And when the culture overrides your wisdom, and your children are beaten bloody by the words of others, hold them tight and hope they can weather the storm long enough to grow out of it.

:climbs down off the soapbox:

'Nuff said.  Until next time when stuff has to be said again.

Crazy Lady at Work

I've spent the past two mornings cleaning up at my go-to fishing spot.  It looked like this...

Looking west toward the entrance to the parking lot.

Looking north at the exit to the parking lot.

 The parking lot, as you can see, is underwater.

I spent about 90 minutes straight yesterday cleaning the flotsam out of the exit.  I spent about 2.5 hours alternately fishing* and cleaning this morning.  All the logs are moved to the side of the exit.  Most of the logs are moved to either side of the road to the entrance.  Except the ones I couldn't manage alone.

Alone.

Hubs was working, so no aspersions cast on him.  No aspersions cast on anyone, really.  Except maybe those who wait for someone else to come in and clean instead of rolling up their pantlegs and wading in.

I did this because I love to fish.  And I love my fishing spots.  This one has been abandoned by whichever government entity owns it.  The concrete picnic tables are all smashed.  The bathroom is locked and overgrown.  The only people who take care of this place are people like me - the fishermen, the nature lovers, the dog walkers who want someplace pretty to wander through on a spring afternoon.  We're the ones who pick up garbage year-round.  And before now, they were the ones who cleaned up after the floods.  Now I'm one of the cleaner-uppers of flood damage, too. 

Some people came down to the park while I was there.  I'm not sure if they came to stare at the receding flood waters or to stare at me.  I don't care.  Come and stare at the crazy lady with her sweatpants rolled up to her knees and her t-shirt tied up under her ribcage acting like a lumberjack, tossing limbs and branches and rolling logs.  Sweat-soaked and stinky and covered in dirt. 

I did it.  And I'm pretty damned proud. 

I'd go and clean up my other favorite spot, except the government has locked the gates there.  Liability, I'm sure.  Protection from the numbnuts who would run amok inside, perhaps.  (Lord knows that during the winter when the park isn't watched, some idiot decided to offroad in part of the park, tearing huge grooves in the lawn.  Asshole.)  I'll wait and let the official park personnel do their jobs - because I have to not because I want to. 

Tomorrow, maybe, I'll attacked the go-to spot from the other end of the submerged road.  I'll need to bring a saw.  A couple of trees had fallen across there before the flood even began, when we had that EF0 tornado in the area, and if those are above the water line, I'll need to get those out of the way so I can work.  We'll see.

All I know right now is that I can fish at my favorite place again because I didn't wait for someone else to clean it out.  Maybe I can't fish all the way out on my standin' rock, but I can't make the water recede any faster.  I'm good, but I'm not that good.  ;o)


* I didn't catch anything, but the fish were jumping and I did get some bites.  I'm blaming not catching on getting used to the new-old rigs.

Thursday This n That

I'm not good with remembering what day it is anymore.  Not for the whole day, anyway. 

I hate talking to customer service.  Anywhere.  But I volunteer to do it because better me than my loved ones.  I mean, I did phone stuff for work from my telemarketing job in college to my secretarial job right before I quit working for other people and began writing seriously.  About 14 years worth.  I've encountered just about every kind of call - irate people, ignorant people, heavily-accented people, argumentative people, and, lest you think all phone calls are bad, incredibly competent people.  So, it just makes sense for to throw myself on that grenade, ya know?

Anyone else ever notice that Hallmark sympathy cards are $2-3 more expensive than similar sized birthday cards?  If that don't just cork your tomaters.  Freakin' gouging.  Really makes me think less of Hallmark, lemme tell ya.

They're having a big 'pick up trash around the lake' day on Saturday.  Umm...  Yah.  They do this every year.  One day where everyone goes and picks up trash.  The sponsoring organization provides trash bags and bottles of water and has dumpsters set around so people can throw the trash somewhere other than their own garbage cans.  I find this mildly irritating.  It's something I do all the time.  But if I go sign up, I can do it on Saturday and get pats on the head and free stuff.  Oh well, at least someone else will be doing something, if only for one day.  I have encountered others like me, picking up trash on a regular basis, and I say kudos to them.  Kudos to us all, I guess.  I'd just like it all better if people would quit leaving trash all over the damn place so we all wouldn't have to pick up after them.  Jus' sayin'.

We're cereal mixers here.  My go-to is half Honey Bunches of Oats and half Life.  Hubs prefers Honey Bunches of Oats and Crunch Berries.  Sometimes Cheerios end up in there somewhere.    Sometimes I put a peach cup in mine (after I slurp the juice out).

Well, that's it for me.  Any this-n-that for you today?

Thursday This n That

Every day it gets a little more difficult to not post what I really want to post. 

The weather here has been cold.  Which means no fishing since last Thursday.  I really really hope I can get out today.  My sanity needs to drown worms for a few hours.

The jury's still out on whether the cold snap affected my gardens.  My peonies already had small buds before the snow and cold.  =o\

I really hate Windows 10 and I don't even have it.  But someone I help with computers via the phone does and it really sucks.  I have to google screen shots of things because I tell her where to click and it's not there anymore.  It's over there, or over there, or gone entirely.  But I am NOT going to load that crap on my computer even if having it here makes it easier to support her there.  What I'd really like is for MS to stop 'fixing' things that weren't broken to begin with.  And stop 'idiot-proofing' things so they're damn near impossible to do.  Gah.

I wrote this last night and I was feeling particularly bitchy.  I've been feeling bitchy for days.  And sometimes a gal's just got to let it out.  (Lord knows, Hubs has heard enough.)

On a happier note, I noticed one of our deer is pregnant.  I mean, most of the big does probably are, but this is the first time this year one of them is noticeably pregnant.  She's still carrying up around the ribs - natch, because they don't drop fawns until May - but she's getting wide in the sides.  Yay!

Okay.  Tell me something happy.  Or just give me your this n that. 

Sunday Update - Week 19

Last week was devoted to two things: The Kid was here AND getting Fertile Ground ready for publication.

So, the Kid arrived a week ago yesterday.  We hung out, did some driving around, hung out some more, ate, chatted, shopped, etc.  I'd post pics of us together, but I forgot to get authorization from her to release her picture publicly, so you'll just have to imagine it.  I took her back to the airport on Friday and she had a problem-free trip home (which is a miracle when you're connecting through O'Hare.)  Good times were had by all, but it's also good to get back to normal.

Speaking of normal, I had to finish proofing and formatting Fertile Ground while she was here so I could keep my promise of releasing this on the 16th.  I did it.  It's done. If you find errors in it now, they were inserted by gremlins while I slept.  Anyway, I'll shout about release day pretty much everywhere tomorrow. 

In case you missed it, I posted the first chapter of Fertile Ground on Friday - here and here.  Seems like people were sufficiently creeped out by the beginning, which is a good thing for a suspense novel. 

I sent out a special edition of the newsletter last night with some stuff just for subscribers.  If you're not a subscriber, you missed out.  Easily rectified for next time. Just sign up for the newsletter.

Between getting ready for the Kid's arrival and getting FG ready for public consumption, my 'do something active every day' thing got derailed.  Not that I wasn't active almost every day, but not much of it was organized exercise. 

I also haven't read any other writers' words lately. 

We lost internet Friday afternoon, which had me totally freaking out.  It's hard to release a book without internet access.  Hard? Try impossible.  Anyway, I called the company and got some dude who said his name was Ramone but who sounded like a hack taxi-driver in a Bollywood movie.  He assured me there were no problems on their end, and proceeded to walk through testing my modem.  Twenty minutes later he tells me he was just informed that there was, in fact, a problem on their end and it would be resolved by 5:15 my time, and then guaranteed me I'd get a call when it was fixed.  Couple hours roll by and I notice the light on my modem is no longer flashing red, so I try the internet.  It's fixed.  No call.  D'oh.  They finally called around 6pm to tell us we had internet - by recorded message. 

For the record, I don't have a problem outsourcing phone support to another country.  If it gets me stuff here cheaper, then more power to them.  I have a problem with trying to get technical stuff done by talking to a person who hasn't had the proper training in English.  How would they feel if they called tech support in their country and got someone who barely spoke their language? As pissed as I do, most likely. Jus' sayin'.

I've been seeing a lot of hit animals on the road again this Spring.  I know it's not any of you, but for the love of whatever god you worship, pay attention on the roads.  It's mating season right now and the critters are out in force.  Yes, I know, sometimes it's unavoidable.  I hit a barn swallow yesterday after it swooped in front of my car.  I also hit a squirrel last year because he ran under my wheels.  But I also missed several other animals because I was paying attention.  Especially turtles.  Turtles don't dart out in the road and unless you have traffic coming at you, you can usually swerve to miss those. 

That's about it for me today.  Got any updates in your part of the world?