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Well this is fun

December 21st, 2012 at 01:59 am

I know that I wanted a white Christmas and everything but this is getting unreal. I have never shoveled a driveway as much as I have today. So this morning we got up at the butt crack of dawn and shoveled. Luckily a neighbor (who I just met today) came over with a snow blower and helped out with our driveway. I have got to get one of those. I had to go to work today. Since the company I work for didn’t declare a weather emergency (even though the Governor declared a state of emergency) if I had called in it would have been an occurrence against me. I made it all though way to work and turning into our parking lot did a 180. That was fun. After 4 hours my wife called and said it was getting worse, so I told my boss I was leaving. I don’t think she liked it a lot but what are we supposed to do, risk life or injury for a job. I love my job but not that much.

I was able to take a short nap and wrap the rest of the presents in between shoveling the driveway. So I feel like I have accomplished something. I think the plows have GPS in them that tell when someone just finished shoveling the driveway. Three times today, I finish my driveway and the plow comes by and buries the end of our driveway. I think that we are at about 10 or 11 inches so far with more on the way and a nasty wind tonight. We’ve already lost a couple of privacy bushes that snapped because of the weight of the snow. And now it is like plaster on the trees. You have to hit it with a shovel to get it to come off the trees and bushes instead of shaking it. My son made a square snowman. He armed it with a couple of snowballs. Kind of funny looking actually.

I’m sorry this is kind of random and all over the place. I guess I’m having a hard time concentrating. I must have seen something shiny. Have a good night everyone.

Pretty boring

December 19th, 2012 at 02:37 am

Nothing too much going on these days. I thought I would write a quick update anyway. Tomorrow night we start the winter storm they are expecting, well if it stays the course it is on. They actually say it will be a blizzard by the end of Thursday. They are expecting us to get 14 inches, with winds upwards of 45 mph. We'll find out how the new roof holds up. But that requires we actually get the snow.
I’ve decided I’m not going to open the account at Ally. Like I said I am more than happy to jump thru a few hoops, but the hoops they want me to jump thru isn’t worth my time for the extra couple of pennies I would get each month. Maybe, if Capital One messes up ING I will look online again, but for now I will stick with ING.
We haven’t heard from the Social Security Agency about the $12,000 they want back from my son. The say he was paid in error. We say no, so we appealed it. We should have heard from now. They only have 30 days to respond and it has been over 30 days since we sent in the paperwork. But what am I talking about, it’s the Government. They move at their own glacial pace.
I had to make fudge tonight for a Christmas party tomorrow. Also we didn’t get our annual bonus this year and talk is that we aren’t going to get them. Apparently, when the company makes bucks they want to give it to the CEO’s instead of the employees who made the bucks. Oh well, I’m just happy to have a job. That’s about all for now.

Up early

November 22nd, 2012 at 12:34 pm

Not much to write about. Once again I was up at 3 am today. Third day in a row. After laying there forever I got up and putzed. If I wake up again tomorrow at 3 I may just have to get my butt out of bed and goto the stores, or bake. I'll see my mood. It's hard to want to goto the store when I can buy almost everything online these days.

Speaking of online shopping, I did some today. Saved $90.00 at one store and free shipping. Gotta love the gift certificates I can build up throughout the year. So now my son is almost done with his list. Just have to get a few things such as clothes.
I will say the nice thing about being up this early is that it is really peaceful and I get a lot of stuff done.

Pretty soon it will be busy with the wife starting to cook Thanksgiving dinner. It still cracks me up, she is doing a lot of the cooking and then we are taking it over to her sister's house. But she wants to be able to leave when she wants from there and not have them stay here until midnight. (they would do that to) So I'm okay with that.


Anyway, I've rambled enough so now I'm going to go putz around some more.

Nothing Special

November 11th, 2012 at 03:31 am

Hi everyone. I thought I would get back to writing since it’s been basically a year. Things here have been fun and challenging. I will just give a quick preview and go into details a little later. The family and I moved into our own place in June (finally). I got a job promotion (sort of) at work. The trustee for our bankruptcy still hasn’t decided what to do with the property in Arizona. I had to have my tonsils out and a deviated septum fixed. My stepson’s Social Security was cut off, and now they want $11000.00 back. So that is a fight. Anyway there’s more but I will write later.

Been awhile

September 18th, 2011 at 12:31 am

I thought I would post an update since I have a second. Things here are extremely hectic. My job has been going great, and we just stopped unlimited overtime, so that was a nice start to a job. Put some money aside for future things. (After I splurged and bought a blu-ray player that I've wanted for the last two years.) So now I should get home at a decent hour and go in at a decent hour. My insurance starts in two weeks and I can't wait. Also we get to put my son on it for a quarter of what we pay now with his own policy, so that will be some nice cushion each month.
My wife didn't get the job at the hospital but she is still looking. Her job isn't getting any better. They are clearly getting ready to do a round of layoffs. they keep taking hours and duties from people. My DW keeps getting her hours messed with. One week it is 40 hours the next it is 25 hours. Hard to budget with that kind of schedule. But at least I have a job to help her out.
My son is doing well in football, his team isn't but he is. At least he doesn't want to play anymore sports after football until next year, so we get a break to breathe and save some money instead of spending it all on sports. Otherwise he likes being a freshman. It's a new experience and he's doing well.
My DW wanted a fire in the fireplace last night it got so cold, and I wasn't ready to turn the heat on yet.
Haven't heard anything about our bankruptcy, but I don't really expect to until around the end of October, that is when our 60 day period for creditors to dispute is up.
But that is about all for now. I hope everyone is having a nice weekend.

Just an update

August 16th, 2011 at 03:15 am

I don't know if I mentioned but the hospital called last week and want me to start this Wednesday. I start and then go thru orientation when everyone else does next week. I am very excited. Anyway, I went for my physical and after being poked and prodded the lady says you pass, but, (there's always a but) we need a release from your surgeon that you can sit for 8-10 hours a day. Really?! It takes this guy three weeks just to return a message and I am supposed to get a faxed release by Wednesday 8 am? Needless to say discouraged as heck. But I called, and I must have made a heck of an impression, his nurse remembered me from 5 mths ago, and rushed thru the release for me. So they had it within 3 hours. I am so stoked. So I actually get to start on Wednesday.

My wife and I went to open an EF at the bank on Friday. They probably think I am nuts because I realized I will have a paycheck next week instead of 3 weeks away. I did my happy dance in the bank. I'm sure they will have a good laugh at the weekly meetings while they watch the security footage.

My wife had an interview tonight at the same hospital. Different company/department but same place. That would be nice if she got it and we could car pool. If she would get it would save about 70 miles a day in driving. So gas would go down. The real kick in the shorts is she would make $1.30 less an hour than she does now, but would bring home $25 more a paycheck than she does now. (and that doesn't include the gas savings) At the hospital she would work 40 hours a week, at her current place she is lucky to get 35 hours a week, but usually 32. So we are hoping.

My son is disappointed, he didn't get the job he wanted. I have to remind him he is only 14 and not many people will hire him, plus his sports schedule is not real work friendly. Someday, someone will have to explain to me why high school fb coaches don't give a rip about anything but their practices. (they change practice days, times, don't communicate things).

Our Bankruptcy hearing is next week, so I am excited to see that coming to an end. Now if I can just get a hold of the attorney. I tell you, a person wins one election and all of a sudden you aren't good enough for them.

But that's all for now.

Finally passed the test

August 11th, 2011 at 11:06 pm

Well, wouldn't you know it, there was a hiccup with my drug test for my job. I failed it. (actually it was inconclusive) I apparently I tested positive for Meth and Opiates which to me is really funny. So they had to send the drug test out for more detail. I finally heard back today and I passed the test. The moral of the story here is don't go and have any kind of procedure where you get injected with something right before a drug test, you will false positive. Of course because of that they wouldn't even do the physical, so that has been rescheduled for this Monday, which means I won't start until August 22nd. Of course that is 2 days before our bankruptcy hearing. I will be interested to see how the courts handle that. I know what I will make and the hours I will work, but nothing about take home (insurance, 401k etc). I just know some of my expenses like gas and food will go up. Driving every day changes your usage, and I'm sure as heck not going to the cafeteria everyday for lunch. they have this thing where you can swipe your name badge and get your food deducted from your paycheck. No thanks. That would be trouble for me.

My wife's hours keep changing. It is getting very frustrating. She drives about 90 miles a day roundtrip so sometimes the hours she gets in the week doesn't even cover her gas bill. She is going to start looking closer to home. There is a job at the hospital that I got hired at. The nice thing she would be under a different company and a different department so we wouldn't get see each other. It would be about 20 miles roundtrip from home. I think she is going to apply, I hope so.

My wife and I decided talked to the bank the other day and they have a savings account that doesn't require a huge amount of money in it each month. Since we don't have credit cards, this way if either one of us gets into a jam, we can just transfer the money and hopefully pay for the jam. Eventually, I am going to open an ING account for a Christmas fund. That way I don't spend more than I have available.

I finally feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel, so I am not as stressed and sad. And with that, I am going to make some stir-fry for dinner.

A Job

August 2nd, 2011 at 09:11 pm

Today has been eventful. We went to register my son for high school. He is going to be a freshman this year. We had to pay 161.00 to register him. Of course some of that is because he had to pick classes that required him to pay extra to take the class. I guess public school isn't that cheap anymore.

We had some extra cash come in the other day. That was a nice surprise. We were actually able to pay off my car repair as well as put a few hundred dollars away for the future.

And the big news. I finally got a job. After all the health crap and financial stuff, I finally got a job. And it is something I want to be doing. I get to work in a hospital doing billing. I start Monday. I just have to pass the physical tomorrow. I'm sure I will get popped for my weight, otherwise I hope everything else goes well. Of course this could throw a wrench in my bankruptcy, but I am not going to miss an opportunity to make money just to make bankruptcy go smoothly. But it shouldn't do to much damage, the creditors are already going to get almost 100% of their money, between my health lawsuit and our land lease contract that we get paid each month. I am so excited. I can't wait.

Broke but have to spend money

July 29th, 2011 at 02:48 am

So yesterday we got our bankruptcy paperwork in the mail. We have our hearing date in late August. The thing that makes me laugh and go duh is the rules. I screwed up so I'm willing to pay the piper. My point is we had to take a credit counseling class before (and pay for it) and then to discharge our bankruptcy we have to take a debtor education class which will cost anywhere from $20 to $100. (I'm waiting for the attorney to tell me if there is a specific one). The reason we are filing bankruptcy is because we have no money, but hey let's go and make people spend more money to get out of debt. Genius.

Speaking of spending money. My car went kaput today. I was able to get to the place to fix it. Of course while fixing it they found something else wrong almost doubling the bill. The people were really nice though. They found me a $150 coupon online and are going to give me my next oil change free so that is cool. So instead of $1125 it was only $980. Luckily we have a credit card just for such emergencies or I would have been really S.O.L. I have a couple hundred bucks we saved and can put towards the card, but have to figure out where the rest comes from. If the plasma place would pay cash instead of debit card here, I would donate but they feel plastic is better. Go figure.

Otherwise, anytime that Karma or whatever it calls itself wants to stop making me the butt of some cosmic joke, that would be great. It can take its friend murphy with it. I have enough laws to deal with right now.

Okay, done whining. I don't have it as bad as some people and it will get better eventually.

An Open Letter to Government

July 28th, 2011 at 03:24 pm

To the members of Congress:
I am respectfully asking you to get it together and raise the debt ceiling. It doesn't matter what side of the isle you are on, it needs to be done.
To the Democrats, cut the entitlements. Cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. I know that is your pride and joy, but it is time to make some hard choices. Just so you are aware my son is on Social Security and I am on Medicaid, so I will be affected just like everyone else, but I am still willing to make the sacrifice. Are you?
To the Republicans. Why are you willing to let the middle and lower class shoulder the burden of tax cuts? Why aren't the people who can afford it the most having to pay their fair share? It's time to close some loopholes and raise revenue to help the budget.
I have no doubt that you all feel you are doing what's best for this Country. But in reality, you are not. If you cause the Government to default, you are putting the economy at risk, as well as the people who hired you. Why are you not willing to make the tough decisions? Are you afraid you will upset the voter base and not get re-elected? Oh well, you were sent there to do a job, it may be tough and it may eventually cost you the job, but nonetheless it is a job, so do it. Thank you for your time.