2011: The Good.. The Bad.. The WTF!!!

… I know, I know!! It’s been far too long since I had the opportunity to just sit and blog. I should just MAKE the time but it’s the same old.. same old.. life happens, yknow?

Anyway..

I promise I will commit.. at least right NOW I promise to commit. You have to agree I need a reality show so just go easy on me!! LoL!!

Now.. back to it.

In the time honored tradition of ME101 .. let’s recap 2011

I may need a valium for this!

Okay.. the good stuff first:

After living without electricity for close to five months, we were finally able to move into The House Of My Almost Dreams. I say “almost” because we’re renting.. if I was paying a mortgage instead of rent well then.. you get the idea! But believe me, we were truly blessed to find this house. It was everything I was looking for LAST year when we thought we were moving to West Virginia.

But I think I told you all this already.

On-set Alzheimer’s. Throw me a bone, here.

Spaz started a new school and he actually has a friend. A NORMAL friend… well, as normal as anyone who would want to hang around Spaz can be. They’re kind of like the two misfits in the lunch room who sit with eachother because there is no one else to sit with. Believe me, I’m not being sarcastic. But his friend is a nice boy. Respectful and friendly. Lives close by and they even joined a school club together. Who am I to complain? It’s a step up. Believe me.

Spaz has also become a little LESS spazzy since we moved.. not ready for another nickname yet but he’s a lot better then he was so kudos to him. Being around his brothers is a WHOLE other story.. but we’ve addressed it. Told him that his attitude doesn’t get a free pass anymore because he doesn’t realize he has an attitude after spending time with them and that will be the end of it.

Did it sink in? Time will tell.

I did go back to work in May. Loving the job.. loving an actual paycheck now.. the company was sold to another company in October but so far there isnt anything to worry about. For now. But when God closes one door another opens so I’m just riding the “see what happens” wave.

My aunt bought another car and gave me her old one. It’s about 10 years old but still in great condition. The reduced rent made carrying another car on my insurance possible so now we’re actually using less gas because Chief doesn’t have to drive me to work and then pick me up. Bonus.

There may not be very many GOODS this year.. but what was GOOD is VERY VERY GOOD so I’m extremely blessed.

Now for the BAD..

When we moved out of our old house, the old landlord became very shady about giving us back out 2700.00 security deposit. Even though he gives slumlords a good name, he was fair to us when we needed him to be (think paying rent on time) and so we offered every opportunity to be fair to him. The security was suppose to be held in escrow but everybody and their mother with distant relatives knew that he didn’t have it available when he was suppose to. And if he would have just called us and told us that, we would have been cool but he decided to ignore phone calls, set up appointments for the final walk through that he didn’t keep, ignored more phone calls and then tried to pull a pile of crap out of his ass so we had to file a civil suit against him.

According to Pennsylvania’s Landlord / Tenant Act, if he didn’t return the security OR a list of deductions with the balance of the security within 30 days then he has to give us everything back. If we sued him for the original amount, he can’t counter sue us. If we sued him for double the amount (which we could) then he could counter for up to the original amount only. Either way, we walk out with the security.

We’re not greedy. We’re only suing for the original amount.

After he was notified, he sent us a certified letter outlining all the thing that we were responsible for (excuse me while I choke on complete fabrication) along with wanting to get paid for November’s rent. We were out of the house by November 1st. He’s clawing at straws. Either he really does think he has a case OR he never dealt with tenants who are actually literate and know how to read laws.

Either way, watch what happens.

The worst thing that happened this year.. actually the two worse things.. happened fairly recently and destroyed my heard.

Al .. one of our cats .. decided she wanted to be a complete outdoor cat when we moved. At the old house, she was outside 90% of the time but once we moved she decided there were far too many interesting things at the new place to waste time indoors. She stayed on the property.. had her condo on the front porch.. always had fresh food and water.. and was a happy camper.

The Saturday before Christmas Eve, Chief and I had returned in the late morning from shopping. As we turned in the driveway, Chief saw Al curled up at the bottom of the driveway.. dead. He rushed me into the house before I completely burst into tears and buried her under the japanese maple tree on our front lawn.

She wasn’t hit by a car.. and he had seen her early in the morning doing her morning yoga stretches on the front porch and she was fine. Beyond being upset, we were completely puzzled until the guy who exterminates my office building said it sounded like she had gotten into antifreeze.

Made sense.

The weather had gotten colder and I’m sure there were people in the neighborhood that put antifreeze in their cars and maybe spilled some.. hell, I could have spilled some. I don’t know.. but I sincerely doubt it was intentional. It’s just one of those horrible, hurtful things. The exterminator said that animals can’t resist antifreeze because it smells so sweet and that it can kill them in as little as 2 hours.

So let that be a lesson..

Al had had a litter of 6 kittens back in May. We kept one that we just started calling “Retard”. It’s a long story and if you’re offended then .. what can I tell you. My sandbox. But the name fit her and she was the most loving, friendly, comical, prettiest kitten you ever wanted to see.

The picture doesn’t do her justice.

She was more like a puppy, actually.. especially when I would come home from work and she would run to the door with the dogs to greet me.

About a month after we moved into the new house, she got out.

She used to follow Chief outside when he would be out there chopping wood or doing whatever.. but this time she went out the bedroom window and never came back.

We did everything that owners of lost kittens are suppose to do but nothing. Honestly, she is probably living large in someone’s house. She had no fear of people and if she wandered into someone’s yard, she would have went right to them.

that’s what I’m telling myself so don’t burst my bubble. I know everything I did wrong so you don’t have to bring that up either and it’s breaking my heart just typing this so I’m going to leave it alone.

So now we’re down to three dogs.. 1 cat.. and I pity the husband that tries to bring another animal into this house!! LoL

Now for the W.T.F!!

Believe me.. it deserves it’s own post so I’m going to run to the bathroom.. get a cup of coffee.. and set to typing!

City Girl With A Country Soul

Growing up in the heart of South Philly, there was a LOT of opportunity to get into “street” trouble ..

My father was having none of that so from a very young age, my brother and I spent weekends and summers at his family’s 80 acre horse farm upstate. They were family in that “Italian” way .. not blood related but closer then close is close.

I LOVED the farm .. no matter how old you were, there was always something that had to be done and you did it from sun up to sun down.. and when dinner was finished *and if you were still awake* there were bonfires or night rides or fire works… you were outside more then you were in .. in fact, I remember not being ALLOWED IN the house until dinner time! .. some thing a lot of kids today know nothing about .. well, at least my step kids know nothing about that.. or hard work.. or making your own fun.. or a variety of other things that I don’t want to bring myself down thinking of..

I lived and breathed horses.

There’s nothing I loved more as a kid and well into adult hood.. then slapping on my Ariats.. turning the horses out.. mucking stalls.. loading bales of hay on the ‘gator’.. feeding.. grooming.. taking riders out on the trails..

You name it, I loved to do it ..

There were some real characters up there, let me tell you.. and my family led the pack.

ALL of them needed some type of Prozac.. and probably still do!

I’ve lost contact with them after I got divorced. For some reason, they sided with my ex.. probably because he was a mental head just like they are.. and I wasn’t welcome there anymore. It broke my heart and still does. My mother never understood why I would be upset .. she hated it up there. Loathed it. But funny that my mom brought it up a little bit ago when we were looking for a place upstate to move …

Yea.. it would have been nice but what are you going to do, right?

Anyway..

I started thinking about all those days at the ranch after having a convo with my Texas Rose Gfriend .. and how I always knew that my ass was meant to be in the country and not the city.

City life never appealed to me .. yea, I had my days at the clubs and running the streets when I was a teenager but it felt more like an anomaly more then a way of life. I’d much rather be in jeans, flannel and boots then panty hose and skirts.

Oh.. but the heels were ALWAYS near and dear to my heart!

Wasn’t giving up the heels! LoL!

Thankfully,

Chief feels the same way about living in the country .. he HATES the city. He’s a suburban boy by birth but his dad had had a piece of property further upstate that he had built a house on and that’s where he took Chief and his brother’s .. and where they learned to hunt.. fish.. a survive in the wilderness.

Unfortunately, his mother wanted half the property when she divorced his father so he had to sell it.

What’s with taking something you hate from somebody that loves it in a divorce? I’ll never understand that!

Again, anyway ..

When trying to explain ranch life to people, I always told them that is was as easy as it was hard .. no doubt it’s hard, physical work.. but it was easy because you didn’t have to think so much …

You knew what had to be done and you did it .. complete opposite from working in an office with figures and contracts and abstracts.

Get up.. Work.. Go to sleep

Doesn’t get much easier then that!

So my heart is kind of missing that life .. missing the horses, especially.. missing getting chased by the peacocks.. watching births.. chasing down the horses when they broke free from the pens.. being covered with dirt and hay and manure ..

It was my  life for a long, long time and there’s nothing wrong with missing..

Maybe one day I’ll have it back..

And when I do, I’m going to have a big ass cook out and y’all are invited!!

Courtesy

I didn't realize this patch was from WV when I swiped it .. talk about irony!

WARNING: Rant ahead

So .. yknow.. I’m the giver. Not much of a taker.

Even though I know that sometimes I have to be humble enough to ask for help when I need it, I usually don’t because I do what I have to do to make whatever works. I’m independent that way .. or call it self sufficient, maybe.

But when I do need help, the first people I go to is my family.

I’m blessed with an AWESOME family who will lend a hand whenever I need them to.

Ok.. so the ranting is going to begin now.

Y’all know my RV, Consuela, is currently 9 hours away in West Virginia. And y’all know that I need to get it OUT of West Virginia because we’re not moving there now and it isn’t parked on the property we bought.

After everything that happened during the road trip from hell, I get a bleeding ulcer whenever I think about driving back there to get Consuela and then driving her right back here.

I’m also worried about putting another 800 miles on my car but there’s really no way to get there from here and back without it. It’s not like it’s on a train route!

I would just feel a hell of a whole lot more comfortable if there was another adult with us. Someone who would ride with Chief on the way back so if there’s some kind of an issue with Consuela, he wouldn’t be by himself. To me, having another set of hands to help him would just make me feel better.

So I figured I’d ask my 26 year old former Marine Godson.

He really doesn’t have the responsibilities that my other friends and family do .. he lives at home, works three days a week.. and generally just “lives the life” if you know what I mean.

So at the beginning of the week I sent him a message asking if him and his girlfriend (who I adore and adores me back) wanted to take a road trip .. I promised fun, adventure and rest stop breaks but also let him know that I was kind of in a jam. He messaged me back saying that his girlfriend was working this weekend (the original plan was to go this weekend before all the damn snow) but asked me what I had in mind.

I send him a message explaining to him about Consuela and why I wanted him to come with.. and how my stomach is in knots and would really, really feel better if he came along.

Never heard anything back.

He’s been on Facebook posting status’ and whatever so I know he got the message.. he just didn’t respond to it.

And I’m kind of upset about it ..

I’m not one to keep lists of who does what for whom but I did a lot for this kid.. was there for him every step of his way..supported him when no one else would .. he knows that he can talk to me about anything and would loved him no matter what and it just hurts that the one time … the ONE time I ask him for a favor, he couldn’t even respond to it.

I did tell him that I would completely understand if he didn’t want to go… I’m not upset that he told me he DIDN’T want to go.. I’m upset because he didn’t tell me one way or the other..

Because isn’t that a life lesson? It is for me ..  it’s being reliable.. conscientious.. mindful of other people’s time and plans..

And it’s just weighing on me so I had to unload.

Eventually, I’ll talk to him and ask him about it .. I don’t necessarily think that calling him up now at 5am is going to benefit either of us, yknow?

<< end rant >>

@#$%^&*

Is there post traumatic stress syndrome for snow fall?

There really should be…

Think about it ..

People here that snow’s coming so they rush to the market to get the “essentials” :: bread, eggs, milk, coffee, sweet tarts :: all at the same time .. sliding through stop signs and traffic lights.. cursing other drivers over parking spaces.. etc.

I love the people that will buy SHOPPING CARTS full of bread, milk and eggs because of a storm. Like, really people?? Even when we got 70″ last year, the roads were clear enough the following day to travel on .. it’s not like we’re in the middle of the boonies with no access to paved roads.

I hate snow for a variety of reasons but mostly different from normal people:

I hate the kids tracking snow through the house ..

I hate when they throw their wet coats over the dining room chairs instead of hanging them on the front porch

I hate when they whine that their boots are wet when they’re told AS SOON AS THEY COME IN to take them off and but them upside down on the heater to dry out

I hate when they bang the snow off their shoes and the dogs start barking like we’re being invaded by strangers .. three kids.. six feet..  get the idea?

I hate when the snow plow builds the Waaaaallllll Oooooooofffff Snnoooowww all around my property and you have to climb a mountain to get to the car… because this size 16 ass sinks to the bottom of it.

But don’t worry .. I’ll be bitching about how damn hot it is in a few months! It all evens out!

Here’s the obligatory pictures. Only one is mine.. the rest I swiped off of my friend’s pages on Facebook because I really didn’t feel like taking pictures of the same old scenes and I wasn’t about to get all suited up in snow gear to go outside!! LoL!

Wall Of Snow .. appears smaller then it really is

 

Mind you, the door where I took this picture from is a lot higher then the street so what looks like a mole hill is actually a mountain.

I live on a corner property and since the plows always plow to the right of the driver, this mountain goes all the way around the side of my house.

Expect it to still be there in April.

 

 

 

 

D's car ..

 

This is my friend D’s car.

She lives in the inner city.

It doesn’t really look so bad but considering that D is an uber-fashionista who doesn’t know what it’s like to where shoes with a heel less then 3″ .. regardless of weather .. I can imagine that she had a minor freak out when she saw her car.

I also don’t think she knows that therma guard gloves and hat’s meant to keep a body warm exist.

 

 

J's hood

 

 

J also lives in the inner city.

When you live in the city, you don’t get plowed like we get plowed.. especially on side streets and you get a fine if you shovel your side walk snow into the street.

That actually makes sense but makes people crazy.

What also makes them crazy .. and lethal, in some cases, is when someone digs their car out of a parking space and tries to “save” it with beach chairs or buckets or whatever. Snow makes people crazy, let me tell you!

 

L's development

 

L lives in a “community” in New Jersey.

The kind of place that tells you what color to paint your house and how tall your grass is allowed to grow.

I’m figuring next year they’ll amend their community regs to include just how much snow one is allowed to accumulate before they issue a fine.

Hey.. times are tough all over, right?

L actually has it good because the back of his property slopes down .. fun for sledding without the embarrassment of having neighbors laughing at your simple 45 years old ass when you fall off and get snow burn on your face.

 

 

 

So to all you lovely readers experiencing weather ABOVE 31 degrees, I have a few words for you… but I’m not allowed to say them because I was raised right!!

LoL ..

Reality Check

You know.. I have a habit of saying that I need to get paid to live my life.

I’m serious.

A check would really, really, REALLY be helpful right now!

Anyway.. ok.. so…

Reality Check.

The real kind.

WARNING: Nothing you are about to read is made up. I can assure you that I am not sitting up in my double king sized bed surrounded by over spoiled lap dogs and tons of pillows getting annoyed by my assistant who keeps bursting into my sanctuary to take calls from various people listed on the Who’s Who of The World.

I so wish.

Anyway..

So we’re home from our road trip and I’m absolutely dreading Tuesday. Why? Because Tuesday is when my bank processes every transaction from the weekend. And even though I’ve been literally squeaking because I am very, very cautious when spending money since we closed the store we completely had to trash my account because of the Road Trip.

I was due for an unemployment check on Wednesday.. but it’s the next to the last one so this was NOT a good time to trash the finances. Necessary, of course. Even though we didn’t spend anything we absolutely didn’t have to.. we still spent more then we thought we would.

Still, I didn’t think it was going to be ALL that bad.. I thought that we were covered because I wrote a check for the $191.00 title/tag fee for Consuela. Remember I said that I could float that because by the time it was deposited it wouldn’t clear until Wednesday when my unemployment came in?

Yea.

No.

When I dared enough to take a peek at my account online, the check had already cleared. What? Wait… WHAT?

I know for a fact that my bank doesn’t have a local branch but  I guess the notary had some type of electronic gizmo that processes checks the same way one would process credit or debit cards. I know they exist and really, in this day and age why wouldn’t you have a gizmo like that when you accept checks?

So now my account was going to get hit with way more over draft charges then I originally thought and at 35.00 a pop, I’d be lucky if I was going to be able to remain in the black when my UC check came in.

Mind you.. I am not pointing blame at anybody else or playing a violin. I take full responsibility for the things that I did to make my account a mess… I just didn’t realize how much of a mess. Fact is, after all was said and done, I had around 400.00 after my UC came through.

Ok.. so not sooo bad, right?

Honestly, it wouldn’t be except that upon returning home from the road trip I found out that I had to pay the 128.00 cable bill before the 14th to avoid shut-off. I have to keep this current for 2 reasons.. one, Bubba and the whole cyber school thing and two, we are going to need service when we move and if I keep the bill current then there isn’t an issue with just changing the address.

I also received a 3 day shut off notice for the water. That’s 124.00.

So ok.. I’m not exactly jumping through hoops here but you know, at least I have enough to pay the cable and water and we’ll just have to make due because really, what ELSE is there to do?

And then I receive a call from my landlord.

I still owe him 675.00 for December’s rent and have told him that he will get that money. I’m not trying to beat him out of it or skip town or whatever. I may not have it RIGHT NOW but I filed my tax return so I will be getting a little something back (I had requested taxes taken from my UC) .. and Chief will be getting a nice return back but we can’t file his until the end of the month because the IRS hasn’t released one of the forms he needs yet.

He asked me where we were moving and I told him, honestly, I didn’t know. My fragile house of cards had collapsed and the only thing that I could do was leave it up to God. He asked if we would have to stay in the house another month. I told him that I still owed him money for December .. how could I do that?

Then he busts out with ‘.. and for January.”

Wait.

WHAT?

Apparently, the money that had been put up front when Chief had moved into this place was 1st month and 2 months security. This was NOT the information Chief gave me.. he told me that he put up 1st month / Last month / security.

Mind you, he got this house before I was ever in the picture and truthfully, I’m sure HE wasn’t the one who handled the transaction.. only signed where he was told to..

So now we owe our land lord ANOTHER 1400.00 for January and he told me he’d give me a call sometime next week to come see the house. Wonderful.

And it’s all getting a little too much for me to shoulder.

When I said that our little fragile house of cards had fallen, I wasn’t kidding and I wasn’t trying to get sympathy. It’s exactly the way it is.

The end of the month is fast approaching and we have no where to go.

West Virginia may be a probability somewhere in the future but it isn’t now. Even if the property was flat, it’s going to take more money then we’re going to have to build a foundation, finish paying off the double wide and paying to move it from where it’s at to where it’s going to go.

I ask you.. what the HELL were we thinking??

I’ll ask you again just for the effect.. WHAT THE HELL WERE WE THINKING???

This whole journey from the day we closed the store has been nothing but us putting out money for places and things that never panned out..

And it’s more then a little discouraging .. especially because we are no closer to finding a place to move only now we have a lot less money to do it with..

It’s making my head spin.. keeping me up at night and doing things to my innards that are better left undiscussed.

Year ago.. when I was a kid.. there was a tele-movie on one night about a woman who found herself homeless. She did everything “right” in her life but I think her house caught on fire and for some reason it wasn’t insured or whatever .. that quick, she found herself homeless and it scared the hell out of me .. the thought that things could change in the snap of a finger ..

I thought about the movie (I think it starred Christine Laihti) in the middle of the night recently and it was all I can do to make the waterfalls keep from drenching my pillow.

Do I have the option of moving back in with my mom or with my brother? Of course.. I do have a way. “I” have a way.. but that would mean leaving my family .. and as much as I feel like I want to leave them sometimes, I really don’t.. and I wouldn’t.. not in these circumstances.

The boys could go with the Crack Whore.. no biggie. But my main concern is the dogs and cats. My mother would freak and my sister in law is high allergic. The other option is to move Conseula back to PA and possibly put it on my brother in laws property until we can get our shit together.

So I worry.. worry hard.. count down the minutes until we have to leave this house.. and then what?

Dunno .. but I do have faith.

As ridiculous as it may sound to those of you that don’t .. I know that God will take care of us and put us where we need to be when we need to be there. And while He does provide, no one said it would be easy ..