Stories and other stuff

It was a fight just to get there.  And the whole time I was there, something was nagging at me that I wasn't where I needed to be.  I would figure out what that was at first break tonight.  And to tell you the truth, I'm not so sure where I'm at is where I ought to be. I just know that I was all done with being at work tonight, and after the day I've had, I don't think anyone would blame me for just wanting to take the night off. At twelve-thirty, I received the long awaited check from the mortgage company to pay the contractor.  At twelve-thirty-two, I found out that when the folks that used to own my house, when they finished the basement, glued the furring strips that held the paneling up to the concrete foundation.  Where there were outlets or switches on these walls, they chipped out the foundation so the switch boxes would fit.  As the paneling came off, so did most of the furring strips. The insurance company will have to be involved again, becau...

It's very noisy around here today.  Noisy is a good thing!  That means that there are people in my basement making things happen.  The old is coming out! We haven't quite got to the picking things out stage, and I'm thinking that it's probably going to be, at least for me, one of those "Well, what do you suggest?" types of things. I don't really have anyone to help me pick stuff out, so I'm kinda hoping this guy has a feel for what's popular and nice in basements these days. The contractor is big on pictures and I actually have a camera phone these days, so maybe I'll take some myself of the progress.  I have some before pictures, but they're really pictures of the damage the eeewww did. and I don't want to share them.  As he shares the photos with me, I'll share them with you. My poor dogs aren't groovin' to the noise, though.  For the life of me, I don't understand why they're not as happy about it as I am. ...

I had to get a new phone the other day and am pretty happy with it so far. it has a full keyboard which iis handy for writing a blog and at the moment all there is for internets @ the ranch , which means no blog posts for a few days. this keyboard is too small for big posts. i'm learning to live withi my means. sometimes that means sacrificing this or that and doing without. surprisingly it's not bothering me as much as i thought it would. have a blessed week gang! i'll be back to normal(?) on friday.

I don't make idle threats.  I've learned that it serves no purpose so when I talked to my mortgage company about my insurance claim, I told them I'd done some research online and that maybe I wasn't the guy to be difficult with.  I told them I had a bad taste in my mouth over the loan modification process where it took them three months to tell me I didn't qualify.  In the mean time, I had to fax paperwork, refax paperwork and get around a system that would not allow me to return the phone calls of the person that called me.  This really happened to me:  Their phone system would transfer me to the person's extension every time I called and then hang up if that person didn't answer.  No chance to leave a voicemail, no chance to talk to someone else.  As soon as I entered my loan number into their automated system, this happened to me. So I read online that my mortgage company has a tendency to do the same thing with insurance claims.  I called th...

I didn't own the cheapest cell phone on the market.  Pretty close, though.  It had an itty-bitty screen, didn't do much, and was only so-so even as a phone.  My phone wouldn't talk to certain other phones, either.  I could text a friend of mine, but not call him.  It's the oddest thing. Anyway, a couple of days ago, I got an e-mail from my carrier informing me that starting next month, my bill was going up $10 a month to use this phone, but here's a $50 credit toward a new telephone.  So I purchased a new telephone.  it cost me $10 out of pocket and it does all kinds of things my old phone wouldn't. I have a keyboard.  My phone will check my e-mail.  It'll take movies.  My old phone didn't even have a camera on it.  My new phone will do lots of stuff my old phone wouldn't.  I think I can even put music on my phone if I put a memory card in it.  Not so sure how that's going to work out with my mac, though.  I have ...

One of my co-workers is a locked in Romney supporter and I love listening to him.  It's like I get the whole talking points for the GOP.  And he really believes this stuff.  I mean that.  Really. Me, I'm a skeptic.  So I try to think things through and here's what I think about Mr. Romeny's tax cut proposal.  20% across the board tax cuts.  That's a great catch phrase but here's some basic math.   I found the tax rates I'm using for this article from  Forbes  magazine.  I would have just copied them but you know the whole copyright thing.  If you're curious, please take a look because I'm going to use this chart to make a simple argument for the Affordable Care Act at the end of this. The top income tax rate is 35%, factoring in the bush tax cuts.  Under Mr. Romney, that rate lowers to 28%.  If you're like me, your income tax rate is someplace between 15-25%.  My rate is 25% because I have to file marr...

The more I do, it seems, the more there is to do. Here's a snippet of what my day has been like.  I went to bed sometime after two a.m.  I got out of bed about eight-thirty.  The dogs had to go!  I had things to do, so I got up. My to-do list today included getting the truck safety and emissions inspections done.  After that, there was a trip to the DMV.  While I was at the DMV, I put the canner on to boil.  My BBQ sauce didn't thicken like I wanted it to, so while I was getting ready to go get the truck done, I emptied the jars and boiled some more of the liquid off.  It's got a great texture now, but a little pulpy.  We went from two pints and seven half-pints to 6 half-pints. The recipe told me it made 3 pints, which when it thickened up like it should, is what I got. While things were boiling, I cleaned up part of the house and made my bed.  On my way to work, I have to stop and fax another document to the mortgage company so I...