Stuff of the Day: Lake Drive Edition

Update: This update is late.  A week and a day late, in fact.  I originally intended to post it last Thursday afternoon, after I had started having a fucking terrible day about 2 minutes after I stepped out of the door of my apartment in the morning to head to work.  Last week, things were really busy at work, quite hectic, as we were preparing for the software launch of our new version at work to our sister company (the Home Health Therapy company).  This week has been really busy too, and today is the first time I’ve had spare time enough at work this week to actually write something.  I have this spare time, because this morning, James “pulled the plug” and pushed the release back another 2 weeks.  This probably makes for a better product on launch, and a more prepared, relaxed launch . . . but it kind of bites, because I thought my weekend was mostly figured out: I was working.  For however long it took to get everything done.  Yay Overtime pay.  Now, I’ve got an entirely open weekend, with no money (not -technically- true, I’ve got like $8 left in checking after rent), and no transportation.

No transpo?  Yeah, getting back to the terrible fucking Thursday last week . . . It rained Wednesday night/Thursday morning.  Lots and lots of rain.  Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

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That’s the sort of open field that dips down a little across from my apartment complex, and behind a host of businesses right along on the Loop 250 service road.  It stretches from this paved alley behind them that runs from Midkiff to my apartment complex, up to Caldera.  It was basically a humongous pond, or a shallow lake.  Unfortunately, so was a good stretch of Caldera.  I stepped out of my apartment that morning, greeted by this continuing rain, water all over the parking lot, in a rush to try to make it to work and Not end up a couple of minutes late.  I hopped into my trusty (so I thought) car, and drove across the parking lot, and saw Caldera underwater.  Hmm.

Keep in mind, this was right at pretty much 8:00 a.m., I hadn’t had been awake very long yet, and what little caffeine I had in me thus far had not kicked in yet.  I’m not fond of mornings at the best of times, unless I approach them from the “still awake from being up all night” angle.  This is the only defense I can make for the terrible decisions I made.

I decided I’d try to make it across a bit of Caldera to Crista Lane on my way to work.  This was a bad decision.  The water was really quite a bit deeper than I thought it was initially.  This is something I discovered as I was trying to begin my turn towards Crista Lane on Caldera, as my car’s engine sputtered and died.  Then, being sleepy and stupid and panicked, I tried to restart it.  Only afterwards, reading on the web, did I realize just how terrible of a thing that potentially is.

A City of Midland Transportation Services truck happened to come driving by (though the water – that truck has ground clearance of about up to my windows) right as I was getting stuck.  They radioed for for someone to come get me out.  A couple of police cars, an ambulance, and a fire truck all showed up, with a wrecker supposedly on the way.  Two firemen got out of their truck, put on waders, and pushed my car out of the water up onto Crista Lane – so the tow truck ended up being unnecessary.  Later that morning, Corey pointed out a bit on the CBS7 web site about a water rescue being reported in Midland “near Loop 250 and Midkiff.”  That was probably the host of vehicles with various sorts of flashing lights that showed up for me.

While I was waiting, in the water, I took a couple of pictures.  This one, when, hrm, I felt something wet on my ankle:

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Water was coming up from under the car, through whatever various holes or crevices or whatnot, and filling my floorboards.  It got to being a couple of inches in each of them.  Not fun at all.

Here’s a view from my car while I was stuck in the effing water:

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Tried to do what things I could Thursday afternoon after work, Friday after work, and then Saturday, to get my car driving.  No luck.  Sunday, Kara and Matt came over, and we pushed my car back to my apartment complex, parked right downstairs.  It doesn’t start, and the electrical system is haywire.  I reached out to my dad for help, having no other real alternatives.  Finally got my car towed on a car carrier to Littlefield Automotive Wednesday during lunch.  Haven’t heard anything from them yet, going to call in a bit and see what, if any news, they’ve got for me yet.

I’ve been really severely stressed most of this week and last weekend.  Stressed about my car, about everything going on at work right now in crunch time (well, until this morning anyway), stressed about money being entirely too tight until my next payday.  Having a non-functional vehicle, and that adding unknown added costs to repair it (or possibly end up getting a cheap used vehicle if repair on it is too costly to be considered feasible) and having to work something out with my dad, probably on a payment plan basis, just added heaps of stress for me.  Some of that is why I haven’t posted a damn thing on this site until today.  It was just something that so seriously wasn’t anything of a priority for me.

So, yeah, that’s a bit to catch things up.  All I really feel like writing about it for now anyway.  Linkage commences:

Link of the Day: SDCC 2009 Hot Cosplay Chicks

Spam of the Day: “Time For a New Copier?” – from, of course, Copier King

Funny of the Day: “Try and spell shield that

Pic of the Day: Interesting Top

Quote of the Day: “(760): I wish they had nachos that got you drunk” – another gem from TFLN

Stuff of the Day: Can I Get Health Care For My Checking Account Balance? Edition

Update of the Day: I didn’t post anything yesterday because while I was at work, due to the time missed for my Dermatologist appointment, I was really busy, and once I got home, I was just really tired, didn’t feel like doing much of anything on the computer, and just sat/laid in bed watching TV, catching up on House, Chuck, Heroes, and Reaper.

After Monday’s frustrations and stress with the electric mess, Tuesday was another joyous day of hurry the hell up and wait.  I had a 2:45 appointment with the Dermatologist, so everything I did at work that day was harried and busy and just didn’t give me much time for slacking off productivity improving “zoning out.” I was informed that the Dermatologist would probably eat up the rest of my afternoon and wouldn’t be able to get back to work.  It actually took slightly less time than that, I got out of there right before 4:30, dropped my prescriptions off at HEB, and headed back to work and had around 25 minutes to pick up support emails that came in while I was sitting and waiting.  

Oh yeah.  Those prescriptions.  Three of them.  Apparently, I have Rosacea.  Damn my Northwestern European heritage, the Curse of the Celts.  Why couldn’t I get more love from the Comanche side of my blood for my face/skin/complexion?  The Dermatologist wrote me three scripts. An oral antibiotic (Doryx, etended, time-release Doxycycline – why some older, cheaper tetracycline won’t work, I don’t know), and two different face gels, Metrogel and Finacea.  I didn’t know how much these were going to cost me.  I figured they probably wouldn’t be the lowest-cost per my prescription plan, at $15 each, though maybe the antibiotic might be.  I figured, “well, probably be like $90 for these, maybe I’ll get lucky and it’ll only be $65.  Nope.  $50 each, the max cost for a monthly supply per my CareMark coverage.  When she cute girl at HEB rang me up, I let out something like a cross between an audible gasp and gutteral profanity.  When the signature screen asked me “Is this amount: $150 ok?” I commented that I really didn’t want to click  Yes, it’d be lying.  No, it’s NOT ok.  But, resigned, I paid it.  

Today, on  the next page of happy medical adventures, I spent even more time than yesterday at the Opthamologist’s office.  They’re really big on the waiting there.  Face time with someone of medical value in scrubs?  Maybe 15 minutes total, and that’s probably pushing it.  Time in the office? Almost 2 1/2 hours.  I came out of there with my eyes numbed, tinted with yellow dye, and massively dilated.  With another prescription.  I haven’t been to the pharmacy to pick it up yet, but I hope it’s not another $50.  My checking account balance has just been taking hard shots all week long, and it’s only Wednesday.  So many potential plans have just dried up, and now it’s going to be a lean 3 weeks at least until my second pay check of May on the 15th, and I’ve already got additional expenses delayed until then.

At least I’ve got something to look forward to this weekend.  Might post something about that later, might not.  For now, it’s a secret. 🙂

Link of the Day: LED Hard Drive Clock

Spam of the Day: “We sell the best alarm-clocks for your small buddy down there.”

Funny of the Day: Obama’s First 100 Days, per Facebook

Pics of the DayKamamara Matsuri or the Festival of the Steel Phallus

Quote of the Day: “Always take a job that is too big for you.” – Harry Emerson Fosdick

Stuff of the Day

Update of the Day: So far, it’s been just a lovely, happy, jolly day.  <- Insert sarcasm there.  It wouldn’t have been so bad, really, if I wasn’t dealing with yet another bureaucratic SNAFU.  I’ve had hassles with insurance, hassles with my 401k, and now today, I get a call from my apartment complex asking about my electric service, saying that TXU called them, saying the power was still being billed in their name, that it has been for the last 2 months, and I owed like $240-something dollars.  Or maybe it was $280, I’m not sure.  I knew I didn’t owe it, I’ve had Bounce Energy, already gotten my first bill, paid it, and have my second bill sitting on my desk at home.  Provided proof of my service to the complex, called Bounce and had them fax over proof of residence/proof of service.

Well, it seems, Bounce has the wrong ESID for my apartment.  Which means I’ve been billed, and have been paying for, someone else’s electricity bill.  Which also means that the amounts I’ve been billed for currently, are almost certainly wrong.  The way my luck goes, the correct amounts will be higher. :/

It is, indeed, higher.  The two bills I’ve received from Bounce, for the wrong ESID, totalled less than $80.  What does my complex want me to pay them (not counting since the end of the current bill they have, or the “5 to 7 business days” Bounce says it’s going to take to get this sorted out and have them properly handling my electric bill, like I thought they have been for the last 2 months?  $228.16.  TXU’s billing Windscape at 18 cents per kwh.  With Bounce, I’d be paying 11.8 cents per kwh.  My proper bills would be higher than the two I’ve gotten so far, but nowhere near totalling 228.16. 

This is really crappy timing.  I’ve got 2 more Doctor’s appointments the next 2 days, with those copays, plus whatever it’s going to cost for any prescriptions I end up with out of those.  I’m past angry.  I’m at sort of a simmering resigned rage.

Link of the Day: Mayan Apocalypse of 2012 May Have Scientific Basis

Spam of the Day: “The Queen and Her Jester – Role Play of the Month”

Pic of the Day: Sexual Positions (for the lonely and loveless)

Quote of the Day: “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage”. – Anais Nin

Stuff of the Day: Eggsplosion Edition

Update of the Day: So, after going months at this job with almost no issues with being here on time, I’ve had a rougher time of it lately.  I resolved to fix that after being 40 minutes late one day (when I lost my phone, which was shut off, jammed between my bed and the wall), and I’ve been experimenting with some different alarm schedules.  Yesterday didn’t go so well.  This morning was going better, I was probably going to be at work right on target (3ish or so minutes “early”), though I could still have gotten up and moving 5 or 10 minutes quicker.  Then, as I was scrambling eggs in the microwave for breakfast – something I’ve done lots of times before with no issues – there was this loud popping sound emanating from said device.  It startled me, of course scared Baby into bolting into another room and into hiding (just as I’d given her a little bitty bit of half and half), and as I yanked open the microwave, I discovered what had happened: an eggsplosion.  The roughly 3/4 done scrambled eggs had popped somehow, and small little bits of soft eggy fragments were all over the inside of the microwave.  Not wanting to leave this as it was (and wanting to finish cooking the portion of eggs that remained in the container, so I could actually eat them), I spent probably 10 minutes cleaning up the inside of the damn microwave (which was nigh spotless before) so I wouldn’t have little stone-hard bits of crisped egg baking onto the interior.  So, I went from on-target, to walking in 4 minutes late . . . to an admonishment about slipping on that lately and instruction to fix it waiting for me.

Still no ketones in my urine this morning.  Irritating.

Went back to see Dr. Doctor this afternoon.  Waited for an hour and ten bloody minutes, and finally poked my head out of the room’s door to ask them if they’d forgotten about me, when finally she came in to see me and talk to me.  One of my hormone levels came back low on my bloodwork.  So that gets to get treated.  I was offered two options – come in every 3 weeks for a shot, which would result in big spikes and then falling levels of said hormone, or a gel that’s rubbed into the skin (and I guess permeates it and get into the bloodstream, like patches?) applied daily.  Opting for the latter, which the doctor thinks is the better option of the two (though more expensive) I’m going to get that filled tonight and get to start this treatment tomorrow morning.  Yet another thing I need to budget time in the morning for.

Oh yes, and she set me appointments for seeing both an Opthamologist and a Dermatologist.  I “possibly” have Rosacea, and I “possibly” have schleritis, but she’s worried about the way the redness on my skin is and how only the outer portion of my left eye seems inflamed, and listed an autoimmune condition in the tissue on my face as a possibility.  Probably not, but maybe.  Now, being someone who has watched every single episode of House broadcast, a little part of my mind started to freak out at the word “autoimmune.”   Lovely.  All of these office visits, and probable prescriptions to go along with, will of course cost me more chunks of money. 

Link of the Day: Worst. Ninja. Ever.

Spam of the Day: “Forearm Forklift – Your Solution to Heavy Lifting”

Funny of the Day: Bringing the “A” Game

Pic of the Day: Finger Arm Lickin’ Good?

Quote of the Day: “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger