Got two Used Tires For the Front OF Car

And it only cost me $20.00 for both! That included putting them on. So, now I don't have to worry about that for a while.

old tire, very bald

new used tire

I got the brakes done today

Last night, once again I fell off the wagon and stopped off at a fast food place on the way home and got deep fried zukienie. With ranch! Yes, I'm actively trying to kill myself with a heart attack. To say nothing of heartburn. . .

But anyhoo, as I drove out of there with my window down, I could hear the screamers on my brakes being reflected off their wall. Couldn't hear it at all with the window up and the ac on. So, off to the car place this morning. I was quite fearful, because nowhere in this blog have I got it recorded whether I've had the rotors done. I've never had the drums turned. That could have upped the bill from 300 to 600 dollars, which I DON"T have. But, fortunately for me, it was just the brake pads that needed to be replaced. $161.58. Yaa!! Well there went this month's tips, but I could afford it. But they did caution me on my tires. They are bald, and I know they are bald. There isn't exactly any grooves left in the tread. So, I'm moving on to used tires. I just have to find some in my size, which I don't think is going to be easy. Tomorrow I start looking.

*****

I talked to the guy from the online tech university again. I need to find someone in this field (Info technology with a concentration in web design) and see if it's something I can handle math wise. I also need to find out whether the student loans will be deferred until I'm out, and yaa, check out the university's rep, and compare prices with other's. And of course, look for another job . . .!

******

Just watched "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". Fabulous movie. I had no idea what was going to happen. Truly enjoyed it, and I have done a little research, and it turns out they filmed the whole trilogy, and the other two films are being released here this year.

Coupled with the news that Daniel Craig has signed on to play the reporter in the English version, my cup runeth over! I foresee a happy afternoon comparing the two version, ( I can tell you right now, BF is going to hate the English version, for the sole reason that Daniel Craig will be in it). It will be fun fighting the tide against her disdain!

Things are escalating on the ghost front

.Lately, BF has started to see the ghost at her place. It's a male figure wearing a hat, and he stands on her balcony. She says that he wears the hat "gangster" style. She said that she woke up from a nap on her couch and saw it, and it scared the crap out her. She seems to be unafraid of it, (once she figured out that it was it and not an actual man standing on her balcony) and sorta appears to enjoy it. She then dressed it down for scaring her. She says that she has seen it a couple of times now.

I never told her, but I have seen a figure of a man on her balcony out of the corner of my eye, myself, twice. I never told her, because I didn't want to frighten her. I really thought she would freak, but here she is, all accepting of it, because the cats aren't scared. I really, really don't like this development. I feel like she's giving it power by being accepting of it.

I don't think it's an human being. I have never gotten that impression in the 45 years I have lived with it. As far as I can tell it's mischievous and also does seem to like angst. Which is why it mostly messes about with her and not me. I'm 52, she's 34, and hasn't worked through her crap like I have.

What the hell do I do?

The house passed the unemployment bill!

Yes! I going to keep solvent! And I called the unemployment check line before the news broke, and it said I was getting another check! I'm soooo happy. It's not like I'm not looking for a job, but it's like this. . .I'm over 50, I'm over educated for the jobs I have experience in, and have no experience in the jobs I should be working in because of my education. It's a catch 22 situation. In other words I'll never even gotten an interview. The closest I got was that application verification call I got on the hotel clerk job. And that's it.

I need to go back to school and get another degree, one that I can get a job with. The BA I have, Art History, well, that was suppose to be a gateway degree. I was suppose to go on and get a master's degree in Library Science and Information Technology. I just couldn't get a good enough job to fund it.

Soooo, I am thinking of just getting a Bachelor's in Science in just Information Technology (with a concentration in web design, why waste my art degrees, AA in computer graphics, or at least I'm asuming they would be involved with this). My general education credits from the BA would be transferable, and all I would have to do is (mostly) do the computer classes. I would do this on line. And I would have to get loans. But in the end I could have a good job, and get out of this half life.

Auragh! The Feds Shut Down Over 70,000 Blogs!

On one server, just to get a couple of blogs that were doing terrorism stuff. So, ALL those blogs are gone, and the owners have lost their data, and they won't be getting it back. This scares the crap out of me for a couple of reasons.

1. I'm not thrilled the Feds can do this. I don't think they should be able to do this to innocent people .
2. Can't they be more selective and just take out the actual blogs instead of the whole server?How about IDing the terrorist's blog and then informing the other blog owners they have to remove their blogs to  another server?
3. The article say the Feds were looking at other sites as well. What about MY blog?
4. How do I save a copy of my blog?

I did a (very) little checking and It turns out that I can mirror my blog.

1. I don't know how to.
2. I don't know where.
3. Unless it's free, I'm screwed.

Will do more checking

The Stress Is Getting To Me.

Every day I wake up with a headache, and my chest hurts 24/7. I need to buy some tums or something. I afraid to look at the figures for my bills, because I'm afraid that even if I get food stamps, I still won't be able to keep all my utilities on. There's no way I can pay my credit card bills. This is a real shame, because with the payment plan I've been on for a year and a half, I could actually see the the end of the tunnel in around two years time.

What I have to do is turn the water heater off, don't need hot water right now. I don't like washing my clothes in hot water anyway, and I have the gym to wash me at. I have no idea what I'll do in the wintertime. I let that take care of it's self at that time. Let's not get  my worrying ahead of it's self.

Also, cable has to go. I cannot let BF pay for that AND the gym. I have to keep the Internet on, so I can look for jobs. I can watch shows online. I also have a lot of DVDs and still have my VCR and some tapes. Wish I hadn't done that purge last summer, now. Still I don't think I will suffer all that much from loss of cable. I'll just have to give up my ADD ways and do one thing at a time!

Monday I'm going to call the nice lady at the newspaper and ask her about the list I put myself on. Like when will they call me? I need that job.

*******

I want to clean the house, (nope, not one lick of work done during the last six months, the dishes were never washed, the floors not swept, I barely threw the trash away, depression, anyone?), but it's TOO HOT! There's a tropical depression in the area, and swamp coolers don't work in humidity. And the temperature has been hitting 107 F. The cats are lying around in the hallway like dead furry slugs. Me? I'm not wearing anything but panties and flip flops and I'm still so sweaty and grimy. I also have to wonder if the headache is a sign of over heating. I should, even although I know I can't afford it in the long run, go to the dollar movies. I could be in a nice air conditioned movie theater, watching a movie I've never seen for as little as $1.50. This is why everyone used to go to the movies in the '30s.

Goosie is enjoying her food

I bought Shophicat (hopefully spelled right) from Petco and a small bag of that kitty crack dry food that goes for $15.00 for a five pound bag, ze Fancy Feast dry cat food. And it's working! Goosie is happily eating twice a day, plus the crunchies. Of course she doesn't even eat half of the can, but it's good to watch her plowing through the wet cat food in a straight line. She eats about 1/3 of the can. No, the rest doesn't go to waste. I just shove the plate out into the hallway and the other cats are on it.

Have yet to see her gain any weight, however. But she's not meowing all the time when I interact with her now. She will actually let me pet her without meowing. Still hoping everything will turn out okay.

******

My unemployment claim form says continued claim form. I think I'm going to get one more check and then I will be living on the pizza place job. At this point, I will have to stop paying on the credit cards.  I don't think I'm getting anything more then a one week extension. I will try for food stamps.

I'm going to buy a big bag of rice and bags of dry beans as a back up food supply.

On Hold. . .

Have been on hold with the county health care system for 22 minutes now. I had called them for almost 25 minutes before I got something other then a busy signal. I called every five seconds. I put them on speed dial.

So, I wait. Thank God I like classical music.I'm going to wait 30 minutes and then do the star option, which supposedly will let me stay in que.

********

Watched the World Cup over at BF's. I couldn't find anything on line that listed any of the sports bars up here as doing the World Cup, and the TV guide said it started at 10:30,(in reality, more like 11:30). Since none of the local sports bars were listed I didn't think they would be opening that early. So, hence BF's place. Instead of alcohol, I drank diet pink lemon aid, and eventually, ordered a pizza.

It was a great game! But, I was really surprised at the English ref constant issuing of yellow cards. It's like they couldn't play more then 30 seconds with out that whistle going off!

*****

Just tried the star key option. Doesn't work for me! Crap, I hope I'm not caught in a loop. OOPS, the number 1, not star key. Have done it. Am waiting for call back. I can't do anything else until this happens. I cannot take the chance of missing the call. I have only been trying to make an appointment for 4 months.

******

It is FOUR hours later. I am still ON hold. I have left my number on the call back option twice. It is a trap! It only rings once, and then hangs up. Even although the second time I had the phone open and was looking at it, I still could not hit the accept button fast enough before the system hung up on me!

So, I wait, using up minutes. I have been on hold now for 37 minutes!

******

Whoo Hoooo! I'm third in line! Been on hold now for one hour and ten minutes! Please God, let there be some appointments left when I speak to a live person!

*****

No appointment, it's filled. I can try healthy way or go to some other clinic which is taking over their  appointments. I'm so pissed that I'm crying.

I Took Goosie To The Vet

She has been so cranky and getting so skinny (so I thought), that I was convinced that the stromactis was acting up again. Yes, I am aware that somewhere down the line Goosie will have to have all her teeth south of her fangs pulled. And then get a steroid shot every month. But, no, no bad teeth this trip. Lots of gingivitis. . .but no abscesses. And her weight, just a little lower then the last time we were there. The vet was easily able to pry open her mouth and examined it. No temperature. Nothing in her ears. Just to be on the safe side, I opted for a senior blood panel test. Which came back completely normal! Total cost of visit, $238.00.

AND IT WAS WORTH IT! To know that she didn't have FIP again, to know her mouth (so far) is okay, to know it wasn't leukemia, or diabetes, is beyond worth to me. Of course I still don't know why she is so cranky, but the vet said that could be an age related personality change. Or maybe her teeth just hurt.

Of course, that WAS my new tire money. . .maybe I can buy used ones.

******

Still watching soccer. Have gotten the 11th off so I can see the final, (hopefully in a sports bar). Went out with BF to Burbank, so I missed the second lot of the quarter finals. But, I have them set up to record on the DVR, hopefully ALLof the games will be recorded.

While we were in Burbank we went to the Brow Bar in the mall. I had my eyebrows threaded. I have never had anything done to my eyebrows. I pluck them, but have been aware since my eyelids started sagging, that the shape was no longer right for my face. Well, that got corrected today! They look good! No stray hairs.

However, the technician halved the width of my brows. This was virgin hair, folks! No one else was making sounds in their chair, but I was! I was making little hissing and moaning type noises as she rolled the thread around and pulled out my hair. This wasn't what I wanted to do. WHAT I WANTED TO DO WAS SCREAM MY FREAKING HEAD OFF! Thank God it only lasted ten minutes!

*****

Talked to Aunt Rita via chat on Face Book. Nigel did the typing. However very little question were asked on either side. On my side, it was because I had not prepared myself, properly. On her end, I think Rita was confused by the medium. Nigel typed, "it's an age thing," to me. We sorta made a date to do it again in August. I will have better questions by then, and hopefully Rita will have wrapped her head around the concept.

Ah Damn It!

The pump has stopped working again! I got up to refill it and was surprised to see how little water it had used during the night. That's because the pump had stopped. No matter how many times I press the button, it won't turn back on.




*****

July 3, 2010

After reviewing my blog I realized that I hadn't blogged about this. Last summer, at the end of the summer, the pump stopped working on the ultra cool. But it was the end of the summer and I could hack it. As it turned out, it was the pump switch that stopped working. You see every now and again I would press the button, and one time it started again.

That's what happened this summer. I tried the button and it started. Lasted three days and then stopped again, have been trying the button, but it hasn't turned back on yet. I'm using it as a fan to blow more air through the other $100.00 swamp cooler I bought. I really thinking of returning the $100.00 swamp cooler and getting the $100.00 AC unit. It said on it, that if you used it the way the manufacturer said, it would only cost $45.00 a year to run. The $100.00 doesn't really do anything beside put hot moist air into the room.

Unfortunately I threw out the receipt for the ultra cool unit. If I still had it I could get a whole new one, to replace it.

DVR FAIL!

I recorded the second showing of the Japan vs Ghana game. I manged to miss the live showing. "Ah Ha!" I thought, as I spotted in the on-line guide. And then I watched it. All through the scoreless regular game and then on to the added time, two sets of 15 minutes each. I knew from reading on the Internet, that all the goals had been scared on the added time. The first 15 minutes goes by. "Oh wow," I thought, "All scored in the LAST 15 minutes!" And then my DVR recording ended! Because even althought it was a second showing, somehow the guide people hadn't given it enough time! I'm so pissed.