Flippy - I Rant, You Read
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
lunch time
Must Save Sanity, Must Save Sanity Today
The good news, after my rant last night about the DMV, I was able to renew my registration online. Apparently, there can be a temporary period where the DMV isn’t able to match up your smog/VIN info. So, one troublesome annoyance taken care of. Also, I’ve decided that in order to retain some semblance of financial sanity, I’m going to pay both my property taxes (again???) and my mortgage (I don’t want a late payment just because their system doesn’t work) over the phone. It’ll be worth the service charge to get rid of the headache of owing; or in the case of my property taxes, not really owing, but no one will work the situation out, so I’ll fork over the $600 and hope that someone reimburses me. I feel much better now. Maybe I can concentrate on telling off TiVo now. 
Our front yard makeover was mostly finished this morning. We’re still waiting for two Queen Palms to be delivered on Friday, but then it’ll be completely done. Here’s a before and after comparison. I’m sure you’ll agree that in the before picture, our lawn made the house look like a slum. I swear it wasn’t our fault, but the builder installed horribly cheap sprinklers that never watered properly. Then, with the bad rains this year, it added a weed problem to an already bad lawn situation. Anyway, we feel better now.
And for a closeup. Ooh, this picture is big.
So, clean car, clean yard, clean bill with the tax collector...I think I need a smoothie. We also desperately need groceries. Okay, I lied, we desperately need Coffee-Mate.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
evening
The Annoying Things List
Life has been full of so many little annoying things that are adding up to become big annoying things. Let’s just make a list and then try solve them all tomorrow and then pretend like they never happened. The only trail left behind will be the semi-large money trail.
1. Took the car in on Friday for various checks and problems. Mostly, at first, I needed a smog check to get the car registered. But then, the oil change light went on. Then, right afterwards, something started leaking. Then, immediately thereafter, the air conditioning no longer had cold air. Being in Las Vegas, that’s a problem. So, back to Friday. The dealer said we could probably have the car back to you on Saturday. I figure, one night without the car, that shouldn’t be a problem. If it’s two, then I can still deal. So, I get a call early Saturday morning. Five hundred things are wrong with the car, but my warranty at least covers the air. That’ll be $762, please. Fine, whatever, it needs to be done. They hope to have the car back to me later. No one ever calls back. I call...and they close at 1p. And lovely, they’re closed on Sundays. So, that means Monday. Right? Right!? I call Monday afternoon and find out that the replacement condenser they ordered was cracked. Also, they don’t have a loaner. We’re running out of food, we’re tired of pizza, Cricket needs her fancy shot for her knee, Phoenix needs a pill refill. I need a car. I think I’m being fairly reasonable considering I was told maybe Saturday. So, for sure this morning. This morning, right? Okay, I don’t even hear back from him this morning. I call this afternoon. He says we’ve finished everything but the smog. I said, “Cool, the smog is quick, right?” He tells me, “Usually, but I’m having trouble with our smog check machine.” Ugh. Geez. Anyway, I finally get the car back at around 4p. When I’m paying, the nice shuttle driver man comes to the cashier with me to get the key, so he can bring the car up. The evil cashier woman gets all snotty and says, “Wait, we need to see if the credit card will go through.” She acts like the guy committed some major crime. My car has been there for four days, I always bring my car there, I bought the car there, they know where I live...and I’m suddenly not going to be able to pay and steal my car back from them? Well, golly, the card is good and the nice man brings me my car, but he notices the “Engine Needs Servicing” light is on. No one reset the computer. So, I have to wait for that. Now that I’ve ranted about the evilness of the dealer, I can say...my brakes don’t squeal, my air conditioning is cold and they’ve washed the car, which it really needed.
2. I come home and look at the smog check certificate. Last year I tried to register my car online, after the smog cert had been sent electronincally to the DMV. I find out, the DMV has my VIN wrong and they expect me to come into the DMV (in person! the DMV!) to renew my registration. A nice woman in Carson City finally calls me back and tells me that she took care of it. I am eternally grateful and renew online. What does this year’s smog cert say? Yes, indeedy, it says the VIN doesn’t match and I have to bring the smog cert into the DMV. Gah! How could it have been fixed last year and be wrong again this year!? The incorrect VIN that they had wasn’t even possible for a real VIN because apparently the letters match the make of the car. I have a GM car, so the letter has to be a G in the VIN. I think it was a 3 or something last year. I just checked my registration and my smog cert, and the number matches. Grrr. I am NOT going to the DMV and wait three hours in line to take care of this.
3. I refinanced my house. Everything went well. I was happy. Then, I get a letter two weeks ago from the county telling me that I haven’t paid my property taxes and that they’re going to publish my name in the newspaper (and they’ve already charged me a penalty) if I don’t pay by May 4th. I check all of my refinancing paperwork. The title company’s papers say that my taxes are paid until August. I contact them. They tell me that my original mortgage company said that they’d already paid my taxes and to send the money to them, instead of the county. No one knows where the money is. It’s been over two weeks and no one at the original mortgage company has solved this mess. The title company says that they keep calling the mortgage company and people don’t call back. In the meantime, either I have to pay again or figure out how to get someone to actually do some work and figure out where the money went.
4. We had our electrical panel upgraded. The electricians were supposed to come back the next day and install extra outlets in the garage. They never showed up again. They never called. Oddly enough, they never asked for payment either. They did leave a hole in the wall on the outside of the house that needs to be repaired by stucco guys. It’s a very small job. After many phone calls, only one company returned the call and came out to give an estimate. $1000. Uh, no. That’s a ridiculous amount. Still, NO ONE else will come out and even look at it. Looks like we’re going to have to attempt it ourselves. Why don’t businesses ever call back? Don’t advertise if you don’t want the work. Really, it’s just that simple.
5. I bought my parents a TiVo and a three month TiVo service gift certificate for their birthdays. I get an email from TiVo saying that if my parents don’t start their service by April 30th, I won’t qualify for the $100 rebate for their TiVo. My parents are currently selling the family homestead (you know that, I know) in California, so they can’t be here until next month. Why, if I bought a gift certificate must the service be started by a certain time? The service is already paid for, so why does it matter when it’s started? So, they’ve made us waste a whole month of service (granted, it’s only $12.95, but it’s the principle of the thing), just to qualify by some arbritrary date. It’s stupid. When I’ve solved the tax problem and the DMV problem, they’re getting a lovely letter from me. I admit, I LOVE TiVo, but this is one of the silliest policies I’ve ever encountered.
6. We had our lawn ripped out today to put in desert landscaping. That’s a good thing. We’ll get a large rebate ($600+) from the water authority, we’ll save on water and our lawn has always looked horrible, no matter how hard we tried to take care of it. So, that’s all pretty much good. We also needed more reject sand for the back yard, for the dogs. We can’t afford to have that landscaped (just the sprinker system is 1k), but the dogs have been getting sore elbows from laying on the cement that is a Las Vegas back yard without extra sand brought in. The new sand that we got isn’t the same as the old sand. This stuff is almost like Dodger dirt (red clay) and, well, fluffy. What a mess. All in all, not a huge problem in the grand scheme of things, but just another little thing that’s annoying...red dirt everywhere. Maybe the summer sun will bleach it out.
7. My new mortgage company sold my loan to GMAC. I just got the notice on Saturday, the payment is due on the first. I go to the GMAC website and I’m thrilled to find out they have online payments. That always simplifies things. Also, they have the excelerated payment program, where I pay every two weeks and get extra payments in. So, yay, looks good. I go to sign up for my account Sunday night - I get this message, “We are unable to process your registration at this time. Please try again later.” I try again “later”, still the same problem. I send an email to them. So far, I haven’t heard back and I still get that error message. For most people, no big deal, they write checks all the time. I never write checks. Frankly, since I’m online so much, I’ve basically forgotten how to write anything except my signature. My nice printing has turned into a scrawl. Regardless, whatever, I don’t like to write checks. I like those immediate online payments. Normally, no big deal. This week, on top of everything else, supremely annoying. Ha, you may be tired of my ranting and it may seem like overkill, but this will help me remember all of the tedious little tasks I have to do. Funny, they all seem to involve fairly large sums of money...none of it coming back to me, except for the TiVo rebate.
Let’s talk about something good. The Amazing Race tonight. That was good. Not eating pizza again, also good. Veronica Mars still on the TiVo waiting to be watched - excellent. A Million Little Pieces
Sunday, April 24, 2005
evening
Idiot of the Day - Bill Frist
Who knew, there’s someone scarier than George W. Bush who could run for president. The physician who doesn’t think condoms help prevent AIDS. The physician who felt free to diagnose Terri Schiavo via a four year old video tape. What a creepy creepy man. I’m so sick of “Chrisitans” who think their “morals” are so superior. I’ll bet you just like all of the other fundie hypocrites, it’ll soon come out that Frist has either cheated on his wife, beaten his kids, gambled, took drugs, had (gasp!) gay sex, had lobbyists pay for his vacations, embezzled, lied, etc. You know, like Rush Limbaugh, GWB, Newt Gingrich, Jimmy Swaggart, Henry Hyde and other scummy hypocritical dirtbags.
Friday, April 22, 2005
early afternoon
The Old Neighborhood
My mom found this letter while she was packing up the house - it’s from one of the “kids” in the neighborhood. He’s at least in his mid-forties now. Anyway, it must’ve been a thank you note written for a wedding gift or something. It’s nice to know that it wasn’t just the kids in our family who felt the this way about the ‘hood. Okay, the line about how his life “would be nothing” was a bit overdramatic, but hey, he was 21. Now he’s a Deputy DA ; although, come to think of it, the drama aspect is probably good for a lawyer.
Dear (insert my parents’ names here),
I would like to thank you for the beautiful gift, but much more than that I wish to thank you
for the gift of a beautiful childhood. The memories of the times I have spent with you
people and the neighborhood are constantly cherished; especially to a 21 year old whose
responsibilities seem to grow greater each day. I owe you people my love and respect for
without your support and friendship, my life would be nothing.
With sincerest thanks and love,
Scott
Thursday, April 21, 2005
evening
Envy Me!
Tomorrow morning I get to take my car in for some work. I need a smog check for renewing my registration (it’s a bit much, every single year - yeah, I’m gonna rig up my super spiffy Aztek without a muffler or something), an oil change, the air conditioning died yesterday, the brakes squeal and I think I’m leaking brake fluid. I haven’t even neglected the car...or driven it much. It’s a 2001, has 28k miles on it, but had 3k miles on it when I bought it, plus Leigh-Ann’s dad put a bunch of miles on it when he was here and drove to California. So, since May 2001, I’ve put maybe 23,000 miles on it. Surely it shouldn’t be falling apart. Luckily, for anything serious, I do have an extended warranty. It’s funny, last time when I needed, um, I forget, something major done to the car, they told me the warranty company went out of business and I probably wasn’t covered. Fortunately, they went into their computer and discovered that the dealership is covering the warranty. I cannot begin to tell you how mad I would’ve been had they not covered it. Normally, I don’t buy an extended warranty for anything because it usually isn’t worth it. But, I know nothing about cars, don’t know any mechanics and felt this time it would be a good idea. Wouldn’t it have been ironic if I’d spent big money on something that was useless? Ha. Ha ha. Well, anyway, wish me luck. I think even the small stuff is going to be pricey and I’m going to be resentful.
