Sunday Stealing-League of Extraordinary Penpals

 

Hi! Your host is Bev Sykes of the blog "Funny the World". . Welcome to Sunday Stealing. This feature originated and published on WTIT: The Blog. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!  

 

Stolen from The League of Extraordinary Penpals

 

 

 

 

 

1. Describe your phone Lock Screen. It is a photo of a field of tulips. I’ve been changing the screen with the seasons. 
 
2. How often do you journal? I don’t really journal. I blog.
 
3. What’s your favorite thing to teach others? Probably how to cook something, or how to draw something.
 
4. How do you like to spend Sundays? Sundays are supposed to be my day of not leaving the house. I get up and watch QVC’s In the Kitchen With David, then read or watch movies with my son. I run around all week with 3 days of PT for 2 1/2 hours each visit, then my doctor appointments or family member doctor appointments, then grocery shopping. Sunday is MY day to chill and I’m lucky if I get it one Sunday a month. This Sunday brunch at a restaurant with my father-in-law and brother-in-law. I’m not too keen on that because of the “at a restaurant” part. Everything is supposed to be full on open as of June 11th, so I expect everywhere to be a zoo. We were in Indiana Saturday and found the roads to be not bad and the restaurant we went to not super busy. But then Indiana has been full on open for several months so I’m sure everyone there is over rushing out to restaurants and places. We came home to 5 parties on our block and the street behind us. We could barely get through with all the cars on our tiny streets. 
 
5. What would you describe as your kryptonite? Carbs? I have been very bad lately. It’s not me jumping on the low carb Keto bandwagon. I’m a diabetic and I need to get back to limiting carbs. Not just sugar, bread, potatoes, rice, pizza with regular crust (the thought of cauliflower made into anything makes me 🤢.)
 
6. A TV show or movie you thought was really bad. This one is easy. All of the “Indiana Jones” movies, any and all reality tv shows, all prime time game shows.
 
7. Do you know your mail carrier? Nope. It always seems to be someone different.
 

8. Which regional foods are your favorite? Mexican, Indian, Chinese, Thai, Italian. I’ve recently gotten some free ebooks cookbooks for other regions and I’m looking forward to making some new dishes.

 
9. What was your life like 20 years ago? Right around that time I came out and was having the time of my life dating. I was also going through a a divorce for 4 years. I wanted full custody, that’s why it dragged on. I ended up with primary custody, but he had the majority of the weekends and I had to provide all transportation. It sucked for me, and it sucked worse for my kids. I ended up using legal means to prevent all contact and stop visitation for quite a few years. It was an absolutely valid reason that I don’t want to get into here.
 
10. Crafting hobbies that you’d like to learn or improve. It would be nice to learn how to use the Cricut machine I got a couple years ago. It’s still new in the box. I’m more intimidated by it than my Instant Pot which stayed in the box for a year, but now I’m comfortable using it. I’d also like to do the garden art I wanted to start doing. For both the Cricut and garden art I have all the supplies, I just need to have the time. I’m at PT so much it feels like a 2nd home.

11. What is your favorite type of YouTube videos? I really liked the talking cat videos, but sadly the guy that made them committed suicide. He was so funny, but he must have had a lot of inner demons. So sad. 

12. Describe your surroundings. Friday I spent the entire day in the master bedroom. A new antibiotic I was taking for a sinus infection made me quite sick.

13. You're making a Time Capsule to be opened in 50 years.  What 3 things would you put in it? Photographs (albums and boxes of loose photos). A box of my son’s poetry notebooks. Masks?

14. Something you learned recently that resonated with you. I can’t think of anything.

15. Songs that get stuck in your head often… Just about any song. If you can’t think of one, let me help…“The Song That Never Ends” or “It’s A Small World After All” You’re welcome! 😁

Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021

Seriously?

It’s after 4pm Friday and we have 1 address for the IN trip and no timetable. My wife’s cousin is having movers coming tomorrow and doesn’t know what time, so she doesn’t know when we could visit and is supposed to let my wife know tonight. So we did not book a hotel. If we go at all, it will be a day trip. Not far from where we live, it just would have been nice to swim, go to our favorite restaurant there, and go to Albanese. We could still do a day trip and just not get to swim. We’ll just do a hotel trip another time. We were all so looking forward to it. We do have a plan B. Hot dogs and s’mores by the fire pit. Weather should be cool.

UPDATE:  We did not get the address until almost 10am. We didn’t get the meet up time until we were about 20 minutes from our destination. We had a good time. I think my wife and I are very happy to have made the trip because her cousin really does not look well. She’s trying to get us to come to Las Vegas for our honeymoon that we have yet to have. She claims to have a hookup with a very fancy hotel and we’d only have to pay for airfare. Sign us up! My daughter has to be moved into her apartment and be allowed to have her brother stay over because we have no one else who would offer to let him stay with them and no way would we allow him to stay home alone for a few days. We’d come home to a lot of burning embers and we’d be homeless. Besides the finding somewhere for him to be, we’d also have to find the money for airfare.

Over a week ago my doctor prescribed an antibiotic for my sinus infection that I’ve never had before. I started last Saturday and was due to finish it tomorrow. I had to stop it this morning because I’ve been sick all day. The usual, plus nausea. Seriously? Canceled PT, had to have my wife pick up my daughter, and go to the grocery store. I’ve been sipping full sugar ginger ale since 9am (that’s what we have, and considering I ate nothing until 1:30pm, probably ok). I’ve had 1 slice of plain Killer Dave’s toast and am having plain brown rice now. I don’t think I want to see brown rice for a long time.😕

Kind of glad my wife is picking up my daughter. Nutjob is taking the lady razors from the bathroom and cutting up her arms and face and accusing my daughter of cutting her. Nutjob also said if she saw my car she was going to damage it (she tried once before and I had a standoff with her, her lunging at me and me lunging at her) so my wife said if Nutjob is outside in the driveway she’s calling the police. Why can’t my daughter move into the apartments already? This is crazy! I’ve watched enough crime shows to know there is a difference in self inflicted razor/knife wounds and being attacked by someone else, but still, all this drama is not needed. I’m hoping my daughter can come for a home visit for Father’s Day weekend so we can meal in honor of my Dad. It will be nice to get my daughter away from Nutjob that weekend too.

Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021

This and that

We may or may not be taking a road trip to IN Saturday. (It was originally to be today.) My wife’s cousin is moving to Las Vegas. She has a lot of health issues and felt that was where to go. She has Lupus which has flared up often over the last year. She also got COVID. Some time after she recovered she spent last week in the hospital because she had a seizure (first one ever), she went into cardiac arrest, was stabilized, then put into a medically induced coma. She was on a ventilator for most of her hospital stay. My wife says her voice is still very raspy and her throat painful from the ventilator.

I say may or may not go because first of all we don’t have the address where we need to pick her up (she can’t drive yet). Nor do we have her Mom’s address because we were going to take her to see her Mom. She’s leaving for Las Vegas Monday. They already have a house and her husband already has a job.

We were planning to make this a mini vacation, get 2 hotel rooms at a nice hotel with an indoor pool. I haven’t booked it yet because the best price on Priceline is non refundable. Of course with the switch from Thursday to Saturday the rates are higher. 

Update:  It’s past 9:45pm and still no contact from my wife’s cousin. I think this is incredibly rude. We have to get permission from the group home for visits, and we’ve had to contact them twice for this trip. I’m not leaving for IN Saturday morning not knowing this is firm plans and not having the 2 addresses we need. 

Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021

Dark Cloud Moving…

I don’t want to jinx it, but it appears the dark cloud has been moving.

The person at PT who got into it with me yesterday (I promise I used “my daughter’s Mom’s voice, that is a super polite, even tone, low volume voice) called and left me a message today apologizing profusely saying that the billing has an extra step she wasn’t aware of and will be insuring things are fixed for the past visits and bills going forward will be done properly, and I won’t need to cancel any more visits. Hopefully this does the trick because I’ve called my insurance 4 times this month, and this has really been stressful. 

I also got a voicemail from my son’s new specialist. This doctor has to approve of all new patients himself. Very strange, but then this type of specialist in the entire history of my having to deal with, have always been strange. Not a normal one ever, since 1996. Unfortunately I had already rescheduled with his old doctor, but this way there is no rush to get in with the new doctor. 

Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021

Random thoughts

Why does everything have to be a 💩fest? I got confronted today at PT. They are still insisting they are right. Seriously? I had to cancel PT for Friday. I will have my wife call to cancel Tuesdays appointments. This won’t be settled by then, especially with the holiday. I could probably continue shoulder and back PT if my attorney notifies them the injuries are related to a lawsuit (which they are) and he faxes the appropriate paperwork, but that does nothing about my knee, which is still not right.

I picked up my daughter for a home visit today. It’s going to be a horribly long weekend. I just don’t know what to do anymore. The yelling, arguing, and disrespect are too much. It’s not just her, it’s the rest of the family. My new tactic is to speak more calmly and more quietly the louder they get. If I match their volume, it turns on me ‘oh, it’s ok if you yell.’ There just doesn’t seem to be a way to resolve this. This is going to kill me. 

I bought my wife a 2000 Chevy Blazer. It was to go into the shop this morning, but it’s been delayed until Tuesday. It’s got new tires and a recent brake job. I got it way under market value (I’m an excellent negotiator, too bad it doesn’t work for my other problems), so the repairs won’t be exceeding it like with the Pilot. I’m hoping it won’t rain over the long weekend so we can wash all 3 vehicles, empty the Pilot, snap photos and put it up for sale.

My brother-in-law picked up his GMC Sunday. Now I have only vehicles I own in my driveway, minus my Craftsman rider which my neighbor towed next door to work on for me. My brother-in-law had been asking me for car buying tips. His GMC already has a buyer, when he gets a different vehicle it’s sold. He wants something “newish”, kind of like what I did. He’s coming over Sunday to do yard work, so I’m sure we’ll cars more then.

The dark cloud that’s hanging over me needs to dissolve, or move on. I’m not sure I can handle anymore stress.

Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021

This and That

I spent a 1/2 hour on the phone with my insurance and then got disconnected. A few minutes later my insurance case manager called. I went over the issues I’m having with my PT provider on both calls. Oh, just tell them to call us, they say. The whole point is the provider is trying to do something shifty. I keep getting billed for the amounts over the insurance contracted rates, and now they are insisting I have to pay a copay with every visit. I don’t. Medicaid pays my copay. They must scam a lot of people this way. I wasn’t born yesterday and I’m not paying. Both calls with my insurance today told me that the provider is in network and therefore I am zero pay, I pay nothing for covered services, which this is. I am so tired of the monthly calls and now this month I’ve called twice and will need to call a third time because my insurance needs to call their billing department…again. Anastasia works for them, she says they do this all the time. She expects to lose her job next week, and 2 people are suddenly gone from the location I go to. Monday they had only 2 therapists and 8 or 9 clients besides myself. That’s not what the ratio of therapist to client is supposed to be. They no longer have a receptionist. Both Anastasia and I think they are going bankrupt. 

No word on my daughter’s apartment. My wife and I drove by on the way home from dropping off her Mom’s friend’s Caddy. So happy to get that thing off my property. She is wealthy, but won’t spend the money to properly fix it. All 4 windows are taped shut because they won’t stay up, and many other repairs haven’t been done or are 1/2 way done. My property has been looking like a parking lot. I’ve got the Buick, Pilot, my brother-in-law’s GMC SUV, and now the Caddy is gone. My wife refuses to drive her brother’s GMC because she got stranded for 15 minutes when it wouldn’t start. There is an electrical issue, hence the reason he did not gift it to her. (He’s buying a car when he returns.) I drove it once and had no issues, other than it was incredibly difficult to get into because of my leg and back. We have to keep it until he returns from his bus driving gig in Indy, sometime in June.

                                    Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021

Day 411-416 of Sheltering In-No more waiting

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I picked my daughter up for a home visit on Friday. Saturday was laundry day at my father-in-law’s, but I stayed home. I had my daughter stay home with me. It just would not have been a good thing if my daughter went with. Let’s just leave it at that.

Sunday, Mother’s Day started out sooo not good. Let’s also just leave it at that. It did improve. I took my daughter back Monday before my orthopedic doctor appointment. Talk about a shirt show! There is the game since March of them not calling to confirm my appointment, then canceling it because I didn’t confirm. I didn’t get a call for Monday’s appointment, but I recalled that they had a patient portal, searched my emails, found a link, logged in and confirmed my appointment. I left early as I usually do, got to their office and the parking lot is empty. I call to check in, they moved and didn’t tell me, nor did their portal mention that fact. Drove to the new location, not that far, but that’s not the point. As I waiting over an hour past my appointment to get called into an exam room, I hear every receptionist saying the same thing. ‘Are you at blah blah? Oh we moved, you need to go to…’ What a professional way of running an office! Then the PA tells me I should stop using the knee brace. Umm no! My primary care doctor told me to keep using the brace AND the walker because I lose my balance a lot. I don’t need to damage my knee any more than it is. So basically a wasted appointment.

Tuesday I had a 2 hour and 45 minute physical therapy appointment because I’m going to continue working on my knee, but also return to the work I stopped on my shoulders and back when I got my knee injury. The 45 minute was for an evaluation. My appointments going forward should be around 2 hours.

Wednesday I had to take my son for his bi-annual primary care doctor appointment. My daughter had an appointment this morning and because she coughed, a new overzealous receptionist refused to allow her to see the doctor. We all have the same doctor, so when I went in with my son he asked why my daughter didn’t keep her appointment. I told him what happened and he shot off 2 emails, staff and his office manager. I’ve never seen him angry before. She has severe asthma and a sinus infection and possibly bronchitis or upper respiratory infection, so he really wanted to see her today. Now she can’t get in to see him until next week. I just hope she doesn’t have another emergency room visit before then.

Anastasia thinks she’s losing her job on Friday. My son was supposed to hang with her Friday. I have to break it to him that she can’t keep their plans. I’ll do something with him to make up for it. She also wanted agencies to contact and an attorney’s info, which I gave her. I have a plethora of that kind of information, so it was no big deal to send links and share contacts. Yes, she treats me disrespectfully by avoiding me and contacting my wife when planning hangouts with my son, but, if nothing else, I’m being the better person…as I always am. My life has been a shirt show since the car accident, so any good karma points I can get I will take.

Sunday I was emptying gift bags to reuse and found an Amazon gift card in a bag that had my birthday gift in it. Today I scanned it and found out it was a $50 gift card. Woo hoo! Made my day!

Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021