Days 251-257 of Sheltering In

Thursday (Thanksgiving), Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

Thankfully there were no cooking accidents this year on Thanksgiving. We ate later than planned, but it wasn’t too bad.

We stayed in Black Friday. Saturday was laundry at my father-in-law’s. Ate pizza and played cards. Thankfully he did not serve his nasty wife’s leftovers. My brother-in-law said the turkey was so dry it could have burst into flames. Thank goodness for Aurelio’s. Yes, I typed it correctly. His wife is nasty. She was the one at our wedding where every photo she was in she had RBF.

The honeymoon is over. My daughter is telling my son what to do and isn’t keeping up with her promise. It’s not like I expected anything different. It’s just really hard on me. Calgon...take me away. I wish! I’ve spent way too many days not leaving the house. I did get out Monday to pick up prescriptions and get gas. Woo hoo!

I need to make a decision on the Pilot. I think I’m basically going to get screwed and call the scrap car place to come get it. I’ll get...maybe $75. It’s not right. The tires are practically new (but not the right size for the Buick, the Buick tires, which I need to replace, are much larger), the body is in good shape and it starts and runs really great. The leather interior is in great shape. It’s got a new battery (free warranty replacement), and I just bought a battery for the Buick (different size). It was preventative. The battery was 5 years old, so it could have gone any time. The issue with the car is either the power steering pump about $350, or the rack and pinion steering $the same, or a bit more than the Pilot is worth to fix it. I need to cancel the insurance Thursday. I won’t sell it privately because of the liability. The rear axle repair could fail if someone were to drive it more often or further than my wife was driving it. Because of the steering problem I can’t even take it to the scrap car place, so if they have to come get it and tow it, you get less money. I could part it out and get more $, but that would be a big hassle, not to mention not safe these days to sell items online, etc. I don’t know why, but letting go of the Pilot is harder and more emotional than letting go of any of my previous cars. It’s the first car I’ve ever put over 200,000 miles on from buying it new. My wife wants me to replace it, but with the current economy, I’m not sure I could get a car loan at a reasonable rate. My previous loan on the Odyssey was from my credit card company, and they are probably the best place to start. I just really don’t want a car payment again. Especially now when my electric bill is so incredibly high. My brother-in-law had mentioned a few months ago about giving my wife his car, because he wanted to replace it. Since the extra unemployment stopped, he’s changed his mind. My father-in-law got his truck back from his youngest. He shouldn’t be driving anymore. My wife getting the truck to use may be a possibility, but it’s not my place to ask. Getting along with 1 car in a city with no public transportation isn’t easy.

This week was to be a week of doctor appointments, including my annual MRI, but I screwed up again. I forgot I had to schedule it at the hospital. This year again I thought the MRI was at the center. Nope. My MRI is scheduled for next Wednesday. I still need to reschedule the doctor appointment. Thankfully I had scheduled the neurologist just before Christmas, so no need to reschedule. I had an appointment with a new doctor to replace the 1 that doesn’t take my new insurance. I dislike him more that the old doctor so Thursday and or Friday I will be doctor shopping. I should shop for my son too. He had his every 3 month appointment while I was scheduling my MRI. My wife sat in on the phone appointment and he was incredibly rude to her. 

I spent an entire day on the phone with my insurance trying to find out why I’m getting billed for my PT visits. There should be $0 due after both insurances pay. Of course the state takes their time paying. I talked to a very nice woman at my insurance company. She called the PT place’s collection department and explained to them it may take 3 months to fully process a bill, but I will in fact owe nothing. I also called again opt out of their medication review. My pharmacist and all my doctors review my medications, so why? I thought I had done it in October, but the other rep I spoke with explained that they have a 3rd party also calling. The actual insurance company did stop calling. Some days I would get as many as 5 calls and 2 texts. Calling me on the weekend, and 8am this past Sunday. 🤬 The rep told me it’s difficult to get the 3rd party to stop calling, but she would make the request. She told me what number the insurance calls from and told me I could block all these 3rd party calls. I did that after I finished the call. I should see a lot less calls. Probably won’t make much of a difference since the calls regarding my student loan (I never had one) and my expired car warranty (it’s not expired) are increasing from numbers in my area code. I’m sure with all the politicians talking about student loan relief that the scammers are doubling their efforts to scam as much as they can before whatever student loan relief goes through.

I did something I probably should have done years ago. That is, look up the actual dates my parents died. It is amazing the information you can find on the internet. Turns out I was a couple days off on my Mom, 1 day on my Dad. My Dad will have been gone 30 years this Saturday, which is also my wife’s birthday. My Mom has been gone 36 years. I knew my Dad’s was coming up because I’ve been in a funk and in general I’ve been a hot mess.

Thursday I have to call the new Asst Director  to schedule my daughter’s Covid-19 test. She has to get tested (and be negative) before she can go back to her group home. Hopefully I will reach her as quickly as I did when I made arrangements with her for the home visit.

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