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Excavation
Jan. 26th, 2018 09:48 pmToday has been incredibly long, but satisfyingly productive. Didn't have to be up til 11:30. Woke and stayed awake at 8:20. GK came over at noon (scheduled) with brunch...my ID has expired, and I need my birth certificate, etc. to renew it. I hadn't laid eyes on any of that stuff since I was living in her garage (2014), and I still have an arseload of boxes around here.
Now, seven hours later, I have fewer boxes; we went through my office top to bottom and thinned things drastically. Didn't find what we were looking for, but I can now close the closet door and the door to the hall if I'm so inclined.
This was not good enough for GK; she rummaged around in my room, in the sheds, and finally turned up the plastic bin with said papers on the porch, of all places. So yippee-ki-yay, I can get my ID card renewed, with the correct address--never mind that if she'd listened to me, all that wouldn't have been necessary, I could have just renewed it and updated the address. (I love her, but she has this tendency to NOT LISTEN when I say things like "Now that I have a permanent address, maybe we ought to update my ID.". No, god forbid we do something that isn't an emergency/at the last possible minute/should've been done months ago.)
Speaking of months ago...back in 1993, I made the mistake of getting a student loan. I made payments on it, but shit happened, and it's been dogging me ever since. Did you know they can garnish disability benefits? I didn't, but they can, and have been. Back in November, GK and I went to SSI for paperwork showing that YES, I AM disabled, and sent it off to the student loan sharks, because they've supposed to write off the balance if you're permanently disabled. So yesterday, GK lets me know that the balance has been erased, that I'm FREE!...and today, she confessed that they stopped garnishing me BACK IN NOVEMBER. She didn't tell me because she was applying the surplus to things like the cost of the SSI paperwork (they charged for the letter), taxes on the mobile home, etc. I'm not worried about hanky-panky--she's scrupulously honest, and as my payee, she has to account for everything she spends. Anyway, I now have a teeny bit of flexibility instead of hyper-ventilating over every dime.
To celebrate, we went by Savers Thrift afterward. I found a matching flat and fitted sheet with deep pockets, hooray, hooray! I got a foam mattress topper for my birthday, and it's grand, but my old standard sheets just weren't cutting it! So now I have a set in good shape, no pillowcases, but the price was right. I also found a microfiber dress that's red with white polka-dots, which will be a nice change from my black dress with white polka-dots (about ten years old). Also got a couple books, and a set of Viking steak knives. GK had a refund on some stuff she brought back and a coupon, and ended up waving off any money from me. Like I said, the price was right.
We dropped my loot off at my place, then on her way home, GK dropped me off at Penzeys Spices. They're online if you aren't lucky enough to have a store in your area. As the name suggests, they have an epic variety of spices, and they regularly have deals where you get a free jar of something with $5 purchase. Today it's something called "Sunny Paris", which sounds lovely. It's salt-free, which GK likes, and since I needed some black pepper anyway....
From there, Michaels Crafts is right across the parking lot. They've got a sale on foam core this week, 20"x30" for $2, so I went and snagged some and got a Lyft home.
One of these days, I'm going to post a rant about Kids These Days--it's been building for a while, and the little dickens who was creating a disturbance in Michaels has really brought it to a head. Honestly, if I'd behaved like that in public, I wouldn't have been rewarded with McDonalds afterward, I would have had my ass blistered--and deserved it! The world really is going to hell in a handbag, as I overheard someone say. (It does make more sense than "hand-basket" these days, you have to admit!) Probably not, though--all my mom had to do was LOOK at me, and say, very seriously, "If you don't stop that, I'm going to leave you for the trolls under the bridge.". We lived on Staten Island--there WERE bridges, and I knew about trolls from the fairy-tales she read me. Whatever it was, I stopped doing it immediately.
Anyway, I'm home now. I had to clear off my desk to get to my computer to write this. I'm fixing to go find something to eat--that Whopper's worn off!--and settle down in front of the TV. I'll be back in front of the computer soon, though--I'm about 80% done with a WIP that I started a few months ago. I came back to it yesterday after an interlude of nonproductivity and it roughly doubled in size in one afternoon. Now I just have to throw in a little more angst, then the ending, and poof! I'll have my first story of 2018.
Have a good weekend, y'all!
.
Now, seven hours later, I have fewer boxes; we went through my office top to bottom and thinned things drastically. Didn't find what we were looking for, but I can now close the closet door and the door to the hall if I'm so inclined.
This was not good enough for GK; she rummaged around in my room, in the sheds, and finally turned up the plastic bin with said papers on the porch, of all places. So yippee-ki-yay, I can get my ID card renewed, with the correct address--never mind that if she'd listened to me, all that wouldn't have been necessary, I could have just renewed it and updated the address. (I love her, but she has this tendency to NOT LISTEN when I say things like "Now that I have a permanent address, maybe we ought to update my ID.". No, god forbid we do something that isn't an emergency/at the last possible minute/should've been done months ago.)
Speaking of months ago...back in 1993, I made the mistake of getting a student loan. I made payments on it, but shit happened, and it's been dogging me ever since. Did you know they can garnish disability benefits? I didn't, but they can, and have been. Back in November, GK and I went to SSI for paperwork showing that YES, I AM disabled, and sent it off to the student loan sharks, because they've supposed to write off the balance if you're permanently disabled. So yesterday, GK lets me know that the balance has been erased, that I'm FREE!...and today, she confessed that they stopped garnishing me BACK IN NOVEMBER. She didn't tell me because she was applying the surplus to things like the cost of the SSI paperwork (they charged for the letter), taxes on the mobile home, etc. I'm not worried about hanky-panky--she's scrupulously honest, and as my payee, she has to account for everything she spends. Anyway, I now have a teeny bit of flexibility instead of hyper-ventilating over every dime.
To celebrate, we went by Savers Thrift afterward. I found a matching flat and fitted sheet with deep pockets, hooray, hooray! I got a foam mattress topper for my birthday, and it's grand, but my old standard sheets just weren't cutting it! So now I have a set in good shape, no pillowcases, but the price was right. I also found a microfiber dress that's red with white polka-dots, which will be a nice change from my black dress with white polka-dots (about ten years old). Also got a couple books, and a set of Viking steak knives. GK had a refund on some stuff she brought back and a coupon, and ended up waving off any money from me. Like I said, the price was right.
We dropped my loot off at my place, then on her way home, GK dropped me off at Penzeys Spices. They're online if you aren't lucky enough to have a store in your area. As the name suggests, they have an epic variety of spices, and they regularly have deals where you get a free jar of something with $5 purchase. Today it's something called "Sunny Paris", which sounds lovely. It's salt-free, which GK likes, and since I needed some black pepper anyway....
From there, Michaels Crafts is right across the parking lot. They've got a sale on foam core this week, 20"x30" for $2, so I went and snagged some and got a Lyft home.
One of these days, I'm going to post a rant about Kids These Days--it's been building for a while, and the little dickens who was creating a disturbance in Michaels has really brought it to a head. Honestly, if I'd behaved like that in public, I wouldn't have been rewarded with McDonalds afterward, I would have had my ass blistered--and deserved it! The world really is going to hell in a handbag, as I overheard someone say. (It does make more sense than "hand-basket" these days, you have to admit!) Probably not, though--all my mom had to do was LOOK at me, and say, very seriously, "If you don't stop that, I'm going to leave you for the trolls under the bridge.". We lived on Staten Island--there WERE bridges, and I knew about trolls from the fairy-tales she read me. Whatever it was, I stopped doing it immediately.
Anyway, I'm home now. I had to clear off my desk to get to my computer to write this. I'm fixing to go find something to eat--that Whopper's worn off!--and settle down in front of the TV. I'll be back in front of the computer soon, though--I'm about 80% done with a WIP that I started a few months ago. I came back to it yesterday after an interlude of nonproductivity and it roughly doubled in size in one afternoon. Now I just have to throw in a little more angst, then the ending, and poof! I'll have my first story of 2018.
Have a good weekend, y'all!
.