RANT: I just got a letter in the mail saying that I have a warrant out for my arrest for a couple of unpaid tickets from TEN years ago. This shouldn't be happening, because when you go to prison (in Texas, anyway), any outstanding tickets are expunged, or they won't let you out. Evidently the chicken-shit little town's greedy Judge didn't get the memo. I remember when I got these tickets, too: It was for no front license plate and no insurance (I DID have insurance, but the card was expired, and the cop refused to call it in. Fucking cock sucker. He was being a real asshole with me, too.). I tried taking care of it twice: In '08, I had to do 90 days in the county jail, and I wrote the judge and asked if that could count as time served. No dice. Then later I actually went to his office and asked if he could at least give me a break on the insurance ticket, and he refused. I just called them up, and spoke to a guy who talked like his lips and tongue are paralyzed. He said that the only thing I could do was A) Pay the $1076 fine, or B) "Come down to the office." Yeah, so they can arrest me. Shit. Anybody have any advice on this?
Your cheapest and best bet is to find the money and pay the fine. Then bug the department every day to send a letter stating you are all paid up and have no further infractions on your record. I mean call every hour and bother them. Get your $1,076 worth of their flesh.
RANT: Welp, just when I thought today couldn't get any worse, it did. Shortly after I found out about that warrant for my arrest*, I got a call from my dad, asking me to come to his doctor's office (his health has been on the decline.). This has happened before when he's gotten into accidents, or when he can't drive himself home. I found out that my dad has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease, and he's been trying to hide it from me for months. His doctor insisted that I come by the office to hear it in person, because my dad refused to tell me. I had actually suspected this for awhile; he WAS NOT the same man when I got home from prison. His memory had just completely gone to shit, he gets confused really easily, his driving has become downright scary at times, and sometimes he would go off on weird tangents for seemingly no reason (Ex: He was once extremely adamant about me selling my Trans Am. Not for the money, mind you, he just thought I should sell it and buy a later model truck. When I asked him how I would pay for this truck [because my car really isn't worth that much], he didn't have any idea, he just said I needed to get rid of it). My biggest fear: He might try to kill himself. He's mentioned wanting to die a few times when he's been really sick in the past few months, and his dad killed himself when he was this age (and my dad said that the reason was "because he didn't want to go to a nursing home."). I should probably take his guns away... *About that, I tried calling my parole officer, but he was out for the day. I talked to a buddy of mine who is out on parole, and he said that a similar thing happened to him a few months after he got out, and that his officer gave him a form stating that his prison time nullified the tickets, and they left him alone.
RANT? RAVE?: Bullshit ticket update: I just talked to my parole officer, and he had good news and bad news. Good news: This will not affect my parole in any way, because it happened before I went to prison. Bad news: There's nothing he can do to help me. Looks like I'm going to have to hire a cheap lawyer. I'd rather pay him than let those crooked bastards get it. I suppose I COULD just do the 10 or so days in the county jail to pay it off, but I don't ever want to wear handcuffs again... Unless it's in the bedroom! HEY-YO!
Rave: I'm not getting fired. Boss is looking for someone to take over most of my responsibilities. I miss a lot of work taking my wife to the doctor for her injury and CRPS. Now, I'll be working more from home. I'll keep one client and review/redline the other employee's work before it gets submitted.
Rave: Just got fired from the job I was complaining about on here. Over the last two weekends working with the new manager had been exceedingly difficult. May have well been the most difficult to work with manager I've encountered. I told him off a few times and made him look bad. I have no regrets. Guy was a joke and I was there trying to pass the time until grad school. For the amount of stress he put us under it wasn't worth the wage or the grief. I can move on knowing I acted how I wanted to and worked as hard as I could on trying to get along with him. At the end of the day, the only way I was going to tolerate him is if I had to have that job and was willing to bend over for him. Seeing as how I wasn't dying for that paycheck and I really didn't respect the guy it didn't happen. This is a rave because I had a migraine Saturday because of this job and as some may have noticed I was under a lot of stress. Now thats gone and I can focus on enjoying my summer and preparing to do well in Minneapolis.
Rave: I spent the weekend kayaking in the mountains. Rant: My grandmother fell & broke her hip Saturday. Rave: She's recovering phenomenally well and was moved from the hospital to the old folks home rehab (which is really nice) today. Rant: My grandfather is almost 89 & has mild dementia. He obviously cannot be left alone so my cousin & I are switching off staying with him. I swear I love him, but I don't love hearing the same 5 sentences over and over. I was going to slip a melatonin into his nightly meds but he said he had already taken them. His pill box is so fucked up, I have no idea what he took or when.
Rant: My brother-in-law is getting "married" next month. They are already married, this ceremony is just for his wife's father who is the only person that doesn't know they eloped before he went on deployment. Our house is going to be so full of my wife's relatives, fuckin shit. I'm thinking about spilling the beans and maybe they will cancel the whole fucking thing. It's fucking stupid and pointless and just an aggravation for everyone but his wife. My wife's grandfather knows it is going to be a shitshow. He already called dibs on our camper. That was where I was going to stay the whole time. It will be the most peaceful, pleasant spot on our whole property, and he knows it. Guess I'll hang out with him all weekend. He's in his 80's, drinks Coors Light and Vodka cocktails like lemonade. He will be the one glimmer of fun during an entire weekend of foolishness and deception. Seriously, if his wife's father knew they eloped and everything involving this "wedding" that he was paying for was just for show, he would be so pissed. I've known the man for 25 years, he couldn't care less about walking his dumbass daughter down the aisle when she went behind his back and got married over a year ago. He'd rather buy a new tractor than pay for this event, he's not an idiot.
Rant: "Yes, we have been doing drywall contracting in the area for over 40 years. Here is our pamphlet that has all of our insurance and bonding information." Email from today: "Due to your high ceiling we can't do the job." My reaction: Jackie Chan Head Full of Fuck.jpg. Apparently in 40 years they never bought a fucking ladder. Great job, guys. I asked for an estimate on getting the house paint ready and another estimate for actual paint. Nothing on that either. This is the third asshole who fell through. Contractors are probably the lowest life forms. They're TSA agents with hammers and caulking guns. Except DCC, she's aight.
RANT: Due to some extenuating circumstances at the office I have been alone for almost 2 weeks now. This office is not just for insurance, my Boss runs his side business out of it which is rental homes and apts. I have also been in charge of all of that shit too in his absence. I'm a bit stressed. For the first time in my 20+ years with the company I let a client that came in all kinds of pissed off reduce me to tears. I'm pissed and embarrassed. Fuck.
Rant: Boss: "I have a science question for you." Me: "Well, I'm a scientist. Hit me." B: "What is a teratogen? I mean, I know what it is, but what is it?" M: "Well, it causes negative effects to a foetus or embryo." B: "So, not reproductive? So, if you were to be affected, it wouldn't affect your future offspring, just any offspring you're carrying at the moment?" M: "Yes." B: "Okay. Does it affect males?" M: "..." B: "Like, males who ingest it." M: "..." B: "What?" M: "You're asking me if men have babies. I'm trying to come up with a way of answering where I don't come off looking like a jerk."
Rant: My truck was broken into last night and my iPod was stolen. I'm learning that 160GB iPods are no longer made and I can't replace it. Also I had to change the passwords to all the devices. I hope whoever stole it dies slowly.
Rant: These emails always feel good: "'Juice' - We would like to discuss the relationship between your firm and our company. Our legal counsel will be present. Let us know your availability asap."
Rant: I despise CVS. I've already posted about how they gave me the wrong prescription last year ( a muscle relaxer instead of cholesterol medication) and I walked around all fucked up all day. Their customer service is atrocious - as they put other pharmacies out of business and accumulate more customers, they don't correspondingly add more staff. And the morons they do have behind the counter are either joking around with each other or frantically putting pills in bottles - forget actually giving those pills to the customers. As juvenile as it may sound today was the last straw. There is a big neon sign outside that says "Open 24 Hours". There was another sign posted just inside the door that listed the pharmacy hours as 24 hours a day Monday through Saturday. So when I walked in this morning at 7:45 on my way to work, I was foolish enough to expect the pharmacy to be open. It was not. I took the sign listing the hours off the wall, put it down on the counter and told the clerk "This sign is wrong. Change it.' And left. Again, they've put most of the other pharmacies in the area out of business so my options are limited, but I'm going to be switching to any other pharmacy tomorrow morning.
Rave: Co-workers are in town for the week to help support our release, which means free dinner and drinks all week on the company dime. Rant: My liver is going to need to go to rehab after this week is over. Pretty sure I've also gained about 10 lbs in the process.
RAVE: I don't think I can embed it since it's from the chive. Just click that puppy. It made my week and I've had one shitty week. http://thechive.com/2016/05/20/adorably-excited-lady-cannot-handle-a-chewbacca-mask-video/
Rant: I worked 12 hour days every day but Thursday this past week. Yesterday was 8am - midnight. Will probably work at least 6 hours today and the majority of the day tomorrow getting things ready for this UAT. My eye randomly twitches often. Sweet Jesus, this June 1st go-live cannot come soon enough. Rave: My team is firing on all cylinders and not once groaned or complained about me telling them that they're basically losing this weekend. An extravagant dinner, on me, is in their future. Once this shit does go live, I'm taking a few days off--during which time I'm going to remove my work email account from my phone and actually unplug. Rave: Wife hit 20 weeks this week and we went in for the anatomy check. Baby is super active, looks great, and the wife is feeling good. As shitty as work is, seeing that little one made all of the stress and madness melt away. Can't wait to hold her little hand.
Rant: Golly Moses. Give my body a break! For 2 solid weeks I thought I was going to die with what was probably the zika virus, Thursday I pinched a nerve in my neck so bad that I had to call out from work Friday and today. Hot showers and heating pads are awesome. Bengay's okay. Does lidocaine cream actually work for anybody?