Here is the part where I commence with the headdesking.
I see that LJ has finally forced its ugly little layout crap on my bio page. HATE it. HATE it. LEAVE MY SHIT ALONE GODDAMMIT.
tsutsuji, bless her heart, donated a little something to help me take care of immediate grocery needs today. But when I tried to cash the check, the stupid bank gave me crap about trying to because a) it's an out-of-stater, and b) I don't have an account with them (or with anybody else, for that matter - kinda hard to when you have nothing to your name TO bank!). This despite the fact that they know me, they know my parents (who DO have an account), and I've cashed checks there before without having an account and not having any trouble with it (though they told me that if they were my parents' checks, the fact that they have an account may be why. I don't remember if they were or not; the only times I've had to cash checks for my mom and dad was if they needed a few bucks and wanted to send me down to do it so they wouldn't have to go out. And I can probably count on one hand with fingers left over how many checks from other parties - that recent $5 severance from Crackhead Barrel comes to mind - I was able to cash...)
They initially refused to cash it, but, pissed off now, I went inside and persevered, and got my way. (although at the moment, my blood pressure is still shy of boiling from the frustration of it) Looks like Joe Pesci was right: "NEVER go up to the drive-thru, okay!? They fuck you at the drive-thru!" And fuck the banks. All they seem to want to do is screw you over with bullshit hoops and fees. No wonder more people are taking up credit unions.
So guys, to avoid this in the future, if any of you ever want to send anything, I hate to ask, but please make it cash if possible. (Or the Paypal, since I can link my folks' account to that and get it that way...although that takes a couple of days...)
*sigh* *adds bankers to List Of People I Am Having Guillotined When I Rule The World* (I keep running out of paper here. Yeah, it's an ever-growing list...!)
But. I can go buy milk now! And some kitty food! And maybe some stuff to make a dinner or two for me and my folks. So thank you so much, Tsutsuji. ^_^<3 (Aside from the handful of eggs that the chickens produce daily, we have like a packet of rice in the pantry, and that's pretty much it for our foodstores. :( Much though I like eggs, I'm getting tired of them. Plus that can't be the healthiest thing, eating eggs, eggs, eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner...!
--
While I was downtown pissing with the bank, I checked around at the post office; there was a flyer I remember was posted there about the local food bank. Unfortunately, they're only open one day a month, and that day has already passed for this month (the second Saturday of every month). But it looks like there are no qualifications to meet, thankfully (i.e., "you must be X amount of poorness to get food"), so I'm marking down the next slot and going to try to see if I can get in there. I told my mom about it, and she was like "...I couldn't do that." It's an elder thing, generational pride, I guess - I can sort of understand it, but I'm still going there anyway. We fuckin' need it, there's just no bones about it. Like the good Paul Wan says, "Pride alone won't fill the stomach." (All I need to know about life I learned from Get Backers, trufax.)
Mom's knee seems to be doing a little bit better. She moves a little better than she did, and she's off the crutches. She can do stairs, as long as she takes it slow and doesn't put much (if any) weight on the knee; she says that's the hardest for her, if she tries to bend it or put weight on it. I finally got her upstairs to watch the last parts of Harry Potter with me, and it was as much fun watching her reactions to the DH movies as it was watching the movies themselves. "WHAT?! Harry has to DIE after all that!?!" XD Another HP convert made, heh heh. (Now, if I could just get her to accept the awesomeness that is Get Backers...!)
Got a phone call today from my brother, who is out on the East Coast awaiting leave to go back to Kansas after having finished his 4-month training course. He graduated with 'distinguished honors', which means that he did well and this will be noted in his record for points, which could eventually help him as far as pay and promotions go. I had to shut him down fast though when he started bitching about Obama and the healthcare stuff (he'd called to see how Mom was doing) - he said, and I quote, "it's gonna get a lot worse once Obama's Nazi healthcare plan starts in." *facepalm*
I said, "dude, I don't even wanna talk about it." And somehow managed to get him to move on to another less incendiary topic. I'm seriously sick of the bullshit coming from him and my SIL. I love 'em, I wish them well, but this is why I have to limit my time around them. I can't stand this kind of ignorant crap. Especially since, once I learned of their animosity towards things/people I care deeply about, I make the effort to *avoid* bringing up certain subjects around them in favor of preserving the family peace. And ESPECIALLY since I pretty much fall into a lot of the categories of people they love to rip apart on a regular basis, so I really have to wonder if this is how they'd treat me if given half a chance on it. I have a feeling that the next time one of them says something that sets me off, I'm going to call them on it, and I won't pull any punches. (In which case, cue the war drums and scorched earth, because the odds are not in my favor as far as support goes. Oh well.)
Found out yesterday that the night before, someone broke into the convenience store/gas station in town here too. That place is right down the street from me; I walk to it all the time. Yeah, rural areas are just SOOOOOO much safer than your suburbs/cities. *eyeroll* Mom thinks that since they had their big spring auction in town here over this weekend (another thing that pissed me off, since between the bullhorn of the auctioneer and the trains having to blast their horns THE ENTIRE TIME to alert all the potential Darwin wannabes of their passings, I got like no sleep that morning), whatever shitbag/s did it probably thought the store might've had more cash than usual in its hold. I don't know what-all was stolen. Considering our recent experience with shitbags stealing stuff, DIAF scum, is all I can say on that count.
--
And now we come to the meat and potatoes, so to speak. I found out just how bad our situation is over the weekend.
We are approximately $120,000 in the hole. At least as far as this stupid Shoebox folly goes. I got Mom to confess this much of it to me; that figure includes the initial property cost, the building costs thus far, and the 10K loan my dad took out with the bank to try to finish it (which probably doesn't cover the full finishing costs).
We have nothing for money. Dad evidently bounced several checks, which incurred overdraft fees, which all put together ate up the nearly $700 that Mom got from her Workplace of Doom for vacation pay (what she's getting while she's unable to work because of this knee-cyst). Last I'd heard, we have probably about $14 left in the checking.
Say it with me now, kids: We're. Fucked.
I don't know what it is with him. I don't know how it is that he is so bad at (mis)managing money. And he's gotten worse over the years as he's gotten older. This isn't the first time we've been strapped, but it is one of, if not the, worst miserable spots I can ever remember. This has the potential to destroy us: My parents' health isn't that great (Dad alone is on multiple medications, the costs of which I can't even begin to fathom), and if you're not healthy, you can't work. I sure as hell can't get shit for work, and even if I could, it's not enough to pay for even just my own way. I have a feeling, from comments she's made lately, that if we ever do manage to climb out of this one, my mom may be planning another divorce attempt in the works - and frankly, this time, I wouldn't blame her one little bit.
I used to think it unthinkable that my parents would divorce; when the first attempt happened as an indirect result of our 2006 - part-2007 Florida stay, I was pretty upset (some of you may recall me venting on this journal about it, even). But I guess time and experience have a way of whittling you down, so as much as I care about my dad and want him to be okay, I'm also pretty disgusted with his behavior. I've even said to my mom we should gang up on him and do some kind of intervention wherein we seize whatever financial control is left from him and forbid him to make any sort of move without our permission. It may well come to that. (And it also won't end well, because, well...Ayinsan has seen my dad's temper. On many occasions. Needless to say, it's not pretty.)
I'm so tired of all this insanity.
Going to go headdesk now and try and get us some food fixin's.
tsutsuji, bless her heart, donated a little something to help me take care of immediate grocery needs today. But when I tried to cash the check, the stupid bank gave me crap about trying to because a) it's an out-of-stater, and b) I don't have an account with them (or with anybody else, for that matter - kinda hard to when you have nothing to your name TO bank!). This despite the fact that they know me, they know my parents (who DO have an account), and I've cashed checks there before without having an account and not having any trouble with it (though they told me that if they were my parents' checks, the fact that they have an account may be why. I don't remember if they were or not; the only times I've had to cash checks for my mom and dad was if they needed a few bucks and wanted to send me down to do it so they wouldn't have to go out. And I can probably count on one hand with fingers left over how many checks from other parties - that recent $5 severance from Crackhead Barrel comes to mind - I was able to cash...)
They initially refused to cash it, but, pissed off now, I went inside and persevered, and got my way. (although at the moment, my blood pressure is still shy of boiling from the frustration of it) Looks like Joe Pesci was right: "NEVER go up to the drive-thru, okay!? They fuck you at the drive-thru!" And fuck the banks. All they seem to want to do is screw you over with bullshit hoops and fees. No wonder more people are taking up credit unions.
So guys, to avoid this in the future, if any of you ever want to send anything, I hate to ask, but please make it cash if possible. (Or the Paypal, since I can link my folks' account to that and get it that way...although that takes a couple of days...)
*sigh* *adds bankers to List Of People I Am Having Guillotined When I Rule The World* (I keep running out of paper here. Yeah, it's an ever-growing list...!)
But. I can go buy milk now! And some kitty food! And maybe some stuff to make a dinner or two for me and my folks. So thank you so much, Tsutsuji. ^_^<3 (Aside from the handful of eggs that the chickens produce daily, we have like a packet of rice in the pantry, and that's pretty much it for our foodstores. :( Much though I like eggs, I'm getting tired of them. Plus that can't be the healthiest thing, eating eggs, eggs, eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner...!
--
While I was downtown pissing with the bank, I checked around at the post office; there was a flyer I remember was posted there about the local food bank. Unfortunately, they're only open one day a month, and that day has already passed for this month (the second Saturday of every month). But it looks like there are no qualifications to meet, thankfully (i.e., "you must be X amount of poorness to get food"), so I'm marking down the next slot and going to try to see if I can get in there. I told my mom about it, and she was like "...I couldn't do that." It's an elder thing, generational pride, I guess - I can sort of understand it, but I'm still going there anyway. We fuckin' need it, there's just no bones about it. Like the good Paul Wan says, "Pride alone won't fill the stomach." (All I need to know about life I learned from Get Backers, trufax.)
Mom's knee seems to be doing a little bit better. She moves a little better than she did, and she's off the crutches. She can do stairs, as long as she takes it slow and doesn't put much (if any) weight on the knee; she says that's the hardest for her, if she tries to bend it or put weight on it. I finally got her upstairs to watch the last parts of Harry Potter with me, and it was as much fun watching her reactions to the DH movies as it was watching the movies themselves. "WHAT?! Harry has to DIE after all that!?!" XD Another HP convert made, heh heh. (Now, if I could just get her to accept the awesomeness that is Get Backers...!)
Got a phone call today from my brother, who is out on the East Coast awaiting leave to go back to Kansas after having finished his 4-month training course. He graduated with 'distinguished honors', which means that he did well and this will be noted in his record for points, which could eventually help him as far as pay and promotions go. I had to shut him down fast though when he started bitching about Obama and the healthcare stuff (he'd called to see how Mom was doing) - he said, and I quote, "it's gonna get a lot worse once Obama's Nazi healthcare plan starts in." *facepalm*
I said, "dude, I don't even wanna talk about it." And somehow managed to get him to move on to another less incendiary topic. I'm seriously sick of the bullshit coming from him and my SIL. I love 'em, I wish them well, but this is why I have to limit my time around them. I can't stand this kind of ignorant crap. Especially since, once I learned of their animosity towards things/people I care deeply about, I make the effort to *avoid* bringing up certain subjects around them in favor of preserving the family peace. And ESPECIALLY since I pretty much fall into a lot of the categories of people they love to rip apart on a regular basis, so I really have to wonder if this is how they'd treat me if given half a chance on it. I have a feeling that the next time one of them says something that sets me off, I'm going to call them on it, and I won't pull any punches. (In which case, cue the war drums and scorched earth, because the odds are not in my favor as far as support goes. Oh well.)
Found out yesterday that the night before, someone broke into the convenience store/gas station in town here too. That place is right down the street from me; I walk to it all the time. Yeah, rural areas are just SOOOOOO much safer than your suburbs/cities. *eyeroll* Mom thinks that since they had their big spring auction in town here over this weekend (another thing that pissed me off, since between the bullhorn of the auctioneer and the trains having to blast their horns THE ENTIRE TIME to alert all the potential Darwin wannabes of their passings, I got like no sleep that morning), whatever shitbag/s did it probably thought the store might've had more cash than usual in its hold. I don't know what-all was stolen. Considering our recent experience with shitbags stealing stuff, DIAF scum, is all I can say on that count.
--
And now we come to the meat and potatoes, so to speak. I found out just how bad our situation is over the weekend.
We are approximately $120,000 in the hole. At least as far as this stupid Shoebox folly goes. I got Mom to confess this much of it to me; that figure includes the initial property cost, the building costs thus far, and the 10K loan my dad took out with the bank to try to finish it (which probably doesn't cover the full finishing costs).
We have nothing for money. Dad evidently bounced several checks, which incurred overdraft fees, which all put together ate up the nearly $700 that Mom got from her Workplace of Doom for vacation pay (what she's getting while she's unable to work because of this knee-cyst). Last I'd heard, we have probably about $14 left in the checking.
Say it with me now, kids: We're. Fucked.
I don't know what it is with him. I don't know how it is that he is so bad at (mis)managing money. And he's gotten worse over the years as he's gotten older. This isn't the first time we've been strapped, but it is one of, if not the, worst miserable spots I can ever remember. This has the potential to destroy us: My parents' health isn't that great (Dad alone is on multiple medications, the costs of which I can't even begin to fathom), and if you're not healthy, you can't work. I sure as hell can't get shit for work, and even if I could, it's not enough to pay for even just my own way. I have a feeling, from comments she's made lately, that if we ever do manage to climb out of this one, my mom may be planning another divorce attempt in the works - and frankly, this time, I wouldn't blame her one little bit.
I used to think it unthinkable that my parents would divorce; when the first attempt happened as an indirect result of our 2006 - part-2007 Florida stay, I was pretty upset (some of you may recall me venting on this journal about it, even). But I guess time and experience have a way of whittling you down, so as much as I care about my dad and want him to be okay, I'm also pretty disgusted with his behavior. I've even said to my mom we should gang up on him and do some kind of intervention wherein we seize whatever financial control is left from him and forbid him to make any sort of move without our permission. It may well come to that. (And it also won't end well, because, well...Ayinsan has seen my dad's temper. On many occasions. Needless to say, it's not pretty.)
I'm so tired of all this insanity.
Going to go headdesk now and try and get us some food fixin's.