To Blog, or Not to Blog? Is That Even A Question?
Also posted to Myspace on June 18:
Yep, I finally have a washer and dryer, so I can do my own laundry now, just like the big people! Of course, since nothing is ever as simple as it looks, there is a complication. After we hooked up the washer and dryer, we found out that the cold water line that runs to it through the back of the kitchen closet is capped off, and needs a plumber to come in and put on about a foot of pipe and attach it to the rest of the line, so I can do laundry in something besides hot water. Still, it works, and it washes clothes really well!
In other complications, it was a day late arriving, because when it got to the delivery center on Friday, one of the legs was broken, and they had to go and get a new leg to fix it before they could deliver it. And, they called me at 6:58 AM to wake me up to tell me this.They then said they couldn't even call to make sure there was a replacement leg available until the place opened up at 10 AM., so they would have to call me back to let me know if it would be there so they COULD deliver it by Saturday. Wait-you called me at zero-dark-thirty and woke me up to tell me about a problem that you couldn't do anything about for another three hours anyway? They finally verified that they had the part and could fix the leg and bring it on Saturday, but did not call me back to let me know until after noon. It always has to be complicated.
If I believed in "bad luck" or "jinxes," I would think that maybe I had one, just because of all the complications over the simplest things. My own day-to-day life is going well enough. I am managing to keep myself and my home clean, keep the bills sent out on time, eating regularly like a good girl, taking my medicines that I need to take when I need to take them, all that stuff has been fine. I've been able to get to church and teach Sunday School again without indicent, and manage to make my doctors' appointments without anything going kerflooey. It's other stuff that gets all complicated, and always through no fault of my own.
I opened a new bank account, and the lady who opened the account for me forgot to order my checks until ten days after I opened my account, so I had to wait an additional 10 days for my checks to arrive. This meant I had nothing but counter-checks, and actually had to send out birthday cards to a couple of people with tacky-looking counter checks.
I took the bus to the appliance store to order some new electronics and appliances that I had desperately needed to upgrade. I spent an hour selecting merchandise, then the guy ringing everything up took an hour and a half to ring me up! Why? Because he was a new guy, and while we were going around selecting my stuff, he never bothered to take down the product numbers of the things that would be delivered, and had to go back and look for them all again. Then, in the middle of the sale, he realized I would need a couple of extra cords for a couple of things, so he had to go back and get those.
When I finally left the store and went to get on the bus to go home, I found out that it was an enclosed parking lot, with no sidewalks on the street outside. This was in the middle of a large shopping complex, and the only stores in the part that I was in were a pet store, a credit union office, the Best Buy where I had been shopping, and a nail salon. No coffee shop that I could go to and wait until it was time for the bus. The curbs were too high for the wheelchair to even get off the lot and onto the grass to wait for the bus, or to go to another area while I waited. I had to sit in the driveway of the lot, where people were pulling in to the lot, to wait for my bus, which didn't come for a half an hour.
I told you about my recent trip to the grocery store, and what a nightmare that was. Still, I wandered out to the mall last week to go to Sears, because I had looked aorund online and found that they had the new bed, dresser and nightstand I wanted there for a very good price. When I got to Sears, the aisles were so crowded with displays in the middle of the aisles or sticking out into the aisles that my wheelchair would not fit down them. I told the sales clerk at the desk by bedroom accessories that I wanted to buy some things, but couldn't get through the aisles. She said, oh, then looked away and ignored me. I spoke up and said, "Could I speak to a manager about getting help with this problem?" She called a manager's office, and got no answer after about 30 seconds, and told me he wasn't in his office. Another customer camer up with merchandise, and I was told I would have to wait and she would try him at another number or page him. I said "never mind," and rolled to the front of the store, to the Customer Service desk. I informed the young lady there that I was very unhappy with the store, because it was not handicapped accessible and I could not seem to get any help in making my purchases. Her enthusiastic response? I quote her exactly here: " Oh, okay." She then proceeded to stare at me for about twenty seconds without making any offer to help or any kind of apology for my inconvenience, then ignored me. I informed her that I would notify the corporate office about her helpful, friendly store, and she nodded and said "okay" again. So, I left. Yep, I have already contacted the corporate opffice, and they are going to have someone call me back from that store to try to rectify the problem. Needless to say, I do NOT have my new bed, dresser and nightstand, and they are no longer on sale. And, while I probably can convince the manager to let me buy them at the sale price, do I really want to buy them from a company where they think it's okay when they lose a sale of over $900 because they were too lazy to offer help to a disabled person in the first place?
Even my Welfare appointment got complicated. They had scheduled it too late for me to get home by bus, so I called and rescheduled it for an hour earlier just so there would be no chance of my being stuck in downtown with no buses. They stop running at 5:40 P.M. here, and it takes two buses to get to the Welfare office, then two buses back. So, I arrived on time for my appointment, and was told my caseworker was in the other building across the street and down one block. There was no mention of this from my caseworker on the phone, or in the notification letter I had received. I had to haul me and the chair back down the block. Still managed to get there on time. The caseworker kept me waiting 25 minutes. I informed her the whole point of the early scheduling was because I didn't want to miss my bus. She said she would work fast. I didn't leave her office until 3:15. The end result: I still get the same amount of food stamps, I still have the same Medicaid spend-down total, and Section 8's computers are down, so we can't recalculate the new total on my rent to change any of those totals until their computers are back up. I will have to mail everything back in to my Welfare caseworker then, and then they will change everything. So, I spent a couple of hours with Welfare for no reason, except to sit through more complications.
I am staying home today, just so I have one simple day with no complications. I have to go out for a while tomorrow to return a couple of extra installation cables I did not need at Best Buy, and I dread the complications that will arise when I go. On the plus side, while I am out, I am going to go and eat Chinese food, just to make myself feel less annoyed over all the complications.
hugs from ducky
-I lead a complicated life, and I don't want to.