Have to renew my driver’s license today, in 45 minutes, which is now the dreaded RealID version. Prove one’s identity, social security membership, and two proofs of state residency. The anxiety from the ordeal is crippling. This is despite having all the documents. Also, my current license doesn’t expire for a month, so I have time to do it again. But showing up in person at a crowded motor vehicle office in a pandemic while immunosuppressed just makes my anxiety worse.
You’d think the republicans would cry foul at what is essentially a national ID card, but it plays right into their conspiracy of keeping poor people from voting for democrats.
OTOH, I wouldn’t mind a ReallyActuallyGotVaccinatedID, of a not so stupidly easy to forge kind.
I did have success at the MVA, and managed not to get the clerk who had his mask below his nose the entire time I was there. The guy I got was nice, and I told him so.
Fuck today. Boiler system officially dead in the flat I live in and rent from my societally assigned landlord. It’s freaking cold here. (#6 most cold place on earth last night) My options for shelter are limited.
Isn’t heat considered a necessity and therefore an emergency which must be fixed within 24 hours where you are? Def should be if it’s not, given the whole 6th coldest place on earth. Best of luck. Try to keep warm.
It’s time for Bad News/Good News! Bad news: My car died during rush hour in a right-turn only lane! The oil light came on, so I shut off the engine, and it wouldn’t start again! Good news: I’m fairly certain it just needs a jump and oil! Oh well, I ain’t goin’ nowheres, anyhoo.
And it was in the low 50s yesterday, today it’s 26 F. I wonder if the engine block will crack, if it’s not already?
hahahaha…got a new battery for my car, but when it’s in park, the engine dies, sooo…
a new alternator is needed. The car does start, no problem. And I was able to move it up and down in the driveway, so maybe short hops will be okay till I can get it fixed.
And my ex-musical partner bought the battery for me & told me to get an estimate from the repair shop I normally go to.
So. Now Consumers Energy wants to shut off the gas to my house on the 29th. I’ve applied for assistance from the MI Homeowner’s Assistance Fund (administered by the MI State Housing & Development Authority, getting their money from the fed. gov’t) for help with my unpaid property taxes and utility bills, but no word from them yet. I also applied for State Emergency Relief from MDHHS, but that was last night so I probably won’t hear anything till next Monday on that (though it’s only 1:37 pm as I type this).
If this country had UBI, people like me could at least keep our homes and our access to public utilities. SIGH.
Well, it went through, yay. Now I gotta worry about the electricity.
Annnnd…I just reported my MMMP caregiver to the proper authority. Now he won’t even respond to my texts - and he’s been my caregiver for almost two years but I’ve only met him ONCE.
Addendum: That reads like he wasn’t responding to my texts 'cos I reported him; he quit answering my texts on St. Patty’s Day.
Next week my electricity may be turned off, on 4/29. I’m going to have to ask for SER on that utility. I don’t know if it will go through, though.
No one is buying my art. I can’t get a job because I can’t lift more than five pounds in a work situation. And I haven’t heard from the Homeowners Assistance Fund yet.
The happened yesterday. I was working on my basement hobby bench, when I heard a buzzing. Oh, great, a huge fly, I said to myself. Then I saw the beast–it was a carpenter bee, which looks a lot like an oversize bumblebee. Kind of cute in a way, but the females can sting multiple times. I tried whacking it with a short piece of 1" by 3", but no luck. Because of our cats, we don’t have any spray bug killer. Then I thought of clear matte spray paint. Ha! I used it once before on some noxious insect or other, and it worked. And in the basement it didn’t matter if I got some on the ceiling–besides it’s basically invisible, just imparting a dull finish to anything shiny.
I got the can and start spritzing the bee but missed. It was flying near the ceiling. So looking at the ceiling I followed it around to the other side of the workbench . . . and ran right into my rolling chair. In trying to grab the bench to keep from falling, I pushed everything on that end onto the floor, and landed on the floor too. Somehow I didn’t break anything, but I banged up up my knee, enpurpling it nicely. That feeling of falling out of control is awful.
This is the 7th time I’ve tripped and fallen on my face in the last ten years. And I’ve got osteoporosis in my hips due to all the corticosteroids I’ve been on for Crohn’s disease. All I can say is “fuck yesterday.”
Been without internet at home for months, and now without electricity for a week. That’s not what I’m venting about. What I am venting about is that whatever I ate yesterday didn’t agree with me. Fuck norovirus, fuck fast food poor hygiene, and fuck today.
My brother emailed me last night to say his wife tested positive for Covid and he’s come down with a cough and probably has it too.
And then our air conditioner died at some point last night. We’re in the middle of a heat wave, it’s going to be 93 outside (feels like 98). And it’s EXACTLY the same problem we paid $300 to fix 355 days ago (a bad run capacitor). These things are supposed to last the lifetime of the air conditioner with proper maintenance, and we have a maintenance contract with them.
update: the AC seems to be messed up at work too. FML.
Manufacturing really sucks today. I’m really fed up. Two dehumidifiers died within three years. And our dishwasher sucks:
It uses bitumen (i.e., tar) as sound insulation which smells like road work, and probably releases chemicals that are not good for you. When it’s “done”, I put a fan on before I open it.
The bottom rack has a wheel design that easily derail. You’d think a pretty old technology like a wheel would not be that hard to implement.
The top rack has to be banged in to overcome some projection in the back.
The racks seemed to have been designed for specific set of dishes and pans we don’t have. Trying to fill the thing is a 3D jigsaw puzzle.
The brackets attached to the rest of the cabinets, made of flimsy sheet metal, pulled off the screws.
The worst is it doesn’t reliably clean or dry the dishes.
I know I’ve whined about the dishwasherwetter before, probably here and at TOP, but it’s a constant irritation.
