The weekend was supposed to be a calm, boring, stay at home one, but alas, that’s not what we got. After the week I’d had, I figured that going out Friday with Stormy would be just the ticket to help me get over my malaise. And it did help immensely. She went to the Oakland Cemetery tour and the weather was just perfect for skulking around a graveyard: chilly w/ light rain. We waited for her over at Six Feet Under – they are in their new space. We’ve eaten there 4 or 5 times and the food is just not that great. It’s mediocre at best. We had their famous Rat Toes appetizer which is a shrimp stuffed into a jalapeno then wrapped in bacon. Sounds deelish, but they are never cooked enough. That bacon should be crispy and the jalapeno should not be crunchy. For our meal we had fish stew which had potential, but sadly just tasted like canned tomatoes with some seafood tossed in. In addition, whoever was running expo was doing a shitty job because our two bowls of stew were not evenly portioned – a big NO for going to the same table. Stormy’s chicken fingers were dry and bland and the fries were soggy. Overall, they’ve never gotten above 1.5 stars (out of 5) from me. So we got out of there and came back here to watch a movie Stormy brought: May. It was a slow burn sort of horror flick, but very entertaining. She was here until around 2am when she had to go pick Jim up from work.
Continue reading “Bored to booked”
Cold and rainy
I’m glad I work from home on days like this. It’s cold, rainy, windy… not very nice outside. But I like the weather today; probably because I’ve been feeling a bit cold and rainy all week.
I’m so lucky to have friends who can grok me. Even when I’m being a whiney bitch.
I miss my Bernie cat. Aw, hell, guess I’ve got some weepy left over from yesterday. Damn. ::sniffle:: It’s cold outside and I… I just wish she was here in the house, that’s all. Ok, I’ve got to go have a little cry now… Man, I’ve had a week.
More varmint drama
Yesterday I had the back door open, as usual, to let the cats go in/out as they please (otherwise I get to play the Door Game all day long). I went to get the mail and was perusing it while sitting on the couch when Missy comes trotting in. Then I noticed the CHIPMUNK she was sort of herding around – not exactly a chase at that point, more of a chipmunk roundup if you will. Both she and the varmint were right in front of me – comin’ right at me – and I let out a yelp. The chipmunk jumped up, Missy jumped up and I jumped up and then the varmint ran to the corner at the front door with Missy in hot pursuit.
So, I yelled at Missy, “Oh my god I’m gonna KILL you! Bernie would never let this happen!”, meanwhile the varmint is running behind my couch. Great. I got the trashcan in case I could catch it, but it kept scampering about. My yelling freaked Missy out so she retreated to the hall to observe at a safe distance. I got the broom and a flashlight and started looking around and found that the chipmunk was now behind the speaker in the corner. Finally, I opened the front door and chased the chipmunk from the corner and the last time I saw it, it was running along the baseboard towards the door. I never saw it leave, but it obviously did since further searching revealed nothing. Either that or its living in my front closet or something. ::sigh:: It was an exciting 5 minute chase, I can tell you that! LOL
I tossed Missy out and left her out for a few hours (this is punishment for her). She was traumatized by being yelled at – she hates being yelled at. She sat stock still on the back porch for about half an hour. I guess she was trying to be good or something. ? Who knows with cats.
Today I am in a very weird headspace. I’m on edge and have a hair trigger. I also feel like crying for no particular reason. All I can figure is it’s the lack of certainty right now that’s getting to me. I’ve got 2 big gigs that may or may not happen. I’ve got 2 clients who owe me money and may or may not pay in a timely fashion. I want my fucking studio, which is tied to one of the gigs. My body feels weird for the third week in a row. The election, the economy, everything. I’m just…off.
In any case, I’m more irritable than usual (if that’s even possible) so don’t bug me with inconsequential bullshit. Save it for when I’m in a better humour.
Ga Natural Gas follies
In other news, we were Catalyst gas customers (they crashed and burned) so now I’ve got to find a new marketer. Just the fact that they are called “marketers” should clue you in to the morons who work there.
I’ve got to find one for the Taqueria, too. The top two seem to be Walton and Infinite. But who knows? I went to the PSC site to check out the rate card, which they’ve replace with a dumbed down version that has NO info at all. It has the cost for 38 therms (?) and lists only 2 companies. And there’s no other explanation. No fees, DDDC, actual per therm cost, NOTHING. Fucking government. So much for the “Service” part of the Public Service Commission, right? Yah, it’s public, but the service part? I think not.
The deregulation of natural gas in GA has been a miserable failure and everyone knows it. It’s not quite as bad as the CA power failures a few back, but as far as customers getting screwed, yah, it’s pretty much there. We pay about 5x more for gas now than we did before the miracle of “marketers”. I typically pay more in fees than for the gas I use. That is fucked up.
So, with no available info, I’ve got to spin the wheel and randomly pick a marketer that seems to maybe have a good rate. The per therm cost is irrelevant because they also have this DDDC thing that no one seems to have any idea what it is, but damned if you don’t PAY for it. And then there’s the “Customer Service” fees. Um, excuse me, but isn’t this whole set up a “customer service” fee? We now are required to pay some company to “provide” us with natural gas that still comes from fucking GA Natural Gas but with all sorts of fees tacked on to pay for the marketers. Wha?? It’s absolutely stupid and nothing more than a boondoggle for the politicians to get $$ from the PACs of the marketers. Remove the marketers and get rid of the artificially high natural gas prices. Easy.
Damn. And let me clear up another myth: MX Energy is just Shell. Shell is the worst company on the planet to deal with. They bought up all the accounts from Catalyst and since I don’t want to be fucked more than I’ve been already, I’ve got to get away from those assholes. They are offering $1.147 per therm! Hahahahaha!
It’s gonna be one of those days, I can tell. What better time to deal with bureaucrats than when I’m crampy and bitchy? It sucks to be them. :-)
Here we go again
I told you they’d have another round of government bailout money and they totally DID. You’re damn skippy that “Consumers have hunkered down.” I get the feeling that these supposed experts who supposedly know best for this country think that if we throw enough non-existent government funding at the economic problems they’ll just go away. Look, this is not going away. I’m thinking of this recession as an adjustment. We are adjusting the economy back to reality. Things have been completely FUBAR for too long and we need to reevaluate how this country is run from “Wall Street to Main Street” as the saying goes. Yes, Wall St was running rampant – why not? Americans have been running rampant for years now. As I’ve stated before: the government reflects its citizens. Americans are in debt to their eyeballs and so is our government. Unfortunately, none of the politicians (ESPECIALLY the Messiah Obama) give a rat’s ass about our national debt or the deficits because talking about that won’t get votes.
Telling Americans that they’ll get something for nothing, now that’ll get you some votes, my friend! You betcha! Real Change!
Neither McDaddy or Omama (thanks Russ!) are putting forth real solutions. They both want to spend spend spend. Obama’s “cuts” are not cuts at all, they are reallocations. Take from the rich, give to the poor. Sounds great, but is NOT a tenet of a democratic capitalist country. McCain’s policies will cost billions, too.
Handing out billions of dollars to private institutions to prop up the economy is not the answer. We don’t have the money in the first place and the economy will still go further into recession plus add to the outrageous deficit.
::sigh::
We’re in this, folks. It’s a recession. We’ve seen them before, we’ll see them again. Just get your ducks in a row and hold the course. Stay in your current home. Keep your current job. Just wait it out and you’ll be fine. Panicky politicians and hyper media have caused much of the hoopla and people must realise that it is hoopla. Economies ebb and flow and we’re currently ebbing. Just stay cool and let everything adjust. We’ll be fine if everyone would just chill the fuck out.
We must realise that our government can’t control everything. We must realise that government is not supposed to nanny you, it’s supposed to provide military, infrastructure and currency. It’s not supposed to hand out money to corporations if they fail or take money from people who own businesses and earn their way and give it to those who contribute nothing. If you ain’t got a job, then you ain’t getting anything, asshole. I don’t know how the American way became the I-want-the-government-to-take-care-of-me way. It’s pathetic. Too bad the next president will do nothing to change any of it. VOTE LIBERTARIAN! SUPPORT THE FAIR TAX!