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Bummer, dude!

I hate to keep writing bummer posts, but dammit, it’s all I got these days. The tale of the washing machine is below the money whining if you want to skip to that cautionary tale.

The last few weeks have been pretty terrible. It’s like every expensive to fix item has decided to shit itself. These are the things that have broken and had to be repaired or replaced:
coffee maker: $60 new unit
Ranger: $1500 front end repairs and tires
stereo head unit: $110 new unit + preamp for turntable
washing machine: $400 (being disputed) and $980 for a new one
grandfather clock: no cost yet, but it has also stopped working; $150 for service call

So that is $2650 (plus the $400 disputed: $3050) run up on credit cards in less than a month. Can we pay this off? NOPE.

Nick’s shitty job keeps us at break even – perhaps a little under our normal bills. We are frugal motherfuckers, too. But with inflation, his $19/hr pay (that is taxed 30%, of course) is stretched as far as it will go. My p/t admin job is very p/t and I should be looking for another p/t job, but the problem is my restrictions. I will only work specific days, only one weekend day and I need off for various conventions. That is a hard sell to any employer who uses p/t people to fill in all the shitty shifts that f/t workers don’t want. I’ve toyed with trying for a prep job somewhere, but I feel that the effort will not yield results. Plus, my anxiety and depression has been gangbusters recently – for the above reasons.

This is no way to live, yet this is the American norm. Shitty jobs, low pay, taxed out the ass and work until we die. That is what’s left of the American Dream. Oh, but let’s divert attention from the real issues with political bullshit. Sure.

We added up all our game “assets” and even if we got top dollar for every one, let’s just say $40k to be very optimistic, it would not do a damn bit of good in the long run. That is not enough to buy a Minuteman franchise ($35k plus location and equipment, more like about $150k all in) and it is damn sure not enough to retire on, even with the rest of our investments. We’ve got less than $100k across our IRA and investments, even adding $40k to that is not nearly enough to retire on.

We will work until we die.

And there ain’t SHIT we can do about it. Neither of us is marketable: Nick is a prepress GOD – too bad prepress is now relegated to shitty print shop jobs; I do restaurant admin – too bad that independent restaurants can’t afford to pay an admin for anything. We are virtually unemployable – a fact that we’ve known for years and is why we were so desperate to have our own company. While I’m glad we did not end up in hospitality, that leaves us where we are: underemployed and drowning in debt. Like the rest of America. No insurance, $2k savings and the investment account that can be liquidated (unlike the IRA which involves penalties if you liquidate) is where we are. If we didn’t have the credit cards we have, we’d already be FUCKED. It takes a LOT of self control not to sell games or pull money from the investments, but we have vowed to not do that. Fuck the banks. We’ll just run up the credit like everyone else does. FUCK IT.

And I’d also like to tell you about the washer repair story. We evaluated the cost of a new machine vs repairs and decided to give Sears Home Services a go. That’s our first mistake. So I book them and some dude shows up to diagnose. He swears it’s the water pump. This part and labour is $414, about half of a new unit. So we [foolishly] go with repair. The part shows up and the following week I’m booked for the repair. So on the day of the repair, I’m booked 1-4pm. 4:30 rolls around, so I hit the chat to ask what’s up. Dude is hung up at the previous appt, he’ll be there. Fine. I wait. An hour later, without so much as a text, he rolls up. He is bitching about having to work late, blah, blah. I was not impressed with his attitude. I hand him the part and he looks at it like it’s an artifact. He looks into the machine (where the part is easily accessible) and then says, “It has two screws! I can’t get them loose with my fingers! What do I do?” I SHIT YOU NOT. At that point, I’m horrified and OVER IT. I said “well, how about getting a wrench to loosen them?” He looks at me blankly, then says “I don’t have the tools for that.” !!!!! WTF? Then he proceeds to call someone else to ask them how to loosen two screws and take off two pressure clamps on the hoses. Not looking good, Peggy Hill. Here is the part, installed:

In the meantime, I’m calling Sears to get this shit halted and get him out of here. Of course I get India or some shit and this guy can do absolutely nothing. I should’ve checked the part more carefully before going for their idiot techs! It was dead simple to replace. When I return, he’s got the top off the machine and is about to take the whole thing apart. I asked “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” and he mumbles something about having to get to the part, which, if you recall, is easily accessible from the back, nothing blocking it, SIMPLE. I tell him to stop what he’s doing and to pack up. So now he’s VERY pissed off and slams the top back on, but does not put any screws back or anything. I see him trotting down the driveway with the pump in the box that has my screws in it, so I yell at him to bring it back. He’s mumbling about having to take the part with him (that I’ve already paid for), so I grab the box, give a big shrug and close the door.

I go to look at the machine and he’s fucked up the plastic control panel, so now the top doesn’t sit flush. GREAT.


OH and he also flooded my laundry room when he took one of the hoses off. Stupid motherfucker.

Nick gets home, and swapping the part took less than 20 minutes. Sadly, it did not fix the machine, so we’ve paid Sears $414 for absolutely nothing other than a broken control panel and flooded laundry room. EXCELLENT.

Now I am in dispute with Sears over this bullshit. I initially was willing to pay for the part, but not the labour, but since the part didn’t work, they can have it back. I ONCE AGAIN call them for an RMA, and I get this story about how they must pick up the part in person, because REASONS. Then I ask for an appointment and they can’t do that. UM. If there’s no appointment, then how do they propose to pick up the part? No answer, just hemming and hawing. Welp, it’s logged that I called to return the part. I see no resolution with these assholes, so I will put in a credit card dispute. Then, for good measure, I will also file a BBB complaint.

UPDATE: I finally got an email that worked for parts return! They sent me an RMA and I’ll drop the part off at UPS next week. I did file a CC dispute, including the bill and the photos from this post. I’ve also filed a BBB Online complaint, but I’ve not heard back from them, so I’m not sure it’s being processed or not. In any case, I’m pretty hopeful that I’ll get the $414 back and be done with Sears for good. [I DID get the full refund from Sears, but it took some doing. In addition, they sent me a check for the part after they’d refunded my CC, and I am not sorry for that. I consider it pay for all the work I did to get my fucking money back. Assholes. -A 5.16.22]

Go ahead and fuck with me you fucking jerks. I do this shit for a LIVING. I WILL NOT ACQUIESCE. I will do everything in my power to get my money back, because I can’t afford ANY of this shit and it’s MY money. Sears does not deserve a cent. And that tech will likely be fired, which is fucking fine with me. He was a moron with a bad attitude.

So that’s how MY March has been. I am beyond tired. I am beyond over it. I am beyond giving a fuck about anything. The Universe has beaten the shit out of us. We cry UNCLE. Yep, it’s a bummer that has been going on for over 2 years now. Some days I just want to give up and sell every single thing we own and go live in a fucking yurt in the desert. Not so hot on Europe, what with WWIII right around the corner. This is a fucked up time to be middle aged and underemployed. There is not one good thing about it.

Sorry for the bummer, dude.

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The Unattainable American Dream

This subject covers LOTS of aspects of what has been fed to us Americans over the generations. We’ve all been told:

“Buy a house! It is the American Dream! It’s the key to a secure future!”

Well, I’m here to tell you that this is a LIE. A bald-faced, full of shit LIE.

We did that. We bought a house in 2004. The market was hot, it was great for buyers and sellers. So we did it. We got a zero down loan (unheard of now) and moved in. We quickly started FIXING all the shit that needed fixing and took out an equity loan as well. Realtors and mortgage weasels will NOT tell you all the shit you’ll have to pay for when you buy a house. Like PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance). We had PMI, but refinanced after a few years and got rid of it. You can’t do that any more – more on that later. Anyway, we bought our tiny little 912sqft house in the ‘hood and we were happy as pigs in shit. We paid too much, but it was still affordable for us, our mortgage payment was $700-800/mo. Even then, rent was almost twice that.

SO, we got our little house, fixed it up and we loved it mightily.

Then the 2009 real estate crash happened. Our little house lost more than 60% of its value. We asked Wells Fargo to help us out with it, of course they told us to go fuck ourselves. (They were VERY rude, not saying GFY precisely, but RUDE. Wells Fargo can go fuck themselves!)

We were drowning in debt, the house was 60% under water and we’d had enough. So we opted to bankrupt out of all of it. We did the bankruptcy in 2010-11. We were trying to decide what to do: stay in ATL, move away, ???. So we kept paying the mortgage every month. Wells Fargo did nothing. The bankruptcy was discharged, so we were legally off the hook, but since the mortgage was cheap, we just kept paying.

So 2014 rolls around, and we decide that Maplehurst is not going to work with our side hustle, which is arcade games. I find this place in Tucker and we move. Our landlord didn’t mind the bankruptcy since our credit had recovered. Just TRY renting w/out perfect credit now. There are so few individual rental home owners now, it’s difficult to even rent a place to live due to corporate ownership and credit checks.

I read this article about housing and that is the impetus for this post. We got fucked by the real estate crash and it’s worse now that it was then. There are no zero down loans. PMI is PERMANENT (cannot be refinanced or dropped when equity is reached). Housing prices are up 30% and you better have that fat down payment if you want to buy an overpriced house. FHA loans are terrible to get and worse to pay – their PMI is the highest and permanent, which adds tens of thousands of dollars to your loan over time. So you NEVER get equity and only banks make wealth. The whole point of real estate is WEALTH. Can’t have the hoi polloi amassing wealth, now can we? OH NO.

For years, banks and ultra-elites (bankrolled by years of money-printing, corporate socialism, and bailouts) have been using their wealth to take control of the world and rent it back to us.
Apple did it with music.
Netflix did it with movies.
Nestle did it with water.
Uber did it with cars.
Airbnb hosts and landlords did it with houses.
The lecherous gig economy did it with employment.

Instead of buying and owning products, now we’re all just renting “services.” – Jared A. Brock

This right here. THIS IS WHAT I RAIL AGAINST DAILY. I’d also like to add Adobe did it with software and Microsoft and others followed suit. You don’t even buy SOFTWARE anymore!! That is fucked up, people.

It all started with real estate and this rental economy has spread across our whole economy. This is very, very bad. We are being reduced to serfs who exist at the whim of our corporate overlords. We rely on the rich corporations for housing, entertainment, food, software, EVERYTHING.

Young people (Ys, Zs, Zoomers) don’t even realise what’s happened. They are growing up in a rental economy, so they know nothing else. It’s fine with them to rent software and everything they need to live. They will likely never know the difference. In many ways, I am jealous of their ignorance.

America is in trouble. We’ve allowed the rich and corporations to literally buy our government. We allow them to erode our ability to have wealth of any sort, to go to school, to get healthcare, to RETIRE. We will NEVER retire. We will work until we’re dead.

What also chaps my ass is people who fail and have zero consequences. They are usually RICH.

For instance, a restaurant near here has failed and the investment group closed it and went bust. But no worries, the main guy got another investment group together real quick and they’ll be refurbing the space and reopening a new concept in a couple of months. NO CONSEQUENCES.

Wow, where were these motherfuckers when WE were trying with literally everything we had to open our dream? Hmm? WHERE? Oh, we aren’t a part of that elite group of rich fucking restauranteurs, so FUCK US.

This scenario is going on everywhere in America, right now, in myriad ways. The rich are telling us to go fuck ourselves for wanting to rise above our rank.

I fear that it’s gone too far in the US to reverse. We may have to move elsewhere just to get healthcare as we age. As it stands, we are treading water. Our jobs pay the bills, but that’s it. We can’t afford to sock away cash in the investments or IRA, so it’s all stagnant. And with the market crash that is coming, we’ll lose more of that small wealth. We’ve already lost about 30% of our investments over the last year or so (2021). We’ll lose more before it’s done. I’m here to tell you that you cannot “retire” on $100k. You cannot.

I don’t know what we’ll do, but I can tell you that we’ve let go of “The American Dream” and pretty much any dream of being independent – as in, working for ourselves. We just don’t have the cash to do it. Meanwhile, the rich fail, lose a million $ and just keep going. IT IS MADDENING.

This is certainly not how I’d planned to live out my old age. Not at all. So think about this when you vote. Yes, the Democrats are pretty spineless and mealy mouthed, but it’s better than fascism. All we can hope for is stopping fascism and at least being able to stay here and not go through the extreme stress of moving overseas. But I just don’t know. And THAT is what eats at me every day.

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Lies, Truth Bombs and Other BS

Look, I know I’m a hard ass, OK? I realise that people lie to me to insulate themselves from my unabashed, non-doily covered truth bombs.

I get that, I really do.

However.

I’d like to state right now that I often know when I’m being lied to – I have a sense about that – and I may or may not acknowledge that fact. At this point in my life, I will likely NOT say anything about it, just file it away for future reference. Another fun fact: I have a very long memory. And I do keep score.

It’s also a fact that I may or may not hold the lies against the person lying. Sometimes I just set the lies aside and continue being friends, but keep my guard up. Since I feel that everyone lies all the time, I have to make choices to set aside these lies, or I’d not have any friends at all. As it is, I have very few people that I call FRIEND. I have no truly close friends other than Nick. I have been burned too many times to get involved very deeply with people’s bullshit.

All that being said, I still love my tribe and I enjoy the friends I have, both nearby and far away. I love having parties and socializing, but it takes me much longer to recharge after these social things than it used to. We’ve got two cons booked for May and I know I’ll be decimated after the second one. I have to deal with the public for 12 hrs a day at the cons and then I have to deal with the minions manning the table and loadout. It is A LOT. I’m old, I’m jaded, I’m tired and it’s really difficult for me to do all of this these days.

I guess I just wanted to write this out to state, as clearly as I can, where I am with people, lies and assorted bullshit and how I got here.

As a child, my family lied to me about all sorts of things. If I asked a question that my parents didn’t know the answer to, they’d make something up and I’d believe them. Then I’d repeat this to other kids and get ridiculed. Y’all wonder why I am an info and research junkie? Well, now you know. I seem contrary to many people since I will challenge statements that I have doubts about. I also seem like a know it all to people because, um, I do actually have a VERY broad knowledge base (mainly due to an excellent memory). The people who dislike me fall into these two categories for the most part. I will also bust out a truth bomb on you if you seem to need one. Many find that off-putting. I GET IT.

I evolved this way as a child because I am very smart and very intuitive. I knew at around age 5-6 that my parents were full of shit and couldn’t be trusted. This is why I take information with a grain of salt and will verify everything myself if it’s important. As I’ve aged and been around many, many people, now I realise that people lie every day for various reasons and friends will lie as well, if it’s in their interests. Getting used to friends lying has been a toughie. Ultimately, it has made me a very guarded, rather distant kind of person and I’m generally OK with that.

I am not mad at anyone, I just felt the need to write out some of the frustration I have when trying to navigate the turbulent waters of PEOPLE. I am not good at placating and I am worse at pretending. I do TRY, though. I really do.

Hoomans are tricksy.

I guess I just need everyone to know that I am tired, I am old, and I see your bullshit. I may or may not hold it against you. I may or may not even acknowledge it. But trust me, I typically pick up on shenanigans. So lie to me if you must, but know the tradeoff: I’ll be [more] distant. I think that’s fair. I try really hard to be a supportive friend, but I know I am not very good at it. I turned of my empathy chip a LONG time ago, because it got me into too much trouble. These days, I try to be supportive, but in a safe way that doesn’t put myself too far out there or get me entangled. I’ve let empathy and enthusiasm get me involved with the wrong fucking people and I don’t need that shit in my life these days. Did I mention I’m old? Yeah.

I don’t like lying and I never will. I don’t like being lied to. But I’ve learned to live with it. The depression, anxiety and overall isolation of the plague has probably ruined me. Most likely ruined me. I know it’s the same for everyone else. So, I see you, fellow hoomans, doing the best you can. Lie if you gotta. Just try to cut me some slack if I get salty about it. With everything else I’m dealing with, I just can’t bother with getting to the bottom of other people’s shit, yanno? But I do suggest coming clean with me at some point, before I just stop dealing with you. Even if I get salty, or pouty, or whatever, it’s best to clean out that list of lies that you’ve told and I’ve kept record of.

I deal with your lies, you deal with my attitude. That seems fair.

Again, I am mad at no one, I just needed to write this out. But feel free to confess your sins if you need to. Confession is good for the soul, right? ;)

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Eat the Rich

I reposted an article about Elon Musk on FB the other day that rendered a friend (who worships Musk unto a God) apoplectic with rage. A scuffle ensued and I deleted the whole thing. BUT I think I want to write about it here because I have my own issues with Musk and the rest of the rich cunts who pay no taxes and generally tra-la-la their way through life without so much as a hint of trouble or disaster.

The FB post was referring to the lawsuit currently working against Tesla for racist policies, segregated facilities and harassment.

I asserted that Musk was a rich asshole from a rich family, who wouldn’t have shit without the advantages he had growing up. Of course, the friend denied all that and insists that Musk is a great guy and the Lord and Saviour of Humanity™. Sigh.

Musk’s family was very well off in S Africa and did, indeed, own part of an emerald mine. Here is part of a Forbes article from 2014 (cached on wayback, since it’s been scrubbed from the active internet) where Musk talks about the emerald mine. So that is TRUE. It is not clear how much money they actually had or how much was from the mine, but they were well off by all measures.

It is difficult to find articles of value about Musk, since his media team is good at their jobs and have erased any and all evidence of Musk’s privilege from the internet. There’s a lot of chatter on Quora, but that is far from trustworthy. Here is a quora discussion of whether Musk was born into wealth that is pretty coherent.

So, let’s just say OK, he was upper middle class. Fine. BUT he is still white and he grew up in Apartheid S Africa, which greatly enhances his privilege beyond just money. He also got very fucking lucky with the dot com boom, which is how he went from a broke student to millionaire.

I stand by my contempt of Musk and all the other .1% who hoard the world’s money. I don’t give a single damn if they had a typical college experience or not, or were raised rich or not, they are still hoarding money that could do a helluva lot more good than electric cars and sending rich fucks into space.

Bezos, Musk and the rest pay practically no taxes, while we struggle to keep the bills paid and pay 30% of our meager income to taxes. It is NOT RIGHT. Have a look at this ProPublica article that shows the taxes the rich cunts DON’T PAY. Musk has averaged 3.x% up until this year, where he’s paying full taxes – and is crowing about it. The only reason he’s paying now is because he’s been called out for NOT PAYING. And, again, his media team has made sure to keep the facts about his tax avoidance buried so he can present himself as a nice guy and an everyman. He is not, that is PR bullshit.



Musk and Bezos are rich fucks who honestly could not possibly care less about the rest of humanity. They care about MONEY. They don’t pay taxes because they own the politicians who ensure that they don’t and never will. After all, the politicians are ALSO RICH FUCKS who like money.



I have nothing but contempt for all these fuckers. It’s real fucking easy to live a life where there are small, if any consequences. Lose a million? Eh, no biggie. Bankrupt out your busted ass company? No biggie. No consequences when you’re rich. I’d like to see any of these cunts live on $40k. JUST TRY IT. They’ve never known the struggle and they never will. THAT IS THE PROBLEM. When rich people run things, that’s when all the things that make a first world country start getting cut in the name of capitalism. Why do we need daycare? Why do we need arts in schools? Why do we need unemployment benefits? Why should we take care of the old and infirm? All those things do is “waste” money!! WE LIKE MONEY. All that stuff is CLEARLY socialism! We don’t want THAT. Paying taxes??? NOOOOO! We don’t want THAT. You peons pay the taxes, not US.

When the government feels that the peons need to pay taxes on unemployment and other government assistance, you know things have gone awry.

Our tax bill was almost $6k last year. We are still paying it off. We make about $45-50k for two of us. And we had to PAY an additional $6k because I got unemployment. THAT IS FUCKED UP.

And that is why we need to depose our rich masters and divvy up the spoils. Just a fraction of their hoarded wealth could end hunger for the whole goddam Earth!! MAKE THEM PAY THEIR SHARE. Or set up the guillotines. Whichever. I wouldn’t shed a tear for any of the super rich. They certainly shed no tears for US as we struggle along, nearing “retirement” age, knowing that we’ll never retire, nor will we ever get to travel and see the world like we’d planned. Nope, the closest we get to seeing the world is the Apple TV screen saver – and that, my bitches, is the true cost of these assholes hoarding money. We will NEVER get the life we wanted. None of us will. The American dream is a LIE and working more won’t help shit. The system is rigged and we will stay in the caste in which we ended up. People like Musk or even Zuckerberg, who got really lucky in the dot com era are just that: LUCKY. You can’t plan your life on LUCK. We are middle aged with shitty income. We’ve had only bad luck when it came to trying to have our own business(es). No one backed us up and we had no golden parachute to ease the pain of losing most of our money. Nope, we had to start over with shitty jobs and less than half the income we had. I promise you, none of the super rich have ever had that experience.

Since these people have never struggled, they simply can’t understand why they need to step up. No, it’s the rest of us that need to work harder, right? This attitude is pervasive in America.

The French Revolution was born of the people being sick of royalty hoarding all the money while they starved. Cobblestones flew, heads rolled. AND IT WORKED. I think America needs to figure out how to achieve getting rid of the rich in government and making them pay their share in general.

I just don’t think we have the stomach for it. Americans are being goaded into the Republican “we hate everyone who is not an ignorant hillbilly” camp, the Progressive “rich people will save us” camp or the Democrat “OMG I can’t deal with this shit” camp. The country is fracturing as we speak.

I don’t know what to expect, but I’m pretty sure it ain’t good. So we just keep swimming. We endure. And that is no way to live. :(

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FB Fallout

It is a huge disappointment – but not a shock – that my site stats have dropped since my logging out of FB for the duration of the jailing.

This makes me hate FB even more.

I am going to double my efforts to drive traffic HERE rather than the other sites. I am going to manually crosspost my blog to Substack, to see what happens with that.

I’m also going to manually crosspost to Twitter. I’ve actually been enjoying Twitter during my ban from FB. I’ve curated a nice mix of things and my timeline is interesting.

I am trying to find more to write about, but it’s difficult with my level of apathy and depression. But I will try.

Do me a favour and tell me how you got here to read this. Comments are open for a month. TIA