Friday, August 11, 2006

Sometimes, Life Just REALLY Sucks

My email at pistolpackinmama has been down for almost a full week (with one brief exception for about twenty minutes). Stuff is bouncing all over the place and since that is my registered email with EBAY, they are not happy with me. This is not my fault - the server that hosts the domain was eight years old and finally died (eight years old is the computer equivalent of the attained age of Methuselah). Anyway, it was supposed to be up again last night because the phoenix that is my server was expected to experience a rebirth. That has not yet happened. I guess I just dare to dream that some day soon, I will be allowed back on EBAY.

Meanwhile, yesterday I was celebrating the five day anniversary of not coughing up blood in the morning (this has been going on for well over a year now and we finally nailed down the cause as a lesion in my sinuses which my doctor does not think is cancer (then why mention it, that was not even in my mind until he said it). Anyway, after copious rounds of antibiotics, nasal steroids, etc., I thought the problem was resolved. And then last night, I felt really queasy and after a trip to the throne of the porcelain god, I felt something funny and looked down to see my blouse covered with blood. Yep, it started again. Luckily for me, when these nosebleeds start, they only last a couple of minutes - just long enough to say, "Gotcha! Bet you thought it was safe to blow your nose again!) (I am a very famous nose blower but that is another story).

Carrying forth the metaphor that life really sucks these days, did I mention I am scheduled to have some very expensive tree work done today? Well, I am. My trees are long overdue: they have not been treated professionally since April 29, 2000. I know the day exactly because that is the day my late husband went missing, after spending the morning drinking vodka and "supervising" the tree service as they worked in my yard. Again, another story and another sad tale of woe. Anyway, back to the trees. I put this off for a long time for financial reasons. Finally, I decided there were two things I really could no longer put off: fixing the central air conditioning unit and having the tree work done.

To pay for this work, I cashed out the last of my stocks at Schwab (yet another sob story) (I might actually qualify for "Queen for a Day" after this). Before I could get either item scheduled, my car blew a tire. I took it in to Toscalito and they replaced it. Unfortunately, that fan belt problem evidenced itself again and I walked out of Toscalito $492 poorer. That was last Saturday. But wait, there's more...

Wednesday morning at 4 AM, Koukla jumped on the top of my head. She used to do that all the time as a puppy but now that she is nine years old (and 4 whole pounds, give or take a few ounces) she does not do this too often. I set her down on the floor and went back to sleep. A little while later, I heard her crying in the other room. I got up to find her piddle pad covered with something that did not look like it came from her. I thought to myself, "Should never have given her that spinach tagliatelle with roasted pepper sauce, no matter how much she begged me." I ran over to Woodland's Market and bought her a fresh, organic chicken breast. When chicken and rice did not help her so much and a second visit to the piddle pad revealed a lot of blood, I rushed her and the piddle pad to the vet. Another $402 gone. To be fair, the visit itself was not terribly expensive, it was the outside lab panel that ran up the bill ($261). Actual visit was $39 and meds were between 10 and 13 each (three of them) plus line items for in house analysis and subcutaneous fluids. God, almost a thousand dollars gone and no work done yet! But my baby is much better and that is the important thing.

Anyway, I am expecting the tree people at any time. How I will pay for this is beyond me - I asked Schwab to send me a check for $1000 on Monday and they said I'd have it within 48 hours. Still is not here. Then again, neither are the tree people. But to quote Peter Pan, "Oh, the cleverness of me!" I went outside last night and set out saw horse signs saying "Reserved for Lalo's tree service Friday, August 11, 7 AM - 5PM." I figured the signs might be necessary because the house across the street is undergoing massive renovation and they typically have 6-8 vehicles parked outside. Yesterday morning, I could not even get out of my driveway because one of the service vehicles was illegally parked across part of it. So anyway, I decided to be proactive. Besides, what else am I going to use those sawhorse signs for?

I acquired the sawhorse signs a few years ago when Ghilotti Brothers were repaving my street. Every day, they put out the NO PARKING signs and at the end of the day, they threw them in my flower beds. I called the county and found out that my property line goes to the curb (I have no sidewalk on my side of the street and there is no easement) so I told Ghilotti's people "Do NOT throw those signs on my property." Well, they certainly did not listen to me, so after they left for the day, I went out and took the signs out of my Salvia Leucantha (Mexican Purple Sage) and put them in my back yard. Next day the dumb fucks could not find the signs - I watched from the window as they went up and down the street. What idiots.

Anyway, now that I have babbled on and on for some time, I better go check and find out what is keeping the arborists. THAT is the world I was looking for - sometimes, things just refuse to come out of cold storage these days!

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