First of Two Saturdays

Even though it was Friday, it felt like Saturday all day. Maybe it was because of my calling yesterday Friday. Maybe it was because the sun was actually shining for much of the day. Who knows. In any case, it was a mixed emotion sort of day.

I woke up early and then went back to sleep. I didn’t wake up again until 9 when the phone rang. I did not answer it. A bit later I checked the messages and it was State Farm. Since the agent hadn’t left a message saying that the crappy shitty stupid charge had been dropped, I was sure that she had called to say that despite her best efforts (hahahaha), she couldn’t get the company to drop the charge. Which was the case. So I just paid it to get them off my back. Makes me want to look into other insurance companies to insure my car. After 20+ years of being with State Farm, both here and in NC. Triple Grrr.

That was not really the way I wanted to start my day. But it is done with. Huzzuh.

Next up, beer club. As I may have mentioned, SM gave me a beer club subscription as a Christmas present. It was a thoughtful gift. And I thought I had set it up. But I hadn’t. So I set it up today. Turns out that the credit was just a credit and I was able to use it any way that I wanted. To purchase individual beers. To sign up for a monthly plan. Whatever. They had three tiers of beer deliveries and I chose the least expensive. To stretch the gift as long as possible – seeing as I am something of a miser where my happiness is concerned. I ought to get my first selection (I got to choose 5 types of beer for inclusion in the shipments) sometime this month. I will take pictures when it comes.

I think this is cute!

Next, I played with scammers a bit. Yes, I am doing more of that. I think I have four or five online right now. But after my playing with them, at least two showed their true colors, asked me to switch platforms. I refused as long as they refused to do a video chat. One just stopped responding. Another one told me that her native language was English – but she said something like The natural Language that I speak is the English Language. But worse. Sigh. I told her that she had lied to me (as she undoubtedly had the whole time we had been communicating) and told her I didn’t want to hear from her any more. Her response: MMLL. No idea what that means. Just looked it up on the Urban dictionary and it means “Suck It.” From India apparently. Sigh.

Next up lunch. Later than normal as I also did some reading in Weyward.

Out into the wild! My first stop was the can place. $2.40 cents worth this trip. I thought I had achieved three dollars. Sigh. Next stop, Salvation Army. Not that I really needed to go, but hope springs eternal. And I was not rewarded with a pleasant exchange. My guess, she knew I would be coming so she took the day off. Oh well. Moving on. Next! (Not that there really are any prospects out there just now.)

Last stop, grocery store. I wanted to get some soda water but I ended up with a container of fruit salad – I really don’t eat enough fruit – maybe this will help. And I also got a piece of chocolate cheesecake. I mean, why not?

At home, after that, all I did was read and check my email. I still have three or four scammers that I am writing with. One more showed her true colors and asked for money. Loser.

And I finished Weyward! Good book. Well written and enjoyable. I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in fantasy and in witches and in well written books. Next book in my reading list – the third book in the fairy fantasy series.

Ok, time to do some Duolingo and then cook my steak dinner. Yum city!

Errands in slow motion?

I tried to get a lot done today. And so far have mostly succeeded. Anyone want to guess where I got hung up? I’ll let you think about that as I write about the rest of the day.

First off, I woke up pretty early. And managed to get out at a decent hour. Due to my two rides in the offing, I had to be done by around 10:15 am. I logged on and it was, according to Door Dash, very busy in my neck of the woods. What that usually means is that there are offers out there that no one else has taken. But not this time. My rides today, all except for one, were good ones! How shocking is that? Doing the math, though, after an hour I had pretty much earned as much as I had wanted to. So, off home I headed.

At home, I got my returnables together. I grabbed the bags on the porch, grabbed the bag from the kitchen and put them all in the back seat of the car with my “car bag” of returnables (returnables I find while dashing). And suddenly it was time to pick up my first uber-like ride. Oh, and my other one turned out to have gotten sick, so wasn’t happening after all. Anyway, picked her up, dropped here off and I headed downtown.

First stop, the bank. I haven’t been in in an age. At least one of the tellers mentioned it. Turns out one of the other tellers moved to another branch. Oh well. I just don’t have as much cash coming in as I have had in the past, so I have had no reason to go in and bother the tellers.

Next stop, cans. It took me a minute to get my can bags together, time enough for one of the can workers to come and open the door for me. I guess they were bored. They each took a few bags. One of the bags turned out to be actual recycling, not trash. They threw it away. I didn’t want to take it out of the trash just to recycle it. Because, yes, I think most recycling does actually end up in the land fill nowadays. Anyway, I ended up having $4.95 worth of cans and bottles etc. to return. And the bag of recycling, which they didn’t even give me a nickel for.

My next stop was at the Social Security office. It was almost devoid of people. Except for a couple. And a security guard. He helped me to the kiosk and told me that since we were in a federal facility, it was illegal to carry a weapon or illicit drugs. Phew. Glad I left my pistol that shoots heroin at people in the car! I got my number and sat down to wait. I didn’t get much reading done as my number was up quickly. After my experience, I know why. The clerk told me that if I wanted to know about my application for SS, I needed to call the Jamaica (NY) office and ask them. Thanks. That was really helpful. And they gave me wrong information as well, about how I report my earnings. They said I had to mail them the info every month. Which isn’t the case. Anyway…

Next stop would have been the grocery store, but instead, it was time to pick my friend up from her appointment. After that, it was grocery store time.

Since I decided I was making patty melts for dinner tonight. I had some shopping to do. Hamburger of course. A couple of different types of cheeses – the recipe I saw said I could use swiss or monterey jack. I got some of both. Sharp Cheddar and Cream Cheese were on my list too! So many cheeses, so little time to eat them all. So I skipped the sharp cheddar. And I got a smaller container of cream cheese. Hopefully I will be able to finish that one before it goes bad. Making it actually cheaper than buying the bigger one and wasting a lot of it!

Back home again, the first thing I did was eat a bagel with cream cheese for lunch! Yum! I might just have to do that again soon. Then I called the SS office. Guess how long it was before someone picked up the phone. Go on. Guess. I’ll wait. But I won’t wait TWO HOURS!!

When I did get to speak with someone, it took all of ten minutes. And I am supposed to start getting checks next month – second Wednesday I think he said. And it will be direct deposited. After he was done, I asked him a couple of questions – I can earn up to almost $24k and they will figure out if I owe them money after they get my tax forms from the IRS. So, no montly reporting like the people here told me. Yay. And I asked what happens if I decide to put my payments on hold. He said I had to pay back all the money I had received up to that point and I stopped listening after he said that. That isn’t going to happen. And those were my questions. Oh, I asked if I could designate a second direct deposit account and have some of my SS sent there. He said that wasn’t possible. Yay government.

And there we have it. My exciting day. Two hours of which was spent waiting for someone to answer the phone.

As for what the future will hold? I was going to go on an adventure tomorrow, but I am not sure I will at this point. Still debating. I might just putter around the house. Anything is possible.

Christmas Bat Present from JSRBM