Life Gave Us Some Lemons

The last few days have not been good in various ways.

I’ll start off with the biggest piece of bad luck – Joe was in a car accident on the way home from work last night. He’s fine! It was raining, so the streets were slick, and apparently an emergency vehicle pulled into the road up ahead and the guy in the lane next to him moved over into Joe’s lane without a signal. He didn’t hit Joe, but Joe rear-ended him because he slid when he hit the brakes. They weren’t going terribly fast due to heavy traffic, so the guy’s vehicle has barely a scratch, and Joe’s airbag didn’t go off, but the front end crumpled.

We’re expecting the extent of the damage, coupled with the Escape’s age (13), to result in it being totaled. This means Joe needs a new car, hopefully sooner rather than later because I am now stuck at home while he takes mine to work. Also, his dashcam wasn’t on because it doesn’t automatically turn on/off with the car like mine does, so he didn’t capture the incident. Therefore, he was deemed at fault and got a ticket. Our insurance rates will likely go up too. On top of that, inventory is low at dealerships right now which means he might not get the exact vehicle he’d prefer if he was buying a car on his own timeline.

I am very thankful Joe is ok! At the end of the day it’s just a thing, we should get some money toward the new car, and as always, we have money in the bank because we’re big savers. So things could be a heck of a lot worse and I’m grateful that this isn’t going to break us financially like it unfortunately would with many people.

That being said, here are the other things that went wrong yesterday.

First off, I went out shopping in the morning and one of my stops was Aldi. This guy in the checkout line couldn’t have been further up my ass if he tried. Like to the point that an observer would have thought we were together. I only got a few things, so I was moving them from the front of the cart (where the cashier had put them) into my bag and this guy starts reaching over me into the back of the cart. For what, I don’t even know, since it was empty because the cashier hadn’t started scanning his stuff yet – I was still in the process of paying! I said, “you could wait a little bit, dude” or something like that. No response. What the hell is wrong with people?!? What I really wanted to say was “get off my ass!” but I was alone and you just never know about people anymore. Bet he wouldn’t have gotten so close if I were a man.

Afterwards I stopped at Dunkin to cash in a free drink coupon and got home to find my drink was awful! I ended up sending this complaint to Dunkin corporate:

I requested 4 french vanilla swirl in my iced coffee and it doesn’t taste like there was any added whatsoever. The inconsistency at Dunkin is getting really aggravating. I usually go to this location because they typically have the best tasting drinks, but not today. I’m seriously considering taking my business to Starbucks if Dunkin cannot be bothered to a) give customers what they request and b) be consistent with their drinks. I wasted a free drink on something I had to go home and add cream/sugar to and it still doesn’t taste right due to the lack of vanilla. I am VERY disappointed!

A few hours later they emailed me an apology and put 200 points in my account which is enough for another free drink. I suspected this would happen, and I’m not ungrateful, but it bugs me that they don’t even comment on the issue. Are they going to speak to anyone at the restaurant or will this nonsense continue? I think after I get my fill of the upcoming peppermint mocha holiday flavor I will be going there less often. They did something to make the hash browns less appealing – they seem overly greasy – so there’s very little left on the menu I even like.

What’s funny, though, is I think my former work bestie might work there. I went through the drive-thru a week ago and the guy who handed me my drink looked very much like him but I couldn’t tell for sure since he didn’t speak and we were both wearing masks. He was very smiley toward me, though. I messaged him on Instagram a short while later and based on his reply I’m not sure whether he’s pulling my leg or what.

So after the whole car accident last night, I filed a claim online and we went looking at Halloween decorated houses like we had originally planned. Then we stopped to get food but due to the delay it was four minutes before our prefer place closed so that was out. We realized it once we got there and noticed their open sign was turned off even though there were people inside finishing up. We grabbed food from Wendy’s and my nuggets must have been sitting out because they were all dried out.

Oh, and this morning for some reason Wookie peed all over one of the throw rugs in the dining room which she has never done before and I’m having a hell of a time getting the smell out. I ended up taking it upstairs to give it a deep cleaning in the tub and the color of the water coming out was not great despite the fact that I had used the hand shampooer on it not that long ago (8 months ago, ok, so a bit longer than I thought). Luckily Walmart still sells the exact rug for pretty cheap ($25) so maybe I should replace both rugs from the dining room. They are over five years old and Wookie chewed the corners when she was a puppy. It’s time.

Anyway, let’s hope that’s the last of our bad luck for awhile!

Wookie’s Portrait

Isn’t this the cutest thing ever? It looks just like her! I am amazed by the talent of this artist.

So let me explain…

I heard that if you contact Chewy around your pet’s birthday to request a portrait they will send one for free, so I emailed them. Their response was friendly, but apologetic stating they can’t meet all requests, but to send a photo just in case, which I did.

A month passed by without anything so I figured they just weren’t going to do it, so I was intrigued when I saw that a package from them was coming in the mail as I hadn’t ordered anything. This showed up last week.

I posted her portrait to Instagram and Chewy responded!

Employed Again

Nope not me, but Joe. He was laid off at the end of January and has been looking for work ever since. He applied to over 100 jobs and didn’t even hear back from any of them until September. Just one of the reasons it irks me when people claim no one wants to work anymore – more like no one is really hiring like they will lead you to believe! I heard it’s because then they don’t have to pay the government back for the PPP loans they were given last year. It wouldn’t surprise me, even if that’s fraud. But I digress…

Joe had a few interviews and one of them turned into an offer which he accepted. His first day was Monday, October 18th. The pay is great, the benefits are decent (the health insurance literally starts the day after the one from his previous job’s severance package expires), and the people seem nice.

The only drawback is they are disorganized and as such he’s had to work longer hours than he’d prefer, including having to work this weekend. Ugh!!! Why can’t these places get their shit together? No one wants to spend their entire life working. I really hope they hire enough people so no one has to work over 40 hours a week. I don’t care what you’re willing to pay – it’s not sustainable.

It feels weird having the house to myself again. I don’t like it as much as I thought I would. The only plus side is the place has never been cleaner. For whatever reason I don’t like cleaning when Joe is around, so there would be months where I’d only clean the bathrooms once in that time. Yuck! Now I have a weekly schedule.

I miss us not being able to go shopping weekday mornings to avoid people. We’re going to try grocery shopping tonight, in fact, since even a weekend morning is out of the question this week.

Can someone just send us a couple million dollars so we can retire? Please and thank you.

Hello Fresh

Saturday (9/25) we received our first Hello Fresh box (was supposed to be Sunday but it came early). We decided to give it a try since T-Mobile Tuesday had a deal to get two weeks (3 meals) for $17 each.

1st week recipes from Hello Fresh

We were rather disappointed with two meals from our second week, but I knew of that risk when I purposely chose dishes that had flavor combinations we don’t typically eat.

The regular price for 3 meals is $65 so we cancelled after those two weeks. You only get enough food for a single meal for two people so it’s not very cost-effective, although I could see the appeal if you’re a busy professional who wants a home cooked meal without the hassle of grocery shopping. All the dishes do take about twice as long to prepare than the recipe cards state, though, so they aren’t necessarily a quick meal, and you’re left with a lot of dishes. They’re healthier than take-out, however.