Category: Life

Everything Increases Except Wages

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Time for a little rant!

Our home assessment went up so you know what that means – higher taxes next year! Yay, can’t wait!

Joe’s most recent paycheck was less than usual because Medicare and Social Security deductions increased. Great. Will we even benefit from that by the time we’re ready to retire??? Doubtful.

Amazon Prime is currently $140 annually (kinda shocked me when I checked since last I looked it was $120) and they had the audacity to notify users they’ll be putting ads in their Prime content starting next month unless you’re willing to fork over an additional $3 monthly. Yea, I don’t think so. Not only will I not be doing that, I will be cancelling Prime altogether before it renews in late January. We will save money in the long run if it isn’t so easy to order from them anyway.

Besides, there isn’t a single show on any streaming service that is worth paying for these days. I can live without it all, and if it’s good enough it will show up at our local library eventually anyway. I’m not the type of person who has to watch a movie or series the second it gets released.

Sadly, cancelling Amazon Prime won’t even make up the loss on Joe’s paychecks so we’ll still be paying more for less. Ain’t that the American way?

Everything continues to increase in price but it doesn’t feel like there’s an increased value to justify it. You’ve got shrinkflation for groceries, increased subscription prices for less content, nickel and diming people (you’re charged extra to add ingredients to a burger, but aren’t given a discount when you remove something that comes standard). Even McDonald’s prices are getting out of hand, not that I care about their awful tasting burgers anyway! I only like the iced coffee. But you get my drift. It’s really getting out of hand.

These companies have the gall to report record profits while at the same time telling people they “have” to raise costs to cover paying people a livable wage. Give me a break. Unfortunately there are people who believe that gaslighting bullshit and direct their anger toward people just trying to make ends meet. This society is so messed up.

I’m just so tired of seeing our money get spent so incredibly quickly on basic life stuff you can’t opt out of.

July 2023 Recap

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4th of July we went out to multiple sites to take photos and saw the infamous Monk Parakeets that have taken up residence not far from where we live. How did I not know this before?

We also saw a tagged coyote near Joe’s work.

We had a little cookout at home where I made mushroom swiss burgers. We recently discovered the deliciousness that is small portabella mushrooms from Aldi sautéed in butter. Mmmm. I still hate the texture of mushrooms (so slimy!) but they are tasty.

I added more watch bands to my collection because I love wearing a color that matches my outfit. I got them from Jane for $20 which is a great price for five bands. They’re very comfortable!

I hit my annual reading goal of 24 books in July. Guess I’ll need to choose a more ambitious goal next year!

We got some delicious Rainbow Cone.

Joe found a tick on Wookie in the house. IN. THE. HOUSE. Ugh! Ticks freak me out. Between the possibility of Lyme Disease and Alpha-gal syndrome, where you become allergic to red meat, I can’t stand ticks! I check for them all the time and that’s the first time one has ever been in the house. I guess there’s one good thing about winter – no ticks.

We had a small tornado blow through town and tornado warnings more than once.

Our neighbor across the street passed away from an aggressive brain tumor. I feel so bad for his family. We went to the wake to pay our respects and rushed back home as yet more bad weather was on its way.

We saw some red-tailed hawks and on the way home from the grocery store one more saw a bald eagle!

Tried the Japanese Kewpie Mayo that everyone was raving about, only to learn it’s just disgusting Miracle Whip! Seriously, that’s exactly what it tastes like. What a letdown!

Joe got COVID, almost exactly a year to the day he got it the first time. We suspect it was the coworker who was coughing and sneezing all day. Luckily I managed to avoid catching it again. I feel really lucky that I’ve still yet to have COVID, or at least that I know of.

Both YouTube and Spotify decided now would be the perfect time to raise their rates even though wages have stagnated and we’re dealing with “inflation” (aka corporate greed they are trying to gaslight us into thinking is inflation even though they are reporting record profits). Needless to say, I put my YouTube Premium on hold because I’m not sure I want to pay $14 monthly just to avoid ads. We’ll see how I feel after the ads start showing up, though. I’m paid up through sometime in September I believe.

The kids came over for dinner and ended up staying until 2 am to avoid having to drive in the strong thunderstorms in the area. We had fun playing games most of the evening. We started out with Taboo, which is one of my favorites. You need at least four people to play so we rarely get the opportunity. Sadly, I lost because I was teamed up with K and we weren’t getting each other’s references. That’s the price of the generational divide. If it was Joe and me against the kids I think we’d win. We’ll have to try that next time, muahaha! Afterwards we played a Nightmare Before Christmas board game they had recently gotten us, which was better than any of us expected, and then various UNO games. We especially like UNO Flex and UNO Flip.

I keep saying this, but I really need to go back to posting more frequent blogs instead of these recaps, but I never seen to want to sit down and actually type out an entry on my computer even though I have the time to do it.

Joe’s Surgery

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Earlier this year Joe noticed a lump under his left arm. His primary care sent him for an ultrasound which was inconclusive so he had an MRI done. That was inconclusive as well, so he referred him to a surgeon.

I went with him to the appointment. The surgeon walked in, felt the area and said “yea, it’s a lipoma” (not to be confused with a lymphoma). He went on to explain it wasn’t cancerous, but would continue to grow, so he’d have to schedule surgery to have it removed. He remarked that he wished Joe’s doctor had sent him over before having all the unnecessary scans done. Luckily our insurance is very good and the ultrasound was $45 and the MRI was $100, so it could have been worse. But that’s still $145 we didn’t need to spend.

Joe’s surgery was scheduled for November 18th since we knew he’d need time off work to recover and two of the days would be covered by Thanksgiving. The day of surgery we got to the hospital at 5:35 am to check-in for his 7:30 am procedure. We’ve never had a procedure at this particular hospital (Central DuPage) before but I liked how organized they were. Not only is there a screen in the waiting room updating the status of each patient (using a number they give you at check-in to keep everyone’s privacy), but they also text you updates. Unfortunately those updates tend to be delayed. By the time I got the one stating Joe was in surgery and doing well I was being led back to a consultation room to talk to the surgeon. That part freaked me out a little but luckily he was just telling me everything went well.

Everyone was really nice, everyone except one douchebag in the waiting room were wearing their masks properly, and all things considered it was uneventful. We were home by 10:30 am.

One snag was when I was talking to the surgeon I realized no one had ever scheduled Joe’s follow-up visit he’d need before being released back to work. We were under the impression it would be on November 29th so he could go back on the 30th but when I called the office (from Joe’s recovery room), they had no appointments available so he had to wait until December 1st with a return to work on the 2nd (assuming no complications).

Update 12/6/22 – He was cleared for work and returned on December 2nd. Everyone missed him as they fell behind without him there and also having people out sick. He got his biopsy results on the 1st and they confirmed the growth was benign. It had almost doubled in size between when he first saw the surgeon in mid September, though.

Adulting

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Joe is switching jobs later this month and has a few days off between the old and new one.

Are we going to do something fun on those days? Of course not, because we have obligations. He has to get some dental work, I need a diagnostic scan, and our association decided to force everyone to be home one of those days so our fire alarm system can be inspected or they will charge us to come back at a later date.

Being an adult sucks.

Life Gave Us Some Lemons

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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!