Finally getting there.
Posted 12-22-2021 at 02:38 PM by rodentraiser
This may be my last post in my blog. Technically, I'm not pioneering anymore and I'm just living the way everyone else lives, just with a few differences.
All the critters are still around. I've named the five jays Crazy Jay, Screamin' Jay, Baby Jay, Jay Z, and Jay Leno. They're such greedy things that I can't even leave peanuts out for the squirrel anymore. The jays get them before he does.
But I did find a solution. Reddy Kilowatt, the squirrel, has been having field days in my trailer. He finds his way in from underneath and then comes in through the lower cabinets. Then he finds my dinette set and climbs on that, cleaning out my kleenex box and shredding paper toweling. For good measure, he'll sometimes get into the garbage and dump peanut shells all over the floor.
So what I do now is give him a handful of peanuts behind the lower cupboard door. He doesn't come inside anymore once he gets stopped by his peanuts and the jays can't get them either. On the other hand, I may wake up with a squirrel in my bed one morning. Anyone know how to de-flea a squirrel?
The mouse (or a mouse) is still eating the sunflower seeds I put out at night.
Then there are the four chipmunks, the ones that look like vacuum cleaners as they run around looking for sunflower seeds, nose down, tails in the air. So we now have Kirby, Dyson, Eureka, and Hoover. Or as my mom says, thank god you don't have any kids to name.
There have been good things and bad things happening. Frankly, I'll be so happy to see the back end of December disappear. It's been a hell of a month.
I tripped in the parking lot of the library and fell, face first, against the outside mirror of my car. I ended up with a bruise the size of a dinner plate on my leg and a black eye. Not to mention I need to replace the lenses in my glasses on account of the huge scratch.
Then my wash machine broke. We had a freeze one night and silly me, I tried to do a wash before everything thawed and broke the drum. It can be replaced - at $350. I think I'm just going to get another used wash machine but I'll wait till I have a shed for it this time.
The RV guy was able to fix the stove but not the oven, so I will need to buy a toaster oven of some kind.
I got my big heater out of storage and surprise! it doesn't work. Since the HIGH temp over Xmas is going to be 31 degrees, I now have to buy an oil heater. Night isn't a problem, but somehow being up in the daytime in temps under freezing isn't something I'm looking forward to.
I went in to have my tires checked and ended up having to buy two front tires because the steel belt was showing. Little details.
And I also now need to replace the window in the back of my car. Correction, the dent is so bad I need to replace the entire back GATE of the car. That gets done in January. No, you don't even want to know how that happened.
In addition, it's time for an oil change and the car has a strange vibration that needs to be looked at. I also replaced the one taillight that was out with the result that although that taillight now works, the left blinker doesn't. So that needs to be looked at.
And last but not least, the glass plate in my newish microwave broke for no reason. Really. The microwave was just humming along and then - THONK! I'll replace it. Eventually.
The only thing that hasn't cost me money is my computer. It quit playing DVDs so I brought it up to Geek Squad at Best Buy. The guy plugged it in, updated my VLC player, and all was well.
I just want this month to end. Now.
But I am all but moved into the trailer. I've been going to my storage locker and bringing over totes as I can and putting them in the big shed (the reason the washer and dryer weren't in that is because there is no electricity to that shed). I still don't have hot water, but I can now heat it up on the stove and in the microwave and I can COOK!
Plus, I'm thinking of getting a 7-in-1 Vortex hot air fryer and that will really help me cooking and keeping costs down and maybe weight off, since I love anything deep fat fried. With an air fryer, I may never fry anything in Crisco again.
And I am grateful because despite all these problems, I am able to afford all the repairs. Food stamps have gone up and I am still getting the full amount. I'm so grateful for that because I'd have been really in a lot of financial trouble buying food and paying for everything the last few months. Normally, I'd be getting $20 a month and if I can just hang on for a couple more months, it won't matter if the food stamps drop back to that. In fact, in a couple months I'm thinking I will discontinue them altogether. That would be wonderful.
SSDI will be going up almost $85 and that makes a HUGE difference. I was taking $500 a month out to pay back my loan for the septic and electricity, but with that extra $85 I can take out $1000 a month and get that loan paid off that much quicker.
My income allows me to qualify for a discount on the electric bill, so that's not going to be the terrible problem I thought it was. I still don't have computer access and probably won't for a long time (that's considered a luxury now), but the library is open and although we're only supposed to be on the computers for an hour, as long as nobody's waiting for a computer I can stay on as long as I like.
So things are not really that bad and the best thing right now is I think I can finally have some hope that things will get better. And that's something I haven't felt much in the past. Of course, anything can happen, but if it does, it will happen whether I'm expecting it or not, so I may as well be as hopeful for the future as much as possible.
If anyone is reading this, thank you and may your 2022 will be the best year yet.
All the critters are still around. I've named the five jays Crazy Jay, Screamin' Jay, Baby Jay, Jay Z, and Jay Leno. They're such greedy things that I can't even leave peanuts out for the squirrel anymore. The jays get them before he does.
But I did find a solution. Reddy Kilowatt, the squirrel, has been having field days in my trailer. He finds his way in from underneath and then comes in through the lower cabinets. Then he finds my dinette set and climbs on that, cleaning out my kleenex box and shredding paper toweling. For good measure, he'll sometimes get into the garbage and dump peanut shells all over the floor.
So what I do now is give him a handful of peanuts behind the lower cupboard door. He doesn't come inside anymore once he gets stopped by his peanuts and the jays can't get them either. On the other hand, I may wake up with a squirrel in my bed one morning. Anyone know how to de-flea a squirrel?
The mouse (or a mouse) is still eating the sunflower seeds I put out at night.
Then there are the four chipmunks, the ones that look like vacuum cleaners as they run around looking for sunflower seeds, nose down, tails in the air. So we now have Kirby, Dyson, Eureka, and Hoover. Or as my mom says, thank god you don't have any kids to name.
There have been good things and bad things happening. Frankly, I'll be so happy to see the back end of December disappear. It's been a hell of a month.
I tripped in the parking lot of the library and fell, face first, against the outside mirror of my car. I ended up with a bruise the size of a dinner plate on my leg and a black eye. Not to mention I need to replace the lenses in my glasses on account of the huge scratch.
Then my wash machine broke. We had a freeze one night and silly me, I tried to do a wash before everything thawed and broke the drum. It can be replaced - at $350. I think I'm just going to get another used wash machine but I'll wait till I have a shed for it this time.
The RV guy was able to fix the stove but not the oven, so I will need to buy a toaster oven of some kind.
I got my big heater out of storage and surprise! it doesn't work. Since the HIGH temp over Xmas is going to be 31 degrees, I now have to buy an oil heater. Night isn't a problem, but somehow being up in the daytime in temps under freezing isn't something I'm looking forward to.
I went in to have my tires checked and ended up having to buy two front tires because the steel belt was showing. Little details.
And I also now need to replace the window in the back of my car. Correction, the dent is so bad I need to replace the entire back GATE of the car. That gets done in January. No, you don't even want to know how that happened.
In addition, it's time for an oil change and the car has a strange vibration that needs to be looked at. I also replaced the one taillight that was out with the result that although that taillight now works, the left blinker doesn't. So that needs to be looked at.
And last but not least, the glass plate in my newish microwave broke for no reason. Really. The microwave was just humming along and then - THONK! I'll replace it. Eventually.
The only thing that hasn't cost me money is my computer. It quit playing DVDs so I brought it up to Geek Squad at Best Buy. The guy plugged it in, updated my VLC player, and all was well.
I just want this month to end. Now.
But I am all but moved into the trailer. I've been going to my storage locker and bringing over totes as I can and putting them in the big shed (the reason the washer and dryer weren't in that is because there is no electricity to that shed). I still don't have hot water, but I can now heat it up on the stove and in the microwave and I can COOK!
Plus, I'm thinking of getting a 7-in-1 Vortex hot air fryer and that will really help me cooking and keeping costs down and maybe weight off, since I love anything deep fat fried. With an air fryer, I may never fry anything in Crisco again.
And I am grateful because despite all these problems, I am able to afford all the repairs. Food stamps have gone up and I am still getting the full amount. I'm so grateful for that because I'd have been really in a lot of financial trouble buying food and paying for everything the last few months. Normally, I'd be getting $20 a month and if I can just hang on for a couple more months, it won't matter if the food stamps drop back to that. In fact, in a couple months I'm thinking I will discontinue them altogether. That would be wonderful.
SSDI will be going up almost $85 and that makes a HUGE difference. I was taking $500 a month out to pay back my loan for the septic and electricity, but with that extra $85 I can take out $1000 a month and get that loan paid off that much quicker.
My income allows me to qualify for a discount on the electric bill, so that's not going to be the terrible problem I thought it was. I still don't have computer access and probably won't for a long time (that's considered a luxury now), but the library is open and although we're only supposed to be on the computers for an hour, as long as nobody's waiting for a computer I can stay on as long as I like.
So things are not really that bad and the best thing right now is I think I can finally have some hope that things will get better. And that's something I haven't felt much in the past. Of course, anything can happen, but if it does, it will happen whether I'm expecting it or not, so I may as well be as hopeful for the future as much as possible.
If anyone is reading this, thank you and may your 2022 will be the best year yet.
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