You Want Some Cheese With That?

One Hundred and Eleven Degrees

I know it is hot everywhere.  I know everyone is miserable.  I know that our situation here in NWA isn't much different than everyone else's right now.  But, I am still going to whine.  Ready?  IT IS HOT!  One hundred and eleven freakin' degrees at 7:00 at NIGHT!  That is ridiculous.  And there is absolutely no end in sight  - hot, hot, hot.  We could still have two months of this heat.  I pray it ends soon.  It has not rained one drop in nearly two months.  Everything is just dead and crunchy.  The earth is hot.  I feel like it is the end of the world and we will begin to combust at any moment.

Little Lady loves the laundry.  That makes one of us.

So, this concludes the whining about the heat.  Now I will whine about my washing machine. The repairman left here last Thursday after calling in to order the part, saying it would be in Monday and he would be back to repair it then.  Flash forward to Monday, then Tuesday and now Wednesday and I still haven't heard a word.  So, I scroll back through the Caller ID and find their number (Lowe's set up the appointment, so I didn't have a card or a number) and call them today.  The lady tells me that the part is expected to SHIP today and will be in on Monday (dejavu) and then someone will be out later in the week to repair it.  I started to say Thank you and hang up, but then I thought the better of it and said, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN NEXT WEEK??????"  She said that she knows it in an inconvenience to not have a washing machine.  It is more than an inconvenience - it is a royal pain in the ass.  I am up to over $50.00 at the laundry mat (It's $2.50 a load to wash clothes now??), four lost days going to said laundry mat, etc.  It is just so frustrating not being able to get anyone to help or do their job the way it should be done.  Not to mention the fact that the washer is only five months old and this should not be happening in the first place. 

Not our car. 

Now I will whine about car repairs.  (Isn't this fun?)  We had new struts put on the car in June but a few weeks later the car started shuddering again, so we took it back in and our mechanic discovered that the struts had gone bad.  He replaced them and didn't charge us a penny, so that was great.  He did say that he wanted to switch out one more thing, but only charged us the cost of the part to do that.  Good enough.  A week later and I see this part hanging loose by the tire, so we take it back.  Now, that part has gone bad - the one he just put on.  So, today, he replaced that again.  No charge.  He said that he was constantly having to replace parts because the craftsmanship is going downhill.  Meanwhile, he is working all week replacing things and not making any money.  So, cross your fingers, the car is fixed again with all new parts.  I hope it stays that way. 

Now I will whine about those mean people I blogged about a couple weeks ago.  We have had my Grandmother's house on the market all year.  The housing market is just terrible, so there haven't been any offers.  Meanwhile, I have been getting the house ready for the Estate Sale which we will be having August 12-13.  We weren't allowed in the house to do much during Probate, but once Probate was over we could go in and start sorting and pricing things.  A couple weeks into it, a man came to look at the house one morning.  About ten minutes after he left, we got there and started moving things around in preparation for the sale.  I had no idea that anyone had even been in the house at that time.  A couple hours later, my Mom called to say that someone had looked at the house that morning and was making an offer.  He offered our asking price which is about unheard of in this economy, so that was great.  But, here's the kicker.  He demanded the contents of the house - the appliances, the furniture, my Grandmother's clothes, her knick knacks, her plant, her wheelchairs.....everything.  We have a debt to repay on the house, so we really, really need to sell it.  So, we agreed.  We only agreed to this because we had already removed all the antiques, jewelry, valuables and family items so they wouldn't be in the sale.  It was all just "stuff", but there was a lot of it.  We went back to the house one more time to pick up the tables we had borrowed for the Estate Sale and said goodbye to the house, the stuff and her spirit (which we think lives in her house.  And it's not a happy spirit).  We left feeling okay about it.  I wouldn't have to keep working on the stuff, we wouldn't have to have the sale, we could pay off the debt and still have some money left to split amongst the heirs.  It seemed like an okay deal.  It was the man's behavior that left a bad taste in our mouths.  Since the time he had looked at the house to the time he made the offer, I had done a lot of work in there - I moved nearly every item, priced things, threw some things out, took some things home, etc.  When he came in to sign the contract, he pointed his finger in my Mother's face and said "You have taken more than you are entitled to in here".  My Mom, normally, pretty reserved and mellow, screamed at him and dared him to say that again.  We hadn't taken anything out that amounted to anything.  Anything worth money was still in there.  He told her that she had better not set one foot back on that property.  What terrible awful behavior for a BUYER to use against a seller.  I never did understand it. 

Anyway, (is anyone still reading this?) we were okay with it in the end feeling free from the burden of it all.  Fast forward two weeks when the IDIOT calls up and demands that we pay $4,500.00 in closing costs to boot.  Can you imagine?  Give him the house, the contents and nearly five grand on top of it?  Sure, sure, no problem.  My Mom said, "No!" and that was the end of that.  No deal.  BAM.  It all fell back in our laps.  The house, the debt, the stuff - we have to have that sale on August 12th come hell or high water.  And now we had lost two weeks of precious time because of a greedy MEAN S.O.B. 

So, that my friends, if you are still my friends after all my whining, is what has been happening in my life.  Sucky stuff, but nothing that won't be fixed or be over with in a few weeks.  Again, I just needed to vent and get it off my chest.  *Breathe out...breathe in......breathe out......*
Back to our regularly scheduled programing of thrifting and junking soon - I PROMISE!