What is a monkeybox?

When I was a little girl, we had a pet monkey named Amanda. My Dad worked in the produce business, so each night he brought home that days culls in a big box - spotty cucumbers, pithy apples, limp celery, moldy oranges and the like. We called it a monkeybox. It was really just trash, but my Mom would take each piece of fruit and trim it, pare it and cut it up to make a beautiful fruit platter for Amanda. Even though it was deemed trash by one, it still had life left in it and was good for the purpose we needed it. That's how I live my life - thrifting, yard saling, looking for another's trash to be my treasure.

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

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!

13 comments:

  1. I don't even know what to say....good vent and yes, I read all the way till the bitter end!

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  2. Don't you feel better now?
    Don't worry that old SOB will get his in the end. He sounds like a relative of the man that tried to buy my Mom's house. Grrrr I still get mad thinking about him. And no, I wouldn't sell him the house and we ended up getting a better deal down the road. So hang in there and don't have a melt down until after the sale. Good luck...

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  3. Wow...I read all the way to the end...and have to agree with annabel52...he's just a mean SOB and he WILL get his in the end. Doesn't make it much easier to deal with the stress you're dealing with, but take a deep breath and know that this, too, shall pass. Ever listened to the Taylor Swift song "Mean"? The chorus part where she sings.."and all you're ever gonna be is mean...why you gotta so mean?"...perfect fit to this situation. hang tough! *e*

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  4. Hang in there. It all has to end at some point. EVEN the heat. Sorry things are such a struggle. Wishing you a happy junque find to brighten your day!

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  5. First, I am sorry you are at the bottom of shit hill.

    About that washer - we bought all of our kitchen appliances from Lowes. You might remember they started breaking immediately and Lowes wouldnt do a damn thing about it. I tried speaking to manager after manager and going up and up and the chain. My stove had to be repaired twice and my dishwasher FOUR TIMES!

    I found that calling the idiot manufacturer (frigidaire in this case) and getting them to do the warranty service was easiest.

    HOWEVER it took frigidaire many weeks to get parts too. For BRAND NEW APPLIANCES!

    The washer dryer set came from home depot and they are maytag and I havent had a lick of trouble with them.

    Hmmmmmmmm.

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  6. Honest to Pete (who is Pete, anyway?) we are having a very similar summer here, with one issue barely under control and another one arrives. I think the never-ending bad economy brings out the worst in people, not to mention your heat. Hope things look up all around.

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  7. p.s. the "not a happy spirit" made me laugh. Can also very much identify with that!

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  8. Oh Shara, that all just sucks royally, doesn't it? And the stupid heat probably just amplifies everything and makes everyone feel crankier.

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  9. I think the heat is just making people go loco!!

    I would like to say this guy really 'sucks', but it doesn't even sound like he's good for that ;-) (oops! sorry, that just slipped out!!)

    What a way to spend 'your month!'... You are supposed to be teaching The Bean how to drive!!!

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  10. What a jerk! It may not seem like it now, but it's probably a good thing you didn't end up completing the sale with him. He seems like he would just keep causing problems.

    If I lived closer I'd come help you price stuff and set it up!!!

    Hope you get a break from the heat soon! Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving me an encouraging message.

    I never thought about it that way, but your comment about always doing right by her and not having any regrets really hit home and I feel the same way about my grandma-so thanks for sharing!!! :)

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  11. Grrrrrr! I hate people like that....gosh what a SOB for sure! Sorry for all you are going through but this too shall pass or so I've been told. It is too hot and its making me extra grouchy about stupid people!

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  12. Sending good vibes your way (too hot to send hugs...). Two words come to mind about the mean man. The gentler version is "Bite Me!"

    I had more or less given up on Lowe's for appliances, but they pushed all the smaller stores out of business. I ended up buying a GE stove from them about a year ago, and so far it's been OK.

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  13. Read all the way to the end, and yep still your cyber friend...LOL

    It was just not meant for that mean old man to have the house.

    Hope you sell everything and make a ton of CASH...and a friendly buyer finds you soon.

    Did you feel the earthquake?

    oh, working on a new blog so posting under Thrifted Sisters...me and my little sister are gonna maybe try to keep a journal of our thrifty finds..so far we got nothing...so the blog is just sitting there waiting....

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