Fork in the road

Its funny when you look back at some important moment in your life and wonder what would have happened *IF* you had done something differently.  Said this, done that.  Doesnt really matter at all, because it happened, nothing can change it short of a time machine.

There are other moments in your life.  Those moments where you *KNOW* there are consequences and reprecussions for your every thought and action.  What you do will set the tone in your life for a very long time.




I had one of those moments this weekend, the second one.  I stood on the edge of the abyss and had that rare moment of clarity.  I *KNEW* what I did and said next would make my life easier, or make my life more complicated.  It was like in the movie where crap was slowed down.  I was consious of each and every word I said.  Each thing I did.  I did feel a little 'out of body' like I was not there.  I really did not have a choice.  I could get crapped on, or stand up for what was right.  It would have been easier to just give up, take the easy path.  I made the conscious decision not out of pride, or some false sense of what is right for me, some guess what is best, but what was right for those who depend on me (even if they have no clue I am doing it all for them)

I look back and and can honesly say that I would do the same thing again, make the same choice, say the same things.  There really is only one path for your life, it is not clear now, but will be when you look back.  You have to live the consequences and suffer the repercussions of your good and bad decisions.






So much drama, or trauma in my life.  I have said before how I feel like I am living in some sitcom.  I have to modify that a little.  I feel like I am some farking life-time drama.  Like the 50's rocker said 'whys everybody always picking one me' I aint Charlie Brown!

I cant pick a cellphone provider, or a satellite\cable company without some issue.  The transfer of my cell from the old to the new takes a week.  I dont get the promised channels, but get twice the promised bill.  I sign up for wireless internet, and the signal doesnt work.  I buy a can of antifreeze from Target, when I go to put it in my car I find the bottle has been opened and its half full.  When I complain, I am accused of lying.  WTF??!!??
Sometimes I think I am cursed.  Sometimes I feel like I am a character in a Jim Carrey movie, the one what his whole life was on the teletube?



My father told me something long ago.  He said, the secret to making it through a march of any distance is to put one foot in front of the other.

Thats it.  Right, left. Farking right.

Its some fragrant bullshiat, but its also a good way to live your life.  Some of the best things in life are, lies?

Gonna get in step and make it through the next march.

Peace, out.

Woe is me?

What is it about my life?  Sometimes I wonder if there was something I did to deserve the things that happen, if I acted different, would a different thing happen?  I get so angry sometimes, wonder if I acted different when I first contact a business if things would be different.  I try to be calm, try to reason with them..

I bought my house 4 years ago, bundled my homeowners insurance with the company I had my auto insurance with, StateFarm.  The auto insurance was priced nice, I liked the service.  Had claims handled professionally and fairly.  I had moved and my old agent was 20 miles away, so I found a local agent who seemed to have his crap together.  Over the next 3 years my homeowners insurance went up about $100 a month.  Early this spring when I saw that it was $100 more this year.









SF had also pulled a couple boners, my GF had an accident which totaled her car.  The claims adjuster jerked her around a little, and our 'good neighbor' agent did not call once to see how she was, how SF did with this claim.  Also, last fall I had had a beer bottle thrown through my rear car window, no glass coverage so I had to pay for the repaid out of pocket. 

I called my SF agents office and got a quote and asked to start glass coverage on my car.  When I checked on my policies, saw that they did not add the insurance.  I know its my fault too, for not following up, but usually, one or two calls is all I need to manage my accounts.  I had been with SF for 17 years, everytime I had looked around, noone could touch the price.  But I decided it was time to start looking around for price AND customer serivce.  

I read online about USAA and their good customer service, called for a quote.  They could beat SF by about 50%, AND could keep my homeowners insurance about the same price as last year. I was nervous about switching, but I crossed by fingers and signed on with USAA in April.  Dumped SF! =)

Now USAA sent out a home inspector the next month and took photos, measured, asked me some questions about my house.  I wasn't too worried, I had been honest when getting the policy.  It sure was a suprise when I got an email alert that I had change to my insurance.  They revised my insurance, raised my premium 150 a year!  I was on vacation when I was emailed this happy information, and while USAA is rumored to have good customer service, I sure had problems when I called in to find out what was going on, basically they raised the replacement value to 275K which meant $150 more.  The advise I got from the first two phonecalls was to hire my own inspector, get a new inspection report and then they might change it.

Now I have a small house, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, about 950sq feet.  There is NO WAY IN HELL it would cost almost 300K to rebuild it.  I ranted a little and got escallated to 'executive customer support' she calmed me down a little, and I found out the home inspector had calculated my little house to be 1120sq feet!  I was promised a copy of the report, follow when I got home.  It took about 3 weeks for USAA to get their head out, but they revised the sq footage and I actually got my yearly insurance dropped a little from the initial quote!

They since my car is acting up, I thought I would see if I could get pre-approved for a car loan.  I had had a loan with capitolone auto before, so I applied online and they preapproved me for a 10% percent loan, but wanted me to jump through some hoops, like send them personal references, a photocopy of my paystub and drivers license.  It pissed me off a little so I went to my work credit union.  They offered me two options, put 25% down and get a 5.75% loan, or I could get a 7.75% loan with nothing down, just pay tax title and license..  This sounded good, but I checked with my main credit union and THEY offered me a 2.99% loan with 10% down.  I went with this, but the loan officer did not like returning my calls,  It would take a day or two for each step.  I got a 2004 Mercury Sable, pretty happy with it, but geeze, having to deal with 3 lendors, each with their own crazy rates?  Own hoops to jump through?

So I start insurance on the car and my buddy USAA gives me a good price, but then sucker punches me!  When I signed up they said they only serve active military or honorablely discharged veterans.  I gave em my info and they sent an email saying I was verified.  Well within SECONDS of the confirmation of the new insurance, they send me a notice I need to 'submit documents' online.  I log in and there is a link to 'submit documents' and nothing else on the website describes WHAT documents they need.  I had to call in and come to find that they need my discharge paperwork, DD-214, something I got and misfiled, oh TWENTY-TWO YEARS AGO!  So I do some checking and find out its pretty easy to order online from the military, but it takes 3 months.  USAA is giving me THREE WEEKSs to turn it in to them, or they will cancel or not renew my auto and home insurance policies.  If they would have asked for it in the first place I could have had it by now, but no..

So I settle down, and when paying this months mortgage see its 170 more than it should be!  I log in and see that they claim I had an 'escrow shortage'  There is no option to avoid paying, so I pay it.  I call in and wait 20 minutes to talk to the customer service rep, get put on hold several times, only to be told that they dont know why I had an escrow shortage.  My taxes went down a little, my insurance is lower.  She will research and I can call back later..  I ask why I had to pay this all in one chunk, and she offeres to spread it over 12 months, but I ALREADY PAID IT.  HAD NO CHOICE with their system.


I read some advice online where you should wait a day before complaining to a company, think I will try that.

Time Travel?

I really like movies and stories about time travel.  It would be quite the adventure to go back into the past or into the future.  If given a choice, I will pick the movie that has time travel in the plot 9 times out of 10!  

Movies like Back to the Future fuel my daydreams of what it would be like to try to make it in a different time.  Would I be able to survive, profit, change things for the better, for worse?

There are people who claim that time travel is impossible.  Or that time travel paradoxes prove it is impossible.  For example the grandfather paradox:

Say you travel back in time and kill your grandfather when he was a kid.  How could you exist since he never had your dad, or your dad had you, so YOU never existed, and could not go back in time in the first place?  Or if you meet yourself you will assplode the universe if you touch!!1!  Or disappear if you do something to change the fabric of time..
I think if you traveled back and kilt ur grandpa, it would not make a difference, because he had already got granny pregnant, or he wasnt really ur grandpa, because someone took your granfathers idenity later on, or some such nonsense..

I think time travel is possible.  BUT, if you could go back, you really couldn’t change anything.   I believe in free will, but I also believe that everything is set, past and future will happen how they happened already. 

When I was 20, I chose to enlist in the US Navy.  I am now 49.  I can look back 29 years and remember the decisions I made that led to me serving my country for 6 years.  20 yo me couldn’t have decided not to join the Navy because I did.  I will be able to make my future choices, like the route I will drive into work tomorrow, but that does not mean that my future will be different if I take Route A verses Route B.  My future will be what it already is when looked at from a future future like the day after tomorrow.

Whatever decisions any of us make in the future will happen the way they will happen.  This does not take away your choice though.  That being said, I think any time traveler would have some real problems if they somehow were transported back to the past or into the future.

Cultural attitudes are a big part of us.  I saw the movie The Help and was amazed that a lot of the crap that happened in that movie happened when I was alive!  Watching MadMen is a trip.  My GF about choked in rage when in one scene where a father told a kid to get his mother to clean up a mess the kid made.  I know minorities are not treated equally, but I had thought that a lot of the 'bad stuff' happened regularly way before I was born.   It would be very hard to say nothing about the treatment of minorities and women.  It would be hard to hide my revulsion.  So hard to fit in, when it would be almost impossible to know the million little things that make society 'normal' at that specific time.  I remember being a kid and having my grandparents complain about saladbars and all you can eat buffets.  'Why should I pay to serve my own food?' they would say.

Granted  The Help and MadMen was 50 years ago but there so many changes from year to year its hard to really remember what life was like even a few years ago.  We get so used to our toys.  We scan out own damn groceries in lots of stores.  Back in the early part of last century you didnt even get stuff off the shelf in the grocery store, you gave someone a list and they filled the order.  It was beneath the dignity of the customer to gather their own crap.  Now we pump our own gas!

We are sissies and could not survive another times diseases and living conditions.  Sure most of us can go camping and can 'rough it' in the woods, but SO much has been done to our world.  Our water  is purified, food processed so our delicate digestive systems can handle it.  Heck, drinking the water in Mexico is enough to make most ill for three days.    We are used to the diseases from our time and area that would kill large chunks of another times or areas society.   Simple things would kill us.  An infected bug bite or scrape?  Curtains.  
Heck, I went for a walk last weekend, it was hot, I got sweaty, moist clothes rubbed against my tender body and I got a sore.  I showered, had a change of clothes, some moisturizer and it was easily treated.  in another time I might not have had these options and things could have gotten bad real quick!


Well, these are just my opinions, right or wrong.  Nothing more to see here..  Move along.

Lunch, Doing it Chicago Style [**** Four Stars]

We stopped by and old favorite for lunch this week.  Uncle Franky's  is located in NE Minneapolis, just west of Central Avenue and Broadway Street NE.

Its easy to overlook the small building the diner is in.  Its in the middle of a residential/warehouse district.  I drove past it for years barely noticing that there it was there, but when I finally ventured in I was sure glad I did!.

One of the things I do not like that they do not take your name when you order, but instead call out what you ordered when it is ready.  Makes me nervous that someone else might try to claim my food, but that has not happened to me or anyone else I know.  Its the one thing I would change if I had the choice.

It usually costs us well under 10 bucks a person to eat here, my usual meal is a couple Uncle Franky Dogs (real Vienna beef!) , basket of tasty fries and a soda, Since the joint is on the smallish side and the food is good it is sometimes hard to find a place to sit as there are other customers.  In the summer there is a couple tables available right outside

The good:

• Friendly staff, tasty and inexpensive food.

The not so good:

• Usually a line, sometimes it takes a bit to get your food ordered, small joint, sometimes hard to find a place to park your ass.  

Our Rating:  ****  4 our of 5 stars

Good guy, sometimes for the wrong reasons?

So I try to be good, altho some of what I do is not out of concern for the enviorment or 'whats best' but purely on what I choose to spend.

My house has five incandescent lightbulbs, every other one is compact florescent.  4 years ago when I moved in I found a deal on on CF bulbs and bought a shiatload..  Made a game of it with my kids, paying them a buck for every 'old' bulb they could find..  Whats left is the:

• bulb in my fridge (and stove, but that's burnt out so it don't count)
• flame shaped lightbulbs in my dining room
• funky shaped bulbs in my bedroom hanging light and
• one basement light bulb I havnt changed yet (and the kids did not see)

I have had to replace two of the CF bulbs, due to breakage not burning out.  So that is pretty cool..

I have driven crap cars for the past 12 years.  Old 'beater' cars which I keep together with wishes, prayers and irregular emergency maintenance.  

• I have serious mental issues about taking on autoloan payments.  When I married my ex, we bought a used car that had a $330 a month payment.. Just for the car.  No insurance, no gas, no maintenance..  Our 'friendly' autoloan servicer would help us out each year with offers to skip a payment, or add to the balance with holiday money.. 
• It was supposed to be a 4 year loan, took 6 years to pay off that damn loan and I hated each and every payment I hand-delivered to those basteeds (if I maild em, no matter how early, it would somehow not be received until after the duedate, and they'd add fees)

So I drive inexpensive cars now but thats not so good for the enviorment.  I consistantly get crappy miles-per-gallon.  Drive rustbuckets which leak different automotive fluids like engine oil, antifreeze, and in a couple cases gasoline!  One had the gas lines rust out, and one basteed sold me a car with holes in the gastank!  I should have been more suspicious when on the testdrive the guy only put in about 3 bucks!

I have a push mower which I use to mow my lawn.  

While I get exercise and use me-power to mow, this is partly because my two previous gas mowers broke and I did not want to have to spend cash on repairs or a new power mower..  But it is partly because I want to have a smaller carbon footprint

• I live less than 5 miles away from where I currently work, purposely chose the location to save on my commute to work, equally to save money and the environment.
• I also purposely bought a smallish house (950sq feets) to save on heating and cooling

I haven't been able to break myself of the habit of not combining my shopping trips, and not making a list so I only have to go once a week, and not shopping 5 stores for grocery (looking for the best deals and hitting the discount food and bread stores)  I love to window shop and compare prices..

I updated my toilet..  Gone is the 5 gallon per flush beast, Welcome the 1.5 eco-flush wonder!  Also, its 'comfort height' so us old fogies can shiat, er sit.. comfortably...

Well, hope your spring is going well..  Have a great one!

New Years Resolution Update.. $40 a month savings.. $500 a year total..

So as part of my new years resolutions to reduce my expenses I lowered the cost of my TV Watching..  I had signed up for DishNetwork last year, and just lost my signup bonus of $15 off each month, and was not paying over $70 a month for their 200 channels..  Plus I occasional slipped in a couple red box rentals..  Maybe like 4-6 a month so lets say $10 a month

Was OK with the selection (more than I watched tho) and had canceled Netflix last year, wasn't watching much, their shenanigans (with pricing and splitting streaming and disc) pissed me off so I left for a while..

So I called Dish and asked about my options..  They told me about the welcome pack.  Had all the local channels and several that I did want like AMC and The History Channel.  I need my  Breaking Bad and Walking Dead.  Some of the best TV out there I thinks..

And my girl needs her Swamp People..  The best thing was that the welcome package was only $15 a month.  With the DVR (ability to record and watch recorded shows) we would have all the shows currently saved, and with adding back Netflix it would cost about $30 a month..  So all in all I saved more than $40 a month, about $500 a year.  I need to figure out a way to reward myself with these savings..  Think I will try to plug $20 of it somewhere.. My GF said she really liked having the reduced channels, a lot of the crap (like 40 channels of music) is gone. I just hope my kids will forgive me because they dont have the Disney channel or Nick anymore

I had had Comcast for years before, for internet and cable TV, with sometimes the internet phone..  I have never hated a company so much as I had that hive of skum and villainy that is Comcast..  They will lie in their promotional materials, on the phone, in person.  Promise refunds or credits for non-service, and when it does not happen, claim you are lying about their broken promise.  I actually made some money when I moved into my new house.  Comcast had to wire it and when they did they cracked the cement tile siding I had.  (They also missed the appointment a couple times, so I got $20 AND did not pay for installation) Working with their insurance company I got $1200 for the cracked siding (and just siliconed the cracks to make them waterproof) I had them for maybe 6 months, and when they promised their basic service (just local channels, and 10 or so more) would work without cable boxes to rent, and then did not, I dumped and switched to DirectTV.  Big mistake (not dumping Comcast, thats always the right move)

DT plays so many games..  Promised you low rates, but requires you do jump through hoops to get them..  For example, they require auto billing to get the promised rate.  Require you to send in paper coupons, each month, to get the promised rate..  Don't give you the promised rate and then lie and say they never promised any such rate..  I did my two years and dumped them.

Coming in Threes

So I did my weekly grocery shopping when I discovered something nasty and had to go back to the grocery store..  Found out that the pepperoni package had a microscopic hole, the pepperoni and was discolored and.. off..  So I jump in the car and head off..

ONE: Right before I make to the main street, a car pulls out in front of me, from a parking lot.  I had the right of way.  I understand that others have the right to drive on the same roads as I do, and I also know that you can do things like pull out of an alley or driveway WHEN THE WAY IS CLEAR, when your action makes another slow down to avoid hitting your lame ass, you made are in the wrong.  The light was a changing, and of course, the inconsiderate ass slowly approaches the intersection, makes it through but sadly, I was stuck at the light, forced to wait a cycle.  Signing deeply, I tried not to let it bother me..

TWO: A couple miles up the road, I was nearing the grocery store and a car in the right lane switched to the left in front of me, without signaling.  Grrrr...

THREE: So I get to my turn.  There is a left turn lane for me, and for the oncoming traffic that makes this intersection sort of a crapshoot.  Sometimes you cannot see if the way is clear until you pull put into the intersections, if someone is turning left coming the other way..  So my no-signaling friend is turning there and makes his or her turn.  When I get there 10 seconds later a couple cars are in the other left turn lane blocking my view..  I think its safe but edge up a little..  The there is a honking from behind me  I start to go and there is a farking car speed towards me!  Not sure if the guy was being an incompetent dick, not looking before trying to rush me along, or an asshat KNOWING there was a car and TRYING to make me get into an accident..

Lesson learned.  Check every damn item before you put it in your cart I guess..