Still Not Done

TJ was found dead December 30.  We still cannot close this incident.

G had to call the ex-husband last week because the storage place called him wondering what was going to be done about the rental on the unit for February and March.  Not our problem, but he called the ex.  Supposedly that has been taken care of.

They went on talking and Troy was talking about the problems his current wife is having.  She has had two heart attacks and is facing spinal disc fusion surgery.  This is a hard time for him.  Even after he and TJ divorced, I know he still cared for her a lot. It was a case of where love simply wasn't enough.  

Troy said that the internment of TJ ashes would probably not happen until next month.  Understood.  Other than closing this chapter, there certainly is no rush.  BUT - I wish he had simply said his wife needed his attention. Instead, he said Drew just wasn't ready.  

To use a common phrase: "I call bullsh*t on that."  That young man isn't broken up over this.  And I sincerely doubt that he is wearing the locket with her ashes.  I doubt he has had one made.  

A positive of his non-caring - at least it appears he hasn't been at "her" house in a while.  We don't go onto the property, but the last two times we have been to the SSB, there are no signs of life around the place.  I don't trust him, and I don't want him on our place.  It appears even the hunters haven't been there.  I know Doug WON'T go back because I think he would beat Drew to a pulp.  To my knowledge, Mike has been kicked off by Drew because he had the nerve to stand up to Drew about the animals.  There is another guy G met in January, I believe, but we haven't seen anything of him either.  Strange.

In the credit card mess.  I think I have finally taken care of all payments that are made via that card.  It hasn't been easy.  Yesterday I spent the better part of an hour trying to get one particular medical billing taken care of.  In the last 4 months, I have had a change in email (Earthlink dumped my free email - after only 25 years!!), my health insurance company changed, and my credit card changed.  That does a lot of changing on medical things!

But as for now, things seem to be moving along rather smoothly.  Katie has gotten her drivers' license.  All the others are doing well.  So I guess all is right in our world.

It happened.

My Discover Card has been hacked.  I have had my card for over 20 years.  I have never been hacked.  And they did a fantastic job in one day.

I happened to look at an email alert on my phone.  It said there was unusual activity.  Discover is so good about tracking this nonsense, only tonight it surely wasn't nonsense.  With the first notice, there was already $1000 charged.  All in all the amount was closer to $2000.  I am going to sound like an as for Discover, but I will owe nothing on this.  Not. A. Dime.

The real problem here is now I have about 10 services that I have paid through that card.  This is going to be a monumental process.  I don't have the new card yet, but when I get it I will have to begin this process.  And of course - we WILL BE AT THE SSB.  (I need to have a blood draw - fasting, and Monday the earliest appointment is 11:45 - so I will change the entire appointment with Dr. Poison.  Not a convenient time to be gone at all)

I also think I know how my card was compromised.  We ordered a pizza in February.  That is the ONLY out of the normal charge I made.  A whopping $28 and some change.  We never charge these, but neither of us had cash.  I don't carry cash, and G was low not having gone to the bank recently.  Someone at that Pizza Hut scammed my card.  I so hope they get caught.

G said they waited a long time to use it.  Well - sure. I will bet this isn't the first time they have done this.  Waiting would mean there would be less of a chance that this would fall back on them.  But they were stupid in that they didn't leave this area.  The greater Houston area is LARGE.  Our neck of the woods is just a small area in comparison.

So I am feeling really unsettled.  My faith is people is trashed.  I know things like this happen.  It happened at a fine-dining restaurant several years ago.  G's card that was used to pay for the meal was compromised and at the same time, my daughter's card which was used to pay for drinks was too.  They were smart with G's.  They made small purchases at a Kroger.  BUT they were exactly the same amount minutes apart.  USAA was the card issuer and picked up on it immediately.  They called and canceled the card.

In a way, I have some sympathy for these people.  They missed out on a lot of life lessons.

Interesting week

I think I am going to have a love/hate relationship with my PCP.  W*lgreen's is my usual pharmacy (unless it is a three month supply), and those prescriptions are on a fill as needed.  (Just thought - so are my mail ordered ones) Anyway, Nurse Practitioner put me on a thyroid med.  It was a 28 day supply, and on Sunday last the pharmacy sent a refill OK to the office.  I had pills to last until Thursday.  There was no notification that the script had been filled, so, on WEDNESDAY I  called the Dr office.  They then allowed the script to be filled.  If I have to do this on all my meds, there is not any reason to have the dispensing pharmacies to follow them for me.  I don't want to have to call the office each and every time.  I am not going to be a happy camper on this.

As for the new cardio doc, I am at an age where change is hard.  I THINK I like him.  I was surprised for him to do both an EKG and an echo on that first visit.  Waiting with baited breath for the EOB on the insurance.  I THINK they approved them, but we will see.  I was fully expecting him to change my meds.  I got the idea when they came due right after the other cardio guy retired.  The doctor in that practice didn't want to renew one because another was basically the same med.  Then with the new PCP when they came due, that was when she said I had to see the cardiologist.  He really didn't like that combination, so I am on new meds.  I wonder if age didn't get to the old cardio doc.  I am sure he was pushing 80.

Yesterday my daughter's youngest spent the day with me.  She was amazed that I called to see if she would like to do that.  I usually take the oldest (16 years
 old).  Karrington is 9, and she hasn't been really able to handle some things, and I do so much better with the older kiddos anyway.  But I decided I would try.  Katie is in Cali for the Olympic Development National games, and I knew My grandson would probably have baseball games all day.  She was elated, even saying "she wants ME to spend the day?"  That told me a lot!

So we experimented with baking a cake.  That went well, and she was still not bored - not telling me how much she missed her mom.  (Mom had been out of town since Tuesday - business trip Tuesday through Thursday, coming home only to leave the next morning for Cali until Monday).  Karrington is a MOMMIE'S GIRL!

After we completed the cakes, we went up to my "woman's cave" - the upstairs.  That has exploded into my craft area - completely.  She had been asking me to teach her how to sew.  I honestly wasn't sure how that was going to go,  When I tried it with Katie, it wasn't so good. But up we went.

I cut some muslin into strips and had her practice just sewing straight.  She did that fairly well, and I found a  scrap of fabric that had been a sample of drapery fabric.  I cut it in half and told her we were going to make a pillow.  Her eyes lit up.

To make it a little fancier, I got a scrap of felt.  I chose a simple design on the other embroidery machine to put a design on the pillow.  We had to wait for her to sew the seams on the pillow while I did the embroidery.  She came over to watch and she was completely fascinated to watch that machine work!  I admit it is fascinating to watch that machine sew all by itself.

Then we went back to the machine she was working on.  She sewed the seams (she got one perfect - and I had to resew two others) she turned the pillow and stuffed it.  She was beaming the whole time.  She is hooked.  She said she didn't know sewing could be so much fun.  She wants to come back on Monday - which is great.  It is her Spring Break, and at least she will have something to do.

She really matured a lot yesterday! My BP is coming back under control, and I have at least a month of my meds.  All good.

Hello!

Still in pretty much of a writing funk.  One day just melds into another without anything unusual happening.

I really don't quite understand why it has been decided to bury the "beautiful urn" that was bought for TJ's ashes.  Mine can go into the "free" wooden box we got when we arranged for our cremation.  What happens after that - I don't care.  I won't know and will be WAY beyond caring.  BUT "they" want to bury those ashes in the plot where a lot of the family is buried.  Of course,c there is a hitch.

I absolutely detest the company that manages this cemetery.  They handles - bungled really - my dad's funeral, and have given G's family grief about these plots they own.  And it continues.  Seems like BIL and G have to send NOTARIZED statements as remaining kin owning this site (and so was TJ, but I guess she no longer counts) that she can have her ashes put there.

We were supposed to trek to San Antonio the last weekend in February, but this has, obviously, been postponed.  The real kicker here is it is going to cost her estate over $900.  Just to put an urn in the ground!  There will be no funeral but the funeral director gets something like $600 of that.  I really, really detest this bunch of creeps. They are true vampires of the funeral business.
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In October my cardio doc retired.  I seem to have a negative influence on my doctors (although I guess retirement is good). My ortho guy who replaced both knees died of a heart attack a few months after doing my knees.  I still need to find someone I like and trust to check them on a regular basis.  I haven't, and it's been several years.

I always thought I didn't need a cardio doc just to manage blood pressure.  So I finally found a PCP.  When I made the appointment for the highly suggested physical, the Nurse Practitioner was available, and I thought that would be perfectly fine.

All has gone well - until.  There's always an "until" isn't there.  I had signed a ream of requests for my records from the stable of physicians I have.  I have quite a regime of meds from the cardio doc, and I was doing really well.

When it came time for a refill on those, the NP wouldn't refill one the way I had been taking them.  I was told to - get ready for it - to go back to a cardio doc.  I wasn't supposed to be taking that amount of the med.  So now my BP is raging, and guess what - I have an appointment with a new CARDIO DOC.  Sheesh.   I surely miss my old doctors who have retired, died, and retired and then died!
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And so it goes.  Just one excitement in my life after another.  And I still don't always have the urge to put it down "on paper,"  Perhaps one day ...