So friday wasn't my day
Mar. 6th, 2005 11:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helen99Hopefully, this takes care of all my "not my day" points for the year.
On Friday:
1. I went to pay for a car repair with a credit card, and was declined. After being on hold for an hour, they revealed to me that it had been declined due to "lack of activity". Well DUH, no joke, Chainsaw-neck, I only have that thing for emergencies, What if I'd been stranded in the middle of Wyoming, where ignorant gits have been known to confuse "Namarie" for French, and needed some quick cash?? As it happened I wasn't, but still. They initiated reactivation. Note to self: call them tomorrow.
2. I opened my snail mail, and found a notice from the city code enforcement division that I was in violation of code in three different ways. a) the tree on the street corner needed to have its lower branches "trimmed to bark" in order to allow visibility at the intersection. My own stupid fault for planting a tree there 15 years ago. It was small and fluffy back then, and I was clueless and fluffy, so we went well together. I didn't have the foresight to understand that this would become a huge tree and block visibility and get the city on my ass. Wellp, the day is upon me. Had to trim the lower branches. We apologized to the tree. It said it would survive, but its vanity was permanently destroyed. In which the karma is on my head and the bum-violating city enforcers get their way. Luckily,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aekiy came to the rescue (the story behind the coining of the term "Chainsaw-neck" - an epithet which made me feel immediately better...
b) there are branches growing over my roof, which have to be trimmed - hurricanes abound lately and that's just basic safety, not to have branches over the roof. I'd been putting it off because I hate to do it (and because it costs a lot). Now I'll have no choice but to have it done by the Ides.
c) They said all "weeds" have to be removed. This is where it gets weird. The ground is covered with snow - there are no weeds. Just ivy and raspberries. They must mean the raspberries. I'll have to explain to them (again) that these aren't weeds. I'll have to get a trellis for them to grow on, so they look "cultivated". Good grief. They don't want anything that looks like it will harbor wildlife.
It *really* didn't help that a Washington Post article today revealed that the BTK (bind-torture-kill) serial killer turned out to be a fanatic who believed all his neighbors should have perfectly manicured yards and bullied his neighbors for years and years.
3. I arrived at my side job at around 8:00 pm - it was already dark, and it was about showtime at the nearby movie theater. Someone followed me into the parking garage in a mufflerless vehicle. Then momentarily stopped on a lower level of the garage, but then presently came up to the top level where I was parked. They parked on the other end of the garage and just sat there, revving their obnoxious mufflerless engine. Maybe smoking up, who knows. Didn't stick around to find out - left the lot without getting out, missed a day of side job.
So basically, I'm being hit in the pocketbook as well as my connection with nature (two power sources). I'm feeling it in the solar plexus area.
4. Someone who used to work where I work (a control freak nobody liked) sent me a cryptic email. "Hi, how are you? I remember what a great technical writer you are. Give me a call". She's head hunting. I don't want to work for her. I don't want to work in virginia. I don't want to switch jobs. She'll probably offer me a (much needed right now) lucrative contract. I don't like to have to say no to something I really need. But I'll have to.
Fixing Friday is still in progress.
But fixed it shall be. Looking inward to see if there's something there that generated this or allowed an inroad. Not blame, just 'hooks in', so to speak.
Addendum:
Monday: My Betta fish Freddy, who I've had for 2 years, croaked.
Tuesday: Ice and windstorm took down my old apple tree - didn't fall on anything or anyone, luckily. It now lies in a heap in the yard and will have to be dealt with. It had been dying for many years - most of its leaders had already fallen - but the roots and one leader remained (sort of). It could still produce a few leafy branches and such. But it was dying and I knew that - so not too upset by the fact that it gave up the ghost. But still. The Timing...
Thursday: I was picking up tree remnants from the fallen apple tree, and some scumjerk drove up in a muffler-less pickup truck and stopped in front of my house, drunk. Got out and took a pee on the front fence. I didn't know what he was doing (it was dark and I was some distance away behind some bushes). The way I found out was a passerby saw him and told him that peeing outdoors was a 'bad habit'. I hope the sick jerk didn't see me. (puke).
On Friday:
1. I went to pay for a car repair with a credit card, and was declined. After being on hold for an hour, they revealed to me that it had been declined due to "lack of activity". Well DUH, no joke, Chainsaw-neck, I only have that thing for emergencies, What if I'd been stranded in the middle of Wyoming, where ignorant gits have been known to confuse "Namarie" for French, and needed some quick cash?? As it happened I wasn't, but still. They initiated reactivation. Note to self: call them tomorrow.
2. I opened my snail mail, and found a notice from the city code enforcement division that I was in violation of code in three different ways. a) the tree on the street corner needed to have its lower branches "trimmed to bark" in order to allow visibility at the intersection. My own stupid fault for planting a tree there 15 years ago. It was small and fluffy back then, and I was clueless and fluffy, so we went well together. I didn't have the foresight to understand that this would become a huge tree and block visibility and get the city on my ass. Wellp, the day is upon me. Had to trim the lower branches. We apologized to the tree. It said it would survive, but its vanity was permanently destroyed. In which the karma is on my head and the bum-violating city enforcers get their way. Luckily,
aekiy came to the rescue (the story behind the coining of the term "Chainsaw-neck" - an epithet which made me feel immediately better...b) there are branches growing over my roof, which have to be trimmed - hurricanes abound lately and that's just basic safety, not to have branches over the roof. I'd been putting it off because I hate to do it (and because it costs a lot). Now I'll have no choice but to have it done by the Ides.
c) They said all "weeds" have to be removed. This is where it gets weird. The ground is covered with snow - there are no weeds. Just ivy and raspberries. They must mean the raspberries. I'll have to explain to them (again) that these aren't weeds. I'll have to get a trellis for them to grow on, so they look "cultivated". Good grief. They don't want anything that looks like it will harbor wildlife.
It *really* didn't help that a Washington Post article today revealed that the BTK (bind-torture-kill) serial killer turned out to be a fanatic who believed all his neighbors should have perfectly manicured yards and bullied his neighbors for years and years.
3. I arrived at my side job at around 8:00 pm - it was already dark, and it was about showtime at the nearby movie theater. Someone followed me into the parking garage in a mufflerless vehicle. Then momentarily stopped on a lower level of the garage, but then presently came up to the top level where I was parked. They parked on the other end of the garage and just sat there, revving their obnoxious mufflerless engine. Maybe smoking up, who knows. Didn't stick around to find out - left the lot without getting out, missed a day of side job.
So basically, I'm being hit in the pocketbook as well as my connection with nature (two power sources). I'm feeling it in the solar plexus area.
4. Someone who used to work where I work (a control freak nobody liked) sent me a cryptic email. "Hi, how are you? I remember what a great technical writer you are. Give me a call". She's head hunting. I don't want to work for her. I don't want to work in virginia. I don't want to switch jobs. She'll probably offer me a (much needed right now) lucrative contract. I don't like to have to say no to something I really need. But I'll have to.
Fixing Friday is still in progress.
But fixed it shall be. Looking inward to see if there's something there that generated this or allowed an inroad. Not blame, just 'hooks in', so to speak.
Addendum:
Monday: My Betta fish Freddy, who I've had for 2 years, croaked.
Tuesday: Ice and windstorm took down my old apple tree - didn't fall on anything or anyone, luckily. It now lies in a heap in the yard and will have to be dealt with. It had been dying for many years - most of its leaders had already fallen - but the roots and one leader remained (sort of). It could still produce a few leafy branches and such. But it was dying and I knew that - so not too upset by the fact that it gave up the ghost. But still. The Timing...
Thursday: I was picking up tree remnants from the fallen apple tree, and some scumjerk drove up in a muffler-less pickup truck and stopped in front of my house, drunk. Got out and took a pee on the front fence. I didn't know what he was doing (it was dark and I was some distance away behind some bushes). The way I found out was a passerby saw him and told him that peeing outdoors was a 'bad habit'. I hope the sick jerk didn't see me. (puke).
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-06 06:50 pm (UTC)Of course, somehow, Fixing Friday would end up being a movie about neutering.. There'd be a dog name Friday.. plus it'd take place on a Friday, and someone would be trying to save their relationship while trying to get their dog neutered and saving their job and a bunch of other crazy things.. ee
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-06 07:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-06 07:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-06 07:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-07 04:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-07 06:15 pm (UTC)I think, though, that the preponderance of weird and stupid things happening all at once possibly points to a probability trend upon which I accidentally hitched a ride. Today has been relatively uneventful, so perhaps it was temporary, or maybe the weekend of yard work grounded it out...
Anyway, on the plus side, it served to alert me to trends within the city which I can now actively try to counteract through education of city officials about the benefits of wildscaping one's yard (erosion prevention, waterway filtration, bird migration, climate control, etc). We also plan to slip in a little piece about how "rich people always wildscape their yards"... Not that we're rich by any means, but whatever helps... Hopefully things are on the upswing now.
Bad day
Date: 2005-03-08 07:54 pm (UTC)