What's She Up to Now? Jody's Life Blog

I'm Crappy, but Otherwise Fine. You?

I'll try to abbreviate things from yesterday so it's not 10,000 words.



- Called my mailbox place to let them know I forgot to check my mail before leaving and would be gone over a month. Was informed I had a box. DOH! THAT'S MY MEDICINE I NEEDED TO TAKE WITH ME! Had to contact the doc to order more to be sent to me on my trip.

- Called my real estate agent because the house I'm selling didn't appraise for the contracted price. Good thing I called as I was supposed to have signed something else several days ago. Found out one of the rooms wasn't converted into a bedroom during the renovation. And after the renovation, peeling paint and rotting wood was found on the exterior during the appraisal. Was assured I wouldn't be charged for the repairs. Uh, you mean the repairs I've already paid for? Glad I won't be double charged. Don't like his contractor, but I don't have a better one.

- Called about my car insurance situation (complicated issue with North Carolina being only 1 of 2 states out of 50 that have this complication). Going back to the original insurance company I'd previously used just to tide me over a few days, only to find out that not only had I been paying for car insurance for 2 companies at the same time, but 1 wasn't even insuring me for the right state! And now when I asked for help getting insurance with the correct state, they can't help me.

- I call my original insurance company for the, at least, 3rd time about the situation and FINALLY someone mentions I can send a copy of my driver's license. That's it? I've been dealing with this threat of having my insurance cancelled for almost 2 months, the deadline is Monday and NOW you tell me I just have to send in a copy of my license??? Fine. I'll do that. Just send me the paperwork to go with it.

- Insurance company sends a link where I have to log in. Uh, I locked down the account due to fraud so I can't log in. Send me a paper copy. Two calls and 4 people later, a paper copy comes. Oh, but I'm travelling, so I have to find an Office Depot or someplace to print and fax from.

- Email account complains that I'm not me and wants me to verity that I'm in New Mexico. Yes. It wants me to verify the last several times I logged in. Weirdly, yesterday in Arizona isn't on there. But, uh, why did I try to log in from Germany and Seychelles recently??? Great! More hacking. Thankfully, they didn't get in.

- I go to get my driver's license to get a copy to send to the insurance company. Not there in my pocket, nor is my military ID or my American Express card, all of which I used to get a hotel last night. I search the car and my bag and my pockets--several times. Nope. I'm driving across the country with like 3 more nights of travel and no ID?? Hotels want ID! And it's awfully cold to be sleeping in my car. Not to mention, I'm getting a Georgia driver's license. They already said I have to surrender my North Carolina license to get a GA one.

- Not only do I have to show my NC license to get a GA one, but the whole problem is the car insurance and my car tag. But I can't get a GA car tag without a GA driver's license, which I can't get without a NC license or a copy of my driving record, which takes 14 days to process. Thankfully, COVID extended winter break. Thankfully, I keep forgetting to make my GA driver's license appointment because I'd have to cancel it anyway.

- Cancelled my AmEx card and the phone tree insisted on verifying me by either my card information, which of course, I didn't have, or my office number. What office number? I haven't worked in several years now. I finally got a person and ask them to take it off. I ask the next person too. They cancel my card and ask about the other card. It's fine. No, I don't know where it is, exactly. I moved recently and it's in a box somewhere, but it's safe in my apartment.

- I call later to verify they erased the office number. The guy says they didn't, but he can't so for me to speak to another department. She insists there's no other number and she has no idea why he was seeing an office number. In the meantime, AmEx is calling me while I'm on the phone with them. I can't click over so when she's done I ask her why they called. She said it was a fraud alert on my other card and sends me to the fraud department. They assure me everything is fine, they've now cancelled both cards. I didn't want the other card cancelled! I SAID I didn't want it cancelled!! Too late now.

- I went 5 places before someone would let me go to the bathroom, thanks to COVID.

- There's the little annoyances like trying to call the hotel about my lost ID, etc. and the number is the main number, not the hotel, itself. Phone trees, transfers, more phone calls, etc. UGH! And my car, when I ask it for a restaurant, it shows me all the nearby ones from closest to furthest. Same with gas stations. When I ask it for a hotel, it wants to know which one. I don't care--give me closest to furthest. Nope. Use the phone to find the closest, then type it into the GPS--freaking aggravating!

- I had 2 VA appointments today. Or so I thought. Apparently, both were cancelled, but one was rescheduled for later today and the other for tomorrow? But when they send you email reminders, they don't say who the appointment is with. And you have to log in on a computer for the appointment. I tried doing it on my phone, but some app was allegedly blocking the usage of the camera and it wouldn't tell me which app nor would it let me use it without the camera. So, hotspot the computer with the dying battery in the middle of nowhere with bad wifi and barely get enough to understand that this isn't the right appointment time because it was changed. Oh, and did I mention that for some stupid reason, some of my appointments are still on Eastern Standard Time and others on are Pacific Standard Time, 3 hours earlier? But I was on Mountain Time so that was some fun math. I have made several calls and requests to get all my appointment reminders on PST, but no one seems to know why they aren't. Oh, and apparently the appointments were rescheduled on top of each other, but then not because the other was then cancelled. I tried to contact one of the providers and it turns out they give to have permission to contact them through the secure email thing they insist you use, but neither is on my list of contacts. I texted the only person I knew at the VA and asked her to notify one of them, but she didn't get back to me until after the appointment time because she has her own appointments.

- I paid for a car wash and waited and waited and waited because it was "in use." Nope. Broken. So I had to go inside to get a refund. We disagreed on the cost so I feel like I was short changed, but whatever.

- I need a 1099 to prove my social security number for Georgia. No worries. I sell Pampered Chef and they give me 1099s. Oh, but last year, I didn't really do anything and didn't make enough to get a 1099. Thankfully, my financial planner keeps a copy of my tax returns, so his secretary found an old copy of one from before.

- For some reason, my car decided it didn't want me to listen to my Audible and refused to play it after a gas refill. It wanted me to listen to the radio instead. No! Give me my Audible! Turns out, I can mostly hear it okay if I turn it to full volume and put it in the cup holder to act like a speaker. I showed my car! It later gave up and decided I could listen.

- I stopped to get gas and the pump leaked on my hand, which burned and stank. I washed my hand several times (in a gas station that let me use the bathroom--different state) and couldn't get the smell off. Also, the top was left off the refill tank in the driveway. I ran over it--probably not great for either my car or the lid. I couldn't let it go with a gaping hole in the ground, so I had to go park and go back inside and tell them to come fix it because I didn't know what I was doing with the seal being off and everything. I'd already had to go in to go to the bathroom to wash the gas off my hand, then go back in to get them to tell me the car wash code because the numbers were too small for me to read (but this car wash did work), so I didn't want to go back in a 3rd time, but felt obligated to do so. They were grateful, so at least that was nice.

- For some reason, I couldn't figure out how to make the car vents stop blowing cold air on me, even though I had the heat set to 82 and the whole function off. I didn't have this problem before. I finally closed them. It used to slowly leak warm air in, but for whatever reason, for most of the trip, I wanted to blow or leak cold air in today. It finally warmed up after 4-5 hours.

- A truck threw a rock at my windshield. I couldn't tell if the mark was road dirt or a crack and forgot to look later. That was part of the point of the 2nd car wash, which I never got--to clear the window enough to inspect it because the stupid wipers decided they need to be replaced now. Oh, and the wrench came on, but I think that can wait until I get to GA. And when I got my tires replaced a month ago, they didn't bother to give me caps for the air valves. Rude!

- The hotel didn't supply shampoo or conditioner. I called to ask about it and they said they had a vending machine for it. Seriously??

- I was feeling so angry and frustrated and whatever, I stopped and got the tiniest Dairy Queen Blizzard. (They currently have a peppermint hot cocoa one that is great.) Of course, though I always have a towel on my lap when I'm eating in the car and I stretch it across so things can't fall between the seat and anything else, I managed to spill my Blizzard on both me (above the towel's reach) and the center console (just beyond where the towel stopped).

- There were numerous dropped calls because AZ and NM have a lot of bad spots, so I couldn't even call and complain to friends about my crappy day yesterday.

- I finally got a hotel to accept my VA ID card and let me not sleep in my cold car tonight, but now have to hotspot my internet because their wifi won't stay connected more than a minute or two at a time. Fun.

- There's more things that I would remember while typing something else, then forgot, but you get the point of how things are going...and that was just yesterday.

So, yeah, I'm crappy, but otherwise fine. You?