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Gay Bear

Which Dysfunctional Care Bear Are You?
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Like the man said, "It's always something."

Tank's got an SUV. It guzzles way too much gas. We had been thinking of getting something else when the place that he bought it from closed down and sold all the accounts to a company in California. Once the dust settled, they contacted Tank with their address and also told him that they had re-evaluated his truck and decided it was worth $90 more a month. Well, I'm sorry, but we're not paying $290 a month for that thing. It's a decent truck and all, but it's sure not worth that, especially with gas the way it is now (down to $2.69 in a few places now, but still too high).

Tank's dad said not to worry about it, he'd help Tank get a new truck (neither Tank nor I have wonderful credit). Don pointed Tank to the car lot he needed to go to, told him to pick something out on Tuesday and on Wednesday, they'd go back and sign every thing. Wednesday rolls around, no Don. And this is the second time he's told Tank he'd help him with a car and when signing time comes around, he goes into hiding.

Thursday Tank tried to get in touch with him again, and still no dice. I'm pretty pissed at him. I even tried to call him, but I only got his wife, who claims that she knows nothing about this. Whatever.

Meanwhile, Tank hadn't made the payment on the truck, since his dad said not to worry about it. So, he calls the people in Cali to try and explain things and see if they'll work with us to get the payments back on time. Nope, can't do it, sorry, truck's already flagged for pick-up. We don't know when though.

I called my parents. They've had enough to deal with with Marla and all, but I just wanted to keep them in the loop. They said they'd help if we get to the point where we just can't manage this on our own, but we should keep trying to get Tank's dad to own up.

Also, Don said he had a trailer we could use to move. But I'm pretty sure that's out now. Now we'll be renting a Uhaul.

It's funny how in the space of a day or two, things can go so bad. I thought (once again, damn me for thinking) that maybe we'd be ok. No real moving expenses... new car with lower payments... I'll get used to the house... And the reality is: no car, truck possibly going away, and paying a fortune to rent a truck.

Wheee.

Don't Refloat - The case against rebuilding the sunken city of New Orleans. By Jack Shafer

This is kind of how I feel. I can see the arguement for rebuilding (I mean, come on... it's Nawlins!) but is it feasable to rebuild?

Katrina is still the big story around here. Remember how I said it wasn't supposed to hurt New Orleans? I was wrong. One of the levees broke and NO got flooded pretty bad. I don't feel like going into all the details now, but millions are homeless, quite a bit of the city is ruined and will be bulldozed, and it's been total chaos there. Now, over a week and a half later, they seem to be getting a handle on the situation, but there for a while, anarchy ruled.

We've not moved as much as we'd like out to OR yet. I think we're really going to try and get quite a bit moved this weekend. And I'd like to move EVERYTHING by next weekend. Moving a bit at a time sounds good on paper, but it's driving me nuts. We've got stuff in boxes just lying around here and just a general mess, heh. Besides; I've sort of made peace with myself about this move, so now I'm ready. I don't like change, but waiting isn't exactly a strong point with me, either.

Gas is over $3 a gallon now.

I just have this horrible feeling of doom. I feel like it's the beginning of an "end of the world" movie (like Terminator) and the rising gas prices are just the beginning of the end.

Reason tells me that "the powers that be", whomever they are, are hard at work, either trying to find a way to make oil cheap again or find an alternative. Because "the powers that be" have money and a certain way of life and they'd like to keep it that way. But knowing this still doesn't make me feel any better.

I'm sure I'll be over this in a few days. It's just the initial shock. Also, the fact that I was hoping we might finally get ahead with our bills, and now this will be setting us back. Again.

Be Unprepared - Why the Senate should ask John Roberts the questions he least expects. By Bruce Reed

Actually, this link goes to Bush and his rapidly declining approval rating.

I'm shocked, shocked I say!

We're expecting quite a bit of rain over the next 3 days. Hurrican Katrina is headed for landfall in the Gulf. For a while there, everyone thought that New Orleans might just be blown off the map by this. They're still looking at quite a bit of damage, but I don't think the whole city is going to disappear under water. They've moved a lot of people into the Super Dome.

Well, we're moving to Oak Ridge at the end of the month. Not sure how I feel about this. Oak Ridge is bigger, more stores and things to do, and we'd also be closer to everything. Also, OR has one of the best educational programs in the state (gotta teach all those kids of PhDs, ya know). And the people who are renting us this house are letting us move in with no deposit and they will let us break the rent up into two payments each month to make it a bit easier on us.

But the house. Well... I don't like it. It's an older duplex that's had the middle wall knocked out and it's one house now. It's dark, no carpet (I don't know how I feel about the whole place being hardwood), and it needs some work. Less of a yard than we have now, but what yard there is is fenced in. One kitchen will be the utility room and the other will be an actual kitchen. Bedrooms are small... Ah, I guess I got a bit spoiled by this place. While it's not the nicest place I've ever lived in either, it's nicer than where we're going. The landlord might have been anal, but she kept this place nice.

The other place has potential, though. It's got a little porch that we can hang wind chimes and maybe put some plants on, and the little area right in front of the porch is perfect for decorating for holidays. And the place has CH&A, but still no dishwasher.

I'm sure it won't be so bad once the outside is cleaned up some more and we're able to get all our stuff in there. We'll have to buy a few things for it, like curtains and some lamps (I hate how dark it is). Maybe it won't be so bad by the time Christmas is here.

Yay! I was just drying my hair and I was bent over to dry it upside down, and I was able to see past my belly to my panties! Heh, I know it's kind of silly, but this is the first time since Noah was born that I've been able to see any change in my belly. Hopefully my new routine is the reason. Now to stick with it!

I talked to mom a couple of days ago. She said that Randy had somehow convinced Marla to go back to rehab after all. I hope this works. I really don't want to have to get all stupid at the holidays. But if she shows up stoned, I'll just have to ruin everyone's holiday.

And just when I think we're going to be ok financially, we're not. I don't know what happened to all our money this month. But Friday we've got to pay the sitter and rent, and we're supposed to use my paycheck to do it. Well, my check will just cover those things. That leaves no money for groceries and gas. Also, electricity is due. I should be able to use my ORV money for that, but I won't get that until probably next Tuesday. Tank is supposed to be going out today to see if some of their advertisers will pay him now. I don't think any of them have paid for the month of August. Well, a couple have, but there's a lot that still owe. That's the bad thing about this kind of extra income. It's very iffy.

On a positive note, MasterCard is giving away 12 cars. Guess I need to be using mine more often, because I could use a few new cars (keep 3 or 4, sell the rest, heh)

WBIR.COM - Hyattes arraigned in Roane County

The continuation of our 15 minutes of fame.

Their capture was such a disappointment. We were all hoping for a big shoot-out.

I had kind of forgotten about this. Time to get back on the ball.

And let me start by saying, I hate my neighbors. They leave their damn TV/radio/both on 24/7 and loud. But the guy over there seems unstable, so I'm afraid if I complained, I might have some drunken idiot breaking into my house later on. Then again, I've just about had enough (as I listen to it droning on now at 6:15 a.m.) I may tell the landlord.

I've not written much about Marla, and I guess I should. Not going to get into the gory details, but I'm hoping my parents have cut her off. She's addicted to pills, she won't raise her daughter, she stole two credit card apps from my mom and submitted them, then charged up $25,000 worth (that my parents will have to eventually pay back since they don't want to charge her with fraud). She won't go into rehab, she swears she doesn't have a problem, and her new husband is almost as flaky and worthless as she is. I don't think she's working now, but that's nothing new.

I try to call my mom occasionally and talk about stuff that will take Marla off her mind. So I tell her how my life is a living hell because I have Noah to deal with. It's usually good for a chuckle.

Ok, enough about that, let's talk about me!

I think I've found a workout plan that will work. I've just been doing some odds & ends strength moves, mostly pilates, then doing some stepping. I freelance it, occasionally use a few moves that I learned on my workout tapes. I do the strength training in the morning along with at least 15 minutes on the step, and then when I get home I try to get 15-20 minutes more on the step. I think my problem before was that I was getting almost no cardio. This way is easy, and breaking it up into two workouts keeps it from becoming a bore. And I can watch TV instead of tying up the TV with a workout tape.

Alright, enough for now.