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04/23/2004: "A week for the ages"

I don't want to go into too much detail about the past week -- it would take hours -- but suffice it to say, it's been a mess.

My cat had surgery earlier this week -- to the tune of $700. She had large, painful bladder stones. Poor thing. Thank goodness she appears to be much better. Downside: Vet says they will be back eventually -- she had the same surgery back in 2001.

My dad turns 60 today -- and he's more depressed than ever. "I just don't feel right," he said to me. He's not in the best physical health to begin with, and now this. I'm worried.

I got into a car accident. The passenger-side front of my car is fucked up. The bumper is tied up with a rope so it doesn't scrape the ground. This doofushead gunned the gas, jumped right in front of me as I was entering a turn lane, and I hit him in the driver's side door. He was ticketed. But he is contesting the claim I made to his insurance. I'm sure he thinks, "What do I have to lose? I'm going to have to pay regardless." Now, the insurance company has to investigate the claim -- and that's that much longer that my car doesn't get fixed.

A couple of nitwits taking down trees with a chainsaw on the property directly behind us toppled an entire tree into our yard, breaking large branches in one of our oak trees and damaging our privacy fence. This couple -- one look at them made me gather that they weren't professionals -- had knocked on our door several days ago to ask if they could come in our back yard to "pick up some limbs" because they'd be "trimming trees" along our fence line. I said sure. When someone says they're going to pick up limbs, you don't think it's going to be the entire top of a tree. Anyway, the next day, I heard a loud CRASH, and a couple of minutes later, our power went out. I wasn't sure at the time whether it was related to the tree-"trimming" or just that our power went out (we have a shitty power company to begin with). Our power was back in a couple of hours. The next day, we went out to investigate what had happened back there, and we found an entire tree hanging in one of our oak trees, and one of the major limbs of our oak tree was broken. When the couple came back, the BF freaked out at them. I swear, he shouted (and berated them, ugh, I didn't want to listen) at them for hours. He said he thinks he made the woman cry. I'm sure he harped too long, but I can't blame him for his anger. I couldn't believe their idiocy. They patched our fence -- it's not perfect, but the hole is closed up. It's a long story, and there's more to it, but I swear, I'm just glad that no one was hurt or electrocuted, for fuck's sake.

Three lessons learned the hard way this week:

1. If you are in an accident, and someone stops by to make sure you're OK, get their name and number. I've been asked multiple times if there was a witness to my accident. There was -- but he just pulled up to see if we were OK and quickly drove off. (I'm sure he didn't want to stick around and be late for work, but tough shit next time, I say.)

2. If you are in an accident that you are sure is not your fault and have a camera on you, take pictures of the scene. I had my phonecam at the time, and I wish wish wish I had taken pictures of where the cars were and what lanes they were in. Proof that Doofushead is lying when he told his insurance company that he didn't do anything wrong.

3. Never allow a handyman, worker, landscaper, any laborer onto your property unless they are licensed. We've now been burned twice ("handyman" who improperly installed our front door, and now the "tree-trimmers") by nitwits who didn't have a clue as to what they were doing and ended up damaging our property. Next time I will ask if they are licensed, and if they say they aren't, I'm prepared to say, "I can't let you work here, sorry."

Current mood: Depressed

 
Replies: 3 shoutouts

Ugh. I'm having a week like that. A slow, spectacular slide into professional self destruction.

Posted by ~ @ 04/26/2004 08:08 PM EST

It's OK. Thanks for the kind words. I'm bummed, but things can only get better, right?

Posted by Huffy @ 04/24/2004 01:21 PM EST

Sorry to hear that, Huffstuff. Hang in there.

Posted by ufscoops @ 04/23/2004 02:32 AM EST