Ups and downs like anybody

Blog 110108

As per usual, things are up and down.

Bad – mood swings mostly likely due to crazy sleep hours and crowded house.

Good – job security and I’m making the most money ever in my life despite a recession!

My fantasy football teams are in bad shape. I still might manage a play-off surge in one league. In the league I want to win I’m doomed. Top guy is a commanding 8-0. That leaves 3 play-off spots. I’m 2nd to last with a 2-6 record. I play the 0-8 guy this week. Last year I shanked the Super Bowl by forgetting to adjust my roster. This year three of my loses were by 1.5 points or less. The usual margin for victory seems more like *= points per game. Just mainly bad luck over having a bad team.

I finally started playing the new Star Wars game for Xbox 360 that I bought a few weeks back. It’s really awesome. One a somewhat sucky note I’ve moved my Xbox 360 from my HD 40” screen to like a 25 inch tube TV. This is because I moved the big screen to my bedroom. My DVD player too. My brother and I work opposite schedules and it really sucks when I’m wide awake sitting in my bedroom while he’s sleeping on my couch where all the entertainment items are. So I moved by big screen and DVD player to my room. I really love having the TV at the end of my bed. It’s like being in a movie theater. I expect to watch Heroes Season 2 late into the night both Sat and Sun while the rest of the house slumbers. My nephew seemed fairly upset and maybe even devastated that he won’t be playing on the HD tv any more. I feel bad about that but I get really angry and resentful over my brother living in my living room due to over-crowding in my small house.

I felt pretty good about helping my parents out with heating costs this year. I helped to pay for most of a tank of heating oil. The realities of life make it hard for older couples on a fixed income to afford life. I fully suspect I’ll end up the same way despite trying to take precautions now to help prevent that. But even if I have something like $150,000 heading into retirement (currently I don’t), between inflation and health costs what would that $150,000 be worth in thirty years since it would probably be stretched over 10+ years of retirement? It’s a scary thought. I don’t worry about it to much. I expect to end up in an old folks home later in life. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. What can I say, I like it when people take care of me.

The comic continues to roll on. I’ve been hitting my Tuesday and Thursday posts on schedule. I was a few weeks ahead on material but O.T. killed that and now I’m only a day or two ahead. So I’ve been trying to work at getting back ahead so I have more of a buffer zone if something happens.

Wow, just had a coughing fit over accidentally sucking down some of my own spit into my lungs.

I should be investing in a domain name and new website for The Necropolis Chronicles soon. I let my old one slip and it was kind of blah to begin with. I hope to make a stronger effort this time.

My days continue to be fairly jammed up. Work has dropped down to 5 days a week which is terrific. I have no desire to work tons of O.T. It’s also getting close to holiday time and I should have a fair amount of time off. The rumor is that we’ll have the week around Christmas and New Year’s off. It’s like a 4 day block of holiday time off anyway so the company usually just shuts down that week. I’m really look forward to it.

I feel pretty good about things financially. I have Christmas almost fully budgeted so that I won’t owe any money after the holidays. I also just sent in December’s mortgage payment with some extra cash on it and that’s not due until Dec 7. Money will get a little tighter though because I turned my heat on. I suspect my heating bill due in December will be around $200. I keep the house at 66 degrees.

My brother’s ex continues to stir shit where ever she can. She hadn’t called my sister’s house in years. My sister had just had to kick out some deadbeat friends of her son about a month earlier. Deadbeat girl shares the same name as my niece that the ex was calling for. My sister didn’t recognize the ex’s voice and kept telling her that “K” had moved out a month ago. So ex gets real mad and explains who she is. When she gets her daughter she rips into my niece so loudly that my sister could hear the phone conversation from across the room. Ex lives in Ohio – by the way, nice lie to the court system on THAT one ex, yeah, ‘just a vacation’, right – and we live in MA.

Fast forward another few weeks and my niece gets suspended from school for stealing. This is probably true. However, it may have been nothing more than a ploy by niece’s friend to get a new cellphone. It’s might be one of those deals where a friend steals a car and they joy ride and destroy the car and then tell the cops and insurance that it was stolen. In other words, there is the possibility that this victim through my niece is voluntarily committing insurance fraud. Not a big leap considering they are 14 year old girls.

Also in this my niece went to Vermont. This had been set up for some time as a weekend deal with her friend, different friend I think, and she cut a deal with my brother of no seeing friends, no computer and no phone for like 2 weeks because of the suspension. Apparently, somewhere there is suppose to be pictures of my niece drinking on a MySpace page. Again, a totally plausible thing. I can remember doing stuff behind my parents’ backs at the same age – video game piracy anybody?

So after this, the ex called DSS or someone to stir up shit. She wants my brother to fail in the worst way because she failed. She dumped the kids off on him and left the state and still collects child support while NOT supporting the kids (fucking court system). She pressed charges against my niece for assault and battery and petty theft and had her dragged away in shackles. She continuously threatens her and uses mental anguish to inflict pain on my niece – “if you stay with THEM, I’ll never speak to you again” (some mother). So while its no surprise that she’s stirring more shit it just continues to show what a piece of shit she is of a human being.

On a related note my brother has gotten 3 very positive notes on his handling of the kids from services that regularly visit to make sure things really are okay. Take THAT, bitch!

Okay, I want to play Star Wars now.