Health
It feels strange to write this but... my health has been fine. No migraines, no new physical complaints, good blood sugars, good blood pressures.
My anxiety is up a bit but that's job search related and I'll get more into that below. Basically, I'm just getting antsy about looking for work.
Finances
This is still nerve wracking as I'm not getting paid, but for now my finances are fine. I still have plenty in my savings account for months and don't need to worry for a good long while. IF I need to worry in the future, I still have more 401k that I can take before I get desperate for work.
One nice financial surprise is that I finally got the return from my extended service plan on Layla. Quick aside, it's technically an extended service plan but in my head I think of it as a warranty. Especially since I get the premium care extended service plan and that covers almost everything on the car. So while I'm going to slip into writing 'warranty', it's not a warranty. Okay? Okay.
I bought a three year, thirty six thousand mile premium care Ford Protect warrant on her so that she'd be covered. I got Tatiana sooner than I thought meaning I sold Layla and the warranties can be canceled and the money is based on how much time/miles were left. I didn't drive Layla all that much so it was all down to the time left on her warranty. I originally called the dealership I bought Layla and the warranty from soon after I bought Tatiana and had everything paid off for Layla. When I called, they sent me to the 'finance manager' but he wasn't in. I left him a voicemail explaining who I was, how to contact me, and what I was looking for. I gave him a week but he never contacted me back.
Screw it.
I gathered up all the paperwork and sent it directly into Ford Protect as I can cancel it through either the dealership OR Ford Protect directly. The paperwork said it would take four to six weeks to get the money back. I gave them FAR more time than that and didn't get any money back. I finally called them up and explained the situation. The rep was very helpful in looking up my warranty and letting me know they canceled it as of July 29th and that the dealership would be sending me a check for the reimbursement. This was on AUGUST 30th.
So, I called the dealership again, asked for the finance manager, and was again sent to his voicemail. I left a detailed message but didn't wait a week this time. Instead I called back the next day with the plan of calling EVERY day until I got this done. This time when I called, the receptionist asked WHICH finance manager I wanted and gave me two first names. One was the guy I spoke with before. I decided to go ahead and light a bit of a fire and said that I'd left a voice mail for one of them before but he hadn't contacted me so if she could put me in contact with someone that was actually there or that would at least return my call, I would be most appreciative.
A few moments later the guy I'd left two voicemails for picked up the phone. While he was nice at the time of sale (remember, I had a MAJOR migraine when I was doing the sale so I might be way off base), he was as smarmy as you'd picture any finance guy this time. After I explained what was going on and asked point blank why they were holding on to MY money for a month, he promised he'd look into it and call '...our girl who handles all the warranties...' and get back with me. I made him commit to calling me back that day even if he didn't have new information, which he wasn't happy about.
He called me right at the end of business saying that "she" had just got the paperwork for my warranty return and would cut a check that day and put it in the mail the next day. I thanked him and hung up.
To his credit, I got a check in the mail a couple days later for around $1,700 (it was the correct amount of money). But while I had a good opinion of this dealership after I bought Layla from them, that's all in the past now. He obviously lied about 'her' messing it up and 'just' getting the paperwork. Bull Shit. They were either purposefully sitting on my money or had made an honest mistake and forgotten to send me the check. Either way, lying about it after the fact is about the worst thing you could do and I HAVE to assume it was malicious. So, they're on my shit list for dealerships now.
But hey... $1,700 in my checking account ain't nothing to sneeze at!
Family/Friends
Everything is good here. To be honest, I'm not paying close attention to my friends as I'm internally focused on the job search, but so far as I know they're fine. Family is good.
Entertainment
I finished Strange New Worlds 3rd season. It was... fine. Good? A little bit of a disappointment from the first couple seasons. It felt like they strayed away from the episodic nature that was the best part of the first two seasons as this entire season dealt with Pike's girlfriend and her interaction with the Gorn. It's not like it was bad... just not as good. I'm still looking forward to the 4th season next year.
I was still floundering around for something to binge watch and decided to drop Mayor of Kingstown. It just didn't catch me enough in those first few episodes. I might come back to it, but for now I decided to move on. I knew I'd eventually have to sign up for the MGM+ streaming service as they have the new Stephen King streaming series 'The Institute'. It's based on a book that SK wrote a few years back that was REALLY good and should lend itself to a series like this just fine. Well, while talking to Mom and setting up Paramount+ for her on the main TV, we found out that we get MGM+ through our cable subscription. So, I set that up and have started The Institute. I'm 2 episodes in but am sold. It's good so far.
I also found out that we get Paramount+ through our cable subscription which works out great. I pay for Paramount+ annually but it comes up on September 25th. So as soon as I set up our cable subscription, I can cancel that and save like over $100 a year!
It made me think and realize I have a LOT of streaming services.
First, I have purchased video on demand movies through:
- Google Play / YouTube
- Amazon Prime
- Fandango
- Apple (iTunes)
- Xfinity
- Netflix $24.99
- HBO Max (Through Xfinity)
- Disney+ $26.99 (bundle with all three)
- Hulu
- ESPN+
- Paramount+ (Through Xfinity)
- Showtime
- Peacock Premium + $16.99
- Apple TV+ $25.99 (this includes the family plan for TV and Music)
- MGM+ (Through Xfinity)
- Xfinity Stream (Through Xfinity)
- Hoopla (Free through the Library)
- YouTube Premium $13.99 (includes ad free YouTube and YouTube Music)
New Tech
I decided to buy a new keyboard. It's a story that I'll tell in it's own post but I wanted to mention the funny story of purchasing it here as it's the first time I've ever done this. I'm getting a keyboard and several customizing keycaps and such from Keychron. I've heard nothing but good things from them and they finally have a keyboard that matches what I want.
If you know anything about Keychron, you know that they sell many MANY varieties of their keyboard. Amazon carries a few of them, but the ones I wanted weren't available there. I had to buy them directly from Keychron. No problem.
Well, turns out it's a little bit of a problem. First, the shipping. There weren't any options on shipping, just the cost. For my order of around $200, I had to pay $45 in shipping. FUCK ME! I know I'm spoiled from Amazon's free next day (and sometimes same day) shipping, but that's freaking expensive! And it's not even fast. They'd take "1 to 2 days" to process the order then "4 to 6 business days" to ship it.
I didn't think anything of it as this was the only way to get the keyboard I wanted, so I just paid it. Only after the fact did I look into it. Yeah, the order is coming from Hong Kong. China. The '4-6' days is actually very fast if you consider where its coming from.
The biggest wrinkle was the Duty payment. Tariffs. DHL, the carrier, got it into the USA last night but it cost ANOTHER $38. It was either pay it or they wouldn't deliver it. So I paid it and it should be here tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have a post up about the actual keyboard soon.
Writing
I was on a BIG run of writing there for a bit. Since my last update I added 14 chapters to You're Not The Boss Of Me. The last chapter was posted on September 9th though, about six days ago. Since then, the imagination just dried up. It sucks because I'm on a fairly sexy scene. Paris' first 'date' as a woman with Trixie showing her how to have a 'lesbian' relationship.
I'm thinking this is just another manifestation of my job search anxiety. It's just eating away at me and keeping that creative energy at bay. I'll try again this afternoon as I really do like the story so far.
Michigan Football
Yeah, Michigan lost to Oklahoma. Turns out Oklahoma's new transfer quarterback, Mateer, is really REALLY good. The good news is that Michigan didn't look bad during the game. They just weren't as good as Oklahoma. And they limited the use of their freshman quarterback, Underwood.
The next game was admittedly against a cupcake, Central Michigan. But Michigan CRUSHED them. They let Underwood off the leash and he was passing more, running, and working on the fly. This coming Saturday Michigan plays Nebraska and that should be a good indicator of how good they really are.
I kind of want to talk about betting on college football since I do that every week, but it's almost a full post on its own and I don't want to get that detailed into it. If I don't make a full post on it, this will at least remind me to write up something about it on my next Update post.
Computer Issues
I got the adblocker extension installed again and its still working fine. No huge slowdowns. I don't quite get it as the only extension that I haven't reinstalled is the Google Docs one. And it certainly shouldn't have been slowing the system down.
But I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. The system is running smoothly now and I'll take it.
Job Search
I haven't heard anything back from the state healthcare recruiter. It's starting to bother me. My last email to her was on Friday the 5th when I asked her to send my name on to a facility while at the same time telling her that I hadn't interviewed for a position (someone lied and said that I had). This past Friday, the 12th, I emailed her again to just 'check in'.
Nothing
There are a LOT of legitimate reasons for her to not contact me so I'm reticent to go harder after her. Realistically, I should wait another week and 'check in' this Friday again. MAYBE, since it will have been two weeks at that point, call her. Otherwise, it's just a waiting game. I HATE waiting.
Car Shopping
We picked up B's Ford Edge with its new engine. It's running good.
I found out that we can buy a Ford Protect Extended Service Plan on it. We just need to get it examined at a Ford dealership first, saying that it's in good working order. Then, $2200 gets us 5 years and 60,000 miles enhanced powertrain warranty.
I'm hoping B takes this chance. I told him about it but he hasn't responded to it, good or otherwise. I'm going to hit him up again about it today.
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