Sunday, May 18, 2008

Green Weekend

My weekend actually started on Friday, with a day off. Grocery shopped, cleaned, and finally got all the girls summer clothes out and situated. All closets 100% done! Been wanting to get that done before Memorial day and before we leave for NC.
Saturday, a day to run around! I did some yard work weeding and such early. then, loaded the truck up with green waste from the yard and headed for recycling center. Dumped greens, and got the guy on the big tractor to dump a load of FREE mulched up evergreens in my truck. HUGE load of free mulch. Took Miranda to ballet, and then we were off to the "Wood Energy Day" at New England Pellets in Schuyler. Talked to a few dealers about the pellet furnace, and took a tour of the plant. Cool! Talked to an engineer of one of the furnaces, the "Farenheit", and we are pretty excited about this one. Big enough to heat the house with pellets. Hook it up to exsisting duct work and get rid of evil oil companies FOREVER!
Sunday, after we survived a Tornato watch Saturday PM ( and warmed up the house with a nice fire), we mulched the entire yard, set up bird feeders, back patio furniture, hung patio lights, planted some seeds I already had and moved some existing plants to back garden plot, and got the yard looking fabulous! IT really looks great! All in all a nice weekend spent, very little money spent, and time spent with my family. Perfect.

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Pass me a drink PLEASE!

What a week! Glad it's almost over. Started off with a almost 300.00 doctor bill in the mail. Knowing I have pretty good insurance, I had to make some calls to get it fixed. Turns out the referal was not done properly by my docs for Ava's specialist. Time lost on the phone that I won't ever get back. Then, I am trying to pay bills online on Wednesday. They won't go through. I panic, but only for a moment because kids at school are all off the wall. Get home, and in the mailbox is a letter from my bank stating there was a breach of security at a retail or online vendor I do biz at and my DEBIT card info may have been exposed. They have canceled my DEBIT card and are sending a new one with a new PIN and I should have it in a few days. WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can't call me in person to tell me this? It's my freaking DEBIT card the one that basically runs my life. That sucker is tied into all my online bill payments, it get's me gas, groceries, etc. SO, another phone call. Girl at bank says 1200 people were possibly affected, they can't call us all, so they sent a letter. Due to an ongoing investigation, they can't tell me which vendor. Or if they will ever tell me what vendor. They tell me to watch my accounts so I will know if anyone tries to take my money. That same money that pretty much runs my life. UGH! I have used a Debit card for a decade, use it everywhere, online, offline, you name it. I guess this was bound to happen, but what a pain in the ass. More time lost on the phone that I won't get back.

Today, in the mailbox ( I really do have to stop going to the mailbox. There is never anything good in there) I get a new projected budget amount for my heating oil. I always spread it out over 10 months. When I moved here in 2005, it was 140.00 a month. Last year it went up yo 200.00 a month. They have been pretty accurate. THIS YEAR? 423.00 a month. They are projecting the price of oil to DOUBLE? Again, WTF????? Who can afford this? That's an additional 2230.00. And I only get a 3.5 % raise every year, and between the rise in food and gas, I was screwed as it was. Now this. Guess we will be shopping for a wood or pellet stove. No way am I spending that much and just taking it from the huge oil companies. They can bite me. I'd rather stack wood all summer. Better for the environment, better for my wallet, and makes me less reliable on countries for oil, right?

We are heading for some really tough economic times. Not just us, I mean the US. If the cost to heat your house is expected to double this year, there will be people in serious financial dire straits. Brian and I will come up with a plan, we don't like to large here, but for people just making it now, they won't be making it by next winter.

Pass me a Cosmo, make it a double. Keep the cubes.