ugh - when will the madness end

Are we ever going to get to a point where things like this don't happen any more?

Sunny

we've got you covered

I need to rant about insurance for a minute.

I am beginning to think it's the biggest scam going. Really, is playing the lottery any different? I pay both my car and house premium every single month and what does it get me? Nothing, that's what.

My first complaint is about my car insurance premium. I am accident free. I am ticket free. My car is 3 years old. I do not drive a sports car. My car has not been modified. I do not street race. I am not a 20 year old boy; in fact, I now qualify for an age discount because I am over 35 (sheesh). I would assume that given all of these factors, my premium would go down, or at least stay the same as it was last year. Nope. It went up by $120. Explain this to me please. Does this make sense to you?

Second complaint - house insurance. I spoke to the adjuster this morning about my roof problem. You remember, it's leaking like a sieve. It's so bad, I don't even want to go into the bathroom at all. This presents a problem because I don't have another bathroom; I'm sure I have kidney stones in my future.

Anyway, the guy was an ass. Of course he was, 'cause I have a problem that might require them to lay out some cash. This guy went on and on about how I probably wasn't covered for this reason and that reason - the roofing guy hasn't even come to look at the roof yet, so how would he know. During the course of this conversation, I started wondering what circumstance they would cover and I'm beginning to think there isn't one. I'm sure they are going to come up with every excuse they can not to cover my roof. We'll see what happens; they don't know who they're dealing with.

At the very least, I can afford to get my roof fixed without insurance money. Some people aren't so lucky. I'm sure there are plenty of Katrina victims who have something to say about the insurance premiums they paid regularly. Is it too much to ask the insurance companies to live up to their end of the bargain since they expect us to live up to our end?

Sunny

price check, cash 3

I think I may have mentioned that I have a leak in the roof above my bathroom. Don't let the word 'leak' fool you; it is pretty much raining in my bathroom. It's not in one place either, it's in many places. Anyway, I needed to get some cheap towels to put on the floor to soak up all the water, so I went to the dollar store.

This particular dollar store is part of a national chain. The name of the store has the word 'dollar' in it and the tagline for the store - on all of their signs - is 'everything for a dollar'. I don't go to dollar stores that often, but I get the general idea; whatever I buy is going to cost me a dollar. Ok.

I picked up about 10 towels and headed to the cash. When I got to the front of the line, the cashier looked at me and said, 'you know each of these is a dollar, right?' Ummm. Really??? Can I think about this for a minute? Sheesh. wtf. I don't know if I look particularly stupid or not, but why on earth would she ask me that? I have no idea.

Sunny

speaking of (non) long weekends....

I don't know how it works in the States, but here, every time there is a long weekend, the gas price jumps by about 5c/L. I have a big problem with this because of the BS reason they always give. 'The price of oil has increased and we have to raise prices so we don't lose money.' Oh yes, the price always increases to coincide with the start of a long weekend and then magically decreases afterward. Do they think we're stupid? Why can't they just come out and say: 'Hey, it's the long weekend and we know you're probably going to drive somewhere for the weekend so we're going to raise prices to take advantage of you, and there's nothing you can do about it. Enjoy your long weekend.'

Seems weird, but this would make me feel better. It would still suck for sure but at least I wouldn't feel like someone was trying to snow me. As we all know, an increase in the price of oil today wouldn't really affect gas prices for months; that gas is going into the reserves and will be used way down the road. Also, the oil companies aren't exactly hurting for cash. Here are some fourth quarter net earnings for you....

Imperial Oil - $886M
PetroCan - $522M
Royal Dutch Shell - $6.6B
Exxon - $11.6B

Here's Halliburton too in case you were wondering (you probably weren't but I feel you should know anyway) - $4.2B. Also, their press release is good reading. Who knew there were favourable tax impacts and foreign tax credits available to them? hmmm.

Here I go, totally off topic again. Anyway, back to the original subject.....

Point is, the gas companies are cleaning up. Yes, I know I choose to drive and have to pay for that luxury, but they could really own up to their price gouging.

Sunny

happy family day

Today is a brand-spanking new holiday in our region. It was announced a few months ago with much fanfare and excitement; who wouldn't want a day off in the middle of winter. hmmph. Well, turns out that the new holiday is not so popular. It seems that about 40% of people do not get the day off after all. There is some BS about the fact that companies who are federally regulated do not have to offer a provincial holiday to their employees. I'm sure you can guess whether I fall into the 40% or 60%. Bitter.

Sunny

ps. Rainy left for vacation tonight, so you're stuck with me for a while. Good luck with that.

the worst foods in america

Remember when Rainy posted this? She might have been on to something, because Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing has been declared the worst food in America. Just looking at it is hardening my arteries. Check out the rest of the list too. Frightening.





Sunny

deal or no deal

A couple of weeks ago, I watched Deal or no Deal. Trust me, I don't make a habit of this, but I was still recovering from my tropical disease so you'll have to give me a pass. The contestant was a young married woman whose greatest dream in life is to have a baby. Of course, living in the US, she cannot afford to have a baby because she has no health insurance. As well, she and her husband made a combined $13000 last year. How two people can live on $13000/year is a mystery to me; I assume they had some help from the parents. She applied to the show in hopes of winning enough money to afford the hospital costs to have a baby. Ok.

This was a special episode in which they had more than one $1M prize on the board. Clearly the chances that she was going to take home a lot of money was very high. As the show progressed, she kept getting higher and higher offers from the banker and she kept turning them down. Crazy. At one point, she ended up with over $600000 on the table. You would think that someone who makes such little money would jump at the chance to have 600K. Nope. She turned it down. This is incomprehensible to me. If you walk in with nothing, why on earth would you throw away over SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS. Actually, I do know - greed. No amount is ever enough. Frankly, with her financial situation, she should have settled long before it got to this point. I think she ended up with just over 400K. Lucky - she could have lost it all.

Last year, I saw an interview with Howie Mandel and he said that the hardest thing about the show is that a lot of the contestants are in dire financial situations (no roof over their head, can't afford food, etc.) but they still turn down significant amounts of money on the off-chance they will get the big prize. I would have to give them an intervention.

Sunny

misery loves company

The other day, both Rainy and I received a forwarded email with the event listing you see below. Why the person who sent it would think that either of us would be interested in something like this in the first place is a mystery for another day. What I'd really like to know is why people assume that you must be miserable if you are single. How offensive. Are people still under the impression that someone who is not coupled is sitting at home crying into a cup of tea and speaking to their 10 cats? Are you somehow impervious to misery if you are part of a twosome? Ridiculous.





SunnyShine
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RainyBow note: The best thing about this fab invitation is the line that says "Take part in all that is favorable to being 'single.'"

OK, so first, what do these people, who actually used the line "misery loves company," think is "favorable" about being single?

And second, why the hell is "single" in quotation marks? Are the people who were going not really single, just kinda single? Or are they married and pretending to be single? And what kind of event do people who are "married" in quotation marks go to? These are things that will keep me up at night.

constipation

While checking our analytics today, I noticed that there are an inordinate amount of people who have found our blog while looking for something having to do with constipation. lmao. Here they are, for your viewing pleasure:

how to relieve constipation
how to relieve constipation immediately
how do i know if i'm constipated
+"relieve constipation"
+relieve +constipation
driving and constipation
hot yoga constipation
how to relieve constipation in a dog
how to relieve constipation in an hour
how to relieve constipation in one day
how to relieve constipation with yoga
relieve constipation immediately

I am starting to think that there is a constipation epidemic in the world. I did not know this; the blogosphere teaches so much.

Sunny
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RainyBow note: Ummm... thanks, Sunny. You think we got a lot of constipation traffic before this post--wait for the analytics after.

BTW, I told the friend whose relieve-constipation-by-heating-your-car-seats story is the genesis of all this misguided traffic. He is quite proud to be complainaway's number one source of lost and confused souls.

karma update #1

I woke up this morning to find water on my bathroom floor. I looked up to discover that my ceiling has sprung a leak. It's conveniently located 6 inches from the light fixture - here's hoping it doesn't travel any further. The contractor just left and will return on Friday to cut out the drywall to try to find the leak. Good times.

SunnyShine

my karma has packed up and moved out

In general, I have the kind of life where things just always seem to work out. My mother has always said that I was born under a lucky star. I don't much believe in that myself but I do have to admit that things just naturally go my way. Is it because I'm not much of a worrier or that I always believe that things will be fine? No idea.

Those days are over.

Don't know what it is, but things have most definitely not been going my way lately. I think this realization finally hit me when I went to the funeral at the end of November. Here's the recap: guy collapsed on me on the plane, fell down a flight of stairs, earthquake.

I then passed a fairly uneventful month (as far as I remember but I'm sure I have blocked things out) until I left for Africa on vacation.

• I had a series of delayed flights that caused me to spend about 12 hours in the airport in Algiers. That wouldn't have been so bad if the airport wasn't a smoke-all-you-want environment. I'm pretty sure a few years came off my life. I landed at my final destination at 4am. Joy.
  
• A few days into my vacation, I had the WORST bus ride ever. Yes, I said ever, and I mean ever. It was 7 hours long. I had chickens at my feet. The bus was being held together by rope. I was sitting on top of the engine; the engine cover was gone so it was about 45C with no windows or ventilation.
  
• I didn't get to do the two things that I specifically went there to do because......
• Malaria.

I was hoping that would be the end of it but it seems to be continuing.

Saturday, I had a sewing machine store incident - which I will write about another time.

Sunday, I had someone in to install a new wall-mounted sink and low-flow toilet in my bathroom. When he took the sink out of the box, there was no hardware to mount it with. Great. I now have to get a metal worker to make the brackets for me. The toilet couldn't be installed either because the valve in my wall is in the wrong place. It needs to be to the right or left but it is exactly in the middle so the toilet can't sit flush (haha) against the wall. Great. I now have to get someone in to move the plumbing. The guy also told me that my original toilet wasn't bolted down; it was just sitting on the ground with silicone around the base. Apparently, whoever did it originally failed plumbing 101. Hopefully, I will get this bathroom finished in my lifetime.

Tonight, more crap. My best gay needs new tires so he asked me to order them from Costco. He's has been complaining non-stop about how his car is vibrating all over the road and he needs new tires IMMEDIATELY. The tires came in today so, of course, he made an appointment to get them changed tonight. I need to mention that I had to go get the tires changed - not him - because they were on my membership. I went right after work and arrived early for the appointment - just as they asked. It was supposed to take about an hour and a half so I roamed around the warehouse and eyeballed all of the fun Costco things that I would never use or want. I texted Rainy to see if she wanted 3 pairs of swimming goggles for $19.99 but she declined. I had an ice cream. I did a second and third run to pick up a few things and then went back to see if the car was ready. Silly girl. Why would the car be ready? They hadn't even put it up yet. I sat down to wait and the guy promised he would have everyone working on it as it was getting close to closing.

About 20 minutes later, he came back out and told me he couldn't find the lock nut(?). Is that what it's called? Whatever it's called, you can't take the tires off the car without it. I called best gay and asked where it was. Glove compartment, he said. Nope, not there. Best gay lost his mind on the phone and hung up to call his car dealer. All the while, I had been taking apart his car to find this thing. He called back and said it was with the spare. Wrong again. At this point, the Costco guy said there was no way they could get the tires done even if we found it. The store had closed and they were locking up. As a last resort, I started to take everything out of the trunk (while fielding the screaming phone calls) and had the guy take out the spare tire. Among the assorted lego pieces (your guess is as good as mine), papers, umbrellas etc., I finally found the piece they needed. Too little, too late. I wasted my entire night. Best gay is livid that he has to drive on these tires again. How about some sympathy for my wasted evening??

Can't wait to see what's in store for me next. I need to appease whatever karma genie I have pissed off. I'm not sure how to do that. Any ideas? Must.Find.Out.Soon. Am afraid.

SunnyShine

what is wrong with people?

In the past few days:

• 2 toddlers froze to death in -50C weather in Saskatoon after their drunk father took them out with hardly any clothes on
  
• a baby was dumped face down in a stairwell that was -14C - she was found 2 hours later
  
• a mother left her two children in her SUV for 45 minutes in -30C weather - police had to break the windows to get them out
• a dead baby was dumped on the side of the road in Texas
• police laid charges for 2 men who sexually assaulted a 3-month old (i'm not linking the story on purpose)
  

I'm sure there's more.

Something is really wrong with our society. Ugh.

SunnyShine

apparently you can can anything

Today I was doing some work research and came across this. It's possible this is the greatest product I have ever seen. I don't think I would ever eat it, mind you, but I am amused all the same.

I'm not sure who came up with this genius idea but I would love to meet them. It's possible they could save the world from everything. I wonder what else he/she has up the sleeve?

Here's a question. Do you eat the canned cheeseburger cold? I'm assuming that if you are resorting to eating a canned cheeseburger, you don't have any way of heating up food. Also, what condiments are on this cheeseburger? Are there different options in case you want ketchup and not mustard? So many questions.

SunnyShine
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RainyBow note: Germans.

perspective

Rainy recently posted about The Congo. Here's some more perspective for you. Try to keep this in mind next time the barista gives you the wrong drink and you explode in a fit of rage. No matter how hard your life is here, it really isn't that hard.

Here are some facts to get you started in case you're too lazy to click the link:

1. 5.4M ppl have died since 1998
2. 45K ppl die each month - majority from treatable diseases like malaria (and trust me, malaria is treatable)


SunnyShine

RainyBow note: Another quick fact: life expectancy in the Congo two years ago didn't even reach 42 years. Let's guess at the causes: diseases that could be treated if medical care and/or drugs were available/affordable, infant mortality, malnutrition/starvation, war... there's so much more. None of it will be solved quickly, and very little of it affects me. I did nothing to be so lucky.

lies and more lies

This is a little late but I still need to put it down for the record. Recently, the US President went to Saudi Arabia to ask for a little more oil. Not surprisingly, this was his first real trip to the middle east in 8 years in office. Interesting that he has no trouble putting his citizens in the hot zone so they can get their limbs blown off or get killed but he can't spare a minute to visit. Too dangerous maybe? What can you expect of a president who had never been out of the US when he took office.

So great that he has remained friends with the Saudis through these tumultuous times. You never know when you're going to need more oil to run all of the 16 cylinder vehicles the US is so fond of. Kittens and roses.

The war on terror shows no signs of ending. We must do our best to rid the world of the terrible Afghans and Iraqis. Damn, those Iranians are pesky too. What no one seems to remember - or maybe they don't even know - is that 15 of 19 of the 911 pilots were SAUDI. Of the other 4, 1 was Egyptian, 2 were from UAE, and 1 was Lebanese. No, there's no mistake.

None were Afghan.

None were Iraqi.

None were Iranian.

They were SAUDI. Who is Bush hobnobbing with?? The Saudis. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't recall any wars being declared on Saudi Arabia in recent memory. I do recall handshakes, smiles, and dancing.

It's all about oil, people. The US doesn't care about anything or anyone unless they are sitting on oil. Can't upset the Saudis and risk not getting their oil.

Please remember this when the bombs start falling on Iran in the name of the war against terror. Ask yourself why. The lies just keep coming and the Americans just keep swallowing them.


SunnyShine


ps....I'm back.

important information

Tonight, I got an email from my gas company that says the following:

Dear Customer

Inadvertently your recent November bill did not include some important information from Sears. This information has been attached for your reference.

Please accept our apology for this oversight.

Now, I'm not sure why Sears would be sending me some important information through my gas company or what this important information could possibly be, but I find it very curious. Perhaps there is some obscure insurance I don't yet have. The possibilities are endless. Needless to say, the information is not attached.

SunnyShine
_________________

RainyBow note: I'll bet some poor sucker lost his or her job because said important information wasn't attached. Thank goodness for that.

facebook foolishness

My cousin got a puppy recently. Let me explain about my cousin first before I get into this post. She is quite possibly the vainest, most selfish person alive. She is also one of those people who is constantly complaining that she has no money and can't afford anything. You might be feeling sorry for her about now, except that she makes about $1oo/hr, has no kids, and her car is fully paid for. She lives in a apartment that is super cheap while she is waiting for her condo to be built. She's a label whore. A pauper she ain't.

All I have been hearing from her is how expensive dog food is, how she doesn't want to pay for a dog walker, how expensive it was to leave the dog for a week while we were away and on and on.

Anyhoo....Her sister was telling me that she got a 'poke' on Facebook from the dog. errkkkk. Rewind. I must have had a 'what you talking bout willis' look on my face cause she repeated herself. Turns out that the vain cousin has put up a Facebook profile for her dog. The dog sends email, updates his page, and has 29 friends. I am not making this up.

In case you need a refresher, I detest Facebook. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why a dog needs a facebook profile; I have enough trouble figuring out why a human does. What is this world coming to.

For the record, my dogs do not have web profiles or email addresses.

SunnyShine
_________________

RainyBow note: Ah, delightful facebook. Last week I was poked by someone I apparently went to school with when I was seven. I say 'apparently' because I recall neither his name nor the name of the person he says was our teacher, most probably because I was seven. At any rate, I clicked through to his profile out of sheer curiosity. Although I have no idea who this person is, it's great that he's gay, out and proud of it. His page is littered with photos of and references to his many conquests. This is lots of information, given that I really have no clue who he is.

(And I'm not gonna lie; I shuddered a bit, thinking of what a similar page would look like for me, should I ever succumb to facebook tmi syndrome. Ugh.)

jinxed

I am in the country where I was born to attend a funeral. Here are a few highlights of my trip since I left yesterday morning:

1. They no longer serve food on the plane - it's a 5 hour flight. You can purchase beef sandwiches for the low price of $6 if you feel like eating that at 9:30 in the morning. No thanks. I was starving when I landed.

2. You have to purchase a blanket if you want one. I was sitting in the exit row so it was extra cold but I refused to buy a blanket just on principle.

3. Halfway into the flight, I stood up between the pass-through to stretch my legs. A man walked by and reached out for me and then his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed. He then lost consciousness and when he regained it, threw up for 30 minutes straight. Despite the urgent calls to see if there was a doctor on board, none appeared. The flight attendant brought out the biggest first aid kit imaginable and tried to help him. I was sure we were going to have to make an emergency landing but they made him lie down in the last row and he was able to last the rest of the flight. I think he's ok.

4. We landed just after two gigantic planes from Europe so I spent an hour in the line up for customs. This foiled my plan of not checking luggage and breezing through with my carry-on.

5. My father picked me up and asked me if I wanted to go to A (where I was staying) or B (to visit). I said A because I wanted to nap, shower, and change before I had to go out later. He said 'why don't we go to B'. Great. Turns out, I didn't make it to where I was staying until midnight and I had been up since 5:30 for the early morning flight.

6. When I finally got into bed to go to sleep, my sister decided it would be the right time to have an msn conversation with who knows who. She tapped away for a good 20 minutes through my incessant pleas for her to go into another room. She doesn't have a drop of common courtesy in her body.

7. Migraine

8. I fell down the stairs this morning. I didn't just fall down the last stair, I fell down the full flight of stairs. My sister, of course, asked me to hurry up.

9. Funeral

10. Earthquake. 7.3. I could not make this up. We could barely stand up, much less run away from the house. It felt as if we were on one of those things where they make you stand on a surfboard and it moves all around. We stayed out on the lawn for a very long time, and even now, I'm right beside the door in case we get some more tremors.

I'm leaving tomorrow. Hopefully I'll make it home in one piece.


SunnyShine
____________________

RainyBow note: Harumph. I'll stop trying to garner sympathy for myself while you're gone.

you wanna ride?

When I travelled on business the other day, I had checked in online and printed my boarding pass. Because I had checked in early, the gate number was not printed on the boarding pass. When I got through security, I walked to the digital screens to see which gate I had to go to.

As I was looking, I heard someone behind me say "You wanna ride?". I didn't pay much attention cause why would someone be asking me this in an airport terminal. I then heard the same question, only louder. I turned around to see a middle aged woman on one of those carts they use to drive older passengers, sick people, and unaccompanied children. She asked me again. I laughed and told her I was just looking for my gate and I was ok. She then commanded me to get on the cart so she could drive me. Commanded is the best word I can think of cause it didn't seem like I had a choice. Quite frankly, she scared me.

So here I am - perfectly capable of walking - being driven down the terminal by this crazy woman. I was mortified enough as it was and then she started honking the horn. Beep beep. Beep beep. She was making people jump out of the way during the entire ride. I was completely petrified that I would see someone I knew - EVERYONE in the terminal was looking. I'm sure they were wondering what terrible ailment I was suffering from. She pulled up and did a u-turn right in front of all of the people waiting at my gate. I saw a few smirks.

SunnyShine
__________________

RainyBow note: I wish I could say that I called ahead to arrange this.

tax on the poor

Yesterday, I went to a variety store to buy some mints to mask my garlic-laden lunch. There was another customer ahead of me at the counter; a man in his seventies or perhaps early eighties who was buying lottery tickets. I wasn't really paying much attention until the cashier told him it would be $122. I couldn't believe my ears. The man paid with a $100 cheque (already filled out) and $22 in cash.

Now, I don't know where you live, but here, you can't just walk into some place and pay with a cheque. I don't even think I could name a place that accepts personal cheques. This leads me to believe that this is a regular weekly visit for him and he has something worked out with the store owner.

Thinking about this man breaks my heart. Lotteries always prey on people who have less than others. They use fancy adverting to show you how much better your life would be if you won millions of dollars and could live on a yacht. You can't win if you don't buy a ticket. Hey, even better to buy several tickets to increase your chances. This is how the cycle starts. So, a man who is on a fixed income is spending $500/month on a dream. Is he skimping on food or heat to afford this? Ugh.


SunnyShine

_______________________

RainyBow note: If only you didn't despise gum so much. If you were a gum aficionado as I am, the wide selection you would have with you at all times would have precluded this yucky convenience store experience.

Just sayin.'