Every day annoyances

On a normal day I wear my heart and soul on my sleeve. It is there for all to see. The more people know me the more they know the things that bother me, things I cannot tolerate and the things that I will drop everything right now and try to fix.

But lately I have found that some of the things that bother me are well grating at my ever loving nerves. They are not the things that I would stop for normally. Kids, animals that sort of thing. So I need to get some of them off my chest. I drive to work the same way everyday and everyday I stop at the light near my work and have on one side of my car a well manicured College campus. Beautiful oak trees and green grass. The kind you find at a park and would like to spend the afternoon sitting in having a picnic. On the other side of the street are soccer fields again well taken care of and even the parking lot is clean and is not a terrible place to spend a few minutes under a tree in your car eating lunch. Then there is the median. You know a little spot in between the lanes of traffic that has a little grass a few bushes and should not be anything that causes alarm or irritation to the point that I am writing at 2 o'clock in the morning yet here I am.
Now I am going on almost two years at the office I work at and off and on for the almost two years this median has been a source of irritation. Kinda like a splinter under your fingernail you cannot get out. So yesterday as I left my mothers and headed to work I noticed that the causeway looked beautiful. The median there is well maintained by City employees and is seen as the one of the prides of the city. Well then there I am sitting at the light about to turn into work and there is this median. Obviously not the pride of the city but more like the plight of the city. Now I know this seems a bit extreme but really, the grass in this median is higher than the bushes in the median and even if the grass is mowed the weeds and grass growing through the bushes is over a foot taller than the bushes. Now there is a part of me that says Jeanne let the median go. It is not your concern it is not hurting you or anyone else which is all true. But I feel like it is a reflection of the city and therefor of me.

Now there is irony here. Our yard thanks to our little furry bunny friends needs some help as well. My little 4 legged hopping friends have caused the bushes in our front yard to die and need to be removed. I am holding out for cooler weather which is coming and we will be out there working on correcting our little problem. Hopefully in a way satisfactory to both me and the bunnies. I however am not paid to maintain my yard as someone is to maintain that median and it is just out of pride that I do it. And yes I take pride in my little stretch of the city. I have on occasion cut the grass of the neighbors who did not have as much pride or annoyance as I and would not think twice about doing it again. So the irritated Jeanne said you know I could take a lawnmower up there and fix this problem in an hour and be fine with it but then my brother tells me about some lady that does just this very thing and gets hit by a car. Now I am not willing to die for the median so I will go back to plan A and try to get the city to get their contractor that they are paying to go out and do their damn job. So I have the name of the man who can help and will make that phone call on Monday so that I can  go to work in peace and enjoy the entire view along the way.

Next, Identity theft and our government. This is another source of irritation with me. Brian and I have been dealing with for almost this entire year. First it was the IRS and then Unemployment and then a payday advance loan. So again another exercise in futility instead of spending my morning hour writing something I would like to write about a subject more pleasing than the security of an identity that I feel like is a genie out of the bottle sort of thing. It is now out there all we can do is sit back and wait for the bad stuff to happen and fix it when it does. Just to let you know the companies that say they can secure you from such things can only help after the fact if you pay more for the services. So here we wait it is now October waiting on our tax refund. Patiently waiting for the wheels of our government to move ever so slowly that maybe that tax money will be Christmas money and then I cannot wait to start the process all over again for next year. Now today I called a phone number that was provided from the IRS in regards to our tax return and they asked if it was a financial hardship that we do not have our tax return. I don't know anyone that it is not a hardship for. But no there is no company about to turn off our utilities so it is technically not a hardship. Then I was transferred to the identity theft unit and was told the wait would be 30 to 60 minutes and on their recording they said to please be patient and if you have not waited over 180 days to give them some more time. Wow. So they got their way today. I did not have another 30 to 60 minutes to hold.

Now we have filed police reports on these incidents and a report with the FTC and put a credit freeze on our credit but here is the kicker. Payday loan places don't check your credit. Guess what that means they don't know you have a freeze on yours. So to that I say sorry about your luck. I will never forget the kid that called at 8 o'clock one morning and told me that we had taken out this loan. I said I know that is not the case and he told me that my husband may have done it without my knowledge as he said, it happens all the time. I told that kid not in this house and again told him that we had done no such thing. Well the next morning he called again and asked for Brian this time and again we told him the same thing. We thought at first scam, wrong number, wrong person. Nope. All the nope. Again that genie has been used and again we had to prove our case and they have agreed we are not responsible for the loan But with my effort has come a small reward. They have provided some information to the police dept and the police dept has requested a subpoena for more and maybe someday the person who has been working so diligently on getting our money and then some will get caught. That will not put the genie back in the bottle but I will get some satisfaction out of my efforts.

Ok, Jeanne is that it you have been writing for an hour it is 3 o'clock and I do feel better about these things I have written but I have one more. Oh God, I just thought of another. Well let me see here. So do I write about politics and the fact that the 2016 election is 13 months away and I am getting poled on weather or not I will vote for Charlie Christ or Eric Lynn some guy I have never heard of. Well Charlie sorry. Oh that is funny Sorry Charlie, I am not going to vote for you. I have clothes that I have had longer than the opinions you have on subjects and you have done your bit for Florida Thank you. So this other dude Eric don't know him but the poling person told me he was raised in Pinellas County ok good but so was Charlie. But doesn't own a house here. So he doesn't live here anymore. So I thought run for office where you do live. Oh he lives in DC well guess you should run there. I don't know what to tell you people running for office but be glad there are very few people that care and less that vote and it seems that the voters are either the last few dying it is my right and my duty people or someone with some political agenda to get something done that no one wants done but no one is willing to stand up and tell you that because well that takes time. Oh Yeah and as for the politics of 2016 I heard on the radio the other day that Hillary raised $28 million in the last 3 months for her political campaign. Now here again sorry but really. That is crazy money. And where is this money going to grease the wheels of the media to spin the propaganda that she wants spun and for me to suffer through a lifetimes worth of hateful commercials crammed into a few months. I have said it before but here is an idea. Instead of spending all of this money on ads and media how about let us buy books for kids in places that don't have access to them or provide Internet for families that can't afford it. I know it seems like a luxury item to me but I know kids in school use the Internet like we used to use the Encyclopedia Britannica. For those born in the age of Internet you will have to Google it or ask your friend Siri or Cortana if she has ever used an encyclopedia to look something up.

The book idea made me think of my cousin Tami. She lives in a very small town in the rust belt of Ohio right along the Ohio River and she maintains the library in her town. You know the buildings and grounds and she has been known to shovel snow and mow grass and whatever else it takes to keep the place running. So I just looked and could not find the budget of her small town library.  So I found another small town and their library budget was 1.7 million dollars for next year. I am thinking my cousin and her friends at her library probably wish for money like that but since Ohio is not Florida there are no sunshine laws and I could not at 4 o'clock in the morning find their City Budget for next year. So I will go with what I have. That 1.7 million dollar budget for a town, well Hillary that means that you could fund over 16 small towns libraries for a year with the money you raised in the last quarter. Instead that money will grease the pockets of media moguls that can afford to have someone else read to them at night instead of going to the library and checking out a book and reading it them self. No, I am not mad just really irritated that the people of the world do not seem to care unless it affects them. And to the people donating the money for Hillary and the rest of the people running for president please. For the love of God find something better to do with your money than buying advertising.  Or make Hillary do something good with it. That would be something worth getting excited over and worthy of my vote. But her paying a bunch of people to figure out if a hateful campaign will beat out the rest well that I just can not buy into.

Alright the last thing I had will have to wait. I am sure you all are glad. I have probably lost most along the way this morning but for those that hung on until the end. I thank you for your time. I mean it. I just needed to let someone know how all of this makes me feel. So back to bed. Goodnight.

City Hall for a Day

So as with everything in life it is ever changing. Tonight's post is difficult to write. Not because I do not have something to say but because I have to be very careful. I always read past posts before I start one. Sometimes it sets a mood or the mood is already there and I just want to put myself in the right place.

Well tonight I went to my other blog that I write, Day One. I read my first and last post. First was my poem For the Love of Lilly, posted three years ago this month. The second was called Soup of the Day. Which is funny to me because it was not about soup or grilled cheese and looking back no one that reads it now would know the exact subject I wrote about mainly because the world moves on so fast now. What made half the country furious a few months ago is old news now. So just like the rest of the world my life has gone on. 

Tonight's entry ties to both. I can not say exactly how because I do not want to commit to a subject because what makes us furious today will be gone tomorrow. And I do not need a written reminder of what it was that was making my world upside down. 

I have not written since right after my High School Reunion and there is only one reason. I have been busy. I have applied for a Lead position at work. Not sure how that will go but I do think I can do the job. Other stuff going on that is making me busy but again not really ready to say the words out loud. It is funny when I started writing I explained this is a totally selfish endeavour. It still is but with more readers comes more responsibility to others. Not that I care if one person or 12 people read my silly blog it is still to get what is in my head out and help me get a good nights sleep without offending or hurting anyone else.

Sleep that is when you close your eyes and put your head on the pillow? Right? Eight hours later you wake refreshed? I think I remember but not really sure. 

So today I saw my nephew get an award from the City for his Leadership qualities he has shown at camp this summer. Each camp got to choose kids from each age group that showed different qualities to the other campers: teamwork, leadership, kindness, compassion, integrity to name a few. Each camp sent their kids to City Hall and they got to meet the mayor. The mayor had them sit in the seats of the commissioners and city attorney and city manager and of course one kid got to be the mayor for a few minutes. Well at least sit in the chair and use the gavel to call the meeting to order and to call on their fellow campers to read off their quality and how it applied to them. I found one thing very interesting. Kindness always went to the youngest, most adorable kid in camp. Well I am not sure about the entire camp but of the kids selected to come they were the sweetest thing going. The little boy that could not say his name out loud that the Center manager came behind and said his name and his quality and why. No one needed to know why the kid was precious. That and the fact that the teamwork camper seemed to be the one to be mayor and the leadership kid was a little more outspoken than the others. 

For each group of campers the mayor would pick a quality and speak about it based on what the child had said. He elaborated on teamwork and leadership and how sometimes to be in charge he does not do what some people think is right but he does what he feels is best for the whole city based on the information he is provided by his team of employees and council members. 

So when you get the team together and they don't agree they start to argue. And even as mayor he may not think the answer is the right answer but if you only have so many choices he would have to pick the choice that is best for today with the information he has been given. So just like in life all the choices are not simple I mean there are pluses and minuses to both the red and the blue pill (for you Matrix fans).Take the red pill and go back to life as it was or see what is behind door number 2 (Oh no that is a different show all together). Ok so you take the blue pill and who knows what will happen. Well really either way there is no way to know for sure what is going to happen. Life is not a movie or a game show. There is no door number 2. There is no do over. Just keep moving forward with the information in front of you and try to choose wisely. I have played the mayor in life. Many times. Some think the best way to solve a problem is with a hammer or a big stick. Others think a voice of reason should be heard by all. Some are not going to stick around to see what is going to be done. But to make sure that they are heard they will go to the meeting speak their piece and bail. Have I lost you or are you catching on. See that is the question for me as well. 

The options I speak of are not for me. I am the farmer with the field that needs to be plowed and that is the only way to feed my family. And if it is only going to stop raining in the middle of the night I just have to turn the truck lights on and plow my field in the dark. So here I sit just after midnight trying to decide if I plow on left to right or right to left. I have seen both have similar results but some swear by one method and not the other. Thought we were talking about City Hall now I am talking about Farming. Well I watched a farming movie tonight. You know what a key ingredient to farming and City Hall? A lot of BS. Look I am so tired I am making jokes. 

We are not talking about Red Pills or Blue Pills or Farming. We are not talking about City Hall. Since I can not say what we are talking about I will say that a lot of bright people can come together in the same room and discuss the same subject and when they all leave no decision had been made. I think this is why the President is but one man or may I say one day one woman. He or she has a council of very smart people that they can consult with but in the end the decision to sign the bill or veto is his or hers. Well unless some big pharmaceutical company has a hand in the pot or a farming conglomerate that wants to wipe out all the family farms and it is an election year. Well no one has offered me fame or fortune and I am not up for re-election but I am going to continue with the decision I have made after consulting my council. The choice is not easy I think that is what the rest of the counsil may not understand. The choices are not easy. They never are.But in the best interest of well, well I can not say but I will do as I always... What I feel is best.