Category: Rantings

Venting, bitching, and like that

Guess Again

~ JodiLea ~ 1 Comment

Just when (you think) the chaos in your life is at the maximum level, the post-office puts a bomb in your mailbox.

Mailbox

Not the exploding kind, but the kind that raises your blood pressure and makes the headache that you thought was already bad turn into a migraine. You know you’re in trouble because the return address is: “Internal Revenue Service” and it is not even near the holidays.

Sure enough, we made a mistake. A typo that our software should have noticed when it did the math. We were too excited about getting a refund for once, to realize something was off.  The official document  insisted we send them $10,000.oo. Yes, you read that number correctly. And who says the IRS has no sense of humor?

Hey! Wait a minute. There is a typo on our 2010 form and we have to pay them what we still owed. Plus interest. We were not the ones that took 2 years to find the mistake – we sent our return in on time.  Now they want the interest that the absent money could have earned. Oh, Really? I want to know where the Hell they invest their money. I would like to earn that kind of  interest myself!

I can understand about the interest. Almost.  But a fine??   Sorry, we messed up and here’s your money + interest. Now please go away.  But NO,  you’re  punishing  us. To teach us not to mess with the IRS? We don’t. Hell, they know how much money we earn – they have the damned forms.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.   Tax Form

We shall pay their bill (what choice do we have?), but not until the other chaos in our lives has settled down and we can find where we hid the damned thing….

photo credit(mailbox): Steve 2.0 via photo pin cc

photo credit (form): Josh Thompson via photo pin cc

Party’s? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Party’s!

~ JodiLea

American Eagle

Election years suck!

I wish they would get rid of campaigning. What a total waste of resources! Billions spent on TV ads, travel costs for not only the candidates, but the current President as well. Tons of junk mail.  Worst of all, those ridiculous auto-calling recordings you get bombarded with every day!

Since I vote by mail-in ballot it’s doubly annoying to be hounded by political calls that increase in number as  election day looms closer.  I’m tempted to change my answering machine message to “You can’t influence me – I’ve already voted.”  Maybe add a snotty  “Neener-neener” at the end.  That way my machine could talk to their machine and leave me out of the whole thing.

And while I’m ranting, I want our President  in the oval office where he belongs – working.  Not gadding about the country, guest starring on Leno or whatever. If he was doing a great job taking care of this country and her citizens, then he wouldn’t need to campaign.  Am I right?  My employer expects me to do the work that he’s paying me to do.  The President,  Senators and Congressmen are supposed to be working for ‘We the People’.  Not for a political party agenda.  I think they missed that memo. (It probably came when they were out on the road campaigning.)

As far as the Party’s go – abolish them. ‘We the People’ are sick of their whining and blaming each other for why things can’t get done, or why things are done wrong.  There is no such thing as bi-partisan.  It’s only a buzz word, used during campaigns to fool us into thinking that the candidates really want everybody to “just get along” and put the country first.  Which would be so awesome if they meant it.

A quote from my favorite President comes to mind:  “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

I sure hope that wasn’t why they shot him.

Objects in This Mirror Are Faster Then They Appear

~ JodiLea ~ 1 Comment

Maximum Speed Sign

Important rule in driver’s training – Check your blind-spot.  Very important rule for driving in California – Check your blind-spot TWICE.

I learned this last Thursday, as I drove up to my daughter’s place for Mother’s Day weekend.
I had gotten on the freeway and wanted to get over into one of the center lanes because I wouldn’t exit for some time, and I didn’t want to deal with merging idiots.

I, of course, looked in the mirrors and turned my head to check the blind spot, before moving over. I got 1/3 into the lane and the blast of an air-horn came from behind me as a white semi roared next to me on the left. The blue semi in the lane I had just exited, was along-side of me on the right. I straddled that white dashed line for at least 1/2 mile, willing my Honda Civic to be skinny by sucking in my stomach and chanting “Oh Sh!t, S!!t, Sh!t, Sh!t” through gritted teeth.

The blue semi took pity on me and moved over, giving me his lane. It took the rest of my trip (two and a half hours), to unfreak*. Was what happened my fault?  Was I the merging idiot?

Checking your blind spot tells you where folks are. Unfortunately, not how fast they are going.  Which is very important information to have, especially when very large vehicles are going 30 mph beyond the speed limit.  Semi’s and tractor trailers have a speed limit of 55 mph. And yet,  they travel at the speed of 70-80 mph. Even more amazing, is that you never see a big truck pulled over by the highway patrol. I don’t know if all states ignore speed limits, but California definitely takes ignorance to a new level.

So now I’m checking my mirrors and blind-spot twice. A habit I highly recommend you start practicing – before you become the filling for a Semi sandwich.

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* Word taken from the “Dictionary of Words That Should Be”