Facie’s Ramblings

Do you expect a lot from people? I do. Unfortunately I am let down a lot... I expect that when I buy donuts from Giant Eagle that turn out to be bad, that I will be offered a replacement in addition to my lousy $2. I expect that when I buy tires warranted for 60,000 miles, that I won't get fewer than 30,000 miles. I expect that when my child's school is delayed for cold when it is in the low teens, that it will also be delayed when it is in the single digits (or that if won't be delayed for either). I expect that when I call or email someone with a question or request, that that person won't wait weeks to get back to me. I expect that when the bus is supposed to arrive at a certain time in the morning, that if it gets there early, it won't leave until the designated time, particularly when the temps are in the single digits and the next bus is close to 10 minutes away. I expect people who use public transportation to bathe and use deodorant on a regular ba...

I started getting occasional bouts of insomnia when the kid was a baby. I don't recall how often my sleepless nights would occur back then, though I very vividly remember one fall night when I got up to do work. But for the past few years, I would say I have had trouble sleeping anywhere from a dozen to several dozen times a year. Typically it is stress-related, but not always. This latest wave began when I was offered the job for which I have now completed my first month. It was really bad the week before my job started and the first week of, but it has settled down since. Unfortunately, I still cannot seem to go more than four or five days without getting only a few hours of sleep in one night. The good news is that because I have been quite busy at work I don't really notice how tired I am. Surprisingly (and I hope I am not jinxing myself or tempting fate by saying this) I still can manage to react quickly in traffic, something I have to do pretty often. But there are ti...

In the middle of January, I blogged about how my 2.5-year-old tires had worn out with fewer than 27,000 miles on them.  When I got my new/replacement tires, I tried to convince the Flynn guy that rather than my paying his quoted price of $500 to replace the tires, I instead should pay less than half of what the last set cost, which was a little less than $750 (so less than $375; you are welcome for the math). The Flynn guy explained that Goodyear does not make those tires anymore, so I needed to be moved up to a better (i.e., more expensive) tire, and on top of that the price of rubber has gone up. But, he said, if I used my Goodyear credit card, I could get a $120 rebate, so in his eyes I would be paying about half of the original tire cost. His answer did not satisfy me, but I dropped it. Until two days ago. We started pricing furnaces because our heat exchanger cracked (remind me again what is so great about home ownership?). With this latest, large expense and having to he...

Do you ever ponder what you would do if you won the Powerball or some other lottery? I know some of you dear readers would never buy a ticket, because of the whole throwing money away thing. I, on the other hand, buy a Powerball ticket a few times a year, because you just never know. Remember, I am surprised every year I don't win my church's big raffle. (I bet this will be the year.) I have actually put a lot of thought into what I would do with this found money, if I ever win. If only I put this much energy into expanding my skills or making the world a better place. Anyway, I thought I would list how I might spend that money, as it stands today. Of course the amount of money I win would affect where it goes, but I am assuming I would come away with 500k. Pay off my house and car. I have a 0 percent interest car loan (which, sorry, Dave Ramsey, I bought new), but if I had some extra big Gs around, I would be happy to end those payments. Open up an IRA. Unfortunately, ...

As I was sitting in a chair at the bank today, I noticed a calendar and read the date, January 13. At that moment I realized it has been 10 months since my last day at work. Wow. Ten months ago, I never would have guessed I would be sitting at home at 10:35 a.m. during the week. Probably not even on a Wednesday, which had been my day off since Jordan was born. No, I figured I would have found a job by now. What kind of job? That I was not so sure. And, of course, I'm still not. Most days, I really, really like staying at home. C'mon, who wouldn't? I get to run errands and do housework (though not as much as Brian would like) sans kid. I can blog, check out Facebook, and do a myriad of other mindless computer activities. I both drop off and pick up my kid from school, and then be with her and Brian in the evenings. I run and/or walk while waiting for J to be done with school. I volunteer a lot at said school.  I attend church an extra day per week. And I substitute when ...

This Christmas turned out to be one of our more eventful ones. It started off with no electricity when we arrived at Brian's mom's house early that afternoon and ended with a power surge in our neighborhood soon after we arrived home later that evening. Brian, Jordan, and I were sitting at the dining room table at about 8 p.m. when the lights went out. While Brian went downstairs to check the circuit breaker, the lights came back on, accompanied by a popping sound, complete with light bulbs popping out over our heads! A lovely burning smell ensued, and, alas, our dinner became inedible thanks to the bits of light bulbs scattered across the table. Within moments, I could hear people talking outside, and I noticed many houses were dark. I went outside to talk to some neighborhoods, and a couple minutes later, two fire trucks were on the scene. Apparently a transformer/wires (no idea exactly) were burnt. All in all, it made for an exciting, electrifying evening. I was pretty freak...

Earlier this week, I received the actual bill for Jordan's visit to Children's Hospital in January. Since the bill was for over $1,100 (almost $600 for which we are responsible), I was fully expecting an itemized bill for this. But, alas, the bill had one line, with a date, an abbreviation of EMR and the price. Even if I made six figures (or any figures, really) or if the insurance covered these costs, how is it acceptable not to explain this exorbitant cost, which is on top of the almost $600 bill we received last week for physician charges for the visit?! So I called UPMC to request an itemized bill, saying I would not pay it without knowing what I was paying for. I received that "itemized" bill today. This one had two lines: LAC SIMP BDY SCL $749 FAST TRACK-LEV $353 Well, shoot, that certainly cleared everything up! As you can imagine, I was not impressed with this dearth of information, so I called billing back. The same woman who sent me the itemized bill said sh...

As I posted in January, Jordan had an unfortunate run-in with a register lever, resulting in a trip to Children's and two staples in her head. Because Brian has crappy, high-deductible insurance, we were prepared to pay about 1k in fees. So you can imagine my joy two weeks ago when we received an EOB (explanation of benefits) that said of the $586 someone decided it cost, we owed about $230. Unfortunately that joy has since turned to anger; today we received another EOB for the same incident, except this one cost over $1,100, for which we owe about $585. Let me break it down for you: First EOB--Univ Pgh Physicians Medical: $210 Surgery: $376 Second EOB--Children's Hospital Outpatient: $749 Outpatient: $353 Combined EOB total: $1,688 (this does not include the $55 for Jordan's ped to remove the staples) I am hoping, almost praying, there is some type of mistake. Why did we receive two separate EOBs, and why is one for Children's and one for Univ Pgh Physicians? The firs...

I read an article in the P-G yesterday that said what I have been feeling for months. In a nutshell, those of us who bought homes that were no more than what we could afford, pay our mortgage and taxes on time, save money every month, and just live beneath our means in general are getting the shaft. I do feel sorry for people in bad situations, especially those who did not live above their means and unfortunately found themselves with, say, a medical condition and poor/no health insurance or out of work. But I have a lot trouble sympathizing with families who earn 30, 40, 50k a year, buy a 200k house, drive nice cars and take yearly beach vacations and then cry because they got in over their heads. I know someone who recently lost his job. He has blown through his savings as well as his retirement. I asked what he was going to do, until he finds another job, and he said he is hopeful it will work out. It is nice to have a good attitude; certainly worrying about it isn't going to ge...

A few months ago, I was debating whether or not we should use our economic stimulus payment for a nice-sized, flat-screen TV. Last month, that decision was made for us after we had over $700 in truck repairs. Looking on the bright side, I decided after we put our ESP towards the truck, we would have almost $800 to spend or save, so it seemed like a better deal than blowing the entire ESP on the TV; it was like found/extra money. Then a few weeks later, our drier needed a $200 repair. Again, I told myself we would still have about $600 left, so things were still looking good. Then this past week, we find out the car needs a new clutch, to the tune of just over $700. Again. Ugh! I guess I should be glad our mechanic "works for Jesus and for you"; otherwise, who knows what this could have cost us! I thought this ESP was a bad idea, just another example of the government wasting (our) money and putting the country more in the hole, but I was looking forward to it. Considering tha...

In all my years of presidential voting, I have never really felt strongly about anyone I voted for. In most cases, I was simply choosing the lesser of two evils. In the '92 election, I voted for Perot. Why? Honestly, the only thing I remember about him was that he was not going to take a salary. I hope I had other reasons at that the time, but I am not sure. Similarly, I voted for Tom Ridge for governor the first time because he said he would not give himself (or maybe he said he would not vote for) a pay raise. I seem to recall he did, though. So when Ed Spendell ran for governor five years ago and said he was going to lower property taxes, I did not believe him. And rightly so. Now a year into his second term, I am still waiting for lower property taxes. Probably the only way I, not a senior citizen, will see them is if Spendell raises our income taxes, which he has already done once. A few weeks ago, I was complaining about taxes going up, when one of the bosses happened to be a...