Hello again AP world!

OK, so, things have continued on our now-normal path of rotten luck! I have decided to update you all with some of the more poignant highlights LOL. Now some of the story may be familiar to some of you but it all leads to the ending.

Hello people, I know it has been a very long time since I have been on here regularly, and I am not too sure I am 'back' for much, but I have missed everyone here and decided to at least let you all know what has been up with me. I have found my muse inspiring me again and I am writing and posting to other sites, namely Facebook and MySpace (if you wish to find me there all are welcome to do so, I can be found on either under the same URL name of LadyPegasus63). this is a brief version of events, but I know that many of them are out of order as I cannot recall what came when, exactly.
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Well, let me see, we were living in a trailer that was , quite literally, falling apart. We bought it 'as is' and in Illinois, trailers fall under the laws of automobiles so when they say 'as is', that is exactly what that means and no inspections are required for sale or purchase.
We found out the first year that, instead of repairing the roof, they simply placed a coat of sealant on it and so of course the leaks returned and multiplied and even when we could afford the sealant, the leaks became so bad it would break through it. Now that was bad enough but as our wiring is also in the ceiling you can imagine what started to go next. That's right, the electrical. By the time it was all said and done the living room, outside light, dining room and parts of the kitchen no longer had working electric and the main light in the living room actually had water in the fixture!

OK so, our bedroom door kept falling off because instead of replacing the frame, they patched the holes and the floor-to-ceiling crack in it, then painted it to partially conceal the repairs and put it back up. We ended up having to switch the side the hinges were on! When I went to make this change, I really hurt my back and as we had already started having problems with the plumbing, which I will get to next, I was unable to take a decent hot shower and so had to take pain meds. Anyone that knows me knows that I HATE taking pills!
Vic's son Lance had accumulated several speeding tickets worth a couple thousand dollars. He continued to drive despite the suspended license and lost his truck. He STILL continued to drive and got arrested and my youngest son helped to bail him out. Now in all fairness, it was often at the behest of Vic asking him to run an errand, but not always.
His fines started to go unpaid as he had lost his job and ran out of unemployment. They sent him a letter that he had 10 days to make financial arrangements or a bench warrant would be issued for his arrest. Despite the fact that we were in no position to help him financially, Vic agreed to make payments on his fines.
My youngest son and I had a minor fender bender in a parking lot on the day before Christmas eve. It was not really his fault, per se, as for one the vehicle was not parked within a regular parking spot and being a very small car and with our SUV neither of us could see it! The responding officer said that didn't matter but that he would not charge Matt with an accident. He did, however, charge me for no insurance because we had to let it lapse a few months before. In Illinois when you get a citation they take your physical license, although it is not suspended and you have to carry the tickets around with an ID in case you get pulled over again. So now I have fines to pay as well as having to get insurance. We were fortunate that it didn't have to be SR22, but we still had to face the civil side of the accident! After getting a letter from the attorney for the other party, we had agreed to make payments as we could not afford the several thousand dollar estimates they were prepared to submit for the damage. They said they would call back to make an appointment so that we could discuss the arrangements. That is the last we have heard about it and hopefully it is or will soon be beyond the statute of limitations. We continued to run into one financial problem after another and, especially with the fines being paid out, lost the SUV... ONE PAYMENT shy of being done. This happened on a Sunday before Christmas, Happy Holidays to us! We ended up buying a car from Vic's brother-in-law but it is a standard and, while i CAN drive it, it is extremely painful for me to do so.
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Somewhere amidst all of this, Lance pulls a doozy by allowing a girl to come see him, not just to visit but to live with him in our place, WITHOUT ASKING US! Although I do not recall EXACTLY when except that it was around the holidays because I recall them going to a party. By this time he has gotten a job at Walmart and the party is with a friend from work. The girl ends up leaving Lance for another 'friend' of Lance's from work. While I am sorry for Lance's pain, we also ask him not to do that again without talking to us, as it puts a further strain on our already devastated finances. It apparently goes in one side and out the other, as you will see.
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Now soon after she leaves Lance, my youngest son, Matt, graduates from high school. We have a graduation party which MATT has invited the girl to as they had become friends. Lance throws a fit and threatens to call the police, although I tell him it is useless since I,who am half owner of the unit, have given my permission. More drama I really did not need to deal with!
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Now in the months after graduation, my son becomes distant with me and although he had been in a preadmittance program to go into the Marines he basically blows them off. He got irate when I tried to discuss it with him at that point and even when I asked what he planned to do instead. Then, we have a miscommunication with the managers of the park and they serve us with eviction papers. We set up a defense statement and prepare to lose our home. We worked with other family members to make sure that everyone else had somewhere to go. We were faced with the possibility of homelessness for ourselves. Out of the blue a wonderful man I had known only in a game online offered to help us out as long as we could repay him within the next month. We get that settled but Matt decides to go through with his plans to move in around the corner with Vic's sister and her family. They now had seven people in a three bedroom trailer. He may as well have moved out of state for I rarely saw him after that and I was devastated. We had always been so close and now we were like strangers. To this day, although we do chat online more often now, we have not come even close to regaining that relationship and it hurts on a daily basis.
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Vic had three dogs at the time that we got together, Kane and his two sons, Chimmey and Buddy. Kane came to Vic when he was six weeks old and lived in the same room with Vic for over 7-1/2 years(and me for three of those years). Vic had the two sons for over 6 years, literally since birth. Kane had been one of the really close creatures in Vic's life. He was there when family turned their back, he was there when relationships failed and broke Vic's heart. Last June, Kane started not wanting to walk much or eat or drink and we realized something was wrong. We tried to get into the vet but, although they had been patients there for several years, they would not see us without at least a substantial fee up front! So we watched him suffer. By the last week he was obviously suffering horribly and we could not do anything to stop it and they STILL would not see him even though I begged and told them we feared for his life! Several days later Lance, got paid and we were able to arrange an emergency appointment that day, although they could not do so until mid afternoon. The time got near and Lance carried Kane out and set him in the yard next to the car while I called to tell them we were on our way, as we had agreed to do, so they could get a room ready for him right as we got there. As I am on the phone, my oldest son ran into the house and told me that Kane had fainted. I ran outside only to find that Kane had passed away in our yard just as we were on our way! It broke Vic's heart horribly! To be honest, it upset him more than his mother's passing! So now we had only Kane's sons, Chimmey and his big brother Buddy, and Vic is holding onto them emotionally to try to help ease the pain. (To this day, more than a year later, things will remind Vic and this very butch woman will CRY! )
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Now this would be all fine and well, except that we had a front door that had a lock that usually didn't work or when it did, would not unlock! It often would not latch properly and we had replaced it three times before we were informed that it had to do with the alignment of the door to the frame and we would have to replace the entire door AND frame! However, I digress! This one day, exactly two weeks after Kane's passing, the door was not closed properly, something that was easy to do as I have mentioned, and Buddy got out and ran off. Now his running off was not a first time event by any means but this time was different as we could not find him and he did not return. We searched for days, the days turned into weeks. We put up fliers, asked around, drove around calling his name and even checked with the local pound. The only possible lead was that a dog had been found near our location that had been hit by a train. Where we lived, they do not retain the corpses of animals that are reported dead. In fact, what they do is call trash collectors to pick up the corpse and dispose of it, so there was no way for us to look at it and see if it was Kane. The only salvation from that possibility is that the dog had no collar and we think the description was not quite right. We still hope that someone took him and is caring for him properly.
So now Vic's grief is truly full force and he is seemingly inconsolable. Chimmey is also having a hard time, not eating and not playing and bouncing as is his norm. Weeks go by and things get a little better. We get Kane's ashes and Vic placed them on the night stand near him and seems to be improving. Chimmey, however, is still not doing so well at this point.
About two months after Kane's passing Vic suddenly decides that it is time to get another dog, partially as Chimmey still has not returned to eating or acting normal nor even near to it. He doesn't jump around and play and his eating is very minimal despite adding flavorings he usually loves to the food. Vic becomes convinced that Chimmey will die from grief if we do not do something to help him and Vic decides that an answer for both of them is a new dog. I have my doubts, feeling that it is too soon but I relent fairly easily because of my love for both of them. I also am wise enough to realize that Vic has a valid point about Chimmey's grief.
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Vic has set it in his mind that only a young puppy will do, for Chimmey's sake. We search the papers and ask around about puppies. Vic found one ad for Labrador puppies and although I balk at the price, Vic is determined and borrows the money from Lance to go get one. Vic had told the sellers that we were interested in a female, which they agreed to hold for us, although I was truly against that idea for Vic had refused to fix any of the dogs at that point. We drive down there together, we look at the female which is a chocolate, holding her and talking to her and each other. We also see the other siblings still left and there is one black one that runs up and starts playing around my feet. I ask permission and am allowed to pick this one up. He snuggles with me and licks my face and my heart was captured! I hold him a little longer and Vic has a funny look on his face. We ask for a few minutes to discuss it and the sellers walk further up the yard to allow us privacy. Vic smiles and says "It has to be the black, he made you glow". We discussed it a little more because this was going to be Vic's dog not mine after all and he had wanted the chocolate. I did remind him that taking a female opened up another door that financially we could not manage, but in the end it was his choice. We drove home with the black in my arms, quiet and seemingly content as we discussed names for him. We settled on Sinful although Vic thought it was a little negative and didn't really fit such a calm puppy. I only smiled as I had some familiarity with lab puppies!

We introduced the two dogs slowly but Chimmey seemed not to take to him at all. The only good thing was that this seemingly rivalous relationship also got Chimmey somewhat back to normal so we kept trying. We kept Sin in the bedroom with us and Chimmey stayed with Lance. Then something started to develop that I tried very hard to avoid. Dogs, like all animals, have minds and personalities of their own. Especially labs that are known for their extreme intelligence and affectionate ways! Sinful decided that he would decide who he belonged to, and that was to be me instead of Vic. Now this concerned me for I did not want Vic to return to the depression that ensued after Kane's death and Buddy's loss. Strangely enough, though, it actually seemed to please Vic and so I felt comfortable discussing it. Sure enough, Vic felt it was sufficient that he got to interact with him regularly and play when he wanted to. He was actually happy seeing the two of us together, and he still had Chimmey who continued to improve.

Now the day we got Sin, Lance took off for West Virginia to meet a girl he had known online for some time but with whom he had not connected before. The reason is that one of them would be involved when the other was free, until now. So they decided to meet up and see what happened. A few days later he called up for directions coming back and told us she was coming with him to visit. She never went back home. So now we have another person in the house that is also not working nor providing an income and without us even being asked, AGAIN ! Within a month she was pregnant!
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Sin grew fast and started to chew, as do all puppies but more so with labs! Vic refused to listen to me about how to stop this and that we needed to puppy proof the room and as a result numerous pairs of slippers, (most of them mine), three Ethernet cords, untold papers, trash, pill bottles ( empty but still not a great idea), and finally my glasses! (Without glasses I am severely, legally blind. It took almost three months to get them replaced). I was very concerned about that for a long time because there was almost no glass to be found any where in the room! What did he do EAT the glass? YIKES!
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In the middle of all this, the trailer is getting worse, Lance had broken off the handles for the shower in the second bathroom so we are all sharing one shower. Then he breaks the one in OUR bathroom and we are forced to replace it! Now when you live in a northern area, freezing pipes is an issue, especially when you live in a manufactured home. Most of the times this is solved fairly easily with heat tape and/or insulation. During our initial walk through we noted that there was indeed heat tape on the pipes and it was set to plug into a nearby 'outside' outlet. This outlet was in a cubby hole that opened to the outside and housed our hot water heater. This cubby hole had a door that was not applied correctly and it took us well into our first winter for me to get the owners out there to fix it, (which I insisted they do as I had noted it in my walk through. I had also noted that there was no vent pipe above the stove vent, just a hole and kept trying to get them to fix this energy sucking problem but they never did!) It got so bad that first year there was SNOW inside the cubby hole! They finally came to fix the door but I feel that it certainly contributed to later problems. As it was, the water heater which SHOULD have been more than sufficient for the trailer and our family, was really bad and should really have been replaced. It would not even last a full shower, much less allow for everyone daily showers and dishes and laundry.
So this first year we had no real trouble but the next few years we had increasing problems with freezing pipes despite the heat tape. We always made sure it was plugged in before the first freeze, and we could feel it working on the small spot that was on the outside pipe where the meter and spigot is. What we were not aware of until earlier this year, (our third year there), is that they only had about half of the heat tape required on the pipes and had spread it out to thin so it was all but useless! They way that we found out is that we had frozen pipes again that winter and then we had the water shut off for financial reasons for a few weeks and when we got it turned back on, we still had no water, even though it was certainly warm enough to have thawed any frozen pipes by then. We found a company that offered a free estimate and they came out and found that there were numerous leaks in the pipes and not small ones! We would have to replace EVERY SINGLE pipe under there! We were looking at well over $2,000!
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So now here we have all these people and a child on the way and this trailer is falling apart and there is no water and half electrical and only space heaters for the winter time. Lance, who was still working at Walmart at the time, has been called to the office because, although he must wait for someone to cover him and he is not allowed to leave in the middle of a transaction with a customer, he is being told that he is at fault for violating the hours worked before a break as required by law. He is put on probation and things improve with no further incidents. Almost a month later, he is told he is being let go with no explanation. In fact they just called him at home and said not to bother coming in. So here he is, an expectant father with no job and Christmas is around the corner. He goes on unemployment and starts looking, to no avail. Things in the house are very tense. Christmas is very VERY small and the feelings are not very family oriented, despite my attempts to do the best that I could. By the middle of February, Lance receives his tax return and He and Ashlee, the expectant mother, take off to go live in West Virginia with her mother. Now it is Vic's turn to be melancholy. We are left with my oldest son, who is very lazy and unmotivated and feels like we ask too much of him, despite the fact that he has been getting getting free room and board for years now. After this he becomes even worse, leaving us to try to deal with things on our own that he knows we cannot do, disappearing sometimes for days.
We realized that even if we found a way to have the pipes replaced we still had a serious electrical problem with a leaking roof that would only escalate in problems. We decided that we needed to try to move. We called around every where that we could think of and found that we either would not qualify, credit wise or financially, or they refused to take pets. Given the fact of the enormous loss that we had already faced with Kane and Buddy, neither of us considered not keeping the dogs to be a possibility.
We were running out of time and I decided to take a chance and try one of the few really excellent apartment landlords I have ever known. The only bad thing is that this place was in Florida which I hated and had vowed never to return to, but we were becoming desperate. I was surprised to find that not only were the same people still running this place, almost 20 years later, but the man was willing to work with us and would allow us the dogs, for a slightly higher rent and an acceptable deposit amount. Vic and I discussed it as we also looked into other possibilities. We determined that it would be the best and so we began to make plans to move the beginning of April. Clarence, the landlord/owner I mentioned, agreed to hold a place for us. We also agreed that once we moved, no one was going to be allowed to come live with us, we were done with family drama and complications!I started to call around for truck rentals, but was horribly surprised to find that the were now more than double what I expected them to be. We decided that we would have to delay for another month.
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So during April I do the best that I could to save money for the truck, the move and the deposit. We make arrangements with a neighbor to get help packing and loading and reserve the truck and the car carrier. I buy a large dog cage as we think that we might be able to keep the dogs in the car as we move, thinking the trip will be a few days at most. I buy plastic totes to use instead of boxes, feeling they have a reduced chance of damage and can be used again if we need storage, (it turned out to be a very wise choice but Vic thought it was wasteful at the time, but more on that later). I pack as best as I can with my back problems. Finances start to dwindle more than anticipated and I asked the neighbor to consider taking half the agreed on payment in trade, which he agreed to do. As the time for our move nears, so does Ashlee's due date.
Soon the date arrives and we go and get the truck. We had made arrangements to avoid a deposit by using my prepaid credit card. The man that dealt with the moving trucks seemed to have some difficulty getting the card to work in his system and ran it through again. Finally everything was set to go and we bring it back to start the loading. The neighbor decides that he wants the whole payment now instead of the agreed upon partial with trade. When I tell him that it is not something that is possible, he decides not to do the work at all and heads off to drink with his buddies. Despite an already overworked back, I try to do the loading myself and end up almost unable to move. Vic tries a few other people to help and I beg my sons to help, both of them giving me definite maybes. Vic finds someone that can help but only for that day and he ends up being by himself as I head to the ER for my back. When I return it is almost midnight and I cannot see anything in the truck as there is no interior light in the back part. I have him move a few more of the heavier things in and pay him off. When morning comes I am still in pain but push forward, determined to get done that day. I check the truck to find that he did not do as I asked concerning the arrangement of things and now we either have to reload it or deal with a severe lack of usable space and a serious issue of poorly distributed weight. I decide that, given that we have a limited time with the truck, it is better to forge ahead and make the best of it. After much cajoling and guilt we both talk our three local sons into helping us, at least for a few hours. We get the truck mostly loaded although it is a very poor job and with a lot of room lost. As a result we were forced to abandon even more of our possessions! We were down to less than half of our total belongings. Things we have since regretted losing, but we will do without.
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In the middle of this, I find my account balance on my card to be severely depleted beyond what it should be. So I call the card company and find out that the problem the man at the truck company had been having had resulted in two account holds instead of one. I felt that it was a simple and relatively minor issue and call the truck company to get the hold released and my balance restored. They tell me that it should be OK to be released but they cannot do it until the following day, so we decide to go ahead and start off on the trip. We make good time even with frequent stops for fuel. Moving trucks get bad mileage empty; fully loaded and especially with a car carrier, it is atrocious! The dogs are doing well even though we were unable to use the cage because it is bigger than our car and just have them loose in the car on the carrier. They seem to think it is a fine adventure at this point.
Prepaid credit cards are wonderful for those of us that do not have great credit and no checking account. I especially love the one I have, called a MIO card. There are some things, though, of which I was not aware at the time that are severely different from standard credit cards or even debit cards that are attached to a bank account. One of them is that when you pay at the pump with one of them, the location has the right to hold between $50-$150 per use! I learn of this only after having done this about four times and having checked my balance to make sure we can afford a hotel only to find it is again much lower than it should be. After yet another call to the card company, they inform me of this fact. It can take between 2 to 7 days to have the correct amount applied and the balance returned. So here we are, barely half way into our trip with not enough money for a hotel and even a delay of unknown days before we can go much further. (Meanwhile we anxiously await the news that Ashlee has given birth as she is already now past due).
We find a place that seems as isolated without being dangerous as we can. We try to sleep but between the bugs, the heat and the discomfort of the trucks, we only manage to get short bits here and there. Before daybreak we decide it is fruitless and choose to go as far as we can with what we have left. We manage to borrow some money to go further, deciding it is better to get some cheap food at McDonald's and push on rather than waste it all on a hotel for the night. We also have reason to hope that it will be resolved the next day.
We end up in the middle of Georgia for several days with no money, no food and running short on dog food as we had only filled a travel container that we had gotten when Sin was small. It would have been more than sufficient for a few days. We slept were we could find a place each night, thinking it best not to use the same area twice in a row. The truck company kept disputing the situation and I got transferred from person to person all with the same title but with different excuses as to why I cold not have my own money when the mistake was on their end. One of them even tried to tell me that I could get the money when I returned the truck. They did not seem to care that we were stuck hundreds of miles from our destination with no money, two dogs and no way to move on. We manage to make it further south, almost to the bottom of Georgia.

At this point, someone has called animal control, concerned that the dogs are not being cared for sufficiently in the heat. We explain the situation to the officer and tell them that they are kept sufficiently watered and with the windows cracked when we are able to get moving, they get a good stream of air. She decides that is not really sufficient and tell us that if we will move them into the cab with the air she will not do anything further. So now the four of us squish into this not-so-large cab. Did I mention that both dogs are large breeds?

Although not yet all the way resolved, I have managed a way to limit my conversations to just one person at the truck company by the name of Kim. Kim feels hopeful that she can manage to get this resolved. At one point she got them to agree to return half of the money, but I told her that although that would get us to our destination, it still left me unable to pay the deposit on the apartment, which I would need to do in order to return the truck. She promised to try again.
In the meantime the truck, while fine for traveling, is not at all good for sleeping in and our backs are suffering immensely. Vic finally had to go to the ER. I sat in the parking lot for about 6 hours running the air intermittently so that we didn't get a visit from animal control again. Once released we find that our food stamp cards will work outside of Illinois and find the nearest Walmart and get some food for all of us. We bought a HUGE sandwich to split between the dogs. We roll around to the side of the strip mall the store was in and find a place that is near a light for safety but fairly isolated. We try to sleep but the humidity here is horrendous.
Soon after midnight, I call the automated system for the card and find that two of the gas charge balances have been returned and we call to the hotel in Jacksonville that we had hoped to get into the previous evening. After some discussion with the hotel, we determine that, if we check in now we still must check out the next morning by 11 am. We decide it is best to wait until the time they consider the next day which is about 7 am. We head down there and wait in their parking lot for the last hour and finally obtain a room and gratefully bring in the dogs, shower, change and fall into the bed. We also learn that Kim has arranged for the money to be released. I call the card company but their accounting department has put a hold on it of their own and they are not available until the morning. When we call at the time they are to be available, we find that the accounting department now has an issue with releasing the money. They are concerned that if something happens to the truck and they release the funds, they might be held responsible somehow. I am in tears now over the frustration and roller coaster of emotions and stress.
The next morning we reluctantly check out, knowing we really are not all that much better off. As I go to the office to check out, I speak to the manager, Don, and relayed a brief version of our woeful tale. I ask him if he knows of a park or someplace that has shade that we might wait yet another day hoping to hear that it has been resolved. He said that there was no place that he was aware of that was nearby. He did offer to let us remain in the back of the hotel were we could get some shade as we waited. We did so and drove to the back of the buildings and waited. And waited. And waited some more. The waiting was broken up just once by the arrival of a police officer but once we explained the situation and told him that the manager had given us permission to be there, he confirmed it with the manager and left us alone. Tired of waiting I call back to my contact at the card company and tell him that I had contacted an attorney as there was no legal reason for them to now hold this money since the vendor had released it. He told me he would call me back, that he was going to go personally to that department and see what he could do. Finally, about 3:30 in the afternoon he called me and promised that the money would be available by 5:00 om that evening. We disconnected and I started to bawl in relief and remaining stress over it all. We kept checking the balance, just in case, and at 4:47 pm the money was there! I cried again, this time in relief, as we went to check back in. We decided that, although only a few hours away, we needed another night of rest and that there was no way that we could get to the apartment office before he closed anyway.
We checked out again reluctantly, wishing we could afford to recover another day or two but realistic enough to push on. We arrived in the city but now we are even more short on money than we had planned to be so I call Clarence, telling him what has happened and what was still going on. I tell him how much we have and ask if we can work something out. He is reluctant but also knows that when I lived there the last time, I always came through eventually. He jokes with me, which is his norm, and agrees to let us in with what we can afford to give him. We get there and find a generous soul willing to help us get at least the bed and a few things off of the truck. We again collapse on the bed and watch the dogs explore their new home, stopping them from marking their territory while rolling our eyes but laughing as well. We show them the wonderful fenced back yard that Sin has never had the luxury of and Chimmey has not had in several years.
So the next few days, despite the intense pain, I unload all that I can manage to unload, but now I am stuck with no way to get the rest off and no one in the complex seems willing and able to help, even with the promise of a payment in a month. I called my youngest sons family that are here locally and finally one of his uncles, a cousin and an aunt show up to help. At first, I do not even recognize them and think it is someone that was sent from word of mouth in the complex. Then I finally get it and within a very short time we manage to get the stuff in and mostly placed where they need to go. They even helped us get the truck returned.
That was on a Friday I believe and in the middle of the night on Saturday we get a call that Ashlee has finally given birth to a boy, but there had been complications and they had to go C-section. Both mom and baby were fine by then but it had been a rough trip! Lance admitted to being nervous of holding his son, whom they named Draven Lee. He was afraid to hurt him or drop him, isn't that precious! Lance has become a wonderful father in the meantime and has truly taken his responsibilities to his son seriously. He has even matured a lot through this!
OK, so sometimes in the next week we call the electric company to get the power turned over to Vic's name only to find that they now require a $150 deposit before they will change it over and that now that we have informed them we have 48 hours to pay it or they will turn it off unless the owner confirms to them not to. More money we did not plan for! So we make arrangements for it to come due when Vic's check comes in, deciding that the extra money to Clarence would have to wait just one more month.
Now when I spoke to Kim she had been extending our due date and I had told her when I would return the truck and why we still needed a few extra days after the release. I also told her that with all the money we borrowed and had to pay out extra, that I could not afford to gas up the truck and she said she would take care of it. She had not and so when my check came in, not only was it not there I was in a negative balance! I called the card company yet again and found out what was going on and discovered what happened. Kim put it in to fix it but said that it may take a few more days. Days pass and still no money. A week and I call her back and she says it should be there but she will trace it and call me the next day. She calls me back and tells me that she was told that it can take up to two weeks. I wait again while Clarence gets anxious for we have broken another promise to him, although again it was unforeseen and not of our own doing. At the end of the two weeks I call Kim for there is still no money nor pending credit. She promises to call directly to someone she knows in that department and find out what was going on and call me back. After waiting several hours I call back, only to find that she has left for the day and no one knows what she has or has not done. I am told that she is off the next day. I am back to tears again. The day she returns I call 5 minutes after she is scheduled to start work and she told me that she had not received word until just that morning when she checked her voice mail and that she found that someone had messed up somewhere and the entire batch of submissions for the day she had done it had been lost and we were looking at two more weeks. I feel like banging the phone on something... or someone.
Just for general principles I continued to check the balance on my card every day and finally three days later, it is there! I take care of Clarence, explaining about the electric and although he is obviously reluctant, what other choice is there at that point. I am feeling so guilty that I have had to let this wonderful man down yet again! I then go to the store for some badly needed food. It seems as if things are finally starting to come together for us, we just need a few more months to catch up.
I should have known our luck would not be that good. We applied for food stamps and medicaid/medicare for the both of us. In Illinois it was a simple thing and was done quickly with a minimum of fuss and frustration. Not so here. Unlike Illinois where they handle a lot of the footwork for you, in Florida, you have to do more and there is more to do. They also have no local office. For one thing, we have to show proof that we had the case in Illinois closed. As we were still living off of that until the Florida one came through, we had to close it in Illinois and have that sent to the Florida one. Add to that the fact that Vic's meds had run out and medicaid in Illinois,although active, is not valid in any other state. We could not have the meds filled in Illinois and have them mailed to us in Florida, nor could we get anyone here to fill them on credit, in a sense, even with us showing proof that we were on it in Illinois up until we moved here and had applied for it here, (a fairly good sign it would be approved here). So we were forced to pay for what we could that was needed the most. More money we could not afford to spend. Eventually we did get the approval for both but it didn't return the money we lost and the amounts in food stamps they gave us were not what we had hoped for nor enough to cover what we needed.
Throughout all of this something else starts up, Chimmey suddenly decides that our bed, where Vic lays most of the time, is now his territory and he begins to fight with Sin over it. I do not mean the play fighting they have been doing I mean there were some injuries to Sin, albeit minor! Vic gets frustrated and decides that Chimmey should be put down and starts to arrange for it. I cry and beg and plead and even threaten to change his mind, and at first it does no good. I search online for a solution and determine that getting them fixed, something I had finally convinced Vic to do anyway, would quite possibly help the situation. I find an agency that will help pay for the surgery so Vic agrees to try it and stops the previous arrangements. We find out that although they help with the surgery, the shots and any other required items are not covered by them. We decide that we will find a way to cover the shots. Then as we arrange for the surgery with the vet, we are told that we must also pay for blood work, because he is over 6 years old. We are now looking at almost $100 for a $40 surgery. We set it up and pray we can find a way to make all of this work out. Unfortunately, that did not happen due to events that come next but in the meantime we put Chimmey by himself in the second bedroom. In return he starts howling and whining almost non stop. We are at a loss of what to do about it still, although it is somewhat better, but I am getting ahead of the story now.

Then another hit, it seems that Ashlee's mom and her boyfriend Steve were breaking up with the mom leaving the home. Steve determined that he did not want to keep the home and so Ash, Lance and Draven were suddenly faced without living arrangements. They tried to find an apartment or something there but most were well out of reach financially or way too far from his job to be feasible. The 3 of them are now facing homelessness and although we had agreed not to have family live with us again, we now also agreed they could not be on the streets with a newborn infant! We had discussed it and we had agreed on $200 a month being fair for all three of them, once they start getting money. So we helped them to come down here to live with us, another hit financially, but totally unquestionable!
They finally get here in mid July and both of us are thrilled to be able to interact with our first grandson, finally! He is adorable , although of course we are not biased, ha ha. The extra people further strain the finances but that is OK, it is family after all. Since they are usually in the room with Chimmey, he has mostly stopped his howling unless they all go somewhere and leave him alone. as mentioned we do not know how to stop that part yet and welcome ideas. (We did try the sonic collar to no avail, will not do the shock one and are, at the moment, considering a muzzle but dread it, thinking it is not exactly humane)
They apply for their own benefits but complications come up and the agency does not inform them that some of their paperwork is either incomplete or the wrong document. They had to wait the full 30 days to find out they were denied and why. They have since followed through and are again waiting for approval! Lance just now got a job but his first check only had a few days on it so it was needed to buy diapers and gas and pants for his work. Then I find out that not only has Vic gone behind my back and told them #100 a month, but LANCE has informed Vic that he is not going to pay it to us but will instead pay it to Clarence to go towards the balance. If I had not already made arrangements to have help with that it would be almost acceptable, but now I am stuck as Vic has already told that to Clarence.
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Here again another situation arises that, although it doesn't really hurt us financially is a burden. Vic and I go to a doctor's appointment and they tell us that our asthma, which we both have, has increased to COPD. Vic is told that hers is the easier one to deal with, the bronchial version. Mine, however, is not. I have emphysema. A prognosis is not available until I get the testing done and I have been procrastinating. I think that a part of me does not want to know, for I have researched it and talked with someone that has it, and I am a little scared with what I have learned about my symptoms. I have not told anyone else here what I have learned, but as Ashlee is going to read this, and maybe Vic too, that is about to change. I know, I am a chicken... BAWK!
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In the meantime, the financial situation has again gotten another hit, my Social Security check is almost $300 less than expected. When I call I am told that Illinois has stopped paying for my Medicare premiums and, although I was not told at the time, Florida does not pay it for four months, (although they do reimburse that four months). The amount taken was everything we needed to pay our overdue electric bill and so now we lose the electric and have no funds to pay for it. It is mid summer in Florida and the heat is very dangerous, especially to me, Vic and Draven. We had to travel to Cocoa, a 30 minute drive, to apply to the one agency that still had funds to help out. After waiting we are told that in order to receive help, all four of the adults must have Florida ID's, our out of state ones are unacceptable for assistance there. We try other places, most of which cannot help or which take weeks to get approval. We go through and find items previously purchased at Walmart, like dog food and TP and diapers and return them to the store. We pawn several items and beg from family for help. Ashlee's aunt helps us with the last $40 as long as we repay her when we get the money from Matt, who has agreed to send help a little when he gets paid that Thursday (This is Monday). We get enough from the returns and pawns to pay the bill which we do only to find out it can take up to 24 hours so we spend a second night without power.
It is finally restored and when I get the money form Matt, Vic and I discuss the fact that there just is not any real food in the house and decide to use the money to buy food instead of sending it right back to Ashlee's aunt, hoping that she can understand this decision. She is still upset but what can she do, for that matter what else could we have done. (yes we considered food banks but most of them were attached to the agencies that required Florida ID's or were out of food as it was the end of the month for them as well). Just an FYI we did get the money sent back to her, albeit slightly delayed from the agreed upon time.
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So here we are at last, the money for the medicare payments was credited to my card finally so we got a few extra things for the house, like a clothesline tree so that although we are still having to do some laundry by hand we are able to hang them outside and not have them smell musty. All we need now is to wait for the money to buy a bucket and some cement.
Ah but the hits just keep on coming, for now Lance's car, which has been fighting a problem with the starter, or so we think it is, finally gives it up and leave Vic and Lance stranded at the doctor's. Vic gets a ride to the pharmacy and home but it takes several hours. Lance stayed with the car until he, too, finally succumbed to the fact that it just wasn't going to start any more. He told the businesses the car was there, and they tell him it MUST be moved by the morning or it will be towed. He walks home from there, fortunately it is only a few miles and he made good time. Lance walks to work and gets a friend there to pull the car home later that day. So now we have even more money issues and of course, the tension starts a tiff within the ranks and the kids throw out that they should never have come here and are going back to West Virginia. I do hope that they come to realize that here it may be rough but it is safer and still more secure than there! I guess we will see!

I still miss my youngest son, Matt and cry about it. When they were running the ads for the newest Harry Potter movie it made me bawl because he and I have seen every one of the previous ones in the theater together.) Aside from that, things are looking up a little now, I think!
WHEW I think I got almost everything!