Well, I WAS working on that, but now never mind...

This past week or so I was working on checking the lawn mower and
getting it ready. The problems I had were that I didn't know how to tell
if there was enough oil for the motor because the dip stick looks like
it has broken off at some point. The other bit is that it needed gas. I
don't exactly remember if I ran it dry (preferable) or I left a little
bit in the tank.

SO my older sister came up for last week, and instead of leaving the
mower to me which I would have gotten to pretty soon, she just barrels
along and just starts messing with it.

For some reason, there's this red plastic gas "can" that's been around
since the first deadbeat was here. I don't use it because the last time
I did, there was water in it. If there's no gas in it now, I'm going to
toss it. The other gas can is metal, my grandfather used it just fine.
She seems to think some cans are legal and stuff, but this one is just
fine.

Anywho, you can see where this is going. Instead of asking me something
about the mower and said gas cans, she goes and puts whatever was in the
red one into the mower's fuel tank. I had already checked that one, I
know there's water and dirt in there. She never bothered to ask me what
I know, and when she tells me that's what she did, I tell her good luck
getting it started, you'll have to drain the tank now. Her response is
"Well, I didn't know." Well geesus krist, ASK me. You can look inside
gas cans, ya know. And Gas has an Odor to it. The walls of the red
plastic one do let some light through, and that's how I knew not to use
that for anything except throwing it away. I made that mistake 2 years
ago, and the mower had to be cleaned out.

She eventually does get some gas (I hope it's in the metal can) but we
can't get it started. The spark plug might need changed or cleaned, but
the main problem now is finding out where there's still water and dirt
in the fuel and probably fuel line, and the issue of motor oil still
needs clarified.

If it had been left to me, I would have gotten gas in the metal can, put
some in, and it might have started. And if not, I have friends who can
take another look and find out what's going on.

My older sister has a bad habit of thinking she knows everything and
just does stuff with things without talking to anyone. It's a bad habit
she needs to break.

Get it at a pawn shop

Today, I spent time getting my eyes checked and visiting my dad's mom. We went out to eat and during the meal my older sister asks how many TVs there was because she doesn't have one. Trying to take what I'm using? She can just as easily buy one at a pawn shop and it might even have a digital tuner for almost no money! She ain't getting mom's!

An example of how I supposedly have and don't have medical coverage

I hope the recent reforms change this, because right now at the same
time I do and don't have medical coverage. Here's how it works:

Because of my disability, I have Medicare A and B. The Part B premium is
covered by state Medicaid under a thingy called QMBY, so there's no
deduction out of my disability check. However, I do not get Medicaid per
se unless I spend $60 of my own money, while at the same time I have to
deal with Medicare deductibles.

So what this means is if I wanted to get a new pair of glasses, I would
have to spend $60 on the process of getting one and then have the rest
billed to Medicaid. This is what is known as a Spend Down rule. This
sort of thing likely also applies if I need counseling and the like.

What's messed up about this is that I can't exactly afford $60 out of my
pocket every month. I'm barely covering my obligations for the month.
Getting some steady work might help. I wonder what my mom would have
said if she saw how different things are for me. She never had to pay
anything out of her pocket, but then her disability check was just a bit
less than that I get. It's not fair I get screwed.

So while yes, I have Medicare A and B for what they're supposed to
cover, I might as well not have anything anyway because of what I have
to go through to use it. It's not worth my time to figure it out. It's
too confusing.

I hope the health care reforms eliminate the need for a "spend down" as
well as deductibles for what I'm supposed to have.

Melody is still on Mom's schedule

It amazes me how much my mom's dog Melody has retained Mom's daily schedule. For example, when I get up, she asks to go out as soon as I get downstairs in the morning. Then around noon or so, she'll hide behind the bed, because this was when Mom would have lunch or get bathed (or whatever). Then around 2:30 pm, she'll ask to go out, because that's about the time the aide would let her out. Then again at around 4:30 p.m., because this was the time another aide early on when she came in the afternoon would let her out. Melody still asks for her food in the morning and at 5:30 in the afternoon, as well as hiding behind the bed downstairs during the 6 pm hour which is when Mom would have supper. And then again around 9 pm she asks to go out because Mom would be going to the toilet during her evening programs, usually missing the first half of the 9 pm show in the process only to come out and deal with her medications afterward.

She has retained Mom's schedule almost perfectly.

Finally had a dream about my mom

I finally had a dream about my mom. She was sitting on her chair in the
bathtub, wearing that purple thing she used to wear. I had to ask her to
move her head out so I could see her. It was if she was waiting for me
to see her. When I said to her "It is you!" She got up, walked out of
the bathroom like I remember her being able to walk, even though it was
kinda slow due to her injury and all, and I gave her a hug.

I wonder if this means she's finally come home and is going to send me
more messages.

My older sister

There's talk about my older sister possibly moving back to our state.
This is not the best thing she could possibly consider. There are no
jobs here while she has a job now where she is. She needs to be told not
to do this. There are things I can do to add to the discouage part of
this. She better not come back at all. It will end in tragedy.

She doesn't respect others. She doesn't respect my space. I have the
right to lock up my space and the right to not have her in it. If the
worst happens, I will need friends and supporters more than ever to
stand up to her to tell her to GTFO.

DO NOT COME HOME. I DON'T WANT YOU HERE AND I DON'T NEED THE BULL SHIT
YOU WILL PULL IF YOU ARE HERE. WE ARE SICK OF YOU. NOW IS NOT THE RIGHT
TIME, NOR WILL IT EVER BE.

YOU HEARD ME.

Dealing with animal / urine smell

I'll admit that our house has a slight animal urine smell to it. You
canna miss it coming in the door!

At least I have found ways to fight it, some of which work.

Nature's Miracle is expensive and frequently works. I have lots of
square inches to cover so I can't always rely on that.

White distilled vinegar, cheap at about $2 a jug, appears to help quite
a bit. I've found you have to saturate the area you're wanting to treat
or nothing happens.

Another bit I've been using is oxygen cleaner and lemon juice. The
peroxide part of the cleaner is the important part of removing the odor,
but the topper is the citrus smell in the lemon juice, supposedly cats
don't like the smell of lemon or even orange juice or citrus smells in
general. Also that lemon juice and vinegar are mild acids, which help to
break up the chemicals in the urine. Do not use ammonia. Bleach might
help but only if the carpet color isn't affected. (Ours was.)

My grandfather's cat is getting cantankerous and from time to time I've
caught him pissing in places he knows he's not supposed to but does it,
which gets swift punishment. Thankfully, I've been finding the spots and
have begun removal.

There's a spot under the desk where my mom had her feet on the carpet
while using the computer. Her feet sweat a lot and fermented sweat in
the carpet doesn't help things, especially when it builds up. I kept
bitching at her to wear slippers and she for the most part ignored me or
refused, but as the spot got soaked (and Griz began peeing on it), the
smell grew and was just unable to be ignored. Putting a rubber-backed
mat on the spot didn't help. Griz just peed on that, too.

I did some of my first treatment with the cleaner and lemon juice and at
first checking seems to have done some good.

I've had to block off my room and one spot in the kitchen as well as a
few areas in the main room downstairs to "encourage" Griz to use the
litter box. He's getting old so I expect him to expire some time soon.
He outlasted my grandfather by 6 years so far, and we have no idea how
old he was when my grandfather got him.

But I digress

I really should look up Digress because I think people use it when they
don't know what it means.

Anywho, Right Stuf licensed Dirty Pair TV.

It will be interesting to see what they use for their releases. I have
tapes of raw episodes off original laserdiscs which I got from a guy in
a computer club I used to go to. They have, before each episode: A title
card indicating which episode it is and title, a preview teaser, then
the episode itself.

VHS fansubs I got from a nice person who dumped them in favor of
digisubs that were floating around some time ago don't have these bits
before the episodes, which leads me to believe there were more than one
Laserdisc release or they worked from VHS tapes. I don't know.

If my situation permits me, I will support Right Stuf's releases.

Then I saw someone talking about this and brought up an obvious point
that to me showed some lack of understanding.

They were making a comment about "Frame Rate" when they really meant to
comment about "Cel Count."

Frame rate is a measure of frames per second, in one manner I consider
it. FPS is something like 24, 25, 29.97, 30, or even 60.

Cel Count is not the same as Frame Rate. You can have 24 frames per
second, and you can have your cel count equal to or less than that. I
think most animators understand this.

So if you have a high cel count, the animation could be better than a
lower cel count, as it would be more fluid instead of stiltingly jerky.
I imagine Ghibli movies have a high cel count while still having a frame
rate of 24 FPS.

But I digress.

Whatever happened to giving kids straight answers?

March 17th, other than being a pseudo-holiday, is my grandmother's
birthday. Well, one of them anyway.

But the thing is, as a kid, I had to figure this out on my own after
asking my mom when this day was. I still remember asking her one day
when my grandmother's birthday was one March years ago.

Instead of the direct answer I was hoping to get, I got told "In the
middle of the month." What the hell kind of answer is that?

It just so happened that I took that literally, and thankfully March
17th was the precise day "in the middle of the month" on the calendar.
For some reason, that stuck with me, a useless bit of info on someone's
birthday. I barely remember the birthdays of people I know and of those
still alive, but yet I remember March 17th.

I still feel annoyed by the fact that my mother at the moment I asked my
question couldn't spend an extra couple of seconds to give me a direct
answer. "In the middle of the month" is not an answer, it's somethng off
the top of your head to get rid of someone. It's a dismissive answer.

Since then, I've tried to do my best to give kids direct answers. They
want that. They deserve direct answers.

"Allied Interstate" calls

So now, in the past 2 weeks at least, I've gotten 3 phone messages left
by a recording from Allied Interstate, which as you will find out is a
debt collector company. I will not respond to any of these calls because
they don't say for whom or for what they're abusing the phone line
about. I have done some research about them. They're essentially a scam
operation that has tried with loads of people to get them to pay off
debts they don't owe in some way - as in they paid it off without
problems already.

So until they start saying why without the use of a recording, they're
going to be ignored.