Greater Cincinnati Water Works

Or doesn't, perhaps...

In any event, I am once again subject to the whimsy of the water utility from Cincinnati, and am already being punished for it.

Last night we received our first quarterly bill from GCWW. It is a partial bill, and we were told we'd get it, so that wasn't a surprise in any of itself. For 21 days service, we were billed $44.71, which I think is extremely high but, again, I knew it would be. The icing on the cake, however, is yet to come...

The previous tenant hadn't paid HIS last bill... and GCWW tells me I have to do it.

After explaining that I do not own the house, the guy kindly informed me that it may not be my responsibility to pay it, but if I want my water to remain on, SOMEONE will have to pay it.

After doing a little research, I decided to call PUCO, the utilities commission here. Sadly, not enough research apparently because PUCO doesn't do anything with this particular water utility because it is a municipal system (I didn't realize that), but they did tell me that I can call the mayor's office and complain.

Odd, I think, that I'm calling the mayor's office of a city in which I do not live nor pay taxes to complain about a utility that I always figured was a private corporation in the first place. Surprisingly, though, the person I spoke to there seemed to want to help me, but admittedly offered no advice on how to proceed in the matter. Apparently she'll call me back. :-/

So now I'm left with calling our landlord to discuss how to handle this bill as expediently as possible. It is my hope that we'll simply agree to deduct it from my next rent payment and I can get the thing paid in full immediately. If not, while I'm not in a hurry to start a shit storm, I have to wonder if this could somehow constitute a violation of our lease on their part...

I honestly don't see how it is that anyone has the right to take a debt incurred by one person and impose it upon another in this manner, but I'm dealing with the water utility and, all kidding aside, I have never had a particularly positive relationship with any water utility...  

A Ramble on Milestones

I feel like I'm hitting a couple of significant milestones this year, so I kinda feel like talking about that for a moment.

We all gauge the progress of our lives in different ways, on that much I think most people can agree. Some of us think of the passing of time in terms of what job we were working or which woman we were with at any given point on the time line, and I can only imagine that many people find a multitude of different, sometimes odd ways, to delineate the passage of time.

I have a few different means for measuring time that are significant to me today. The first is the measure of my marriage, which, in August, will reach eight years into my past. Reaching two years further would be the date when I met my wife. Yes, she and I have been together an entire decade. Another significant measure of time for me would be my son's lifespan, currently six years. So, in a four year period, I met my wife, married her, and had our first child.

In the six years proceeding, there are only a few other noteworthy milestones, but they're pretty big...

First, our move to Cincinnati (and the employment changes that came with it). Moving was a big change for me, going from the small-town mentality to managing my time in perspective of the larger city. That, and my employment change was massive – warehouse work is a huge culture shock to someone having worked a IT help desk for nine years previous. While I see the move as having been a very positive thing for my family, it was not a good change for me singularly, and it has brought about a number of various issues in my life that I have dealt with over time.

While dealing with the stress of preparing to move, and subsequently dealing with the new job and seemingly insane people I had to get used to working with, I note for the record that I quickly became “that guy” that drinks every night without a reason. Today, this milestone I see is a bit more approximate, but significant none the less... Accounting for days when I was ill, I can safely estimate that I have consumed an average of four alcoholic beverages every night over the past 2,000 nights. That's over one-million calories for anyone keeping score, meaning I could possibly weight in about 125 pounds lighter today had I never drank a drop of it.

And that isn't said in an effort to suggest that I intend to quit drinking... I'm simply too analytical to not see it for what it is, and it is a systematic change that has affected my life dramatically over the years.

So the fact is that I've effectively become a “functional alcoholic” in the last five or so years while adapting to a giant home and family change that then became an ugly, and belated fiscal policy change – another milestone, if you will. In many ways, our choice to move to Cincinnati forced us into bankruptcy, albeit not because of the move itself but my own estimation that we would at least make income equal to 70% of what we had made prior to the move.

We didn't, and still don't.

It took a few years, but we finally realized that we were going bankrupt two years ago and made a series of changes to our financial policy that have kept our main bills paid while discharging all the ones we couldn't afford anymore, including two cars, a house, and over $20,000 in credit card debt.

It also included a personal loan to my dad, which to this day I am frustrated at not having been able to repay...

So now I start to move into familiar territory...

Aside from my Dad's recent diagnosis with cancer (which I don't feel like discussing today), I also had a significant event among my circle of friends.  Four months ago I made a drive northward to visit two of them, the only two from my high school days that I have retained any concern for over the years. That said, I have come to recognize this event as a bit of a closure, in that I seem immensely less likely to see two friends again in the near future... and in a way, while we are still friends in the sense that matters, we are no longer friends in the manner such as we were 11-12 years ago...

Sure, it is common for friends to sort of move on after high school, but I guess I only realized it had happened to us after this one particular get-together. Both of these friends and I have had but a few actual conversations since that day, and one has been so far aloof as to post on Twitter that he has a new phone number but he has not bothered to tell me what it is – which kind of feels like a slap in the face to me, but in an odd sort of way I'm okay with it, if maybe a little irritated, because I figure I'm easy enough to reach that anyone that really wants to will call when they want.

Fact is, I grew tired of being ignored and forgotten when I need a friend around that same time, and I have since given up on the idea that anyone really wants to listen to me talk about my troubles.

So I guess the odd thing is that most days I feel happy when I go to sleep and happy (if maybe a litltle groggy) when I wake up. That is pretty damned amazing considering how much I complain about nearly every person and everything that irritates me throughout every day... I kinda wonder if there will eventually be a day when I will look into the past and say that 2,000 days have passed since I started feeling happy inside again.

Two Hundred and Thirty Five Years

Using a more modern definition, one might see the United States as a sort of Empire. No, not the same manner of empire as that which was maintained by the British from circa 1580 to 1997 (a span of over 400 years) which entailed establishing colonial authorities across the globe, but one that executes it's authority via cultural, economic, and military influence without directly commanding the affairs of each individual country.

Actually, in many ways, America's “empire” is similar to that which it previously was subservient, in that, for a long time, there has been little or no real political rivalry, and we have commanded the world economy, in a manner of speaking, for decades. Problem is that we seem to be trying to copy what the British accumulated in two centuries while only being at it for less than one, and doing it without the same colonial enterprise that the British utilized.

This, combined with our lack of a King or other such solitary leader, somehow makes the United States less of an empire...

This gigantic military and economic power is precisely that which will bring about our downfall, and further, is exactly what the drafters of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution wanted us to avoid. Our President, not Obama specifically but the authority of the office, has risen to be something very similar to a King, which today can even wage limited warfare without the approval of another authority. People often credit the President with having accomplished things (or not) that are totally outside of the power of the executive branch, and in some way they are often correct simply because some manner of [probably corrupt] behind-the-scenes pressure seems to be in use to effect change. Further, the pomp and splendor of state dinners and other political and diplomatic events has certainly surpassed that to which British Kings were accustomed in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, something I believe says a lot about how detached they are from the laborers of the country – the knuckledraggers that actually do all of the work.

Fact is, the United States maintains a significant military presence in at least nine different countries, three of which are considered combat zones (Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya). In Japan and South Korea also reside a heavy man-count, I presume to counter threats from North Korea. In all, nearly a quarter of our active-duty personnel are stationed in other countries, some of which today seem nonsensical, including our so-called combat zones. Mind you, Congress hasn't formally declared war on another country since our June 5, 1942 declaration on Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania during World War II. Since then, lesser designations and possibly Constitutionally-questionable military actions have been authorized and funded by Congress, but never an admission that a state of war actually exists.

In many of the most important ways, the Executive Branch today operates independently of the other branches of government, and in many other ways may pressure the other branches to bend to it's will. No one man controls the country, but the President and his administration has a number of officies that tend to function without direct oversight of any other government body. Politically, economically, and internationally, the behavior of our government is in direct opposition to the core values supposedly espoused by the founding fathers, yet many of us continue to blindly accept it based on some concept of the greater social good... a concept that wouldn't even exist had we not spent ourselves into a debt oblivion that is crushing everything in sight under it's weight.

In closing, yes, I love my country. I love it for what it was prior to World War I, for what it could have been had it held fast to principles of non-intervention and, dare I say, isolationism, and for the fact that I still have the right to speak out against it when I deem it necessary.

Of those, one (at least partially) remains. When it is totally gone, there will be nothing left of America as far as I'm concerned.

"Cry Wolf" Weather Authorities

We had some pretty horrendous storm activity around 2 AM last night, which got me thinking a little about how the weather tracking institutions in Butler and Hamilton counties operate as opposed to how they did things in Logan county when we lived there.

Last night, as with every occasion where we've had severe thunderstorms like that, the local authorities fired up the air raid siren (or so I call it, anyway) to alert the public. What I don't understand about this practice is that they did it nearly an hour and a half before any rain was falling in our area.

So lets get this straight: There is bad weather coming, yes. It might, maybe, possibly produce tornadoes, yes. So much water going to be quickly dumped from the sky that flooding might be a problem, yes.

Is that any reason to wake anyone when the storm is over an hour away? I don't really think so.

So basically, what I gather is that the local authorities near where we live today sound the alarms as soon as the national weather service puts out a “watch” alert, stating that it is likely that hazardous weather will occur but they don't know precisely where or to what severity. In my opinion, a watch alert is kinda silly in the first place because I can figure out for myself that bad weather is happening by looking out a window.

In Logan county, however, authorities waited until funnel clouds were being seen in the vicinity of the town. Simply put, if you heard the air raid siren, you'd better get your ass out of sight because they were serious about it being an imminent danger. There was no lag time – it was time to be prepared right now.

Fact of the matter is, last night, I got to the point where I basically was ignoring it because they “cry wolf” so often that I don't take them seriously anymore. Sure, once the weather actually started getting bad (an hour and a half AFTER the alarm), I got serious about it... but still.

In the end, we're alright and no real harm has been done, but I felt like complaining anyway because I'm tired and cranky...

Of course, that might not really be anything new...

Gassy Gripe

Been quiet again for a while, I know.

The thought had crossed my mind to play an April Fools joke by posting that I was going to close down the blog, but I realized that in the off-chance that anyone read it, it would probably be 30 days before I'd post again. Probably wouldn't be very funny by then.

Anyway, I feel like griping a little.

The only real gripe I have right now is the cost of gasoline going up so dramatically over the last couple months. I can attest to a 17% or more increase in the price of gasoline since December 20, 2010. Some people tell me that we're still nowhere near Europe's prices, of which I am well aware, but this isn't Europe. This isn't a country where mass transit is readily available, or even practical if it were, for half or more of the population. Further, I've noticed a cost increase between 4-10% on everything we buy (except beer, oddly) that I believe is linked to the rising fuel cost.

The mantra I hear repeatedly is that we need to drive less, and I agree with that in principle, but I can also say that I already drive near the absolute minimum. I don't go cruising about town for fun like I did when I was a teen, and I generally only drive to and from work every day with no other stops.

Sure, I could use a bicycle for my six mile commute, but I have to admit that my fear of other drivers maiming or killing me (particularly at midnight on the return trip) dissuades me completely from the idea... that and I'm woefully out of shape for the task and a significant portion of the trip to work is an uphill climb. But really, I think I'd do it if it weren't for other drivers sharing the space with me, I'd just have to walk part way until I reconditioned my body to the biking again.

So I look at this situation as an ever-depressing downer on my otherwise stagnant internal economy, and I'm not impressed. Worst of it is, some jackass is making money off of me and I feel powerless to prevent it...

Hell, I even had one guy at work tell me that I needed to buy a more fuel efficient car because of the fuel costs. I guess he doesn't realize that first, we're bankrupt and would probably be laughed at when we try to apply for a loan, and second, the monthly car payment (even at a “good,” pre-bankruptcy interest rate on a used vehicle) would certainly be larger than the fuel costs that it would be saving.

Yes, I learned this the hard way when we bought the Escort a few years back. On paper, it looked OK, but in practice we still spent more. And then the insurance cost more too... that was nice.

Well, I guess that just kinda came out as a ramble. Not sure how best to close this, so I'll just go random. Coffee FTW! Oh, and come on Cardinals! Start winning!

Probably The Last Post of 2010

Well I certainly hope everyone has had a pleasant holiday. I can say with certainty that we in Hickersonia have, in spite of a few stressful moments and gripes here and there. We did end up spending more than I originally wanted on Christmas related things (doubled our Christmas budget at the last minute, actually), but we still kept our total expenditure well below the $658 amount the so-called “average” American has apparently spent this year and made absolutely no purchases on credit. I guess I'd call that a financially successful Christmas.

So, moving on, I do have a certain disappointment to share with this post. I have found some surprise in who has chosen to contact me this season to wish me a Merry Christmas and the like, while certain others have, well... not. I understand many of us our quite busy, but I think most of us still have time to shoot off a text message or a wall post on Facebook. Many of my friends didn't even do that.

Okay, I'll admit there are people that I didn't contact too. I guess what that means is I understand first-hand why I was “forgotten.” Not that I don't care, or that they don't care, but that we obviously don't care enough, so while I can accept some blame on the matter as it comes to those who might point a finger at me, that doesn't make me any less disappointed with those who I hoped to hear from, at least briefly, this season.

Moving on again, I wanted to share something of a lighter nature. This year, my son's “Christmas haul” included a NERF gun. I noticed it at Meijer a couple months ago and decided that it was about time he be introduced to some projectile fun (that didn't involve large, heavy objects flying around the rooms of our 800 square foot apartment). The model we purchased is the Maverick Rev-6, a six-shooter which included six plunger darts (at least one of which my son has already misplaced) that will, using the amazing power of suction, stick to many flat surfaces.

Of course, after our son opened this thing and started playing with it, I decided that I had to have one too... but I wasn't about to be out-done by a mere six-shooter. I browsed online for the right foam firearm and, after reviewing some of them close up at the store, chose the Raider CS-35.

As the name might suggest, this thing is designed to fire 35 darts prior to reloading, and for that purpose carries a drum magazine that reminds me of the combat shotgun from Fallout 3. That similarity may actually even be one of the things that attracted me to this particular design...

And so, hilarity ensues. Well, not for you because you aren't here to witness it, but my son absolutely loves this stuff and I've found that apparently I do too.  Once in a while it is nice to share something fun with one's children, right?

Anyway, I hope everyone has enjoyed a blessed Christmas, and I hope the new year is good to everyone as we move forward.  Maybe the new year will bring me more things to blog about, eh?  Hopefully fun things, if so.

The Life that Didn't Know it was Alive

Yesterday the official word came down from my wife's doctor that our pregnancy is over. I'm not sure how the doctor put it (because I don't have any option of leaving work for this sort of thing without attendance penalties, so I wasn't present), but it all comes down to a single word:

Miscarriage.

Okay, I guess technically speaking the miscarriage hasn't occurred yet as my wife continues to carry the poor life that once was but will never be. I guess that is supposed to be rectified today via surgical procedure... Anyway, those who know me probably understand that this sort of thing is difficult for me because of my particular views on when a human life (or really any life, I suppose) begins. Not that I blame anyone, I simply find it very depressing.

My wife seems to be dealing with it pretty well, but I have a feeling it just hasn't sunk in yet. I'm figuring that will change soon, so I guess it is good that I will have probably gotten past my own sadness on the matter. Dalton seems to be doing OK too, but insisted on writing about how the baby died for his “free writing” handwriting practice.

So a sad time in Hickersonia this week... Hopefully better news will be forthcoming...

Circular Reasoning Prevails

One thing I've noticed about all the overtime at work recently is that I don't really mind the 500$ weekly paychecks. I don't mind that at all, seriously. I think my problem is that I work harder and longer for it than I used to and I have a major objection to that in and of itself.

Yes, I do realize I'm not the only one in the country that has gone from one job to another with a net decrease in pay. I admit to be quite perplexed at how easily my wife tolerates her own, rather massive, income drop, but I never hear a complaint about it from her. Face it, folks, if I didn't complain about it, I simply wouldn't be me.

My biggest problem with getting a different job right now (ignoring the economy) is a problem on paper only, or that of lacking paper to be more exact. I spent ten years working with and learning a great deal about computer networking, and even with that aside, I've got the same period worth of data entry time that should still land me a much less stressful job. Thing is, I don't have any documentation (or degrees) to prove that I have any skills at all. Sure, that's no one's fault but mine – it only serves to illustrate how I incorrectly expected employers to be more interested in workplace experience than book knowledge.

While I'm not entirely confident that a degree would save me in today's economy, it has caused me a lot of grief to not have it. Pretty much every job advertisement to which I would consider responding has declared firmly “those without at least a two-year degree need not apply” or similar. Even then, a lot of such jobs advertise lower pay than I receive today – are the overseas techies really willing and able to work for so much less?

So I guess I've resigned myself to sticking it out in the job I'm in for the foreseeable future... I mean, putting it in another way, if the economy isn't going to start adding “real” jobs until, oh, 2019 or so, I guess I'd better get entrenched where I am or get used to the idea of taking less pay in order to get out. So, like I said at the start of the post, I guess I don't really mind the 500$ weekly paychecks...

I Wasn't Kidding...

On September 24 I made the comment on Facebook that I was feeling as if I were “starting a new chapter of my life.” I have found that this is more true than I at first believed... Over the weekend we came to the realization that Michelle is pregnant, and calculated that she is possibly as far as five weeks along.

Of course, this revelation compels me to the realization that I do, indeed, need my job a lot more than they need me, first and foremost in order to maintain health insurance to cover the to-be-determined cost of bringing another child into the world. Of course, I also have great need of many, many more Federal Reserve Notes... Even if the currency is merely a fake paper facade, it still proves useful from time to time.

So now I have the daunting challenge of funding the further growth of Hickersonia under the circumstances of a seemingly endless economic crunch. I have some measure of faith that things will be OK, but I have to admit my hesitation to assume it at face value... More on this later.

So Very Tired of Hurting

September 11, 2008 I sustained a back injury at work that has never quite left me in peace since. Today is feeling like one of my “bad” days, which is incredibly unfortunate considering we have plans with friends this evening. While the pain is pretty much continual, it varies in severity from day to day – today being at the point at which I hesitate to pick up anything that might be on the floor or even tie my shoes. Going from standing to sitting is uncomfortable too, and on days like these I find that leaning over the table to eat will cause me more grief than it is worth.

My only solace is in the fact that I have finally gotten over my pride and made an appointment with my doctor to see if there is anything we can do about this continued failure in pain management and healing. Those of you who know me well may be familiar with my extreme disinterest in dealing with physicians, the one caste of human being that seems to always act with arrogance, probably due to their seemingly god-like powers over life and death. As such, I have waiting far too long in having my troubles investigated further – a decision that I hope will not turn into a huge regret.