meganbmoore | Entries tagged with real life

7 months ago I went to my apartment manager with a problem with my bathtub and after about 3 weeks of my going back every couple of days and being told "we haven't been able to look yet" they just said they weren't going to do anything because it wasn't leaking on my downstairs neighbor. I foolishly and unhappily accepted that, figuring that wouldn't take too long anyway. 6 months later and we're close to the thing being unusable. I also had a mirror fall off the bathroom door (scary sound, thankfully, the now broken frame kept it from shattering all over the floor) so I went to the office to ask them to take that out, intending to say "hey, the bathtub situation is out of control" but the assistant manager (who wasn't part of the thing 6 months earlier) saw the open work request from March and asked if it had been done yet. At this point I was reasonably chill for the moment and explained that no, it hadn't, that was the other reason I came by. She said to send her pictures of the tub and that the mirror would be taken out that day.

The mirror was NOT taken out that day, or the day after or etc., with a different reason each time they checked, A week later, it was "it'll be done today, we're looking at the tub pictures". At some point in between those two times, I had asked for a print out of both work requests. At which point, the same person I'd been speaking with said they didn't have that work request because of a new system. Seemed completely shocked when I pointed out that she had brought it up before I could a few days before. (After some hemming and hawing, I got the printout, as well as one saying that the damage to the bathroom door under where the mirror had been wasn't my responsibility). Add about a week of back and forth about the bathtub (new reasons or "soon" every time until FINALLY they say it might have to be replaced, they have a professional coming on Tuesday (of this week). Tuesday (also the only business day in Sept to pay rent in person before a late fee) I went by both before work and during lunch-mostly to pay rent-and the office was closed.

Also tried calling several times to find out the amount of my utilities for the month so I could just leave the check in the dropbox, but no answer. After work I finally caught the main manager there to take care of rent. Asked about bathtub and she said the maintenance man was in an apartment, but that she'd text me as soon as he came back, and said she was changing my cell phone from being listed as my home number to mobile right then. Wait wait wait, I hear nothing. Skip to this morning and I went again and spoke with the assistant on Tues and not able to update the system is not the same as a text not going through. And also that a phone also works as a phone, at which point, she said she had planned to call me today. At some point in this conversation I pointed out that there were a lot of excuses, so pretty much everything she said after was punctuated by "these aren't excuses". Eventually we got to the point, which is that the bathtub has to be replaced, BUT not they can't fix it effectively because my apartment is occupied and I have things in the way.

That it needs to be replaced isn't a shocker as they refused to do repairs 7 months ago (they've either avoided acknowledging or talked circles around it every time I've brought that up) but now it's "we just can't". I didn't ask what needed to be moved b/c I was in a similar emotional state to when over a foot of hair got chopped off a few months ago when I went in for a trim and about to start yelling and crying so I left. will have to go back when I'm calmer and ask exactly what they need moved, and then wait for the next excuse. I am well aware that they're just trying to either wait out the end of my contract then get me to move to a remodeled unit with a much higher rent so they can remodel that one, or move out early and break my contract so they can charge me.

I did not intend for this to be so long. I have thankfully found a house (one that should be well out of my range, but the sellers now live in another state and had a contract but the buyer's financing fell through after they made repairs, so they're just trying to get it off their hands at this point. We have most things sorted now and they're willing to wait until my contract with my apartment ends, but I can't afford to break my contract (not to mention that yes, I do have a lot of stuff that needs sorting and packing since I've been there for a long time, and I live alone so it takes time) and need to put together more money for moving expenses and a better downpayment so that the monthly payments will be more in my comfort zone. (I mean I was going to have to move one way or another this year b/c climbing stairs every day isn't doing my bad knee any favors and I was told I needed to move years ago, this is just the first year it's been feasible.)

Anyway, I'm sorry I didn't mean this to be nearly this long, but I do feel a bit calmer after taking this long to vent, at least. (There have been a few other problems with them this year, but this is the worst and most intrusive.)

Early yesterday morning, a huge tornado, (or 2-3 mid-sized tornadoes in quick succession-THEY AREN'T SURE WHICH-there were at least 11 tornadoes in Texas and Oklahoma Friday night/early Saturday morning, and it seems several found their way to Central Texas) ripped through town and the surrounding area. I was thankfully at my parents' overnight about 15 miles out of town.

My phone started blaring non-stop with warnings. This...is not overly unusual. We get tornado warnings a few times a year and a twister at least once a year most years, but usually the weather restricts itself to thunderstorms and bad wind. We do have smaller tornadoes every few years (including one that ripped half the roof off our house when I was a teenager) but usually smaller. (For context: there have been 52 tornadoes in the county since 1950, though not all happen in towns.) So I went out in my thin little jammies in the wind and rain to move my car closer to the house then went back to sleep because...I live in Texas and you can tell at my parent’s place when the wind reaches “things that shouldn’t be flying are flying” levels and you cannot sleep through that. Bad weather is actually usually worse out in the country than inside so my parents and I weren't overly worried.* Their power only went out for about half an hour and we were talking about how I should stop by the shop to make sure no windows were broken and there wasn't any flooding inside when I came back to town. Then the power came back and they said it was a tornado.

I came back to town and it started with the "normal" damage...flooding in some parts, leaves everywhere and tree branches and limbs on the side of the road. As I got further into town there was more damage but still not extreme. Then I got to work, saw everything was ok, and looked across the street to see this:

( cut for length and a number of photos )

That sign has been there for ages. About 2 blocks further down on our side of the street is this:

(across the street from there and not shown is a Mexican food restaurant missing a good chunk of the roof. I have a suspicion that might be what happened to the sign across the street.)

A little bit further down the road is the local college. The buildings looked fine but it has several fewer trees and the (many) remaining ones are a lot smaller now in some cases.

I live several further miles down the street so you can imagine my relief when I stopped seeing bent metal and tarp-covered roofs. My apartment complex, thankfully, escaped damage. I found out later that we lost power there when the storms started and it only came back on a little while before I got home. (I did check my refrigerator when I got home and things were still cold.)

Unfortunately, they reported later that most of the damage was downtown and in the north part of town and a nearby community, largely residential. Some people with businesses in the affected areas spent yesterday in lawn chairs in front of their businesses (or in shifts watching a neighbors’s business too) waiting for someone to come and board up the shattered storefronts. No, really, lawn chairs and beer coolers. For context, the 2 places combined have less than 105,000 residents. Yesterday morning over 25k combined residents, a local school and multiple businesses had no power. Today it’s down to somewhere between 2500-3000 residences, plus businesses. The elementary school that lost power was initially set up for people who had to leave their homes until the storm got it later. The school won’t have power until late monday at the earliest and MOST places are expected to have power by late Monday, but some won’t. Several areas of town have officially been declared disaster zones with multiple families ordered to evacuate because their homes are now uninhabitable. People in those areas who didn’t have to evacuate are under a police-enforced curfew because there’s so much dangerous stuff exposed and on the ground that will take weeks to clean up and they don’t want people wandering around after that. (Human-shaped jackals are going there to look at the damage and see people try to pick pieces of their home off the street because people suck, requiring police to order bystanders to beat it in some places.)

This is our local river, which is usually half dry, and rarely even fills the banks after heavy rain:

This is the street right outside a nearby high school:

(I know this flooding is minor as compared to many other cases, but we spend the majority of most years in drought status.)

This is a 137 year old tree at the courthouse (that my mother almost always parked under when she was a probation officer)before this weekend:

This is the same tree yesterday:

Most other pictures I’ve found are of the interiors and exteriors of houses, so I’ll spare you that.

Anyway, “Climate change isn’t real” but at least 11 tornadoes ripped through 2 states over a few hours and were strong enough to all but destroy urban areas BUILT SPECIFICALLY TO WITHSTAND HIGH WINDS.

*I would like to stress here that I did not sleep through a tornado. I slept through a thunderstorm about 20 miles from a tornado.

I've never liked Greg Abbott and hate having him as a governor but reading about him praising Trump for his "response" to Harvey and then Trump praising him and saying what a bestie he is with a figurative "tee hee, but we shouldn't praise each other TOO much or people will think we don't care" is nauseating.

And then it seems every update I read (esp on twitter) that has comments has half the comments from "openminded liberals" talking about how they don't want their money going to Republicans or a red state and I wish I could reach through the internet and strangle people, which is not a level of anger I'm used to having.

I'm too far inland to be affected much-just some of the showers on the outskirts (a number of states are small enough to fit between where I am and Houston, including almost the entirety of Texas Hill Country) and all my family/friends from Houston and Corpus have safely checked in as of yesterday, so I've just spent the last several days frantically keeping up with news, none of which is good.

I just found out that my primary care physician left the hospital over a month ago. Supposedly, I was sent “notice by mail in October or November" (their exact words) but I didn't get it. I also had 2 prescriptions filled at the end of November, one of which I had to speak with the office about, and nothing was said then. I found out when I got a call from my pharmacy today asking for my new physician’s name, since my old one wasn't there anymore.

After speaking with 3 very disinterested people at the hospital, one VERY grudgingly transferred me to the department for getting a new physician, where I got a message saying to leave a message and someone would call me back within 48 hours.

Those of you who were following me on LJ the last time I had to get a new physician might remember all the trouble I had then because a lot of doctors in town “don’t feel comfortable” approving medication for ADD. (If you don't remember, that's ok because it's been a LONG TIME.) The entire process and getting conflicting information and sent to multiple people resulted in multiple anxiety attacks over a period of several weeks. One of them was while I was trying to make an appointment with a psychiatrist and was bad enough that she asked if I needed to have someone pick me up and take me somewhere safe until it was over. (I never mentioned or considered self-harm, I was just that obviously panicked by that point.)

So, yes, I expect this to be a lot of fun. Thankfully, I wasn't getting a refill for my ADD medication-I have 6 weeks left for that, and will hopefully have this all sorted out by then, aND i hAve a full bottle of my sinus meds. (What I was calling for was vitamin D because my levels were low at my last checkup. I was going to get bloodtests next month but we’ll see how that goes, and at least I can get a weaker over the counter version to keep getting some D until I get a new doctor.)