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It's like I have some genetic curse or something. In this particular lifetime, to my knowledge, I have not encountered any gypsies, so I can't have any pissed off enough at me to curse me personally. I'm not a cheap bitch who haggles merchants down to the last cent, nor do I try to cheat people out of money. There is no reason why I personally cannot get ahead of things just once or twice in my life. It's got to be something an ancestor of mine did - and my ancestors were horse-traders and embezzlers. Someone I'm related to may very well have pissed off a whole troupe of gypsies, probably intentionally.
As a result, I don't do overtime.
Any time I make extra money - be it overtime, a holiday gift, the tax return - something catastrophic happens. It's a proven fact in my life, not an exaggeration or an overstatement. Any time we have any money whatsoever stashed away, a huge money-costing event will come along and destroy it. Some people would think the universe was somehow protecting me from financial ruin by making sure I had money when catastrophes happen... but the catastrophe never happens before the financial windfall comes along. No, it waits.
Over the past month, I have been forced to do overtime. A part of me was thinking, well, with my impending hysterectomy, maybe a little OT would be ok. I was paying bills ahead of schedule so the 6 weeks of no work for recovery time wouldn't have such a huge impact. Of course, Rob wanted to stash some fundage away. It was then that I knew something catastrophic would happen.
Last night, as I was trying to go to work, when Rob attempted to start the car, all it did was make a clicky thumpy noise. The lights, radio & A/C came on, so it's not the battery or alternator. From everything I've read so far, it's the starter, the solenoid... or a computer or computer relay somewhere. Fuck! (cha-ching!) Rob called his mother, who came & picked us up & took us on a death-defying ride to my job.
About an hour after I'd been there, Rob calls me because he is bleeding intestinally. He's not in pain, but he's bloating & the blood is fresh. So he calls an ambulance (cha-ching!) & his mom meets them at the hospital. Last night, my relief was off so I couldn't rush out of work - I did my best to get out early, but still. So that was two expensive taxi rides, one for Rob & one for me (cha-ching!). The hospital didn't know why he was bleeding - they couldn't give him fluids because his blood pressure was elevated, but they gave him a CT scan (cha-ching!) that came back inconclusive, other than showing he doesn't have any tears or ruptures. Yay. The last time he had a colonoscopy, 2 or 3 years ago, the dr. found a benign polyp, so it could be another one of those, or his blood pressure may have caused a hemorrhoid to burst, enough to make him bleed enough to panic, but not enough to cause a noticeable hole on the CT scan. So he had to make an appointment w/his regular gastro dr. for another colonoscopy (cha-ching!).
Because Las Vegas is still relatively primitive when it comes to public transportation, we had to rent a car (cha-ching!) so I could get to work for the rest of this weekend.
Now, I'm not begrudging Rob his ambulance ride or CT scan or anything like that, even though it seems that way. Bleeding fresh blood from anywhere unexplainable is a problem, one that can't be overlooked or shoved aside. Even if we didn't have the money, we wouldn't have done anything differently in that situation. We have insurance that will cover about 80% of the hospital bill & CT scan, but that $800 ambulance ride is alllll mine. And Rob's not going to die anytime soon, he didn't have to go under the knife for exploratory surgery or anything like that, he was able to come home this morning. I'm not missing any work (and uh, my attendance has me pretty close to the firing range) this weekend.
It doesn't stop me from being pissed off at the money thing, though.
As a result, I don't do overtime.
Any time I make extra money - be it overtime, a holiday gift, the tax return - something catastrophic happens. It's a proven fact in my life, not an exaggeration or an overstatement. Any time we have any money whatsoever stashed away, a huge money-costing event will come along and destroy it. Some people would think the universe was somehow protecting me from financial ruin by making sure I had money when catastrophes happen... but the catastrophe never happens before the financial windfall comes along. No, it waits.
Over the past month, I have been forced to do overtime. A part of me was thinking, well, with my impending hysterectomy, maybe a little OT would be ok. I was paying bills ahead of schedule so the 6 weeks of no work for recovery time wouldn't have such a huge impact. Of course, Rob wanted to stash some fundage away. It was then that I knew something catastrophic would happen.
Last night, as I was trying to go to work, when Rob attempted to start the car, all it did was make a clicky thumpy noise. The lights, radio & A/C came on, so it's not the battery or alternator. From everything I've read so far, it's the starter, the solenoid... or a computer or computer relay somewhere. Fuck! (cha-ching!) Rob called his mother, who came & picked us up & took us on a death-defying ride to my job.
About an hour after I'd been there, Rob calls me because he is bleeding intestinally. He's not in pain, but he's bloating & the blood is fresh. So he calls an ambulance (cha-ching!) & his mom meets them at the hospital. Last night, my relief was off so I couldn't rush out of work - I did my best to get out early, but still. So that was two expensive taxi rides, one for Rob & one for me (cha-ching!). The hospital didn't know why he was bleeding - they couldn't give him fluids because his blood pressure was elevated, but they gave him a CT scan (cha-ching!) that came back inconclusive, other than showing he doesn't have any tears or ruptures. Yay. The last time he had a colonoscopy, 2 or 3 years ago, the dr. found a benign polyp, so it could be another one of those, or his blood pressure may have caused a hemorrhoid to burst, enough to make him bleed enough to panic, but not enough to cause a noticeable hole on the CT scan. So he had to make an appointment w/his regular gastro dr. for another colonoscopy (cha-ching!).
Because Las Vegas is still relatively primitive when it comes to public transportation, we had to rent a car (cha-ching!) so I could get to work for the rest of this weekend.
Now, I'm not begrudging Rob his ambulance ride or CT scan or anything like that, even though it seems that way. Bleeding fresh blood from anywhere unexplainable is a problem, one that can't be overlooked or shoved aside. Even if we didn't have the money, we wouldn't have done anything differently in that situation. We have insurance that will cover about 80% of the hospital bill & CT scan, but that $800 ambulance ride is alllll mine. And Rob's not going to die anytime soon, he didn't have to go under the knife for exploratory surgery or anything like that, he was able to come home this morning. I'm not missing any work (and uh, my attendance has me pretty close to the firing range) this weekend.
It doesn't stop me from being pissed off at the money thing, though.
