I think I have a manic-depressive aspect to my personality....ok, I see some of you who know me out there rolling your eyes, saying "Duh!" and just plain snickering......so cut it out! ;-)
Anyway, most everyone on the planet feels a sense of letdown after going on vacation, right?
What comes over me when I get back from vacation is a whole other level of letdown......I liken it to depression.
I get sad....sad that the good times are over.....real sad, like want to cry all day sad.....and then reality bites me in the ass and laundry needs doing, meals need cooking, the house needs cleaning, the dogs need looking after and I am here again, alone and having to do all these chores.....with leaky eyes.
And then I sink lower and just don't want to do anything but sit, or sleep, or wander the interwebs......making the chores pile up higher.....which leads me to get more depressed.
And this goes on until I finally snap out of it and get back to living life.
If I'm lucky, I'm only caught up in this cycle of blah for a week or so but it has been known to stretch out to almost a month before.
I tell y'all this to explain why I haven't been very chatty lately and god help me....perky!......ok.....more like "as-perky-as-I-get perky"(which isn't very).
I don't do perky.
Must be my dna or something.
I spent most of this past week sighing deeply and wandering around the house trying to ignore the chores.
I'd start to feel better and then I'd sit down and try to edit the many photos I took while on our Road Trip or upload those lame videos I made and I'd just feel even sadder......because I miss being on that trip and seeing/meeting everyone/doing fun things.
Plus I would also be sad about Tanner not being here. I didn't get a chance to have a letdown after she left because we left on the Road Trip 4 days after she went home, so we were busy preparing for the Road Trip during that time.
I guess I am doubly sad, mourning the end of 2 fun times of my life.
Yeah, I am a big old emotional mess inside a hard snail's shell......
Then while I was going through my sad/letdown cycle, annoying and bad shit started happening the middle of this week.
First the very expensive a/c system we had installed in July? Yah, we come home and turn it on and it's not throwing off cool air.
WTF?!?
We had a heat spell the last couple of days here and by tonight I had it jacked all the way down to 65 degrees and it was cooler outside and no where NEAR 65 degrees in here and didn't even cut the humidity in the air.
Again...WTF?!?!
So now we get to call Sears and bitch about this and want to slap people around over it because I just paid that bill and now I wish I hadn't.
Plus I'm having flashbacks to earlier this year when the 3 week old freezer shit the bed.
PTSD anyone??!
Then the 4 month old tv remote died tonight which sent Hubs over the edge because he couldn't watch his baseball.
Forget that!....what about Project Runway?!?!lolz
So he went and wasted $15 on a universal remote(those things NEVER work!)before ordering a new remote from the tv manufacturer for $40 + shipping a few minutes ago.
Good times......
Shall I add that the mail brought 2 headaches today....
1-the Local tax company has no record of us filing our local taxes. We don't owe them anything as it's taken out automatically by the employer and it always lines up as accurate but the tax collecting company needs their recordkeeping to be correct. So Hubs has to take care of that. It's a hassle but nothing outrageous. Oh, and Daughter got a notice from them too about her local taxes so having to deal with her form will be a PITA since we have to mail everything to Louisiana to get her signature and then mail it back to them.
More good times.....
2-Got the EOB for our dental plan and the wisdom tooth dentist overcharged us on our copay by about $100 so now I get to go nag his office about a refund. Oh goody! I get to call someone on the phone.....one of my FAVORITE things!lol I bet if I didn't contact them they'd keep my money too. 8-(
Plus I am having problems with my durable medical supplies supplier about my BIpap machine. Their customer service sucks donkey's ass and I just found out today that we should have been getting bills from them(with co-pays owed)for the last oh.....5 months....but we have yet to see one bill. Because we weren't getting EOBs or bills I assumed our insurance paid 100% on this stuff.
I am a donkey's ass for thinking this, right? 8-)
The sleep disorders clinic no longer has them as an approved supplier for their patients but once you sign up with one(might be a PA state thing)you are locked into keeping them for your needs for 3 months. But this shouldn't apply to me since I've used them for 5 months now so I should be able to "fire" them.
But if I do, the 3 months credit toward my 10 month then I don't pay for the BIpap rental until I give it back goes away, and I would end up paying more in rental monies if I switch suppliers now.
Sigh.
Let's see, what else can I bitch about? ;-)
* I finished paying all the bills for August this week and now I get to add up the damage. I am HOPING we come out in the black and not the red for this month. It's anybody's call which way August will have played out with the spending. The semi-annual car insurance bill hits in August plus we had some unplanned medical bills(wisdom teeth co-pays)and a big check we wrote as our present to the Hub's sister's wedding. "IF" there is anything leftover this month for the $20K Savings Challenge it is going to be tiny. 8-(
* How about the fact that I gained 12 POUNDS while on vacation?
Yikes!
Not so bad because I already lost 9 of it. I chalk that part of it up to eating restaurant food(over salted/high sodium content=retain water)for 11 days(except for 2 meals of home cooking).
Let's chalk the last 3 lbs. up to too much alcohol and fried foods and I am on the way to losing that piece of it.
* And the last part of this week was hot and humid, thus making my feet swell and feel like crap so it's been hard to get much walking in.
On the good side of things.....
I did go to a medical appointment today and I finally went grocery shopping, the 1st trip since we got back a week ago. I figured the store would be cooler than the house today so why not loiter a bit in there. 8-)
I got some good deals(a few coupons the store sent me in the mail, and some instant discounts on bakery and meats). All totaled I spend $108.48 on $191.82 worth of groceries, for a 43% savings rate.
Weis PMITA Markets had London Broils Bogo this week plus I had a snail mailed Q $2/$10 meat purchase so I got 5.65 lbs. of beef for $14.17 or about $2.50 lb.
They also had party size Lay's snacks BOGO($4.99)and I had a snail mailed Q $1/1 item so I got 2 mega-sized bags for $3.99. If we have company Labor Day weekend or if #2 Son needs snacks I am set now.
Arnold breads were BOGO as well($4.29)and I had a $1/1 Q so 2 loaves of good bread cost me $3.29. I also picked up some preformed burgers for cheaper than just plain old ground beef after Instant Meat discount Qs. The flyer had some Qs as well so I got a hunk of cream cheese for free, another bag of chips for .99¢ and a case of Poland Spring water for $1.99. Potatoes were BOGO and Jamestown bacon was 3/$9($3 each....not bad but not great but we need it for BLTs to use up all these tomatoes here).
I did splurge today and buy a pint of gelato for myself....it was on sale for $3.99.
Bad Sluggy bad!
Bananas, Cantaloupe, Watermelon, bagels 50% off, muffins 50% off, chuck steak $1 off, shrimp burgers $3 off, 2 1lb. bags of shredded cheese, sour cream, 2 bags of frozen French fries(for #2 son), a second cream cheese hunk, some deli turkey meat, a hunk of green leaf lettuce, a bag o' salad 50% off and a big box of greens 50% off round out the groceries procured today.
That trip and the unloading and putting it all away in the heat just about did me in though.
Can I just go back on vacation now??? lolz
Ok, I'll shut up now and go start adding up the receipts from the road trip and see how far off the tracks we went with the spending there.
Oy!
Sluggy
Anyway, most everyone on the planet feels a sense of letdown after going on vacation, right?
What comes over me when I get back from vacation is a whole other level of letdown......I liken it to depression.
I get sad....sad that the good times are over.....real sad, like want to cry all day sad.....and then reality bites me in the ass and laundry needs doing, meals need cooking, the house needs cleaning, the dogs need looking after and I am here again, alone and having to do all these chores.....with leaky eyes.
And then I sink lower and just don't want to do anything but sit, or sleep, or wander the interwebs......making the chores pile up higher.....which leads me to get more depressed.
And this goes on until I finally snap out of it and get back to living life.
If I'm lucky, I'm only caught up in this cycle of blah for a week or so but it has been known to stretch out to almost a month before.
I tell y'all this to explain why I haven't been very chatty lately and god help me....perky!......ok.....more like "as-perky-as-I-get perky"(which isn't very).
I don't do perky.
Must be my dna or something.
I spent most of this past week sighing deeply and wandering around the house trying to ignore the chores.
I'd start to feel better and then I'd sit down and try to edit the many photos I took while on our Road Trip or upload those lame videos I made and I'd just feel even sadder......because I miss being on that trip and seeing/meeting everyone/doing fun things.
Plus I would also be sad about Tanner not being here. I didn't get a chance to have a letdown after she left because we left on the Road Trip 4 days after she went home, so we were busy preparing for the Road Trip during that time.
I guess I am doubly sad, mourning the end of 2 fun times of my life.
Yeah, I am a big old emotional mess inside a hard snail's shell......
Then while I was going through my sad/letdown cycle, annoying and bad shit started happening the middle of this week.
First the very expensive a/c system we had installed in July? Yah, we come home and turn it on and it's not throwing off cool air.
WTF?!?
We had a heat spell the last couple of days here and by tonight I had it jacked all the way down to 65 degrees and it was cooler outside and no where NEAR 65 degrees in here and didn't even cut the humidity in the air.
Again...WTF?!?!
So now we get to call Sears and bitch about this and want to slap people around over it because I just paid that bill and now I wish I hadn't.
Plus I'm having flashbacks to earlier this year when the 3 week old freezer shit the bed.
PTSD anyone??!
Then the 4 month old tv remote died tonight which sent Hubs over the edge because he couldn't watch his baseball.
Forget that!....what about Project Runway?!?!lolz
So he went and wasted $15 on a universal remote(those things NEVER work!)before ordering a new remote from the tv manufacturer for $40 + shipping a few minutes ago.
Good times......
Shall I add that the mail brought 2 headaches today....
1-the Local tax company has no record of us filing our local taxes. We don't owe them anything as it's taken out automatically by the employer and it always lines up as accurate but the tax collecting company needs their recordkeeping to be correct. So Hubs has to take care of that. It's a hassle but nothing outrageous. Oh, and Daughter got a notice from them too about her local taxes so having to deal with her form will be a PITA since we have to mail everything to Louisiana to get her signature and then mail it back to them.
More good times.....
2-Got the EOB for our dental plan and the wisdom tooth dentist overcharged us on our copay by about $100 so now I get to go nag his office about a refund. Oh goody! I get to call someone on the phone.....one of my FAVORITE things!lol I bet if I didn't contact them they'd keep my money too. 8-(
Plus I am having problems with my durable medical supplies supplier about my BIpap machine. Their customer service sucks donkey's ass and I just found out today that we should have been getting bills from them(with co-pays owed)for the last oh.....5 months....but we have yet to see one bill. Because we weren't getting EOBs or bills I assumed our insurance paid 100% on this stuff.
I am a donkey's ass for thinking this, right? 8-)
The sleep disorders clinic no longer has them as an approved supplier for their patients but once you sign up with one(might be a PA state thing)you are locked into keeping them for your needs for 3 months. But this shouldn't apply to me since I've used them for 5 months now so I should be able to "fire" them.
But if I do, the 3 months credit toward my 10 month then I don't pay for the BIpap rental until I give it back goes away, and I would end up paying more in rental monies if I switch suppliers now.
Sigh.
Let's see, what else can I bitch about? ;-)
* I finished paying all the bills for August this week and now I get to add up the damage. I am HOPING we come out in the black and not the red for this month. It's anybody's call which way August will have played out with the spending. The semi-annual car insurance bill hits in August plus we had some unplanned medical bills(wisdom teeth co-pays)and a big check we wrote as our present to the Hub's sister's wedding. "IF" there is anything leftover this month for the $20K Savings Challenge it is going to be tiny. 8-(
* How about the fact that I gained 12 POUNDS while on vacation?
Yikes!
Not so bad because I already lost 9 of it. I chalk that part of it up to eating restaurant food(over salted/high sodium content=retain water)for 11 days(except for 2 meals of home cooking).
Let's chalk the last 3 lbs. up to too much alcohol and fried foods and I am on the way to losing that piece of it.
* And the last part of this week was hot and humid, thus making my feet swell and feel like crap so it's been hard to get much walking in.
On the good side of things.....
I did go to a medical appointment today and I finally went grocery shopping, the 1st trip since we got back a week ago. I figured the store would be cooler than the house today so why not loiter a bit in there. 8-)
I got some good deals(a few coupons the store sent me in the mail, and some instant discounts on bakery and meats). All totaled I spend $108.48 on $191.82 worth of groceries, for a 43% savings rate.
Weis PMITA Markets had London Broils Bogo this week plus I had a snail mailed Q $2/$10 meat purchase so I got 5.65 lbs. of beef for $14.17 or about $2.50 lb.
They also had party size Lay's snacks BOGO($4.99)and I had a snail mailed Q $1/1 item so I got 2 mega-sized bags for $3.99. If we have company Labor Day weekend or if #2 Son needs snacks I am set now.
Arnold breads were BOGO as well($4.29)and I had a $1/1 Q so 2 loaves of good bread cost me $3.29. I also picked up some preformed burgers for cheaper than just plain old ground beef after Instant Meat discount Qs. The flyer had some Qs as well so I got a hunk of cream cheese for free, another bag of chips for .99¢ and a case of Poland Spring water for $1.99. Potatoes were BOGO and Jamestown bacon was 3/$9($3 each....not bad but not great but we need it for BLTs to use up all these tomatoes here).
I did splurge today and buy a pint of gelato for myself....it was on sale for $3.99.
Bad Sluggy bad!
Bananas, Cantaloupe, Watermelon, bagels 50% off, muffins 50% off, chuck steak $1 off, shrimp burgers $3 off, 2 1lb. bags of shredded cheese, sour cream, 2 bags of frozen French fries(for #2 son), a second cream cheese hunk, some deli turkey meat, a hunk of green leaf lettuce, a bag o' salad 50% off and a big box of greens 50% off round out the groceries procured today.
That trip and the unloading and putting it all away in the heat just about did me in though.
Can I just go back on vacation now??? lolz
Ok, I'll shut up now and go start adding up the receipts from the road trip and see how far off the tracks we went with the spending there.
Oy!
Sluggy
Oh, Sluggy, I feel for you. When we lived in PA we always took vacations in Florida and when we got home, all we would do is wish we were still there.
ReplyDeleteThen when winter came, we got more depressed. We finally planned to move south so that we'd be living where we go on vacation and so we wouldn't get those winter blues. Now, after a bad day, we can go walk along the bay and it helps a lot. Although we solved one problem (no more winters), we created another problem (no jobs!). Trying to find the perfect balance in life is not easy and when things go wrong, it makes it so much harder, but when bills start piling up, it's even worse. I hope things turn around for you, for me and for our other bloggy friends who are going through a tough time right now.
I don't have it as bad as you but I get where you are coming from. Methinks the hubs has it worse in our world because he has to go back to his job.
ReplyDeleteI do my best to get everything I can think of taken care of before I take off but it is amazing what can pile up and surprise you when you are back home!
I agree. The sort of after-vacation blahs can hit hard as you sort of come back to your old routine as if looking at it through someone else's eyes. And most of the time, what you see isn't pretty (or as pretty as vacation anyway). I'll admit I try to bundle my vacations together so that while I am not on vacation, I am busy planning for the next one, and once all of them are done, I can deal with the blahs in one hit.
ReplyDeleteAs for your daughter, can't she fax the signature back and forth instead of mailing?
Today/tomorrow/Sunday I am doing my first real grocery store trips. And I've been needing that BADLY. Same for laundry. Ok, now I'll stop reading about all those good grocery store deals. The stores around here suck.
Sluggy,
ReplyDeleteI am glad I am not the only one that goes through a depression after a vacation. This summer we took the kids to Disney World. It was a trip we saved two years for. It was a wonderful vacation and will treasure the memories forever. We had looked forward to it for so long that I didn't know what to do when we got back. I went through the same thing. I didn't want to do anything around the house. The kids going back to school last week kicked me back into gear. I will be spending the weekend getting everything caught up from the month. Hope you are on the upswing now !
I was never thrilled to be back home with loads of laundry to be done, but I was not in the least depressed. However, coming home to no ac and other problems like you found would really depress me. I sort of like coming home.
ReplyDeleteOkay get the d*&^ laundry done, what's wrong with you? You should love coming back home to all of life's mundane problems instead of drinking, visiting, eating great food and generally enjoying yourself. Get to work. Am I helping?
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry that life has been crappy for you. It goes down the toilet for all of us once in a while. Just pray that you got the TP on sale.
ReplyDeleteAnd I did laugh when you said that your appliance"shit the bed." I will have to remember that one.