Current mood:	moody
Current music:	WESH news
Entry tags:	ar, rip, wilma

The quiet before the calm...

Satellite image courtesy of GOES, Wilma and Fred Flintstone © Hanna-Barbera, Deviation © 2005 fugitive247

What an in-friggin'-sane week... I'm actually looking forward to this hurricane. Why? So I can finally slow the fuck down for a few days! That is, with the exception of doing laundry tomorrow at 'Topher's. Other than that, if Casa del fugi ain't got it, we don't need it. In fugi-ese this translates to: I can't believe my fellow east central Floridians are so freaked about this storm! The Wilma Mania officially began yesterday evening. This determination was made due to the fact that when I stopped by a local high-volume service station this morning at 8:00 for smokes, the pumps were dry. WTF?!? Given that this is Friday, and subsequently payday for most of the citizens, y'all know I made damn sure to wrap up all my errands by 3:30 this afternoon.

I haven't been inclined to play nice online for quite a while. I offer zero apologies nor mercy for the sheer ignorance of others. Want a tame example? Read this Y! 360 entry from last week, including the comments. [link] I only reference that as a segue for the rest of this mixed bag.

I closed a certain credit card account back in July. According to the corporate gluttons, the account will only be total history after four inactive billing cycles. Here's the catch. Ready? It was a Visa card that carried a monthly membership fee. Even though I hadn't used the damn card since June, it was still assessed that stinking fee. Since the account was closed, I no longer recieved statements- otherwise I would've known! Since I was unaware that the account was still being charged the membership fees, it accrued late fees and killed my credit rating. Heads have been rolling at their corporate HQ, believe it. I refuse to deal with flunkies, and insist on securing employee ID numbers for every individual with whom I speak. I keep detailed records of all phone communications, including start/end times, length of time on hold, and who/where. Today alone I spent over an hour reaming buttmunches in America, Canada, and India. No shit. Long story short, en route as of yesterday via snail mail is a letter on Capital One letterhead which states that the account was closed in good standing back in July, it had a consistently excellent payment history, and that the current 30 day delinquency was their fault. I only wish it hadn't taken so flippin' long to finally get connected to a CSR in their investgative department.

Yeah, I really need to get those tutorials underway. In the meantime, here's a couple of gold nuggets earned the hard way. Until I have time to compose the tutorials, just remember that when dealing with automated systems, the zero button is your best friend for circumventing most of that clusterfuck. You're welcome. ;oD

Onward!!!

All systems are still green-lighted for closing on our current residence on November 8th. Last annoyance between now and then is the buyer's appraisal. Funny how this hasn't happened prior to Wilma's soaking. Think I'm sweating it? No. This place is built like the proverbial brick outhouse. If we were going to get any damage, it would've happened last year during either Frances or Jeanne. Wilma's going to be a cake walk. Again I ask why the hell are the cattle around here in such a frenzy???

One last item I really need to purge. Had the misfortune to witness a situation that most folks would get themselves fubar over just to sleep at night. Yesterday while waiting for Goofy #1's school dismissal I saw a biker get killed about 100 yards away on US-1. I don't feel right about going into too much detail right now as I still haven't given my formal statement to the local investigator. That will happen early next week. At that time I will also be submitting an already burned disc of a dozen accident scene photos I took. No, I absolutely will NOT publish them, even for a fee, so don't ask! There's just something so fundamentally wrong with exploiting the tragedies of private citizens without even so much as their knowledge, let alone their consent. Screw that. Photojournalism has its place, but in this case, it ain't in this blog, baby. My only concern is that if this ends up going to trial, I hope I don't have to come back to this sick excuse for "civilization" to testify. Yes, the driver was at fault, and is now sporting several criminal charges.

Gah- 23:10 now. Still haven't even checked my email accounts today...

*~*~*fugi outie*~*~*