What a Week…

Oh wait, it’s only Thursday, isn’t it? Shit. Aside from still feeling creaky and bruised from the fall I took riding my new bike, and from the aforementioned bicycle thievery, there’s been plenty going on here to keep my head spinning. Let’s see, where do I start?

I managed to lose my cash card on Monday night. I thought I’d left it in an ATM I’d used, which would mean the machine ate it when I didn’t retrieve it. I called the bank to cancel it and have another delivered. The next day, the convenience store phoned to say they had my card. They can keep it now.

The house sale is coming down to the wire. I met with the FHA inspector last Friday. I stupidly told him the electric in the house was on and it wasn’t. The inspector told me to call him when the electric was turned on so he could come back to test the furnace. He did do most of the inspection though and cited me on some peeling paint on the side of the garage. I’m fixing that tomorrow morning while Mel cleans out the garage.

I made arrangements to have the electric turned on and then nearly forgot to go over and turn off the breaker. The breaker has to be off when the power company turns on the electric in an empty house, otherwise, they’ll turn it off again right away. Fire hazard or something. I called the inspector back to tell him the electric was on and he told me he was going to wait until he was told to come back by the bank. Aaarrggh… more hoop jumping.

I tried to phone my attorney yesterday, only to learn she was on vacation. Really? How dare she! I talked with one of her assistants who blah-blah-blah’d his way through my concerns. When I arrived home, it turned out she’d sent a load of papers for me to sign and return before she left for vacation. Phew. At least it turns out she has it together.

I’ve also been trying to set up an appointment with the pest inspector. This jerk calls my realtor on Sunday night, leaving a voice mail demanding that someone be available late Monday afternoon. We tried to reach him to confirm but he was unavailable. Too bad for him. I talk with him later that night and tell him what our availability is. He tells me he’ll have to call back when he plans to be in the area again. In the meantime, the buyers are going nuts that he hasn’t gotten access to the premises to get this done. So, this morning he calls and we arrange for Mel to meet him there today at 1:30. Mel gets over there on time but realizes just as she gets there that she’s forgotten the keys! He agrees to wait while she runs home to get them. After he waits a little bit, he calls me to bitch that she hasn’t come back yet, pitching a hissy fit because he’ll be late for his next appointment. I apologize and beg him to wait just a few minutes more. He agrees to wait. Turns out he didn’t, of course. Now we’ll have to reschedule again.

Last Friday, I mailed my mortgage payments which were due at a local bank on Tuesday. In a total moron move on my part, I only put 34 cents postage on the envelope. On Tuesday, they charged me late fees because they hadn’t received the payment. I phoned them and they recommended I put a stop-payment on the check and then go to one of their branches to make a replacement payment since they don’t take credit cards over the phone and they charge $15 to take a check over the phone. WTF?!? What kind of bank is this? I call the bank where I have my checking account and it turns out they charge $30 for a stop-payment. Uhhh, no thanks.

Then I call the post office and ask what happens to letters that are short on postage. I was told that it would have been pulled for manual sort which could add a day or two to processing. Also, if I haven’t gotten the envelope returned to me by now then it should have been delivered to the bank. The bank had already told me over the phone that their policy is to pay postage due. So, now I just have to wait for them to process it. Why all the concern? Aside from late fees, which I got reversed on one of the accounts, is that my attorney’s office is supposed to be calling for a pay-off balance on the mortgage of the house I’m selling. I wanted to make sure the payment would reach the bank and be applied before that happens. It’s amazing how much trouble 3 cents can cause.

Tonight I have to do laundry and discuss a freelance proposal with a friend I work with occaisionally. Actually, this is one of her pro-bono jobs but I owe her because she helped me with one of mine. I also need to start studying for my next certification exam. I’ve let it go too long, the exam is a week from Monday, and this will be the hardest one.

My high school reunion is this weekend. I’m not really going but am attending the anti-reunion reunion festivities. More on that later.