Incompetence

May be it's just me. Maybe I only recall poor experiences while shoving the good experience memories to the back of my brain.

Why does it seem like people just don't do their jobs anymore? I hate to call customer service for anything because I always seem to get someone who doesn't know what they are doing. The employees in my doctor's office are always messing up. I once went TWO months without my thyroid medication because I kept being told they had called in my script to my mail order pharmacy that my insurance company forces me to use. Back then the only way to start a new script was to have it called in by my doc's office.

The employees in the office were forever telling me "we don't phone them in" while the pharmacy/insurance company was telling me "the only way to start a new script is for your doc to call it in." The doc's office went round and round about it. They finally relented and gave their word they would take care of it.

A week later the script showed up in my mailbox with instructions to mail it. Grrrr..... that happened a time or two before they finally agreed to CALL IT IN. Then I waited....... and waited... they never called it in. Needless to say by the time I got in to see my doc and told her what had happened she was ticked.

Since then the pharmacy/insurance company came up with a form for us to mail scripts in OR to actually request it ourselves on the net and they will call the doc for us to verify it.

Okay, that was a rant. Let me get to the point.

The point is that people can be incompetent. Ya think?

Here's what happened. My father in law died. The next morning .... CRAP... I need a new name for Adam.... heck let's just stick with Adam... or how about Ronnie? Connie and Ronnie.... Ronnie and Connie... LOL Whatever...

Anyhow, he called his dad's wife to let her know he was available for anything she needed help with. See, Adam/Ronnie had been there when his mom died 10 years ago helping dad through every step. He knew about all the pre-planned, pre-paid details.

When she heard his voice she became distraught thinking he was calling to "harass" her as his brother and one sister had done. That's yet ANOTHER post. Anyhow, once she realized that he was NOT about to do that and that he truly just wanted to offer assistance to her, the relief set in because she really had no one to help her through this. She wanted him to call the funeral home and find out what was going on because she didn't know where to begin.

Adam/Ronnie used to be in a line of work where he frequently dealt with funeral homes. He's now in a line of work where everyone in town knows him and people will bend over backwards for him. Seriously it can be ridiculous. ANYWHOOOO......

When he called the funeral home, not only did they NOT have his father's body, they weren't even aware that he'd died. Now step-mum KNEW which funeral home was to be used so this was a bit perplexing. She had - after all - requested it the evening before at the funeral home.

Adam/Ronnie got off the phone with the funeral home and called the hospital to find out WHERE his dad's body was and to let them know where they were to send it.

The hospital didn't know much. They told him "we released your dad's remains to the funeral home."

"Which funeral home?"

"I don't know...whichever one it was that his wife told us to release him to."

"Yeah? Wellllllll..... HE'S NOT THERE!!!"

Small town. Small funeral home. They KNOW Adam/Ronnie well. They would KNOW if they did or did not have his father's body.

At this point, I don't know if Adam/Ronnie wanted to laugh, cry, or bite someone's head off.

He asked them to PLEASE find out WHICH funeral home they had sent him to and to call back ASAP.

They called back within the hour. Turns out step-mum had granted permission to donate whatever tissue was worth harvesting and that he was at a donation bank place and that they would release the body within 24 hours to the funeral home.

Whew. Mystery solved. Dad had been sent two hours away but he'd been found and everything ended up fine.

And yes, we are laughing about how they lost dad. I mean seriously, if you can't laugh at these things then what can you laugh at?

So now I owe you the story about why step-mum was being harassed and another story has popped into my head. Remind me to tell you about my good friend's dad ............

That's two posts I owe you... this new blog is growing almost exponentially.

Later....

A Busy Day

Last Monday another beautiful girl entered the world. I tell ya, this grandma thing is okay!! Mom and baby and doing great. Dad is loving his baby girls. Big sister doesn't know what to think. And grammy and pappy are thinkin' this is what we were born to do.

We kept big sister the night before. Pappy went to the hospital for the C-section. Later in the day we took big sis in cuz mom wanted to see her. Big sis woke about 3 a.m. I changed her and handed her a bottle. Right back to zzzz-land she went. I - however - was too excited to sleep. I stayed up. Checked FB. Checked E-mail. Etc.

The day was exhausting. Taking care of a 13 month old, worrying about a newborn and her mommy.....the visits to the hospital... holding a newborn... meals... naps for big sister.... by the end of the day it all had taken its toll. Or is it tole? No matter. We were TIRED.

Daddy wanted big sis home with him that night so he could spend some time with her. He picked her up at our house around 8:30 that evening. We had just sat down with our laptops and put our feet up. That's when we got the call.

Pappy's own dad was being rushed to the hospital. His brother was calling to tell us they thought his dad had a stroke. He lives just 3 blocks from us. The hospital is just 5 blocks from us. There was a glitch, however. He wasn't in town.

This 75 year old man was still working. We always said he'd work till the day he died. So anyhow, he was at work driving truck about 40 minutes from here so he was being rushed to a hospital in that area. Pappy told his brother, "Call when you get there. We've been up since way too early. We'll come if needed but we're so exhausted it would be better for us to go tomorrow."

At that point we were truly exhausted and it wouldn't have been safe for us to be driving. About 30 minutes later the phone rang.

He didn't make it. They are pretty certain that it was a heart attack.

So yup, we welcomed a child and said goodbye to a father..... on the exact same day. Boo to that.

The next day, we couldn't locate his body but that's a post for another day... I'm slowing down and heading to bed..... right after American Idol.

I know... You can't wait to hear about the lost body. Soon. I promise.

Another Post

So yeah. I'm kinda likin' my new digs here. There's some pretty cool templates out there.

So let's see. What's new in my world? Another beautiful grandbaby... another beautiful baby girl. My first granddaughter is now over 13 months old and she's walking quite well these days. She says a few words here and there. She's got a limited vocab but is adding new words quite often.

Cracker.

Calculator. (for real.. and no, I did not teach her that)

Good girl.

Bubba (which can mean about anything starting with the letter B... bottle.. banana.... blanket...)

No (which does not mean no... it's how she says snow)

Ahhhhhh

Mmmmmmmmm.....

Mum-mum

Duh (for dad)

So as you can see her vocab is progressing right along.

And then there's her brand new baby sister. She's an angel, of course. Big sis loves her and shows her by smacking her head and poking her eyes. She's one. That's how it's done when you're one.

Today my daughter had to take little sis to the doctor. Her bilirubin (how do you spell that anyhow?) is still a bit high. The doc thought about putting her back in the hospital but is waiting one more day. Fingers crossed that the blood work tomorrow shows some improvement.

What else is new? Well, let's see......

I was in a wreck a month ago on February 1. A young guy pulled out in front of me. I was doing 50-55-ish on a state route. As I hit him I was thinking "dang it... my car gets paid off in 4 days!!!" Turns out it wasn't totaled so they fixed it. Anyhow, after I hit him I lost control and hit a guy sitting at the stop sign on the other side of the road. No one was seriously hurt. That's the main thing.

I said to the guy "I'm not mad. I know accidents happen but where was your head right then?"

::: Translated: "Were you texting or something?" :::

He said, "I just didn't see you."

Wow. Imagine that. It was dark. I had my headlights on. How does one not see THAT? And seriously I really was going a tad under the speed limit. I always drive a bit under in the morning on my way to work. Gotta watch out for the deer.

Oh well... that's old news.

Oh a happier note.... Winter is almost over. Bet you didn't know I hate winter.

Bring on springtime. I am more than ready.....

Here's the Deal

Just so there are no misunderstandings.....

Just so there is no bickering.....

Just so there is no thinking I was attempting to deceive......

I used to blog under another name....

My daughter found my blog which forced me to take it into seclusion. It wasn't much fun being private really and to be honest I lost interest.

Anyhow some of you knew me as Eva.

Yup it's me but I never really did like the name Eva much. It didn't suit me. I'm not sure that Connie suits me either but for a while Connie it is.

So there. That's the deal. No secrets. No deceit. No apologies.

I just needed a whole new start over place.

First Post

I'm not new to blogging. I'm just new to THIS blog.

I don't have anything to say really and I'm not sure why I'm even starting this blog. Being home sick with time on my hands lands in me in a rather bored state of life.

And speaking of life..... It's been busy lately. We've added a family member. We lost another. Work has become stressful. It is entirely possible however that my work stress is a figment of my own imagination which - on occasion - has landed me in a paranoid land of being..... my imagination, that is.

I love my family but often feel as though they view me as an unwanted, unneeded, unnecessary annoyance. I try my best to lay low and not annoy, interfere, criticize or anything else which might land me in a state of disfavor. No matter what I say or do, I always feel that I've annoyed them somehow.

It also seems as though when I have an issue they - my family - do not want to hear it. For instance, someone I know is doing something illegal and it drive me NUTS. It's not that I would ever do anything to harm the person who is doing this BUT it would be nice to be able to vent to someone who would help plan this person's imagined demise with me. No, I wouldn't carry it out. It would just be fun to bring him down in an imaginary world. Instead I just get griped at.

Whatever. They also didn't want to hear it when I tried to tell them where the wills are, some of our basic wishes if we happen to both die, etc. Fine. Let them hunt for them if the time comes. I'll get the last laugh on that one.

I believe I'm also viewed as inadequate in many ways. I get the feeling my family thinks I can't handle much at all and that all I do is get angry. Yeah well....I wonder if it ever has occurred to them that they underestimate me.

For instance....

Yesterday my DH decided to drive four of us into an area not touched by snow plows. The snow was about a foot deep. It didn't occur to him to put it into 4-wheel drive BEFORE plowing into the white crap. So what does he do? He gets us STUCK. And yes, I got ...ummm... not mad... frustrated. Yeah, that's it. I was FRUSTRATED at being stuck in the snow. I hate snow. I was receiving visions of tow trucks and cold feet since we were all in dress clothes. No boots.

It occurred to me as I watched him that he had NO CLUE as to what he was doing with the 4 wheel drive. When he got out with intentions of pushing in his suit and tie and dress shoes I slid over into the drivers seat, told him that I did NOT need pushing assistance, and I then popped it into four wheel drive and easily removed us from the dilemma.

We had come from his father's funeral. He wanted to place some flowers from the service on his sister's grave which is located in a very small, very ill-maintained (in the winter) cemetery. He and one of our daughters then began the search for the grave.

We don't go there often so we knew the general location of her grave but not the exact location. Having the stones covered in snow made it difficult to locate her so as I drove slowly through the snow along side of hubby and daughter I heard him say "Where is she? She should be right here where we left her." ROFL

But this time my frustration had vanished so I helped by shouting out the window for her. Our wonderful daughter began brushing snow from stones and soon found her. Of coursed his dearly deceased sister was certainly muttering "losers" from beneath the sod. That was her favorite term of endearment while she lived.

After placing the flowers the two of them hopped into the car. He apparently didn't want back behind the wheel as he climbed into the passenger's side. Meanwhile the two young-ins were cracking up in the back. Guess they thought mom bailing dad's sorry behind out from the near clutches of a tow truck was pretty amusing. And it was. Amusing. Honest. Okay so I suppose this is one of those "you had to be there" scenarios.

As I headed toward the main road DH says, "Thank you Lord for this woman who can drive a vehicle through anything." And he then tells our grown children he's never been so turned on in all his life. Yes, he said that. Good grief. Who says something like that to his own children?

And once again, they called me Hill-Jack-Jane.

Again? Yes, again. I got that name when I chopped a little firewood as though that is some feat worthy of the name.

So anyhow, here I go a-blogging again. I'm not sure what the topic will be. I don't think I want a topic. I'd rather just let it go where it wants to go. Might be fun to see where it ends up.