Covered wagons and American Idol

Good morning. As you may have noticed, I haven't written in me blog since the 25th of April. That matters not I suppose. But hey, I needed to start today's somehow, don't ya think? Last week while I was outside, can't remember why exactly, I saw a wagon being pulled by horses coming up the road, so I took a few pictures as they passed, which you can see below. You can see them even better if you click on them to enlarge them to their original sizes which are 640X480.

Other than the above, not really much happening in our world, as usual. On the other hand, we have been getting all of our chores done... for the most part. I sure will be glad when it's really Spring, as opposed to pseudo Spring with the sun shining, but a cool breeze blowing, and often times (at least over the last weekend) cloudy. When it's cloudy like it isn't today, clothes on the line take what seems like forever to dry. Speaking of which, I hung a whole bunch (pretty much every one we have) of towels on the line yesterday, in the wind, and let me tell you, it was pretty difficult. I did get them hung though, and today I will bring them in. The reason I didn't get them in yesterday is because it was late in the afternoon. But they should be dry now, and if not, they will be soon. Then there's only one more load to wash, and that would be our DD's clothes which are in her basket in her room.

So, who's been watching America Idol this year? We have, and we're not impressed so far. I liked the last two that've been voted off. Obviously the speed dialers disagree though. The only one I think has a truly good voice is David Archuleta, but the people who pick his wardrobe need to work with him more and make him look more professional. Anyway, if you have indeed been watching television, you've probably heard Fox exclaim, "The best show ever!" I whole heartedly disagree. I guess I just can't seem to get passed how good Clay Akin and Carrie Underwood were, and compare all others to them. Consequently, no one has measured-up, in my opinion.

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Life and credit cards

Hey! Haven't posted in either of my blogs or Gather for quite a while. Don't know if you care to know why or not. It was because I went into a *major* depressive state of mind where I could not get interested in other peoples problems and also couldn't think of anything interesting in my life to write about.

What's the latest drama? Capital One seems to think that if we're not paying our over priced minimum payment that we just don't want to. Well, I've got news for them. We're not paying and haven't payed for two years because WE HAVE NO MONEY! Since C.O. is such a small company who can't absorb the cost of a debt that can't be paid because THEY raised the minimum payment, they're suing us. Hmm... somehow I think it's going to be VERY difficult for them to get paid that way. For one, our ONLY income is Social Security Disability, which they CAN'T garnish. We were making the minimum payments before they raised the amount by paying that and then using the card to pay for groceries. Once the minimum was raised and the card got maxed out, and we could not use it to buy groceries anymore, we stopped using it. We opted to eat and get the medications I need for my MS. If they can't or won't understand that, then they're nothing more than a heartless, greedy corporation who doesn't DESERVE to be paid. My wife called them before we completely stopped paying them and asked for a lower minimum payment, a reduction in interest, or anything that would help us be able to pay, and they told her they didn't negotiate. That was only after trying several times to find an actual human to talk to. We could ONLY get the automated system. Waiting on the line after the options were told to us via a computer voice didn't get us to 'customer service'. It wasn't until they sent us a letter by snail mail that had a phone number in it, that she was able to talk to them. Apparently that didn't matter anyway. You probably guessed that they haven't been able to get a hold of us since because we started screening ALL of our calls and letting the answering machine take the message 99% of the time. A couple/few months ago I decided that I just answer the phone and deal with the consequences, but then they didn't call or did and just hung-up w/o leaving a message (that we wouldn't have called back anyway) and we returned to screening. Then a couple of days ago I decided that they weren't going to intimidate me and I would just start answering the phone. You know, just in a friend would call or of course a hired lawyer and/or collection agency called. This morning a lawyer that Capital One hired to scare us into paying them called, and I talked with him. He told me that I would need to pay around $500 a month to pay-off the card and the accumulated/ing interest. Which OBVIOUSLY we DON'T have. He tried the, "I have a job and I'm sure you do too and you NEED to make payments". To which *I* replied. Don't have a job, I'm disable and only get Disability money. We tried selling the house to pay the credit card off... nobody wanted it. Tried sell the car... again nobody wanted it, besides, it broke down. Tried selling the gas hog of a van to get money to make a minimum payment on a CAR that could be used to get to and from a job... nobody wanted it and wouldn't trade because of the high and climbing gas prices a couple of YEARS ago. Now that the gas is even more expensive now, the housing market crashed, and the economic depression/recession just keeps getting worse... there's NO WAY we can sell ANYTHING to get the money to pay the credit card company, their lawyers or debt collectors. Getting a job (my wife) in the closest town would pay her just enough to buy the gas for a vehicle that gets 10-15 MPG would be pointless. So we go to court on May 12th so we can explain ONCE AGAIN that we have NO MONEY. And life goes on...

In happy news... it's now feeling like Spring. The weather has gotten warmer and we no longer *need* to bring in wood to build fires with. YAY! We got some gas (2 gals for $6.60) for the riding mower on Monday and I mower ONLY where we walk and around the pool. So most of our property is being returned to nature because we can't afford the gas for the mower so we could mow as much as we used to. Hopefully the chickens will keep the tick population in check and the cats will keep the rodents and snakes at bay until we can afford a solar powered mower (if they even exist). Since it is warmer though, at least we can stay somewhat cool in the pool, as long as we can afford the electricity to run the pump on the filter. However, just like everything else, the price of electricity will be going up and that will seriously impact our ability to cool ourselves and the kids off. *sigh*

Oh yeah, I have decided that unless I'm totally moved by other people's writing, I won't be commenting on their blogs or Gather articles if they're not commenting on what I write. Just in case you were wondering why I haven't been commenting on a regular basis.

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