bad day

Okay, let's see. I arrived late from my Nashville trip home around 1:00 AM yesterday morning. What has happened within the first 18 hours back:

The apartment downstairs was getting some water damage from my unit, so the landlord had to retile my bathroom while I was gone.  Which would be fine, and the new tile is nice, but they had to demo the room so I had to move everything (and then back), but the tile guys didn't sand down their spackle, and left globs of red sealant one the tile, walls, floor, ceiling etc.  And soot and grout settled over much of the apartment.  In my opinion, if you have to come into my apartment to do work, you should at least leave it as clean as you found it.  Cleaning that shit up took another hour.  And now I have to repaint the whole thing, at my time and expense.  It'll be a month easy before I can get that taken care of, which bugs me as I left it immaculate and now I have to deal with my landlord's mess as she basically keeps the living conditions to minimum required by law.  And anyone who has undergone a remodel knows how generally annoying and stressful living mid-construction can be.

Then morning comes:  My TiVo is fried, so much so I can't even get live TV.  It's about 18 months old or less, and am told it will cost about the same price as a new unit to ship/examine/repair, but if I replace it I'll lose the $400 lifetime service I already bought.  My media server/MacMini won't start up at all.  It's just past a year old.  My laptop, in which I pretty much organize/live most of my life is only successfully starting up one out of every four times (however, being me, everything has redundant backups, including my portable media drive, which still smells like Whitt's barbecue as the sauce spilled through my carryon during the trip soaking everything, which is kinda gross).  My rental and car insurance premiums are due, which I thought I had already taken car of and subsequently have not budgeted for.

And less than 12 hours after I parked the car coming back from the trip, some asshats smashed the window, took a crowbar to the dashboard, and ripped out the new stereo.

.

I have been pretty good at compartmentalizing all the family-related stress from the trip and status of things on the home front, but I did not need these added stressors, especially one on top of the other.

Although I will say that customer service from the Police Department was great, there's nothing they can do but provide a report. And while honestly that's all I can expect, it still means that they are pretty much useless.  Geico has also had stellar customer service, however they only use Safelite for glass repair and while it was still daylight, everyone was gone by 5:00 and there was no one who could come out then, that night, or anytime today.  Also, my deductible is $500 so I am out that as a minimum anyway.

I admit, thinking about Dad, Mom, all that shit going down at home, my inability to solve those problems or contribute significantly financially, work, career stress and then all of that at once, I started to lose it for a minute.  I like to be organized.  I'm good with a plan.  And lists.  But computers, particularly my laptop, that I need to get shit done.

After hours on the phone with various Geico reps, two different departments of the SFPD (both very kind and patient if ultimately useless), Geico glass reps, Safelite, etc, I called AAA to see if they could recommend anyone to replace the window glass before dark and/or fogfall.  AAA recommended San Francisco Glass Company, which had some really good reviews on Yelp and one terribly negative rant.  But they could come first thing this morning, and would cost more than $50 less.  Booked.

Things are looking better this morning.  Well, nothing is actually better, I'm just feeling better about it.  I'm good with a plan, and generally tackle things in discrete, accomplishable units.  Goals and steps.  Good.  And there is a real satisfaction to taking that Sharpie and crossing off an item on the "Shit I Have to Deal with Now" list.

Baby has a plan.  However, I'm already busy as fck so it's not like I have all this free time to devote to the plan.  Or money.  However, I have now altered my schedule to apply both time, and the money I would have spent on the things I was going to do with that time.    I am also impatient, and I want all this fixed now if not sooner.

But first things first. Well begun is half done. Dude came out and fixed my window this morning and vacuumed up most of the glass. Building manager noted the janky work the tile guys did and I have the oral go ahead to paint it back. I have an appointment with the Apple Store's Genius Bar at the first available, which unfortunately isn't until tomorrow.  I've finally gotten in touch with my insurance claims adjustor, but he can't meet for another three to five days, but then I'll get a recommendation for repair shop to fix the dashboard and install the new stereo.  I've ordered an affordable UPS (uninterrupted power supply) for the TiVo to assure the repair people it's not a power strip current fluctuation issue, and have the name of a hard rive replacement kit company bookmarked.  replacing my TiVo's hard drive will still consume a lot time, money and stress, but it's an issue resolution plan and that reduces the background stress immensely.  Hopefully sometime in July, maybe even over the holiday weekend if I can sprint through this, I can pick out a new paint color and knock out the bathroom in an afternoon with some tunes and some beer.

I'll be going out a lot less—fewer bar tabs, fewer theater tickets, fewer shows, fewer happy hour events and fewer take out meals.  I do have a series of  "you're unemployed and broke" jobless meal recipes handy from my friend Tom's Career Beat blog.   Ironically, I can get excited about staying home to save money because I have a sweet home entertainment setup, but the reason I am staying home is that now it is totally jacked and I need to save like Jesus to repair it all.  I just blew a wad on getting an iPad 2 for the parents and setting up a multi-node wireless network around their house.  Not to mention two summer airfares home (yikes!).

But I also have a ridiculously high stack of "to read" books which has been staring at me since Christmas, so I think it may be the perfect time for a cup of tea and many hours in the comfy chair.  Or, heaven forbid, the gym.

On to the next item on the list...