Update..

We heard that Keys is spending time in the fine lockup facilities of our former county.  Yippie…that five finger discount thing’ll bitecha… sigh.  Anyway…I’m not sure how long he’ll be held..looks like it’s pending bail right now  (which doesn’t seem to be happening).  Where we live now he’d be turfed out within 24 hours as he hasn’t committed anything ‘violent’–I’m not sure if the same holds true where he is now.

Anyway..that’s that.  Bleah.

Life, interrupted

Life chugs merrily along, I suppose.  Here’s what I know about everybody:

T is living a few hours north of us, working when he can.  His main source of income is from a company who contracts out for ‘road painting’…everything from lines on the highways to private parking lots.  When he’s working under contract for the State, things are really good.  When its raining and there is no work to be had (you know…between October and June, for the most part around here…)…it’s fairly lean living for him.  We did see T over Christmas and spend some with with him in Seattle.  His apartment is clean and in a family oriented complex…well lit and not at all scary.  It was, in fact, much nicer than the first place Mike and I rented in the midwest…and he doesn’t have to climb through a weighted trap door to get to his laundry machine…they’re right in his unit.

Keys is still back in our old hometown, I beleive.  I heard from his older sister a while ago that he’d been dismissed from his position at McDs and shared with me in a recent Myspace note that he’s selling ‘Vector Knives’.  I’m not sure what those are…guessing it’s like Cutco or something.  His girlfriend, M, has left the area and has gone back to West VA…no word on how that relationship (or the possible paternity findings of her expected child) is progressing.

LB has continued to hold his job at the State run home for the mentally disabled.  The residents have a spectrum of emotional and cognitive disabilities and he acts as an assistant in their daily living routines.  At the same time he has begun ‘real’ college at a local Christian University.  We’re not terribly happy with this choice, as LB is still in collections for classes he took (and didn’t pass or pay for) at the nearby community college but…somehow he’s making it work.   I’m not sure HOW he’s making it work, or why the school is allowing him to borrow unconscionable amounts of money to fund an education which doesn’t hold much financial promise but…sigh.

For the record I understand he wants to be in some kind of music or youth ministry.  Not that I object to a ministerial calling…I just object to borrowing more than what an average HOUSE is worth to pay for it, when the salary expectations are…substantially lower.   Anyway…he’s a few weeks in and has made it work thus far.  We’re being as supportive as we’re able (yet not willing to co-sign loans at this point).  And…as leery as I am about it all…he’s got nearly a full time job crammed into a Friday-Monday morning shift and school all week.  He’s hiking across town if the busses aren’t running and it seems like he’s doing his best to ‘keep up’.  I will be, understandably, impressed if he finishes this semester successfully, and perhaps a lot more optimistic about his ability to continue in an academic setting without falling apart.

I believe he’s coming over tomorrow night to get help with his taxes and to plug in numbers for the FASFA.  I should think about what to feed him.

Fred continues in his transitional programming.   His life is going pretty well, to be honest.  Right now I’m sort of supervising him in his ‘main’ chore of putting the dishes away while I write this…clink clink..crash…

Our dog, Denali, has redeveloped a tumor on his front right leg.  He developed this issue (its a nerve sheath tumor) and had a substantial growth removed back in July of 2007.  I suspect we’ll be looking at a similar operation in March, when we go for a follow up appointment.  It’s sad…the ‘real’ fix for this is to have the leg amputated.  Our beastie-boy is so big (he’s about 120 lbs right now)…it’s hard to imagine him losing his front right leg and really managing very well.  He’s not a ‘young dog’ either…at 10.5, he’s sort of older middle aged for a dog, particularly a big dog.

Mike turned 43  in January…it was a nice day.  We had cake.  And he had presents.  There was ice cream and other birthday goodness.  Since then he’s been working sort of non-stop, given that its budget season for the City.  Most days he works until 5:00ish, comes home to eat and then goes back until 8:30-9:00…we’re hoping that will be done soon.

Anyway…that’s some of us and some of life that I can share.

Weekend Away

Weekend at the Coast

Originally uploaded by kmh in OR.

This past weekend we rented beach houses on the Oregon coast and enjoyed time with some friends. It was a lovely time and we had fantastic weather

I hate Chase Financial Services

I don’t have too many entries which are outright gripe sessions, I don’t think…particularly now that most of the children have moved out .  That said–this blog entry is dedicated to my utter and complete LOATHING of Chase Financial Services.  I don’t know that I’ve ever felt as ill-used by a corporation.  Sure I’ve felt frustration, annoyance– even significant upset at different businesses along the way.  I’m fairly certain, however, my present feelings top any of what I’ve previously experienced.

I’m not looking for sympathy (although feel free to join me in my righteous indignation).  I’ll just tell the story and leave it out there on the interwebz in case anyone else is looking for justification to hate Chase too.

First– we have good credit.  We don’t miss payments or pay late, we’ve borrowed and paid back more money to different creditors than I even like to think about.   We have an appalling (in my mind) amount of credit available to us.   That’s just background about us.

A couple of years ago Chase offered us a pretty sweet deal on the card we’d had with them since we were married–consolidate all of our loans onto their card and receive an amazingly low APR for the life of the loan.  Cool.  So we did.   We didn’t use the card other than to hold that large ‘consolidated’  amount, and faithfully paid it.   They weren’t making boatloads of money off of us I suppose, but they WERE making money, beyond a doubt, and could have reasonably expected to do so for years to come.

Chase decided a month ago to change the rules–not just for us, but for everyone who fell at least within a similar card profile as ours (I’ve read stories which read EXACTLY like ours over and over online this past week).    The repayment rate for our loan was going to jump from 2% of the balance to 5% a month (I’m not going to give you the amount, because it’s somewhat embarrassing…but it was a significant enough increase where it really wouldn’t be possible to just absorb it into our normal budget).  Additionally they were going to begin charging $10 a month to keep the card open at all, whether or not there was a balance on the card.  Calling them had no effect…we were told (like the thousands of others in the same boat) that we could either deal with it or pay it off and close the card.   I’m thinking…why the &^%$@! would I want to pay $120 a year to have this account open?  When I asked that question (without the ^%$#@! words) to the customer service rep, she said “Do whatever you’d like to do ma’am.  Those are your options.  Keep it open and pay the $10 a month or close it out.”   No joke.   Again–we have several no-fee cards (Chase was no-fee before now).   That’s just an obscene amount, in my mind, to pay for a credit card.

We have non-Chase financial options–within the course of the afternoon, I’d moved all of our money off this card and into other places.   I’ll close the card within the next 30 days after I have a few other things sorted out.  I’m moving all of our banking away from our present bank which was recently bought out by Chase (Arg!!!).  I hate them.  We’ve had their blasted card for 15 years–it’ll be that long before I can think about them without wanting to spit, I’m sure.

Ok–so it could be worse–it is for many people.  I’m very thankful that we have options.  It’s not like they’ve poisoned the well water or left a field of unexploded mines in the back yard…but it seems so utterly unnecessary and mean spirited, I really can’t overlook it.

It really makes no sense–I’d think that anyone with financial options (i.e. people who are financially more stable, better credit, etc.) would jump off this train as fast as possible, leaving Chase loaded down with the masses WITHOUT options–and those more likely to suffer financial hardship or failure under the new terms.   Mad mad mad.

Anyway–I’ll try and write something more cheery soon.  I need to get the Santa pic off my header now…I guess leaving him up there for all of January was long enough.