Thursday, March 16

Thursday, March 16

Today was another moderately productive day.  After my morning “duties,” I went right to the laundry room to clean out that litterbox and then to the breezeway where I swept up the scattered litter and then cleaned the three litterboxes in there.  They were extra nasty as I didn’t get around to cleaning them yesterday.  I try to clean them every other day.  Sometimes, I just cannot do it.

From there, I went into the kitchen where I cleaned and cut up a small stalk of celery and put it in the bottom of my Dutch oven with a stick of butter to sauté while I scraped the fat off the top of the container of roasted chicken, picked the meat off the bones, and cut the meat up before throwing it into the Dutch oven with a cup and a half of Minute Rice and a can of chicken broth. 

I set aside some of the chicken and fat that had settled at the top aside on a paper plate to put outside for the stray kitty.  I did not leave him anything last night, so he will probably be really hungry tonight, poor baby.

In the midst of cutting up the chicken, I got a call from Penny Mac about the possibility of borrowing enough money to pay off the student loan I co-signed for Dean several years ago.  He has completely stopped paying on it, and I have been paying monthly payments for 2 years of more.  The interest rate on that damn thing is 14.5% and the principle is only dropping about $5 a month.  Apparently they are only able to loan me the money (which is about $12,500) if I refinance the house.  If I do that, the interest on that loan will be reduced to 6.6%, which is about half the interest I am paying now. 

I am not pleased about taking on this loan, but it is obvious that I am going to be stuck with it.  It makes me sick to think what I could do with nearly $13,000 to benefit myself and improve my home and my life.  Instead I will get nothing out of it but the satisfaction of never giving Sallie Mae/Navient another CENT of my money for their usurious, predatory loans.  The original amount of this loan was $6,000.  But with the years of non-payment and all the penalties incurred from late or no payments has doubled it.  Dean was not able to pay, and a lot of this happened after I lost the job at ROC and had NO income at all. 

I am sure I will never see a penny from Dean if I do this, but I am stuck with this no matter what.  I might as well reduce the damage as much as I can.  Preferably while inflicting as much loss and damage on Sallie Mae/Navient as possible.  I realize it isn’t much damage, but at least I can screw them out of some money.

Currently, my house payment is under $700.  With this additional loan added, it will be $1,000 a month.  The lady I spoke to said that I could borrow up to $8,000 more, making my monthly payment a little more than $1,100.  Perhaps I should do this and put in the basement stair chair which would cost $6,000.  I’d have to check into what it would cost to put the bathtub in.  I don’t know if $2,000 would do it.  I would want the biggest, deepest tub that would fit in my bathroom. 

At some point, I will be contacting Dean and telling him what I am going to do.  Would it be unkind to tell him that it would be an act of good will to come to my house during some of his free time and do some yard work and possibly painting of the inside of my house in return for my paying off his loan?  I have also thought about asking him to name his next daughter after me.  LOL.  I can’t ask for the first born daughter to be named after me since she has already been born and has been named Azalia. 

I hate that this has become my responsibility. 

Anyhow, I spent quite a bit of time dealing with this.  Right before we ended the call, my electricity blinked off, then flickered a few times, then came back on again.  I got a text from my sister-in-law Kari asking if I had electricity.  I told her what had happened, but she said hers had gone off and stayed off.  I also got a call from Nola while I was on the phone with the loan lady.  She left a message telling me that her electricity was also off.  I tried to call her back after I hung up the other call, but it went straight to voice mail. 

I finished making the chicken and rice hot dish, ate a bowl, let the pot cool before putting the rest in storage containers and sticking it in the refrigerator, and washed the dishes.  I put away the dishes that were already clean as well. 

While the pot was cooling, I sat down in the living room to eat the portion I had for supper.  I called my mother to see if she had electricity.  She did.  Hers never flickered at all.  Then I was stuck on the phone with her for almost two hours.  Neither of us had anything worth talking about to say, yet I couldn’t get her off the phone.  I suppose she was just lonely as she had not talked to anyone other than Lily today.

While I was talking to her, I went out on the deck and picked up a bunch of stuff that had blown around on the deck—mostly garbage.  It had been raining all day, so everything was soaking wet.  Including the Chewy.com box that I discovered out there.  At least it was on the deck and not at the breezeway door—but it had to be a different driver than my usual sweetheart guy.  The asshole never knocked or rang the bell, nor did he wrap the package in plastic to keep it dry.  Bastard. 

At least it wasn’t a really heavy box like the cat litter ones.  I was able to drag it into the house.

When I finally got her off the phone, I went back into the kitchen and made myself a bowl of ice cream.  It was cherry flavored ice cream with cherries and chunks of chocolate in it.  It was very satisfying.  I needed something sweet after all that financial chatter. 

Fuck Sallie Mae and all “her” tributaries.

I was still eating my ice cream when Lily called.  She said they will be sending her home on Tuesday next week.  Rhonda is unable to come until Wednesday, so she asked if I could stay overnight with her on Tuesday night.  I don’t want to, but I will.  I think I might try to guilt my mother into inviting her to stay overnight at her house as she has two spare bedrooms and she OWES Lily some caretaking time, since Lily took care of her for a month while she was recovering from lymphoma. 

But I will do it.  I just do not want to.

Rhonda will be coming on Wednesday after which she will take Lily back to South Dakota with her until after Easter.  Hopefully, Lily will be much more able to take care of herself after that. 

After being on the phone with Lily for over an hour, I fed the cats their soft night food and settled down to write this entry.  I am hoping to get to bed moderately early.  DeAnn and I will zoom tomorrow at 10.  My plan for our productivity partnership zoom is to clean the bathroom and possibly sweep and scrub the bed room, laundry room, living room, and kitchen.  If I have the energy and motivation, I’d like to vacuum the area rug in the office and file some of my medical printouts.

I forgot to mention that at some point today, I filed my written prayers from the whole month of February and the partial month of March.  That’s been on my list of things to do for at least two weeks.

Today’s weather was not what we expected.  It rained all day, turned into snow for about an hour, and then all precipitation vanished and the wind has been howling ever since.  If it had given us more snow, we’d be having a hell of a blizzard right now.  This wind is insane.

It is also terribly damp and chilly.  My arthritic shoulders and knees are hurting a lot.  I am going to bed very shortly.  I’m tired and I have to get up early tomorrow to zoom with DeAnn.