| Match It For Pratchett |
[Mar. 16th, 2008|07:29 pm] |
The more fannish among my readers will remember the announcement last December that Terry Pratchett had been diagnosted with early-onset Alzheimer's. He followed that earlier this week with a $1M donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust in the UK. It didn't take too long for the idea of matching the donation to hit the blogosphere.
The announcement that Pterry had made his contribution hit my f'list on the first anniversary of Aunt Mary's passing. As those of you who were reading me then may recall, she was three weeks shy of her 99th birthday, and was blessed with a fully-functional body and brain until the very end. Her sister, my great-grandmother, was not so lucky...she spent her last five years on this earth descending into senile dementia, trapped inside her own mind for those final 18 months.
After Nana's passing, her daughter (my Grammy) stated on more than one occasion that she didn't want to "end up like her;" sadly, this became a self-fulfilling prophecy, and she has been in a residential facility specializing in Alzheimer's and dementia care for several years now. So it's no real surprise that I read the announcement, heard about the challenge, and found that my wallet felt a little heavy....
The drive to match Pterry's contribution now has its own home online - http://www.matchitforpratchett.org/ - and an RSS feed, available here as ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) pratchettmatch. The site links to a shop where you can buy shirts with the logo featured in my icon, with all proceeds going to the Alzheimer's Research Trust; the site maintainer is collecting links for Alzheimer's charities around the world, if you want your money to stay closer to home. I made my own contribution to the Alzheimer's Association here in the US; if you plan on doing the same, I humbly suggest you use the Tribute link, and note that your contribution is in honor of Match It For Pratchett. It's not perfect (there's only room to note one honor/memorial, so you can't mention that AND a family member or friend), but it would be nice to see how many contributions the other organizations outside the UK receive. |
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| Well, crap. |
[Sep. 24th, 2007|11:14 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | money | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | cranky | ] |
Just heard from my insurance adjustor. Our deductible is $100...
...on everything except theft loss, where it's $250.
It just f'n figures, you know? |
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| In other news... |
[Sep. 13th, 2007|01:33 pm] |
...my 20th high-school reunion is scheduled for my birthday next year.
At $89 a ticket.
Are these people really worth that much to me? |
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| Tag it and bag it! |
[Aug. 19th, 2007|09:32 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | )'(, money, roadtrip | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | DONE | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Duran Duran - Love Voodoo | ] |
I have officially gone shopping for the last time before I leave for the Burn.
You'll note I didn't say "I finished my shopping." :-/ No, I was a responsible Koosh, and actually paid all my Reality Camp bills this week, and was looking at the remaining cash when I said "Oh, crap, I still need to put GAS in the car to get there!" *headdesk* So I'm doing without cheese-and-crackers and the tuna-salad kits that I've essentially lived on the last couple of years, but I have my water, and the sodas I promised for the bar (along with a personal stash), and I know I've got more than enough stuff to get by. I need to pick up a roll of quarters so I can do a zillion loads of laundry, but I can find that somewhere. |
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| Yeah, that figures. |
[Jun. 20th, 2007|08:43 am] |
My paid account expires the 29th.
I get paid the 29th.
The upcoming Permanent Account sale ends the 28th.
Yes, I know plenty of people on both sides of whether or not Perms are a worthwhile investment in light of Strikethrough. I still use my journal regularly enough to consider it one. |
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| A momentary reprieve |
[Jun. 7th, 2007|11:08 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | money | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  relieved | ] |
On a whim, I just checked my bank account. A fund transfer from The Account That Doesn't Exist™ is listed as "pending," a good day earlier than I expected it to be. I'll actually be solvent for my !date tonight! |
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| No, really... |
[Mar. 16th, 2007|10:52 pm] |
...I DIDN'T have enough going on right now.
My first-generation iPod Shuffle stopped working tonight. I originally got the dreaded 1418 error when I tried to sync, but after downloading and installing the restore utility they offer, iTunes was no longer recognizing it at all. It's assuredly neither the adaptor nor the latest revision of the iTunes software (which I had just installed prior to this, so I wondered for a minute), because ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) gridlore's Shuffle (the same model) still appears right away.
So now I get to haul my ass out of bed first thing in the morning, schlep over to the mall, and have the lovely folks at the Genius Bar tell me "yep, it's broken." And probably try to sell me the new model (actually $10 less than what jarlsberg71 paid when he wintergifted me with this in '05, for twice the storage space), which, of course, I can't afford this weekend for damn sure, and probably not for a while yet.
*POWERHEADDESK* |
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| Holy shit. (Now with pictures!) |
[Feb. 6th, 2007|09:07 pm] |
gridlore and I just bought a car.
A REAL car.
A 2006 PT CRUISER WITH ONLY FIFTEEN THOUSAND MILES ON IT.
dafydd's reaction (I had to call him, 'cause he needs to sign the title transfer for Sammi): "Well, someone's crazy. I'm not sure if it's you or them." I advised him to embrace the power of "and."
It means we're living on ramen noodles for the next 70 months, and if we do something to screw this up, so help me I'll open a vein. But for the next few days at least, I can savor the fact that I'm driving something that isn't going to do its impression of the cop car at the end of The Blues Brothers the next time I come to a stop sign. |
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| The Internet is for.... |
[Dec. 28th, 2006|10:29 pm] |
For the three people on my f'list who don't already own it, the Avenue Q soundtrack is on sale at Amazon for $9.99. |
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| Now I AM going to cry. |
[Oct. 1st, 2006|11:47 am] |
He hasn't sold them yet.
Why, OH why, did this have to come up in a week where I'm worried about just getting the rent paid? |
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| PING murphymom |
[Jun. 2nd, 2006|12:42 pm] |
We need to start selling blood, internal organs, etc.
I just found out that Anne and Todd McCaffrey are going to be at WorldCon in Anaheim. |
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| Making an announcement |
[Mar. 27th, 2006|02:29 pm] |
I've mentioned this to a few people here and there over the last month or so, but I should make it public:
Unless I win the lottery in the next 4 months, I will not be attending Burning Man 2006.
It wasn't looking overly likely even before gridlore lost his job; the money we'd gotten back on our tax return was going to have to pay for his new teeth (and that still wasn't going to cover it all). Of course, the lack of job means a lack of insurance, and the denture money is going towards little things like, oh, you know, paying the rent.
Comments disabled, as I'm really not sure there's a reply that wouldn't just rub me the wrong way. |
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| And once again... |
[Jan. 23rd, 2006|07:10 pm] |
...a promising temporary assignment evaporates out from under me due to an unexpected lack of work for me to do.
I'm going to the bar and singing bitchy songs tonight. |
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| ...then again, maybe I won't. |
[Sep. 22nd, 2005|03:49 pm] |
gridlore just called, saying he's not likely to get out of work until 1630 or 1700 today. It'll take him at least an hour to get home, if not longer, at that hour. If he stops to put gas in the car and deposit his check, add another half-hour to that. So it's unlikely that I'd get the car to drive into SF any earlier than 1830. Another hour and change to drive up there, time to find a parking space, etc., etc., and my getting to the club in time for the first act is looking increasingly unlikely. And that's assuming I eat at the club.
Methinks I'm going to save myself a lot of effort and just take Doug to dinner when he does get home. ($DEITY knows it'll probably be cheaper for the two of us to go to Marie Callender's - even with dessert - than it would be to park and eat in SF by myself.)
Oh, well. It sounded like a fun show, but none of the acts are anyone I'm desperately fond of. I may be kicking myself in a couple of years when one of them becomes the Next Big Thing and I don't get to say "I saw zir at a club gig before zie hit it," but if so, I'll deal. |
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| Why do I have a bad feeling about this? |
[Jul. 7th, 2005|11:20 pm] |
I RSVPed for an event taking place in a couple of weeks. On the matter of cost, the invite says:
DONATION: $40-20, sliding scale, with no one turned away for lack of funds*. Thank you in advance for honoring the work and time that goes into planning and facilitating these party/playshops. (*If you know that this sliding scale is prohibitive for you, please let us know, and we will ask you for an "in-kind" contribution of arriving early to help set up, staying afterwards to clean-up, and/or bringing additions to our snack table. Thank you!)
So when I wrote in, I asked for more information about helping with set-up, etc. This is the response I got:
We'll definitely appreciate your assistance in set-up.
When you do come - for set-up please arrive by 12 noon - please then pay what you believe you can afford - remembering that this is a workshop as much as a social event.
Though we say "no one turned away for lack of funds," at the same time - we do hope you'll consider donating resources equivalent to the value you
believe you are getting.
Hope this is a helpful gauge?
I'm >< that far from writing back and saying "Sorry, you're making this sound like it's all about the money. I'm no longer interested." Am I just being hypersensitive? |
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| Yay. |
[Nov. 1st, 2001|03:49 pm] |
I have a car again. Again. One of the connectors on one of the things that just got fixed worked its way loose; they refastened it, let me drive it around the block a couple of times to be sure it wasn't doing what it had been doing anymore, and sent me on my way without even invoicing me for the problem.
I like these people. |
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| I <heart> my therapist. |
[Sep. 20th, 2001|02:30 pm] |
(backdated, as time has not been on my side this week)
When I went to session today, I told Y right up front that I wasn't certain if I would be able to continue therapy more frequently than every other week, if that often, due to our sudden drastic change in financial status. I'm already at the low end of her sliding scale - but that's $50 a week I could be using to keep the gas tank filled, or buy groceries, or pay the phone bill....
She offered to drop my payment to $35 - cutting into her own percentage (she's a senior intern, not fully licensed; the office she works through gets roughly half of what she collects from her clients) - and is willing to carry a three-session outstanding balance until our finances clear themselves up.
To say I was stunned by the offer is putting it mildly. But she and I have been working together, on and off, for more than three years now. It's nice to know she's willing to go to such lengths to keep that going. |
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| *sigh* |
[Jun. 15th, 2001|03:57 pm] |
How is it that cars know when you have extra money?
Rose and I were supposed to meet her father for lunch today in San Jose, as he was in the area rather unexpectedly. We also were planning, while we were down there, to return the stereo she bought at Fry's last week which was DOA. (Anyone who has ever shopped at Fry's regularly will know that this is, of course, typical.) So TS drops me back off at home after breakfast on her way to her hotel, Rose lugs the stereo back downstairs and loads it into the trunk, and we get into the car.
*WhirrRATTLERATTLERATTLE*....
Shit.
Start to send Rose up to ask the neighbors for a jump...and then it occurs to me that the dome lights were still on, and the power windows still work. Try it again.
*WhirrRATTLERATTLERATTLE*....
It ain't the battery, but it ain't moving. Fuck. Go wake Doug up (he didn't want to sleep too late today ANYhow), have him come downstairs and give a listen.
*WhirrRATTLERATTLERATTLE*....
"It's the alternator," sez he. Downgrade my previous "Fuck" back to "Shit," and go upstairs to call for a tow truck. Truck shows up in a pleasantly brief amount of time, driver has me pop the hood, clips his portable battery up to it. "Turn it over."
*WhirrVROOOMMMMMMMM*....
Say what?
"Overhead lights don't take a whole lot of juice," he says. "It might be the battery, or it might be a loose connection." Pay the man $40 for the privilege of having him jumpstart our car (which, for some reason, is far less annoying to me than paying him $60 for towing the car five blocks to my usual service station, for all we could've jumped the car ourselves for free) and drive to the station under our own power. Rationalize that the car needed a tune-up and oil change anyhow, silently count my blessings that my "Preferred Customer" reminder-and-discount-coupon had showed up earlier in the week, and catch the bus home.
At least the Direct Deposit finally kicked in this week, and we didn't get stuck here without the money in our account to pay for all of this.... |
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| Stop me before I shop again! |
[Jun. 3rd, 2001|12:12 am] |
Rose and I just got back from Safeway.... Even with my Club Card, we wound up spending $200. Granted, most of what we picked up will last us through the month, as well as a few non-perishables that will go even further, but still, it's a shock to the system to watch all of that pile up in the cart. And Doug was already asleep, so we had to haul it upstairs ourselves - well, she got all of it as far as the 2nd floor landing, and I helped bring it up from there.
So naturally something had to rustle its way out of the bags and bounce all the way down the stairs as we stood there and watched. Definitely one of those "you'd better laugh before you start crying" moments, imo.
And I really should be in bed now; I've gotta put gas in the car before we head back over to IKEA in the morning, and we want to be there right when they open in hopes of not spending three million years in line again, so I want to be out the door by 0900. At least my fever seems to be down. (I still feel like shit, though - and I'm praying dafydd hasn't picked it up, too....) |
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cranky
crushed