Re: Donna

[Guest guest]

,

Thanks for your kind reply. But I'm starting to think it's that the fates are playing "Let's see if we can get Donna riled up enough to send her toppling over the edge" type game.

Grab a pot of coffee, and a pack of cigarettes (if you smoke... I'm not about to quit smoking anytime soon after this past couple of weeks.. LOL).. cause it's a long long story.

I found out in October that my bank card numbers had been compromised. I can't say that it was on the internet that it happened for certain. It could have been somebody who was in my home actually, has a photographic memory, saw my bank card laying on my desk (why hide it, since it's only and I here, I never thought I needed to) and had watched me type my usual username and password at some point. In any case, I found that it had been compromised when the gas company shut off my gas for non-payment, and the cable company shut off my cable, again for non-payment! The cable was on automatic payment via the bank card, so I didn't know it was being declined (I don't get to the post office but about once every three weeks, if I'm lucky). The Gas Company I did check by phone, unfortunately, I found out that my check by phone bounced when they shut off my gas! Both happened just about the same week, in October.

I got the Gas Company taken care of right away, and they came out on a Monday and inspected the lines, and turned it back on. No problem. I can live with this. (I'm still fighting with the cable company about them adjusting off the advance billing amount, and crediting back the amount from the day they shut it off.. I'm not paying for something I didn't receive!)

Okay.. we're on our way to recovery.... NOT.. My new gas bill was due on December 16th. On December 17th, the gas company arrived again. Did NOT knock on my door, and left the shut off notice on my neighbors door!. Which is exactly what they did in October, and they were informed in October that they went to the wrong apartment. If I wouldn't have decided to take a bath the afternoon of the 17th, just about the time that decided to wash dishes as well. We wouldn't have known until the 18th that the gas had been shut off. Because the water stays hot in the tank for hours and hours after the gas has been shut off! found the notice on the neighbors door, at 5:15!. The gas company is only in until 5:30. Okay, no problem, I called them got the bill taken care of, they scheduled the guy to come out on the 18th (Friday no less) to turn the gas back on.

Sometime after noon, the gas man arrives. He needs to get into the basement, because it's necessary for him to test the meter and lines before he can turn the gas back on. Okay, now this I don't understand because less than a month before they'd just run the same tests. Well, I guess it's fortunate for me that he did insist on testing again. Because this man found gas leaks! Now I think he'd have turned it back on, if the outside leak was the only one he had found, because it was a very small leak. (Nobody ever smelled gas anywhere). But he found a leak on the inside as well. And after shutting off the valves to the hot water tank, and the gas stove (it has pilot lights, and sometimes the leak test will bleed through the pilot lights and give a false positive reading). I still had leaks! He has to tag my meter, and he can't turn the gas back on.

This was December 18th.. I've got 20 people coming for Christmas Eve Dinner! And no hot water, and no stove! I called the landlord, he wasn't home, his wife answered. I told her about the leaks.. she must not be exceptionally bright, because she immediately said, but it's the gas companies responsibilities for leaks... I had to explain to her, that leaks on the other side of shut off valves are the gas companies responsibility, but from that valve inward is the property owners responsibility. She called her husband at work. He did return the call shortly after. But his response was. Friday?!? This late in the afternoon?!?

It was 3 o'clock for goodness sake. It wasn't that late.

But, he didn't start making phone calls to contractors until after he got home, which would have been 4:30 or so. He called me later that night, told me he had 4 calls in, to 4 contractors, but that nobody had returned his call yet. Then suggested that I go out and get myself a hot plate for cooking, and asked if I had anybody that I knew close by where I could go to get a shower!... Saturday he called me back, and told me that he still hadn't heard from 3 of the contractors but the one who did return his call, didn't do gas lines. I didn't hear another thing from him. And by Monday afternoon, I was starting to spaz out completely. And then I started looking in the yellow pages. There were at LEAST 7 plumbing contractors who answered 24/7.. I would be willing to bet the ranch on the fact that the landlord didn't call any one of them. At 4:30 I hear some talking, and go to check it out. There's the landlord, and there's a plumbing contractor! He didn't even take an hour off work to meet with a contractor in the morning to get the work started!

I had talked to the gas company, and had an approximate schedule on when I could get my gas turned back on, depending on when the work was finished. They had told me that if I called them by 2:30 on Monday afternoon, they would have a man out that same day. If I called them after 2:30 but before 5:30 on Monday, the man would arrive on Tuesday. If I called them on Tuesday they wouldn't be able to send anybody until Wednesday. Well, when the landlord told me that the work would be done on Tuesday, and I'd have my gas back on Tuesday, I told him that no I wouldn't, because I had talked to the gas company, and this was their schedule. He said, "well, this is a contractor, and they have some pull with the gas company".. My butt!

The contractor did arrive BRIGHT and early on Tuesday morning. They had a jack hammer going outside the building at 7:20 am! It didn't really take them all that long to do the work that needed to be done. I'd say by noon, a young man was upstairs replumbing the gas lines to the stove. I sat there, and we talked. I mentioned that they'd soon be finished, and that from what I was told, they needed to contact the gas company to let them know they were finished. The kid tells me, Yup, already done, the gas company said January 2nd! I seriously thought he was joking! I told him.. nope that won't do.. and I chuckled as I said that, because I really did think he was joking.

Well around 2 o'clock maybe 2:30 I noticed that all was quiet, so I started to check things out. No contractor's truck, but there is a gas meter on my front porch and there's a nice big ditch beside the building. Nothing marking that there was a big ditch there beside the building. So I thought, well maybe they went to lunch, while they are waiting for the gas company to arrive, but it's an awfully late lunch. Then in about an hour, I started to get really really antsy, when there wasn't any more activity, so I check again. Now I've not only got a meter on my porch, but a meterhead as well.

So I get on the phone, and call the gas company. And they tell me that yes, the contractor had called, and yes they had given them a date of January 2nd, but that the contractor said that wasn't satisfactory, so they were able to give them December 30th as a date, but it wouldn't be a guaranteed time or date. But that the contractor had not made the appointment. She asked if I did want to make the appointment. So I sputtered around. No, I can't make the appointment, I'm not the contractor, I'm not the landlord, I'm just the one without a stove and hot water. I told her I'd wait to see what I heard from the landlord. Sometime later I did hear the landlord banging around here there or somewhere, but he did NOT come to my door, and he didn't call me on the phone either.

I made call the landlord at 10 o'clock Tuesday night, because I was waaaaayyyyy to bent to talk to him. The landlord told him that yes, the gas company said January 2nd, but that if I called them in the morning and cried and whined (I don't cry and whine, I get livid) maybe they'd do something sooner. At 7 o'clock Christmas Eve morning I was on the phone with the gas company. And we went through all the January 2nd, the December 30th.. and I told her that December 30th wasn't acceptable either. She went to logisitics and they gave her a date of December 26th. Well, I took it. She then proceeded to tell me that the service man could be there anytime between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on the 26th, but there was no guarantee that he'd arrive at all, and that the contractor had to be there, or that there would be a $40 charge. And yes, by this time I was more than livid.

I told this woman, that I had to cancel my plans for a family Christmas Dinner at my house because of this. That I also had MS, and I wasn't walking too well before this fiasco started, and that since it had started the stress involved, I was walking even less well. But that I was going to take this appointment, and that somebody had better be here from the contractor, because otherwise somebody somewhere was looking at a lawsuit! ( sez that the word lawsuit, must be synonymous with abracadabra). I was not meaning the gas company, I was talking about landlord, for lagging, or contractor or somebody.. but they must have figured that it would filter back to them somehow someway.

At 8 a.m. called the landlord, and woke him up! he was off that day.. (Real concerned about his tenants isn't he? but come the 1st of the month he'd be expecting his rent.. we won't go there on what I'd like to call him) then told him that I talked to the gas company, and the appointment was set for the 26th between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. and that if somebody wasn't here there'd be a charge. Of course the landlord sez.. Well I can't afford to have the contractor there for that amount of time... told him, well then I guess you'd better let the contractor know, and maybe he can get a more definite time from the gas company.

didn't wait for the landlord to call the contractor, he decided after sitting here for a few minutes contemplating, that he'd call the contractor himself. The contractor wasn't in, so talked to his wife, who said she'd let him know immediately. Within 5 minutes the contractor was ringing our doorbell!. He asked , when did you talk to the Gas Company, told him around 7:30 or 8 o'clock. The contractor told him that he'd just talked to them, then turned around to walk away. said "Hey wait a minute.. .what did they tell you?" The contractor then told , that "they'd be here today".

Unfortunately, it didn't get completed until about 2:30 in the afternoon Christmas Eve, but at least it was turned back on. My plans for a family dinner Christmas Eve were shot anyway, but at least I could get a bath! We did a small turkey we had in the freezer and and I celebrated Christmas together. No tree, No lights, (that wasn't the gas company's fault though) No friends or family.. BUT we still had each other, and we had a new home coming, so these nightmares would soon be over! And our Christmas present to each other WAS the new home.. LOL

We made plans for New Year's Eve sort of... they were impromptu. Because we called 's niece and her hubby, and asked them if they could come down and help cut down the apple trees that needed to be removed so we can get our double-wide in. (there's two trees, a utility shed, and the doggie fence have to be removed) They said sure, they'd change their New Year's Eve plans, and come down here instead, so they wouldn't have a two hour drive in the morning. That way they could get an early start and get everything done that day.

We made these plans on Sunday, and another friend offered to use their truck to drive up to my dad's and pick up the shed I had purchased for storing furniture out of my house that had burned. The shed never got erected up there, and my brother stored my furniture in the basement of his building so that he could demolish the burned house. We needed a utility shed down here to store 's garden tractor, snow blower and other miscellaneous equipment. So up to the mountains we go, load it up, bring it all back down here, unloaded it inside the fence, so it wouldn't disappear overnight. And these same wonderful friends offered to start to put the shed together for us. They both had the week off for vacation, and were bored out of their gourds, looking for something to do. Well, they came over on Monday, and started the job. I was making phone calls to every utility company on earth getting orders in for service etc.

got home fairly early Monday afternoon, but it was still only shortly before dark. and had gotten the frame work for the base of the shed together, but there was still a lot of work to do. offered to go in to work on Tuesday, because they were overrun with death calls (it's been a very sad holiday season for lots of folks this year, and my heart does go out to them). And had to work as well, so it was decided that I could go up and give a hand, putting the walls up on the shed.

Now, I'm thinking.. yeah right.. I'm gonna stand there and hold a wall up.. boy will this building be lopsided!. It turned out that after a couple of hours of trying, that we were NOT going to be able to do this. It was too windy (not to mention cold) for two people to put this together, especially with one of them waving in the wind every bit as much as the aluminum panel! LOL.. So we called the job for that day. And we decided that rather than taking apart the one corner piece and panel that we had gotten together, we'd just store it on the corner of the porch next to a railing so the wind couldn't take it anywhere.

At this point, as I stepped onto the wooden porch, which was slightly damp, took two steps and promptly fell on my keister! I fell hard too. came flying! Are you alright? Are you sure you're alright? (I think he figured that his wife, my best friend, would have killed him had I been hurt!).. I told him I'm fine, the only thing I hurt was my pride. I wsan't going to tell him, that I'd bruised my hand, which was the first thing I noticed, or that my pants were wet.. and not just from the damp floor!.

THEN the other shoe dropped!

We had just gotten ready to sit down at the dining room table with a drink, and the phone rang. It was an attorney on the phone. And that's when the next fiasco started. My cousin who had loaned me the money to buy the double-wide had changed her mind. The phone call digressed from.. Did you know Patty was sick??? Well no, I didn't know that Patty was sick, because Patty would not answer my calls nor would she return messages. You didn't have a contract signed.. and on and on.. I asked her point blank, do you know that Patty doesn't want to go through with the deal. And she'd tell me that she didn't know that Patty didn't want to go through with it, but I should cancel the sales contract on the home, and get the papers all drawn up, to do it properly, and then proceed if Patty still wanted to loan me the money.

Now that would have been absolutely ludacris on my part. I really really lucked out on this home. I purchased a 6 year old 45,000 dollar home, for 26,000 dollars.. And that included the setup fee AND all the materials involved in setting up the home! Now I wasn't about to cancel a contract, and lose the home, without knowing for certain that my cousin didn't want to do the deal anymore. We had made a verbal agreement prior to her writing the check for the home. I was still perfectly willing to abide by that agreement, and the papers that were needed were just a formality. Everything happened way too fast to get everything done that needed to be done, in the proper order.

But there goes New Years!!!!!!

Yesterday was extremely crazy around here.. but it ended up getting resolved. I talked to the home sales manager. (My cousin had tried to pass herself off, over the phone as me, and cancel the contract, before she called me and asked me to call them to do it). Well the manager told me that after he'd talked to me before.. ummm.. wait a second you didn't talk to me before, this is my first call to you today.. So we established that she was portraying herself as me. In any case, the manger talked to the owner and the owner said sure, the contract can be cancelled, but there won't be any refund.

Then I talked to an attorney.. and knew exactly where I stood.. fortunately he didn't charge me for the phone consult, gave me the advice that I needed, and told me that if my cousin's attorney called me again, to refer her to him. And then if the attorney contacted him (oh, I wish that he was in today, so that I could call him and thank him profusely) then I would need to make an appointment to come in, and sign papers and fee agreements and so forth. That worked for me.

Oh, her attorney called me again, and started to try to get me riled up.. And I just didn't let it get to me... I calmly told her that I had talked to an attorney this morning, and that he told me that if she called me back, to refer her to him. Which I did. That's the last I heard from her. She also did NOT call my attorney. Though she had my cousin call him. At which point, he told my cousin, that he was informed that she had an attorney, and as being such, he could not discuss anything with her, to have her attorney call him.

Well after much fuss chaos and bother.. My cousin called me back last night, and said.. Well, can you make this payment for this amount of time... And I told her yes, but...

She wanted $321.00 a month for 7 years. I told her, if I agreed to that, it would not be fair to you. Your money would be tied up for 7 years, and all you would get out of that would be $400.00 and that's NOT fair to you. So we calmly discussed it over the phone, came up with an agreeable payment arrangement, with percentages and all kinds of things. Actually ended up saving myself about 20 thousand dollars in the end, but she still makes a tidy little sum from me having use of her money for 11.5 years.

So now.. after all this long boring dissertation.. what it amounts to.. and I'm not going to say it.. I think you can figure out what I mean, without me actually saying it. I'm not taking any chances from now on.. not until my feet are firmly planted on the floor of the computer room of that other place.. LOL

Thanks for listening.. I did need to unburden on that one.. There are more than several people who think I should have taken what she offered in the first place.. the 321 for 7 years, but I'm not that kind of person, and I do understand how people who weren't privy to the original conversation, might think that I was going to abscond with her funds, and she'd never see a dime.. That was never my intention, nor would it ever be. She was willing to help me make a dream come true, and if I did something like that, then it wouldn't be my dream anymore, and I most certainly would not be able to live with myself.

Thanks again.. for listening..

|)onna

[Guest guest]

,

Things are looking a bit brighter, though I'm sure there will be some hard feelings within the family over this. You know how it goes.. listen to this person's story, then listen to that person's story.. and somewhere in the middle of both stories.. is the truth.. I'm not very good at fabricating, so I'll probably be the bad guy in all of this..

Yes, I do feel so much better.. at least I know my home is on it's way. We'd very much like to be in it by the end of January, but I won't hold my breath on that one. There's still an awful lot of work to be done on the property before we can even bring the home in to set it up. One of the two apple trees that have to come down, was removed on Sunday. This coming Sunday should complete the removal of the apple trees. Then there's a utility shed that needs to come down as well. But we have to finish putting up the new shed, to move the garden tractor, roto-tiller, snow blower and other various pieces of equipment into. [This is not a good neighborhood to let anything of value set out in the open in... it's not high crime, or dangerous or anything like that.... just neighbors who can't/don't/won't mind their own business - almost got written up by the fire marshall for an illegal burn a couple of years back... but he didn't set the brush pile on fire, a neighbor did - that kind of stuff].

Now tell me, why would being able to do cross-stitch be embarassing? I wouldn't think so. Your grandmother taught you how to do it. That's something to hold onto and treasure for as long as you live. Besides, I've been crocheting since I was 15! My grandmother taught me as well! That, for me, is something that I can look at and remember my grandmother fondly. That's just one of the many intangible gifts she gave me. I think I also inherited her love for music, and some of her talent for producing it as well. No, I can't sing LOL! But my grandmother played the organ, by ear no less. I have the talent to play, only I can't play much by ear, I need the sheet music to read! LOL

And I cross-stitch too.. well.. I try to cross-stitch.. though I have to do the counted cross-stitch, because the other ways, just don't come out for me. I'm not one who finishes many projects that I start. LOL..

It's so sweet of you to want to create something for me to hang in my new home! It's not necessary.. but if you do, it will hang proudly on display for all people to see. And I WILL point it out to them as well!

Thanks so very much.. you are extremely kind... you are a person that I'm proud to call "friend".

|)onna

Re: Donna

Dear Donna,

Hooray!!!! That's great news. I am glad that your cousin decided to continue with the plan. It would have been crazy not to if you were paying the house off that you weren't going to get!! Well, things are starting to look a little brighter, aren't they? Congratulations Donna. And now that you had to go through all of that I am sure that you will appreciate it just that little bit more. So, when do you move in? One of my hobbies (its a bit embarrassing considering I am 23...) is cross stitch. My Grandma taught me when I was young because she loves it and I find it relaxing plus, I am not the most arty person in the world so it is about the only creative thing I can handle......ssoooo, I think maybe I might have to whip up a little house warming gift for you to hang in your new house.

Love and peace,

.

[Guest guest]

Thank you very much Anne & & & Sharon & Andreia & .. well EVERYBODY!

It warms my heart to know that all of you guys care about me, are there for me, and just plain out and out like me (I hope..LOL).. When I see all the nastiness that can come from outside sources in the world, who do the things that make you wonder about the shape of the world, and the people in it. I have often been told to take off the Rose-Colored Glasses and take a real look at the world around me. And then when I get a glimpse of just how horrible one person can actually be to another person, I begin to think, maybe they're right, the world in an awful place, full of mean, hateful and spiteful people.

Then I see you guys... and you all reaffirm in me, the belief that the world isn't all that nasty, and the people in it are not all horrible. There are people out there with warm, loving hearts, and then I have to smile, as I wipe tears from my eyes. I KNOW that the world isn't such a bad place after all. It's people like you, who keep the warm glow of happiness and contentment going. You keep the home fires burning... You make all the problems in life seem to fade away. You make me smile!

|)onna

Re: Donna

I agree with you Anne...Donna is very supportive and helpful of many...thank you...Anne wrote:

Donna,

I'm so glad that things are working out for you and you will get

your new home after all. You certainly deserve it. You are very

caring and giving and you've helped so many people on this list.

I'm thankful that you are here for everybody!

Happy New Year!

Anne

[Guest guest]

lol! we cud change our adresses! here, we suffer with 111.2F! its a good idea,isn´t it?

Regards, Andreia XXXXX

visit my web page and sign my guest book:

http://msmemoriesandthoughts.bravehost.com/

Re: Donna

I agree with you Anne...Donna is very supportive and helpful of many...thank you...Anne wrote:

Donna,

I'm so glad that things are working out for you and you will get

your new home after all. You certainly deserve it. You are very

caring and giving and you've helped so many people on this list.

I'm thankful that you are here for everybody!

Happy New Year!

Anne