Auurrghgghhh!!!!

 So, there I was, Saturday, planning on holiday meals and planning bills (like car tag renewals and such) and while reviewing my bank statement (on-line, I'm not a total Luddite) and lo and behold, something was missing.

Utilities - check.
Cable/Internet - check.
Rent - check.
Death insurance - check.
Scamazon - check.
Food, food, food, food - check, check, check, check.
Drugs (legal variety) - check.
Car insurance - 
Car insurance - 
CAR INSURANCE!!!???? 

Lo, and behold, the wondrous USAA of which I have been a valued and happy member, thanks to Dad and Mum, for a very long time, has not dunned my account for October or November.

(twing, left rear spinal area, over left rear kidney, twing.)

Call USAA (the best insurance company in the world, trust me, I've sampled all of them) and closed till Monday.

(twing, left rear spinal area, over left rear kidney, twing, gurgle, gurgle...)

Sunday, wake up, and my old Irritated friend Bowel Syndrome has started creeping into my life again (a bad response to stress, last two years at last job I felt like I spent more time in the jakes than at the desk (TMI, I know, TMI.))

(Twing, left Rear Spinal Area, over left rear kindey, Twing, gurgle spurgle murgle...)

Monday, wake up.  Go to bathroom, say hello to my little friend the plunger as IBS has returned with a vengeance.  Take doggo out for his walk and call USAA.

Me. (bip-boop-bingle-bongle)(traipse through phone tree and get a human (USAA has the shortest phone tree ever, but it's still a phone tree.)

USAA lady - "Hello, how can I help you?"  (By the way, USAA has the nicest, actual English-speaking, clearly-speaking phone people I have ever heard.  No weird sub-continent accent, nope, good old American-accent English with a slight Southern spin.  Clear voice how wonderful.)

Me.  "Why have you not dunned my account for October and November?  And does this mean I no longer have car insurance?"

USAA lady - "Well, (goes onto short but clearly understandable explanation of how USAA has gone to new computer system and they migrated most data over, like phone numbers, addresses, email addys, shoe sizes, but not billing info."

Me.  "Just my billing info?  Because that would be my usual luck."

USAA lady - "No, a lot of billing info."

Me.  "So you've been answering a lot of these calls?"

USAA lady - "Yes."  Deep remorseful sigh...

Welp, got all that fixed, got rebilling set up, yada yada yada... 

Seriously, USAA is the best.  They give you a dividend on the money they charge you, and often it will pay a good portion or all of one month's bill for the year.  Great people, great service.

And... if you have USAA, make sure they're pulling money from your account.  Just saying....

So, I go out, get last of holiday shopping done, peeved because no chicken livers are available anywhere (since we only do turkey breasts here, there's no bag of livers and neck to boil up for dressing or dirty rice, so I normally use chicken livers, but no chicken livers so chicken thighs I'll try instead.)  Back is hurting, feels like someone punched me over left kidney, oh, boy, I know what's coming now...

Fix dinner, settle down after same, get up to take dog out for late walk, and my back goes... Urk.  Uh-oh...

Trying to walk dog, back goes "Urk, urk, urk, urk."  (sound of back twinging)

Dog gets interested in smell, he goes one way, I'm heading in the other direction, upper torso gets rotated to the left and... "UUUURRRKKKK!!!!!"  A twinge so bad I actually cried out in pain.

Get back to the apartment.  Get dog unhooked, go grab the stretchy back support thing from when Mrs. Andrew had back surgery many moons ago.  Tighten it up as much as I can, gingerly get into bed, and now I've got a day or two of unstable back to deal with.

Yay. Stress. It's a killer.

Long history of stress.

Back in college, had a very bad day, one of those days that is just... bad.  Almost died on the way to a final, don't remember taking final, don't remember getting home.  Woke up two days later, feet were flat, back was 'thrown out,' and a white spot appeared on the back of my head, about a quarter size.

Since then, any undue stress, like, oh, my cow-orkers trying to actively kill me or put me in prison (several times) or the business I'm working with closing without warning (several times) or in-laws moving in uninvited (several times) will cause the same reactions, from IBS to foot flattening and back-throwing out.

Yay.

Thanks, USAA, for the holiday gift.  I love you all, but...

On the other hand, I still have car insurance and they (USAA) HAVE NOT reported lack of car insurance to the State of Florida so the State of Florida hasn't cancelled my DL or my car tags.

(Seriously, have you ever shifted car insurance?  The cancelled company will immediately call the state where you have your car tags registered to neener-neener on you to say you don't have insurance with ex-car company.  Meanwhile, at new car company, it's on someone's 'to-do' list to get done in the next month or so to inform the state that your car is indeed insured with new car insurance company.  Been there, done that, gotten pulled over and paid fines and, oh, my back, my aching back.  The pain, oh, the pain.)

Seriously, as lame as this show was, even as a kid I identified more with Dr. Smith than the rest of the space knuckleheads, well, except that Dr. Smith was a traitor to the free people of Earth and I'm not that, well, except in the eyes of certain leftist jackwagons, but who cares about those people, Brandon (cough, cough)

Needless to say, with the current economic and political shenanigans going on outside my door (nationally that is, for the most part) it doesn't take much additional stress to take my poor body from 'Handling things okay-ish' to 'URK!!!! gurgle gurgle'

On the other hand, my governor, Governor Ron DeSantis, is trying to get the state of Florida's gas tax repealed for the duration because he says we're already paying too much and we all need some relief.

Can you imagine if other states (looking at you, California) cancelled their gas taxes for a while?

That's my governor.  Making sense out of a senseless world.  Now if he'd only allow oil exploration and exploitation off of Florida's coasts...

Other than that, Happy Thanksgiving all you Chanters out there!

And here's just a tad bit of music, that explains so much my view of myself...  especially when I look over at Mrs. Andrew and marvel at me lucking out so darned much.

"Creep" from Radiohead

When you were here before
Couldn't look you in the eye
You're just like an angel
Your skin makes me cry
You float like a feather
In a beautiful world
I wish I was special
You're so fucking special

But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here

I don't care if it hurts
I want to have control
I want a perfect body
I want a perfect soul
I want you to notice
When I'm not around
You're so fucking special
I wish I was special

But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here

Oh, oh

She's running out again
She's running out
She run run run run
Run

Whatever makes you happy
Whatever you want
You're so frucking special
I wish I was special

But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here
I don't belong here

No, I don't have a bad self-image, just sometimes, well, what the hell am I doing here?  And then I look to my side and she's there and life is good.  And she willingly stays with me.  Whoo-hoo on my part.  (but in the back of the brain lies a Smeagol-class negative image that...)

On the other hand... She stays with ME!  Hah!  Suck it, everyone else who had a shot at her and blew it! HA!