Good news, Bad news

Don't 'cha just hate that "Well there's good news and there's bad news, which do you want first?" And, all it really means is things aren't great but they could maybe be worse so which side of that coin do you want to learn about first.

And that's pretty much the way I'm operating -or have been operating today and pretty much it seems, most of my life too!

Mandy and I just finished up getting the January mortgage payment made - online! Yippy skippy! The good news there is that since we got it done tonight now, those leeches, bloodsuckers that they are, from the mortgage company won't be calling and disturbing me any more this month. Of course, come February, depending on how things shake out you know, financially speaking, I probably will be hearing from them again until Mandy acquires enough together to ship them their fair share. So, I consider that being a really mixed bag of news - good that we're saved by the bell for this month and yet, because things can fall apart in a heartbeat here (or so it seems), the odds are that next month I will have to listen to those people on the phone all over again.

Another piece of good new is that I finally did hear from the insurance company today about my car. Yes, they totalled it. And they told me how much they will be giving me for it, which isn't as much as my son-in-law had thought the car was valued to be but their figure is close enough to his ballpark range. Enough anyway that he is feeling very confident that he can secure me a decent unit at a car auction -one that is a nice car, appearance wise, may need a few repairs to it but not things that will take him weeks to do or a kazillion bucks to get the parts either. And, he is confident that I can have enough left over to go SHOPPING too for something I think I really need and that would be a new computer!

I saw one advertised at Office Depot in this past Sunday's ad section for a Lenovo computer - had never heard of that brand before - but the components listed in the ad for this computer and the price was $550. So I e-mailed my much younger and also, (especially when it comes to shopping for bigger ticket items and most especially when it comes to stuff pertaining to computers) cousin Ray, out in Indianapolis, to see what he had to say about this brand, this price, etc. He said it sounded like a decent enough price to him and that he had heard mostly good things about this make. Soooo, maybe that will be at least a stop for me when I have some coins in my fat little hands!

Of course, thinking of this "windfall" -hah, having your son wreck your car and then it is totalled is a windfall? - I don't think it is that exactly as it has had me pretty much a nervous wreck, but anyway, back to my "windfall" here, I was thinking too of other things I could, probably should do too with any money left over once I get a new vehicle of some sort squared away. I SHOULD make an appointment to get my eyes checked and get new glasses! Should have done that a couple of years back really but with low moola on hand, you do what you can and make do with what you have till you can do what you need to do! Yeah, you all know what I mean by that, I'm sure! But, I really do need new glasses.

There should also be enough left over too so that I can pay off the balance we still owe to the fuel oil company for our heat from LAST year! Yes, last year! The oil costs skyrocketed so much last year that we ended up owing the company $600 plus in excess of what we had contracted to pay throughout the year! What a crock! And then, you read about how the big oil company - EXXON anyway - was posting kazilions of dollars in profits over and above what their previoius year's profits had been but hey, they were virtually next to financial ruination because of Hurricane Katrinia unless they jacked the fuel and gas prices way, way up you know! Right! Tell me another one and let me remind you about swamplands for sale in Florida, cheap and bridges in Brooklyn being for sale too and guess that tells you what I think of the oil companies and their procedures, doesn't it?

And, of course, me being me, having had to run all over the creation all the time it seemed over the past 18 months from one doctor to another, one hospital to another too, of course, I still have oodles and oodles of doctor/hospital/lab fees bills here that could stand to have a couple of checks written out and make a few people a little happier there then too! Not that I'm in a position to pay them all off, but at least - hopefully - get a couple of the small dr bills out of my hair for once and for all!

And, if I can get those things all done, then that will be good news that came forth in the end, from some bad news but yet again, that bad news back on Christmas night could have been much worse too than it was, soooo - well yep, good news, bad news for sure there wasn't it?