Twelve Thursday Thoughts: The Hostage Edition (Humph)

HAPPY NEW YEARS TO YA!!

Welcome BACK to Thursday Thoughts....

And yes, you read that title right. 'Tis the HOSTAGE EDITION.

And this is how I am looking right now.

Frickin' annoyed about being held hostage.

So here we go.

1. Yes, this is the Hostage Edition. Why? Because over 800,000 government employees are being held hostage by this GUB'MENT SHUTDOWN.

2. I have worked for our beloved gub'ment for over 20 years. That is a long long time. Yes, this is considered a job for life at times, but then you have this monkey wrench called the Gub'ment shutdown. Sigh. And this is the third one this year.

3. I hear that I am not affected about it, since I am paid differently than other gub'ment employees. So I should get a check every other Friday.

4. But one of my coworkers, who was in our current group during out last shutdown (I was not), said 'Sure, they say that, but they messed everything up. We still didn't get paid!"

5. Humph.

6. So I have had to come up with a plan. It will be the same one I had during the 2013 shutdown: cut myself a living expenses check once a week. That works well enough.

7. Everybody gets reimbursed after this is over, and it comes along with a sad sack apology along the lines of "We are so sorry you had to go through this."

8. Humph.

9. In other news, I had to have my house appraised yesterday. Yo, I did not want to come out of my pocket with the money for that. During a shutdown, extra ish like that is magnified. I could have used those monies for something else. But I have to appeal my taxes and it is best to go before the appeals board next week with a good thorough professional appraisal in hand rather than my Good Book of Cuss. ("Ya'll some bustas, trying to charge me all this money for property taxes. #%^&@!!!!)

10. I also got my hospital bill in the mail. The total charges were around $21,000. Now they know they didn't do that much over 6 days. I needed some concierge and limousine service for all that. THANK GOD FOR INSURANCE. And thank goodness for my health savings account. I saw a ton of money getting dumped into my regular bank account from that, and I thought "Oh my, the hospital bills must be hitting my account." So I just used that money to pay the hospital bill, which was a few percent.

11. The last time I was in the hospital was 17 years ago. The bill was $18,000. I was charged $100. And I remember being upset about that, because it messed with my budget. Sigh. Thank God for insurance. And thank goodness for growth. I am older and wiser now. I will not moan and groan about any bill I have to pay. I just thank God in advance that a way will be made... because I have ALWAYS seen a way made.

12. I am still on vacation. 2 weeks of "staycation" to be precise. I go back to work on Monday. Yes, I have to work, even if the gub'ment is shut down. My car will most likely be the only car in the parking lot. And that is alright. (Although I have been joking/threatening that I will park my car and then catch an Uber back home, lol).  I still have the hostage face, but I know that everything will be alright soon.

That is it for 12 Thursday Thoughts! I managed to get a lot of information in there, didn't I?

And that is good after not posting much. Hopefully I will do better! This was really good for my mental :)