The Dino-Aspie Ex-Café (for Those 40+... or feeling creaky)

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I'm sorry to hijack things here for a moment, but I need to vent.

So, when we moved out of the last apartment and into this one, the landlord hit us with some fake-ass charges based on things that seemed improbable, at best. The final bill came to almost $900, which of course I had no way to pay. The landlord didn't want to hear that, and eventually referred matters to a collection agency, where they've sat for about a year now, with me occasionally explaining that I don't have a job and don't seem likely to get one.

Today I made the mistake of trying to talk to one of their agents. He seemed a reasonable man, so I explained that when J deploys to Iraq later this month, his income will go up and his expenditures down, so I should be able to make at least a partial payment at that time. He seemed to agree, then put me on hold; the next person I spoke with claimed to be his manager, who eventually came down to threatening to sue if I didn't write them a postdated check by phone right then and there for $100. I tried to explain that I don't have $100, that in fact my account is overdrawn and I don't have a steady income so I can't guarantee any payment date, but he refused to believe me. He claimed that they were able to do something called an "asset evaluation", and that he somehow knew I either had the money or could get it - a clear falsehood, as the only "asset" I have is a half interest in a four-year-old car that isn't even paid for yet, and which obviously can't be sold to raise him some money.

Now I've been given two days to come up with the money. And there won't be any income at all until the 15th at the earliest, and I think that's all spoken for already (J does have some last-minute stuff to do before he deploys). So there's nothing I can do except try to explain, when it all comes down to it, that I have AS, and thus at the age of 45 can't get a job, and since I can't afford an official diagnosis, there's no disability money for it (assuming that it's considered a disability for SSI purposes, a matter on which I am not terribly clear, nor is the Social Security Administration). No money, no payee. I suppose I'm fortunate in that we don't have debtor's prisons in this country, and they can't garnish a paycheck I'm not getting...

Okay, back to the usual. I just had to rant in a place where people understand why I can't "just go out and get a job, already..."

there are no jobs out there, really, deacon. unless you're in a "high demand" field.

there's nothing they can do to you. they can't get blood out of a rock.

if it were me, i would have nothing to do with any collection agency at this point, other than to send them in writing and by certified mail a "cease to contact" notice. if the laws in your state are as they are here if they contact you after that point you can sue them for harassment. do not speak to any of them in person or on the phone again. everything needs to be written. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consume ... /cre27.pdf (if they do contact you after you have proof they received the notice, sue the pants off them. you'll then be able to pay your debt off. )

if they do call, get a name, organization name, and phone number. record the date and time of the call so it can be used as evidence later, if necessary.

if you are sued for the debt in court, you will have to pay it eventually, but the courts are usually pretty good about setting up payment plans.

been there, done that, it will pass in time.

that is what I would do, anyway....

Ayup!; and sounds to be a plausable theory as well.

gawwwwd, yes, just step right over to the Love and Dating thread and pick out your next contenders. . .

Lurking and stimming as usual.....

Same as above.......

Sometimes not much happens in here.

That was my thought, too, when I first that this is in the news. I've seen a few cases in that forum of a thwarted sense of entitlement turning into resentment. Don't know whether it's an inherent tendency or a side effect of frustration. The latter is the simpler explanation, so I'll stick to that until I have reason to think otherwise.

I wish to improve the quality of lurking here. A bleeding great dinosaur is a tad obvious, unless you intend lurking in the sense of open menace, not hidden danger. If we want the latter, how about this:



Shush! Can't hear the grass grow for all the chat.

The only real Marine is a Submarine! Going deep.

ooooooooooo, pretty picture!

[referring back to a specific item, it WAS 14688 C to T, producing a threonine to alanine amino acid alteration. we are proceeding with the investigation. i find nothing in the lit on this one. anywhere.]

... lurking.

oooooooh! lizard onna rock! nize, SD!

Merle

Pretty rock, yes!

Nan, am waiting for your doctoral thesis now.

Deacon Blues, oh my goodness! I want a happy ending to this song.

Being obnoxious by going back a few days about the news of the gym shooter. When I read about it in the paper, I thought, I just read that rant on either haven or love and dating. Are we sure that guy isn't a member here?

Grandchildren and nieces here while my sister visits her new grandson. And hot. A hundred degrees. Yesterday I took them to two movies and our lunch was theater food. I spent more money than I thought possible, but heat makes me crazy. Oh, I loved Ponyo.

I have heard good things about Ponyo, but the director is a master so I'm not surprised.

Sorry to hear of your heat problem. For the first time in a decade, we are having a cool August. We're all waiting for the other shoe to drop, as it's also fire season and the dead brush has less than 4% of normal moisture and the living brush is at 66% of normal moisture. In short, it's all tinder just waiting to go up. So far we've been extraordinarily lucky, it's been no higher than the 80Fs most days (one day at the house it did get to 101F, but it was only that hot that one afternoon). We got one of those weather stations that you put the sending unit outside and it sends temp and humidity, and barometer trending info to the inside unit that displays it. Very handy to have. It also stores the data for like 30 days or something, so if we wonder how hot it got we can look at the record. Anyway, so far, so good. Just the rest of August, September, and, sigh, October (the '03 fire was close to Halloween, and the '07 fire started just about a week earlier in the same month). If we can escape the Santanas, we might have a nice, damp winter as they say it's El Nino year again. I do hope so, I love the rain and cool and cloudy. And lack of ash falling out of the sky. And packing the car for evacuation. And staying up all night to keep track of things...

The "dissertation" is progressing. That particular 14688 is associated somehow with another nearby, and the nearby one codes for type II diabetes, myopathy, and some esoteric things when it's malfunctioning. I think we're on to something, but I'm no expert so all I can do is say "hmmm, unusal, isn't that?" I guess we wait for the lab for now.

I observe that sometimes days lapse in the posting of this Cafe.

Perhaps with effort I may join you more. Or lurk more anyway.

I forget to post that I am lurking.
Richie and Sleepy Dragon always have the best lurking graphics, though.

I do have one I love of Molly Sugden, (bless her heart, may she rest in peace)



it was wartime, and they were rationing tin foil, so our Molly made do. . .