Oh ... Really?

That's not all I have to say! »

It started the weekend between Christmas and New Years. Actually, it really started back in August, but the shit-storm hit that week, and is just now abating.

We had gone to visit friends that weekend in Georgia. We had decided not the stay the night, but to return home, and we set out on the 150 mile trip at about 2am. We didn't make it far. Somewhere between Cornelia and Calhoun, Georgia, the car broke down. It cost $258 to get towed home. And that was after a very cold, miserable night spent in the car in front of a store in the tiny town of Fairmount, GA.

I had the car towed to the local Saturn dealership, mainly because I had just had the oil changed the day before and it seemed that they had done something wrong to cause it to break down like that. It turns out it was not the fault of the oil change shop ... just an ugly, unfortunate coincidence.

So the Saturn service center calls the next day with an estimate for repairs. They said the water pump failed, the radiator was cracked and there was a huge leak in the valve cover gasket. The estimated cost of the repairs: $795

After I picked myself up off the floor, I called my dad to have him get his trusted mechanic to look at it. Now these are some real good ole boys. The shop isn't anything fancy, they don't have high-tech computerized diagnostic tools or a cushy customer lounge, but they will offer you a really bad cup of coffee while you wait and will give you an honest estimate and do the job right.

They looked at the estimate from Saturn and compared it to what they saw in the car. “Most of this is horseshit!” they said. They replaced the water pump and belt, topped up the radiator (which was not cracked) and the oil (which was not leaking from anywhere). Their bill: $220.

At about this same time, I get my bill from the power company. It says that I am behind $63. I called on Dec 27 to ask about it. They said it was unaccounted for. I knew that was wrong, I had a record of all payments made to them for the past year through online banking. The person on the phone agreed that yes, I showed a payment every month for the last year, but there was still $63 unaccounted for. I told her to put it in dispute so collections would stay at bay and my power wouldn't be cut off. She said she would have someone from the accounting department contact me within the week. This was a Friday.

The next Monday, Dec 30, I returned home from work to find a cut-off notice on my door. It said the power would be cut the next day if I did not have $200 paid to them by noon. Great ... I had to work that day. I was also four days away from pay day and did not have $200. My next bill was not due for another week anyway.

I called the after-hours dispatch and tried to find out what I could do to keep my power from being cut off the day before a holiday. The snotty little bitch said I had to go to the office and pay, and to keep it from happening again, I should pay my bills like I am supposed to. I went off ... I said loudly, “I DID pay my bills, I CANNOT be in the office in the morning because I HAVE to go to work!” She hung up on me.

I called my parents to see if they could go straighten this out. My son would be in the house alone, and I did not want the power off with him here. Mom and Dad went down there the next day with my bill stubs from the last six months and the print out from my payment history to the power company from my online bank. The power company refused to accept the print out from the bank and refused to put the charge in dispute. Mom and Dad had to cough up the $200 to keep my son warm and with lights.

So .. now we are up to Thursday, Jan 11 now. I had sent a request to my bank to find out what happened to the August payment the power company lost. My son also had a doctor appointment that morning, and I had the day off from work. We went to the doctor. Upon checking in, I was told that I had to pay the full office visit fee of $80. My son is on his father's insurance and apparently there has been a change in the plan. There is now a $500 deductible that has to be paid before anything is covered. Wonderful.

I then come to find out that my son USED to have TennCare (TN's version of Medicaid) but it stopped on Dec 31 because I didn't have him recertified. Oh really? Gee ... this is the same doctor's office that told me in September that he did not have TennCare to cover his hospital stay. It seems he actually did have it. And no one ever told me that it had to be renewed or recertified.

I get on the phone and try to contact someone at DHS where he was first placed on it. They couldn't find the case file, and it was closed anyway. I would have to call back and talk to the case manager when she was there. Meanwhile, I can't afford to pay for the office visit. So, I ask if we can just get his medication refilled and let me save up for a few weeks for another appointment. They said they can't refill without a visit, and even if we don't see the doctor, there would be a $25 late appointment cancellation fee anyway.

I tried to call the insurance company, hoping that maybe there was a screw up somewhere and the wrong plan was read for him, because there was never a deductible before. But they won't talk to me. I am not a policy holder and I am not on the plan my son is on. My Ex would have to call. Fat chance of that.

Fortunately, just as I was about to lose it, the office manager came out and took over. She researched the TennCare thing and said I need to call as soon as possible to get that reinstated. She also waived the office visit fee for the day. So my son saw the doctor and got his prescriptions. I took him to school and set about putting out my other fires.

I went to my bank to see if I could get the proof of payment to take to the power company. They told me it was faxed over the day before and it showed that indeed the payment had been made, the power company had cashed the check on August 24. I then went to the power company to make sure they had credited my account. Nope .. they denied receiving the fax and continued to deny that I had paid the bill in August. NOW I was pissed off. I gave them quite an earful. I ranted in front of three other customers about how the power company, due to their own screw up was going to cut off my power the day before a holiday when I had already put the amount owed in dispute, and I had to inconvenience my parents in having them come down there to be treated rudely and pay the erroneous amount on my bill with their own money so their daughter and grandson would not be without heat and light for two days, and all this was after I had been told not once, but twice that I was up to date on my payments since last August when they screwed up. I got the CEO's name, address and telephone number and told them I would be filing a complaint with the Public Service Commissioner.

I then called my back and asked them to send the fax again because the idiots on the receiving end apparently don't know how to work a fax machine. The bank came through and left me a message later that the power company had finally relented and credited the amount back to my account.

At this point, I decided I'd had enough, so I went to get my nails done. On the way, I called my dad to see if he had the estimate from Saturn since he had the car picked up to be taken to the honest mechanic. He couldn't find it, so I planned to go to Saturn and get a copy myself. But that could wait. I was going to get my nails done.

I also called my auto insurance company to see if any of the tow bill would be covered. First I was told that it only covers towing to the nearest repair shop (Take your pick, Atlanta or Knoxville) But they didn't see it that way. I was supposed to have it serviced in Georgia. Right. Sure. And pay for a motel room while it's being done? Get real! But in the process of this inquiry, they couldn't find my records for my policy. They searched high and low. Tried different spellings of my name, and finally brought it up with the VIN. Somehow, the policy name got changed to my father's name because the title of the car is in his name. I had been driving with no insurance! They said they would have to re-write the policy in my name and I would have to come in and sign some papers. Bullshit! THEY screwed up ... THEY can fix it! I hung up on them. I was going to get my nails done, dammit!

So I am sitting there waiting my turn. The nail dude is finishing one lady up, so he comes over and takes my polish off and starts to trim my nails. Then he has to hop back over to the first lady. While I was waiting, I notice I have a voice mail message on my phone. From the school. I listen, and my stomach does a flip-flop. My son was caught with a cigarette at school and he is being suspended for two days. He has already had 10 suspension days. For most kids, that would mean expulsion. However, due to his having Bipolar Disorder and being on an IEP (Individualized Education Plan0 and being categorized as Special Education, they can't expel him, but they can put him in a different school ... alternative school. And they want to have a meeting the next day.

Well, crap. I CAN'T come in the next day. I have to work! I have today off, I can come in this afternoon. I hope they can do that. The hell with it for the moment ... I am getting my damn nails done!

I get them painted a lovely dark crimson .. almost the color of dried blood. They are neatly trimmed back so typing will be easier now. For a moment, I am happy. Just for a fleeting moment.

I call the school and they agree that we can have the meeting that afternoon. I have just enough time to run by the Saturn dealership before going to the school. I get the copy of the estimate, and the service manager goes over it with me, itemizing the things they found that needed repair. “Oh ... REALLY?!? This is interesting,” I say. “I took it to my dad's mechanic and he said most of this stuff was horseshit, I was being ripped off. He replaced only the water pump and it's running just fine now!” The look on the guy's face was priceless. I swear he needed a change of pants. That was the highlight of my day.

I arrived at the school to find my sullen, ashamed son sitting in the office. We sit quietly waiting for the meeting to start with his case manager, vice-principal, counselor, and a teacher. He wants to go home on the bus. School is about to let out for the day, and he wants to be anywhere but there. I told him no, he had to stay for the meeting.

He sits for a few more minutes, the bell rings and he gets up. He says he has to go to the bathroom. Do I have “Stupid” written across my forehead?? No, I tell him. You can wait a few more minutes, then you can go. He becomes defiant in the scary, horrible way that only kids with Bipolar can. I try to quietly restrain him, but he will have nothing of it. I confront him with the fact that he, and he alone got himself into this position. He will face the music. He blows up. He starts yelling profanity, apparently for the shock value. When I don't react, he tried to run from the office, but his ROTC Chief stops him. Out came yet another string of profanity ... and this time I lose it. The office secretary called for security, and I said, “Fine, take him to juvenile. I can't deal with it anymore. He's made his bed, he can sleep in it.”


They get us back to a back room and let us cool off. My son is with the principal in one room while we have the meeting in another. We went through all the broughaha of the procedures for discipline with a special ed student. They will present his case at the next SpecEd board meeting next week and they will determine if his current placement is appropriate or not. Not would mean an alternative school. Alternative school would mean the end of ROTC and my investment in that, their investment in him and his uniform and the one thing that has been a motivator for him at school.

I left shaking down to my bones, nauseated and chilled. I had to get his prescription filled at the pharmacy still. My check card was refused due to lack of funds and I would have to return the next day after my paycheck had been deposited. At that point, all I could do was stare at the pharmacy clerk. I'm sure she thought I was some kind of looney.

We finally made it home. I started dinner, tried to ignore the mess in the house and called my son's therapist. I vented all over her about everything that had happened, but I didn't feel any better at all. She will be contacting the school to see if she can help them make some more appropriate accomodations within the regular school so he can stay there.

When I was finally able to collapse into bed, my mind continued to race with thoughts of the day, the fires that remained burning and how I would deal with them. Even though I was exhausted, sleep evaded me. The last time I looked at the clock it read 3:30am. It seemed only seconds later the alarm was going off.

I wonder ... seriously wonder, how much more of this kind of life I can take.
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