What did you do today?

[highup]

35 years ago, my brother was setting to suck in a cool $1000 or $5000 on a local bar's game card. I don't recall the payout details, but it was $100 per square and payed on every score change and quarter, plus the final. ......with minutes or seconds to go, the impossible happened.
..............................He hates the Cowboys to this very day.

 

[Nick]

Phila hate's the Cowboys .. I started when they started calling themselves Americas Team .. I didn't vote on that one !!

 

[DarisMulkin]

$50? How'd the game pay.... per TD, per quarter?

Per quarter.

:camping:

Daris

 

[havasu]

I also won $50 on the first quarter in a pool. Once the numbers got mixed up after the missed extra point, some really bad numbers became the winning numbers.

 

[Nick]

They're all good numbers till the game is Played ..

 

[Floorist]

Drove 200 miles round trip yesterday in a snow storm with 35 mph winds to recover my late FILs pickup. His grandson had stolen it and left it sitting in the country. Went out this morning and it won't even turn over. Too cold to mess with it today.

 

[Nick]

Battery ?

 

[Floorist]

Battery ?

supposed to have a new battery and starter.

But who knows. I know I got screwed by Auto Zone on one. Two years ago, I bought one for my work van with a 5 year free replacement. One year later it failed. Another year goes by and it fails again. Found out after they replaced it the first time, the warranty is done. Lost the last 4 years of the warranty because THEIR battery is no good. What a ripoff. Buying one elsewhere this time. They want $140 anyway, Walmart wants $50.

 

[Nick]

Same issue here with them ..

My Battery went this year .. Got one at BJ's..
Make sure it has good cold weather cranking amps ..

Went to Sears for a Die Hard .. They had the Battery in the Building , But i had to order it online, Then go back and pick it up where i was at to begin with ..

 

[zannej]

I've been having to drive people places and go to the pharmacy for different family members. Picked up Mom's prescriptions and they were 2 pills short in each of the smaller bottles (so a total of 4 pills short) and 15 short in a large bottle (3 month supply). She called and told them so I had to go back in. Then had to take my brother to the dentist to get his tooth pulled-- gums and jaw were swollen and he was in a lot of pain. He ended up missing work and was feeling so crappy his boss told him to take today off too (the tooth pulling was yesterday).

Also took a friend to try to find a new vehicle. His 95 chevy 1500 kept having problems and kept costing a lot of $ to fix and the gas mileage sucked. Struck out at the dealerships but he saw exactly the vehicle he was looking for (a red 05 GMC Canyon Z85 crew cab) on the side of the road with a For Sale sign. Several people were looking at it but none had the $. My friend felt rather defeated bc he's not getting $ til he gets his taxes on the 28th. Seller said if he put down $200 deposit and came up with the rest the next day he'd sell it to him. So, my mother said she'd spot him until he gets the returns. Twenty minutes before we went to go buy the truck, a belt broke in his old one and the power steering went out. Seller's wife is a notary so she signed off on the sale without charging and the guy threw in a free radio/dvd player bc the one in the truck didn't work. Turns out the one he gave my friend can retail for $700. The seats are an ugly color/pattern and there's some paint peeling on the tonneau cover and fenders, but mechanically the vehicle is sound. My friend actually checked the vehicle out when the guy's wife went to the store he worked at a few days prior to him seeing it for sale. I was there and he said "Damn, that's the truck I want to get and I forgot to ask her if it's for sale". LOL.

Place where he got the plates, title change, and insurance was a ripoff though. They charged $90 as the opening fee for insurance on top of the premium, $118 for the plate, and $68 for title (it used to be $18 but it went up $50). Because of the wreck he was in a couple of years ago, his driving record was tanked (since the passenger lied and said he was on his cellphone) his premiums for a single month are almost as high as our premiums for 6 months. His premiums on his old truck were more than our premiums for 6 months.

Gonna put red carbon fiber vinyl over the tonneau cover and fenders (after sanding the peeling paint). Might do black carbon fiber on the fenders since there is already black carbon fiber on the gas cap cover.

As an aside, when we were at one of the dealerships he saw a sports car-- red WRX or something like that with some souped up engine. He said the engine alone can go for $70k and they were asking less than $20k for the vehicle. He was all prepared to start working out a deal on financing when I asked him "Can you afford the insurance on that thing?" and he told me I just crushed his soul. LOL.

Meanwhile, my brother is driving Mom's CR-V because his truck isn't working. I feel bad because I picked the truck. But Honda dealership said they checked the transmission and it was fine (charged him for checking it and everything). It hasn't been enough time for it to go as south as it did. Fluid was black. Honda said it's $5500 for a refurbished transmission (not including labor to remove old one and install the new one). Another place in town said they would charge about $2,200 for removal, rebuild, and re-install-- but that is before tax and doesn't include extra parts. Could be another couple hundred for parts and tax is 10.5 there. Too bad they aren't closer to Honda-- they are outside city limits so they get 8.5% tax.

And I'm just babbling away. LOL.

 

[zannej]

I babysat my friend's girlfriend while he was at work. She'd just gotten back from the hospital. I suspect she had a concussion. She was feeling dizzy and couldn't see (vision went blurry). She told her supervisors and one of them told her to shut up and get back to work. She fell down and had a seizure and hit her head. Only they didn't call an ambulance or mention that she hit her head-- just told my friend that she had a seizure and had him pick her up. He took her to the hospital and they had her sleep there for awhile after running some tests. When I was sitting with her she realized she had a lump on the back of her head and she got a headache. I kept her hydrated and tried to make visitors leave her alone when they came over to see her. She was agitated and just wanted peace and quiet. Shortly after my friend got back, she started sobbing because her head felt so bad. I ran to the store and got her some Tylenol and Powerade (I didn't want to give her Ibuprofen in case she had any bleeding from the head trauma). I told them to call me if anything happened and told my friend to take her to the hospital if she got worse.

Then I had to make a second run to get some medicine and milk for my brother while he was at work. I figured my mother would want food from Pizza Hut (where he works) and it turns out I was right. She called when I was on the way home to say she had wanted food from Pizza Hut, but she hung up before I could tell her that I already got the food (she wasn't mad-- she just wanted to watch the Olympics).

 

[zannej]

I would sue them Arse Holes ..

That's what another friend who used to work at that McDonalds said. He said she should straight up sue them for negligence and sending her back in to the kitchen when she was ill.

Meanwhile, I couldn't sleep much last night bc my brother's tooth/gum pain got worse and he couldn't sleep. At one point he started screaming from the pain. He said it was worse than when he broke his foot in 6 different places. I offered to take him to the ER but then he reminded me how the hospitals around here all suck. They treat most people like drug-seeking criminals. He had the narcotabs from the dentist for the tooth pulling, but that did nothing. He tried 1600 mg of Ibuprofen and that did nothing. Tried Orajel and Anbesol. Nothing. Sensodyne made the pain reduce for a second, but no relief from it. We called around doctor's offices and dentists in the morning. Some opened at 8am but the people who could make any decisions didn't get in 'til 9am. Talked to GP's receptionist on the phone and she said she had the same thing with a tooth pain before and the ER was useless. The other dentist he went to before said they wouldn't be able to schedule him anytime soon. So, I took him to the local dentist who doesn't take his insurance and she saw him right away. Did an x-ray, scheduled an extraction, prescribed antibiotics. But nothing to numb the gums. Went to the GP's office afterward and he got a steroid shot to try to reduce the inflammation.

The receptionist at the dentist was worried about him bc she could see his was in pain. I just wish that there was more they would have done for him. It's just ridiculous that he couldn't get something injected into his gums to numb them or relieve the pain (since the anbesol didn't work).

 

[DarisMulkin]

a fifth of Jack Daniels would probably do the trick.

:camping:

Daris

 

[zannej]

LOL. My bro has a high alcohol resistance--runs in the family. We also have a high resistance to pain meds. Narcotics don't generally do much for us. I had anesthetic that didn't work during a heart cath and vicodin post-surgery that was less useful than sugar water.
I feel so badly for my brother that I almost cried at the dentist's office. I hate seeing my baby brother in pain.

I think it wouldn't be quite as bad if it weren't for the fact that drug use in the area is rampant. So the hospital staff, on top of not being all that well trained, think that almost everyone who comes in is some drug-seeking fiend.

 

[DarisMulkin]

I didn't mean he had to drink it, just hold it on the spot, but swallowing it is an option. Personally I'd swallow it.

:camping:

Daris

 

[zannej]

I ended up having to take him to the ER and impressing upon them that I was worried he would have major issues bc it was driving his blood pressure up. They checked is bp and it was very high. They gave him some oral medicine to lower it and then gave him a shot of antibiotics, a shot of anti-inflammatory meds, and a shot of painkillers. They were actually a lot nicer and more sympathetic than I'd expected. They could see that his gums were inflamed and we told them everything he'd tried to relieve the pain. He got very sleepy on the ride home and went straight to bed.

I just hope that it will last long enough to keep the pain at bay until he can get the tooth pulled. Hopefully the anti-inflammatory stuff will keep the swelling down and that should help.

 

[Nick]

The antibiotics will take care of the Infection in about 4 days .
Depending on what they gave him.. Infected teeth is not something to play with..

 

[Floorist]

The antibiotics will take care of the Infection in about 4 days .
Depending on what they gave him.. Infected teeth is not something to play with..

It can damage your heart.

 

[Nick]

It can also kill ya .. Dr's don't like to use Penicillin so your body don't get immune
To it in the event you get something more serious ..

 

[zannej]

Yeah, tooth/gum infections still kill people these days. It's why I think that dental should be included with regular medical treatment. I don't mean the cosmetic stuff, but things like gum infections, cavities, etc-- it should not be considered something separate.

None of the ER's or hospitals in my area have a dental surgeon.

The good news is, the inflammation stayed down enough that my brother went to work and wasn't grousing. So, I think he's feeling better. And I'm so glad they actually listened.