Just Thinking Won't Change Anything

 It's probably because I'm the type of person that doesn't really do change. 

I set things up the way I like it and rarely do I switch things around. Like maybe on occasion I'll rearrange my knickknacks and such. But change in general....it's something that rarely happens. I like where I'm at so why change things about it?

So oftentimes when change comes it's after I've thought about it for a while....or I'm dragged into it kicking and screaming. 

Which is why I have one roommate that consistently just...boggles my mind. 

Because she's constantly changing things. Reorganizing. Rethinking. Redoing.

Like she rearranges her room every 2-3 months. It feels like every time I open her door her bed is in a different spot. 

And I just....don't get it.

The last time I moved furniture about was like twoish years ago and that was because I'd been given a few furniture pieces when Daddoo was getting the childhood home ready to sell and I needed to make room for what I could fit here. 

But that was still little things. 

My bigger furniture pieces?

Have not moved.

Mostly because the way my room is designed it doesn't make sense to place the bigger pieces elsewhere. But also because I like where they're at so why change it?

In any case.

It's not just like rearranging furniture and such. 

It's mind boggling.....because this roommate is also constantly stating that they're "rethinking their life." 

Which makes sense in a way because where I live there's a strong. "Get married. Get a House. Have Kids. Get your Dream Career." culture. 

And like if you're not doing those...you're a failure.

And like...I suppose roomie is feeling that pressure a bit more.

Though with them recently getting a new job....I kinda thought they'd be done with the 'rethinking their life' motif for a while. 

Since the last time they were rethinking their life was when they were trying to find a job that would give them stability and more hours.

Which they did find. They found a job that gives them a nice 9-5, weekends and holidays off, stable pay, and also benefits.

Which in this economy is kinda the dream right now. 

But not for my roomie.

Because the job isn't in the career field that they're wanting. 

Even though the reason why they were looking for a new job in the first place is because the job in the career field they wanted and had wasn't giving them the hours that they promised and therefore wasn't giving them enough money to like...be able to afford rent and groceries and such.

And like I get it.

If you go to school for a certain things....you kinda want to get a job in that field.

But at the same time. I also feel it's important to have stability and sometimes you have to have a job that 'pays the bills' for a while first. 

And roomie has only had the new job for like 3 months.

Which is barely any time at all in the job field.

So I don't quite understand why they're already back at looking for another job in their field.

Like I get wanting to keep an ear to the ground and an eye open for opportunities.

But I think my focus would be to stay long enough to get my funds and savings up to snuff and to feel stable. 

But I'm not my roomie.

And my roomie seems to be very much into the "I'm doing something wrong because I haven't accomplished the checklist of life to be considered an actual adult." 

But also like at the same time.....this is a literal cycle they go through.

"I'm rethinking my life."

Yes you're THINKING. but what are you DOING.

Because thinking doesn't GET YOU ANYWHERE if there's no ACTION. 

And it seems like when my roomie does take action...said actions last only a day...sometimes up to two weeks before they stop.

So like.... what's the point?

Why not just be satisfied with where you are now? Why not take the L on the checklist of life and maybe go seek the checklist of happiness instead. Find things that MAKE YOU happy.

Yes it sucks to not be married.

Yes it sucks to not have your own home.

Yes it sucks to not have the job you wanted.

But at the same time. Life never turns out the way you plan it. So why not try and find ways to make life more enjoyable and enjoy what you have now?

*exhales*

We'll see if anything comes of this round of 'rethinking' that my roomie is doing.

I don't think their job is gonna change at the moment since they've had it so short a time ..... 

But you never know. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Stay Wet

 It's kinda weird how things can work one day and be dead the next without like....any indication that they're dying. 

On Wednesday I took advantage of my roomies both being out of the house to do some laundry I'd been neglecting. 

And everything functioned as normal for me. 

Wash load was normal.

Dryer load was normal.

Thought nothing of it. 

And I had thought that my roomie had done laundry like later that same day or the day after?

It was recent. Because it seems like she's ALWAYS doing laundry....which I still cannot comprehend how and why she manages to do at least 2 loads a week. It's crazy.

In any case.

Today I heard her starting laundry AGAIN.

Which....I'd thought she'd done laundry recently....like maybe last night even? The days blur together. But it was RECENT as in AFTER I did my load of laundry on Wednesday.

And maybe she forgot it yesterday and was finishing it up today.

But she ended up sending a message to the group chat....that the dryer wasn't working.

It doesn't turn on.

Just makes a clicking noise. 

And like ????

But I had just used it? 

It was working fine?

No issues?

I feel like she literally had just been using it and it was working fine? No issues?

So like....what changed so suddenly that the dryer was like "Yah no. I'm done." 

Who knows. 

I certainly don't.

And luckily we have another dryer in the home as our place has two laundry rooms one upstairs and one downstairs so it's no big deal if one dryer isn't working at the moment.

But it is still weird.

Like I feel like there should have been more signs that something was about to break. 

But then again it could just be age. We got the dryers used and we've lived in the house for nearly a decade now. So like....they're old. It wouldn't be surprising if they just....gave out.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Quick Visit

 I took a parakeet to the vet this morning expecting to drop him off for a recheck.

As we'd taken this parakeet in a little over a month ago to get his nose looked at. As the nair--nostril was looking...well deformed. 

Which the vet confirmed it was deformed and that the bird would be more prone to respiratory infections and would be best if he had access to water to bathe in constantly and to have a weekly misting as well just to help the bird stay cleaner as he'd been looking a bit more oily. 

In any case.

It was any easy enough "here's the solution adopt him out." situation.

Except the vet had also taken a stool sample and while they didn't find anything specifically wrong in it they were concerned about the consistency of it and therefore wanted us to wait a month and bring the parakeet back in for a recheck on the stool just to make sure he was healthy.

Hence my visit today.

So I came in expecting to drop the bird off and leave and then come back a few hours later to drop him off.

That didn't happen.

Instead after about 15 minutes of waiting to be seen. The vet himself came out into the waiting room to look at the parakeet. 

He was like "Oh the nair looks good. The vent looks good. The stool in the cage looks like it's all good. Have you noticed any issues? No? Cool. You're good to go. Bye!" lol. 

I mean I don't mind quick vet visits. 

It's rather nice to have a quick visit where we don't have to plan time out later in the day to go get the bird again after the vet checks on it. 

So it's nice to just show up and get the bird looked at real quick and then be back on my merry way.

Now to get said bird adopted out to a loving home. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

It's a 10 Year--No 25 Year Storm

 We had quite the storm hit the area last night.

One of those ones where it blows up upon you fast and hard. The winds are roaring. The lightning and thunder is flashing. The rain is pouring hard enough against the windows that you have to check to see if it's hail or not that's hitting them.

...It was hail at one point. But not the entire time.

And then like 20 minutes later the storm is gone. Roaring on. 

I hadn't thought much about it beyond concern for my roomie who was coming back from an event she'd been at. So I'd texted her to warn her about the storm. How heavy the rain was. That there was hail. To be careful driving.

I didn't think much more about it after that though.

We've had heavy rains before. 

... ... ...

But not heavy rains after a recent fire on the mountain above my home. 

I had heard a ton of sirens earlier on. 

More than normal. That lasted longer.

But I kinda chalked it up to bad accident.

Because like... I live in an area where there's an intersection that likes to have accidents.

I also live above a neighborhood that gets a lot of domestic calls.

I also live near an easy access to the highway...where more accidents happen.

So like sirens aren't out of the ordinary.

So yah I didn't realize anything was out of the ordinary....

Until my roomie got home and was like "Hey, did you know that the bottom of our street is closed?" 

Which.

Huh?

She wanted to know if I'd received any alerts about a disaster ... which no. My phone had been silent. 

But she had had to find an alternate route to get home because our normal way was blocked off. No access whatsoever. 

It took a bit of midnight sleuthing on the Internet before we discovered that there had been a mudslide. 

Landslide? It seemed to be mostly made of mud. 

But regardless. 

The draw where the fire had happened a couple of weeks ago?

Yah. The sudden heavy rain fall did not help all that loose ashy soil. 

I saw a report that 1" of rain and fallen in like that 20-30 minute period. 

I later saw news reports that our street had flooded with water up to 6 inches high in some places.

Regardless. Debris, Mud, and Ash had come flowing down from the mounting into a berm and over and into a Construction patch that lead directly into a Church...piling mud up to 5 feet high against it's walls. 

Some other houses experienced slight flooding in their basements I heard.

But the church took the brunt of it from my understanding. 

And two of the main roads in the area got covered in the mudslide....some leading all the way down somewhere on State affecting that road as well...though they cleared up that street a lot faster than they did the other two roads. 

I was told that they moved 960 truck loads of debris today from that muddy area of the Church. Over 13,440 tons of debris. 

They had hundreds of volunteers and a lot of construction equipment over there working to help clear up the mess. 

The poor church building is going to be closed for the foreseeable future. 

There is the obvious landscape damage, but there's also HVAC, Electrical and apparently some Structural Damage as well. 

Which is kinda crazy.

Crazy to see how much can come down from the mountains when you get a heavy storm and there's no vegetation up there anymore to hold the soil in place because it all burned. 

Luckily we're in a bit of a lull here with the storms. 

But there's definitely more of a concern now that this will happen again whenever the next storm hits.

Though hopefully it's not as crazy.

We're told that this storm was a 10 year storm. But with the burn scar on the mountain it exacerbated the problem and turned it into a 25 year storm sort of problem. 

Overall I'm just grateful that it didn't impact our home. And it barely affected us roomies. I mean we did have to detour from our usual routes to get to work as the main road was still closed this morning. It didn't open up again until after dinner time....and is set to close first thing again in the morning so that the construction crews can continue working on clearing more of the mud away.

Hopefully tomorrow they can get the roads fully cleared enough that we don't have to worry about any more road detours. Though I expect the cleanup at the church is going to take a bit longer.

Overall I'm just grateful that no one was hurt and everyone was able to stay safe. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

So. What Do I Owe You?

 I have to say. 

I'm glad I don't have to deal with billing in my job.

Like the closest I could get is if a grooming customer doesn't pay for their groom. But we just call them and are like "Hey you didn't pay." and if they still don't pay then we put a block on them to prevent them from grooming with us again and call it a day.

But today I decided to drop by the doctor's where I had gotten my CT and MRI scan done when I finally decided to go to the doctor about my migraines a few months ago and they recommended doing a CT and MRI to make sure there wasn't anything going. 

There wasn't.

Which is annoying to get tests that show that there's nothing wrong with you that you then have to pay for. 

Said tests were done in May.

And after like a .... couple of weeksish? I got billed for what I would need to pay for the CT scan that insurance wouldn't cover.

Easy peasy. Paid it right away. Didn't like paying it. But paid it right away. 

And I expected the MRI bill to come pretty quickly after that.

But....it's been radio silence. 

So it's just been hanging over my head.

And I was like....Okay.... maybe the MRI just takes longer to go through insurance? 

I mean I've had an MRI done before where they didn't find anything. But that was done way back when I was in college and I was still on my parent's insurance. So like...no idea how long it took the bill to come through.

I'd kinda put it on the back back back back burner.

Until I'd recently got notified about my dental related claims. 

So I went into my insurance website to check that out. Since I have dental and medical under the same insurer....I was like "Well let me look at the medical stuff too." 

and Medical.....medical showed that the insurance had processed my claim for the MRI....way back at literally the same time the CT scan was processed.

But I hadn't received the bill.

Tried going into the patient portal for my doctors to make sure I hadn't missed an email there....

And nothing. It didn't show I owed anything.

So like.... confusion much?

Like the insurance site gave me the option to pay what it claimed I owed the doctors.....but the doctors had never billed me....and like I didn't want to pay something I didn't owe. 

So I decided to continue waiting....

Until today.

Because I got another notification about when I went to the dentist for my cavities last week....

And still no notification about the MRI. 

So I was like. Well I have the time today and the energy today. So I went by the facility to talk to the billing department just to see what was going on.

Because I had no idea how much I would owe for sure. 

And I didn't want to have the bill suddenly sprung on me if I could help it. 

I also didn't want to have my bill sent to collectors and get hounded for that. Especially if I'd never been notified.

I don't even know how long they wait before they start hounding you for bills.....

In any case.

When I got to the office both receptionists were on the phone with customers who were also trying to figure out their bills....

But from what I overheard both receptionists were dealing with customers who had bills that had actually gone to collectors. 

Which. Oof. 

That sounds like a nightmare. Like apparently the collectors charge interest on the bills.....which is just cruel in my opinion. Like there's a reason why the bills were probably not paid yet. But like one receptionist was saying one customer owed money to them from like 4 years ago. 

But it sounded like the one receptionist was having a better time with the one customer compared to the second receptionist. 

They kinda looked and sounded like they were two seconds away from throwing the computer. They were on the phone with the same customer the entire time I was there. And it kinda sounded like they probably had had to explain the same thing multiple times to the customer. 

Which basically boiled down to "We don't have contact with the collectors. We can't access their information. They can access certain things but don't have power over other things. No you only owe us this amount of money. The interest is owed to the collectors. We don't get the interest money. The collectors do. If we got the interest money WE would be the ones charging you interest and WE would be the ones hounding you for the money the Collectors wouldn't be involved at all."

So yah. I did not envy them that phone call because it just sounds frustrating. On both sides. Because I get not wanting to have to pay more money than you have to....but seriously if the bill has been unpaid long enough to get the collectors on your back.....that's...not great either. 

In any case. 

It does make me wonder how long they wait for a bill to remain unpaid before sending it to collectors. I'm guessing it probably depends on the facility. But who knows. 

Needless to say I was a bit nervous. 

Like I'm pretty sure not paying any bills for like 3 months isn't long enough. 

But it made me all the more eager to make sure that I got my own payments squared away so I would no longer have to worry about potentially owing money for the MRI. 

So when the first receptionist finally got off the phone. I explained my situation. That I hadn't received an MRI bill yet and just wanted to check in and see if I actually owed anything yet or not. 

Turns out. 

I didn't. 

O.o

Why?

Well. 

After insurance I owed a certain amount of money. 

Which surprisingly was only like $80. 

Considering the CT scan I ended up having to pay like nearly $300..... 

It's kinda crazy the difference in how much you owe depending on the procedure with insurance. 

In any case.

I technically owed $80. 

But before the procedure they had had me pay like a $50 fee. 

Which went towards the $80. 

Bringing me down to $30 owed. 

BUT.

I had also paid like a $30 fee for the CT scan? 

(I remember paying a copay before the procedures but don't remember the cost for it. Just was like "Okay makes sense I need to do a copay) 

But then I also paid for what I owed for the CT scan after insurance....without taking into account the $30 I'd paid beforehand. 

Which left me with an extra $30 credit....

Which they had already kinda in their computer system used to cover the rest of what I owed for the MRI scan. 

So the receptionist was like "They kinda already just assumed that $30 was going to the MRI which is why you never received a bill because they already considered you squared away, but here let me make it all official and move that officially over." 

And walla!

So turns out. I didn't owe any money for the MRI. 

YAY.

Like annoying that I had like 3 months of back burner stress that didn't need to be stress.

But yay that I didn't have to spend MORE money at the moment.

Even though $80 is a lot better than like another $200-$300 that I had been expecting. 

Though it does make me wonder like....if I never went back to that doctors place again and I still had that $30 credit....what would have ended up with that $30 credit? 

Would they have just ended up keeping my money? Or would they have eventually sent it back to me with a "oh hey we charged you too much. Oops?" 

Somehow I think it's more the former rather than the latter. *exhales*

In any case.

I'm just grateful that I didn't owe any money. So yay! 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

What Do You ACTUALLY Want Me Doing?

 There's one thing that I struggle with and that's the "Well, now I don't wanna." 

Most of the time it's when I have this plan to like.... do a particular chore and then someone comes along and goes "Hey can you do that chore?"

Like they didn't know I was already planning to do it." but because they now expect me to do it....I now don't want to do it because it's an expectation. 

Kinda had that today at work....but in the "I don't know what you want from me so why should I even try doing anything." sort of frame of mind.

You see two weeks ago while we were working truck my PL told me that we had enough extra cat food that it wouldn't all fit on the u-boats. And that I would need to wrap the extra bags of food up on the pallet and place them in the steel. 

Which okay.

Makes sense.

Easy enough to do. So I placed what bags of food I could on our u-boats (two layer carts that we can stack with food and the pull around the store) and then placed the rest of the food on a pallet and my other pl then placed it in the steel for me.

Easy enough. 

Fast forward to last week.

I'm once again working the cat food pallet. And I have extra bags of food.

The u-boats are still full.

So I wrap the extra bags up on the pallet and put them up in the steel like I did the week before. Because thats what the PL said I should do. So I continued her directive and did it last week too.

Cut to today.

And I'm once again working the same pallet. 

And PL goes.

"Hey, btw. It's okay to put food up in the steel, but make sure that the uboats are stuffed completely full first as well as checking the midsteel before doing so." 

... 

...

...

...

Like. Okay. Granted.

I did not check the mid steel.

Because in the receiving area the midsteel is this tiny area where you can stuff like maybe two bags onto a shelf. And usually those bags are the smaller 11-15 lb ones. 

Pretty sure ALL the bags I put in the steel were the HEAVIER ONES.

But whatever.

I DID however check the uboats and had considered them full enough that I didn't couldn't place more food on them.

But apparently they were still 'empty' enough according to my PL's standards that I could have fit more bags on there.

Which okay....but like I only had like maybe 10 bags the pallet. I was trying to make it worth it to have the pallet up there in the first place.

Because yah sure maybe I could have fit like 2 or 3 more bags on the uboats...but I would have still needed to put 7 more on the pallet in the steel. 

*exhales*

I think I'm also just annoyed because they waited a full week to tell me this.

Like ... we saw each other on Thursday. Why did my PL not say anything then? Why not take a moment to TEACH ME and be like "Hey I noticed (thing) here's how you could have (explain solution)" 

But nooooooo. 

It reminds me all to much that I'm the one who's had waaaaaay more experience training new people than my PL has because I've been the one in charge of training most of our petcare people. I've also been in charge of the cashiers. 

So yah I've learned how to teach people and show them things.

My PL? Not so much. There's been like no mentoring whatsoever. And if I do go ask a question I kinda feel like I get treated with the "I'm so busy why are you wasting my time asking this question you should know this." or "Why don't  you know this it's obvious." 

So yah. Not great on the training.

Regardless.

I really had to fight the urge to just leave the cat food pallet in the back untouched today. Because like.... there's the thought of "What is my PL going to nitpick this time." going on in the back of my mind.

Like yes. I make mistakes. They pointed out that bags I thought were overstock actually had space on the shelf that was completely empty because I'd thought the bag was a different similar looking bag that had it's home filled on the shelf. 

So yah. I'm still learning and I miss things.

But like..... it was more stressful putting food away after I was done working the pallet because like .... there was a ton more overstock this week than there was last week. Last week it was like maybe 10 bags. This week it was closer to like...thirty? The pallet was nearly waist high. 

And despite the uboats being emptier this week....I only managed to cut the pallet in half by placing bags of food on those and yes in the freaking midsteel too. 

But I seriously debated about leaving the remaining food on the pallet on the floor and just not wrapping it. Because I'm sure despite stuffing the uboats and steel as full as I could, my PL would probably be like "Look you can fit 3 more bags here." 

Which sure. Maybe I could but there's still at least TWENTY OTHER BAGS on this pallet. 

Just *exhales* 

I did end up wrapping the food up and placing it in the steel. 

But I'm now just expecting my PL to nitpick me next week on how it could have been done differently...without actually teaching me how to do it better. 

Like there's only so much I can learn by osmosis and observation and figuring it out on my own.

Sometimes I need to actually be TAUGHT.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Sitting in Line

 Earlier this year I decided to bite the bullet and get a Costco membership.

Which is one of those....'eh' things because like....

Costco is this bulk store right?

Get like 30 or 50 or 100 of an item.

Which is great!! .... for a Family.

But like when you're a single person living with roommates....

Eh.

Unless it's shelf stable supplies that will last like a month....Costco didn't really seem like a .... needed thing.

And honestly it's still kinda like a hand wavy....thing.

I mean. 

It's worth it in the grand scheme of things. 

Like the cost of the membership is like what 2 bucks a month?

And you get discounts on gas plus the ability to buy stuff in bulk?

It's nice lol. 

Not that I've bought much in bulk.

I have taken advantage of like the toilet paper and the soda prices ....but my main love has been some fruit leather I found there and their croissants.

But I do have to say the best deal has been the gas.

Even though it took me a few months to actually take the time to brave the system and sit in line and figure out how to work the Costco gas thing....it has been really nice to pay like 15 cents less per gallon at the pump. 

Though it is weird though to like,...feel like you're in an assembly line kinda while you're waiting for gas.

Like each section has two pumps and most the time both cars finish up about the same time so the next two cars pull up fill up their tanks...leave about the same time the next cars pull up.

It's rather efficient when everyone knows what they're doing and keeps the line moving. 

Weird though.

Like I've noticed unlike other gas stations --unless I've missed them-- that the Costco stations don't provide a way to clean off your windows.

So like...if your windshield is encrusted with bugs...you're kinda out of luck getting that cleaned off while you're waiting for your tank to fill.

I kinda get why they don't have it. 

Because the goal is to get customers in and out as quickly as possible and discourage them from sitting at the pump for too long. 

I don't know how it is at other locations. But for the most part my location is always busy.

There's usually always cars filling the pumps when I arrive.

And some days I have to wait two or three rotations before I can get to the pump myself.

Though I have managed to time it well enough that usually I'm the next person in line when I drop by to grab gas. So that has been nice. 

I've heard stories of people waiting much much longer to get gas. Where the lines are super long and crazy.

Haven't seen that yet.

Though if gas prices do drop any time in the future I could see it happening as people scramble to take advantage of lower prices.

Still.

It's been interesting being a Costco member.

Nice.

Definitely haven't been using it to it's full advantage because again...single person. I don't need to feed an army lol. 

But still. It's been nice.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi