Monthly Archives: May 2010

I’m so excited

Posted on by

My youngest son is graduating college this weekend, and will be coming home for a visit. He’s accepted a job nearby, but not near enough for him to live at home. That’s fine with me because this house is plenty full already and although I always miss him when he’s gone, I think he will enjoy himself much more if he lives closer to the action of the big city.

He wants to live close enough to public transportation so that he doesn’t have to use a car for anything. I hope he can work that out and afford it!

Bank of America done me wrong

Posted on by

Guest post by Linda Bradshaw

When my hubby was injured in my car accident in 2007, I tried to get my mortage company for our house in New England that we were trying to sell to grant me a hardship forebearance. Since he wasn’t able to work due to my injuries, I was hopeful to get some empathy from the company. Boy, was I wrong!

Long story short, the mortgage company has dropped the ball and tossed me around from department to department, where I have been met with gross incompetence at every turn.

After over two years, even though we FINALLY did a deed-in-lieu with the company last November, and the deed to the house was transferred into their name in December the company is continuing to send me notices that I owe them the money and the company is still sending notices to the credit agencies that the mortgage is overdue. This is resulting in credit card companies closing my credit cards or lowering my credit limits.

Every time I call Bank of America I am shuttled around from department to department, and told the matter will be escalated and someone will call me back within the next week. That never happens. I have called them about once every two weeks, and nothing is resolved. I have sent them letters, and I get replies that someone will contact me within 20 days, and that never happens either! I got collection calls several times a day for years on end until I finally blocked their telephone number!

As of today, I have been on the phone with Bank of America for the past four hours, being shuttled around from department to department, trying to find some help. I’m on hold at the moment, waiting for a supervisor to talk to me. The lady I just spoke with said that my account was in the process of being assigned to someone in the home retention department!

I have contacted my state senator Mark Warner’s office, asking for help a couple of weeks ago. Haven’t heard back from them yet.

Anyone know a good lawyer that would like to sue this company on my behalf to get this resolved and maybe some punitive damages for emotional distress it is causing? I had hired a lawyer that I was told is an agressive lawyer that loves to sue people, but for some reason he just doesn’t seem to be in the mood to take this on! If you know of a class-action suit going on for people in situations like this, or know a good lawyer that could/would help me, please post comment to this blog and I’ll get the information!

Can you feel my pain?

A teacher would never get away with that now

Posted on by

When I was in high school, girls were not expected to do well in math. Most of the girls never even took Algebra 1, let alone Algebra 2! As for me, well math was never my favorite subject, but I always got an A in every math class I ever took. I had plans to attend college, and so I had to take the college-prep courses, which included Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Trigonometry.

In my school, when you took Algebra 2, you also took Trigonometry at the same time. After that you took Functions. I got an A in Algebra 2 and Trigonometry, and went on to the Functions class. The teacher there was a hateful man who stated at the beginning of the class that he had never given a girl anything but an F and he never would give a girl anything but an F. He said he would not grade their papers, or tests, and told us all to drop the class immediately. He said that the girls were occupying seats that boys should have. He also said he would not even answer questions that any girls asked.

The next day of class, I was the only girl remaining. At the time my brother also was taking the exact same class, and we did our homework together. We got the same answers, and my papers all got Fs, and his got As. And true to his word, the teacher refused to answer any of my questions, and gave me Fs on all of my tests.

When I complained to the school’s administration, they went to the teacher, who claimed that I needed to be sent back to the Algebra 2/Trig class because I was weak in Algebra and needed Algebra 2 help. So the school sent me back to Algebra 2/Trig for the remainder of the year, where I got straight A’s AGAIN.

In college, I took every math class the college offered, and got straight A’s. I’d like to find that old high school teacher and rub his nose in my college diploma!

A teacher would never get away with that in these modern times!

Clown fish

Posted on by

When I was a little girl, my father performed as a clown in several local circuses and travelling minstrel shows. Sometimes I was lucky enough to go see him perform. Naturally, a little girl adores her father, so I developed a fondness of clowns – they remind me of my father! Also, when I was a little girl, someone gave me a book about the fishes of the seas. In fact I think that might have even been the title of the book! I loved that book. (I wonder where it is now? Probably in some landfill somewhere. My parents had a habit of taking things of mine and disposing of them without my consent.)

The book was full of color photographs of salt water fish. My father used to read that book with me, (which of course made it extra special) and I loved the pictures of the clown fish more than any other fish. Even though my favorite color is blue, I loved those little orange, black and white clown fish. Because they were clown fish. Because my father was a clown sometimes.

Today I saw a woman purchase something at the store, using a credit card with a picture of a clown fish on the credit card. I immediately thought of my father, and the times we read that book together. My father has been dead for twenty nine years now, but not forgotten. Never forgotten.

Granny and Grandad

Posted on by

Guest post by David Dalson!

When I was a small boy growing up in the small town of Eureka, CA there were times when our options for fun were less than well, fun. But, luckily my sweet grandmother and grandfather lived only 50 miles away. Even though my grandparents lived close to my brother and I it seemed to far away for me. You have to understand my grandparents are cool, even my friends said so. What made my grandparents so cool? Well they didn’t live like you would expect your grandparents to live. A vision of grandma baking cookies while grandpa did crossword puzzles was definitely not my grandparents. To give you an example of the youthfulness of my grandparents for my 10th birthday my grandparents took me to a rock climbing place. But the really cool thing about the rock climbing was my grandpa actually climbed the rocks with me. And I am talking about a 67 yr old man! Definitely not your typical grandparent. I think the thing that helped my grandparents become more active and outgoing was when they moved into a senior care home. In the senior home the tenants are encouraged to be active and not just sit around watching television all day. At first my grandparents were a little reluctant but after some prodding by some of the other tenants my grandparents quickly became very active and outgoing. I am very happy for my grandparents and love spending time with them because of their love and zest for life. Yesterday after going on a bike ride my grandfather had to cut the ride short because he had a 2 p.m. appointment for a free hearing test! I know, crazy stuff. My grandparents are more outgoing than my parents! One other thing that really catapulted my grandparents was after they both received hearing aids. No big deal right? Well, when you have difficulty hearing people talk to you it becomes a really big deal once your hearing is restored again. You become more happy and more outgoing and enjoy conversing with others again. I am really happy for the technological advances we have made in this world for our aging family members. And I have experienced firsthand how happy my grandparents are because of using just a few of the technological advances available to them and have heard some other really positive Hearing aid reviews. I can’t wait to go skydiving with my grandfather on his 70th birthday!