Last Shreds Of Sanity

My husband has decided that I spend entirely too much time on the PC. His solution? "I swear I am going to throw that thing out!"

OH, REALLY, NOW? He is threatening me with throwing out nearly $1000 worth of PC equipment because he thinks I spend too much time on it? (While at the same time, he is looking for deals on web cams & memory) He actually said that other than eating, going to the bathroom (he used another word) & sleeping, I do NOTHING else but sit on the computer! Sometimes he is such an idiot!

I guess our almost 4 year old daughter fends for herself all day while he is at work! She must cook for herself, clean up her own messes, dress herself, do her own laundry & grocery shopping. She must have also taught herself to speak, eat, draw & learned right from wrong all by her lonesome self because her Mama (me) ignores her all day long in favor of the computer! Such delusions of grandeur he has! You would think after 20 years together, he would know not to mess with me like that. Stupid man!

He doesn't get that this PC is my connection to the outside world. I am a SAHM. I talk to a preschooler all day. All my real life friends and/or family live in other states or other counties. The only person I talk to that I can actually see with my own two eyes is my neighbor, Maria. She's the best neighbor we have ever had. Her 4 year old son, Alex, & The Diva are "betrothed". I call him "my future son-in-law". I know it probably won't happen, but they are just adorable together. But I digress...

Back to my husband...I guess he is the one who pays all the bills & makes sure we have something left to live on after everything is sent off? NOT!! It's me. All me. He eats, sleeps, showers, goes to work, repeats. Every day. I take care of everything else. Oh, and he washes his own clothes, the towels & blankets (sometimes), takes out the trash & occasionally cooks dinner. That's about it. I am grateful that he has a job with benefits that makes a decent living, but come on!

He also said that if I was making money from this "blogging thing" it would be different. But I am not, so it's just an obsession/addiction. Like your need to Google "big boobs" & porn when you get on the computer, honey? "Blogging thing"??? What nerve!! Doesn't he know that you are all my friends? That I live for comments as validation that someone, other than myself, thinks what I have to say is worth something? Does he not understand that it takes time to stalk all the blogs that I do from my Google Reader? Does he not get that I have to write good posts to get people to read my blog (and get them to even see my ads) & that can take forever some days (well, most days) because it is almost impossible to compose a complete, cohesive, rational thought with The Diva interrupting me every five minutes. He is delusional. And stupid. And...A MAN! OY!!!

His next "edict" was that I need to go get a job. A real job. UMMM, I am a SAHM. That IS my job. And I don't get paid for it. Ever. I read a story a while back that said if we SAHMs got paid for everything that we do, our salaries would be over 120k per year. That's more than what he makes. But does he get that? NOOOOOOOOOO! MEN!!

I almost forgot...in his tunnel vision (a horrible male trait that must be weeded out immediately), it would be simple for me to just go get a job. HMMMM, let's see...we have one car, so transportation is a big issue. And he never knows from day to day if he is going to work overtime, much less how long the overtime is going to last. It could be an hour, it could be 2 or 3. We never know for sure. No child care, so going to an interview is almost impossible. Not to mention who is going to watch my child if I do go to work AND how are we going to pay them? Daycare is expensive. The one place I found that I would be willing to leave my baby costs $179 per week. And there is this little thing called the economy...as in it is failing and people are losing their jobs left & right. Stupid, stupid man!

It is more financially sound for me to stay home with our daughter. If she gets sick, she can't go to daycare. If she can't go to daycare, then someone has to stay home to take care of her, most likely me. So that would mean one or more days of lost wages, still paying the same amount for daycare (they don't pro-rate) & a likely pissed off boss because the new girl called in sick.

And there is the very big "If" of not even making enough in said job to cover the expenses of working (clothing, gas, etc.) & paying for daycare. My going back to work, if we could find a way to make it work, would likely put us in the hole financially. Unless, of course, I was making just as much or more than his current salary. I have done all the thinking on this one. I see the forest for the trees. He, on the other hand, has some mental block/brain fart that prevents this from occurring. Why can't men see the whole picture? EVER?

It's not like I am not trying to help out our finances. Nearly everything I buy is on clearance or with a coupon. I try not to pay full price for anything. Clearance is my friend. I don't go to the salon or get my nails done except every 3 months or so, finances permitting. I haven't had new clothes in forever. Or a bra. Or underwear. He buys new underwear monthly. Why, I have no idea. He is forever getting holes in them or some other misfortune befalls them requiring immediate replacement.

And, even though I haven't found anything yet, I am still looking for a legitimate online job. One exists out there, I am sure of it. But I will probably only find it when I get to the end of the Internet. I do have a request of you, my dear readers, if you cannot buy anything from my amazon.com store, then please at least check it out in case you want to buy something later on. Please have a look at my other affiliate ads to see if anything piques your interest. Please?

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This is how my Labor Day Week-end went:

My brand new (6 wk old) PC monitor (HP vs19e) just up & died Sat. morning. I tried to turn it on & NOTHING...no picture, no sound...NOTHING!! So I called HP & explained the situation..csa ran me through a check list (is it plugged in? DUH!!).The csa told me that my monitor was defective....yeah, no shit Sherlock, tell me something I don't already know!! He told me it was still under warranty (DUH! Again!) & HP would ship me out a replacement monitor free of charge on Tuesday, to be received no later than 9/11. I said it was too long to wait for it, so the csa told me I could pay $20 for FedEx & have it by Wednesday....That sounded like a better deal, so I agreed. He told me a credit card was needed to use as collateral/deposit, just in case I didn't return the defective product. When I asked how much would be charged to said credit card, the csa said between $100-300. I tried to get an exact amount, but he just continued to be vague. I told him I didn't have that much money to let be held for ransom for almost a month & I certainly wasn't about to give my cc# to someone so they could pick an arbitrary amount to charge to it!! He stated that this was company policy for warranty returns/replacements. (Free of charge doesn't really mean free anymore) An argument ensued. I asked for a supervisor & was told they don't work on the week-ends! So, what, the inmates run the asylum on Sat. & Sun.???!!! He said a supervisor would call me back on Monday. (Mon. was a holiday)

Did I mention that the call center for HP that I was connected to was in New Delhi, India?? They may speak English, but they sure don't understand

it!! (Not our version, anyway)

So I decided to take the stupid thing back to Fry's Electronics, where I originally bought it. I paid for the extended warranty, which also gives me "loaner equipment" while mine is being repaired/replaced. I was promised the "loaner" would be comparable to the one I have (the dead one) with all the same capabilities...THEY LIED!!! I got the monitor (Vison 20 in. Widescreen) home & connected it, only to find out it is a wide screen (which I hate) & it has no speakers (they were integrated on mine). I was so pissed I almost started seeing red!!! The store manager got an earful from me the next day!

Part 2.....Fry's is very sorry for the inconvenience & if I bring back the loaner monitor, they will then give me yet another, truly comparable loaner, with speakers & everything! YEA! Now I get to drive another roughly 32 miles (one way) to the store to get what they should have given me in the first place. This is why it should be legal to kill the free range stupid!!

Part 3....a supervisor from HP contacted me Tuesday to say how very sorry he is that I had that experience over the week-end with their agents. (hear violins playing in background) He told me that they DO NOT charge your credit card, they just take the number in case you don't send back the old product within 15 days. Gee, I sure wish Rasheed had had this knowledge when I spoke to him on Sat., maybe I wouldn't have yelled so much! This supervisor, Edward, also informed me that I could have (and can still) gone to any Best Buy or Radio Shack (they are authorized service centers) & exchanged the monitor there. Again, knowledge Rasheed should have had on Sat. (it would have kept me from ripping him a new one). I could have gone a whole 3 miles down the street & gotten a replacement monitor on Saturday instead of the 64 mi (round trip) to Fry's. OY!!

Part 4....The Finale.....I called the Best Buy "geek squad" and was told that I could not exchange my defective HP product at their store (even though it is still under warranty & they are an authorized HP repair center!). I called the HP supervisor back and guess what? He was so disappointed about this whole situation that he is sending me a replacement monitor sans credit card and a set of external speakers (with subwoofer) for FREE!! My faith in humankind has been restored...at least for today...

BUT, THIS AGAIN, IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF WHY I WANT TO KILL THE FREE RANGE STUPID!!!!!!! (see steam coming out of my ears) This is also why I hate NAFTA, Bill Clinton for approving it, & the outsourcing of American jobs.

Sometimes I wish I was President......

So how was YOUR Labor Day week-end?

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