November 27 - December 19
[[Transition Phase in Review ~ (Florida x Virginia)]]

~ [November 27, 2024 - Wednesday] ~

I should've Suspected the unrighteous hell I found myself being forced to go through this day.

It began roughly around 9:20, as I was in the shower, trying to get ready for my trip out of Town, when I was faced with the inconvenience of the power in my apartment having been completely out. Surely, I thought, it couldn't have possibly been any sort of an overstepping of the nearly half-hour instructing the Power Company's representative on what exactly & specifically was being requested, i.e. that only the ''Name'' on the billing account was to be ''transferred'' by the end of the night. So I called the Power Company to report an ''outage,'' only to receive a call-back explaining that I'd requested a ''disconnect'' and with NO ''time of effect'' specified! So began the intense runaround calling ''Customer Disservice'' feeding me some bogus bullshit about how they'd received a ''disconnect'' request and how they were incapable of [1] simply transferring names on an account – DESPITE the fact that I'd received a ''Confirmation Text'' from  ''Dick Energy''  (as I'll be referring to them from now on) vaguely stating that a request for disconnection ''OR'' account transfer had been requested (even though there was no ''OR'' about any of the specific instructions they'd received) or [2] ''reactivating'' the account remotely, as the service technician who'd given me the follow-up call, assured me could be done, even providing me with the ''Meter Number'' for that very purpose! I even had to get a ''Prop-Man'' rep onto the call via the secondary phone to try to hash this nonsense out, but the representative for ''Dick Energy'' continued to insist on the bogus B.S. he kept trying to get me to swallow. Ultimately, I yielded the conflict after the Power Company's lackey informed me that electricity could be restored only if I'd re-registered in My Name and jump through all of the hoops of being run through a ''Credit Check,'' placing down another ''deposit,'' and the whole shebang, to which I'd emphatically stated no desire to subject myself to (when what I'd really wanted to tell him was to tell ''Dick Energy'' to go fuck themselves).

The property manager representative continued to make follow-up calls to me up until the time I was about ready to leave the apartment for my trip to the Asian Market (around 11:30), reaffirming that there was really nothing they could do on their end, forcing me to operate in the darkness for the next two nights (fortunate that virtually all of any ''refrigeration-required'' items I may have had left over had already been consumed, leaving me only the loss of two-and-a-half sticks of butter which I'd kept in the freezer ~ although I WILL  of necessity  have to be subjected to ''Cold Showers'' and possibly cold sleeping nights now that I was rendered unable to use the room heater, which I'd had to resort to the past couple of nights). ~ All of this infuriating runaround horseshit simply because I'd been told by the Power Company's Rep I'd placed the transfer request with that the switchover could not actually take place until  after  the Weekend (again, because of the BS ''Holiday''), and my paranoia would not permit me to Trust that at sometime during my absence someone wouldn't take advantage of that situation.

Before continuing on with my long trip out of Town, I first popped my head inside the Post Office to inquire if they were going to be open on Friday, of which I was assured they would be. I then took a detour to where I thought the ''Penske'' truck pick-up might be located, and not seeing anything that even remotely gave me the idea that they were anywhere in that area I consulted a map app and learned that I wasn't even going in the right direction (it turned out that its location is directly across the street from ''Sam's'' pizzeria); then consulted the map again to pinpoint locate the ''Spectrum'' store in order to return my modem & router, which I'd brought with me to drop-off, now that I no longer had any reason for retaining them any longer, as no electricity by extension means no ''Wi-Fi.''

The Spectrum Store was filled with people; one of the associates recommended that I hop across the road and turn them over to the ''UPS Store'' behind the ''Chic-Fil-A,''as I would've still had to wait in line even for an equipment drop-off.

Later, after a tiny bit of uncertainty, I found that I'd ''undershot'' my arrival at the North Tampa ''MD Oriental Market'' by only a tad bit over a mile, but the arrival was frustrating as pfukk, as the traffic signal for the left-turn onto ''Fowler Ave.'' from US Highway 41 / ''Nebraska St.'' (at least coming from the north side heading east) would barely stay illuminated for ten seconds before shutting off again for another several minutes to cater to other traffics cutting through the intersection – and the line to make the turn was backed-up as fuck! …having me sitting and waiting in the lane for at least FOUR CYCLES before I was able to queue-up close enough to the line in order to catch the turn. But because of the impatience which had been brought on by such disregard from the signal programmers, I'd turned early into an empty business's lot whereupon exiting it would've required me to literally double-back to the Fowler/Nebraska intersection: determined not to put myself through that madness yet again, I'd opted this time to cut into the proper parking lot via riding on the sidewalk, hoping that nobody in any sort of ''Law Enforcement'' capacity inconvenienced me any further.

Once inside, I went to where I thought the dishes might be displayed, and instead found myself in the ''teas'' isle, where I'd found my ''tin container'' Lychee Black Tea; I also grabbed a tin of Jasmine Tea in response to the fact that I could neither find the Jasmine/Lotus blend my Mother had sent to me nor any Lotus Tea by itself that  WAS NOT  ''bagged.''

When I found the dishes & utensils section, I was unable to find my specific ''bowlate,'' but I'd ended-up struggling in indecision over several other cute options, taking a particular liking to what I'm going to refer to as a  ''plater'' ('plate-platter)  with the same cute ''[peach-or-cherry] blossom'' painted design of my bowlate… despite having on its product sticker something called a  ''P65 warning''  relating to some sort of health alerts that are implemented in California that are associated with something they call, ''Proposition 65.'' From there I'd tried to conduct a search about it online, but could find no specifics relating to the particular item in question or what materials necessitated such a warning label: and though I did ultimately give in and make that purchase, the total number of them I'd decided to purchase were decreased by half, deciding to go with a ''single'' unit rather than with a ''pair,'' as had been my original intention (which in retrospect I'd wish I did indeed grab them as a pair), all because of that health alert sticker. I also grabbed a couple other matching ''bowlate'' & rice & soup bowls of a different ''textured'' floral design, again feeling the dreaded need to have ''extras'' on hand in non-hopeful expectation of something akin to what had occurred to my original item might experience a repeat performance (I'd already lost my ''Gold Dragon'' plate I'd brought from Hawaii, thanks to ''Gracie'' breaking it).

I'd also impulsed on some ''norimaki'' rice crackers, ''ika peanut crackers,'' and strawberry mochi before my shopping there was completed.

Prior to returning to the apartment, I stopped into ''Walgreens'' to see if my eyedrops prescription had been filled, and was relieved to learn that it had been this time. Then upon returning to the apartment complex, I took the opportunity to replace the ''patching tape'' on my motorcycle seat (trying to rip off the old tape only made the original rips so, so much worse!); I then proceeded to dig-out the spare apartment key I'd hidden outside as a just-in-case measure, with the intention of dropping the originally assigned pair of keys back to the Prop-Man office the next day, while still retaining the copy I'd had made at ''Lowe's'' in order to continue to gain access to the apartment until final day.

This was when the next bombshell fell in my lap: It was revealed that at some point during my time out on the road I'd received an email from ''Penske'' informing me that the status of my truck reservation was now being listed as,  ''tentative,''  which they claimed was [quote]  ''due to a lack of box truck supply coming into the Tampa Bay area,''  [unquote] and the limitations of what they themselves had readily available in reserve.

As darkness fell, navigating through the cluttered apartment proved to be stressful, and I questioned if I could be able to accomplish much of anything at all. So I decided to reactivate my oil lamps to handle the lighting duties, but they had been so long unused that I couldn't get the wicks to ignite, so I had to let them sit & saturate as I took the blanket covering my fold-down couch to the laundry room so that I could utilize it tonight if need be, should the overnight temperature again dip itself into ''chilly'' territory.

I had originally planned on sneaking my computer tower and monitor into the laundry room with me in order to add this updated record onto my ''Journal,'' partially to ''reset'' the start/restart operations so as to avoid any ''embarrassing'' wallpapers/screensavers from popping-up inadvertently (especially considering the ''themes'' that were being featured at the time of power disconnect), but mainly because I wasn't quite certain if I'd already had my Journal template(s) and/or Word Processing installer on the flash drive if I tried to use it on the laptop.

Ultimately, I did decide to chance it with the laptop instead and was relieved to learn that I had indeed provided BOTH of those things on the thumb drive. This choice also proved to be fortuitous as well, as I'd honestly not expected anybody else to be using the laundry at the same time, which turned out to be yet another situation of one of the residents seemingly determined to leave his items hogging one of the dryers, and the woman whose apartment was the unit next door (south) to the laundry room had been waiting and checking for when those items would be claimed – which ultimately worked to my advantage, as I could utilize that time to stay tapped into the laundry room's sole accessible electrical cord to work on my laptop while simultaneously recharging my helmet-cam batteries (she'd even left me a considerable amount of dryer time for me to run my blanket through enough to dry completely (I'd chosen to wait on her to use the dryer as she'd informed me that the one I'd ordinarily use was no longer functioning).

I heading back into apartment at just past 21:25, returning to darkened surroundings of quiet and inactivity, utilizing the surviving LED torch to illuminate the area.

Also, at some point during the day, shortly before I left for Tampa, I followed a technique for removing the damaged screen protector that I came across in a ''Who?Tube'' recommendation, after I'd searched for a tutorial elsewhere the previous evening, and found that this ''recommended'' method actually worked PERFECTLY-FLAWLESSLY – which involved using an ordinary  ''Business Card.''  The only thing demanded of me now is to persistently be mindful of BOTH phones'' lack of additional screen protection and to be extra vigilant in my handling and awareness of both of them, as they are equally as unprotected as they can get, excepting their ''shock casings.''

~ [November 28, 2024 - Thursday] ~

Experienced the resounding JOY of having having ''Hot Water'' from my tap restored, then seeing that my kitchen light and refrigerator were fully operational again, indicating that Power to my apartment had been fully restored – only for me wake-up soon afterward and quickly realize that it had all actually been part of a rather intense ''Lucid Dream''!

The morning started off as though it was going to be presenting me with a whole new laundry list of problems, as my ''primary phone kept refusing me Internet access, even though during my independent ''troubleshooting'' explorations I'd managed to receive a confirmation text that my Talk/Text access had not been affected: I'm assuming that once I'd reset the ''APNs'' to ''default'' is what ultimately cleared the issue.

Because there had been so much pertinent information that I'd inadvertently forgotten to include in the previous entry, and because of the need to recharge my drained flashlight and remaining helmet-cam batteries and my primary phone, I again regained access to the laundry room's power connection, this time on the ''ruse'' of bringing in laundry to do – especially since ''MAGA Mary'' is still on site and continually popping outside of her apartment.

It is  her  presence here in particular that is causing me the most turmoil, as it's  her  niele eyes that I'm constantly trying to avoid… ESPECIALLY in this tense and time-sensitive situation, which has been further complicated not only by the uncertainty of whether any trucks are actually going to be available to me Friday morning, but even if they do manage to have them on-hand to match with my reservation, the Weather Reports are consistently announcing the expectation of rain, which will certainly complicate things even more.

During the recharging phase, in between installing back-up programs onto the laptop, I decided to test the Wynonna Judd album I'd placed inside the laundry room to join the ''Lending Library'' because of its refusal to be read by the PC, and found that it worked perfectly on the laptop: even so, I've committed to leaving it in the laundry for whomever wishes.

At about 15:20, just as I was about to transfer the fully charged items back to the apartment, with the intention of bringing the other phone out to give it a full charge, I received a call from ''Mimi,'' saying she was in the area in a Rental Car and asked if it would be alright for her to come by, to which of course I said, Yes. So rather than bringing stuff back in piecemeal, I gathered up everything and brought the whole kit and kaboodle back inside.

When she arrived approximately 15 minutes later, she said her only real intention was to just have a normal ''visit,'' so I had to sort of coax her to not end our last ever face-to-face without one final ''Pussy Slurping.'' During her visit she also revealed that she was similarly in the process of permanently vacating this Penis-shaped Insane Asylum in favor of returning to New York.

During this visit, it was the only time that I'd ever seen her with her  own  hair, which she said she'd just had colored over, and which resembled a small ''Afro,'' which greatly diminished from her looks.

Mimi's visit also had a bit of a disrupting effect on my packing activity: I continued to work on organizing portions of the remaining chaos until around 23:00, when I decided to call it a ''night-ish,'' where I'd planned to get some sleep up until my first of several obligatory harassing ''empty your bladder'' wake-me-up alerts --

~ [November 29, 2024 - Friday] ~

-- And of course, if I had been writing all of this as a fictitious novel, it would've been completely dismissed as having been totally implausible, but as with everything else that has been uniquely disrupting my life these past several days, this would prove the *ONLY* time in my existence since only God knows when where that faux ''full bladder'' trigger warning did NOT flip-on and disrupt my sleep, so that it was well past 7:00 before I'd gotten even barely my first twinge to go relieve myself!

I waited until exactly 9:00 (not exactly by plan to have been so precise in the timing) before calling the contact number provided in the email from ''Penske'' to get an update regarding the availability of my rental truck, only to be told that the general surrounding areas were essentially bone-dry, likely in significant part in response to the previous pair of major storms that swept through the region, and they were uncertain as to when anything would become available.

Just shortly after I'd connected with the ''St. Petersburg'' number (which was where the email number redirected me), I'd received a call from the ''New Port/Trinity'' location trying to get in touch with me: I returned that call immediately after disconnecting from the ''St. Pete'' number (which had lasted a tad over a half-hour), and as I was ringing their number the staffer at the NPR/T site decided that was her signal to redial me at the exact same time (she admitted as much), only to reaffirm what the person at the St.Pete office had just gotten done explaining to me.

(As a result of the Rental Truck disruption, I was in retrospect very glad & thankful that I'd never followed-through on my original intention, which was to drop-off the apartment keys on Thursday.)

To a certain extent, this particular disruption proved to be somewhat fortuitous, as ''Niele Nancy''-- a.k.a. ''MAGA Mary'' –was not using Today to return to her work, so she was on site the entire time… as were my next door neighbors, whom I likewise did not wish to openly broadcast any of my site abandonment activities.

With accepting this latest bit of news (given how it was all out of my control anyway), I decided to chillax a bit and not try to rush the job. During this laid-back time I tried to access the ''Burger King'' website, intending on finding some coupons/specials with the plan on going out that way for something halfway decent to eat, but the site kept refusing to connect me and kept hitting me with ''reload'' error messages, so I backed out of the idea altogether. But while performing other tasks & activities online, I'd managed to blow through ALL of the ''data'' allotment on the newer phone, somehow forgetting that without Wi-Fi I likewise would not be able to transmit or receive calls & texts if my data bank was depleted: for some reason I'd assumed that those had operated independently of ''data'' (not entirely sure why I believed that this time). Even so, I was only less than a week away from needing to reload more access time onto the phone anyway, so I first chose the $35 option that would allot me double the Data of what my initial 'activation'' request provided to me, but when the order placement was postponed with an ''up-sell'' of three additional Gigabytes of Data for only $10 (which is normally sold at ''$10/1-Gig''), I decided to see if the same up-sell deal would be offered on the lesser-expensive option which offered only the 500MB of Data, and upon seeing that the same ''3-extra Gigs @$10'' offer similarly applied, I went with that option instead, getting the same ''60-days'' access-- less 250-minutes from the featured ''750'' and only half of the ''1GB'' Data allotment –at a $10 savings. ~ (Ironically, all of this had taken place just as I was actively engaging in comparing different ''Pay-Go'' Phone Plans in advance preparation of ''unlocking'' the SIM on one of these phones to try a different Service.)

Right about this same time, both phones'' batteries drained to operating on fumes: I tried first addressing the problem by tapping into the USB ports on the ''Battery Jumper'' emergency kit, only managing to recharge both phones barely above 14% capacity before it kicked out itself at barely the 20% retention level, so I resorted to faking my way back into the laundry room in order to recharge all three devices together immediately after returning from the Post Office to return my keys and cancel my P.O. Box.

~ [November 30, 2024 - Saturday] ~

What was ''Burger King's'' loss the previous day became ''Domino's'' on this date, as I began making justifications for ''Dining-Out'' ahead of my exiting trip back to Virginia, as I'm determined to NEVER AGAIN consume any ''prepared meals'' in that State, as virtually every City & Town throughout the entire ''Commonwealth'' has seen fit to institute a mandatory ''Food and Beverages'' (or ''Restaurant/Meals'') Tax-- or as I've referred to it,  a Tax on ''Pleasure and Enjoyment'' --ON TOP OF their already relatively high ''Sales'' Tax (all while continuing to burden their residents with a ''State Income'' Tax)!

Prior to placing my order, I'd subjected myself another pubic bump scraping, this time trying it with the copper pot scrubber, then upon learning that this method would not work I resorted back to the sandpaper: and because of not having any electricity, and thus by extension having no refrigeration, I performed this bit of self-surgery without the aid of any ''anesthetic'' (i.e., anything ice cold to act as a pain numbing agent).

On my way to retrieve my pizza order, I noticed that the computer tower I'd placed outside had finally been claimed by someone; I'd made efforts after my return to ''update'' the ''Craigslist'' post where I'd advertised it, but could not recall which email I'd associated with it, so I just left it. (Of note: the ''monitor'' that I'd placed out with the tower unit had remained unclaimed.)

~ [December 1, 2024 - Sunday] ~

It had transitioned from the previous evening into a very chilly overnight, which kept me bedridden for much of that time. At one point, I'd again experienced a lucid dream of discovering that my apartment's electricity had been reconnected, only to rapidly awaken to the (literally) cold reality.

To try to get something of a ''warm'' meal inside of myself, and to try to address the sore throat I'd developed overnight, I settled on getting a Pho Bowl at the aptly named, ''Pho Bowl.''

Having found myself again running on fumes, as it were, with my phones'' reserve charges, I again ''sneaked'' into the laundry room to tap into its power cord, this time exiting out the rear and looping around, then entering the laundry room from its rear door as well. Found during this visit that, among the other ''failed'' features on this laptop (namely, the loss of Internet access and the inability to directly access a ''microSD'' memory card), the ''earphones'' jack has also gone completely inoperable: this discovered as I was trying to watch a movie with them, in an attempt to imply that I might've been unaware that I'd had a load of laundry complete its cycle, should anyone have walked in on me… which someone did anyway.

~ [December 2, 2024 - Monday] ~

I woke up this morning to an email from ''Penske'' acknowledging my ''cancellation'' of my truck rental… to which I'd immediately replied to the listed contact phone number, because I'd done  NO SUCH THING!!! -- so we had to go through a whole other series of runarounds to ''re-establish'' my rental request, and  THIS  time be given the {{koff-koff}} ''definite assurance'' that trucks are now available in the region and that one will be at the Pick-up/Drop-off site at 8:30 tomorrow morning, along with the ''Mea Culpa'' compensation of deducting an additional 15% off of the final price! I then had to respond to the Prop-Man with this information after sending me a text inquiring about my failure to deposit the apartment keys.

I also woke up to a surprisingly warm can of Ravioli, which I'd slept with between my legs throughout the session, in hopes of having something to consume that wasn't at chilly overnight ''room temperature'' – and though my own body heat performed somewhat admirably, the surrounding room temperature sucked all that warmth out in rather quick fashion.

Later in the day, I decided to take a trip to ''Walmart'' to grab some luncheon meats for sandwiches, to try to help go through the remaining half-loaf of bread I had left over: along with some requisite potato chips, I also impulse purchased a tray of fig cookies and a box of graham crackers… for what, I haven't a clue.

On the way out, I'd observed that the computer monitor had also finally been taken, leaving only the particle board shelving unit, which I dismantled and tossed into the dumpster upon my return on site.

Weak phone, ''AA,'' and helmet-cam batteries led me to access the laundry room once again, around late-19:00 or early-20:00 or so, coming in through the back side again after ''Niele Nancy / MAGA Mary'' made her presence known right as I was about to enter through the main gate after dumping a bag of trash. Prior to any of this however, as I was leaving the apartment I found a delivered package set outside my door; upon inspecting it, it turned out to be something addressed to the neighbor two doors down (the alley-end apartment of the ex-Vietnam vet), to whom I'd alerted of its incorrect address drop-off.

I'd also spent part of the day trying to get some advance info regarding Internet Provider options for the ''Roanoke, VA'' area, and finding reliable information relating to that about as forthcoming as trying to get information on where to take ''Instructional Classes'' so that I might become ''certified'' to continue working in my Career Field (which, even after contacting the forum ''moderators'' for assistance, the  ''Roanoke''  ''subreddit'' still refuses to post my questions relating to that very subject). That whole ''Glo Fiber'' network thingamajig that everybody in the region keeps gushing over stated that their service is ''not yet'' available in the neighborhood where I'd be residing… and it seemed that only ''DICKS'' -- uhhh… I mean, ''COX'' was the only other option available, until something inspired me to check on a variety of known names, managing to discover (at least according to their website) that ''Verizon'' also offers Internet Service to that area, and ''seems'' to have the best (though still sickeningly high) rates.

~ [December 3, 2024 - Tuesday] ~

Just five minutes past Midnight, merely roughly 5-10 minutes before all battery recharging was complete, my Laptop went on a spontaneous self-cancelation: it had kind of shown itself in the making when the screen went dim a few minutes before the completion of the ''PBS: Frontline'' segment about the Vice-Presidential candidates which I'd downloaded and held in reserve. Nothing could get the laptop to restart, so I figured it might've needed to take a rest in order for it to return to operational.

And, of course, I'd heard nothing back from ''Penske'' the previous night regarding the drop-off of a truck… and I would not hear anything from them until 9:30 – a full HOUR after they'd assured me that the truck would be there on-site for pick-up.

I immediately left for the combination Truck Rental / Self-Storage facility / Post Office, then went through the process of getting my truck, documenting its pre-rental condition before taking it south-a-ways a bit to load my motorcycle onto it out of their sight, just in case such a loading was considered ''unauthorized.'' The ride up the ramp scared me enough (and it fell over to the right, stopped from completely falling over by the side wall), but I was really losing my shit when I took the truck out into traffic, where I was so unaccustomed to the mirrors that I was in constant ''Panic Mode'' whenever I had to change lanes.

Once back at the apartment complex (which was where I'd discovered how the motorcycle had fallen) I proceeded to go all-out in loading the truck in hopes of being able to high-tail it out of here BEFORE ''Niele Nancy / MAGA Mary'' returned from her work: I thought two, or perhaps Three-Hours would've been reasonable time for me to get everything situated – but when Lisa's work truck appeared on site at about 14:00 (an hour before I'd believed she'd ended her workday) I just admitted defeat, but I still worked intently, not aware of the fact that I'd be doing so well upwards toward 22:00, which was when I essentially retained the small collection of personal hygiene items, articles of clothing, etc. that I'd planned to have relative ease-of-access to during my trip.

During final sweep (from my less-than-enthusiastic cleaning regimen) I was not only surprised by how much ''trash'' I'd accumulated or would be throwing out, but was also thoroughly disgusted with how the invading Geckos had literally used the entirety of the southeast corner of my apartment to use the floor, air conditioning unit, and areas behind/between stationary items & furniture, as their shit-dumping grounds!

In tandem with packing the trash into to the back of the truck to haul it out to ''our'' dumpster and to subsequently park the truck street-side, I also brought out a last batch of clothing, bedding, and other items to do some actual ''laundry'' this time… without ''sneaking,'' Included in the load were the items I'd been wearing during all of the moving activities, but removing those items would mean I'd either have to stand around in the laundry room completely naked, or I'd have to resort to wearing one of the ''dresses'' I'd salvaged, which was ultimately what I did… including wearing ''Zepherhills Heather's'' panties that she'd gifted me following my Pussy Eating date with her – which, to my utter and unexpected surprise, I found to be quite comfortable and comforting.

During this time, I'd also discovered the reason behind my laptop seemingly suiciding itself, which it did again tonight as I was trying to test out if the ''rest'' did it any good: it turned out that there was some sort of kink or fray somewhere in the power cord, which requires the laptop to remain as unjostled as possible so as to not black-out again.

~ [December 4, 2024 - Wednesday] ~

Didn't get done with the laundry until about a quarter-after 1:00; I then cleared the remaining small bed mat (I'd used the older, thicker one, for padding the motorcycle inside the truck bay, as had always been the plan) and tried to get some rest, using the just laundered bath towel to try to stay warm, since I'd already stored away all of the blankets.

The time I'd spent trying to get some sleep was completely wasted, as the towel layer I'd thrown over myself was insufficient to provide any level of comforting warmth and I stayed cold as phukk until I'd resorted to throwing the winter coat I'd worn to the truck rental site over myself – but by this time it was pretty much wasted effort, as it was so close to Dawn as to make little difference and resulted in my staying in bed longer than I'd originally planned. I'd also suffered from soreness of hips as a result of the tatami padding being insufficient to provide much in the way of cushioning. I'd finally gotten motivated enough around 9:30 to get off of the mat and resume my packing & clearing work.

I brought the truck back around to the rear to continue packing. Once everything that was actually everything had been completely loaded into the truck compartment, I took the barbecue grill I'd claimed for myself when the previous occupants who'd resided next door to me had left it behind – only to never use, and wheeled it to the ''Common Area'' right after having droped-off the ''assigned'' apartment keys inside the ''Rent Collection'' drop-box inside the laundry room; I then proceeded to rip out the remaining ''border fencing'' of my garden area and tossed them in dumpster along with my ''Unwelcome Mats,'' then proceeded to literally ''roll out'' the stone flower pot that was on-site when I'd assumed occupancy of the apartment (not ever knowing if it was always part of the site or was an item that had been left behind by a former renter). And yet again, I proved not-fast-enough to get everything out and moving prior ''Niele Nancy / MAGA Mary'' returning from her workday… but thankfully, like last time, I did not have to interact at all with her or even see her out & about.

''Final Prep'' during this time would first involved what I would deem to be my last ever ''Nair'' fail, which left me having to resort to shaving the remaining unremoved hair, exposing all of the ''speckles'' discoloraions, most likely due to having been eaten upon so long by so many God only knows what invisible to the naked eye critters: I then continued to bathe myself in the cold water, followed by washing my hair in the kitchen sink, where, for some strange reason, the water exiting from that faucet never seemed quite as cold: I then finished by shaving my face for the first time since registering for the rental truck.

As my final parting act, I began shooting a ''walkthrough'' video throughout the apartment at around 16:45, to document exactly how I'd left it, but the video process malfunctioned for some reason, so I resorted to taking a series of ''snapshots'' instead (which admittedly would be easier to work with and transmit via email). I then secured the apartment, and sat inside the truck until I'd finished formulating a text message to the ''Prop-Man,'' informing them of my final check-out time and the status of the access keys, as I would not be heading in the opposite direction to drop them off at their office's drop-box.

In the end, what they got left with their unit that wasn't there when I'd originally taken residence there were: a brand spanking new ''shower head'' (an aesthetic choice, as I couldn't even leave the gross and beaten original head that came with the apartment); a brand new, but smaller, bathroom mirror (to replace the original one I'd accidentally broken); a pair of ''wall-shelving'' slats I'd installed (which I did not wish to go through the hassle of removing); and a personally purchased & planted Hibiscus bush (which I had no abilities to uproot or cut down).

Because of all of the weather reports noting that overnight temperatures covering the length of my journey would all be the near-freezing mark, I'd made the conscious decision to not dress or ornament myself as a ''girl'' (not really expecting to rush a women's restroom anyway), nor did I bother to otherwise ''dress to impress,'' going strictly for comfort and practicality.

Getting out on the road was initially terrifying, as my ''Double-Vision'' insisted that now was as good a time as any to interfere with my ability to see clearly and to focus, especially since I was virtually incapable of knowing how to ''read'' the side mirrors, which thankfully ceased being a problem of sitting-on-edge concern once I was out of ''populated'' traffic areas and essentially cruising forever in the ''right-hand lanes'' of Freeway traffic! I was also introduced to the shocking understanding as to why my motorcycle so easily fell off of its side-stand upon experiencing just how wildly and freely the vehicle rocked & swayed & shifted during even ''smooth'' stretches of driving, which would've violently jostled & thrown-about anything in the storage hold which had not been tightly packed & padded.

My first misdirection occurred at an exit outside of ''Jacksonville,'' thanks to confusing roadwork and just as confusing directional signage.

~ [December 5, 2024 - Thursday] ~

My first ''rest stop'' was at a ''TA'' truck stop in a place called, ''Richmond Hills'' (Georgia) at just past Midnight (ticked-off that my bladder never exercises such controlling longevity in normal circumstances), where after my first refueling ($81 phreaking dollars!) I settled on a prepared salad tray ($10 phreaking dollars!) as the first meal of the Trip.

As soon as left the truck during this time, the ''sleep monster'' began hitting me, so after I'd parked along the edge of a nearby minor roadway and finished eating, I tried to adjust to the driver's seat of the truck to try to get in a ''Power Nap,'' but upon finding any level of comfort unobtainable, I took the chance of climbing into the loading bay and fully stretching out of the tatami for 20 minutes… and then bumping the timer up for an additional 10 minutes before returning to the cabin and resuming my journey.

I experienced another ''misdirect,'' this time finding myself being sent down ''Interstate 16,'' again, due to confusing signage.

Once in South Carolina, where I'd begun feeling the sleep monster creeping upon me again, I'd bypassed the first three Rest Areas (apart from the ''Welcoming Center'') I'd tried to access, because of the congestion and my confusion about space availability. But by time the next one came however, I stopped using that as the convenient excuse and made the proper determination to park-in after nearly blipping out completely a number of times. Here, I was determined NOT to do a repeat of trying to sleep inside the loading bay, and managed to maneuver myself in a way where I could actually somewhat comfortably stretch my body across the pair of bucket seats, whereupon I'd managed to clock-in about a good hour's worth of nap-time, sending back onto the road around 5:00.

At around 9:30, inside North Carolina, I found myself needing another nap-down, After I'd parked the vehicle, I would learn that my suspicion was indeed correct and that I had in fact ''overshot'' my turn-off point, which was supposed to have been at ''U.S. Highway 52'' ~ and after trying to re-route myself, I'd made the decision, despite the ''Data Suck'' it would involve, that I would for the remaining stretch of the trip use the phone's ''Traffic GPS'' feature to guide me… which I did, following another hour-long nap.

As it would turn out, the decision to rely on the GPS assistance was the correct call, as I would've definitely been second- and third- and fourth-guessing myself and would've eventually gotten myself completely lost had I tried to rely on my own ''map reading'' interpretations!

I'd decided to do my final ''eat-in'' at the exit just outside of the Virginia border, as the last ''dining out'' meal I'd ever have because of Virginia's  ''Tax on Fun and Relaxation'' -- turned out to be ''Bojangle's Chicken & Biscuit,'' which I couldn't finish not because the meal was mostly unappetizing, but mainly because for some reason just was in ''food rejection'' mode. (I did however hop into the back of the truck to ''Change Clothes''-- including adding my ''Breasties'' --as I was determined to wash my hands prior to ordering anything to eat.)

I'd gotten partially ''lost'' during my re-access to ''Ro-Town,'' as I had to re-adapt to the routes and layout, but also because of the number of ''aesthetic'' changes which had taken place in my absence.

I'd arrived at the house, and called to confirm, at shy of 17:45, dissuading a welcoming embrace using the fact that I'd covered my mouth & nose in a medical face mask, relating to the endless nasal/sinus problems I'd been experiencing ever since I'd started moving stuff out of the apartment, initially believing it must've been linked to the dried/drying brush I'd been having to trek through.

The whole trip forced me to adopt new ''respects'' for these two particular groups of people: [1] ''Long-Haul Truck Drivers''; and [2] people who find where they're living becoming Too Expensive to remain where they are proclaiming that it's ''Too Expensive'' for them to move-out of their areas!  (I'm now fully appreciative of the ''Second'' group's lamentations, considering that the even ''discounted'' price of my move, in all total, was almost $1,500! ~ well over it, when factoring in around $160's worth of gasoline to fully refill the tank twice!)

~ [December 6, 2024 - Friday] ~

Walked to the Post Office after waking in the morning, expecting to retrieve my P.O. Box keys and receive my ''Box Number'' – instead, I was met with refusal when the clerk at the time explained to me that needed to establish proof of my ''local residence'' as an Identification Verification method, in the form of ''local'' Mortgage, Homeowner's Insurance Policy, Utility Bill, etc… NONE of which of course I could provide, for OBVIOUS fcuking reasons!

I left the B.S. ''Credit Card Trap'' style of bogus ''Identity Verification'' and asked my mother to accompany me back to the place and see if they would allow her to use  her  credentials to obtain the/a Box, but the persons who could've assisted in that were on some 10:00 AM ''Lunch Break'' … so we decided to fill-in that time gap with a shopping trip to ''Sam's Club,'' where my primary intent was to purchase a pack of ''Ground Bison,'' only to discover that ''Sam's'' in Roanoke did not [ever?] stock it, so I settled for some ''7%-fat'' lean ground beef – along with my truly impulse purchases of a case of ''sparkling Grape Juice'' and a case of ''Seagram's'' ''beer coolers.''

Back at the Post Office, we again presented the alternative work-around for procuring my pre-ordered and supposedly ''on-reserve'' Post Office Box, with me still griping how I'd NEVER been subjected to such ''Proof(s) of ''LOCAL'' Residency'' ever before in my life-long history of exclusively renting P.O. Boxes – the fat crippled woman who mostly assisted us indignantly tried to assure me that this method had been a ''Policy'' for thirty (30) years of her working in the USPS system [total bullshit, based on past personal experiences – including when I'd acquired  TWO  of such boxes in Two Different Cities in Two Separate Counties in Florida before I'd even moved into the region) and that their specific location had been ''audited'' on the very issue. We'd (I'd) managed to reacquire my momz's old P.O. Box Number, which I'd inquired about and was assured was still available during my initial ''false flag'' visit.

~ [December 7, 2024 - Saturday] ~

Woke up this morning with the intent of paying off the current charges on my ''CHASE''  ''Visa''  card and to yet again try to ''update'' my personal account information, only to discover that I had now also been locked out from accessing my account on the mobile devices! In angry response to this, I called their listed contact number and expressed my outrage over the infuriatingly stupid removal of the ability to ''verify'' our identities via our on-record email address and our ''Secret Questions/Answers” and spent nearly a full THREE (3) Hours griping about and explaining the complications posed by this method that attempts to verify IDs by sending One-Time codes to Phone Numbers that had been DEACTIVATED -- which was the reason for the ''Update'' requests anyway!

I then went out to try to see if I could turn the motorcycle around while still inside the truck; but because the wood floor of the truck bed was so smooth and lacking of any traction/grip, I enlisted the aid of my mother, first asking for a push forward, and when those attempts failed asked for a couple of old unwanted rags to be placed underneath the center stand prongs.

I was somewhat surprised that the big-azz bike could be maneuvered around, but when it was time to wheel the machine back out down the ramp, the combined steepness and narrowness of the ramp was so severe from my perspective that I'd expressed zero trust in my abilities to successfully and safely accomplish the execution. So instead, I'd asked my mother to remain inside with the motorcycle and guard against it tipping over off of its side kickstand as I re-positioned the truck down the steep-ish incline on the adjoining property so that I could hopefully eliminate, or at the very least considerably reduce, the severity of the incline, which while still steep was lesser so as to not be a deterring factor.

After cleaning out the truck and storing the motorcycle in the garage, we went together to return the truck, stopping along the way at the first refueling station en route, spending more time than should've been normally necessary because of how slow and hyper-sensitive the fuel line was behaving, even resulting in me filling the tank BEYOND capacity.

Upon arrival at the location, I saw that the ''ratty'' mattress I'd used as padding between motorcycle and wall was still on the truck. As I was going to attempt my mother's suggestion to dump it in the on-site dumpster-- since the ''returns'' Office was closed and the ''refueling'' island and all of the surrounding grounds were empty –a car had pulled up to her, and shortly I was waved back over, where the occupant was an employee who said to just return the truck back to the service island where I'd originally parked it (expecting service that never came) and to leave the key in the drop-box. Prior to leaving and returning the key, I a full series of snapshots, including of the ''full-tank refill'' receipt, and pulled the mattress in toward the front to hopefully be either ignored or treated as a (potentially forgotten & left behind) heavy ''packing cushion.''

While some kitchen cabinets & furnishings rearranging work continued after returning to the house, I'd made the same attempts to ''update'' my user information at the ''Synchrony''  ''Sam's Club MasterCard'' and again finding that they are doing the same sort of thing, I engaged in ''Live Chat'' to try to get this issue cleared-up… and of course they again pulled this  'Video and Gov't Document snapshot''  B.S., and again their ''solution'' was to send me a ''authorization code'' in the Mails (hopefully to the ''updated'' address I'd provided them with).

~ [December 8, 2024 - Sunday] ~

Began the process of removing all of the adopted room's furnishings & decorations after waking this morning, transferring everything that was a part of the room when I'd arrived over to the ''dining room,'' hoping to have it all done before my mother arose for the day and came downstairs, but no such luck was to be had, which again resulted in her helping me to remove & store the items so that the only things left remaining in the room were almost exclusively ''my'' personal items, so that I could have the clear & empty spaces to analyze all that I planned to organize & set-up to get an assessment of all of the ''Whats'' and ''Wheres'' regarding how to sort, distribute and establish the collection according to the designs of my ''Base'' (re)decoration vision – leaving unmoved the dresser-drawer unit, the large glass table with it's crystal chandelier table lamp (the only pre-invasion furnishings I'd planned on retaining) and all of the curtains, which I'd wanted to leave unmolested as the very last ''in-house'' items to bother with.

Later in the evening I reassembled the folding couch and ''disinfected'' both it and the tatami, so that I could use them together as my designated place to sleep from here on out. During this activity, I'd set-up my ''amplifier'' and ''iMac speakers'' with the intention of playing a music CD in the background, using the laptop… upset that I'd forgotten that the ''audio-out'' port does not work.

~ [December 9, 2024 - Monday] ~

At some time past Midnight, I'd transferred (copied) the snapshots I'd taken of my apartment departure over to the PC and resized them so that they all could be sent as a single set of email attachments.

Around 2:00-ish, I reminded the Mom Lady, before she went upstairs for the ''night,'' of the weblink I'd sent to her the previous day regarding that Federal Government  ''Lifeline''  Internet Access ''discount'' program: which she'd assured me she would look into later in the post-Dawn day, even as she was going through her typical ''beg-off'' routine regarding how supposedly little she claims to know about how to operate even the simplest and easiest-explained of tasks on her cell phone. To my surprise, she actually did remember, but still kept on as though she did/could not understand the most simple and easily self-explanatory ''instructions'' as to how to link to the website and fill in text fields, etc. But in the end, she still managed to muck the thing up, because she claimed to have never received any confirmations, either post-submission webpage acknowledgement, email/text alert, etc. I decided not to push it any further after that.

Before she had come down for the day, I'd set-up my ''retro-alarm clock/radio'' in the kitchen, and during a break set-up my rainbow cycling-colors desktop digital alarm clock.

At some point later, I proceeded to switch-out the established shower curtains for those of my set prior to taking a shower with them, and determining that the installation had indeed been botched by whomever installed it, placing it at too high of a height as to not allow any full-length curtains to reach fully, or effectively close, to the ground to curtail the spraying of any water escaping out at the bottom and flooding the outside.

A few hours after this though, I'd decided to install one of my own shower curtain rods and insert it in a way that would effectively address & mitigate the issue, only to discover that the rod I'd intended to use was tightly-- as if permanently –stuck and refused to yield. At the final frustration point, I saw ''hammering it down'' to compress the two sliding portions as the only viable solution, except that I'd overshot the mark, making the rod just too short to reach & fit across walls.

Eventually, I sought to ''compress'' the original rod, which was the ''fastened'' type, but there would be no ''loosening'' response, so I resorted to detaching the ''fastening'' disks in order to extract the rod portion, then placed the end stoppers/grips from the rod I'd intended to use and placed them on the end of the original – only to keep running into the problem of every time I'd get the rod into a seemingly firm positioned placement, it would without fail slip out of place: I would learn that this was the result of a long crack that had been a part of the rod, which kept preventing the chosen extension from retaining its tension and remaining attached, which I'd ultimately addressed/remedied (barely) with copious amounts of duct tape.

~ [December 10, 2024 - Tuesday] ~

Momz did not follow-through and attend an ''AARP'' meeting she said the previous night she had planned on attending, changing her mind due to weather concerns (raining): this put a crimp in what had been my plan during her absence, in that it had been my intention to begin measuring for and drilling holes in preparation for hanging my ultra-long ''NPR-kitchen'' rod & curtains, as I'd wanted to avoid hearing anything with any sort of negative tone or connotation regarding putting holes in the walls.

Throughout, I kept switching and alternating furniture placements, changing my mind, and changing my mind again and again, only truly satisfied with the arrangement and establishment of my DVD/BD Library ''border wall'' semi-enclosure.

I'd managed to find out how and why my mother's attempt to successfully enter her info for the  ''Lifeline''  online connection assistance service failed, so I took over entering her credentials myself, and partway through coming to the realization that she did not qualify anyway… and I would've been highly hesitant to encourage her to follow-through anyway, as their site was instructing her to provide photo snapshots of her sensitive Identifiable & personal ''income verification'' documentation.

Later in the evening, purely on a whim, I decided to see if I could use my power supply to activate ''Gracie's'' laptop, surely expecting it not to work due to ''reverse polarization'' incompatibility, which I'd suspected would be the case, only to be surprised that the laptop both expressed that it was having difficulty trying to launch the operating system (continuing its tradition of not starting until its circuitry is running super-hot) and afterward launching whereupon I'd gained access to an old account I'd never set a password for… only for the system to stop launching after an accidental disconnect from the power supply.

At around 22:00, after being determined to not go through the process of obtaining Internet through either of the two monopoly service providers (''Cocks'' and ''Vagizon'') with their B.S. ''hook price'' postings to which the ''Fine Print'' exposes the hidden conditions, usually requiring ''Bundling'' or some sort of ''Up-Sell,'' so I called ''Xfinity,'' which, despite the claims presented in the search results, does not service the ''Roanoke City'' proper.

I then engaged in the 'chat'' feature with a representative for ''T-Mobile'' (a name that does not easily come up when conducting searches for Internet Service Providers) and found the same high-ass monthly costs for their services as well… only  THIS  time I was determined to let it be known that at this point I was actively ''shopping around'' for the best deal and was adamant that I was NOT prepared to pay anything above $40/mo. and was rigidly insistent that such consideration NOT be tied with any ''bundling'' requirements. Per expectation, the Chat rep was attempting to steer the conversation into denial that any such incentives ''Low(er) Cost'' Internet actually existed, until I dropped names and let it be known that if they all played the similar game with their pricing tiers, then I was determined to just go without Internet in this area. Remarkably, I'd received a chat response that there was actually a ''New'' $35 Internet-only option that was actually scheduled to be implemented [quote] ''TOMORROW'' [unquote], and I was told that someone would call me back later with the details: and after being presented with THIS news, I screen-capped the chat conversation and informed the Rep I'd done so as confirmation/verification of the discussion we'd had.

~ [December 11, 2024 - Wednesday] ~

...And of course, as my ever-accurate Gut predicted and conditioned me to anticipate, the ''promised'' call-back from ''T-Mobile'' was never received – leaving me facing the choice whether to contact them back and pursue their {{koff-koff}} ''New Offer'' further, or to postpone reconnecting with them in favor of trying my hand with the remaining two Internet providers?

Received texts from my former Prop-Man, first requesting an address update – for the purpose of ''returning my Security Deposit,'' of course (read with a sarcastic 'knowing'' smirk), but then followed-up with another text stating that in lieu of an updated address, if they did not have a current ''direct'' address to work with, they would instead send the returned funds to the last address they had on-record, perhaps verifying the legitimacy of their claim.

While I was preparing Dinner, I surreptitiously took the liberty to remove that tacky and interfering brass-looking metal shelving unit that had been forever positioned straddling the commode tank in the upstairs bathroom in order to have a spot to hang my toiletries mirror, then announced the modification and asked that it be given a look-at ''post-installation'' to get a determination as to whether it could remain as altered or if it should be reverted to the original set-up: it met with the mostly-expected/anticipated approval, even with the expanded explanation that there had always been some sort of a plan swimming around to do something very similar to what I'd just presented.

~ [December 12, 2024 - Thursday] ~

Reached out to the ''Prop-Man'' early-ish in the day to present them with the [what I claimed was] ''temporary'' mailing address, to beat the ''Friday'' deadline.

Later in the afternoon, after debating what to do in response to ''T-Mobile's'' refusal to get back in contact with me regarding Internet access, and rather than wasting my time calling them back, and thus appearing desperate, I instead decided to give ''Cox Cable'' a call, even though I was not expecting to be given much leeway with them… but to my surprise, they not only very quickly arrived at a solution that addressed my concerns Re: monthly rate and single-feature service, but also offered me service that was Five Dollars ($5) less than what the ''T-Mobile'' Chat-Rep claimed would be available – and she scheduled the Technician's visit to occur between 8:00-10:00 the following morning.

Later in the night, as I was attempting to access my ''Synchrony: Sam's Club'' credit card (since my last discussion with them to update my address while essentially still doing jack shit about updating my phone number) so that I could pay off my balance, I kept having difficulty accessing the ENTIRE account, not just the ''profile'' portion. At first, I'd realized that I'd entered the incorrect ''username,'' but correcting that mistake also didn't get me anywhere, so I tried the ''Pay As Guest'' option a few times, then discovering that I'd been entering the number of an old deactivated card, so I'd again been resigned to believing that my actions were at fault. But even when I was doing EVERYTHING accurately, the system continued to refuse me access, regardless of URL links, regardless of which web browsers I'd used, any&all of that! So I tried to get someone to address it in ''Chat,'' only to be treated as though I was incompetent by trying to access the account via the incorrect URL, only to reaffirm to her that the issue was still what it was even as I'd attempted to regain access at her provided URL while I was actively on the line with her. She finally provided me with an (800) Customer Service number to call, whereby I'd asked her if she could assure me that it was a ''24/7'' operation, as I had no desire to waste my time immediately after chatting with her if it was some ''Normal Business Hours'' bullshit; she said the CS line was available from 9:00-21:00 (so much for taking ''security'' issues seriously). I then spent an additional hour ranting about the exact same issue(s) regarding the inability to access our personal accounts because of their stripping us of our ''back-up options,'' as I had similarly done during the previous indignant vocal tempest, but we did finally manage to gain access to my account (still with the inability to update my registered phone number), whereupon I'd made my payment and expressed, as I'd repeatedly done throughout our conversation, that I'd be giving serious consideration to canceling out this credit card account and retaining it only for the purpose of using it solely as my ''Sam's Club'' Membership card.

~ [December 13, 2024 - Friday] ~

''Cox Cable'' Tech arrived on-site exactly at 8:00 – far ahead of expectation, and just as I was trying to set-up the computer work stations.

A short while following the installation, my mother and I rode out to ''Sam's Club,''''Kroger,''''Aldi,'' and ''Dollar Tree'' (Williamson) in sequence because I'd requested the previous night to do some significant grocery after Internet was successfully hooked-up. The reason she'd selected the Williamson Road dollar store, rather than the one at ''Hershberger & Ferncliff,'' which would've been en route back to the house, was because she'd wanted to stop into ''Saigon Market'' for some Miso – and so I figured that I could also use that visit as an opportunity to grab a jar of kimchi and a package of Lotus Tea, but the shop was closed.

For some reason, before we left for the shopping trip, I could not get the ''Common Area'' set-up to connect to the Modem, neither via Ethernet nor via Wi-Fi, while the personal Bedroom unit and the smart phones were able to connected to the Wi-Fi no-problem: so I wasn't sure if the failed access issue with the ''Common Area'' PC might've also been related to the ''LAN'' connection, which similarly refuses to connect through the Primary PC because of a seemingly apparent defective issue with that unit's Ethernet port, which could likely explain why that option had ceased working altogether when I was in Florida.

~ [December 14, 2024 - Saturday] ~

Spent a good portion of the day setting-up my ''Internet Station'' in the bedroom, upset that because of the limited cord lengths I'd been restricted to have to deal with, I could not position everything according to the original spacing-out idea I'd conceived.

Once my own PC Station had been largely situated, I again turned my focus to the Hallway set-up, and continued to experience problems whereby the system utterly refused to connect to Internet regardless of which methods I'd tried. After much frustration, I finally decided the best way to correct the problem was to reinstall the  ''Windows''  Operating System, but even this failed to get Internet connection established… so I decided that I would postpone any further attempts and would come back to it at some later point and try to set that station up as a  ''Linux Mint''  hub.

Later in the evening, I proceeded to actively working on my ''Privacy Curtains'' enclosure (in order to establish a separate corridor for any foot traffic to/from the Lanai with minimal intrusion on my ''Living Space), despite the fact that I'd up until this point been waiting overly-patiently for Momz to be away from the house, so I could avoid any expressions of concern re: my ''putting holes in the walls,'' but I took the chance that any activity in that area I might be able to accomplish with using the power drill would be ''quiet enough'' to not register with her (self-proclaimed) ''poor hearing.''

~ [December 15, 2024 - Sunday] ~

Tried to (re)establish my healthcare access on this deadline date on this morning, hoping to tweak the ''Healthcare.Gov'' application in order to continue with ''ObamaCare,'' wound-up getting hit with the smackdown saying that I no longer qualified for the Benefit based on the information I'd entered: I was instead redirected to the ''Virginia Insurance Marketplace'' website, where it suggested that I  might  be able to qualify for ''Medicaid,'' as Virginia was one of the States which agreed to expand the program for Federal Funding – this ''qualification'' would be confirmed later in the evening as I was trying to get the last-minute registration, but I was left stumped as to what action I should've taken next, as any link-jumping I'd attempted seemed to keep recycling the same pages with no further instructions or explanations.

~ [December 17, 2024 - Tuesday] ~

Began having several incidents of explosive diarrhea around 1:15 or so, which was the culmination of the previous day's largely incapacitating me with stomach/intestinal tract issues so severe that I could not even lie down (particularly on my sides) without continuous attacks of sharp stabbing pain... this would also be accompanied with another incident of angry-levels of anal [hemorrhoidal?] bleeding. My suspicion regarding what may have been responsible for triggering the brutal attack was that it was highly likely tied to the large bowl of fresh fruit salad I'd prepared the previous morning, and was perhaps even exacerbated by the Sunday Night's consumption of an entire 750ml bottle of carbonated grape juice (@40% juice content) along with a large serving of olive oil-fried potatoes, both ignoring my sensitivity to ''wet fruit'' sugars. I still did not completely recover from it, throughout the rest of the day, still feeling bloated and periodically experiencing twinges of slightly painful discomfort, but I did do some research into what was recommended to eat following such dehydrating bodily reactions and tried to follow some of those suggestions.

Later in the evening I finally put forth for the first and only time since I'd been in the House an advance recommendation/request to make an alteration to an area outside of the bedroom area, and this was in regard to hanging my swinging-arm paper towel roll holder, suspecting, as had occurred, she might express some issues with regard to her overly sensitive concerns about ''making [new] holes in the wall'' -- as it would happen however, her hesitation and 'area restriction' as a result of my asking would actually result in a more convenient and more aesthetically appealing mounting location.

~ [December 19, 2024 - Thursday] ~

Called ''Spectrum's''  ''card services''  number early in the afternoon after having come across an email that had been sent directly to my ''spam'' folder, confirming that they'd issued a return of the remaining balance I'd had left over when I shut down their service. Upon closer examination of the message however, it had indicated that instead of ''reimbursing'' my ''Visa'' card which I had on record with them so that it would show-up as a ''credit'' on my statement, as I'd been ''assured'' would've been the method they'd intended to use, this message proclaimed that they had physically mailed out either a ''pre-loaded'' ''MasterCard'' in the refund amount... OR a check in my name. But not only did they insist on this UNMENTIONED (and would've been outright rejected) reimbursement option... but the message mentioned that the returned funds were being sent to my former  ''SERVICE ADDRESS''  where I've NEVER received any personal mail, and NOT [even] to my [former] ''Post Office Box'' Address! So yet again, I had to call in to some phone center with a chest full of attitude to bitch & complain about SOMEBODY ELSE'S FUKK-UPP!!! for steering me completely wrong with the real potential to screw me over yet-a-phucking-genn!!!! And it further disturbed me that they barely requested any ID-verification information of me in order to confirm my identity!

Following up on this disturbing incident, since I'd not received any messages from ''Cox'' regarding my Internet hook-up for the past several days, I finally got around to registering my account with them this afternoon to update the personal information so that it could more closely align with my being responsible for its subscription & sustaining: while there I paid the month's-end due date amount plus pre-paid for the next half-year. Immediately afterward, I went to ''Hawaii Coffee Company'' website and ordered four bags of 100% Kona  ''LION''  Coffee.

I later in the day devoted a considerable amount of my time and attention into focusing my efforts on what I knew would be the most involving part of my hanging/decorating activities, which was the fastening of my curtain rods and the raising of the associated drapes... but I had NO idea just how much time & effort would actually be involved in the process, which ultimately ended-up making me feel that it was 100% ''the right call'' to postpone that particular activity until close to the very end of my 'getting established' activity, essentially leaving me with the remaining ''touches'' being the storing away of my clothing & other incidentals (as far as ''personalized aesthetics'' are concerned) and the [re]organizing (and subsequent 'cleaning') of my ''media'' and their designated spaces.

December 20 - 22, 2024 (Friday - Sunday)
''Weekend in Review''

Finally made the decision to transfer my temporary archived ''Journal'' entries over to the PC just a bit past  Midnight Friday (Dec. 20),  but I had to spend about an additional hour tweaking the copied-over document due to the fact that what I'd saved in encrypted form on my thumb drive had demolished certain punctuation entries (in particular, its decision to ''double-up'' apostrophe usage where ''contracted'' words appeared), on top of my having to exchange the Word Processor's default ''curvy'' apostrophe/quotation marks style for my preferred ''straight-line'' option.

Saturday Morning (Dec. 21)  I decided to tag-along with my Momz who said she was going to go shopping for some bleach, saying I'd go with her if she would swing by the Post Office.

Our first stop was at her bank, then she turned up ''10th Street'' intent on locating a particular ''Asian Market'' she couldn't remember the name or exact location of, but we did try to visit ''Saigon Market,'' only to find it closed again, which had just been preceded by a repeat stop at that location's ''Dollar Tree,'' so that I could pick up a couple of bottles of ''foaming soap'' (which I'd forgotten to get during the previous visit) and to see if my ''TMO'' (''tomatoes/maize/okra'') blend had been re-stocked, and upon finding none satisfied myself with purchases of canned mixed vegetables.

I then accompanied her during her shopping trip to ''Kroger,'' though I'd had no intentions of purchasing anything there, but requested to be dropped off at ''Sam's Club,'' where my intention was to buy ONLY a banana bunch and a package of 'shaved turkey' luncheon meat increased to five items with the impulse purchases of a ''Roto-Hen,'' loaf-bread, and (impulse buy of all impulse buys) a pack of Lamb Chops.

On the way back to the House, I'd asked to check into the ''Dollar Tree'' farther down on ''Hershberger Road'' to check their location for my ''TMO,'' additionally curious regarding all of the negative talk she'd expressed regarding the poor cleanliness upkeep and the disorderliness of that particular store... yet, I found that everything she'd said negatively about that shop location was a complete radical ''180'' of the ''Williamson Road'' store, and that everything she'd described as having been a problem with this establishment had in fact perfectly reflected everything I'd experienced at the other location -- the only similarities between the two being the same exact issue making shopping at every ''$T'' an unpleasant experience, that being their being severely understaffed and slower that molasses flowing uphill in the freezing cold. I was able to find [ONLY] two cans of my veggie-mix, so I padded-out my purchase with several packets of cheddar-broccoli pasta dinner.

The Post Office was our final stop: I'd received a pack of my mother's mail-order meds among my stuff, mostly relating to my ''Medicaid'' application; among the letters was also the ''return'' of my ''Security Deposit'' from the Prop-Man office -- only $588 of the original deposit of $1,485... even so, it was still considerably more than I would've anticipated, having originally convinced myself to believe that I'd never actually see any portion of it ''returned.''

Later in the day/evening, I resumed trying to ''fix'' the audio output of the alarm clock radio I'd placed in the kitchen, which lost sound after it fell and slammed onto the counter-top two nights earlier, which had occurred when I was fiddling around with its power cord because the tape I'd used to hold it out of the way decided to keep peeling off. My 'patch-hack' job was unable to restore the sound to its former peak performance (caused by the dislodgement of the speaker's magnet), but it was sufficient enough so as to continue being useful.

Finally, I hung up my digital wall clock, essentially leaving me with predominantly my stack of clothing items, which I began working on a bit before continuing addressing the issue piecemeal throughout the following day  (Sat., Dec. 21),  managing to squirrel-away the most of it, save for the exceptions of all of my coats and jackets and ''Weather'' items.

While the digi-clock was my last ''official'' wall-hanging aesthetic, my exchanging the bamboo clatterer and mobiles out on the lanai with my outdoor chimes early in this bitterly cold day constituted the actual final ''hanging'' I'd carried out, which finally brought all of such activity to completion, leaving the restructuring/reorganizing and to-be-tackled ''disc & shelf cleanings'' to be the next major focus to be addressed.

Sometime after 5:00  Sunday Morning (Dec. 22),  I got hit with another attack to my bowels which had me rushing to both bathrooms to try to evacuate in yet an additional diarrhetic explosion (which was reasonable enough to assume, considering the fact that I'd still continued to experience some intestinal issues in varying degrees since the first assault), but surprisingly nothing to such magnitude resulted, but it was still an unpleasant experience nonetheless.

After showering off from this latest toilet visit, I decided that since I was still very much awake & active I would use this time as the opportunity to burn ISO image discs of both of my ''Linux'' distributions, whereby the plan was to focus first on [attempting] installation of the  ''Mint''  distro onto the ''shared'' hallway computer. And as if knowing exactly what I'd had planned for later in the day (as I returned to sleep pretty much immediately after), I woke-up to the discovery that Internet access had been disrupted shortly afterward and had been inaccessible for the following few hours. When I proceeded to try to install it later in the afternoon, despite the fact that one (or both?) of my earlier  ''Windows 7''  reinstalls seemed that it was (they were?) finally going to take, the Linux installation disc only made the decision to retain & focus on the ''Windows'' OS that much easier, as it refused to load onto my system.

The ''Windows'' configuration similarly proved to be (i.e. ''continued'' to be) a major headache, again as it primarily related to trying to get the system to recognize and connect with the modem via the ''LAN'' line (which I seemingly had to rely upon to in order to tap into the Internet as it appeared that there was no feature on the hardware that could detect or access the Web via Wi-Fi). At first, it seemed as if I'd finally managed (barely) to get proper ''surfing'' capabilities, but only found myself facing numerous ''Server Not Found'' or other 'unable to connect' errors occurring on random sites... which were (again, seemingly) only corrected by going through a system shutdown & restart.

During a break between my hallway PC ''fix''-ation, I decided to brave one of the cans of sardines that had been dated  ''Jan. 2017,''  to test the claim that ''Expiration Dates'' were largely an arbitrary and not worthy of overly worrisome concern -- and while I was fairly confident-ish that they were not likely to cause me much harm (...hopefully...), they still looked and tasted just ''off'' enough that I neither wanted to take any further risk-- or deal with the slightly unpalatable almost ''peppery'' taste --that I tossed them out of my ramen in favor of one of my freshly purchased tins: which was actually how I'd come to learn about it, along with a second can (in 'mustard sauce') it had been found with that had been dated sometime in ''2016,'' when my mother was clearing some shelving areas for my stuff and assumed that those pair had been a part of what I'd purchased earlier during that day (re: Dec. 13) ~ [Note: that the 'mustard' can, which I'd also intended to test out, had a detectable-enough ''slightly off'' odor that I'd refused to chance it with that one at all].

Also saw that silly-looking James Gunn ''SUPERMAN'' trailer/teaser, and thought it looked like the movie is going to be pure unadulterated goofy & stupid dog shit... and I said as much in online comments and on my ''Who?Tube'' social post.

December 26, 2024 (Thursday)
21:00, Eastern Standard Time

Contacted ''Dix'' Cable following two days of attempting to re-establish the Ethernet connection on the modem via various troubleshooting methods & web searches, as well as Operating System re-installations, including trying to launch the ''Lixux 'Live DVD's'' BOTH the re-attempt of  ''Mint''  and a first attempt of  ''Mageia''  on Tuesday (Dec. 24), before performing another full re-install of the ''Windows 7'' refurb installation. Following more resets from the phone technician's end, it was pretty much determined that it was most likely the modem itself that was at fault for this inability to connect via Ethernet (which ironically seemed to be working just fine until the loss of network issues Cox was experiencing Sunday Morning (Dec. 22). At some point during the Service call, and afterward while I was contemplating going to the ''Cox Store'' to do a modem exchange, the hallway computer (for the second time in as many days) erupted in a loud non-stop fan activation, which served as further indication of hardware and/or firmware problems that were accompanied by the system's refusal to remain switched off whenever the shutdown process was initiated... thus suggesting that I've become victim to a coincidental ''double smackdown'' where the ''Cox'' provided equipment is so and faulty that it's essentially useless for backup usage while simultaneously my ''Family Computer'' is likewise so cursed. So in the end, the setting-up of the ''common'' station was eventually a worthless waste of both time and effort.

December 27 - 29, 2024 (Friday - Sunday)
''Weekend in Review''

My mother returned to the house in the Afternoon from a brief shopping trip & errands run  Friday (Dec. 27)  bringing home a ''replacement'' for my little two-tiered dish rack, saying she tried against all to adapt to it but felt that it was too bothersome for her to use; the irony of it however being that while I did not exactly ''love'' my little bird cage of a rack, I absolutely hated her new get-up about as much as she claimed to hate mine -- yet, being how I'm essentially the 'invader' of ''her'' space(s), I had to know when to defer: however, I would eventually decide somewhere between  Saturday Night - Sunday Morning (Dec. 28-29 respectively)  to ''re-purpose'' my rack to use as the storage/holder unit for my personal dining items, in order to make them smartly sorted and conveniently within reach so as to eliminate the inconvenient struggle of shuffling through & re-arranging them all from inside the cabinet space I'd been keeping them in order to select the one I'm desirous of using at the time.

I also finally got around to staining my ''cooking station'' Saturday Night / Sunday Morning, the fumes of which wafting through the central air conditioning vents caused my mother to come back downstairs around 2:00-ish for a couple of hours.

Sunday Evening I worked-up the nerve to finally begin tackling the last remaining and biggest dread-inducing settling-in project I've been putting off forever -- scrubbing and disinfecting my DVDs/BDs/CDs of all of the white spider-silk mold that Florida kept infesting my plastic items with, beginning with my free-standing / self-contained ''Anime'' stories/titles as the 'First Wave' of addressing the issue, upsettingly discovering yet more deteriorated (''disk rot'') units... all, somehow unsurprising, again related to ''Warner Bros.'' titles [in this instance being,  ''Superman: Doomsday''  &  ''Justice League: Secret Origins''  both completely ruined, and the spot edge-degraded DVD of  ''Justice League vs. The Fatal Five''  which still managed to play in-full but which at least had a BD 'backup' unit just in case], with the one non-WB exception being the Main Feature disc of the Korean film,  ''Wonderful Days,''  which likewise had a spot of deterioration along the outer edge but was far enough away from the 'coded' areas as to not interfere with normal playback.

December 30, 2024 - January 2, 2025 (Monday - Thursday)
''Week in Review''

Accompanied my mother on another brief grocery run on  Monday (Dec. 30): her original intention was to pay a credit card and grab a couple of items at ''Sam's''; I'd inquired about where its location was in vicinity of ''Walmart,'' where I'd hoped to find  ''Tony's''  frozen pizza (since ''Kroger'' did not stock them) and to grab a few fresh produce items -- she went out of her way to take us to the ''Marketplace'' store instead of the department store before doubling back to ''Sam's'' where I got my hot cocoa mix (although I had to settle for that ''Milk Chocolate'' nonsense, as they did not stock the ''Dark Chocolate'' version).

Our first stop prior to the shopping trip was the Post Office, where I found my Kona Coffee had arrived, along with my ''Spectrum'' balance rebate card.

Was unusually tired after pizza dinner when we returned from our excursion and found myself falling asleep early. I'd re-awakened sometime after 1:00  (Tue., Dec. 31),  whereupon I'd engaged in ''Phase Two'' of my discs-cleaning slavery, focusing in this instance on my [non-animated]  ''storylines''  (i.e. 'sequels/prequels/continuations') collection, where I found yet another completely degraded (both units of a '2-disc' edition) title:  ''A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET'' -- yep! ...another ''WARNER BROS.'' ('New Line Cinema / Time-Warner') piece of cheaply manufactured trash!

I did not direct any new attention to my disc cleaning efforts until sometime after 1:00  Thursday (Jan. 2),  whereupon I'd come across my first ''Non-WB'' deteriorated DVDs, being, very disturbingly, my FAVORITE ''Pre-D.Craig'' ''James Bond'' movie  (''Licence to Kill''),  along with a pair of discs from my  ''Todd McFarlane's SPAWN''  3-Season animation collection (even though, since ''Time/Warner'' eventually absorbed ''Home Box Office,'' it could still be considered another ''Warner Bros.'' crap disc manufacturing by-proxy).

In response to the number of destroyed DVDs I'd been finding during this cleaning/inspection process, I made the decision to ''replace'' those  ''movies''  by unofficially downloading them from various unauthorized 'hosting sites': and even though I'd been largely successful in reclaiming these titles, they still came at the loss of their  ''Special Features''  which were either part of the Main Feature discs and/or compiled on separate 'Bonus Feature' discs which had themselves been completely ruined!

January 3 - 5, 2025 (Friday - Sunday)
''Weekend in Review''

Did not return to prepping my discs collection(s) until  Saturday Evening (Jan. 4)  this time modifying my method by resorting to pre-emptively extracting all DVDs/BDs from their cases with the plan of disinfecting the cases ahead of cleaning off the discs themselves. During this process, which I'd resumed the following evening  ( Sun., Jan. 5),  I was made to encounter a half-dozen more titles where the discs had badly deteriorated, this time breaking the pattern of having been [predominantly] ''Warner Bros.'' releases -- among these titles included:  ''Cube''  (which, as soon as I'd laid hands upon it, I instinctively knew would've been destroyed) and its follow-up,  ''Cube 2: Hypercube''  (which I was NOT expecting to have been negatively affected);  ''Masters of Horror: The Screwfly Solution''  (which I probably should have suspected, given its intense story & subject matter);  ''Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon''  (another one I probably should not have been surprised by);  ''The Gravedancers'';  and  ''Housebound'' ~ [I'd already decided to replace  ''The Devil's Advocate''  some time back, even though the disc was not affected, and I made the decision to do likewise with  ''The Monolith Monsters,''  (again, no observable ''physical'' defects, but one which already had a history of disc-playback issues), and the ''found footage'' film,  ''21 Days,''  which a playback test on  Friday (Jan. 3)  presented no issues except a less than stellar resolution, despite the disc itself seemingly degraded in numerous areas.

January 8, 2025 (Wednesday)
23:20, Eastern Standard Time

To carry out a favor asked for the previous day, I fiddled around with my mother's television in an attempt to silence an ''announcement'' feature that would constantly go off anytime the antenna experienced a signal disruption or whenever she attempted to access any features using the remote control. I'd started somewhere around 00:45 and spent somewhere in the neighborhood of an hour and a half, just as I was at the final verge of outright giving-up, before I was finally able to uncover how to switch the feature off... although I still found it impossible to locate where/how to ''switch'' that migraine-inducing ''pseudo-4k'' visual effect that causes everything to look like it was shot on a camcorder for the surrealistic ''cinematic'' look & effect. I finished the project by connecting the TV to the Wi-Fi network and set it up so that it could access ''tubi,'' which I showed her the next morning how to pull-up & navigate to, as well as to access the in-built ''LG Channels.''

Later in the evening, I finally decided to explore the  ''Vine''  item offerings at ''Amazon,'' seeking mainly a replacement shower curtain rod, a dual-rod drapes-hanging set for the second window, and curtain and/or drapery set also for the second window, unable to complete any transactions on the last one, as every time I tried to place an order would hit back with an order error message.

January 14, 2025 (Tuesday)
23:20, Eastern Standard Time

Shortly after the Midnight Hour (around 00:30 or so) I decided to answer my curiosity about the state & status of my old apartment in Florida (mainly to find out how much rent they'd be charging this time around), and found that it had just been re-listed only a day earlier (Monday/yesterday). Among the changes was that the entire interior had been re-painted and the floors polished (something that had not been done for me prior to my move-in), along with having put in a new refrigerator. But what super-pissed me off was the fact that for all of the times I'd been bugging them for replacement clothes closet doors ever since the water heater replacement, ONLY NOW did they finally decide to address that issue...  on MY fucking dime!  (i.e. ''security deposit'') and in my absence! In any event, it seemed that the ''getting out'' had definitely been done  ''while the getting was good,''  as they had now bumped the monthly rental amount up by an additional $100!

Later in the day, while my mother was attending an ''AARP'' meeting, I was intending to eat ''breakfast lunch'' in the television room with the intent of pulling something up on ''tubi'' to watch while there... only for it to result in my disengaging the Wi-Fi connection from the TV as it continued to lock-out access as it waited for me to succumb to its irrepressible and impassable nagging modal wall that was relentlessly trying to FORCE me into approving some B.S. ''Terms Agreement'' that it did not start throwing up in my (our?) face(s?) until now!

Also went back into  ''Vine,''  again to search for curtains/drapes, and upon not finding anything worth my while settled on a set of ''stair mats.''

Called one of the numbers listed on my  ''Medicaid''  paperwork right about Noon (having deliberately decided to wait until practically the last minute because of already knowing that I'd be encountering a bunch of bullshit in battle with some pain-in-the-ass mostly automated call re-direction & ''representative assistance'' systems, as is always the case (and of course, was absolutely not 'disappointed' in my pessimism). When I was FINALLY able to connect with a live human rep, I was informed that with ''Medicaid'' my activation after application approval was pretty much automatic, and that all I'd probably have left to do on my end was to retrieve... or 'request'... my Medical Card.

Also resumed disinfecting my DVD/BD cases, which I was devoting time to throughout the Weekend and took a day-long break from it on Monday -- this part of the settling-in process being what's really frustrating & draining me... but I've got to get it done if I'm to ever advance to the next stage Re: trying to get myself re-injected into the ''workforce'' and start earning some income and contributing to the Household so I can stop feeling so much like an advantage-taking leech.

January 15, 2025 (Wednesday)
20:40, Eastern Standard Time

Attempts to update the online journal was halted last night due to connectivity issues with the ''Angelfire'' service, so I was forced to delay the latest entry, along with an overlooked piece of information that was to be incorporated into the preceding day's entry, until near the close of this evening: when I tried to regain access later in the evening, the site was still behaving problematically, initially giving me the impression that it would not be able to connect at all, but after trying a few URL-entry alternatives it would successfully complete loading the ''web shell'' page sporadically.

Because of running up against the deadline, somewhere around 14:00 I had to force myself outside of the house alone for only the second time since my re-arrival here, again to take a trek down to the Post Office, this time to retrieve my Medical Cards. I'd actually ''overdressed'' for the weather, expecting to be freezing my gonads off based on the weather apps' temperature readings and especially after enduring the cold indoors during my sleeping period. During this trek, I was made aware of just how little (non-existent) ''ice traction'' ability my heavy boots had.

Trying to access the ''Virginia Medicaid'' website(s) in order to access & review my ''account'' was the most vicious run-around I'd ever been put through... and even then, I could not determine how/where to access any of my ''personal'' information to edit/update any of whatever they might happen to have on-record.

January 20 - 26, 2025 (Monday - Sunday)
''Full Week in Review''

Went grocery shopping (''Sam's Club'') with my Momz  Tuesday (Jan. 21),  after I'd asked her the previous evening if she had any out-of-the-house plans for this date, as I'd wanted to wait until after the Weekend and after the  ''Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.'' holiday  before running any outside errands.

Prior to heading out, I made the decision to hand over my ''refund debit card'' from my former Internet Provider account for her to do whatever with. Initially, she wanted to deposit the amount, but then decided that she'd rather just cash it out for the amount... but as we tried to get the teller at the local branch of her bank to access the funds, we kept getting told that the amount loaded onto the card had been 'overdrawn,' even though after the second attempt (of which the teller claimed she could only make 'two' attempts from behind the tellers' desk) I called the number on the back of the card and confirmed the full balance was still loaded. As I attempted to access the funds via the ATM next to the drive-in window (as suggested by the teller), it ''appeared'' as though I might actually be able to access those funds, but was discouraged from attempting to proceed any further when I was hit with a forced 'acceptance' of an assessed $3.50 ''transaction fee.'' So the next attempt was made at the bank location at (''Crossroads Mall,'') where the teller there also confirmed that not only was their bank's networking system(s) not able to verify the amount loaded onto the card, but that any attempts to access those funds were going to keep coming up as 'overdraws'; at which the teller at the second location presumed that in order to access any amounts on the card, the card would likely necessarily need to be used for 'direct purchases' (which was ironically how I'd suggested it should be used in the first place before handing it over).

After shopping, where my purchases consisted primarily of frozen seafood items & entrees, but also throwing in a case of snack chips and a box of ''KitKat'' bars, I retrieved my latest  ''Vine''  delivery, which I'd initially thought would be my curtain rods, but turned out instead to be the stair mats (despite having been ordered at a considerably later date), which I'd set-up around 5:00-ish the following morning  (Wed., Jan. 22).

Throughout the rest of the week I popped in & out of focusing attention on disinfecting & washing my DVD/BD library cases and discs, disturbed at the losses of  ''JUON''  (first cinematic movie) and  ''RIN'NE''  from my ''Asian'' titles collection: and while the disc of  ''HINOKIO''  appeared to have some damage, it played well enough showing that it barely survived, although I may decide to try to track that one down online for a replacement as well, as a considerable amount of the 'playback quality' has since been lost.

This week also revealed a new set of problems related to my Computer set-ups: Whereas I'd already been experiencing (and continue to experience) issues with my primary system shutting down into ''Hibernation'' mode every Saturday Morning at exactly 1:00 for no discernible or traceable reason(s), I'm now finding myself with a System that REFUSES to Hibernate at all according to ANY ''Power Saver'' plan I attempt to establish for it to follow -- the best it's willing to accomplish anymore, relating to trying to schedule any sort of a shutdown plan, is that it will [only] instruct the computer monitor to enter into ''sleep'' mode after the designated time.

January 27 - 31, 2025 (Monday - Friday)
Month-completion ''Week in Review''

Continued with my ''disc-washing'' activities from  Tuesday Evening through Early Wednesday Morning (Jan. 28-29),  where I managed to become almost pau with the ''Main Titles'' library, leaving only about half of the ''Documentary'' titles remaining to be washed & re-cased: it was my hope to have completed the job by going through all of the ''Asian Cinema'' titles in one fell swoop to coincide with  ''Vietnamese New Year [of the 'CAT']'' (Wed., Jan. 29),  but with the deliberate plan to leave my complete  ''Urusei Yatsura''  collection on stand-by with the intent of progressively working through it periodically, while intending to shift the bulk of my major focus next onto my 'Music CD' collection.

Finished with the washing & disinfecting of the discs and holding cases of my "Asian" DVD/BD movies collection  Thursday Morning (Jan. 30),  where I was hit with another lost title:  ''Yeopgijeogin Geunyeo''  ...which I'm fairly likely not going to be going out of my way to ''replace''; I also now had to wonder/worry about the playability of  ''Shutter,''  due to the severity of scratches the disc suffered as a result of my attempting to wipe of stuck-on gunk it (and several other discs) had managed to pick up during the lying out & drying period.

It was during these activities later in the morning that I'd overheard the discussions with the Plumber my Mother had scheduled an appointment with to inspect & clear drain, only to be informed that, due to the age of the house/property and their original construction & installed infrastructure, the sewer and water lines had degraded and become so badly damaged over time that the whole operation needs to be dug-up and replaced

Into Friday Morning (Jan. 31), I tested out my DVD of  ''The Crazies'' (remake),  to determine if the deep scratch on the ''printed'' side interfered at all with playback -- fortunately, it played through with completely no issues.

Later in the day, my mother had me help her pull-up the PDF invoices that had been left on that confusing mass of confusion chaotic mess on her cellphone, and saw that the water line work was given an estimate of over $12,000 -- of which she said her insurance would cover only about $5,000, and the rest she would have to take out a ''Home Equity'' Loan on.

Later, I finally submit my first ''Amazon Vine'' review (for stair mats) -- one of the rare ''Five-Star'' ratings I'd given for a received product.

Throughout the Week I spent time creating a series of ''Desktop Wallpapers'' for my PC using an online ''AI image generation'' tool to aid in designing a collection of "Pussy-Eating" themes, displaying various levels of ''suggestive'' imagery & texts without blatantly showing the actual activity being engaged in, where everything was reflective of strong (or hyper-strong) ''innuendo.''

February 2, 2025 (Sunday)
XX:xx, Eastern Standard Time

After multiple failed attempts to access my ''personal account'' online, which eventually resulted in a 'lockout' due to a number of 'failed' attempts, I attempted to engage in ''Tracfone's''  ''live chat''  feature (having to do so switched over to long-since ''OoL/unsupported'' ''Brave'' browser, since it refuses to connect within the ''Firefox'' environment) to address the previous night's failures involving my attempts to have the phone number and ''Service'' credits from the 'newer' phone transferred over to the 'primary' phone, only to yet again get dragged through the quagmire completely losing all access... this time on TWO phones at the same time.

Rather than continue trying to mess around with it late into the night, I decided to let it rest overnight (as it was in desperate need of a 'recharging' anyway) before taking it up to address the problem yet again, which was [unintentionally] about 20 minutes shy from exactly 24-hours from when I'd first reached out for assistance.

This time I (reluctantly) found myself ''needing'' to have access to my mother's phone as part of the troubleshooting interactions, as it had been my original plan to activate the ''unlocked'' phone to the ''tello'' network, which I'd attempted to accomplish in this morning's pre-dawn hours, only to be made aware that to do so would require using (purchasing) their own 'dedicated' ''SIM'' and would not be able to simply transfer to their service directly.

After nearly 2.5-hours, both in live-chat and over the phone, of jumping through hoops with the first representative, who'd only managed to get the number from the 'unlocked' phone transferred, and assured me that she had ''manually'' entered my Service balances into the system (which I could not verify due to the fact of getting ''locked out'' of my own account as a result of too many incorrect username/password fail attempts), my case was transferred to the so-called ''Corporate Team,'' who after about another 45-minutes   finally  managed to get me up and running... but OF COURSE it had to come complete with yet another monkey-wrench catch: ONCE AGAIN, virtually ALL of my ''Service Credits'' had been obliterated -- INCLUDING wiping out my nearly two-years' worth of  ''End of Service Date''  activation window! I was told that I would be receiving a call back within something like a 15 or 20 minute time frame to get an update/workup situation going... and of course,  I'd received NO SUCH CALL! -- even after waiting until Midnight, just before which I tried to see if I could ''reverse call'' the number, but could not get past the passcode locking the phone, and I wasn't going to ask for it.

February 3, 2025 (Monday)
XX:xx, Eastern Standard Time

Remained awake until close to 08:00, when ''Tracfone's'' ''live chat'' was supposed to be available again -- but sure enough, just as I was about ready to get connected, ''Brave'' browser decided that this was the perfect time to begin fouling-up and frustrating me even further. I eventually did manage to detect what the issue was, without having to consider doing a system reboot, and entered chat, to be told that I would again be receiving a return phone call from someone within approximately 15-minutes... which of course never happened in that time frame, or at all, until I'd decided to stop behaving so pretentiously and pull open another chat thread.

So after a long nap, which I'd ended at a few minutes shy of 16:00, I re-opened Tracfone Chat and vented that I'd been waiting for a promised call for Eight Hours; I was of course told once again that I would be receiving a call from a ''Corporate Team'' Tech, which finally came after an additional half-hour wait. The woman whom I'd connected with was very courteous, patient, well-informed, and concerned who, after about an hour of listening and working through the problem on her end (during which at one point she'd acknowledged that there were some 'network' issues they'd been experiencing), she finally made it to where she was able to manage to restore my lost Service Activation Time and associated Credits...  and then some -- gracing my account with an ADDITIONAL 8.7GB Data / 550 Minutes / 1478 Texts than what  should have been  reflected, which she said she'd tacked-onto the Account as ''inconvenience compensation'' for the issue-at-hand and for being such a longtime ''loyal'' customer, even though, as I told her, I would've been perfectly happy just to have been 'made whole'.

When all with the phone service was (finally) completed, I switched off 'Mobile Data' and placed a direct call to my mother's phone, then upon its successful transmission & reception instructed her to remove the ''old'' number from her Contacts list. It was also during this time that she'd informed me that her ''Insurance'' would cover the expenses of all but a $500 ''deductible'' of the water/sewer line work scheduled to be done, but that the expenses of re-slabbing the portion(s) of the sidewalk that will need to be torn up in the process would have to fall upon the Household.

February 7 - 9, 2025 (Friday - Sunday)
''Weekend in Review''

Went to the Post Office  Friday Morning (Feb. 7)  to retrieve the remainder of my ''Amazon Vine'' order and the new ''SIM'' for my unlocked phone.

I proceeded to work on assembling the shower curtain rod of my ''Vine'' order, spending nearly a half-hour struggling with it and all of its parts only to get hit with the realization that no amount of adjustment/assembly was going to serve its designed purpose, as it was ultimately too long and not versatile enough for it to fit within the shower enclosure, not to mention that the rod's circumference was too thick to comfortably accommodate my curtain hooks -- and I'm struggling to envision a way to re-purpose the item.

After the curtain rod assembly/setting failure, I shifted my attention to a number of items that were still being held in temporary transitional storage inside the kitchen entrance to use to re-furnish lanai 'access-way' to address the empty space that resulted following my transferring glass-topped drawered ''coffee table'' I'd originally had established there as part of my trying to clear out that area & finding places for the remaining items, which overwhelmingly consist of electronics-related items, added reserves of ''body care'' items, and financial/tax history records.

After I came back from a shower the following afternoon  (Sat., Feb. 8),  I was informed that my Father had passed on after several days of being hospitalized.

Later in the day, I'd attempted to review the disappointing shower curtain rods as part of my agreement with the ''Vine Voice'' program, but every time I'd tried to review an item--  any  ''Amazon'' item --I kept getting hit with an 'error' message saying that I'd failed to meet the pre-requisite ''Guidelines'' for being allowed to submit any reviews of products offered by/through them; upon reviewing said guidelines, I'd determined that the snag was resulting from the fact that I'd not met my ''quota'' of spending at-minimum  Fifty Dollars ($50)  in purchases through them... so I took that as my incentive to replenish my  Furikake  rice seasoning, as doing so well exceeded the remaining $20-ish gap I'd needed to cover to meet the minimum purchase requirement.

February 10 - 13, 2025 (Monday-Thursday)
''Week in Review''

Finally got around to making out my ''Utilities reimbursement'' check sometime after 1:30-ish or so on Monday (Feb. 10),  getting confronted in the process with the reminder that  ''IF''  I intended on retaining my ''Chase'' banking account, I'm going to be needing to order a new set of personal checks with my updated address information.

Inquired around 10:30-ish if we could leave out to do some grocery shopping (or in my case,  ''stocking''  ahead of both the impending storm and any pending ''Orange-Man Tariffs'' repercussions). Prior to heading out about a half-hour later, I accessed my bank account to review what ''incentives'' might've been available for using one of, or both of, the credit cards, and found that I could earn an additional 7% ''cash back'' on top of this quarter's 5%-back at grocery stores in-general if I were to use it at ''Food Lion'' stores. The bulk of my purchases were of so-called ''Non-Perishables,'' minus some fresh fruits (grapefruits and bananas), another package of lamb chops and a ''Roto-Hen'' at ''Sam's Club,'' three of my  ''Tony's''  pizzas at 'The Lion' (which I was surprised they carried, but not their main competition here locally), a couple of packages of soy-franks & soy-corndogs and a couple packs of sandwich cheese slices at ''Kroger,'' and various fresh produce items acquired at the latter two grocery chains (the only reason for dividing things up between the two major local competitors being my absentmindedness).

The plumbing/sewage contractor also left word that they would commence with working on our drainage issues the following day  (Tue., Feb. 11)  as scheduled, despite the virtually ceaseless alerts regarding the impending Winter Storm that was being anticipated for that date. Of course, when Tuesday rolled around, they sent a follow-up message ''re-scheduling,'' inconveniencing us for another full week (supposedly, they'll be breaking ground after the Weekend on Monday). The next morning  (Wed., Feb. 12),  we received a visit from a representative with the City to inspect the progress or completion of the water/sewer line work.

February 14 - 16, 2025 (Friday-Sunday)
''Weekend in Review''

Listened to a feature on National Public Radio's  ''Morning Edition''  program  Friday (Feb. 14)  about the Black ''Country Music'' Husband and Wife Team, Michael and Tanya Trotter (a.k.a.:  ''The War and Treaty''  -- who were no doubt receiving renewed attention following the reaction of White Racist Knuckle-Dragging Troglodyte Right-Wing MAGA Bigots losing their collective shit following  Beyonce's ''Grammy''  win for Best ''Country Music''  and ''Album of the Year'') -- and upon listening to snippets of select songs from their new album which ''NPR'' was promoting  (''Plus One''),  I decided to go onto ''Amazon'' to purchase a pair of them myself: one for my own collection, and the other to present to my Mother on the assumption that she'd not heard, or heard of, the Duo.

In order to qualify for their ''Free Shipping,'' I closed the price-minimum gap by ordering a baklava assortment tray, after FINALLY having managed to find one which would ship directly to my Post Office Box address.

After placing my ''Amazon'' order, I tried again to submit a ''Vine'' review, but still found myself being locked out from doing so; I did learn however that I was still able to request/order items offered through the ''Vine'' program, so I managed to finally come across a set of sheer ''inner curtains'' (now only leaving me with the job of obtaining a set of ''blackout'' curtains), plus opted to receive a combination timekeeper & pomodoro digital alarm clock to replace the ones I'd set-up in the kitchen.

Saturday (Feb. 15),  at a half-past Midnight, I'd intended to begin focusing my disinfecting attentions back onto to DVD collection to finally get around to prepping my  ''Urusei Yatsura''  collection, but was continually having my efforts to conduct this activity while watching one of the several movies I'd reserved in a standby ''Who?Tube'' playlist completely thwarted because of the PC's insistence on being an insufferable pain in the posterior: as it would turn out however, the hassle the machine was giving me was sort of a mixed blessing, as it had indirectly aided in my discovery of an ''ant invasion'' (which seemed to be tracing back to somewhere around the fireplace) after I'd spotted several of them on my Dining & Beverage-Prep table (...naturally, I responded with the  Fipronil  gel).

This Weekend also concluded my first phase of binge-watching  ''The X-Files''  TV series, managing to pull in about four episodes shy of watching through its ''Third Season.''

February 17 - 23, 2025 (Monday-Sunday)
''Full Week in Review''

The water line crew came by to begin their work  Monday Morning (Feb. 17);  I'd made certain to get a shower-&-''body shave'' in ahead of time. Later, I had to keep dissuading my mother from trying to get me to offer an opinion on the materials & options relating to the work being done, repeatedly stating that it is not my habit to second guess the work and/or recommendations of Professionals at their job,  especially  in areas where I have very little to no knowledge of the type of work being done and/or what it involves, having even to go so far as to use the ''CoViD-19'' anti-vaccination conspiracy theory panic as an example of the sort of unintended devastating consequences which can occur when people who are not knowledgeable of a certain trade/skill or field of study/research decide to play the role of ''Armchair Experts'' or to seek/follow the advice of such ill-informed ''wise in their own minds,'' often evidence-denying, persons.

After all was done, my mother decided to go out grocery shopping (and, I supposed, to receive funds to pay for the water line work), and I requested a couple of jars of pickle relish and of brown mustard, as well as a box of 'vegetable' ''Ritz'' crackers, when she asked if there was anything I'd wanted her to pick-up for me. When I couldn't relocate my spare cash, not being anyplace where I'd sworn the bills would've been kept, I tried to get her to accept the ''balance refund'' debit card I'd received from my former Internet provider so I could determine if it would deduct funds in a 'retail market' purchase transaction, but she refused, claiming it would be too much hassle and too confusing.

Finally replaced all of the ''temporary'' bedding on my couch/bed, which I'd been borrowing from my mother's supply, with proper items from my own collection  Thursday (Feb. 20) , when my mother called for my laundry (also using this as my incentive to finally begin using the furniture in its fully folded-down ''bed'' position instead of lying on it in its fully- or semi-raised ''couch/couchlike'' situation). Later in the day, I vacuumed the room, following her usage.

I would realize on  Friday Morning (Feb. 21)  that during her previous day's cleaning spree my mother had cracked the base that holds my hand-shower nozzle, because the not-well thought-out design gave her the impression (as she'd acknowledged when I brought it to her attention) that the nozzle could (or had been designed to) be detached through the open gap, thinking it was flexible. Because of the way that it was designed, I was unsure of how to go about ''repairing'' it.

And of course, as I was always expecting to eventually happen, I'd finally ended-up breaking my  ''New-52 Justice League''  500ml coffee mug-- this time 'irreparably' --as a result of it being knocked to the floor by one of my throw-pillows which fell from the couch when I was trying to readjust the mattress so I could sit comfortably as I was finally preparing for the process of filling out my ''Medicaid'' questionnaire and prepping to deposit my ''[partial] Security Deposit'' refund check and activate my secondary/''work'' phone... the latter pair of which I was not able to get around to until I'd rested enough from an extended migraine  Saturday Night (Feb. 22).

The following day  (Sun., Feb. 23)  I'd developed a migraine twice as intense throughout the sleeping period, which came after the previous night's alleviation ''fake-out.'' During this time, I was trying to disable the ''voicemail'' feature on my phones, especially concerned by how ''Tracfone'' had established it on my line without my authorization.

Approaching the end of the night, the PC system and/or web browsers decided to act all catty with me in force again, as I was attempting to complete the process of updating my contact/registration/access information on various sites, along with trying to update my pass-codes ''Cheat Sheet'' in conjunction with the activities. At this stage, I'm really beginning to strongly suspect that this is all coming directly from ''Microsoft'' resorting to ''Apple Computer'' style underhanded tactics of distributing Code across the Inter-Webs to deliberately throttle the performances of ''Older'' Operating Systems as a disgusting conniving way to  FORCE  us into adopting & accepting their Personal Control-snatching and Privacy-encroaching post-''Windows 10'' OS traps!

I'd begun uncasing my  ''Urusei Yatsura''  DVD discs on Monday -- and while the entirety of the collection ''appeared'' to have weathered the storm, unlike so many others within my video library (especially considering that the ''UY'' collection is entirely comprised of ''Box Sets''), I did still have to set aside two discs in particular which ''appeared'' to have had some degradation issues, along with a couple more which required emptying out of the cases of nests of dead red-colored ant corpses... but I never resumed any follow-up washing/sanitizing activity with any of them throughout the remainder of the week.

February 24, 2025 (Monday)
XX:xx, Eastern Standard Time

Had it explained to me this morning why there was no heat since late last night: while I'd suspected a possible 'mechanical' failure with the furnace system, in actuality I was informed that it was merely a result of us having consumed our heating oil reserves, and that we could not schedule any deliveries earlier than Wednesday. Brought out my own electric blanket as possible back-up or replacement in case operating both space heaters could not prove sufficient to warm the room comfortably enough (by time 20:30-ish had arrived the temperature had dipped to just under 60º F before I decided I could tolerate the chilling surroundings and cold hands no longer).

February 28, 2025 (Friday)
XX:xx, Eastern Standard Time

Retrieved my packages from the Post Office this morning/afternoon, found that the check the Insurance Company had claimed it had mailed out to her which she'd been waiting on and not receiving had actually been sent to the P.O. Box, indicating that she'd not updated her address information when she canceled the Box the first time. I presented her with those along with her copy of Michael & Tanya Trotter's album. Of course, as I should've expected, the clock/timer I'd ordered through Amazon ''Vine'' absolutely would not work -- just as does everything that serves the dual purpose of being both ''cute'' and functional at the same time.

---

ARCHIVES

* ''5-Year Archive'': Autumn 2001 - Winter 2006 *
* ''5-Year Archive'': Winter 2006 - Winter 2011 *
* ''5-Year Archive'': Winter 2011 - Winter 2016 *
* ''5-Year Archive'': Winter 2016 - Winter 2021 *

Winter 2021 (Dec-Feb) / Spring 2022 (Mar-May) / Summer 2022 (Jun-Aug) / Autumn 2022 (Sep-Nov) / Winter 2022 (Dec-Feb) / Spring 2023 (Mar-May) / Summer 2023 (Jun-Aug) / Autumn 2023 (Sep-Nov) / Autumn 2023 (Sep-Nov) / Winter 2023 (Dec-Feb) / Spring 2024 (Mar-May) / Summer 2024 (Jun-Aug) / Autumn 2024 (Sep-Nov) / Winter 2024 (Dec-Feb) / Spring 2025 (Mar-May) / Summer 2025 (Jun-Aug)

((Return To ''Current'' Page))