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I wish for the power of a god.
Sep. 3rd, 2008 08:29 am
Just for a day. Just something benign, like the powers that would be granted a deity who ruled over, say, domestic and financial harmony. I'm gonna take stock here, of things that are of concern to me. This is not a naysayer post, nor am I looking for vibes. I'm operating under the belief that I work better with lists. Lists are finite; they shrink as you work at them.
So:
1) The refinancing issue. We are in negative equity; many banks will not offer the LTV we need (since the cash-in-hand for a 90% loan just isn't an option for us right now, unless we seek an alternate signature loan to make up the difference). Even Lending Tree can't help us. I have read about a Flex-100, but the... nature of the websites that offer them makes me leery. We have a little less than 3 years before the ARM resets, but I'd like to take care of it. Of all these issues, I think this is the only one that really, truly concerns me.
2) Last night, our computer shat the bed. I have it written here... ah yes. BSOD, then "Unmountable_Boot_Volume". Plus a bunch of addresses (I can't recall the 'technical name', since I don't work with computers often). Trying it in Safe Mode, Safe Mode w/ Command Prompt, Last Good Configuration and so on did nothing but have it run through the driver list, then come back to the same spot. I wouldn't mind it except 1) I've been researching external hard drives so I can back-up data I can't access right now- pics, documents, music, etc., and 2) the cost is probably going to pre-empt any big plans we had for our anniversary later this month. What *really* irritates me is that I was going to spend this weekend backing up to DVD, at the very least. And there are pics of my wife's mom that she *really* is scared will get lost. I have the tower in my car right now; I'm heading over to the computer shop (my father-in-law recommends them, as did Consumer Reports... or Checkbook...) today to see what can be done. I'd just be happy with data recovery. This is a close second to the refinance one, just because of the pictures. I can replace anything else.
3) The toilet in the master bath is *still* running. I've tried again, I really have. I don't want to call a plumber, since I had one out a little over a year ago for this very issue, when I didn't know how to do it myself. But I'm not seeing much choice. It's not a *huge* issue right now, but it's annoying.
4) Our Wii- the one my folks got us- is also in the process of dying on us already. I'm tempted to call UPS and ask them how much 'dropkicking postage' must have cost, because I don't know of any issues with product runs. Need to call/contact Nintendo to see what the warranty will do for us; it will play games, but sometimes needs to have the disc ejected, the power turned off and on, and try again (keeps getting a 'Disc Error'). Sometimes loads *really* slowly. None of which are natural states of affair. This is really a minor, minor thing, as it's a luxury, but still.
5) Our DVD player. Now, luckily, we have a spare downstairs on the 'gaming TV' (aka, the Big Ass TV That Would Put A Hole In The Floor If We Tried To Take It Upstairs Unless Of Course We Injured Ourselves First). But the primary one we use seems to be dying (it'll go through previews, but often stops just as the feature is going to start). It's a KLH, which is a decent 'non-popular' brand. I guess I can't ask too much of it; it *did* last us over 4 years. And we got it as a gift sometime ago. My first instinct is to think that my niece and nephew have been screwing with the disc tray, since it doesn't stay open when I press 'eject', and I've caught them messing with the thing before when they decided that they wanted to watch another one of Uncle Jon's movies without asking. (Luckily, yours truly has many, many cartoon movies, which put good odds on them picking a movie like that rather than, say, Ricki-Oh). Worse comes to worse, I can move the secondary player upstairs. I *think* my 360 will play movies, anyhow.
6) Utterly minor annoyance: one of our landline handsets has a screwy LCD screen, so the caller ID feature is useless. The phone works fine, but otherwise, phooey. It's just an annoyance more than anything, but I'm a completist like that, you know?
7) Finances in general. We're much better about saving money, but things like the above are crimping our plans to start trying for kids. I know, you can never really 'afford children', but I'll be damned if I'm not going to provide. I *am* a bit concerned about the stock I bought in my own company, but hey. Them's the breaks, and I accepted the risk.
So:
1) The refinancing issue. We are in negative equity; many banks will not offer the LTV we need (since the cash-in-hand for a 90% loan just isn't an option for us right now, unless we seek an alternate signature loan to make up the difference). Even Lending Tree can't help us. I have read about a Flex-100, but the... nature of the websites that offer them makes me leery. We have a little less than 3 years before the ARM resets, but I'd like to take care of it. Of all these issues, I think this is the only one that really, truly concerns me.
2) Last night, our computer shat the bed. I have it written here... ah yes. BSOD, then "Unmountable_Boot_Volume". Plus a bunch of addresses (I can't recall the 'technical name', since I don't work with computers often). Trying it in Safe Mode, Safe Mode w/ Command Prompt, Last Good Configuration and so on did nothing but have it run through the driver list, then come back to the same spot. I wouldn't mind it except 1) I've been researching external hard drives so I can back-up data I can't access right now- pics, documents, music, etc., and 2) the cost is probably going to pre-empt any big plans we had for our anniversary later this month. What *really* irritates me is that I was going to spend this weekend backing up to DVD, at the very least. And there are pics of my wife's mom that she *really* is scared will get lost. I have the tower in my car right now; I'm heading over to the computer shop (my father-in-law recommends them, as did Consumer Reports... or Checkbook...) today to see what can be done. I'd just be happy with data recovery. This is a close second to the refinance one, just because of the pictures. I can replace anything else.
3) The toilet in the master bath is *still* running. I've tried again, I really have. I don't want to call a plumber, since I had one out a little over a year ago for this very issue, when I didn't know how to do it myself. But I'm not seeing much choice. It's not a *huge* issue right now, but it's annoying.
4) Our Wii- the one my folks got us- is also in the process of dying on us already. I'm tempted to call UPS and ask them how much 'dropkicking postage' must have cost, because I don't know of any issues with product runs. Need to call/contact Nintendo to see what the warranty will do for us; it will play games, but sometimes needs to have the disc ejected, the power turned off and on, and try again (keeps getting a 'Disc Error'). Sometimes loads *really* slowly. None of which are natural states of affair. This is really a minor, minor thing, as it's a luxury, but still.
5) Our DVD player. Now, luckily, we have a spare downstairs on the 'gaming TV' (aka, the Big Ass TV That Would Put A Hole In The Floor If We Tried To Take It Upstairs Unless Of Course We Injured Ourselves First). But the primary one we use seems to be dying (it'll go through previews, but often stops just as the feature is going to start). It's a KLH, which is a decent 'non-popular' brand. I guess I can't ask too much of it; it *did* last us over 4 years. And we got it as a gift sometime ago. My first instinct is to think that my niece and nephew have been screwing with the disc tray, since it doesn't stay open when I press 'eject', and I've caught them messing with the thing before when they decided that they wanted to watch another one of Uncle Jon's movies without asking. (Luckily, yours truly has many, many cartoon movies, which put good odds on them picking a movie like that rather than, say, Ricki-Oh). Worse comes to worse, I can move the secondary player upstairs. I *think* my 360 will play movies, anyhow.
6) Utterly minor annoyance: one of our landline handsets has a screwy LCD screen, so the caller ID feature is useless. The phone works fine, but otherwise, phooey. It's just an annoyance more than anything, but I'm a completist like that, you know?
7) Finances in general. We're much better about saving money, but things like the above are crimping our plans to start trying for kids. I know, you can never really 'afford children', but I'll be damned if I'm not going to provide. I *am* a bit concerned about the stock I bought in my own company, but hey. Them's the breaks, and I accepted the risk.
