It has been a crazy week

Posted by Gina Rosenthal in community building | Leave a comment

If you have been following my anguish on twitter, this post is designed to provide some context.

Saturday my brother got arrested. I won’t go into too much detail, but I will say I don’t understand why you would put someone in jail for 30 days for not paying a bill if they don’t have the money to pay it. It’s a long story that hit right on the nerve of the economics of poverty, and I just can’t get started on it right now.

Of course I couldn’t let my brother sit in jail for 30 days. So I sent him what he needed (which in the grand scheme of things was really not alot at all). I mean, if he stayed in jail he would lose his job, and he would learn how to be a real scam artist in the meantime.

I had to Western Union the money because I found out about 5 PM Sat, and everything else was closed. I figured I’d do a cash advance on one of my cards. I went to the Western Union site, and tried to get the transfer to go through on one of my cards, and it failed. I called and found out my cash advance amount wasn’t very high (I never thought of using it before!). So I tried a different card on the Western Union site, which also failed. I called that bank and they just increased my limit. Problem solved. Right?

Not really. The Western Union site sucks. Horrible lack of feedback to the user. After trying a few more times to make the transfer work I decided just to call Western Union. They told me my account had been suspended for suspected fraud because I had so many failed attempts on the website. I asked how to resolve it, and was told it would take a few weeks.

This is when I lost it, and basically barricaded myself in the bathroom. Which freaked everyone out, especially my aspie daughter (who told me later that I am not supposed to freak out. Yes I am allowed to freak out!!).

I pulled it together, and I decided I would just go to an ATM, pull out the money, and take the cash to a Western Union office. But I needed my pin. Of course I look on the website for info, and there was a place to reset my pin. Which I did. Off we went, in the middle of the snow storm, to take care of getting my brother out of jail.

The craziness continues. I tried to pull the money out of the ATM, and it wouldn’t give it to me. We thought maybe it was something to do with the access the machine had since it was in a grocery store. We went to the bank across the street. Same problem. By this time Brian had come up with a different solution, and we went to the Western Union office. But the combination of Western Union reporting suspected fraud on my account, me using a cash advance for the first time since I had the card, and me changing my pin caused the bank to put a hold on my card for fraud. sigh. I cleared it up after 2 phone call….

We had to go to 2 Western Union offices before we found one who could do the transfer for us. Money sent to my dad. Problem solved — right?

Well, no. When my dad went to pick up the money at Winn Dixie, they would only let him have $1000, and told he had to come back in the morning for the balance. WHA??? Oh HELL no!! We paid some ungodly fee to Western Union to get my brother out of jail *tonight*. After a phone call telling off the people at Winn Dixie, we called Western Union who told us that my dad *should have been told* that he could get a check for the balance and take that to a different Western Union office.

Which is what he did. And got my brother out of jail. And my brother didn’t lose his job. whew.

One big crazy issue solved.

Yesterday, my son was driving my car and some girl on a cell phone veered into his lane. There was someone behind her and massive snow banks on his side, so even though he did his best to get out of the way but it was pretty much a head on collision. The other driver went to the hospital in an ambulance, my son went to the ER later. They just gave him drugs, I am not sure they really checked him out. That annoys me. But he seems ok. I think my car is totaled.

This crazy issue will take longer to resolve. We have been wanting a little truck — this just isn’t the time frame we wanted to do it in. 🙁

We also noticed dripping in the basement, and inside my daughter’s bedroom wall. We have a enormous ice dam. Last night we drove all over looking for a roof rake, but no one has one. This morning I got out the push broom and pulled lots of snow off the roof. I did it because I am alot taller than Brian, so I could reach more. It’s supposed to be warm for the next few days, so we’ll see what happens…

I think that crazy issue is solved. I may need to go brush more snow off the roof later, but at least we have a plan of how to attack it.

Plus I am working today. I have 3 things to finish up before my vacation can start. It’s been a crazy week so far…………..

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