Oh, that is sad. I have been seeing news stories about all that and thinking of you, Laura. Glad you get to see your favorite piece of music soon!

Hoping JZ is having an easy if necessarily long day! Glad there is a lot of Pratchett to keep her company.

Laura u was thinking about you and all that rain.

We leave for Florida tomorrow, where it hasn't been raining that much. I'm mostly packed. I have to triple check some things. There is a definite difference to our packing ... M said he was done and I looked over and it was just 3 shirts and some shorts. He said "we will have a washing machine so I don't have to take much". In the meantime time I'm looking at things and making sure I have something to wear every day plus something to wear fishing and pajamas and...

Then there is also the art stuff I plan to take.

The plan is to drive tomorrow, and ge4 I'm, then Sunday it supposed to rain so we will just chill and then Monday dad will come down for fishing ...possibly and visiting and that's all that is planned so far

I hope you have a delightful trip. Remember to relax.

Today I received my THIRD gas bill for the month of April, complete with missing meter dates, unexplained extra charges (apparently there was a 6-day period for which the meter was read but no actual statement compiled), and a second and third initial sign-up fee added. Much of the math didn't add up, and after quite a long time on the phone with a CSR I think we got everything straightened out but the final amount I owed matched none of the totals on any of the paper and e-statements.

Now that daytime temperatures are rising above my thermostat setting my gas usage should plummet. But if billing in future months is as much of a boondoggle as the last three have been I'm going to buy tankless water heaters for my bathroom, kitchen, and laundry room and switch to space heaters, blankets, and feline heating pads before next winter.

That sounds very frustrating and like a bery bad way to run a utility company.

I am packed. Ish. I was sorting through the laundry we just did and was separating out what I am going to take into a laundry basket. The plan was to then put it in my suitcase but I was looking at it and thinking about the extra work and now I'm just going to put the laundry basket in the car and call that packed. I mean I may change my mind but we aren't going to hotel.

friends of mine used to drop off their clothes at a place that would wash & fold for $1 a bag (like big paper bags from the grocery store but very well packed!) and then pick them up on their way out of town and call it luggage.

My mom called it Bohemian matched luggage. Now I'm thinking I should probably google and find out how racist she was being

edit: OK apparently it's an Irish immigrant thing because (allegedly) Bohemian immigrants were treated better than Irish ones so Bohemian jokes evolved as a way of punching up at people they thought were getting an unfair advantage in the US.

Utility companies do seem to make a real effort to make billing incomprehensible.

yes I feel like inaccessibility is baked in to public utilities

Our state's attorney general brought a class action suit against this particular company on behalf of price-gouged customers, and LOTS of people have complaints about how poorly they're run. Though I do have a little more patience with them now that they're footing $3400 or so of my plumbing bill.

OK, I've got my third load of laundry and bread in the oven, I think I'm fully back from vacation. A week later, ha!