Jumping Bean Brain

Things just haven't been right with me lately. It's very frustrating because I am unable to focus on anything. I sit at the computer to blog and I can't. Seriously, I can't. Nothing is there, just a bunch of garbled thoughts bouncing around my head like jumping beans. I feel very out-of-sorts.

What is up with that?

Speaking of....what's up with this photo? It does not belong, nor was it a photo I meant to take, but I like my argyle socks and my boots, so there.

Oh, and speaking of socks.....

My dryer is broken...again. I had a screaming fit with the Sears lady on the phone. She had the nerve to tell me that I would have to pay for the parts to repair my dryer because our warranty was up. My midwestern attitude came out (I save that for special occasions) and I was ferocious. Oh, and because I care about ya'll so much, I am willing to share some of the phone call. You're welcome!

"Hi. We just had a Sear's repair man come out this morning and he left, but now the dryer is squeaking and grumbling again. This is the fourth time we've had a repair man come out since September of this year."

"I'm sorry mam, let's see if we can get him back out there for you. You said he was there this morning?"

"That's correct. We were his first appointment at 8 A.M. He tinkered with it and said that if what he did didn't work that we were to tell the next repairman to order a pulley and shaft because he said that is probably what's wrong with it. I would like him to order those parts now, since he probably should have done that in the first place."

"Okay. Thank you. I am going to put you on hold and try to contact the driver."

(on hold.......still holding......still holding.)

"Okay. I was able to get ahold of the driver and he states that he is on his last repair, but that it will take 2-3 hours and will not be able to make it back out to your house today."

"Okay...um, did you ask him to order those parts?"

"He cannot order them. We will have to make a new repair appointment and whoever comes out will be able to order them. Let's see when the next appointment is....."

(The conversation is still calm at this point.)

"Wait. Why can't he order them? He was just here. Why should I have to wait for another appointment to have the parts ordered, and then have to wait for the parts to come in and another appointment for them to be installed?"

"I'm sorry mam, that's just our policy. You can order the parts yourself and then make an appointment for them to be installed..."

(This is where my midwestern Kansas City, Missouri, Don't eeeeven mess with me attitude came in. If you want an idea of what I sounded like (or something sorta like that)....click HERE.)

"What do you mean that I can order the parts? I am not paying for the parts."

"Your warranty is expired, so you will be responsible for the part costs."

"Oh NO I will not be responsible for the cost of parts that should have been ordered back in September when I still had the warranty. Don't tell me I have to pay for something when I already paid a ton of money on the extended warranty and your repair men ripped me off for a years worth of services by NOT doing their jobs to begin with. This is the fourth time we've had service men out here to repair the same problem and I will NOT pay for it. In fact, Sears owes me money for wasting a year of the extended warranty................"

I basically went on for a bit longer to make sure I got my point across. This happened on the 24th of December. Christmas Eve. What a lovely way to start out the holiday.

Apparently my persistance was noted and we received a phone call from the repair man saying he had ordered the parts. What he didn't tell us was that they would be shipped to our home and that we had an appointment for Thursday January 7th from 8-12. Within the past week we've received two packages from parts dealers and I had to reschedule the appointment for Friday afternoon.

I'm glad it's being taken care of, but I've lost all respect and trust in Sear's repair. I do not think they will charge me (and I wouldn't pay for it anyway) for the service call since it's well within the 90 days warranty on same service calls. Unfortunately, I cannot afford to extend the warranty on my washer and dryer. If the problem happens again, or this isn't the problem and they are just grasping at straws (like before), then we will have a $1200 dryer that doesn't work. I'm ticked, frustrated, worried and stressed about it all.

On top of all that, I have at least thirteen loads of laundry waiting to be washed and dryed. It is too cold to hang dry them as it brings down the temperature in the house/basement and makes the kids bedrooms too cold.

I'm also stressed about a couple things that I am not willing to discuss openly on my blog right now. Mainly because I have not formulated my own thoughts on the issues, weighed the pro's and con's, or discussed them with my husband...yet. I'm currently hormonal and feeling depressed, so it's not even an appropriate time to try and discuss them rationally.

I have so many blog posts I want to write. Maybe listing them here will help keep my thoughts grounded, because I'm not joking when I say they're rattling about in my head, like jumping beans. All my thoughts are. My awesome husband says I'm scatterbrained. He's absolutely right.

So, here goes. Here is a list of blog topics I've wanted to write in the past 30 days and have not.

* 2010 goals list

* Cooking/baking

* Chores

* Parenting teens

* My mom's upcoming surgery (a few posts for that!)

* Caleb's Community Career Day

* Casey's Science Fair Project

* Crawford All-Nighter

* Snowboarding

* North American Championships (Florida)

* Organizing

* Give-Away (An awesome one at that!!)

* My thoughts on marriage

Maybe that will help.

Do you ever have long periods of time (like days/weeks) where you feel completely scatterbrained? Leave a comment and tell me what helped bring you out of the funk. Maybe it will inspire me to do the same.