What is pissing you off this time?

[BigV]

I'm living with my third VW. I love them. Yep, they require maintenance, duh, like all cars. I, too, had the heater core leak into the cabin of my 1985 Vanagon. A pain, but not as bad as my Ford F-250. The distance that coolant has to travel in the Vanagon is ridiculous. I LOL'ed when I read the directions for purging the cooling system on that rig.

Fill er up, start er up, and jack er up, but only the right front corner. Then run the motor until no more bubbles appear, topping off as needed. Good grief.

This little Golf III I have, love it. Best little truck I've ever had. Not really a truck I just treat it like one. I've put a clutch in it; I bought it with a pretty soft clutch at 70k. Jiffy Lube put a clutch in it after mistakenly topping off the manual gearbox through the inspection port for the clutch/flywheel. Aaaawkward.

Had a 68 Beetle I put two engines in. Sequentially, of course. Was my daily driver into LA, eighty miles each way. Loved that little car too. That one, and the Golf each caught fire briefly. Drove them for years afterwards.

VWs rock!

[classicman]

My Rabbit sucked. It was my first car and I LOVED it, but it was one thing after the next over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over - seemed to never end.
Last thing that went bad was - you guessed it! - the heater core. Had a couple beater cars after that and then bought my first of five Nissans afterward. 1 Maxima wagon and four Altims. Loved 'em.

[Snakeadelic]

I had a VW Rabbit once! Oh, it was horrible. 4-cylinder automatic (yes, automatic) that had been poorly maintained before I got it--we had to reef on it so hard with the oil-filter-removal tool that the support ribs inside the oil filter it had when I bought it spiral-twisted. One of my roomies drove it all day and never noticed the e-brake was on...turned the brake drums blue. We named it Seizure for 3 reasons:

1. It sounded like it was about to have a seizure. After the wreck (that story has been used as an 8-minute comedy bit at an open mic night) the cop asked me to try starting it. It fired right up and OMG the look on his face--which only got worse when I told him it always sounded like that.

2. The color was what I termed "German Industrial Orange". About the shade of the orange stripe on a U-Haul truck, and in bright sunlight just trying to look at it made your eyeballs try to seize up.

3. At the time, Washington license plates had a group of 3 letters and a group of 3 numbers. Don't remember its numbers...but the letters on the plate were CZR.

For a while, when I didn't have the money for gas or insurance, I had it parked at a friend's place. They went to check on something for me and didn't quite get the door shut all the way. When I reclaimed it I had to pull GRASS out of my floor mats! Like 3-inch-tall fresh spring shoots. Got it licensed, got it insured, wrecked it 5 days later .

[Snakeadelic]

In case anyone wonders why even I would buy a car like that, I got it at a lot where it was on consignment. The lot owner let me put my entire fortune of $300 down on it and pay another $100 as I could. When I made the last payment I told him I'd found out he was taking a $200 loss out of his own pocket to sell me that car (the only one on his lot I could even maybe afford) and asked him why.

"That man who brought you in to look at the car? I was watching his face while you and I talked that first time. He was going to kill you. I could not in good conscience NOT get you away from him if helping to do that was within my reach."

He died several years later, and I've always wanted a tiny like Hot Wheels 1977 VW Rabbit to make into a Christmas ornament in his honor. He was right. That guy would have killed me--it was the dude who is responsible for a back injury I have that's now old enough to go out and buy itself a beer.

[Griff]

Wow.

[xoxoxoBruce]

As if this year wasn't bad enough, beat us to a pulp, took away too many heroes, The mutherfuckers are making it longer.
I shit you not, on the 31st they're adding a leap-second to the official time. They claim they have to do that to make everything accurate.
Bullshit, lies, there's no reason they couldn't do it on the first.
It will be added at 23 hrs 59 min 59 sec, UTC time which is 6:59:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, so we don't even get an extra seconds sleep

[Snakeadelic]

Woke up Black Friday to the less than charming realization that I had 2 dental abscesses, 1 on top 1 on bottom. Went to ER, where the doctor FREAKED OUT and yelled at me (in front of a witness!) when I asked for help with the (felt like a hot sautering iron parked forcibly between the teeth in both cases) pain because my regular pain meds weren't even touching this. He called my MD after swearing I would get NO HELP that way either. Funny how it was the nurse who came back with a prescription for pain meds...six whole pills, on Black Friday, knowing I had no access to my dentist or MD until the following Monday. No, the pain meds did not help (they were 1 size stronger than my regulars, which I did NOT take alongside them). No antibiotics. No aftercare recommendations.

Following Monday, I call to schedule the pain-contract-required followup with my MD, get an appointment that Friday. Call the dentist, and due to a data-transmission glitch between them and the pharmacy it takes me TWO DAYS to get Cephalexin, the go-to dental antibiotic. By Friday, when I see the MD with whom I signed the pain contract, it's clear the Cephalexin has failed. He puts me on Clindamycin.

Couple weeks later, finished the Clindamycin, still have pain in the lower jaw. Under a root-canaled canine. Another round of "now what" leads me to a referral from my dentist to an oral surgeon who takes my insurance--that canine has to go. So we drive 50 miles to the nearest surgeon who takes my insurance.

And that (SOOOOOO many unladylike words go here), also with a witness in the room, proceeds to:
Refuse me sedation--I'd have to wait SEVEN weeks!
Refuse me nitrous--my insurance doesn't cover it? $100 cash out of pocket???
Listen to me describe the terms of my pain contract and says, verbatim quote, "I know how pain contracts are written. I call bullshit." Remember--witness in the room!
Refuse to wait until the inevitable MASSIVE panic attack has subsided.
Give me 4 HUGE shots, jammed in fast enough to cause major tissue separation, 2 in the cheek and 2 into my gums, swearing I won't feel my face until morning; it wore off HALF AN HOUR later; my dentist's "lower grade" novocaine lasts like six hours!!!.
Proceeds, while I'm still crying and my witness is trying to get through to him what kind of panic attack this is (still ZERO sedation), to rip aforementioned root-canaled canine right out of my lower jaw. God, I hate that cracking/ripping noise. I swear I am never having another tooth pulled while I'm awake, and I damn well WILL freak out about it to get my way. He also appears to have removed a chunk of bone NOT infected by the abscess, as the front part of my jawbone at the extraction site is now gone.

Go back to my MD for another required follow-up--whether or not pain meds are administered, my extremely lenient contract requires a follow-up with my primary care provider/contract signatory medical professional after any ER or specialist visit that provides a diagnosis immediately. Things like imaging procedures, even the ones they have to knock me out for, aren't counted, but things like having a tooth removed by a surgeon do.

OMFG you guys...my MD is super pissed at this dental surgeon. Like, the MD put me on OXYCODONE pissed. The surgeon swore up and down that Medicaid, my insurance provider, would have "no problem" if I just double up my regular hydrocodone for arthritis and get an early refill. MD says "I am so glad you're smarter than that--they have a HUGE problem with what he told you to do. Here's what they don't have a problem with, oxy and more antibiotics! When you're done with the oxy, finish your regular pain meds and just call for your hard-copy prescription refill like always."

I'm back on regular pain meds. I'm not sure the antibiotics worked; the crowned root canal next to where my canine used to be is warmer than any of my other teeth, including the 2 other crowns (all done by same dentist). I have like 3 of them left to take. There's this side effect, though, when you have to take antibiotics for a while. You get non-bacterial infections more easily.

What is pissing me off this time is I appear to have fucking viral laryngitis out of nowhere.

At least I didn't burn the $50 Christmas boneless prime rib roast! It's our only wild holiday food indulgence in years when no one we know gets a deer they need skinned during hunting season; I have my own skinning knife, a bloodthirsty temperament, an unusual talent for disassembling Nature's beautiful creatures, and in return I always ask for the neck, one of the least desirable chunks of meat but OMG such a good slow-roast...

Oh, and the surgeon gave me back the tooth! Last time I had extractions the hack-job who did them said they were biological waste and illegal to give back. This time, he said "You really want it?" and I answered "Hey, it's mine." I'm gonna have it made into a suncatcher after I bleach it. Maybe I'll have the other pulled tooth I got them to let me keep years ago added in!

[xoxoxoBruce]

I hear ya, I inherited soft teeth. Even though I drank lots of milk(I had cows), I can remember when I was about 12 my father sent me to the dentist. He said you have 12 cavities, I'll fill 2 and come back next week. The next week he said you have 11 cavities, I'll fill 2 and come back next week. WTF? This went on all summer.

It continued in the vein, 8 root canals, of which 1 blew up on a flight from Philly to Seattle, and another camping in the California mountains. Plus an extra cap for one my gym teacher broke. I swallowed that one the night before I got married the first time, but that's another story.

After continuous bullshit, when I was 42 I said take 'em out, all of 'em. The dentist resisted saying I was too young and when(if) I got old, the dentures would have worn my gums down too far for the dentures to be stable. He changed his mind when I started frothing at the mouth, blood shooting out of my eyes, and claws growing from my hairy knuckles.

That was 30 years ago and I haven't regretted it for a moment.

[Snakeadelic]

Bruce, if it weren't for my particular sort of TMJ, I'd already have a lower denture! My upper teeth are falling apart much more slowly than my lowers. Unfortunately, Medicaid says I can only have dentures redone once a decade, while the lower partial I had made like 3 years ago no longer allows my mouth to close and no longer sits flush on where my molars used to be--it barely touches my jaw on either side in that area, and sticking it down with denture glue won't help.

My dentist had a light-bulb-goes-on moment probably 5 years back. It was March, and I'd been in for a bunch of minor fillings & such the previous November. I told him he needed to X-Ray my mouth again, and he said the November images would do fine. I pushed and since I pay him out of pocket he caved.

TEN new cavities in five months. On a relatively low-sugar diet. TEN. The look on his face...I even took a photo of the X-Ray on the lightboard to show to my family.

My mom was like "Yup, you got my teeth." She currently has to have the last 2 remaining lowers extracted (in 2 weeks) as both are abscessed, and she just discovered that someone has somehow evaded a triple-count process at her pharmacy and has been skimming her pain meds. There are 20 less in the bottle than it was supposed to have. I guess more than just weak teeth runs in the family! She's got a pain med crisis in a state that despises elderly women (she's 68) AND pain medication use (she has osteo and rheumatoid arthritis, a Z-shaped lumbar spine with massive arthritis, lumbar scoliosis, fibromyalgia, an unrepaired torn rotator cuff, no ACL in one knee, and a half dozen or so other incurable pain sources). I've got viral laryngitis and no guarantee that the 2 runs of antibiotic have actually worked. I owe my dentist like $1500 and am deathly afraid that the next infection 'hot spot' in my mouth is under the crowned root canal he just had to fix in July because it popped entirely out of my jaw, post and all, while he was working on a different tooth entirely.

[Snakeadelic]

For the record, my dentist is highly competent. He's root-canaled 4 other teeth, 3 crowned and 1 small upper uncrowned because it sits at a 45-degree angle and overlaps a neighbor. ZERO problems other than the one popping loose. The crowned root canal on the other side of my lower jaw has never once given me trouble. I know one thing--I will NOT be going back to that butcher in Missoula. Ever.

[Snakeadelic]

ANNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDD the hits keep rolling in. I'm finally just about recovered from the Pit of Dental Despair, over the laryngitis, feeling about 75% like I do on my good days.

So of course the neighbor who does all our driving had to haul himself to the ER with severe abdominal pain at 5:30 this morning. It's now 1:00 in the afternoon and he's been shipped to a hospital in another freaking county for more specialized care of what is suspected to be an intestinal blockage. I have a "care package" of warm socks, fresh undies, and his preferred toiletries on its way to him and have only 1 step remaining in the "get the truck home before it gets towed" square dance of overly difficult details.

Meanwhile, I'm giving serious thought to taking up drinking again.

[Snakeadelic]

Well, the neighbor's home. It only took SEVEN HOURS for him to make it 60 miles. A friend came over to go rescue the neighbor's truck so the local ER wouldn't tow it; friend was supposed to drive the truck home. Turns out neighbor was getting discharged, so friend took neighbor's truck to go get neighbor.

And of course our friend went to the OTHER hospital in a college town of 100K or so. And then he had to get dropped off at his home, 7 miles north of us. In a near-blizzard. Leaving a man who'd had like 9 morphine shots in 2 days (and 4 Dilaudid!) to drive himself home. Their driveway is a car-eating ditch nightmare, and of COURSE the neighbor put his truck in the ditch. I got a text about waiting for a tow truck, and like an hour later the poor neighbor rolls in driving his truck!

By then, despite having apparently blown my left shoulder sleeping on it wrong, I had washed every scrap of laundry in the house--4 or 5 loads, because our water pipes were frozen for a week or so. This included washing and re-making the bed, and it also included some of the leftover heavyweight pain meds from my dental nightmare.

Good times, folks. Good times. This (unladylike word here) is what I call a "character-building experience." When ppl tell me I'm just such a character, I tell 'em it's because I've had so many character-building experiences.

[Gravdigr]

...and I'm bitching about being cold.

[Griff]

damn

[classicman]

Whoa. Sorry. How is everyone now?