11505 Friday

11/5/05 Friday
     We’re off on a new day. I will do my morning breakfast with Jeff and then take Wayne shopping. After that Fred’s car is scheduled for brake work at noon. I will take this laptop with me to make use of my waiting time.
     I am at Burger king as I write this. It is 12:19. The meeting with Jeff was good. We didn’t get into anything other than how our week had gone and his potential contract with a well known name. I asked him how these services are presented, how do you sell yourself?  The time came for us to leave so I dropped by Express Personnel to get Cherie’s check and went home where I left it on the table for Cherie to deposit.      Then I called Wayne to let him know I was on the way. I took my vitamins and some of the herbal stuff that I use to clear my head and took off to get Wayne. He had coffee and had baked some cinnamon rolls he baked waiting for me. He told me about his new case worker at the Zeph Center. He did not like her attitude and the way he told it she thought little of those she is paid to help. She had been rude and demanding when it came to setting a time for him to go in. I told Wayne that I will go in with him because I want to make sure she knows who I am. I recorded the time of his appointment in my calendar and then talked to Wayne about ways I have learned to cope with the memory loss.
     I told Wayne we needed to get moving because I had to get Fred’s car to Firestone at 12:00. We got moving. I took Wayne to the bank to cash his monthly check of $115.00. I talk about this so those of you reading can understand what Wayne must live on. He gets $139 in food stamps and $115 cash and that’s it. Now his rent is only $35 a month and the rest is subsidized and his utilities are covered for now but there is nothing more. We help him and he gets an occasional thing from his limited family.
     Next week I take him to Dr. Rowan where I will have him complete a medical profile designed to appease Social Security. I think there is only one more piece left to complete this puzzle required to appease Social Security. I am still debating paying the lawyer or doing the appeal myself. I hate for Wayne too lose 25% to the lawyer. Here is where my problems get in the way. There is so much I need to do for Wayne but I never remember.
     I got Wayne to Kroger and helped him get his food by using his list to navigate the store in as efficient a way as possible to save him too much walking. He did his monthly stock up leaving $40 or so for the end of the month. There was no fluff except he did get himself a small shrimp ring for four or five dollars.
     That brings me to now. The car is across the street at Firestone getting the breaks fixed. They said it would be an hour and a half so I will sit in this booth in the low level at this Burger King. Nice and private. I want to order one of their pies but don’t feel like packing up this laptop just to do that so won’t. Nice thing about this hamburger joint is it is a WiFi hot spot where I can go online.
     It is 1:30 now so I suppose I should mosey over to the Firestone place so they can tell me their not done yet. Hell they probably found something wring that they are waiting on me to give them the go ahead. I’ll go over there now.
     I hate it when I’m right. I can tell Jeff is not having fun as I watch him get the torch out. The older a car gets the more fun they are to fix. I think I will work on the website now.
     In the grand annals I will write of the good times of Bob you will not find an entry for today. I sat in firestones lobby and watched Jeff working at a hurried pace with a look on his face that showed his exacerbation. He took it for a test drive and I could hear the belt squirping as he pulled up. I had brought it in before because of this noise and they had smeared some stuff on it to no avail so I went out and asked Jeff about it. Jeff said it doesn’t matter how much stuff you put on it. He said the belt is under warranty and would replace it for free. “Cool, do it” I told him and went back into the lobby to wait.
     Jeff drove the Lincoln up front and I assume went to lunch or back home, perhaps to a bar after Fred’s car. I waited to be called up to sign the bill. Eventually the new young guy calls “Mr. Rietz”. I get up and when I got to the counter the kid goes “How will you pay for this?” I told him on the firestone card as always. He looks at the computer screen and is amazed when he sees this so he tries to run it. I hear their machine dialing in but nothing happens so it dials again and the kid resets it and it dials again. The Kid is on the phone talking to his homey all during this as I wait. Eric comes in and takes over and the phone calling in the card thing starts all over again. Finally Eric manually calls the card in for authorization. After talking with a human and punching in the numbers he looks at the computer screen, then he looks at me closely, then he says “That card only has $104.00 left on it which I took for this bill but you need another $107, How do you want to do that?”
     OOOKay. That’s an unexpected twist. “Let me call Fred and see what he wants to do” I told him as I got my cell phone out. It’s Busy. I wait two minutes and call again. It’s Busy. I look at Eric and let him know it is busy and he tells me “Just put it on your card, I don’t care”. “I don’t have a credit card” I told him and really didn’t like his smirk at all. “Ok” he says raising his hand level with his ear with its fingers straight out and together like a salute. He kind of flipped his hand like waving goodbye as he talked. I ask him if that means the car doesn’t go anywhere until it’s paid and he said “Yes”.      Whatever. I sat down and kept trying to call Fred with no success. The battery is getting low so I pick up a paper and started reading it because other wise I would call every twenty seconds. It works, I make it to sixty seconds before I resend to Fred. Fred did not get off the phone for twenty minutes. Finally I get through. “Fred! They say your card doesn’t have enough to cover the bill” “What,,,Thats not right, I just paid them” he protested. I tried to explain it to him and just said. “Fred, I’ll have the guy call you and explain it” I told him and he hung up.
     Closing my cell phone I waited till Eric was free and, walking up to the counter with a grin on my face said “Well! You ready to call Fred?” “No, I don’t want to call him” Eric told me. As he walked to the computer station I patted the phone and told him he needed to call Fred. He told me I should call Fred and I had enough. “LOOK, Fred’s the one who’s paying for this and if you want your money your going to call him. Other than that I don’t give a shit”. Eric called. He eventually got Fred to understand and put it on his discover card. Giving me the receipt Eric didn’t say much. “Am I free to go?” I asked him and left. Three and a half hours of fun.
     Cherie just came home from work exhausted so I said “Lets just have pizza delivered”. IT’S Unanimous, A complete sweep, PIZZA It is. She is calling it in now. The first place she called she had a time getting whomever to understand “Do you deliver?”. “Dip shits” Cherie said and hung up. We go to the tried and proved Marco’s and I must stop writing or wait till something happens.  
     We’re done for the day so I will close this out for the night. I didn’t take any pictures today so may just go find one.