Crash + totaled car + more car issues
On Monday, September 16, 2024, I was involved in a car crash, returning from a photo shoot at one of my employer’s properties nearby, that totaled my car; more on that later; everyone was a little banged up, but otherwise fine, which is the most important thing, cars can be replaced, but people cannot.
It was determined that I was at fault. According to police officers attending the scene, I ran a red light, based on video from a church at the intersection. I thought I had a green light, and maybe I did when I looked, but it changed as the car I hit started accelerating into my path as I was entering the intersection, which would indicate this might be the case. I tried to avoid the vehicle by steering hard left, but they continued into the intersection, leaving me nowhere to go. My actions resulted in a lesser impact than it would have been if I had continued straight, hitting their driver-side front fender instead of T-boning them. Either way, the officer cited me for running the red light, which cost me $177.50.
Of course, the website link on the citation to pay the fine was wrong; I had to Google it to find the correct link. I guess it’s too difficult for the city’s IT department to either update the link on the citation or set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one, or better still, both; maybe they should hire me?
It has been a crazy couple of weeks for fatal car accidents in Wichita, including a woman driving the wrong way on the K-96 highway colliding with a truck, which killed the father and son in the truck; the wrong-way driver also died. Thankfully, neither I nor the people in the other car added to the death toll.
Immediately after the accident, I thought I was fine, but I guess that was because the adrenaline in my body was masking my injuries. In the ensuing days, the pain in the right side of my ribs and lower back, where the seatbelt went across my body was much higher. As this happened during work time, my employer had me talk to the on-call nurse and was told to ice the area and take acetaminophen as needed, but nearly a week on, the pain is not subsiding, so maybe further medical attention is needed.
As you can probably assume based upon the featured image on this post, the car was totaled, not that it mattered, as I was forced to change insurance and downgrade coverage from full coverage to liability + fire + theft as Progressive was going to more than double my monthly insurance premium to almost $500. This was due to my son getting his driver’s license; the insurance company’s logic is that he had access to the cars because he lived under our roof; therefore, we had to add him to our insurance policy.
As the car was not economical to repair and the towing and storage fees were already over $750 in just four days, I just signed over the title to the towing company on Thursday morning to eliminate that bill. I recovered my license plate from the car, and I should be able to get some money back on the remaining registration, maybe $90. It’s not a lot, but it’s better than a kick in the teeth. The next step will be to remove that car from our car insurance; we don’t want to pay to insure a vehicle we no longer own.
Now we have an issue, like most people who live paycheck to paycheck, we cannot just stump up the cash to buy another car. Yes, we could more than likely get a car loan and be able to manage the payments, but the issue is that financial institutions require that borrowers carry full coverage insurance, which is more than we can afford. The net result is that we will be a single car family for the foreseeable future.
This has been compounded by mechanical issues on our second car, which is currently in the shop for evaluation. There is an intermittent check engine light, and ABS, traction control, and stability control lights. But the reason for being in the shop is because the accelerator pedal randomly stops responding and will not work again until we stop, put it in park, turn off the car, and restart. It will typically run for a handful of seconds, minutes, or sometimes 15 minutes; there seems to be no rhyme or reason. We cannot continue like this; it’s dangerous, a sudden power loss at highway speeds could be deadly.
We are waiting to hear back from the shop about the estimate for fixing the car. Due to its high mileage and age, the car is barely worth $3,000, and we have already spent close to the $12,000 purchase cost keeping it on the road. The cost of getting another used car during the pandemic made fixing it cheaper than buying another vehicle. Used car prices are finally starting to normalize in 2024, so depending on the cost to fix, we might scrap it and get another car, which Erin and I would have to share.
We are borrowing my mother-in-law’s SUV, which has its own issues. It has ABS, TC, and handbrake lights on. According to her mechanic, the part they need to resolve these lights is no longer manufactured; thanks, GM. It’s crazy that you can not get parts for a 17-year-old car? Despite the warning lights, everything seems to work fine, but the brakes feel somewhat soft and not confidence-inspiring. However, we appreciate the mother-in-law lending us her second car, bailing us out for the umpteenth time.
UPDATE: $4,000 TO FIX THE WIFE’S CAR
We got the estimate for Erin’s car, and it’s $4,000 to fix. The issue with the throttle pedal not responding is a bad throttle body, which will cost around $500 to replace. The oil leak is considerable; the valve gaskets and front main seal are leaking oil, along with the water pump leaking coolant. The cost for that is $3,300 because of the number of hours it takes to disassemble the engine to replace the gaskets and seals.
This is much more than we really wanted to pay, but it’s more economical than buying a used car, which will cost $8,000—$10,000, and we might have issues with that car. Fixing our current vehicle makes more financial sense, and of course, we won’t need to carry full coverage insurance for the car loan company. We probably could have waited on the leaks, but we wanted to get it fixed while it was in the shop, hoping not to have any more visits to the shop in the near future. We had set aside $1,500 to $2,000 in cash, so we’ll have to put $2,000 on a credit card, which we hope to pay off in about 6 months.
Wave Outdoor, Wichita – not good for wheelchair users!
Last night, I had my first experience of Wave Outdoors in Wichita, Kansas, and my big takeaway was that accessibility for disabled people is not good due to their choice of using gravel in their GA area.
My wife is registered as disabled and cannot stand for more than 5 to 10 minutes, so she requires a wheelchair to attend shows. Because of the gravel, wheelchairs get bogged down in it, as the gravel is uneven and loose. I struggled to push my wife through the gravel, like trying to push a car uphill, so I don’t understand how a wheelchair user could propel themselves. I would imagine powered wheelchair users would also struggle, literally spinning their wheels in the deeper gravel.
As someone with stability issues due to diabetic neuropathy, I found walking difficult on the uneven gravel, especially during the show after sundown, when it’s hard to see the uneven gravel. The bottom line is that I believe the owners of Wave gave very little thought to accessibility and people with disabilities, which I think is unforgivable in this relatively new venue, which opened just five years ago.
OK, now that is out of the way, parking next to the venue, they were charging $10 to park, and it’s cash only, which in 2024 seems insane; why not have a card reader attached to a smartphone? I’m not sure if this parking lot is owned by Wave or not, but again, this plays into the lack of forethought in catering to people with disabilities. We got lucky and found a wheelchair-accessible parking spot just across the road, but on a busier event, this could have meant a significant trek to the venue.
Like all venues, drink prices are obscene. A bottle of water costs $5, the same bottles you buy a 24-pack for the same amount in the store. Beer prices are $9 to $11 for a can squeezed into a plastic cup. This is standard fair for live events, captive audiences, et al, so I cannot ding them too hard for this.
I’m not going to talk about sound as the venue does not have a permanent installation; bands bring in their own PA system. However, like all outdoor venues, the sound is massively affected by the way the wind is blowing, as the mid- and higher frequencies literally get carried on the wind.
I’d give it 6 out of 10; the lack of forethought regarding disabled people is unforgivable. Suffice it to say that we will not be returning to Wave unless they lay a surface conducive to patrons in wheelchairs. It’s truly sad that in 2019, when the venue opened, no one thought, “Gravel wouldn’t be good for wheelchair users,” or maybe just didn’t care, and putting gravel down was cheaper than asphalt or concrete.
How we almost bought a $10,000 water treatment system
A few weeks back, we visited our local Home Depot to pick up a new kitchen faucet, as the one that came with the house had sprung a leak. On the way in, an employee asked if we’d like to enter to win a prize. I said, “No, thanks.” However, Erin did fill out the card with her details. About two weeks passed, and Erin got a call from Moore Water Treatment. Suddenly, they were at my house, testing water and trying to sell us a $10,000 system as I was talking to a friend from back home on Skype. After being in my home for more than an hour, I finally heard the guy out and saw the benefits as Erin believed having cleaner, filtered water might alleviate some of her health issues, as we had recently identified chlorine as a contributing factor to her Fibromyalgia and Rheumatoid arthritis flares, which often end in the ER.
I should have followed my instincts and just said no when he pulled a “one-time deal” line when I suggested he give us some time to discuss it privately and determine whether it was financially viable. The deal was no downpayment, 100% financing, and free consumables, such as soaps, for a time period. Erin really wanted to try it, and the salesman said we had 3 business days to cancel if we changed our mind. So, I decided to apply for financing through their partner, taking a risk as it could improve Erin’s health.
We canceled the order first thing Monday morning when I received the contract with the credit terms and conditions. It was a 13.99% APR variable revolving account with no final amount listed and no final payment date, just like a credit card. I need to know how many payments there will be, how much each will be, and how much interest will be charged overall to make an informed decision.
The salesperson made it sound like it would be 75 interest-free payments of $132.87, which it would not be with a 13.99% interest rate. I did some calculations, and at 13.99% APR, paying $132.87 monthly, it would take 15 years, and we’d end up paying a total of almost $24,000, $14,000 of which would be financing charges. This is on top of the financing company, Time Investment Company, Inc., having a terrible reputation, scoring 1.5 stars out of five from customers at the Better Business Bureau.
The thing about the Moore salesman that really irritates me is that a paying cash option was never presented, despite not knowing anything about our finances, pushing us toward their choice of financing company. This was doubly irritating when, after canceling, we got an email from Home Depot, thanking us for our business and giving us additional options to finance through them instead, an option not presented by the Moore salesman. Moore Water Treatment as a “trusted’ partner of Home Depot, I would assume they are supposed to present this option. This is just speculation on my part, but if it was presented and Home Depot had better financing terms, we could have had the system installed already.
So, bottom line: Protect your personal information and never assume it will be used for the sole purpose for which you gave it. Marketers commonly use giveaways to gather information on people, as everyone likes something for free. Remember, there is no such thing as free; you’ll pay for it somehow. Usually, your information is the product, which can be used for marketing spam and even sold repeatedly to data brokers. This is truer in 2024 than it has ever been in the past; keep your information safe!
A Mixed Bag Life Update XVI
It’s been seven months since the last update, partially because we have been busy and partially because I have not felt inclined to write blogs. Today, I feel like writing an update on the last seven months.
The biggest thing that has happened in the past half year is we have bought a home, and we had to make some compromises. I always said that anything with an HOA is immediately out of consideration and that we were looking for a single-family (or detached) home. We bought a duplex (or semi-detached) home, and it does have a HOA. We broke our rules because it became clear that our budget would not give us something we could just move in and live in without needing immediate changes. We required minimal maintenance and had to have a living room, kitchen, primary bedroom, and bathroom on the main level, and this home fulfilled these requirements. The HOA dues are $150 monthly, but this does cover lawn care and water utilities, so we get much of that $150 back in savings, and it means I do not have to mow the lawn, which is becoming more challenging for me to do with my deteriorating health issues.
We had a significant additional expense within days of moving into our new home. The air conditioning stopped working, and in Kansas, not having air conditioning is not fun when the outside temperature is often in the high 90s °F and above for months on end. We had an HVAC company come out and assess the issue and ‘fix’ it, not once, but twice, for it to fail within days each time. We were told that our system was outdated and poorly maintained, and we were recommended to install a new HVAC system. This is what we did; we didn’t want to constantly call out the HVAC company for temporary fixes, and the total cost was $8,100, which we financed over 10 years, as we did not have $8k in cash in our back pocket.
We feel cheated on the mortgage, as two loans were taken out, one FHA for the mortgage and a second conventional loan for the deposit. We were under the impression that the payment would be $1,559.47, but the reality is that because of the second loan, which we found out about days before closing, another $73.65 was required. But, wait, there’s more, the $73.65 was basically an interest-only payment on the conventional loan, and when the loan matured after 10 years, we’d have to stump almost the entire original loan amount, so to avoid this, we are paying a further $40 monthly on top for a total of $1673.12. On top of this, we want to pay an extra $70 on the mortgage principle, saving us $53,000 in interest and have the mortgage paid off five years earlier, assuming we can afford to do so in the long term.
Outside of home-related stuff, we found out my daughter, Alya, was entitled to draw almost $800 monthly off my wife Erin’s disability. I don’t understand how any of this works, but an extra $800 per month will make our lives significantly easier; having kids is expensive, and this payment helps get our daughter what she needs. We learned about this decision from Social Security when $12,400 appeared in our bank account. And because of other experiences with social security, the first thing we did before spending a cent of this money was confirm that this is actually our money. And it is, indeed, our money; apparently, this is back pay going back about 18 months, which was a nice little bonus. Shame it did not come about a month earlier to pay towards a deposit on our home, reducing our mortgage cost further.
In related news, in April 2024, we finally received acknowledgment of our appeal, disputing Social Security’s claim that we owe them $8,700, stating that Erin would receive her regular payment instead of the reduced payment to pay back what Social Security claim we owed. We started the appeal in November 2023 and requested a repayment plan to withhold a lesser amount than taking 100% of her benefit for six months. Social Security can implement a payment plan that withholds $244 monthly in less than a month, but it took six months to even acknowledge our appeal; what the actual !@#$?
This happened because Social Security claimed that her eligibility date was wrong. They contended that Erin received benefits six months earlier than she was entitled and that her first benefit payment should have been 12 months after she was first determined to be disabled, not six months. Now, we get a letter dated July 2, 2024, which confirms that, in fact, the waiting period is six months after being determined disabled, but they have moved her determined disability date to September 1, 2022; the original date is February 11. 2022, which was stated in a notice of award on July 25, 2022. This would indicate that we still owe $7,786; however, the letter, dated July 2, 2024, states that from January 2024 forward, Erin would receive $1,592 monthly, which should mean the SSA owes her back pay as January 2024 through April 2024, she had $248 deducted from her benefit amount. Am I misunderstanding? Is this notice of award the result of the appeal, or are they still determining the outcome? All this makes my head hurt!
Erin is still struggling with Fibromyalgia and severe rheumatoid arthritis, meaning regular visits to the Emergency Room. This is because her pain medication is no longer working, in my opinion, leaving me frustrated. I have been to the ER probably fifty times with Erin over the years and have said that it’s time to change up her medication on many occasions, despite going from 2 ½ Hydrocodone tablets to 5 daily and her pain management doctor prescribing Hydromorphone, as needed for breakthrough pain, our visits to the ER have not decreased. Finally, Erin has taken note of my words and asked her pain management doctor to look into changing up her medication to manage her pain better, but an available appointment is not available until late August, so another 2 to 3 ER visits is on the agenda in that time.
My own health is also deteriorating; being a diabetic, I also suffer from diabetic neuropathy, which causes a lot of pain in my feet and legs, which, although minimally, limits my mobility. Also, in the past six months, sores have started to come up on my lower legs, which can be extremely painful and can take many weeks to heal, often leaving my legs scarred, majorly impacting my mobility, walking slower, as the pain can be excruciating at times. My doctor referred me to an ‘open wound’ specialist, and I have not heard from the specialist yet. And when I called the specialist’s office, they had never heard of me. Of course, I need a referral because insurance companies control the medical industry, not the doctors.
My vision deterioration is continuing, and I fear that I will become legally blind within the next decade. I brought up the issue of my eyes seemingly not dilating with sunlight being too bright and nighttime driving being challenging as my eyes do not adjust to the darkness with my specialist eye doctor. She confirmed that my eyes were not fully dilating, and she talked to another doctor specializing in the subject. The news was not good because both eyes reacted the same; there was little they could do. My visual acuity is not good either, I can read an eye chart at 20/35, but beyond the distance from the chair to the eye chart, there is a distinct drop off in vision sharpness, and my specialist doctor does not believe that laser eye treatment will help. This leaves me at a loss of what I can do to mitigate this, as my diabetes is well controlled; my last A1C came back as 5.7, and no higher than 6.3 in the past two years.
We had to switch car insurance and downgrade coverage, as because Conner had gotten his driver’s license through driver education, our premium from Progressive doubled as they were going to add Conner to our policy because he, technically, has access to our cars. It seems that all insurance companies force you to add any licensed driver in your home if they do not have their own policy or car; what is the actual !@#$? As a result, we now have Conner insured, but our policy was downgraded from full coverage to comprehensive (without collision), and it’s still more expensive. From my understanding, this means liability + fire + theft; if you have an accident and it’s your fault, you’re on the hook for repairs to your car.
My daughter Alya went to Paris, France, a couple of months back with eight of her school friends as part of a documentary about African American photographer Gordon Parks, who her school was named after. Alya said she didn’t enjoy it much because it rained almost constantly, and they had to walk just about everywhere in the rain. And Paris, being a real city, unlike Wichita, Kansas, was a bit of a culture shock to her, but overall, I believe it was a good experience for her to be exposed to another country and culture.
Then a month after that, Erin, Alya, and my son Conner all went to Massachusetts to visit a friend for a week while I stayed at home as I did not have enough vacation time, having taken a week off a month before to complete the move into our new home. Erin and the kids enjoyed their time in Massachusetts. I enjoyed having some time to myself, not having to be a carer for Erin when she is suffering from RA flares, and not having to clean up after the kids as they seem incapable of doing it themselves.
And this concludes this update; the next one will be… whenever I feel like writing it!
Kansas, No ID, No Porn!
Kansas has followed a dozen other states, including Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Texas and Utah, requiring porn websites to require submission of state-issued ID to access their content. The Republican legislators in Kansas are making it all about protecting the children. Using the vague phrase “harmful to minors” with a legal definition of “acts of masturbation, homosexuality, sexual intercourse or physical contact with a person’s clothed or unclothed genitals or pubic area or buttocks or with a human female’s breast.”
In that case, the government should require streaming services such as Netflix to do the same; I saw more tits & ass in movies as a teenager than I ever did in porn, mostly originating from the United States. I would argue that social media is infinitely more harmful to minors than porn could ever be. And let’s be honest, the average 11—17-year-old is smarter than these idiots in state and federal congresses, easily bypassing such restrictions with VPNs, many of which are free and can be signed up for with a free email address, or shifting to the unregulated dark web. Not to mention “borrowing” their parents’ ID.
This is not about protecting children; it’s about pushing their Christian nationalistic agenda. Literally red states are pushing an agenda of Christian indoctrination, with the Ten Commandments being displayed in Louisiana state-funded schools. In Oklahoma, bible study will be a requirement in all public schools, claiming that the bible is a historical document, again making claims that the US was founded on Christianity. I would point you to the establishment clause of the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
But I digress; the objective here is to shame people into not enjoying online porn, hoping that having to upload a government-issued ID will dampen their self-pleasuring tendencies. The most significant issues for me are privacy and security concerns. Are these porn sites going to protect your data? What’s to stop them from storing your uploaded documents, which would make them a target for hackers.
Also, the vagueness of the wording of the law could potentially allow for this law to be used to block access to non-pornographic LGBTQ+ content, denying young people access to websites and resources covering LGBTQ+ issues, which is another bullshit Republican culture war talking point.
If a porn website does not enforce this requirement, how do these states plan to enforce it? In Kansas, the law states that if a website fails to verify that the visitor is at least 18, they can be hit with a fine of $10,000 for each violation. Parents could also sue for damages of up to $50,000, which tells the story that the state wants to encourage parents to sue to drive pornographic websites out of the state.
Pornhub is taking the step of blocking all users in the state of Kansas, along with Arkansas, Montana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia, which have passed similar laws. Pornhub has the following statement on their website when visiting their website from Kansas today;
I don’t believe that anyone objects to systems to prevent children from accessing pornography, but this is not the solution, as it’s so easily bypassed by a tech-savvy child, which accounts for most kids today. We already have legitimate porn websites employing the RTA (restricted to adults) system, which can be used in conjunction with parental controls on children’s devices. In my opinion, this is where the responsibility lies; parents should monitor what their children access online and take appropriate actions to protect their children from porn sites, but no, the party of small government wants government regulation.
ASUS Vivobook 14 (X1404ZA) + Windows S Mode
I know that Windows S Mode has been around since Windows 10, but after purchasing a couple of Asus X1404 laptops, this was my first experience with S Mode. I am not impressed and fail to understand why any consumer would want to be restricted to Microsoft-approved apps from their app store.
The laptops are decent, with a 12th-generation Core i3 1215U processor, 8 GB of memory, and a 120 GB NVME storage drive. The 120 GB NVME storage is replaceable, and the memory is upgradable. 8 GB is soldered onto the motherboard, and another 8 GB can be added via a SODIMM slot.
My first clue to the fact that it was not a regular Windows install was that the CTRL—F10 keystroke on initial setup did not bring up the command prompt to type “OOBE/BYPASSNRO” to bypass the requirement for an internet connection and creation of a Microsoft account. Once I got into Windows, I found I could not install Google Chrome nor could I run CMD, and when I followed the prompts to go to the Microsoft store to disable S Mode, it immediately failed with a generic something went wrong error.
This makes me wonder if Microsoft subsidizes Asus’ budget-friendly laptops, blocking people from quickly switching from S Mode. Most people would not go to the lengths I went through to get out of S Mode and perform a clean install of Windows 11. I don’t understand the purpose of S Mode other than Microsoft wanting to keep you inside their walled garden. In my mind, the whole point of Windows is that users can install whatever they want, good or bad, without being locked into the Microsoft ecosystem.
In an effort to get out of S Mode, I created a Windows 11 install media USB stick and booted into the install after a quick stop in the BIOS. I found that the touchpad was not working, so I plugged in a USB mouse to start the installation, but I also found that the NVME drive was not detected. This forced me into an in-place upgrade from Windows. After completion, it allowed me to get out of S Mode, but looking at the available storage, I realized that something was amiss with over 60 GB being used; I know that a base Windows install should be around 30 GB, the reason for double that disk usage soon became apparent.
I discovered that I needed to install the IRST driver, which is downloadable from the Asus support website, to do a clean install of Windows. Multiple partitions, including a restore partition, appeared after loading the IRST driver in the Windows installer. I removed all these partitions and created a new partition using the whole drive capacity. I have no need to retain the restore partition, as I consider myself a tech-savvy person, being able to install the required drivers to get Windows up and running,
I installed Windows 11 Home, which, as expected took up about 30 GB of disk space; however, Windows 11 did not have wireless LAN drivers, so I had to source the drivers from the Asus Support website. I downloaded Realtek, Mediatek, and Intel wireless LAN drivers, copied them onto the same USB stick as the Windows installation, and let Windows find which were correct. On my particular laptop, it was the Mediatek drivers. I rebooted and connected to my Wi-Fi network, and like magic, after a few moments, Windows downloaded and installed the drivers for the rest of the devices. The only device that did not function correctly was the switchable number pad on the touchpad. This was easily remedied by visiting the Asus Support website and downloading and installing the Asus Numberpad driver.
Because of the S Mode bullshittery, I had to do additional work to get these laptops to where I wanted them, but I am happy with my purchases. Two 12th-generation core i3 laptops, with 8 GB of memory and 120 GB NVME SSDs for a little under $500, including tax, is a bargain, and my wife and daughter are happy with their new toys. And because there is a spare SODIMM slot and a 2280 M.2. slot onboard, I can easily upgrade the storage and memory should the need arise in the future.
Home ownership + moving + pitfalls
As per my last blog write-up, we are now homeowners; we closed on the house on May 29, 2024, six days later than planned, because the former owners and their realtor were being a pain in the arse. The home was owned by a 98-year-old gentleman who passed away, and the house was left to his six children; and they all had to sign individually, none of whom were at the closing, nor was their realtor. Our realtor, the representative from Security 1st Title, Erin, and I were the only ones present to complete the transaction.
Upon closing, we found some new information that our mortgage broker had not clarified. And that information was that because we got a FHA loan and we did not have a downpayment, a separate $8,400 conventional loan was taken out to cover the deposit, which bumps our mortgage payment up by $73.65 to a total of $1,633.12. This is fine; it’s well within our means, but I feel annoyed that this was not made clear before we applied for this mortgage. We knew that the deposit was going to be rolled in, what we didn’t know is that it would be a seperate conventional loan, and not rolled into the FHA loan.
Now that we had the keys to the house, we bought some new furniture: a theater-style sofa and loveseat for the family room and for upstairs, a loveseat, chair, and fluffy chase, which was my wife’s choice; she wanted a cuddle couch. Also included was a desk for me, as my old desk was not going to make the move because it was too fragile. Despite the $400 cost, it was poorly designed and used cheap materials.
I never got to use the desk we bought, it spent a week upside down on my office floor, as it was packaged with the wrong legs, and the wait time for replacement legs was longer than I could wait, so we sent that desk back and bought a desk from Walmart. Despite its $135 price tag, it is better quality than my previous desk. Also, despite requesting the sofa and loveseat set, only the sofa arrived, apparently, the loveseat was not added to the order, so we had to wait an extra week for that to be delivered.
Moving day came, and frankly, we were not ready. Erin had been ill and could not do much to help, and I had to work until Friday, May 31, before taking a week off for the move. I just had three days to get organized to move by Tuesday, June 4, and I spent a lot of time at the new house, being available for the furniture deliveries and several hours to install the Fiber internet. It should have taken 1—1.5 hours, but getting the fiber cable into the house was challenging because our new home is tornado-resistant.
At one point, four guys from AT&T were trying to work out how best to get the cable into the house. The only option was to use some existing conduit used by Cox for coax cable, which was no longer needed. This is far from ideal as the main router is in the living room, and not the office as I would have preferred. The solution was to use smart wi-fi extenders with two RJ45 Ethernet ports to connect Erin’s and my computers, as we don’t have wi-fi cards installed. I think I will buy a PCI-E wi-fi card for both computers as the smart extender only seems to be capable of 300Mbps, which is just 1/3 of the gigabit speed I pay for.
Because of the obscene cost of moving companies, we had repeated quotes of $1,500+ to move us 4.4 miles down the road; we hired two guys recommended by a resident of Erin’s property in Mulvane. And I wish that we did not; yes, we were not ready to move, but these guys were rushing through loading and unloading the U-Haul truck. As a result, there was signifcant damage to our furniture, and also our new home, a door frame was damaged, and a gouge was taken out of a wall. All this could have been avoided if they had just taken some time and care, using the furniture pads we paid for between the furniture and taking more time to bring in the more oversized items like the washer and dryer and Erin’s desk.
And when confronted, “We are not professional movers,” blaming our large and heavy furniture for the issues. I replied that if the job was too much for you to handle, you should have turned down the job, at which point one of them stormed out. We were paying by the hour, in 15-minute increments. I would have been happy to pay for the extra time, but they wanted to finish the job before the storm.
So, I was already in a bad mood because of all the damage to the home and furniture, and then the pitfalls of home ownership kicked in. While waiting for the second furniture delivery, we noticed it was getting very warm in the house, and it dawned on us that the outside HVAC unit was not running. So, we had an HVAC company come out, and they got it working, only for it to fail again two days later. We were advised on the second visit that they could get it running for now but could not guarantee how long it’d stay working, and once again, a day later, the HVAC unit outside stopped working. So, we decided to take the plunge and replace the system for $8,100. We don’t have $8,100 in our back pockets, so we had to finance it; on top of financing $5,000 worth of furniture, the mortgage, and a consolidation loan.
The HVAC system failure is annoying, as part of the agreement with the sellers was to have the HVAC system serviced. It has now become apparent that the service never happened; it was just inspected and confirmed as working. Even the invoice from the HVAC service company stated all the issues, confirming it as working for now, with no notation of any servicing done. The only plus is that we know we have a brand new system installed, which has a warranty and should be reliable with an annual service.
I have never liked moving home, hence why we spent 11 years in our previous rental home, despite 3 separate owners and some dubious lease agreements. Spending 11 years in one place exacerbated the moving challenges, with the sheer amount of crap we had accrued. A lot of the cleaning of the rental home came down to me; Erin did what she could, but suffering from fibromyalgia and severe Rheumatoid Arthritis limited her ability to help. I’m not in the greatest health myself; I have diabetes and, as an extension, neuropathy in my legs, and I have suffered from back issues going back into childhood.
After 10 days straight of working on the move and getting the rental house ready to hand back, I was physically and mentally broken, and I was days away from going back to work, and I still didn’t have a desk and needed to set up my computer. Suffice it to say that on Monday, June 10, I was not ready to return to work. I worked harder in those 10 days off, than I did in 11 years at my regular job!
It’s now two weeks since we moved in, and everything is still in disarray; we have yet to find places for all the stuff we brought with us, much of which I had hoped to dispose of before the move, but as already mentioned we bit off more than we could chew in such a short timeframe. We should have started weeks earlier; the wrangling with the sellers had dragged on, and we knew the move was coming, but we sat on our hands, so we can only blame ourselves for the situation we currently find ourselves in.
I’m 47 years old, and this is going to be my last move. The only way I will move out of this house is in a pine box. To quote Lethal Weapon’s Roger Murtaugh, “I’m too old for this shit”.
After 47 years of life, we’re finally buying a home!
As we come to the end of another lease year, we have received the renewal offer, and it will be another $150 increase after a $100 increase last year and a $70 increase the year before. Our rent would increase to $1345 if we signed another 12-month lease. Although the house we rent currently is a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom home, it’s in a bad area of town and has structural issues. This has made us look at purchasing a home, and we have been approved for a $200,000 mortgage. we have found a house we like more towards the eastern side of Wichita at a price and mortgage payment that works for us.
The home we have found and had an offer accepted on has 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a fully finished basement, and a 2-car garage. We are purchasing it for $168,000, with the current owners covering up to $7,000 of closing costs. It does have a HOA, which would normally be a deal breaker for me, but in this case, the $150 monthly HOA payment is good value for money; it covers water, trash service, lawn care, and exterior maintenance, which, based upon what we are paying for in our rental home, seems to save us money, we currently pay $75—80 for water, $23 for trash, paid quarterly at $69, and I have to mow my own lawn, which is becoming harder as I get older and my health continues to deteriorate.
My wife, Erin has considerable health issues, and stairs for her is not an option, which is the prime reason we like this particular home; everything Erin and I need is on the main level, which has no steps to enter the home, and the primary bedroom suite is on the main level, along with a second bedroom, which will function as my office as I work from home, and being able to keep my current AT&T 1Gb Fiber internet connection is a bonus, I really do not want to go back to Cox after being lied to by the company.
The basement has a spacious family room, and two further bedrooms, which are much larger than the bedrooms the kids currently have in our current rental home, along with a second full bathroom, so they will have their own bathroom. Overall, the home we are buying has almost 500 extra square feet of living space. The main level is almost like a 1,000 sq. ft. apartment, with a jack and Jill bathroom accessible from the primary bedroom, second bedroom and living room. This home was literally the first one we looked at; and it was perfect for us, in a decent area of town, but of course there was some challenges.
The challenge was that the home was listed as a townhome, which is fine from the point of view of getting a FHA mortgage, but we found out that Sedgwick county has it listed as a condominium, which we cannot purchase with a FHA mortgage. Our Realtor did some research and found out that the legal definition was changed from condominium to townhome in 2022, and we have all the paperwork to prove it.
Our offer was accepted, and we are under contract, we have paid our $1,000 earnest money, kinda like a payment to show we are serious buyers. We have got an inspection scheduled to make sure we are not buying a turkey. And, if the home comes back with a clean bill of health, we start the 30 day closing period, which should allow us to tell our current landlord that we intend to not renew our lease, and move out by May 31, 2024, and enter the world of home ownership, albeit a lot later in life than ideal.
State sponsored car insurance racket, or Progressive policy?
I received an email from Progressive Insurance yesterday evening stating that my son, Conner, would be automatically added to our policy on April 12, 2024. So I called Progressive to tell them not to add him, as he does not drive our vehicles and does not have his own vehicle despite holding a driver’s license.
an email from Progressive InsuranceConner completed driver’s education, which is apparently all you have to do to obtain a full driver’s license in Kansas, which explains why half of these mother fuckers in Kansas can’t drive for shit. Driver’s education consisted of 8 hours of classroom tuition and six hours of on-road tuition; no test is required upon completion of driver’s education. I have seen Conner driving, and it’s dangerous in my view; without another driver to correct him, he does not have the decision-making skills to drive safely. He needs more tuition before being let loose on the road, but the state of Kansas is happy to unleash him.
This sounds like insurance companies have negotiated a deal with the state of Kansas to force parents to have their children on their insurance policies. Of course, because they are new drivers, this adds more than 100% to the price, which has almost doubled since 2020. Currently, we pay $210 per month for Erin and I, with two 14-year-old Ford’s on the policy. Being forced to add Conner will increase our policy to $490 monthly, which is entirely unaffordable, for basically nothing, as he’d not be driving our cars!
Here are the options, pay the extra 133% more cash, have Conner pay $280 from his part-time income, have Conner get his own insurance on a nonexistent car, kick Conner out of the house so he is no longer part of the household, or have him surrender his driver’s license. Or, switch insurance companies to the cheapest liability-only insurance with the maximum deductible possible, or just cancel all insurance and assume the risk of driving uninsured and unregistered, as we cannot renew our tags without insurance.
The logic is that any licensed driver in the household has access to the vehicles registered at the property, and all licensed drivers must be insured. Of course, an unlicensed teen would never take the car without permission, would they? If an adult child takes a car without the parent’s permission and gets in a wreck, the insurance company would have no liability to pay, as that child is not listed on the policy. The child should have the total liability to cover the other driver’s claim and face whatever legal consequences are associated with driving uninsured, including car theft; it’s all about personal responsibility in my mind.
According to the DMV staff, Progressive is lying to policyholders.
Today, a day after the above was written, I called the DMV and asked whether my son, who recently received his license, needs to be added to our insurance simply because he lived with us. The lady who I spoke with said she faced the same issue with Progressive, being forced into paying for insurance, but she switched insurance companies, and the problem went away, which would indicate that Progressive is scamming people, citing nonexistent state laws, based upon what the DMV lady told me.
So, I will hunt for new insurance before April 11 and maybe find a better deal. We have been with Progressive since 2011 and have been happy until now. This is similar to the situation with Cox Communications, whom I was with until they lied to me, so I looked at my options and found AT&T Fiber.
Final Update and resolution
It’s a week later, after many phone calls, I concluded that all insurance companies operating in Kansas force newly qualified drivers onto the homeowner’s policy if they don’t have their own insurance. I called AAA Insurance, The General, and obviously Progressive. The final call was to Geico, and that was the only company that tried to actually sell me insurance and succeeded. I ended up with a policy matching Progressive’s coverage, which includes renter’s insurance for $277, which is about $67 more than the pre-increase price but $213 less than the new Progressive price, and provides coverage for our son.
Adding Conner to the Progressive policy costs more than I will pay for the new Geico insurance. The moral of the story is that in Kansas, don’t allow your kids to get a full driver’s license unless they have moved out or have their own insurance policy, regardless of whether they have a car (joke). We probably could have found the extra $280 in a pinch, but in the long term, that is not sustainable. But, mostly, I didn’t want to pay it; it’s ridiculous to charge 133% more to add a teen driver who won’t be driving our cars.
Approved for a $200k mortgage, but I am unsure if we should take it!
Erin and I have been approved for a $200,000 mortgage, but the payment will be $1,971. This payment worries me because we have existing debt, which I cannot restructure without compromising the mortgage application, leaving us in what I see as a precarious financial position with little wiggle room.
Long story short, our net income is roughly $5,000, and our current debt payments amount to $1,000, so between the mortgage, assuming we buy a home for $200,000 and the other debt payments, that accounts for 60% of our net income. I find myself annoyed and stressed out because I specifically told the loan officer that I planned to consolidate all our credit card payments and existing loans into a single loan, bringing our monthly payment down by 40—45% and making the mortgage more affordable.
Now that we are applying, I cannot make any changes to our debt structure, something that I wish the loan officer had told us before we paid her $150 for credit checks. We cannot realistically proceed with losing 60% of our net income to debt payments, leaving us just $2,000 for everything else, including contingency for issues with the home, which we will be on the hook for being a homeowner.
Our loan and credit card debt totals almost $28,000; and over 360 months, we will pay $710,000 in mortgage fees. If I live that long, I will be at the ripe old age of 77 when the mortgage is paid off. And because house prices are inflated right now, I am concerned we will end up losing money even if we sell
Miss Annie, our realtor and a family friend, looked over the mortgage company’s fee worksheet and said there were excessive fees. She suggested that we look at other options, as she thinks we can do better. I am inclined to do this, but after some financial restructuring, I feel it is necessary to put ourselves in a better position to move forward with buying a home without increasing our overall credit card debt.
Of course, if we can limit our mortgage to $150,000, our payment will be $1,560, which will be only $205 more than our rent from June 2024. This rent increase is one of the main incentives to move, either renting elsewhere or buying a home. When we moved into this ghetto-adjacent house in 2013, rent was only $800, and in the past 3 years, under the third owner in 11 years, despite many deferred maintenance issues, rent has increased by over $450, which I am not willing to pay to live in this area.
None of this is urgent; we have two months before we have to renew our lease, and we can sign a month-to-month lease for just $10/month extra to allow us time to make our choice, whether it’s a different rental home or buying a home; it has to be this year though, we don’t want to be in this house in 2025.
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