(no subject)

Well, I had a 2-week followup with my doctor yesterday, and my lung capacity is back up to where is should be (thank the gods), but I still have some kind of infection. We're not sure if this is the lingering remnants of what I had before, or if something opportunistic took up residence while my immune system was recovering, but the doc gave me about $100 worth of samples of a kick-ass strong antibiotic. Hopefully that'll take care of whatever the hell this is for good. Still tired, though, which is getting *really* old.

Now I'm just waiting for a good, hard freeze to kill off all the bugs and ragweed, and then maybe I'll actually be able to breathe at night. A boy can dream, can't he?

(no subject)

I'm actually trembling with restrained rage while I type this.

Tonight, my mother and sister were helping me move some furniture from the house to my apartment in my parents' van. It's about 8:45, and since the porch lights outside my building are burnt out, it's pretty damn dark right outside my apartment. Mom parks the van by the curb right in front of my apartment door (literally less than 10 feet) and we start hauling stuff into the apartment. Once inside, we spend a few minutes putting shit back together, and when Mom and sis go back outside to drive home... the van's fucking MISSING!!!!

Keep in mind that it's now 9:00 PM according to my watch. This will be important in a moment.

Since I doubt that anyone would have bothered to steal the van (it's pretty crapped out and totally not worth stealing), I suspect that it's been towed. HOWEVER. I have never seen any "unauthorized vehicles will be towed blahblahblah" signs anywhere on the complex grounds, and when I walk out and check the entry gate to make absolutely sure, I can't find any there either. So I call the complex's overnight service and ask them if they contract with a tow service, and if so, who is it. The lady who spoke with me (who was very nice about the whole thing) told me that she wasn't sure, but gave me the number of a tow yard that she thought might be contracted by The Shores.

So I call this auto yard, and sure enough, they've got the van. I'm already steamed, and I ask as politely ask I can when it was picked up. 8:57 PM 8:57 FUCKING PM! Again, as politely as I can (which isn't very at the moment), I tell the dispatcher that I consider this an illegal tow since the vehicle was on the property at the desire of a resident, there are no signs warning residents or visitors that their vehicles may be subject to towing, and that the truck driver made no effort to alert us. (Yes, I know that last one is absolute crap, but I was well on my way to nonsensical with rage at this point.) I also tell her that unless they bring the van back immediately, I will file complaints with the apartment complex managers, the Better Business Bureau, and the City of Arlington on the basis of an illegal tow. She tells me that there's nothing she can do, and there aren't any managers on duty at the moment. (It's a Saturday night. Of course there isn't anyone with authority available) She tells me that the best she can do at the moment is to transfer me to the senior dispatcher on duty, and she proceeds to put me on hold. For what seems like 5 minutes.

Once I finally get the senior dispatcher, she tells me that they towed the van because it was in a fire lane. I call bullshit on this, because even IF this is true, you can't tell because of the bad lighting. She tells me that if a fire truck came through, they would have towed the vehicle anyway, to which I reply "And I would complain to the city that you can't tell it's a fire lane." She then tells me that according to the digital photos and video that the driver submitted when he dropped off the van, you can clearly see that it's a fire lane. To which I reply "And he used a flash when he took the pictures, didn't he. I already told you that the ambient lighting made it impossible to see that!"

She won't give it up, so I finally get the address of the auto lot from her. It's in east Fort Worth, and according to Mapquest, is about 10 miles away. They only take cash, exact change only, no change given. Sound familiar?

EDIT: Mom just called my cell and told me that the current charge is $190, but neither she, my dad, nor myself have ATM cards or debit cards, so unless we can scrape up the cash tonight from various sources including the office's petty cash, we won't get the van out until Monday, with an additional 2 days worth of "storage fees". Shit. I'm donating the $7 folding I have as well as the $22 I have in Sacajawea dollars, my parents have about $50 between them, and my sis is seeing how much she can contribute. It looks like, unless the office's cashbox has more than $100 in it, we're screwed. Shit shit shit.

2nd EDIT: Mom just called again & apparently there was enough in the cashbox to cover the impound fee, so they won't need my contribution after all. Still, what a shitty way to end the night.