Cursed?

On By Scott HolstadIn personal

Weird things have been happening to my mother and to us over the past few months. Check it out.

Mom had her taxes done. She owed over $10,000 in taxes! Never owed anything like that in her life. She lives on Social Security, for God’s sake! She wasn’t real happy about that. Then, last week, she backed her car through her garage door and had to have a new garage door put in. To make matters worse, last week she also fell on her driveway and broke her wrist and cut up her arm pretty bad, necessitating stitches. She also thought she had gotten a concussion, but it doesn’t look like it. She’s having a hard time with this, just in terms of getting dressed, etc. Then yesterday, she was sitting in her living room when her neighbor was having a tree cut down and those assholes cut the tree so that it fell right on to her roof! It cut a hole in her roof, knocked down her gutter, and demolished her patio furniture. Sounds like a curse to me….

Then there’s us. I keep having severe insomnia problems. Yesterday morning, I was up at 1:30. This morning, it was 2:30. It gets very tiring. I also still have my head pain. The medication I take for it is only doing a so so job. I’m a little disappointed, especially since we doubled the dose in the hopes of improving its effectiveness. Of course, we got hit with our own tax burden a few months ago. That was an unpleasant surprise. Then there was the Obamacare disaster, when they claimed we hadn’t provided them with requested info — which they had never requested — so they were eliminating various tax subsidies and raising our premiums. They also switched policies on us without telling us, putting us from a no deductible policy to a high deductible policy. Gee, thanks. By this point, however, I was already on Medicare, so I dropped out. But Medicare has its own costs, especially the Part D prescription costs. Last month, I spent over $2,000 on prescriptions! And I don’t have it to spend on that. Then there was the major expense of having a huge dead tree in the back yard cut down, as it was leaning over the house and we were worried it would collapse and demolish the house at any time. That was $2,700. And finally there was this disaster of this past weekend with our worry about the government sticking it to us about the assistance we had received formerly and our now having to pay them back over the next five years. It all really, really sucks.

So do we and Mom need exorcisms? Mom’s a Bible thumper and gets her houses blessed when she moves into them, so I wouldn’t think so with her. I guess these are just unpleasant parts of life. Curses? Probably not, although it sometimes seems that way. I would, however, like to know when life is going to ease up on us. It’s been hard going lately.

10 thoughts on “Cursed?”

  1. Humor_Me_Now

    Scott!!! I would feel cursed as well!! This is not good and no platitudes are going to help.

    It seems like you are taking the practical approach and just dealing with it, but I am sure finances have to be hurting.

    Bummer.

    Said a prayer for you and your mom.

    frank

    Liked by 1 person

  2. kamikazezealot

    HOLY CRAP!!!
    I’m so glad the tree didn’t fall right on your mom though. There’s the small blessing in that. And that she’s okay after the garage door incident.
    I can’t offer much in the way of ideas, but there’s this? – My grandmother paid very little in the way of medications (and boy she had a crap ton of them!) by doing the AARP thing alongside her medicare. They’ve got different prescription plans for different medicare parts, so there’s a lot of reading involved. Insomnia… I’d check if the ingredients in Sleepytime tea would be okay to ingest while on your meds, or if you’re allergic to any of the ingredients. It’s like chamomile, but with a crap ton more sleepy and relaxing power to it (valerian will do that to people!) If nothing else, it may help relax you a bit with all the stress you’re under.
    Does your mom have a business or a job outside of her social security benefits? It was my understanding that individuals who collect social security are not required to file taxes. (My husband is on SSI Disability and is not required to file. It may be different for the other types of social security benefits though so I can’t be sure about those.)
    As for being cursed – aka all the bad crap happening – sometimes it does help to do another house blessing, or whatever you feel is necessary for peace of mind. My mother-in-law calls it the Positive Placebo Effect, meaning it may or may not work, but it helps to ease the person themselves, if only for just a little while. And hey, it’s another thing you can rule out and say “Well, I HAVE tried EVERYTHING.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Yeah, I guess Mom is actually lucky.

      I’m in AARP, but according to my research, I wouldn’t really gain any substantial savings through them. I take some unusual and expensive meds.

      Insomnia. I do drink Sleepytime tea quite often. The problem, however, is not in getting to sleep. I can do that just fine. I take various prescription sleeping pills and other sleep aids. I just can’t stay asleep more than about three hours. Nothing helps.

      Mom is 85 and hasn’t worked for years, so no job. She just didn’t know she had to save out tax money for her social security — which is taxed — and got screwed by it. Also by a small pension, which she didn’t save out tax money for. I’m on disability and I save out money every month for taxes. I was told to by the Social Security feds and state officials.

      Thanks for all the great ideas and advice. Perhaps another house blessing would help Mom. I might suggest it. Cheers!

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Wow. 😦 That’s a lot. TOO much. 😦
    It seems “when it rains, it pours” is true.
    You two, and your Mom are in my prayers.
    I don’t know if that helps. But, I do care and hope some good things happen for you soon.
    (((HUGS)))

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  5. If it isn’t one thing, it’s another, and in this case it’s one thing right after another.I feel your stress. There’s hardly any breathing room. I will continue to pray it all gets better soon for you and your family.

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