bureaucracy and medical devices and rain

You might remember that I spent about two weeks last February filling out the application and submitting it and all the supporting documents which amounted to over 80 pages for the Texas Land Office's Homeowner Reimbursement Program for damage from Hurricane Harvey. Well, last week I was finally contacted about my application and a meeting was set up for me at 2 PM Monday a week ago for the second phase. I was told to bring the five documents that proved my identity, ownership, residency, income, and any monies already received even though I had already submitted those documents. I arrived at two to find there were three appointments made for 2 PM with only two representatives available so being the last to arrive I had to wait about 45 minutes til they could get to me. I handed her the documents and she asked me if I had anything that proved I was living in the house at the time of the flood, my driver's license and voter registration not being sufficient since I could have had a change of address between then and now, she says, even though these were acceptable when I first turned in my application and I have no idea what would suffice). She took them but said they might question it later though when I got home I saw that my driver's license has an 'issued on' date on it that precedes Harvey and obviously FEMA was satisfied on that account. Then she asked me how many invoices I had (42) and how many I wanted reimbursed (all of them minus the money I had already received from FEMA). Then I had to sign all the releases again that I had already signed when I first submitted the application. Then she tells me that I should hear from them in about another month for the third phase (second phase being this meeting and first phase the initial application).

What's the third phase, I asked.

Submitting the invoices, she answered.

You mean the invoices I already submitted?

Yes.

If I'm doing all this again, what the fuck was the point of the 2 hours I spent in their office in February transferring the application from paper to on-line and submitting all these documents? I think I'll go over all the invoices and receipts and select ones that add up to what I spent after the FEMA money was used up in case those are just the ones they want. I know how much it came to because I already added it all up.

It's a good thing I'm spry and limber with all these fucking hoops they keep making me jump through. 

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Sunday was two down and one to go in my three weeks of wearing this monitor. When it arrived I stomped around for two days because it was not the one they told me I would get but I finally pulled up my big girl panties and attached all the electrodes and for the first week and a half I was proud of myself for being a big girl. Now? 

I am totally over this fucking thing and ready to be done with it. 

I mastered sleeping with it after the first couple of nights by wearing a tight undershirt and tucking the battery pack under my pillow where it's out of the way. I have to replace the electrode patches every three days and after the second set I had welts and raw spots from them and called the company to have them send me the non-allergic electrode patches. I managed to get the third set on relatively unaffected skin while I waited for the new ones which arrived in time for the fourth set. I'm still having episodes with an occasional day free and they seem even less severe for the most part so I'm hoping that when I finally do see the electrophysiologist he's going to just pat me on the back, tell me it's not that bad, you can live with this, keep taking the medication, and send me on my way.

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Last Friday a week ago we got 2 1/2” of rain. The following Tuesday we got another 1 1/2”. Last Thursday evening a large system of waves of thunderstorms and heavy rain passed through and finally let up around 9AM Friday  giving us 4" and we got another nearly 1 1/2” Saturday. That's almost 9 1/2” in 9 days and we didn't even get the worst of it. North and east of us got pounded and flooded. We're getting a break today but they're predicting more rain for next Tuesday and Wednesday. The storm Thursday night brought in much cooler temperatures and it was downright chilly and very pleasant today and would be perfect for working out in the yard if it wasn't so wet and the dirt sticky mud. I did pull out all the poppies in the back flower bed since after the pounding Thursday night whatever seed pods that were left and the dead plants themselves were pounded into ground and mostly turned to mush. The remaining flowers on the larkspur were also pretty much done in but I've left the plants til they go completely to seed. Most of the clasping leaved coneflowers too. Things are going to look pretty bare until the summer bloomers really get started up. More zinnias will go where the poppies were but the seedlings aren't ready to transplant yet.

We're having intermittent sun today and seeing as how it's Mother's Day I'm going to be just as lazy today as I've been all last week but come Monday I'm once again swearing off social media and see if I can't get started on some art work, at least cleaning off my work tables and getting organized. Well, after the kittens get settled in. On second thought, make that Tuesday.

a tree died for this

note – wrote this yesterday/Monday

I finally got my application with all the documentation completed today. I had 99% done by 11 PM last night, went to the Wharton Recovery Office this morning after breakfast to ask my final questions and there were 9 people on the list ahead of me with #2 and #3 in the little office being helped. The guy I was sitting next to had a stack of papers twice as thick as mine at least and he informed me that it would take two hours at least per person. A quick calculation of 6 X 2 was 12 hours minimum so no fucking way was I getting in today just to ask a few questions. These people were all there to get help filling out the application. I went to my car, made a phone call, got my answers and headed home after I scratched my name off the list where I got the last things filled in and organized and all my account numbers blacked out. Tomorrow I head into Sugar Land to the nearest office to hand in my application because the office in Wharton is only available Mondays and Fridays.

this baby is 89 pages and 1/2” thick and I only had four rooms that were worked on

Yesterday morning I hauled all the plants outside that were wintering over in the back bedroom 

and the garage and gave them all a good watering and today they all look much happier. I'd like to say they are happier because they're getting some direct sun but no, sunny days are scarce. All we get is overcast and fog and rain. This morning I caught two four anoles in the bedroom that came in with the plants but didn't leave with them. I'm sure they're much happier too as it was far too easy to catch them.

Last week the Monday low was 29˚. It got up to 80˚ today but the rest of the week will be in the 70s and 60s for daytime highs. Now that I'm not up to my eyeballs in paperwork I'm noticing all the springy stuff going on. Everything is putting its spring green finery on. The indian paintbrush is starting to fill out in the fields, my other absent neighbor's redbuds have finally started to bloom, even the bluebonnets are looking better with the white spots turning red but now I'm not so sure it's because they were fertilized or because the pollen got old as Shoreacres explained but I have seen a few bees.

hard to get a picture of anything that isn't wet

Today's addition...

Ugh. Overcast, foggy and drippy. Again. But now that the days are warmer the frogs are definitely digging it.