21 September 2006

If this keeps up I'm going to have to write a country song

Things which have been happening to me lately have just been unbelievable.

1 - Shortly before I move I start storing stuff in the car and someone breaks into it, stealing all my portable eletronics: digital camera, digital video camera, music/video player (to a value of about $1,500 - $2,000).

2 - I don't see a penny of the money which the Virginia Supreme Court owes me for my last few weeks of indigent defense work for over three weeks - after having budgeted it in as necessary for the move.

3 - The local post office doesn't deliver my mail - including all my forwarded mail - to box on the street marked "15" (my address); it delivers it to the box in my neighbors' yard which has a 25 on its side. After a couple visits to the post office I'm finally told where my mail is and when I walk around to the front of that there is "15 Pitcairn Br" (my address) written on a piece of tape and 2 1/2 weeks of mail is inside.

4 - Of course, included in the forwarded letters is a bar complaint from one of my loving former clients. It's been sitting in the box for about two weeks and the answer is already past due.

5 - I drive to Pikeville, Kentucky to go to the only sports bar I can find in any of the local communities in order to watch the Bengals. I get there five minutes after the game has started and discover that the sports bar is closed on Sunday.

6 - Someone shot my cat yesterday. Behind my house is a mountain, on the other side of the road is a mountain, to the right is a large field, to the left is a house whose owners are rarely home, further to the left is a guy who feeds all the local stray cats (maybe 20 or so). So, I know my neighbors didn't do this. That means somebody was driving down the road, saw a cat - with a collar, no less - and decided to take a shot at him.

7. When I try to use my credit/debit card to pay the vet this morning it didn't work. I call my bank and find out that someone has stolen my card number and has been trying to buy all sorts of junk on the internet. The account is canceled. This should make life all sorts of interesting since the closest branch of my bank is a hour plus away, closes at 4 most days, my checks all have my old address (figure the odds of cashing one), and all but $25 of my pocket money went to the vet.

It's a good thing I like the new job and people here 'cuz otherwise I'd write that country song and sing it backward.

5 comments:

Windypundit said...

Jesus, man, that's tough. But it leaves a burning question: Since you have a vet bill, I assume the cat survived? How's he/she doing?

Ken Lammers said...

The cat is spending the next three days at the vets. I thought he'd been attacked by a dog. However, what I thought were upper and lower canine tooth gouges were apparently entry and exit wounds. The vet said it was too deep to be a bite wound and the cat was lucky in that it only went through skin and muscle.

I got home last night and fed the cats and dogs, per normal. He would not come to eat. Later, he came in the house and went off to hide in the closet. I could see he had some hair missing and a little blood, but I just thought he had been in a cat fight with one of the big stray toms down the way. I couldn't tell further because he wouldn't let me get close.

About 11:30 he came into my bedroom and sat in a corner. I got up and looked and saw that the wounds were pretty bad. No bleeding by then but open holes through the skin. I cleaned it as best I could and wrapped him in a blanket. He didn't move all night. When he woke up in the morning he started walking around and actually seemed to be feeling better. Still, there was no way that he wasn't going to the vet with one big open wound and a smaller one. By the time we got to the vets he was getting a lot more active. He escaped from the carrying case and jumped into the parking lot running under my car and the one next over a couple times until I could coax him out and put him back in the case.

I think he's going to be okay. He's just going to have a heck of a scar.

123txpublicdefender123 said...

I'd say this was all karma for becoming a prosecutor, but that'd just be mean. Seriously, you have my sympathy. I hope your cat gets better, and that things take a turn for the better ASAP.

Ken Lammers said...

On the contrary, the new office has been the one upside of it all. Good people all around and the local Bar seems to be filled with decent sorts.

Most of the problems are traceable to where I'm living (Kentucky) except the card number theft. I think that happened in Cincinnati when I was visiting my parents. So, basically, any bad karma can be traced to leaving Virginia. I think I might move back when my lease is up.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about your trouble, Ken. I'm sure things will get better there as soon as you get to know your neighbors in Green Acres.