A seething mass of turgid drama.

Our home internet vanished yesterday, conveniently after phone reps left the office. We ran automated tests and they told us it had been shut off for non-payment.

Which was BS, because the account is linked to a (valid) credit card. The wife called in today, prepared to argue and present proof, and was told that we needed a new modem. Which is less stupid, but less convenient because it can't just be switched back on. A new modem is ordered and is supposed to arrive tomorrow evening (again, conveniently after phone rep hours).

I'll have to go into the office so I can work. Which is not the worst thing ever, but.

I am seriously considering a step I really didn't want to take: getting a second streaming service.
I hate hate hate duplicating what we're paying for and it feels like a scam/waste. But... we have Netflix. We dropped their DVD service because they haven't bought new DVDs in five-plus years and we ran out. Now we're running out of streaming things to watch. We've tried a number of new series, but most of them we've stopped after an episode or two. There just isn't much in the queue.

I'm looking at Acorn, because there are a lot of British series that we haven't been able to get even on PBS. That would probably give us a year with Netflix as a supplement.

We took advantage of our tax refund to order a new mattress back in December. (Our current one is also ~20 years old and the wife has wanted a new one for at least 10.) For various reasons it was delayed... and now it is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow morning.

Which is also when the washing machine is scheduled for delivery.

(The only real upside is that they will use separate entrances - at least they won't conflict there. But I suspect we'll have dueling delivery trucks in front.)

Our washing machine is stuck. We've had this problem a few times, most recently about a year ago when we had to get a tech to repair it. Based off our conversation with a tech this time, I think we're looking at replacing them - they are between 15 and 20 years old.

Not what we were budgeting for, but there it is. Entropy wins again.

Y'know how I said the car was apparently in great mechanical shape? Tuesday, as I was driving in to work, the car started jerking a bit while driving. Kind of like a horse that can't stay still. We took it back in and the diagnosis was "injector misfires". It's going to be $1000 because they have to pull the entire engine out to get at them. The mechanic has been trustworthy in the past so we believe that he's not marking us up.

But plans for getting a new car have accelerated. (You see what I did there.)

In random milestone news, as of this month we have paid off 2/3 of our mortgage.

As I briefly mentioned on FB, we took Galen to the emergency vet Friday night. We got there around 8 and had to wait a couple hours before anyone was available. (While Galen was not in great shape, this wasn't an actual emergency so there was no sense in trying to jump the queue.) Then we had to wait longer for his blood test and to discuss the recommendations. All in all, we didn't get home until after 1 AM... and I had been awake since 3 AM the previous morning. I've been feeling that all weekend.

Anyway, the tests showed he was - not surprisingly - having kidney failure. (The last time we had to take him in with a UTI and kidney infection he lost some kidney function.) His red blood cell count was down enough that the vet said most cats wouldn't be functioning... but Galen hates being at the vet enough that they had to sedate him for the test. As the wife said, they had to sedate him to find out that he should be comatose. That feistiness was one way we determined that he wasn't ready to go yet. [Apparently if a vet tech was anywhere near his cage he would swat at her through the bars. Even if it was to check on the dog below.]

We declined the most aggressive treatment: ultrasound, extended hospital stay, etc. Not because of the cost (although that was going to be even more expensive than what we had already committed to) but because we didn't think it would improve his quality of life. The four-day visit last time took him a month to recover from, and sadly but honestly - Galen is in the twilight of his years. It didn't seem worthwhile to put him through that just for a few additional months. So we were able to bring him home Saturday night after he got subcutaneous fluids and a blood transfusion, among other things.

We have a bunch of meds to administer for a while. The cat has a shaved bracelet on his front leg and is clingy and complainy. But we will have some more time with him, and that's what's most important.

ETA: If and when he stops fighting, that's when we'll know it's time. Otherwise, we will treasure however long we have, and try to (comfortably) make that as long as possible.

I've talked about this in bits and pieces on the Book of Faces, but apparently never here. (That probably has more to do with wanting to share pictures.) The process also spurred me to create the "landed poor" tag for housing-related posts.
( The entry went much longer and more introspective than I anticipated )
This has been a much bigger investment of time and money than we planned. But I feel really good about what we're accomplishing.

I should be able to pick up the car today. It's about as expensive as I feared - they fixed a combination of things. The main being the fuel injection misfire, but also replacing the rear brakes and a couple other more minor issues.

This is the first serious maintenance we've had in a while. I'm afraid the car is approaching the point of needing it more often as we rack up the miles and years. (155k I think, and 15 years) We probably have to start thinking about a new vehicle for next year. I put on 9k miles over the last three years doing official exchequer travel...