Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Thanksgiving


Hi Everyone,

It has been a while since my last post because 1) not much has happened, and 2) I haven't been, as they say, 'feeling it' lately.

Let me explain: Like most everyone else, hubby and I have been affected by the great recession of 2008. Not only did hubby lose his business and better than half our income, we lost about 35-40% of our savings, which was in the form of mutual funds. And, also like a lot of folks, we are upside down in our mortgage.

We've been trying to get refinanced since November 2009 when President Obama created the Making Home Affordable Program to help homeowners (like us) who are 'under water' with our mortgages. Although our loan is through ABN AMRO, it is serviced by CitiMortgage. Suffice it to say that we did everything we could to satisfy Citi's requirements, yet we were denied six months later because we put our tax return (the first one in 20 years!) in our savings account.

Okay... so then they put us in their "Workable Solutions" program. Although we were miffed about being disqualified for the HAMP, we were okay with filing for the in-house program. However, Citi is, apparently, inundated with refinance requests and just as inundated with incompetent people who lose or misplace documents, jump to conclusions concerning our interest (because they could not reach us via phone? In the middle of July?), and give us wrong phone or fax numbers causing a lot of confusion and misplaced documents (they have done all these things). Also, it seemed as though they were using a script when they spoke with us. They would put us off, patronize us, and apologize to us--all while being very polite, of course, but very effective in delaying the process.

We hired the Krup Law Gruop out of Newport Beach to help us. It cost us some money, but hey, they are attorneys, right? Surely they could work some miracles, or at least get someone's ear and help to make us a deal, right?

Wrong.

We were denied for the HAMP for a second time (this, although the folks at Citi said we were eligible in November 2009). So we again started in the "Workable Solutions" program on September 28. We are still waiting for a negotiator to be assigned, and it is December 8, 2010 as I write this.

Now I worry if we're being scammed by our attorneys who advertise that they specialize in home loan remodifications. They've been in business for 37 years with zero complaints--at least that's what their website says. I checked it through the California Bar Association, and they're legit. But still I wonder...

I'm bummed. This whole thing has put a real damper on my holiday spirit. But I do have a backup plan. I am not moving. I am not giving up ONE thing. Nothing. Nada.

However, since Thanksgiving, I have been doing a lot of reflecting on things in general.

There are a lot of folks who have lost their jobs, their homes, and/or their health. Fortunately, I am not one of them. Hubby was 'ready' for retirement when he lost his business--we just weren't fully prepared for that event. We are still in our home and we will remain here. And lately, I had a couple of health scares, but tests showed that I was, indeed, healthy. So even though it seems as though we've been paddling upstream, things are basically okay. I can't really complain.

Hubby is finally healthy again, after getting all his medications sorted out. He was having some trouble earlier this year, but he is doing everything he used to do--golf, walking the dog, puttering around the house, etc. So I am very thankful that he is doing so well. After he lost the business, his health started to spiral downward. Now two years later, after several procedures, a pacemaker, and some new medications, he's like 'new' again!

One thing I am enormously thankful for is the fact that my friend and sister, Raymona, has been blessed with a great new job. It is the kind of job one would hope for, with career opportunities, upward mobility, and benefits. Thank goodness for friends, because it was through a friend who was able to extend the opportunity to Raymona. She will start working as a laboratory technician trainee at the end of the month! Yay! Congrats, Raymona, you deserve it!

Then there's my wonderful mare, Beauty. Her proclivity to crippling laminitis has been controlled through her diet. She is taking a few supplements (5,000 units of Vitamin E, a pro-biotic, an anti-inflammatory, and thyroid medication). She eats a half flake of soaked hay every night, otherwise her diet consists of about 12 pounds of LMF Complete (a nonstructural carbohydrate for horses who cannot handle the carbs). She's also lost about 120 pounds. She looks like a lean, mean, equine machine.

That is, until a few days ago.

Somehow, her exuberance in the round pen resulted in an injury to her right front heel--probably an overreach after slipping in the mud. Poor baby. She's having trouble walking, but at least I know it will heal eventually.

And there are my kitties. Littlebit had a severe cough for over 3 weeks when I decided to take her to the vet. He reminded me that she has some kind of asthma (I forgot because it only happens around this time of the year) and so gave her both an antibiotic and cortisone. She's all better now. All my 'babies' are just fine, too. I am very thankful for that.

Then there's Cricket, the barn cat. I don't know if she'll ever fill out completely, but there's a bulge now where there were only ribs before. Jan and I took her to the vet for a check-up and he said she was in pretty good shape, except for the herpes virus in her eyes (not contagious to humans). She has a skin allergy (probably fleas), so he gave her a cortisone shot, a worm pill to get rid of any tapeworms, and an application of Frontline to control fleas. We started Project Cricket on October 21 and it has only been within the last few days that she has been eating only one can of Friskies in the morning and one in the evening. For a while, she was putting away twice that amount, and sometimes more! Maybe she is starting to level out. In any case, she's doing very well. And I am very thankful for that.

However, there are a lot of things going on in our world that I am truly unhappy about, especially the animal abuse... the destruction of habitat, killing of our wildlife, many of which are endangered, the treatment of our farm animals, etc. I used to be able to give something to the various humane groups and organizations, but this year we are counting our pennies and trying to hang on to what we have. This makes me sad. But I am thankful that there are others out there who also hold dear other, non-human creatures.
This is my last post for the year. See y'all next January!
Have a very Merry Christmas and a safe, happy, and prosperous New Year!



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