busybee fluffy rambles

Disability

I finally got the first rejection from Social Security. It’s not unexpected, given the process so far and everything I’ve heard. I havent received the detailed denial reason just yet but I assume it’s due to the crappy and inaccurate way that they tried assessing my ADHD a couple weeks back.

I’m trying to find a good disability lawyer to work with for the next steps. I reached out to one law firm by a web submission form and that’s led them to send me about a dozen texts, emails, and voicemails throughout the day today (each from a different customer service person each with a different incomprehensible accent) so I’m thinking they’re not someone I want to work with. Hopefully I can find someone local and trustworthy.

Bathroom

Got the third plumber estimate today. As usual this project took three tries to get one:

• The first one was vague and dismissive about the problem and downplayed my concerns, and gave me a stupidly low estimate for a lack of work
• The second one had a pretty clear and comprehensive idea about what to do but then the estimated cost was high and all-inclusive, and didn’t include an itemization for the actual work to be done
• The third one gave me a realistic estimate for the work that definitely has to happen, and then a second estimate for a potential second set of work. The total estimate for both things was still way less than the second one

So anyway I went with the third one, and after that I’ll need to find someone to retile the wall. Hopefully that won’t be too expensive.

Fireplace

They were able to schedule my fireplace work for tomorrow, amazingly enough.

I chatted with my neighbor about this (and the plumbing stuff) and he was surprised that I needed some work done because “Didn’t you just have the fireplace redone a few years ago?” because he was once again confusing me with the previous owner of this home, and every single thing she had done she went to the absolute lowest bidder, leaving me with having to redo stuff all over again. But to be somewhat fair she was dying of cancer and just wanted her house to be minimally livable for her remaining years.

Anyway I guess I should get some fireplace tools. They seem to be surprisingly difficult to source nearby. None of the usual suspects (Target, Home Depot, Wal-Mart) seem to even carry them in-store. I guess they’re not a thing that most people ever need to buy more than once.

I’ve never actually owned a home with a fireplace before (although my family house had one growing up). I’m weirdly kind of excited about this.

Decluttering

I finally found someone who wanted my goddamn couch, so that’s gonna get picked up sometime tomorrow. Yay!

I also found someone who wants my mostly-unused resin printer, and that’s gonna get picked up sometime tomorrow. Yay!

Hopefully those don’t all end up happening at the same time! Especially since the fireplace workers are probably going to be blocking my driveway!

Commerce

I finished my first production run of my Timemore Sculptor 54mm catch cups.

I still need to do photography of my many urchin pots. My plan is to make them all separate variations each with a different name for “adoption” purposes, but I don’t think Etsy lets me do more than 10 images per item and I definitely have more than 10 versions. So much for Etsy making things easier and justifying the listing fees. Maybe I could get away with stacking multiples into a single image, or splitting things into separate listings, but that really impacts the customer UX.

But it looks like those are the only options. Unfortunate.

If only someone had written an article about these things.

Food

I managed to almost completely clear out my Crowd Cow backlog. I also seem to have run out of all my other usual fresh ingredients. For some reason I’m having a hard time thinking about what to put onto a shopping list.