Good homes needed, but where to post?

[Tina]

Hope all is well. I really feel for you, it would break my heart to give up all the rocks and fossils I've collected over the years.

I'd happily pay for a mystery box but postage to France May be a bit steep. I hope you find good homes for all those you can't keep.

[Snakeadelic]

For those following the neighbor-induced drama, there is news!

The toxic nightmare downstairs may have won the "I don't have to use unscented laundry treatments because someone who can't get away from my dryer exhaust is allergic" battle, but she has officially lost the war!!!

When the head of the Adult Case Management department of the county's mental health facility showed up in my landlady's office to inquire as to why the disabled clients were NOT being protected while the elderly, mobility-impaired smoker who has at least a dozen "noise from a non-tenant" complaints in her file got to have her own way, the corporate jerks the on-site manager reports to suddenly changed their tune DRASTICALLY.  Under the heading of "Reasonable Accommodation/Modification", the (so many unladylike words go here) downstairs has NO CHOICE about the fact that sometime in the next week or so an external shunt will be bolted to the outside of the building to force her dryer exhaust southward--away from my front door and the stairs leading to it, and giving me a 95% safe option to get into my apartment when she does laundry.  Man, she is SO MAD about it!  I do not understand people like her--exactly nothing about how she handles her day-to-day life will change; she's only pissed because it's not 100% HER WAY.  I really hope she tries to snark nastiness at the maintenance crew who will be handling the installation--our head fix-it honcho will be quite happy to remind her that if she had only shown ANY willingness to behave as if the life of someone not related to her mattered, none of this would be needed!

Rocks will still be getting shipped out just as soon as I can!  I do have too many, but there are some I won't part with :).  And France might not be too far away for a few small specimen-quality bits and bobs; I sent Magic the Gathering cards to Iceland without too much hassle.  If there's a specific type of stone you're interested in, Tina, let me know--I might have some I can afford to send.

[Redwilder]

If you have large amounts that you need to unload fast, I am sure that someone in my club...The Spokane Rock Rollers....could drive your way to pick them up. We are always looking for material for our silent auction at our gem show in march and at our monthly meetings. I would come over myself right now since I am a certified Rock-O-holic, but I am working an absolutely insane amount of overtime to fund a five week vacation coming up in a couple of weeks to go to Australia and Hawaii....plus funds for my summer rockhouding trips all across the pacific northwest

[Snakeadelic]

First, I'd like to say:

I have not forgotten y'all!

The bad news:  in addition to the allergy problem (solution is under way but slowly), I've developed a new health issue that may require both minor AND major surgery in the very near future.  My family life's also gone kind of crazy, but thankfully the craziest parts are in another time zone and not mine to solve.

The good news:  I have 3 medium flat-rate Priority boxes loaded with a combination of stones I hope will cut well and small fun specimen stuff that could be tumbled or just sit on a shelf looking pretty.  I hope to get another 2 boxes loaded by midweek, though my incredibly grouchy lumbar region would like me to be careful about how fast I'm slinging cobbles.

Redwilder, speed isn't the biggest concern, but if someone wanted to drive all the way here they'd be able to cherry-pick from my 'outbound' stock, which has both lapidary and specimen material--lots of granite, jasper, rhyolite, quartzite, and "green rocks from Biggs Junction" in that mess, plus things I haven't had a chance to get IDd yet.  There does exist a possibility that if Lookout Pass is clear enough, I might be able to meet some Rock Rollers halfway--and I'm always thrilled to get to meet other rockhounds!  Just for the love of whatever you love, DO NOT pick up any cone shells you find while on beaches while you're on vacation!!! ;)

Just a few days ago, while conducting some medical business, I discovered that someone I may be working with in a provider-client relationship (in which I'll be the client) has property up near Skalkaho Pass!  They seemed delighted by the fact that I IDd the bulk of the shop decor as having been bought from Skullis, and I had to restrain myself from trying to lick the display cabinet door when I realized there were several gorgeous quartz clusters from said Skalkaho property in there...

[Snakeadelic]

Time for a less cheerful update.

Cannot do anything about the downstairs neighbor laundry problem.  She has demonstrated VERY clearly that she will change nothing AND is now blaming me because she "never gets to see her family any more".  Did I ever mention that unlike me, she can drive?  Two different management teams have tried to get her to tell them why all her family time HAS to be in a 650-ish square foot apartment instead of wherever the sacred kidlet lives.  She responds by refusing to speak AT ALL.

Another neighbor has offered to sell anything short of his truck and Harley to fund moving the downstairs neighbor to a different unit.  She will not consider the idea.  Management has asked her at least twice since Christmas to stop poisoning me.  She did laundry this past Sunday (while the non-tenant problem child ran laps and slammed doors for three and a half solid hours) and somehow I was not surprised that she'd put in a new dryer treatment whatever so strong I had to wrap a scarf around my face twice and am now having eye problems due to allergen exposure.

The modification to the dryer venting cannot be done.  The contractor insists there is no way to use external piping--he would have to take her dryer exhaust down through the floor, run it under the widest part of her unit (kitchen, dining, master bedroom) and bring it back up at the east wall of the building.  He doesn't want the job, and the property owners don't want him to do the job, because the fire risk might render the entire building uninsurable.

There is nowhere safe to move to.  The menfolk who want so much just to help me out with ANYTHING have to stay here until autumn because neither can afford the lease-breaking penalties.  I can be made exempt from such penalties because we already have a letter from my MD stating that if my exposure to stress and allergens cannot be reduced I must leave the property.  Permanently.  Everywhere that's even renting has either a centrally located laundry room, meaning no unit is far enough away for someone with an artificial-scent allergy grown to lethal proportions, or it has no access to laundry facilities (including its own w/d hookups).  None of it is in budget for me, and the menfolk do not have medical exemption eligibility.

I lost my best friend in July and she has yet to notice.  I can think of 3 mental health care experts off the top of my head who would be willing to write to her explaining that her evaluation of my personality is WRONG, but it wouldn't make a difference.  I'm still working on getting through to her that I may never be able to visit her home again--I may never even be able to travel again if there's not an ER close enough to save me if my trachea slams shut.  Eastern Washington starts looking really scary between Spokane and Ritzville, Ritzville and Tri-Cities (Kennewick, Richland, Pasco), and between Tri-Cities and roughly Hood River, OR.  Considering that the allergic reaction I'm so scared about can also be triggered by stress and vehicular traffic is a known massive panic trigger for me, even the 50-60 miles from The Dalles, OR to Troutdale becomes terrifying.

I went through all the stress of applying for a medical marijuana user card, which will be going through the shredder before it's ever put to its intended use.  The property owners (who live in another time zone) have decreed that possession of medical marijuana on their property, even with a valid user card, is grounds for immediate eviction.  The provider to whom I was assigned will not sell to me if I cannot keep my medication in my own possession; if he sells to me and I do not have possession of the meds in my own home, the provider goes to jail.

I still have to wait 2 more weeks to even sign the consent waivers for the next medical exam, for which they must knock me out when it's finally time to do the dang thing.  Then I wait until the actual exam can be scheduled with the OR, and then wait for the report, and THEN find out about major surgery which will almost certainly have a minimum 8-week recovery time.  No rockhounding field trips for me this season unless they can get the exam and possible surgery done way faster than it's been going.

PM me with addresses and I'll start shipping as soon as I can.  If anyone has friends between Spokane and roughly Phillipsburg, MT, I will be quite happy to meet up with them in person to let them hand-pick rocks.  If they feel like driving all the way to where I actually live (about an hour from Missoula), they get their choice of everything I bring out as available.  If I need to catch a ride to Missoula or any of the towns near it on I-90, I'll bring everything my back will let me throw in the truck.  As far as timing goes, sooner would be better.  If you have friends wanting rocks and close enough to do the driving, once you have my email addy you have my permission to hand it off to them--just ask them to put 'Rocks needing homes' in the subject line so I don't junk their email.

[Snakeadelic]

Another update! 

The good news:  a way was found to re-route the problem dryer vent, and a mighty clever way it is!  Instead of going under the floor and eastward across the widest part of her unit, the contractor turned south and put it through a hole in the wall (purpose-made, not pre-existing, which the out-of-state owners HATE) and up to the roof.  The beauty of this solution is twofold.  The pipe is in MY garage--conveniently 100% out of her reach which makes me happy because she has shown vindictive behavior in the past.  It's also right next to the small upright freezer that actually belongs to the biker, but which lives in my garage so the Harley can have his.  That puts the vent pipe in the only corner of the garage that stays even remotely warm in the winter due to the freezer motor.

A way has been found to let me keep going on club field trips!  A lot of the members are older folks, and the awesome gal I reached out to with questions said a request for driving help would make both the members and the insurance underwriters very nervous (at the least) about taking me out into the woods.  Further research has narrowed down the actual health problem to Acquired Angioedema, Type 2.  There are 3 other types recognized, but Acquired T2 is the only one linked with the blood pressure medication I used to take.  It might respond to an epi-pen, but only after the onset of anaphylactic shock.  Our other awesome biker neighbor, who lives in the building to the east of us, joined up not only to be my field trip chauffeur but because apparently hanging around with me for like five years has gotten him much more interested in what he sees underfoot while walking his dog.  Because his truck is a bright shiny new leased rig that comes with a 10K/yr mileage allowance, the biker who lives in my building is going to be loaning him the old white Dakota, a situation both of them have worked with successfully before.

The drunken, foul-mouthed, child-smackin' fratboy jerk has moved out!  The only signs of that pack of wackos ever being here are a few scattered cigarette butts and the truck his girlfriend abandoned in the guest/overflow parking across the street--in the maintenance man's favorite parking spot, no less.  Their replacements have a 5-year-old boy and 2 "bully" type rescue dogs and they make SO MUCH less noise!  They're friendly (dogs included) and best of all on the several occasions I've talked to them thus far nobody's been wearing any kind of stink-pretty, a huge improvement over being able to smell the fratboy for a good three minutes after he went down the front steps in open air.

The other news:  I do not have the Skalkaho connection, sadly.  Due to a decision made by the aforementioned owners, I have been disqualified from the program that would have given me reason to interact with that person (and denied a medication authorized and recommended by an MD).

I can still smell the neighbor doing laundry, but it no longer makes my eyes burn or coats my mouth and nasal passages with a nasty oily feeling.  Now that I've had FIVE more episodes of angioedema, 2 of them in my digestive tract, it's pretty clear continuing exposure at the levels that turned this allergy into a life-threatening issue would have been a very, very bad thing.

My eye problem is not allergen-induced and, unfortunately, cannot be fixed unless it actually starts obstructing my vision; it's a small growth but will come back worse if it's removed.  The ophthalmologist said it was caused by exposure to bright sunlight as a small child, which I find baffling since I spent 33 of my first 34 years in northwestern Oregon and in the Puget Sound area.  The other year was in Orlando, much of it during hurricane season.  I did wind up with my first pair of bifocals, and I'll be back in physical therapy by appointment next week because OMG does my neck hate them.

Because the property where I live does not receive any federal housing subsidy funds, it turns out it's totally legal even with a doctor's letter to charge a disabled tenant for a life-saving alteration to the property.  I got nailed with a deadline of an hour and a half to find an unspecified amount of financing after 2 weeks without any communication my way from management, and promptly experienced what my therapist calls "decompensation".  Luckily for me I am reckoned by a few folks to have great value in their lives...but I'm still scared to ask exactly how much the Dakota's owner is paying for that vent pipe because he stepped in and told them they were going to hospitalize me again with that kind of stunt, volunteering to pay for it when they kept pushing.

The best news:  I have 5 boxes packed!  I've gotten the addresses that were messaged to me, and will send as many as I can afford this afternoon after my "independent swim" physical therapy.  The only part of the Great Mailing Caper I still need to finish is locating those MtG cards I got all sorted out.  Red, green, aggro-stompy I remember--my scattered brain is drawing a blank on Goblins and black/red Elementals.  I'll ship whatever I find that I'm sure of, separately from the rocks.

A reminder:  I DO NOT WANT MONEY.  If you like the rocks you get, I can send future boxes, and if not I apologize in advance.  Whatever you'd send me, pay it forward.  Food banks, school arts & sciences programs, or friends & family in need would all be better off with money.