This Is Something I Never Wanted to Do, But I Need Help.....

Asking for money is something I don't feel comfortable with at all. I have never put a PayPal donate button on my blog, or made an appeal for money myself. Hell, I don't even feel comfortable asking for money for various causes.

I have only done that twice since starting the blog that I can remember, once to ask people to help popular ex fundamentalist writer and divorced mother Vyckie Garrison keep her house (that was quite successful, raising over $19,665, I was proud to be a part of such an effort), and once to ask people to donate to a St. Louis animal shelter that had fallen on hard times.

I have had to overcome my reluctance and guilt over appealing for donations recently, because quite simply, I'm broke. I have over $2,500 in bills that I can't pay, and over $900 of that needs to be paid in the next several days or is past due, and I have had to start an appeal for donations on GoFundMe

How did I get in this mess? Well, several circumstances have come up, first I have a vehicle payment for the first time, on top of my regular house payment, after the vehicle related disasters in late October. I have also found out recently that I have Fibromyalgia on top of the depression and sleep apnea that I already knew I have.

Medication plus working out to lose weight and build strength have helped, but I'm still not sure I could handle working my current full time job plus what would probably be a physically demanding part time job with the energy levels that I have. Add to this fact that I still have outstanding bills still from a sleep study I had back in April, which is how I found out I have sleep apnea and got on a CPAP machine. One of the two companies that billed me for that from that has turned me over to a collection agency.

As it stands right now, I have $914.73 in urgent bills including my house payment, vehicle payment, property taxes and utilities. All are due within a week, and some are past due. As for the medical bills, I currently owe $1,584.52, some of which has been turned over to a collection agency from Texas, thankfully they don't have my phone number, they have just been sending me notices by mail, but it will ruin my credit. Hopefully I can negotiate with them to bring it down, but I need some funds in order to come up with a payment plan or a reduced settlement on it.

Fundamentalist Book Firing Squad

I have begun clearing out some old books that were given to me by Mr. and Mrs. Psycho. Most were rather harmless, westerns, mysteries, etc, that I hadn't gotten around to reading yet. Some however, as you might expect were very fundamentalist in nature, and there were a few including a book from SBC leader Albert Mohler, that I had bought myself over the years.

I was inspired to clean out the bookshelves upon going to a used bookstore in my town, where I found books like these buried in the shelves.

Yes, that James Dobson.

I had already had some sinister plans in mind for the few books I bought of his, but Ryan Stollar of Homeschoolers Anonymous needed them for research, so off to California they went. I have been playing with pellet guns recently, growing up, anything remotely resembling a weapon was not allowed, even long before my father's mental health issues.

Which seems rather hypocritical of a rule coming from someone who had no qualms about beating me senseless.... but I digress. It's become quite the pointless hobby for me, and I didn't want those Dobson books going possibly into the hands of a gullible parent if given away, and I didn't want the same to happen to the fundamentalist books I have. You can probably see where this is going. 

Plenty of Chaos and a New Diagnosis

Before my post encouraging people to donate to help ex-fundamentalist writer Vyckie Garrison to keep her home this month, the last time I posted was on July 28th. This blog has been highly neglected due to simple lack of motivation, my health, some chaos in my life, and nothing really to write about.

I have been quite astounded that this blog has still been averaging 2,500 + readers a week irregardless, and as of the time of writing, my post raising awareness about the Vyckie Garrison fundraiser has had 1,027 views so far. I want to thank everyone who has been reading the blog in my absence.

It has been a rather strange few weeks lately, I had an odd set of vehicle related catastrophes (though none caused by abusive relatives this time). In three weeks, I have driven 4 different vehicles. Sounds odd, right? Let me back up here, first, the old car that I have had for the past two years blew it's engine, possible head gasket problems. It was scrapped, because it was well past it's prime to begin with.

Then, I get a bank loan to pay for a used Ford F-150 truck on a Monday, and overnight on a Wednesday, this happened.

Neighbors reported hearing a crashing sound at about 1:30 am, but didn't realize what it is, and considering the fact that we are very close to a steel plant operated by US Steel, odd banging and crashing, and shuffling sounds are not that unusual. Considering the time period that it happened, and the town I am in, it was likely some either drunk or high on heroin that hit it and ran.

Please Help Ex-Fundamentalist Writer Vyckie Garrison Keep Her Home

Back in 2009, there were few people openly talking about the most extreme corners of Protestant Christianity, the "ex-fundie" world in the blogosphere and places like Facebook hardly existed. Into this gap stepped writer Vyckie Garrison with her site No Longer Quivering as a voice speaking out against the Quiverfull movement, which rejects all forms of birth control, and feels that every Christian has a divine mandate to have as many children as possible.

No Longer Quivering served as a community for the wives and daughters who left fundamentalism, and gave them a voice. It grew in influence and size, and she started getting more attention from the media and going on speaking tours, raising awareness.

Recently, she has been interviewed by sites as big as Alternet, and has been a speaker at conferences for Center for Inquiry and American Atheists. Her influence on the ex fundamentalist world can not be underestimated, she has inspired many bloggers, and contributed greatly to the campaign to get M. Dolon Hickmon's book 13:24, off to a running start.

A Broken Window and a Major Victory

This has been a stressful week. For two weeks I was out of Cymbalta due to problems with insurance, red tape and hassles involving my name change and an incorrect birth date in my file. Normally I fight through the pain and fatigue, and make sure that I'm using my CPAP mask for sleep apnea, staying hydrated, and just fight though it. By last Wednesday, I just couldn't do it anymore. I called off for the half day of work I had scheduled, and slept until noon. It took me until about 2 pm to be conscious enough to want to go work out, and when I go to my car, I see this.

 

 

I go on with my day, stopping by a Wal Mart to get Gorilla Tape and a roll of plastic similar to what is used when people are painting to keep paint off of carpets and furniture (I figured it would be strong enough not to rip). I knew damn well who did it, but I didn't feel like dealing with it further that day.

 

There's two people who would definitely do something like this, the kind of people who have such poor character that they think there is nothing wrong with beating children , molesting children and teens, holding someone hostage in their home, or attempting to force their way into a house and make violent threats towards the owner if said owner doesn't want them in their life anymore. To top it off, they are working on a rental house for a relative nearly two blocks away, so I know they have been in the area, and on the same street.

 

I made a police report Thursday evening, and thankfully the officer that responded did far better than the last two times officers had to respond to my address. I gave the dispatcher a little background the last two incidents, and made reference to the order that M. Dolon Hickmon helped to draft, and what the police chief had said the last time. I overheard another dispatcher say "oh God" in frustration as though they were saying "not this house again...".

 

The officer that responded did respond quite well to the situation and though he said what I expected that no charges can come from this without a witness or video recording, etc. If the object used to break it was left in the car, that would even help, since fingerprints could be run, but no such luck.