Stevi's Saga

[randim]

Checking onto towndock.net ( our hometown has an excellent website to cover all things local ) it seems the wind and rain of Florence have begun to settle in over our home.  I do see the forecasted track is taking her further south than our place.  Bad news for people down in South Carolina.  The wind speeds are lower than they were but the storm is going to move slowly and dump a lot of water.  Our house in still threatened by a very high storm surge from the northeast winds of the right-front quadrant.

I am not overly concerned.  We are safe.  We will put it all back together afterward.  There is nothing there we can't replace or live without.  In the meantime, I think we might run over to Rock Hall, MD and visit with a friend where we docked our boat in days gone by.  Something fun and a good diversion to occupy the mind.  She knows of my new look and is perfectly OK.  Should be fun.

Stevi

Good luck Stevi.  Hope the weather Gods are kind to you.  And to me as far as that goes.  I have a vacation trailer (yes, trailer!) on Harkers Island north of Morehead about 100 feet from the back sound.  I am not optimistic.  We made a trip down this week and hauled off as much stuff as we could and tried to get as much stuff off the floor as possible.  But I'm afraid if the wind doesn't get it the water will.

[Stevi]

randim,

May the weather gods be most kind to you, as well.  Not much hope for that, though, since we stopped sacrificing virgins to them.

Stevi

[randim]

randim,

May the weather gods be most kind to you, as well.  Not much hope for that, though, since we stopped sacrificing virgins to them.

Stevi

Well, they are so hard to find.  Lovely earrings, btw.

[Stevi]

As a human interest interruption to the weather news, I thought you might like to see a couple of photos from our recent trip.

First, my new avatar.  It is cropped out of a photo of both Penny and I.



Proof that we ventured as far as St Thomas



I had fun with the waite staff at dinner and the photographers, too.  This is me channelling my #4 sister.



The experience was a very positive one.  We were quite open with everyone about our fiftieth anniversary and our closeness as a couple.  No one seemed to even bat an eye as to what/who they were interacting with.  Some may have figured it out right.  Others, probably not.  Everyone was great.

Stevi

[Donica]

Checking onto towndock.net ( our hometown has an excellent website to cover all things local ) it seems the wind and rain of Florence have begun to settle in over our home.  I do see the forecasted track is taking her further south than our place.  Bad news for people down in South Carolina.  The wind speeds are lower than they were but the storm is going to move slowly and dump a lot of water.  Our house in still threatened by a very high storm surge from the northeast winds of the right-front quadrant.

I am not overly concerned.  We are safe.  We will put it all back together afterward.  There is nothing there we can't replace or live without.  In the meantime, I think we might run over to Rock Hall, MD and visit with a friend where we docked our boat in days gone by.  Something fun and a good diversion to occupy the mind.  She knows of my new look and is perfectly OK.  Should be fun.

Stevi

Stay safe Stevi! I've been watching this one from the west coast. Glad to see the winds are slowing down a bit. All my best wishes. Lovely pictures btw!

Stay dry you two!
Hugs,
Donica.

[Northern Star Girl]

@Stevi
Dear Stevi:
Well, after seeing your honeymoon/cruise pictures and your newest and latest Avatar/Profile photo I am going to use the word that I have become known for... that best describes your new picture....
    Wow-Whee !
Thanks for sharing your 50 years of married bliss with all of us.

Now, for the Hurricane... I hope that since the storm has been downgraded and shifting it's course that your home is in a better situation to avoid damage....  I had to chuckle when you stated that you mowed your grass before you left your home and fled to safety at your daughter's home....   I guess that you want it to look nice while you are gone!!!

Again,  thanks for your update post and sharing your Wow-Whee pictures.
Hugs and well wishes,
Danielle

[KathyLauren]

Stevi, I love your new photos, especially the first one, that you used for your avatar.  You look beautiful!

[Stevi]

Danielle and Kathy,

Thanks for taking note of my photos.  The three I posted are just a sampling of what we had taken.  I really had fun with outfits and hair.

Now back to the weather news from Oriental Harbor.

TownDock reports:

6:57p The TownDock surge stick (a piling in the "basement" that has been marked with every major hurricane) got to near 8 feet a half hour ago. We are hardly out of the woods, but the levels have gone down an inch or two in the last 15 minutes.

First dip seen so far.

Stevi

[Stevi]

Good morning everyone,

It appears that Florence has peaked around our house.  Overnight, the local website, towndock.net, reported a max surge level of about one inch above Irene's 9.5 foot record.  The level has receded, now that the wind has clocked around some to 7 feet.  Things vary locally so it is possible that the level was somewhat different around our house.  But, we are hopeful the water did not intrude into the house itself.  Wind speeds were reported to be 90 sustained and gusting over 100 mph.  Florence is taking her good old time.  Her eye has not even made landfall, yet, though it is getting close.  It will be a while before we can even consider returning home.  There is no assurance the wind did not deal us a severe blow.  The wind speeds are more reasonable now at 30s and 40s.

In the meantime, we are safe here in Maryland with an old friend.  We expect to return to our daughter's place this evening so we can spend some weekend time with her.  No sense planning too far ahead until that b&*)h blows herself out.

Stevi

[Stevi]

Monitoring what is going on at home.  The water levels are receding sllooowwwwwllllyyy.  There are still tropical storm winds- 20-30, gusting 40s out of the east.  The water won't go out until the wind goes southeast or the wind drops more.  Rain and scattered thunderstorms.   Power is still out.  Most of the residents in the Tideland Electric's service area are without power.  Route 55, the main road out to Oriental is impassable due to downed power lines.  Looks like a while before we can trek back.  Still no idea what we will actually find.

Stevi

[Stevi]

I have been catching up with a few things that I put on the back burner with so much else going on.  It has been a while since I had one of my little chats with the Social Security service rep who assured be the gender change would show up at Medicare "soon".  So, I gave Medicare a call.  Is my gender marker FEMALE?  NO!  Before the Medicare service rep could give the spiel, I cut her off and told her I knew the drill.  I would call Social Security, again.

Two calls to Social Security would not give me the option of speaking to a representative.  A third call, late in the day, offered me a one hour and forty five minute wait time.  Not viable at the time so I rudely hung up on Social Security.  The annoying-music machine didn't much care but I did get a bit of satisfaction.

Stevi

[Donica]

Oh my Stevi! I hope they don't drop the ball here. My guess is the government takes forever to get anything done. I'm in the same boat but haven't sent my doc's to SS or MC yet. Still waiting for my court order to come through the mail. I don't know why I even ask to have it mailed to me because I have to go back to the courthouse to get it certified.

All my best wishes that your house will remain unharmed through the storm. It's almost over. Hang in there.

Donica.

[Stevi]

Florence News.

The electric company's nearly worthless outage reporting web page indicates that our house is still without power.  Towndock.net reports that there are dozens of down poles along the highway into Oriental.  There are two providers in the region so I am unsure as to whose poles they are.  I received a call from our next door neighbor.  He gave me an assessment of our situation over the phone.  We got about a foot of water around and under the house.  Not enough to reach the floor joists but probably the HVAC ductwork was invaded.  The fuel oil tank which was less than half full was blown off its cradle.  The stuff at ground level in the carport was in the water as well as the washer, dryer and freezer in the utility room.  In the grand scheme of things, it appears we faired well. We are anxious to be getting back but we will stay put here at our daughter's place in Virginia until we atleast get power back.

Social Security, Medicare and my gender marker.

I called at 8:01 am.  Had a 27 minute wait in the que.  Spoke with a rep. After a long hold, he returned to tell me he found that the steps to get the change made so Medicare could see the change had not been completed.  He could not make the changes himself now.  He told me he sent a priority message to the data processing department so some IT wizard could do the deed.  This time I was told it would take 15 days for the change to be done and not to bother calling Medicare since they would only send me back to Social Security to get it fixed if it wasn't changed.  Do I have any confidence in this being in the least bit accurate? No!, Nada!, Zip!, Zilch! Absolutely not!  I just wasted another 52 minutes of my life.

Stevi

[Donica]

Thank god it's not the house. Washers, dryers and refrigerators are easier to replace than a house. I'm not about the ductwork. I've watched them replace 4 or 5 aging power poles a day. Hopefully they will have the power back on soon.

OMG! I can almost visualize the chaos that must be happening at SS. Panic running back and forth, tripping faceplant into the copy machine, deer in the headlight dumbfounded blank stares. Oh my, I just freaked my self out.

I hope they have this all figured out when my paperwork gets there. I'm at least glad you two are getting to spend time with your daughter. I wish it were better circumstances.

Hugs,
Donica.

[Stevi]

Donica,

I have a different image of the goings on at SS.  I picture a whole crew walking out the door to the cafeteria for a cup of coffee to take with them out the back door to the smoking area.  Fifteen to twenty minutes later they will all parade back in to tell each of us that was put on hold whatever it is they think will get us to move along.

I guess after the umpteenth call I am getting a bit cynical.

Stevi

[Northern Star Girl]

Donica,

I have a different image of the goings on at SS.  I picture a whole crew walking out the door to the cafeteria for a cup of coffee to take with them out the back door to the smoking area.  Fifteen to twenty minutes later they will all parade back in to tell each of us that was put on hold whatever it is they think will get us to move along.

I guess after the umpteenth call I am getting a bit cynical.

Stevi

@Stevi
Dear Stevi:
I am so sorry to hear of the difficulties that you are encountering with your home and local area relevant to the storm and subsequent damage that it has caused.

All of that came on the heels of your lovely Anniversary trip with your wife...  at least that went very well as you reported.... and your pictures were wonderful for your followers to see.

Now... regarding Social Security....   as we all know, no matter where we live or what government agencies we try to deal with, the wheels of Government bureaucracy and red-tape not only can move very slowly, but many times seem to run backwards.   Patience is definitively required.... I am always stuck on hold on the phone with different government offices, sometimes for an hour or more just to find out that I have reached the wrong department.  This kind of thing even spills over when dealing with private businesses such as the phone company, doctor offices, insurance companies, the cable television company, the utility companies, bank services, etc.   ....   
I always love the phone announcement, "your call is important to us...." and the fact that I am stuck talking to a computer voice and can never talk to a real person many times.

I feel your pain, I trust that you can get everything in order.
Hugs,
Danielle

[Stevi]

One of the other things that was put on the back burner before our honeymoon trip was what to do about the loss of my membership at the local health and fitness center.

Well, it seems that Penhy and I are becoming transgender activists.  We have engaged a law firm.  It may surprise you to learn that it is not illegal for a business to discriminate against a transgender person in the state of North Carolina.  I know.  What a shocker.  So, we cannot sue on those grounds since the federal government is not involved.  Federal funding of the business might give us some grounds in a federal court.  However, the owner of the business is required to abide by the terms of the membership agreement.  North Carolina does require him to do that.  We are sure we can make the case he revoked our membership without cause in violation of the terms of the agreement.  We will be suing for breach of contract.  Our lawyers are determining what they feel we can ask for now that we have resolved to go forward and decided what is not acceptable.  Simply reinstating my membership is not acceptable.  I am not at all comfortable with returning to the facility without more protection for me and greater tolerance of me.

After some of this Florence interruption is behind us, we will finalize our path forward with our lawyers.

Wish us luck,
Stevi

[Northern Star Girl]

@Stevi
Dear Stevi:
Oh yeah, I was kinda wondering about the status of the Health Club that you are/were a member of.   With all that has been happening with your Wedding Anniversary vacation trip and the Hurricane issues...  it was certainly understandable that it ended up on the "back burner" ... 

I am wishing you well for your quest for justice and respect.   Whenever you think of it please keep all of your followers updated with the status of this important action that may or may not happen through our lawyers.

Hugs and well wishes,
Danielle

[Donica]

One of the other things that was put on the back burner before our honeymoon trip was what to do about the loss of my membership at the local health and fitness center.

Well, it seems that Penhy and I are becoming transgender activists.  We have engaged a law firm.  It may surprise you to learn that it is not illegal for a business to discriminate against a transgender person in the state of North Carolina.  I know.  What a shocker.  So, we cannot sue on those grounds since the federal government is not involved.  Federal funding of the business might give us some grounds in a federal court.  However, the owner of the business is required to abide by the terms of the membership agreement.  North Carolina does require him to do that.  We are sure we can make the case he revoked our membership without cause in violation of the terms of the agreement.  We will be suing for breach of contract.  Our lawyers are determining what they feel we can ask for now that we have resolved to go forward and decided what is not acceptable.  Simply reinstating my membership is not acceptable.  I am not at all comfortable with returning to the facility without more protection for me and greater tolerance of me.

After some of this Florence interruption is behind us, we will finalize our path forward with our lawyers.

Wish us luck,
Stevi

I should say so! At the very least more protection for you and all LGBT folks. North Carolina is off my list of possible future homes.

[Stevi]

I am checking in.  We arrived home on Wednesday afternoon.  Power was on.  The house itself is in good shape.  Roof undamaged.  The water level around and under the house was an historic high. eight inches above that of Irene.  Even at that level it did not reach the floor joists.  I did loose the washer, dryer and freezer in the utility room.  In the grand scheme of things, we made out well.

I have no cable or internet access at home so I need to visit the McDonalds in town. 

Stevi