Random 5 for April 7 – Internet ads, unusual people, more unusual people, other people, spring

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This is the flower tent in full bloom. It will look like this closer to Mother’s Day.

Nothing is free – I tried to get a coupon off of the internet for a product I needed to buy. I knew there was one available as it was in last Sunday’s newspaper ad. Unfortunately  I had put the newspaper in recycling earlier in the week. There were many sites that offered it but none that allowed me to use it without “joining for free.” One even wanted my phone number. Nope. Paid full price for the damn thing.

Speaking of the grocery store – The woman in front of me at the check-out had a mustache. A noticeable one. She was young and blonde but the mustache was brown. I couldn’t help staring. Fortunately she was focused on her cell phone and didn’t know I was there.

Yet another – Then I stopped at a different Starbucks. There was an androgynous person behind the counter. Yep, there I was staring trying to figure out the sex. Not that I care either way. I was curious.

What do the other people do – I got a Medicare reject notice this week. I had to read it three times to figure out the who, what and where. It made no sense at all. Thinking of older people who get many notices after an accident or serious illness, I wonder who looks out for them. Knowing all the facts of this medical procedure, this denial is wrong. Another battle to fight. When I worked we had a liaison who worked with employees to resolve such conflicts.

A touch of spring – We have just started getting warmer, nice weather. The catch has been that it’s either warmer (upper 60s to low 70sF) or it’s sunny. Not both at the same time. It’s been a discouraging spring or maybe I’m impatient. The flower tent went up this week in the parking lot next to Starbucks so that’s a good sign. Maybe just a few warm AND sunny days are in order.

So how was your week?

 

47 thoughts on “Random 5 for April 7 – Internet ads, unusual people, more unusual people, other people, spring”

  1. My mother is in the mid-80’s and gets both phone calls and mail that at times would be very confusing if she didn’t have us to talk it over with. She handles all of her own medical payments and insurance paperwork, but often we remark and wonder how many people are confused and get themselves in trouble simply because they didn’t understand “unclear” communications!

    I’m laughing at your comment about questioning the the gender of the person behind the counter. My obsession is people’s body art. Southern California seems to foster very creative tats and piercings, and anything goes. We are living in interesting times. 🙂

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    • I remember when I worked, one of our retired VPs came in and asked me for help straightening out his medical bills. He said “I’m old and this is overwhelming.” He was correct on both counts. Even though it wasn’t company-sponsored insurance we did sit with him and help him work through it. We also recommended using a service (he could afford it) to manage it for him. As for tatts, we have a lot here too. Sometimes they are beautiful works of art and sometimes it’s haphazard — something here and something there without looking at the whole picture. If you are going to do it, you should plan.

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  2. Love the flower tent – looks like a giant Dutch girl plopped down in the flowers?
    I used to worry as my dad aged as the medicare/insurance deal became so burdensome – he was from he generation that expected people to be fair and tell the truth so his first thought wasn’t they always deny to see if you go away, and you have to appeal. It’s worse now – people really need an advocate – there are some agencies/consultants now that do that as we’re in a large population area with lots of hospitals that draw from everywhere. Shouldn’t have to be that way – dealing with illness/accidents are stressful enough.
    Doc have complained constantly over “rulings” during the past few years. The way it is now, a doc can be doing surgery – and notice something else wrong/cancer and have the choice of fixing it at the time with the patient already sedated/ staff and room ready rather than having to close, reschedule, then sedate again to fix what was stumbled upon – if a surgeon fixes the 2nd issue discovered while doing the first, the doc has to do it for free – that procedure will not be covered or reimbursed…I guess it’s like “Well, you were driving on a trip and the back seat is going along for no extra cost/free”? People wonder why docs are exhausted and quitting. Like you say, lots of work now to resolve what should be simple. Hope it gets resolved quickly for you
    Wishing Flowers and warm, but not hot weather for all!

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    • We are still struggling to get to 70. Had some mild days but the sun doesn’t come out. A good burst and it will warm up. The frogs are frolicking though. They don’t need sun to get in the mood (if you know what I mean). Having gone through the accident with my brother, medical health insurance is very cumbersome. Repeated visits. One doc can’t check everything and refer off anything that isn’t OK. Each body part has their own specialist. My heart goes out to older people who do not have family close.

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  3. Love that flower tent. I’m going to go shopping for plants tomorrow. Still deciding where to go–the expensive nursery or someplace like Home Depot or Fred Meyer.

    It may not be nice to stare, but curiosity and the desire to know the truth of things and people is only natural.

    Wouldn’t it be wonderful if retired people had a liaison to help them resolve medical questions.

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    • More than any other demographic, older people need a liaison to help them. I can rant and rave about how complicated the Medicare system is. The bills come months after the service so you need to keep detailed records especially when there are errors. I’ve been billed for visits when I wasn’t there at all. I wonder how much of that slips through. Aww…flowers. It’s early here to get flowers to plant in the ground except for pansies. I’ll clean my pond in 2 weeks. I’m looking forward to that.

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  7. I want to go shopping with you. All I ever see are people with enormous tattoos all over their bodies, and that really gets old. I only cut coupons for juice and toothpaste for some reason. I must have six of them in my wallet right now, and all but one I bet are expired. 🙂 – Marty

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  8. When our health insurance denies something that I think should be covered, I contact the doctor’s office / medical provider and ask them to resubmit the claim. Often, that’s all it takes.

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    • This was a denial on the appeal. I didn’t even get the first denial. I will call the doc office tomorrow because I want to present my perspective. It’s a bit weird because when I had my “office visit” prior to my eyelid biopsy, the doc said that if I want to wait a bit he had a cancellation and I could get it done within the hour. I waited. Technically it was an OV and a procedure but they are denying the OV because they were done on the same day. We’ll see how this goes.

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  9. Did she have a mustache because she was “transitioning”? I don’t ever know any more what gender somebody is and at what point, you know? My brain can’t handle all the complications any more. I’m losing brain cells daily.

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  10. I met up with an old friend from university a while ago and she had a noticeable moustache. I did not like to comment so I don’t know if it was laziness or a fashion statement.

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  11. Healthcare is now a full on contact sport in consumerism and you have to be prepared to read the fine print repeatedly, have an attorney nearby to interpret and a very sharp sword because you’ll need it for slaying a dragon (otherwise known as an insurance company) at some point. Insurance companies routinely deny coverage for everything anymore. I think they figure if they make it so complicated and unpleasant, enough people will go away and just pay the bill. I can’t imagine a worse job than being the employer/insurance company laisson.

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  12. Like you I saw an employee in a store this week & found myself wondering about his/her androgynous look. I didn’t care one bit, but thought about how interesting it is that I’m living during a time when norms about gender are changing right in front of me,

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    • We don’t see hummingbirds this early. Last year we didn’t see any at all. I gave up and put my feeder away at the end of August. It’s true that we get a lot less pleasant weather these days. It’s either right into the hot or cold.

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  14. I grew up with everyone’s gender being neatly binary: girls with curls in pink, boys with short hair in blue. Now it’s a whole different world, with all kinds of pronouns and fluidity.

    It’s our turn to experience the discomfort of people not fitting neatly into our preconceived notions. Probably only fair, as we spent decades forcing the non-binary into gender roles that made them uncomfortable, miserable, and even suicidal.

    Sometimes I think about all the unnecessary “beautifying” women do because of male-dominated advertising. I wonder how many razors are in landfills because hair anywhere but a woman’s head was deemed unattractive. Same goes for cosmetics, but with a horrific additional of animal testing.

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    • So so true. I’ve had many friends who were considered outside the norm. They were wonderful people. Many (but not all) of us are much more accepting today although I worry about the crazy politicians who liked the old say better. Unfortunately I will continue to pull my chin whiskers as it makes me feel better but I buy cosmetics (and other stuff) that don’t test on animals.

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  16. Lady with a mustache…………maybe it’s the new trend like the Uni-brow. She was blonde too, with a single black bushy eyebrow which looked like a hairy caterpillar looking for somewhere to pupate. Quite honestly it freaked me somewhat, but she thought it looked great.
    We’ve been threatened with the return of colder climes and The Beast from the East next week. Time to get some bubble wrap to protect our new shoots.

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    • Can you pop a bucket over them? I don’t plant my tomatoes plants early anymore because they like warm soil but when I did I put a bucket over them for cooler nights. Of course you need lots of buckets! 🙂 Brows are a funny thing. Brow styles go in and out of fashion. Now it’s the full one. A decade or so ago it was the skinny one and anything else was considered ungroomed. My brows stay the same. That is one thing I don’t like to fuss with.

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