Category: Rants

I don’t know you and you won’t see this. Even if you did, you wouldn’t change, or the behavior you exhibit wouldn’t happen. Remember this is a one lane gravel road with only 7 houses on it’s 8/10 mile length. It is a road that some of us like to walk for it’s hilly pastoral beauty.

However, you seem to think that someone magic is cleaning up your plastic cups, bottles, cigarette packs, and cans. It isn’t someone magic, it is your neighbors who do care what our rural road looks like.

You also seem to think this is a freeway and you have the right of way regardless when you speed up or down it at 45 mph around the bend in your sporty 2 wheel drive sedan, nearly hitting me as a pedestrian, almost causing a head on collision, or leaving those of us who have lived here for 20 or more years and proceed with caution, nowhere to get out of your way. Oh, and when the hilly road is covered with snow or ice and your 2 wheel drive sedan can’t get up it, abandoning it in front of a driveway for several days until it get’s towed by the State Police is more than inconsiderate.

Sincerely,

Your neighbor

I am extremely careful on the internet, social media, with online purchases, and very judicious with the use of a credit or debit card out in the world, yet once again, my credit card has been breached. We belong to USAA and they are great at catching the fraudulent use, catching 3 attempts to use it for about $1600 worth of ticket purchases in Houston. However, they did not notify me this time, we saw the declined attempts on our statement when another suspicious pending charge appeared. My card has yet again been shut down and a new one being processed for me. This is a tough time of year for it to happen, with the holiday’s approaching, as I don’t like to shop, don’t care for crowds, and currently due to DH’s injury, don’t leave the house for any length of time short of quick grocery or med runs.

Then to add to this frustration, today we went to pick up a regular prescription for DH to find that with the Rx insurance for which we pay dearly, the 90 days refill was more than double what it was last time it was refilled. Without insurance, the med was less than the old insurance cost. So we pay almost 3 times the med cost to use the insurance that we pay for to reduce or help pay for the medications required. I don’t understand how the insurance companies get away with that. It approaches fraud. How can the co-pay be much more than the cost of the medication.

How can other countries provide free or inexpensive medical care and free or inexpensive medications while our costs continue to rise.

Why have we become such an entitled society that such terms exist? I would hate to have the name or have named one of my children one of those names. I think it is unconscionable that names have been used to define those that feel entitled. Posts on social media are rife with stories of those that feel so entitled to cause physical or emotional pain or inconvenience to others.

Recently a social media friend made an offer to make a purchase for me from a craftsman that lives thousands of miles from me and whose shop I could not possible visit. She reached out to several other friends to purchase for them as well. My new fiber tool arrived yesterday and it is gorgeous, but I kept it to myself, only letting the friend know it arrived. This particular craftsman does a few events on the West Coast near their home, does online updates of their products where dozens of folks vie to make a purchase when the update goes live, and often offers their products as prizes for challenges for an online group of their followers. Additionally, they provide some of their tools to a couple of their grandchildren for them to sell and learn economics and earn money for big events. The friend that made the purchases and another friend who benefited from her visit posted their new tools online, so I did also. The friend then received a not nice message from someone who felt that it was unfair that they didn’t have the opportunity as well. As a result, we took our shares down from the site. To me, this is just another example of feeling entitled and it was a very petty expression of the message sender as my friend had been invited to the craftsman’s house to make the purchases.

Folks, life isn’t always about you. It isn’t always “fair.” Practice restraint and kindness, it goes a long way to making this a better world.

With recent health issues in our household, there have been a couple of hospitalizations and a whole new pharmacy on the dresser top. We are senior citizens and have Medicare plus a supplemental health plan and an Rx plan that is supposed to reduce the cost of prescription medications. The Medicare and supplemental plan have prevented any out of pocket expenses so far, though one of the doctor’s from the first hospitalization has billed Medicare for something for which they have already paid and Medicare declined to pay it a second time obviously. It still shows up on our summaries with a zero balance, but shows a declined expense. The pharmacy side is another story. We pay a significant monthly fee to have the medications at least partially paid for by the insurance plan, a three tier system that lets us know what our co-pay is for each med in the tier, but if we ask the pharmacy what the cash price is, it is often half what the co-pay would be. If we use the insurance, we are paying not only the monthly payment for the plan, but double the cost of paying cash on top of it. This just doesn’t make any sense to us. Fortunately, we know to ask what the difference would be and have paid cash for several of the scripts that have been called in.

Also, scripts never have a refill number on them anymore and most, except antibiotics, come in 90 supplies so a large bill every three months instead of spreading it out. To get a refill, you must contact the pharmacy who then contacts the physician for authorization on a medication that you know you will be required to take long term (not pain meds, but maintenance meds to prevent the condition from worsening). If you call the physician’s office, the robot voice tells you to contact the pharmacy.

The surgeon tells you to call and schedule a follow up in 4 weeks and the soonest they can see you is 5 weeks or more.

Our system is broken and we are among the lucky ones to be able to have and afford insurance to cover our issues. I don’t know what the solution is, but certainly not the way it is being done now.

Just over a year ago, in the midst of the bloated car prices and dearth of available vehicles, we were forced to purchase a car. We had been relying on a 17 year old car with enough mileage to be on it’s return trip from the moon for over a year and because we are very rural, a reliable car was a necessity. We ended up with a new hybrid, paying over $3000 more than the suggested retail price with a very half-assed excuse for why they were tacking it on and couldn’t negotiate it down. And we had to drive to the next state over, about an hour to even look at one, lured by an online advertised price on another car that they had also tacked on the $3000 and refused to honor the advertised price. As it came from a different state, we had to wait for the registration to come with the plates from our state to get it inspected in our state. Well, it has been a year since the inspection and the new one was needed, plus we required the one year service inspection and tire rotation.

We live 16 miles from a closer dealer and more than double that from where we purchased it. We tried to get an appointment at the closer dealer, where everything could be done, and they didn’t have one available for a full month, after the car inspection was past due, so we contacted the farther dealer and could get in within the week, which meant a second appointment elsewhere in our state for the inspection next week. Off we went this morning. Of course, they “found” two other recommended “needs” so the cost went from under $20 to over $100. We agreed to their recommendations, got back in the car and pulled out of their lot to a scraping noise and a noticeable shimmy or bumping sensation. A quick u-turn and back in the service line and a “whatever you did created a major problem.” It turns out that their mechanic failed to torque on one of the tires and it was rattling loose. This could have been a very expensive, even fatal accident if that tire had come off. Though they corrected their error and apologized, we no longer have any trust in that dealership’s service center. Since the car is a year old, and under warranty, we will make appointments closer to home with enough lead time to guarantee our inspection doesn’t expire before they can get to it.

Whatever happened to quality assurance and reliable service.

Today is election day and thankfully will end for a while, the barrage of negative campaign spots on television and hopefully in the mail. Politicians don’t campaign on their merit, their agenda, etc., they work on a smear campaign using information that is usually unfounded against the other candidate. Unfortunately, this works with people who don’t take the time or don’t have the education/skills to check out the true facts. Arguing that candidate A will do X, when the office lacks the power to deal with that issue regardless of who wins.

It doesn’t stop with television and print media. So much misinformation is spread via those sources and social media about other societal issues as well. With the misinformation comes the name calling and other inappropriate responses to the original presenter or poster.

Our society, government, and world are not perfect, but civility and decorum seem to have been lost. There is no respect. Disagreement is met with vulgarity and violence.

Every day the news is filled with shootings, with violence against service workers, with abusive and disruptive behaviors that endanger the person they are accosting and anyone nearby.

The negativity in society has become overwhelming to the point that the news causes constant stress.

Today there is an article about two neighboring high school football teams in a game that ended 106 to 0. Why, what adult coach would allow that to happen? Instead of trying to make it a game, he had his team go for a 2 point conversion when they already had over 100 points. What happened to sportsmanship? Another failed lesson in respect for others.

I am currently overwhelmed with all the negativity. I want to focus on being thankful for a while.

I am in my 7o’s and have been driving since I was 15, so approaching 50 years. In that time, I have purchased a number of vehicles, one with my Dad, several on my own, a few with hubby. Most of those vehicles have been in my or our lives for only a few years before they had to be replaced or were replaced because they shouldn’t have been purchased in the first place. That changed 16 years ago. We purchased me a brand new Honda CRV not financed and it is still on the road with 252K miles on her. Three years later, we purchased a new Nissan Xterra which finally quit during the first wave of the pandemic with 250K miles on it. We have been using the 16 year old car solely since then and hoping that: 1) the pandemic would end; 2) the lack of computer chips for the vehicles would resolve, and we could seek a car and keep the old CRV as a sporadically used backup vehicle.

Two weeks ago when things took a tumble in our lives with daughter’s serious car totaling accident, me landing in the hospital for 5 days, Son 1 coming to the rescue, but having to put his car in the shop for a few days while here and being forced to rely on my old car to drive daughter around, drive hubby to the hospital, pick up groceries, pick me up from the hospital, etc., we realized that we shouldn’t count on the one aged vehicle as our sole transportation source. I have never liked the car buying experience. The least irritating was when we purchased hubby a new Saturn and they had a fixed sticker price and no negotiating games. Usually, the process is so very irksome. You test drive a car or two, perhaps decide you have found the one you are going to purchase, and then they sit you in a tiny office cubicle with a glass wall so they can make sure you don’t slip out and disappear to “work on the numbers.”

The process was no different yesterday. Hubby had done online research, had the cost of several vehicles noted, reached out to several dealers regarding availability, and off we went, an hour plus west into the adjacent state (where they actually had a few cars on the lot). We wanted a hybrid, all wheel drive, not white exterior or interior. They had 1. We test drove a non hybrid a bit smaller than the one they had, but it lacked most of the new safety features. We test drove a non hybrid the size of the hybrid, but the hybrid was only slightly more expensive and had a nicer add on package. BUT, the car had an additional sticker in the window that indicated a market upcharge of almost $3000 that wasn’t on the website. The manager, of course, apologized all over the place, said prices weren’t supposed to be on the website at all, and more bull shit. Then we were put in the cubicle to wear down our resistance. When the manager finally came in, he had “worked the numbers” and could take $100 off. Really! Oh horse patties. Then the upsale begins. We can knock off x if you buy the extended warranty (that by the way is owned by the dealership owner and cost $3000). No thank you.

Four and a half hours later, we drove off the lot with the hybrid, having been given a $500 reduction for hubby’s military service, but otherwise, the sticker price we saw going in. Such a frustrating business. I guess, this might be the last new car we buy since we are both aging like my old CRV. My CRV will be cleaned up, kept maintained, and driven a bit, but it will be our back up car, one to use when the new one is in the shop for maintenance or when we both have to be out in different directions.

My Dad taught me those traits and over the years, I have strived to DIY whenever possible. I have replaced toilets, sinks, and a garbage disposal. Installed deadbolts and ceiling fans. Replaced valve stems in dozens of faucets, but today I have met my match.

The cold water faucet to our tub (it is a double faucet variety) has slowed to a trickle, it isn’t leaking, just doesn’t let water pass. The shower on a separate valve does fine as does the hot water. It probably needs a new valve stem, but it is a 14-15 year old Kohler. It is a non standard size for a tub faucet. Getting the handle off was easy enough, but the valve stem is set down in a threaded ring that still extends high enough after the cover is removed to prevent getting a wrench or channel locks on it. So off to Lowes to buy a tub faucet socket set.

The smallest one in the set is too large, I needed a 5/8″ one and they don’t have those in the plumbing aisle. I called Ferguson where all the plumbing came from for help and Adam was the epitomy of patience and attempted help, having me text him pictures while he researched. That very lengthy call ended with a phone number to Kohler, but before trying that, we returned the tools to Lowes and I had the idea that a 5/8″ spark plug wrench would work. Well it fits in the space.

But even with a longer handle to try to turn it, I can’t budge it. I sprayed it with WD40 to try to loosen it up and still no go. I am afraid of breaking something.

Dad may have taught me to be independent and self sufficient, but he failed to tell me that as I age, the frustration level at not being able to do something would build exponentially. I guess we will have to call in a plumber, which seems excessive for a valve stem, but I don’t want to break it and have a major repair and whole new faucet set to buy.