The Venting Thread

[apl68]

We learned today that our main wholesale book vendor did not receive our payment for last month's statement.  This month's statement billed us for both our recent orders and what we thought we'd paid for last month.  We contacted their office, and eventually determined that our check must have been lost in the mail.  The representative said that they've been getting a lot of complaints about lost payments from their customers lately.  Word is that there are problems at the regional mail office that serves their remittance center.

So I had to speak with our bank and get a stop-payment on that lost check, to keep the pen-and-ink pirates from possibly appropriating it.  We'll just have to eat the charge for that stop-payment.  Hope that the mail center can get their act together soon.

[mythbuster]

Well the visit from the plumber took 10 minutes and $175. No leaks as expected. At least he arrived on time. We have submitted the invoice that declares no leaks back to the insurance agent and get to wait for the underwriter to find another reason to yank our chain. Supposedly this all will be resolved by the end of the month?
   AmLitHist, to give you more background. All the insurance companies that advertise with characters on TV stopped writing home policies in Florida years ago. Even USAA limits themselves to only active duty military. So we are stuck here with a variety of obscure and Florida only companies, and of course the state government provided plan if no one else will touch you. Our old policy was with a company brokered via USAA. They were one of the few that was still multi-state, but they got bought by Progressive and dumped all the FL accounts. Even the USAA brokers had trouble finding us good options- hence our tour through four other brokers.

[apl68]

Even here, outside of annual hurricane/wildfire country, insurance rates are going up steeply.  We're in the process of renewing the library's policy, and our insurer is going up on us by something like a third over last year.  Even though we've had no national headline-grabbing catastrophes in our state, the amount of seasonal thunderstorm and tornado damage has caused insurers to lose money here in the last couple of years. 

Of course part of the problem is the huge nationwide increase in materials and labor to repair anything.  On my most recent visit to Nashville the year before last, I think I saw where most of the nation's building materials have been going.  Every other well-heeled homeowner in the city's historic neighborhoods is busily doubling the size of their house.

[fishbrains]

I've had the recent pleasure of traveling to a place where hotels had bidets--one of the most pleasant inventions ever created.

And then I had to come home and resume walking around the planet with the same old gritty bunghole I've always had.

Life just ain't fair.

[Parasaurolophus]

One of the cats jumped on my laptop last night and knocked it down. Today, I saw what I thought was cosmetic damage... but it turns out that my mousepad is dead. Or it might be off, but I can't easily test that because my external mouse is also apparently dead. Sigh.

At least I have a spare Chromebook for such occasions. Too bad I didn't finish my file backup the other day. Now, to laboriously navigate using the keyboard so I can copy a few onto a thumb drive...

[Parasaurolophus]

Noooooooo! I missed the yearly island-wide used book sale! Grrrrr.

Not that we had room for more.

[namazu]

One of the cats jumped on my laptop last night and knocked it down. Today, I saw what I thought was cosmetic damage... but it turns out that my mousepad is dead.

So, your cat (at least temporarily) killed a mouse (or two?)!  I hope you're able to retrieve the files you need and hopefully get it working again.

[Parasaurolophus]

One of the cats jumped on my laptop last night and knocked it down. Today, I saw what I thought was cosmetic damage... but it turns out that my mousepad is dead.

So, your cat (at least temporarily) killed a mouse (or two?)!  I hope you're able to retrieve the files you need and hopefully get it working again.

Lol! I hadn't thought of that!

[Langue_doc]

It's the never-ending gimme, gimme, time of the year. So many emails from the same organizations, sent every hour or so, reminding me that I have until midnight to make an impact.

[Juvenal]

It's the never-ending gimme, gimme, time of the year. So many emails from the same organizations, sent every hour or so, reminding me that I have until midnight to make an impact.

I am also inundated with daily pleas from the "worthies."  Give once, and you are forever damned.  Makes it hard to reach for my checkbook again.  I have taken to saving the address stickers so many include.  I've got a boxful with well over a hundred-plus in it.  And how often do I write a personal letter that needs a stamp and an envelope and a sticker?  Nearly never.  Well, I do pay some bills in envelopes that can use a sticker.  What else comes from some worthies?  Cheap ballpoints, note pads, packs of cards/envelopes, bookmarks, a dreamcatcher, even a CD of Christmas music.  Nothing (yet) with THC.

[clean]

Woke up way too early today.  Dealt with 2 medical billings that make no sense.  One sends a bill for $45, but BCBS says I should owe $31.  Call them and now they say the balance is only $25, but that they are waiting for BCBS to process something more.   It doesnt make sense!  Then they want me to go to some automatic billing!   They have forever been charging one amount, then BCBS says I owe another amount, and yet, the amount they claim I owe is supposed to already be AFTER the BCBS adjustments!

The other doctor first said I owe $345 but didnt file with Insurance.  Then I had an expensive test and I paid $520 before they would even DO the test.  (i paid it). Then they billed me for 2 months without including the payment made on the day of the test!   They are saying that I am now past due for the payment.  I call and claim that THEY OWE ME money!   THEN another charge mysteriously appears for the same day for someone I ve never heard of.... The bottom line is that I still owe $25!   (but the good news is that at least BCBS agrees I owe $25).  Still, as I have entered the time of year I dont get paid for 3 months, that is a big swing from me paying $25 to them paying ME hundreds!  ...  But it is done

[apl68]

My ears are acting up for the first time in months.  I've long had a problem with occasional earaches.  In the past, they've tended to be caused by wax buildup.  More recently the doctor hasn't been able to find anything obviously wrong.  This morning my right ear has had a persistent dull pain that turns into a more generalized headache.  It makes it nearly impossible to focus on anything.

It most often happens when I'm at work.  The best I can figure is that it correlates with changes in the weather--we had showers and sudden cooling yesterday--and the cold drafts from the HVAC system.  I've been wearing a toboggan cap in my office, which looks and feels ridiculous but does seem to help.  I'm going to try taking a nap when I go home for lunch and see if that helps.

[AmLitHist]

I feel your pain, Clean. Between Cigna and ASIFlex (my FSA provider), I wasted a few hours last week on that kind of thing. 

As to the flex spending: over $200 spent on Amazon for various OTC items to restock the medicine cabinet didn't get a second glance, but a routine $25 co-pay to the same provider we've both seen multiple times over the past few months got flagged and nearly suspended my account until I sent an actual copy of the EOB. Huh?

As to Cigna: a CT scan (which usually takes everything but a signed paper from the Lord God Almighty himself to get certified--and then only after a few nasty phone calls from me and/or HR) breezed right through and was OK'd before I'd gotten home from the dr. appointment that ordered it.

I give up trying to figure this stuff out.

[the_geneticist]

I've had the recent pleasure of traveling to a place where hotels had bidets--one of the most pleasant inventions ever created.

And then I had to come home and resume walking around the planet with the same old gritty bunghole I've always had.

Life just ain't fair.

You can buy a bidet attachment for your toilet!  Doesn't need electricity, just a connection to the water valve.

[clean]

People are such  selfish assholes (and idiots)!

We are in a Hurricane Watch zone (which isnt small today!)   
I figured I would fill my smaller gas cans... just the 2 1/2 gallon one, not the 15 gallon one I COULD have used!

I go to the local 7-11 and what do I see?  2 pumps closed and one of the remaining pumps with an empty SUV and no one inside or pumping gas.   Where was this punchbag (because the spell check is bounce the other bag I was trying to use)?   Well, soon enough he comes out with a 12 pack of Mountain Dew!   So we are waiting for him to get his drinks!! 

Why not fill up, AND THEM MOVE THE FiretrUCKING SUV closer to the door so you would not ahve to walk as far AND THE REST OF US COULD GET GAS???

Worse, after this, my card would not work at the pump and I was having trouble with the spout on my gas can.  I remembered that it was problematic, so I went home and worked on it so that it would work... no sense in filling the container if I could not get the gas out!!   
I return to the same store.  Only pump available was one that gave me problems last time. Another car beat me to the pump I wanted.   Well, the pump I am at is still not accepting my cards.  But the lady on the other side of the pump, who just beat me to the lane is STILL in the car!! 
Well, I moved to the other side, got my gas, loaded it into the truck and was pulling out before she even got out of the car!   I guess her phone call was TOO Important for anyone else to use the pump!

I blame Buckies!!  The bigger ones have like 100 pumps.  People have no compunction with parking there, gassing up, using a potty, getting a drink, having a sandwich made, sampling fudge, maybe checking out the newest Buckies shirts and such, and ambling back to the car.