slightlv
slightlv's JournalI had a completely frazzled day of MA surprises...
Hubby had a heart attack back in early October. Had to research my notes to track this down, thanks to memory overload at the time.
TODAY... November 20th, I received a physician's bill from the Hospital, an online notice of payment due to the Hospital for it's costs (of which I've never seen an invoice), and upon opening the mailbox late this afternoon, lo and behold there was an invoice for the initial ER costs AND a "Set off" on an ambulance ride to which I'd never received an invoice. All total, this afternoon cost me over $1000.00 in *covered* Medicare Advantage costs. Never before had we been hit like this, and this wasn't hub's first heart attack!
In addition to that, our Property Taxes increased by close to $500 each period (2 periods), and that was $1100.00 Talk about frazzled, frustrated, and freaking out right now!
It's obvious now that the MA plan we signed up on last year didn't come anywhere near to meeting our needs this year. Your health can change on a dime, so it's always a "best guess" when picking a plan, anyway, IMO. And I'm scheduled for a serious sit-down with my MA consultant tomorrow. I will gladly let her do the research and present me with the options...
I think what freaked me the most today, was the unexpected billings and "late notices" on invoices I never received. What the crap is going on with these billing departments?! They can't be any more responsive with notices *to me* than 6 weeks? and then act like I've been doing the File 13 with them? Talk about being offended!!! but they sure want ME to be quick responsive with MY money TO them.
All I can say is, "so much for Thanksgiving!" Luckily, we didn't have any plans and grandson is meeting his girlfriend's parents for Thanksgiving. They're getting pretty serious. He gave me a hug last night and told me, "Grandma, we don't have much money but we share it between us.. and besides, we've got something better... we've got love." And yes, I hugged him back with tears in my eyes. Sweet kid that he is.
Now I think I'm going to sequester myself somewhere quiet and have a good cry. Just need to decompress from the day and try to put the anxiety towards the back of my mind for now. Corporations will get their money when they get it. Hea... if they wanna talk at me like I'm a deadbeat, who am I to dissuade them?! (LOL) But I can already see that healthcare is going to be not only more expensive, but totally fracked up for the foreseeable future. Hang on to your hats, guys... it's gonna be a bumpy ride!
Okay... now this is giving me goosebumps (and maybe hope?)
During Samhain, my HP and his wife (our covensib) ended the night with readings... specifically on rump... his future... and, most important to us at the time, when we *begin* the rebuilding (including any Reconciliation committees).
We saw pretty much what has been happening so far, even to the EF vote being in our favor, but coverups to keep things hidden happening afterwards (okay... I don't think any of us really needed cards to know that latter part! lol)
But here's my hair-raising memory... in rump's spread, it showed a Knight (can't remember if Wands or Swords), in the place of "influence of others on the situation."
NOW we hear Vindman has the receipts on rumps call to MBS about Khashoggi? I think we know who that Knight is, now! And what an honorific to represent him! Couldn't be more appropriate.
Had a chance to blow off a little steam today...
It's been a busy, hard week for me. Absolutely normal one for most people... but I'm still fighting my walking pneumonia, and the fibro symptoms that have been exacerbated by it. So... today, I'm working in the kitchen. Planning to make a beef stew and having to clean dishes, cabinets, as well as restack shelves of plastic containers in precarious positions, etc. as I go. IOW, everything being very disjointed, just like my back! 
Anyway, I got a phone call from a number I didn't know. Normally, I blow those completely off. Hubby cleaned out our bank account once after getting scammed, and I came too close once on my own. I answered "Hello" while having both hands concentrated on my dutch oven of soup. When no one answered after a few minutes, I just said "goodbye" and went to disconnect. The guy immediately hollered after me that he was there, and identified himself as someone to do with "energy savings" work being done in my neighborhood. To say I absolutely didn't want to get onto an extended "no way" conversation, I stopped him in mid-sentence and let loose.
First, I told him I'm sorry that he has to do this work, but my family (like most of those around us in this elder neighborhood) are subsisting the best we can. Normal living expenses like utilities, etc., have skyrocketed on top of the ever-increasing greed of those in charge of food prices, not to mention healthcare prices.
I told him until this country came to its senses and got rid of trump, one way or another, and turned away from fascism, we were ALL screwed... young, middle-age, and elderly. There's just some of us getting hit worse than others. I told him I didn't know if he earned more than minimum wage, but that my bet was he was as hungry for democratic normalcy as the rest of us are. But until we shook ourselves out of this dystopia, I would not be spending money on anything that "sounds like it would be a good idea" or even that I see we needed, unless it was a dire emergency. I closed off with "get rid of trump, or your company will probably find itself on the way out, too." And THEN I hung up.
I don't normally do this, but come on... people are hungry and trying to survive the best they can and don't need to be strong armed into something they don't need right away. I know for a lot of people here, this may not be an issue. But after as close as I came to being scammed because of a job application *through a headhunter* and my husband completely clearing out our bank accounts to the "FBI agents" who called him, I have a deep-seated ill feeling towards these kinds of marketing calls. It's not exactly apples vs apples, but close enough. We elders are holding on for dear life. Between meds and food, many of us are barely keeping our heads above water.
I have to admit that upon hanging up, I felt a sort of catharsis. Don't know if that makes me a bad person or not... just a fed up one!
While he's taking food from kid's mouths... intent on cutting off
health care for everyone but the very rich (who don't need insurance), and otherwise terrorizing and hurting the majority of Americans... all in a revenge rage because he knows he honestly lost all the elections he supposedly won... trump wants us to know today that he's finished his remodel of the White House Lincoln bathroom.
Can you be any more tone deaf that this man?
Edited to add the URL, which has pics!
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-ornate-lincoln-bathroom-remodel-214343169.html
I just want to wish everyone here
a very blessed Samhain. May the coming year bring us joy, and an increase of sharing and caring among all the people of the Mother. May the Lady bless you and yours, as you seek to hang on to the love, mystery, and magick of this world and the world between the worlds. And may we see the passing away of the evil in our midst. So mote it be!
Normally by this time of the month (I believe) I get a notice in my bank account
that my annuity is going to be paid out on the 1st of the month (which is exactly when I should be paid, according to the Feds). I think they're holding on to my check to gain interest on it for themselves between the time they get it and the time they release it to me, but that's another issue altogether. By heartburn and worry is...
This is 10/27. I have received NO notice from the bank yet. Normally, I think I'd have received it last Saturday, or today at the latest. But I may be remembering wrong because of my ending stress of when trump is going to work towards killing off us elderly. I don't remember my annuity being affected during other shutdowns, no more than my SS checks were. But damn it, my memory marbles just let one year glide into another without a lot of memory specificity... and it's driving me crazy! Does anyone else here on DU get an annuity from the DoD or other branch of the Federal government? What's your experience, and have you heard whether or not this shutdown will kill it? I could sure use someone talking me (gently) down from the ledge...!
Found this Craft song I'd like to share...
I fell in love with Gypsy's music from the very first album I heard her, Magick. But I just discovered she's got 2-3 other albums, and I'm crazy about this one called Spirit Nation - Blessed Be with Love from Salem.
So, in honor of that new album (which will soon be coming to me!) I give you this link. May we Pagans here bond over it and find strength in this uncertain, hostile territory we find ourselves in once again. Together we ARE stronger than they are.
We Won't Wait Any Longer
Gypsy
Not exactly a Pet post (tho I could do a bunch of those!)
but I experienced the most amazing thing last night. Ended up being a late evening doing grocery shopping. It was probably 8:30 when I got home. Dark, just a light breeze blowing through the trees. My house isn't fancy... it's one of the post WWII housing neighborhoods (at least, that's what it looks like to me.) The house desperately needs painting and repair work, and hubby is doing his best with the yardwork, as I'm unable to help him. But you have to understand... we didn't buy the house *because* of the house. We bought the house because of the trees. We have a plethora of trees in our yard. All kinds of trees... oaks, maples, evergreens, bradford pears, white birch. We've got a crabapple tree and a walnut tree. We really don't have much of a yard... it's all trees!!! (LOL) The cops came by once and bitched that we needed to cut down all the trees on the street side of our house. I looked at them like they were crazy. Told them did they ever think we bought the house BECAUSE of the trees?! And no one needed to be peeping into my laundry room at any point in time. The trees were staying. That's the last I heard of that, thank goodness!
Anyway, I was sitting out on the porch, feeling the earth beneath my feet and for a few moments enjoying the feeling of centeredness, when all of a sudden a cacophony erupted around me. First one owl hooted, and then another, and another one answering one of those. In all, grandson and I counted 5 separate "voices" of owls. They were all Barred Owls, and I never saw one as it was way too dark, but I sat out there and listened to them having the most amazing conversation among themselves. And you know what? For over an hour, I never once thought about trump, miller, or any of the evil that's happening globally. I just kept my feet firmly planted on the good earth and gave myself over to the hooting of the owls. I even tried hooting, myself! I did much better at the ending trill than I thought I would... it seemed like at least one owl might actually have hooted back at me!
As enchanted as I was by them, I made sure all my cat babies were safe in the house, and I gave a walkaround the house just to make sure there were no other small creatures who could become prey. Voles and moles were on their own, tho, I'm afraid...
I'm not sure where this should go... it's on Yahoo News... is that ok?
Here's the link: https://www.yahoo.com/news/videos/schools-oklahoma-being-warned-risk-093843050.html
Header: Schools in Oklahoma are being warned they risk “violating the law” if they don’t establish a Turning Point USA chapter on campus.
A leading MAGA education official has announced plans to establish chapters of Turning Point USA, the conservative organization founded by slain MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk, in every high school across his state. Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters unveiled the proposal on Tuesday and warned schools would be punished if they refused to take part. “For far too long, we have seen radical leftists with the teachers union dominate classrooms and push woke indoctrination on our kids,” Walters said in a video posted to social media.
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Nothing more on it as of now. I honestly don't doubt this, and wouldn't be surprised to see the same migrate up here to KS. I just really want to see TOS or one of the other Satanist churches go wild with this. TPUSA can best be described as an afterschool offer, just like bible classes and crafts classes. We have to really start pushing back against this crap and do it fast and hard.
The No Kings rally I attended today in KS
started "officially" at 10am. There was a huge crowd already gathered there by 9am, and we had quite a ways to walk to get to the park where it was held. I was overwhelmed. Unofficial count was 2000+ people. There were old people, like me, there... many of us carrying signs about SS, Medicare, and Medicaid. There were young families with kids. And every age in between. I discovered at one point there was a line of counter protestors who had ringed the park... and then been dispersed by the law enforcement. LE's and organizers passed out bottles of water (which I gladly accepted in this heat!)... and we started off the rally with all of us saying what is basically the first part of any oath of office. At the end, many of us shouted out why we there, in particular, to protect. Everything from democracy to women's rights. It was a wonderful experience! The energy was fantastic among the crowd, and everyone was so friendly. Even tho we'd driven in from another city to be there with them. We had lived in the rally city about 20 years ago. And I was so shocked and amazed at how much that little city had grown... with huge buildings and new roads everywhere. It was totally confusing! The one thing I really wanted to do was go by our favorite Bar-b-cue place after the march, but we ended up going around in circles trying to get the right direction to travel to get to it! Meanwhile, the roads were completely packed, and not only did most of the cars honk in solidarity with us, but many of the 18 wheelers did, too. I have to admit, after about 3 hours, my old nerves were getting a bit frazzled by all the noise. How different it was for me from when I used to do this all the time, 50 years ago! Right now, we're planning on joining them again on the 4th of July.
I had a problem with the heat.. getting overheated and, once I got home, sick to my stomach. Probably a jumble of both nerves letting down and heat sickness. We'll know what better precautions to take next time.
I took pics, but I'll admit I'm probably one of the worst photographers anywhere! (LOL) Besides, I seem to have a real problem trying to post pics here correctly, no matter how many have tried to help. Suffice it to say, imagine a warm day with a great breeze blowing through a verdant park, in the middle of which is a wonderful little fishing lake. Music from the age of the rallies of former days was played over the loud speaker. John Lennon's Imagine, Buffalo Springfield's For What its Worth, and so many others! Dogs, both large and small, joined in on the festivities, as well. And I dare say, a good time by all was had - except for the disappointed counter protestors. To be so summarily turned away when just a few years ago they had the world by the tail and at everyone at their beck and call. Hopefully this will be a turning point for our country. Not since the days of Viet Nam have I seen so many protesting the government like this. And, except for the magats who purposely ran down rally goers with vehicles, or assassinated our state leaders, I do believe this is only the beginning of what trump can expect until he either dies or is ripped off his "throne". We still stay silent no longer. And we do NOT give him consent for any of his malicious policies.
I'm headed back to lay down and try to settle my stomach a bit more. So this is probably it for me until tomorrow. I'm anxious to see what kind of numbers other cities report. I just read 8000 in Austin. Way to go, Austin! Another city I once called home.
I'm proud of all of us... those of us who lent our signs, voice, and presence to the rallies, and those who had to stay back and send thoughts and energies towards us. I do believe we done good today!!
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Gender: Do not displayHometown: Kansas
Home country: USA
Current location: Kansas
Member since: Mon Dec 14, 2020, 09:27 AM
Number of posts: 7,196