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I have Medicare A only and my Federal Blue Cross Blue Shield that I had while working and, as far as I know, Medicare hasn’t stuck its nose between my healthcare providers and my Blue Cross insurance at any time. Why would Medicare need to get involved?
I’m in the same situation, I only have part A and my Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal plan . Fepblue does not require you to take part B. If you retire after Jan 1 2024 , you are required to take part B under the new Federal program. Part A is free and is hospitalization only.
 
Thanks for the explanation on the terms. Mom had to start taking out $ when she turned 73. She also has Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield but was forced to have Medicare as the primary so they give her crap on things. They generally expect people to just give up, but if you are persistent it sometimes pays off. My brother has Medicaid and they are worse. He had a med they refused to approve for 6 months. They didn't deny it though so it was just stuck in limbo. Then the good pharmacist came back in town and convinced them to approve it. He's really good about stuff. Talked to him yesterday and he got my meds filled in 5 minutes after I got a new RX called in bc they wanted $200+ for 60 naproxen pills. He got the generic for $13. He also explained that it was the code that caused the other one to be too high. Makes no sense.

Going to get Mom bloodwork again to send it in to Medicare so they can stop saying the info isn't recent enough. If they still deny the pump I want to at least change the type of insulin she takes to something more efficient.

I missed the eclipse. I think it was raining. I just had total brain freeze. LOL.
 
I don't even know what an RMD is. Retirement something?

Blueskyhigh, glad they took care of more of the ulcers in your wife. I learned the hard way not to take too many NSAIDs. I used to be taking like 1200mg of Ibuprofen at least 2x a day for years. I had (and still have) chronic pain. Don't get the migraines as much now though.

I've forgiven Mom and am not mad about the tax forms. I've blamed other people (but not said anything to them about it) for stuff going missing before and then found it. I know how it can go. I forget where I put things all the time.

Meanwhile, I'm about to lose my mind over the stupidity of Medicare. They approved of the insulin pump but now reneged and will not approve it and I'm trying to explain to the diabetes place that the type of insulin Mom takes is the equivalent of taking more than 3 doses a day. They keep changing what the requirements are to get approval and its pissing me off. I will have to either call Medicare or talk to the NP who prescribed the pump. I also explained that she's on a CGM so she has her sugar checked constantly and that the type of insulin she takes is not working properly which is why she needs the pump paired with the CGM.

Also, the AC keeps not cooling until I flip breakers off for a few seconds and then wait several minutes before telling the thermostat to turn it back on. Not sure what is up with that.

Need to get the car AC fixed in the CR-V as well. Saw my brother driving out with the window down as I was heading back from the pharmacy.
RMD is Required Minimum Distribution, the FED gov MAKES retirees pull a certain % of their $$$ out of retirement accounts, each year, to tax them on it, if enough $$$'s to make it taxable...... just another way the gov steals $$$'s from the little guy......
 
Friend called me today. He owns a 4 plex apartment with a common laundry room. He was told this morning there was an inch of water in the laundry room. I went over to help clean up, but couldnt find the source. We ran a load of wash, and removed the wet insulation cover on the 100 gallon water heater. No water was under the washer. We then ran water in the adjoining apartment but that was dry. We then saw a trickle of water coming from under the water heater. It was a Rheem built 9/04, so he got 19 years on it. I told him to call a plumber. The water heater was $3900, and $1800 to install it. Holy crap!
Glad it is not my money!
What are your prices for a 100 gallon w/h, and what is your normal install price?
 
Friend called me today. He owns a 4 plex apartment with a common laundry room. He was told this morning there was an inch of water in the laundry room. I went over to help clean up, but couldnt find the source. We ran a load of wash, and removed the wet insulation cover on the 100 gallon water heater. No water was under the washer. We then ran water in the adjoining apartment but that was dry. We then saw a trickle of water coming from under the water heater. It was a Rheem built 9/04, so he got 19 years on it. I told him to call a plumber. The water heater was $3900, and $1800 to install it. Holy crap!
Glad it is not my money!
What are your prices for a 100 gallon w/h, and what is your normal install pr
 
The eclipse was totally AWESOME !

The moon casts a 90-mile wide shadow, through which you can see stars in the sky in mid-afternoon. It's not full darkness, the sun is still lighting the ground all around the horizon beyond the edges of that shadow. Instead of a sunset in the West, it looks like a sunset 360° all the way around the horizon.





360° Spherical View. Click&Drag to rotate to any viewing angle.
 
@Zanne have you got those taxes done?
Yes! Well, Mom actually did them, but I doublechecked to make sure stuff was right and got her state taxes submitted. She'd already submitted her federal taxes. It looks like she might not have to print them out and send them this time around. I hope that is the case at least.

Brother finally got the correct W2s so I'm trying to get Mom to show me how to fill in the tax stuff. Mom used to volunteer to help people with their taxes at the US embassy in Singapore when we lived there. They had a special program Ambassador Huntsman set up so people who didn't know how to do their taxes had some help. He even held a mini awards ceremony and gave out hand-written cards that his wife did in calligraphy for each of the volunteers.

It's been raining a lot so I've been brainstorming on my lightsaber project and doing sketches and stuff. Took Mom to get bloodwork again so hopefully Medicare will stop dragging tail on approving her insulin pump. She is super impatient about her sugar coming down or coming back up and she took 60 units instead of 30 and then had to fight to keep her sugar in safe range. My brother and I both told her to stop taking too much insulin and to be patient and wait at least 30min for stuff to take effect. She's never been very patient.

I'll need to make a samsclub trip soon to get more water and cat food.
 
Waiting for the cryo-surgeon and her “cooling” mist.

Follow up: Twenty five actinic keratoses destroyed but she found a potential candidate, basal cell, for a MHOS surgery on my ear. She mused that I could get a walk-on part for an elderly Mr. Spock if the biopsy came back positive and they have to dock my ear like a great Dane.
 
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The eclipse was totally AWESOME !

The moon casts a 90-mile wide shadow, through which you can see stars in the sky in mid-afternoon. It's not full darkness, the sun is still lighting the ground all around the horizon beyond the edges of that shadow. Instead of a sunset in the West, it looks like a sunset 360° all the way around the horizon.





360° Spherical View. Click&Drag to rotate to any viewing angle.

Very cool. What was your location?
 
Very cool. What was your location?
We were lucky with the weather. It was pouring rain and solid overcast when we woke up. But the edge of that weather system moved away to the East just in time to open up blue skies for the eclipse. There were only a few very high wispy clouds, which I think even helped, as the black shadow in the sky in the clouds was that much more obvious.

Too bad you can't see it in my videos, with a better camera it would show the stars visible all around. And my eyesight alone wasn't good enough, but with even just a pair of binoculars you'd see the red solar flares extending out past the edges of the moon.

We were on the North shore of Lake Erie, near Long Point. If I ever get the chance to do this again, next time we'll make certain to be on the centreline (blue line) of the path of totality. About 100 miles across, anywhere between the red lines in this image was within the path.

But our location, as far South as we could conveniently reach, was still only halfway between the edge and the centreline. You can see the result in the 360° video. Looking South out over the lake, the dark shadow reaches nearly to the horizon, whereas to the North behind us there was still a good bit of blue sky. If we were at the centreline, that dark disk would have been evenly distributed all around us.

Partial eclipses are pretty cool. But if you can get within the path of totality, that's an entirely different experience! It was wicked awesome!

EclipseSpot.jpg
 
It only sprinkled a little today and then was clear. I went to the post office and then up to Samsclub to get a curbside order. Ordered Chinese takeout with the app and picked up the food after my curbside order was brought out. Went straight home, fed the cows, unloaded stuff, and brought food to Mom. She's already had seconds.

I nagged my brother to make sure he got his tax info to her so she filed his federal taxes for him. I forget what she is still waiting on for his state taxes. I confirmed that her state taxes were accepted without having to send anything via mail.

Opened my package-- a shirt that was sent 2 weeks ago from China. It is not the same shirt shown in the product photo, but I actually like it better than the one in the photo.
This is the product photo:

1712973037623.png

This is what it actually looks like (had my brother model it bc he sucks at taking pictures and I don't like having my picture taken)
1712973104942.png1712973141952.png1712973187209.png
It clearly does not have the blue collar. It does not have buttons. The V comes down farther, and it came with a string to lace up the holes but I didn't put it in yet. It also says it is 3X but it feels like a 2X.
I'm planning to modify it to look more like a Jedi under-tunic anyway. At least it seems better quality than the other shirt I ordered (which is softer material but has some really cheap sewing).
 
Just received a notification that my SSN was found in use on the Dark Web probably as a result of that AT&T data breach a while ago. The report included the name, address and phone number of the person potentially using my info. How does one proceed?
 
Usually, when your information is compromised, the company responsible must adhere to strict policy and provide free credit monitoring. I have been compromised twice, so I have a daily report from Experian, and also have a free account from ID Theft, from True Identity where I have locked up my credit report and disallow any credit reviewing, except for me. This way, nobody can add a new account, or credit check, until I release the lock.

Honestly, I believe at this point, the dark web has everyone's SS#'s, so all you can do is change all your passwords into extremely difficult passwords, cancel any credit cards you have not used in awhile, and lock up your credit....then wait.
 
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