Bathroom Electronics

I'm not that good with electronics. I'm okay with my phone and my computer but most other stuff mystifies me. (I still have to have Mark turn off the flash on my camera, nor do I have any idea how to use most of the buttons on the three remote controls we have.) I admit to being technologically challenged. So it's always a bit of a challenge for me when we travel to the UK because most of the showers fall into the "electronics" category.

Seriously, look at all the knobs, lights and dials on these things. And to make matters worse, sometimes it won't work unless you flip a switch on the wall or pull a cord attached to the ceiling. Not only that, as with most electronics, there seems to be no standard. Do any of these look alike to you?

It's really no wonder I have difficulty with them. I'm so glad I'm married to an engineer who can perform daunting tasks like turning on the shower and making sure the water temperature is right. God help me if they come up with an electronic toilet.

Bed and Breakfast and Dinner

We wanted to stop overnight near Standon so Mark could catch up with an old friend. He'd booked a room at the Kick and Dicky, a B&B that supposedly served food. It had good TripAdvisor ratings and the pictures looked very inviting. We booked it before we left Texas. When we arrived on Sunday afternoon at a construction site, we were a bit surprised. The proprietor told Mark that the room was available for sleeping, but no food. And he was very understanding when Mark said he wanted to look elsewhere. It looked nice before. Once it's renovated, it should be very nice.

We went on to visit with our friends and asked if they had any recommendations. The first country inn they recommended made it clear that they did not do food on Sunday evenings. The second place we called, The Chequers, also said they did not do food on Sunday evenings but that there were any number of restaurants within walking distance. That worked for us.

The room was nothing special. Not incredibly large nor remarkably small. Average on all counts - what you'd expect for a room over a pub. We ate dinner at the Royal Bengal which served exceptionally good Indian food. (All kinds of award stickers in their windows.) The next morning we missed breakfast by 15 minutes. If they'd have told us what time breakfast was served when we checked in, we might not have missed it.  Since we didn't want to head up to Manchester with empty stomachs, we walked down the high street in search of a cafe serving breakfast.

Since it was starting to rain, we went into the first place serving food. I can't remember the name of it. Which is lucky for them because I don't have anything flattering to say about the experience. You know how some restaurants (Denny's and IHOP, for example) show pictures of menu items? This place had a picture of every single menu item except for the side orders. I suppose it caters to people who can't read and need to point. The thing was that the pictures made the food look so bad that I didn't want to eat any of it. And from what I could see of the food on other peoples' plates, those pictures were fairly accurate. We had toast.

It Started with a Twinge

It started with a twinge, but it ended badly. And this just confirms my answer to that ER doctor last July who asked if I seriously wanted to inject my body with narcotics. That answer is a resounding "YES!"

I don't know if it was the long flight (not that long, really - landed over an hour early) or the drive from Clacton to Chatham in that uncomfortable Vauxhall (only a couple of hours) that caused the problem. Whatever it was, I thought I was prepared. I had the valium and the codeine that had been prescribed last July. When it became obvious that the twinges were going to escalate rather than go away, I started with the valium. When nothing happened, I added the codeine. When we arrived at Janet's, she encouraged me to throw a bit of something called sulfadene (not at all sure about the spelling, but it seemed a bit like Alka Seltzer) into the mix.

It was working fairly well but we went out to eat a bit late and before we'd finished our meal, the twinging started again. Back home for more valium, codeine and sulfadene. I woke up the next morning a bit unsure of how I felt. The original plan was to go shopping and have lunch at one of the newer retail centers near Chatham. After a piece of toast failed to squelch the nausea, I decided to lay down again for a while. This story doesn't get any better so let me shorten it for you. I spent the entire day in bed. Asleep. Waking up and consuming more drugs at appropriate intervals. I don't know what Mark and Janet ended up doing all day. They checked on me when it was nearing time for the evening meal. We were all going to meet up with Mark's aunt and uncle at a local Gurka restaurant. I thought I was feeling a bit better, but not really enough. I was afraid I'd get there and then someone would have to take me back home. Better to just stay home in the first place. I insisted that they both go. I wasn't going to do anything I'd need any assistance with. They should go and enjoy the evening. They went out and I went back to bed. I finally started to feel better just as they got back home - around 11 pm. But my entire day of sleeping didn't stop me from sleeping well all night.

The next morning it was like it never happened! So now at least I have confirmed that going to the ER when those pains starts is absolutely the right thing to do. If I could only figure out what causes it, I might have a better shot at prevention.

Judging Flight 78

Usually flights from Dallas to Heathrow are full. This one was half empty. I suspect it was because so many flights from the midwest had been cancelled that the people who would normally be on the flight were still stuck in Iowa, Colorado, and other places. I'm sure the airline wasn't particularly happy but I liked it better. It doesn't take so long to board and you have more opportunities to stretch a bit. Not to mention that the crew doesn't feel so hassled and are more pleasant. On the plus side, we were told we'd arrive more than an hour early. Usually this doesn't make any difference because there's no place to land and no place to park and you end up circling around until it's your scheduled turn. But not this time, again probably due to all of the east coast flight cancellations - plenty of room. I judge that as good.

While we were waiting to board, I noticed a very tall young lady - (you automatically notice anyone that tall - even if they aren't wearing an orange hat.) She was wrangling a roller bag and a backpack. She seemed to be managing them just fine. She managed to wheel and carry them all the way over to the service desk and stood around tending them until her wheel chair arrived. Did you get that? Her wheel chair arrived. I've seen people try all sorts of stunts to get on the plane ahead of other people, but this one takes the cake. Seriously, the woman looked like an athlete. But, who am I to judge? She may have problems that can't be seen. She was sitting several rows ahead of us, so I thought I'd just see what she did when she got to Heathrow. She got her bags down from the overhead storage bin and proceeded to exit the plane. Then when she was off the plane, she stopped to wait for the wheelchair. She still looked perfectly healthy to me. But perhaps she has a less than visible health issue. Maybe she's just lazy. Who knows? I found it odd, but I'm probably not qualified to judge.

So let me judge the entertainment. I'm qualified for that. Robert Redford's All is Lost was playing. We'd intended to see it when it was in the theatre but missed it. Oh boy am I glad I didn't pay good money to see that. See under the title where it says Never Give Up? I couldn't help it, I gave up. I didn't get the ear buds until about 10 minutes into the film, but from the synopsis I knew that his boat had been hit by a whale. I left it on for the next 10 minutes. Paint drying would have been more interesting. No dialogue to speak of and all I saw in the 10 minutes I watched was Robert Redford patching his boat, eating beans from a can, getting rained on and patching his boat again. There was a time when just looking at Robert Redford would have been enough. Those days are gone. (At least for me.) I waited a few minutes for the next showing of Last Vegas. It had a fairly preposterous plot, but at least it had one. And it had dialogue. Nothing fantastic, but pleasant enough and it was pretty much the only other movie I hadn't already seen.

Let's judge the food. Airline food isn't known to be high quality. It's not so bad in first class and business, but in coach it can be pretty bad. Mark had chicken and rice that he tasted and left on his tray. I had lasagne that I tasted and pushed around the tray a bit. The salad had too many shredded carrots, the roll was cold. There was a cracker and some cheddar cheese that I opted to save for later. The brownie was nice. Back in the day they used to give you a late night snack of Toblerone candy and shortbread cookies. That must be what pushed American Airlines into bankruptcy. They no longer do that - in fact they haven't done it for years, which is why I save my cheese and cracker. Then there's breakfast. Orange juice from concentrate. At least it was 100% juice. Then there was some yogurt with fruit, or maybe fruit flavoring. There was a croissant and some "Fresh Buttery Taste Spread" and some strawberry jam. The Fresh Buttery Taste Spread was 48% vegetable oil spread. It made me wonder about the other 52%. Unfortunately it's not a secret; it's water, soybean oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil and contains less than 2% of salt and butter. The rest of it is that stuff that is difficult to pronounce - things like monoglycerides, sodium benzoate, palmitate - stuff that grandma never put in her food. I was sorry I looked. I thought I'd feel better about the strawberry jam. But it had High Fructose Corn Syrup AND sugar. (Why do you need both?) At least strawberries were the number one ingredient. I'm a big believer in better living through chemistry - but I don't want chemicals in my food. I've got to judge the food as bad.

I can hardly wait for the trip back home. No breakfast. We're always given a "pizza" an hour or so before we land. It is served in a bowl with an exceptionally thick and doughy crust. Mark can't eat it at all. I find that if you limit yourself to spooning out the sauce and pepperoni, it is palatable.

The Quest for Affordable Healthcare - Part 8

I felt pretty good about going on holiday. Although I knew it was important to resolve the healthcare issue, I have an American Express travel policy that covers health care expenses when I'm more than 50 miles away from home. So before we left, I had a talk with God about the problem. I also exchanged some emails and voice mails with Gene, my long-suffering and very patient insurance agent. I also had an exchange, (skirmish might be a better word) with the federal employee assigned to handle my "complaint".

I'm not sure what happened, or how it happened and I'm certainly not going to ask too many questions - but yesterday I got a "welcome" email from Cigna. I tried to establish a login id and password just to see if they had me signed up for the right policy, but I was unable to do it. No choice but to phone. Toll free numbers aren't toll free when they're dialed from outside the United States. But I was very eager to resolve the issues, so didn't mind paying the charges.

The wait time was minimal. I was able to establish that they have me down for a silver policy and even though they seemed to have a credit card and a bank account on file, they had not charged either account. I authorized the charge. I was given a policy number and a payment confirmation number. I asked if it could start on March 1 since I'd already made other arrangements for February. I was warned that any changes would have to be sent back through "The Marketplace". Well, no. I would rather pay five premiums for the same month than have to deal with them again.

I believe this saga is over. I have made the March 15th deadline and my premiums will be about $30 per month less than what I'm paying now. My copays will be about the same but my deductible should be a bit smaller. I'll just have to wait and see on prescription drugs. I am much relieved. Thank God I didn't have to involve any of my "elected" representatives. As soon as I can print off a card, I'll be ready to do the "happy dance".

The Quest for Affordable Healthcare - Part 7

Yesterday I was so happy! I was braced for being uninsured as of tomorrow, February 1. But there in the mail was a notice from PCIP offering two more months of coverage for people who have not been able to buy new coverage through the marketplace. Hallelujah! My prayers were answered. I would be able to keep my existing plan until we could iron out the problems with the new application. But that was yesterday.

This is today. It is very clear on the letter I got from PCIP that I cannot buy their extended coverage if I have other coverage. Since the most recent application start date was supposed to be February 1, I needed to make sure that they hadn't sorted it out while I wasn't looking.  I checked with Gene, my agent, to see if anyone had been in contact with him. They had not. I decided to call the folks in Seattle to see how it was going. Once again, I spoke with Nora. I told her that I was trying to determine the status of things because I had a bit of a reprieve in that I could buy another month of PCIP coverage. She asked me what PCIP was.

"It's the Pre-existing Conditions Insurance Plan. They're extending it through the end of March." (She works for the Department of Health and Human Services. Why doesn't she know this?)

"Under the new law, all pre-existing conditions have to be covered. That is the new law."

"Yes, I know. Pre-existing Conditions Insurance Plan is the name of the policy. It is a part of the ACA but it rolled out ahead of the marketplace. I've had this coverage for over a year. It was supposed to end in December, but apparently I'm not the only one with problems, so they're extending it through the end of March." (Again, she works for the Department of Health and Human Services. I shouldn't have to tell her this.)

"You have to apply for coverage in the Marketplace before the end of March."

"Yes, I know. But I can't have coverage through PCIP and the Marketplace at the same time. They are very specific that I should only buy the coverage if I don't have other coverage."

By this time, I was ready to start pulling hair. Since I couldn't reach through the phone to grab hers, my own was at risk.

"I'm trying to see how we're progressing on solving the problem to determine whether I should send in the money for the PCIP extension."

She recapped her case notes for me. Once again getting most of the details wrong. I thought that by the time we hung up on Monday that she had corrected most of the errors. Wrong. She still had the original errors in her notes and she even added one. She had my agent's name down as James instead of Gene.

It's really difficult to get these federal employees to get to the bottom line. But we finally got to Nora's. Her bottom line is that she has transferred this out of her database. Someone in Dallas, Texas will handle it now. She couldn't or wouldn't say who. She said if I needed to follow-up on it that I should call Cigna customer service. She had instructed Cigna to research it, but that I should give it a couple of weeks.

Oh, are we back there? I've already spent hours on the phone with Cigna and they have no record of the silver application. And this woman thinks that because a "federal employee" has asked them to "research it" that it will suddenly appear. You know, I just don't believe in magic.

But for fun, I decided to call Cigna. Wait, that wasn't for fun. Some other word maybe, but certainly not fun. And just as I expected, no silver application has appeared. They've still got that bronze one, though. Although they assure me that as of tomorrow that will disappear. I'm not sure whether to believe them or not. They originally told me it would disappear on January 10th and it didn't.

All I know is that I've got until March 15th to get an application through that wretched Marketplace. And based on past experience, I'm not sure that a month and a half is enough time.
 


I swear this is starting to consume my life. I have cried more about this than two divorces. I'm even considering contacting my congressional representatives. They're supposed to help their constituents cut through the bureaucracy of the federal government. Which one should I call first? Ted Cruz or John Cornyn?

The Quest for Affordable Healthcare - Part 6

I was hoping there wouldn't actually be a Part 6. I was hoping that someone would call, I'd tell them what the problem was and they'd click "Delete" and "Enter" and we'd be good to go. But that's not what happened.

I got a call last Friday evening around 7:30. Of course, we were out for dinner so I didn't hear the phone ring. But she left a message asking that I phone back on Monday. I just got off the phone with her. I am now convinced that I will never have healthcare again until I can get on Medicare.

For starters, she is in the government "complaint" department. I tried to make it clear that I don't have a "complaint".  I have a problem. (Complaints need to be heard. Problems need to be solved.) In turn, she made it clear to me that she works for the Federal Government. (Imagine my relief!)

She said the information she received from the Marketplace was only a sentence or two. She was somewhat interested in how the problem came about. I gave her the quick and dirty version of what happened. But I don't think she got it. When she recapped it for me, she thought that I had the same agent for both policies. No. She did not understand that I applied on one day and paid on another. Hopefully, in the end she got those details right, although I'm not sure they are details that really matter.

She wanted numbers. Application numbers. (I don't have any.) Policy numbers. (I don't have any.) Receipt numbers. (I don't have any of those, either.) She plans to call my agent to get the policy names and numbers. At least this seems like useful information to have.

She told me she needed to do some "research". In my experience, "research" takes a long time. On February 1st, I will once again join the ranks of the uninsured. I have no idea how long she intends to research this.

Her plan is to call Cigna and tell them to drop the bronze application and process the silver one. I tried to tell her that Cigna has no record of the silver application. And once again, she reminded me that she works for the Federal Government.

I can't wait to see what happens next.