You Can't Get There From Here

I remember a bit they did on Candid Camera when I was a kid. They set up a roadblock and told motorists who approached and stopped that New Jersey was closed. I remember one guy told them "You can't close New Jersey! My wife and kids are in there!"

So last Thursday when we approached the barricade on Frinton Road on our way to see Mark's step mother and they told us that Holland-on-Sea was closed, I started looking for the hidden cameras. But of course there were none. Only official barricades and police officers.

Normally we don't take Frinton Road but we knew that King's Parade along the seafront was closed for a bicycle race. But when I asked how to get to Fleetwood Avenue, I was told you can't get there because the roads are closed until 2:30 pm. ALL of the roads into town were closed for a bicycle race. I asked what they would do if anyone needed an ambulance. "I don't know" was the reply. No point talking to anyone - this is just the kind of thing they do in England.

We parked the car and set off on foot. It took us about 40 minutes to get to her house. (We were warned that it was a long walk.) We'd planned to take her out for lunch but that wasn't going to be possible without a car. You can't expect someone in their late 80s to hike much past the end of their drive.

Along the way we talked with a few of the residents. Most of them were unhappy. One was trying to get to a doctor's appointment and had to abandon her car and attempt to get there on foot. Two had gone in to do some shopping and then found that they couldn't leave. A couple more were just unhappy that they wouldn't be able to go out and do anything until after the race was over and they were concerned that traffic would be backed up then because of all the people who were stuck. All in all, we talked to one old man who was quite happy with it. "What's the big deal? It's once a year and it's only for five hours." Our best guess is that he is on the Tendring District Council, the governing body that authorized closing down the town. We suspect they were probably paid handsomely for the privilege.

There are times at home when streets get closed down for races and other civic events, but I have yet to see an occasion when EVERY street going into a town is closed. It just wouldn't happen. You might have to drive a block or two out of your way, but you would be able to get in and out.

So in this particular instance, I'm glad we didn't stay at the Legacy Kingscliff. We would have been trapped in the town with no way out until after 2:30 and we had aimed to be in Hatfield about that time. I am often amazed at what the British are willing to put up with.

I Gotta Wear Shades!

I probably had the same sunglasses for 20 years. Then several years ago, I dropped them on the sidewalk and a bit fell off the frame. Darn it! I loved those glasses. I don't think I ever changed the prescription - but I could always see. I wore them everywhere! England. Greece. France. Ohio. - Gucci - sort of a lavender frame with a smoky purple lens.

I guess after all those years, the plastic was a bit brittle. Bottom line, I had to get new ones. I went for a pair of tortoise shell Ralph Lauren sunglasses. I hadn't worn them a month when I had to go back in to have them refitted. They just kept getting too big to stay on my face. After the third round of taking them back to be refitted, I decided that they should just replace them with something else because I didn't want to take the time to go to the mall every two weeks to have them adjusted.  Just too many other things I wanted to do. So I found a different pair. Similar look to the Ralph Lauren glasses but without the logos or price tag. But they also didn't need to be adjusted every two weeks.

But the problem was that the lenses had some kind of protective coating on them (that I no doubt paid extra for) that was crystallizing and making it difficult to see. Of course, this problem didn't develop within the first few months and when I took them back to complain, I was told that this was what happened when you left your glasses on the dashboard of your car. I have never left my glasses on the dashboard of my car. NOT EVER. I need them to see! I'm not sure how old these were because I lose track of time - (it really flies when you're having fun!) but no how, no way were they even close to ten or twenty years old. Three maybe. (I'd have to start looking at the date stamps on old pictures to see when they first made an appearance in my photos and I'm not inclined to do that right now.) Suffice it to say that I won't buy from LensCrafters again.

Well, you just can't live in Texas without sunglasses. So I got new ones back in February. Blingy ones by Bebe. Bought them from VisionWorks. 

It really doesn't bode well for these. They've already had to be replaced once because some of the bling fell out and even though I glued it back in, it didn't look right. And the young lady in the store told me that she was surprised they were no longer in stock because they were absolutely the cutest sunglasses ever. Quite frankly, I wasn't surprised. They were probably going broke replacing them when the bling fell out. And let's face it - these things are NOT cheap. Between the pair of regular glasses and sunglasses that I bought - I paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $800 - and that was buy one get one half off. It was my intention to have them replace the lenses in the tortoiseshell frames but the price they gave me to do that was in excess of $400. WHAT!! That's more than I paid for frames and lenses combined and now they want that much for just lenses? I guess I won't be shopping VisionWorks anymore, either. 

I'm a big believer in buying glasses where you can take them and have them refitted if you have a problem. Or if the prescription isn't quite right. But this time, I decided to have the lenses replaced on-line. It was a no-brainer, really. Over $400 versus less than $200. I already knew the frames fit. We just needed to get rid of those nasty lenses that couldn't even be cleaned and get some new brown lenses to go with those tortoiseshell frames and then I'd have a choice of brown or black.

I couldn't be happier with them. I won't hesitate to order online next time. (I used Lenses RX for anyone who's interested.) 

Who Makes These Rules??

Bladder infections can come on you quite suddenly. I realized I had one last Friday about 4:15 pm. My first reaction was to phone the doctor and ask for a prescription to be called in.

Nurse: We can't do that. You've got to come in and give me a urine sample. We're here til 4:30. Come in now.

Me: I can't get there before 4:30.

Nurse: Why? Do you live far away?

Me: I live in Celina.

Nurse: Ooh. That's far. You can't get here. Just go to any urgent care and they can fix you right up.

But what are the odds that I can go to any urgent care facility? I tried to login to the Aetna website to find out which ones I could go to but didn't have the patience to live through the "I forgot my password" routine so opted to phone them instead. (Time was of the essence!)

Aetna customer service told me that I could go to ANY urgent care facility. The young lady told me that the ER would cost me $75 and an urgent care facility would cost me $20. Aside from the obvious cost savings, it seems to me that you go to the ER when you are bleeding, have broken bones or are in serious pain. A bladder infection is annoying but it doesn't warrant a trip to the ER.

But while I was looking for an "urgent care near me", something kept nagging at me. Truth was, I just didn't believe I could go to ANY urgent care facility. So I called back. I spoke with someone different this time and I'm glad I did. I had to go with one that was "in network". And just let me say that Aetna has more than one network. I'm sure that creates an administrative nightmare for them, but I suppose it keeps people employed. There were no in-network providers in my zip code. Not a surprise. There's barely a grocery store in my zip code. (Give it a year or two, it will change!) But the choices being offered were Melissa (on the other side of the world), Lewisville (on the other side of the world and not even in the same county) and Frisco (about 20 minutes away - definitely the closest.) I took the number for the place in Frisco.

I called them only to find out that they were closing at 5:00 pm. By this time, I couldn't get there, either. I called Aetna customer service back for more options.

The other options got further and further away. It seems that if you are looking for an "urgent" care facility that you don't really want to drive over an hour to get there - even when you live in the boonies like I do. I asked why I couldn't go to one in McKinney. It was about the same distance as the one in Frisco. She asked if I'd like for her to get me an authorization to go to the one in McKinney.

Yes. If you can get it before they close for the day. They close at 8. I was starting to lose hope. Last year when I wanted to get an MRI without driving to another county it took them nearly a month to authorize it. Seriously. And I found out last week that after all that effort, they had denied payment to the facility that did the MRI.

I mentioned this to Mark, who was sitting across from me and the young lady at Aetna heard it. So now, instead of trying to get me an authorization to get medical attention that evening, she was telling me what happened a year ago.

Customer Service: The doctor never sent in the referral.

Me: The doctor referred me to someone who was out of network. I called you to find someone who was in network.

CS: But the doctor still has to submit the referral.

Me: Which doctor are we talking about? My primary doctor referred me to the specialist and the specialist ordered the MRI. Did my primary doctor need to submit a referral for the MRI?

It got completely confusing here. I still don't know how many doctors need to submit a referral for an MRI. But I do know that a year ago there was a month's worth of "to-ing and fro-ing" between Aetna, the doctors, and me. And that after all that someone still didn't get it right. And there are rules.

And apparently these same rules require that my primary care doctor submit a referral for me to go to an out-of-network urgent care facility. If my primary care doctor were available, I'd be going to him and wouldn't need an urgent care facility. Those are the rules.

I'm not sure what my exact words were. I think they were, "Do you know how stupid that is?" Then I was informed that I should have been informed about how limited the plan was before I signed up. Seriously, I was signed up by a salesman. The whole thing was great! Fabulous! Aetna's a great company but the deciding factor was that my primary doctor, my cardiologist, my dermatologist, my podiatrist and my gynecologist were all on the plan. I assumed that they would offer those other services, like imaging and testing in proximity to those doctors. I didn't expect to have to drive for hours for "urgent care."

But back to the problem. I seriously need to have a referral from my primary care doctor in order to go to an urgent care facility? Yes. Those are the rules.

Me: You must have those rules for a reason. Apparently there are vast numbers of seniors on Medicare turning up at urgent care facilities who don't actually require urgent care.

CS: No. I don't think that's a problem.

Me: Than I assume you made this rule just because you can - with the intention of denying me access to the care I need. And that goes for the referral on the MRI, as well. We went back and forth about that for a month and now, a year later, you're telling me that I need to pay for it and you'll reimburse me?

CS: You might find one of our other plans more to your liking.

Me: I might find another insurance company more to my liking, but probably not. But I'll tell you, I wish I had a recording of this conversation because I'd put it up on the internet so everyone could hear how stupid this is.

She offered to send me information on their other Medicare plans. As far as I'm concerned, the only thing Aetna has going for it is that it's NOT Humana or United Healthcare.

And the other thing that makes me really angry about this is that I'm still up for dealing with their BS. I'm not sure that people in their 80s and 90s can manage it as well, which puts them in a far worse position than I'm in for being taken advantage of by these "rules".

I'll Be Finished by Friday

We love our home. It isn't big. It isn't fancy. But it suits us. (Although sometimes I wish there was a way to make the dining room bigger.) Within the last dozen or so years, almost every room has been redecorated.  With one little exception - the laundry room.

A couple years ago I started trolling Pinterest for laundry room makeover ideas. I found lots of great ideas. I merged the ideas I liked into a master plan for a "new" laundry room.

• Cabinets - "This house has too much storage space" said no one, ever. The revamped laundry room would have cabinets - two corner cabinets, one on both ends of the corners (the side walls) and one in between the corners - over the washer and dryer. It will be a great place to store cleaners and such that are better off not stored under the kitchen sink. 
• Tile - The vinyl tile would be replaced with ceramic. 
• Walls and Ceiling - The walls would be a combination of bead board (painted white like the cabinets) and wallpaper (a black and white toile pattern was the original choice but when I started looking I chose a toile pattern that is more yellow and gray than black and white.) But most importantly, those DirectTV wires and cables that were left hanging between the wall and the ceiling would now be located behind the drywall. We also planned to remove a shelf unit in the living room that was built into the wall and protruded into the laundry room space. 
• Lighting - The room would have a chandelier - because well, why not?
• Drying Rack - A drying rack should be installed on the wall because the floor models take up too much room and because it seems impossible to buy clothing of a quality that can withstand a tumble in the dryer without turning into a crop top making line drying a necessity. 

The next step was to find someone to do the work. We have the skills but we don't have the time. We settled on someone from Mark's networking group. His price was reasonable and his timeline for the project was acceptable. (We were looking at about eight days.) He met with me and I showed him the different Pinterest pins so he would have a better idea of what I was after. He was ready to start the demolition within a matter of days. 

This project was started before we went to Ohio and South Dakota in June. I wanted the demolition done before we left. I've seen too many redos on HGTV where they tore down a wall and then it was "Oh My! I wasn't expecting THAT!". I just wanted to make sure that we were home for moments like that. This house was built in 1950 - there are plenty of things that weren't necessarily done to today's standards - and things that will make a contractor say "I've never seen that before." As an inspector, Mark is able to determine what needs to be changed. But once we got past the demolition phase, I was happy to have the work completed while I was away. 

But this is where it started to go wrong. The cabinets had been ordered from Home Depot. When they came in, I had been sick in bed for two days. The room was being demolished and not ready for them anyway. Then I got a text message from Home Depot telling me that said one of them was damaged and that I could call Customer Service or wait for them to call me (within 48 hours). Long story short - I was sick (like on my death bed) until the day before we were slated to leave for Ohio and didn't call them. They called me a week later (not 48 hours) so a replacement cabinet for the damaged unit wasn't ordered for a week. When it came in a week later, they had ordered the wrong cabinet and had to reorder it again. In the end, the cabinets weren't ready for pickup until the day before we got home from our three week trip. 

I had asked the contractor to send me pictures of the progress. I hadn't received any pictures and was a bit concerned but otherwise busy and assumed he was, too. The only communication I had from him was to let me know that he'd have to charge me extra for the wasted trips to pick Home Depot to pick up cabinets that weren't actually ready for pick up. I wasn't especially happy, but that's something I'll take up with Home Depot. 

I got home to find the laundry room as I'd left it. Another job he'd been charged with was to reframe the front door. He had cut out part of the framing and left it. He also let me know that he'd be able to pick up the cabinets on Wednesday. It was Saturday and they were available for pick up on Friday. 

I was confused. Why hadn't he completed the work on the front door? Why wasn't the room painted? Why hadn't the wall where the laundry room door is been redone? Why wasn't the ceiling painted? Why wasn't the bead board installed? And don't think I didn't ask. 

He told me he'd been waiting on the cabinets. Okay. Why? The only jobs contingent on the cabinets were 1. hanging the cabinets 2. fitting the shelf under the cabinets 3. laying the tile and 4. installing the light fixture. 

The other jobs - reframing the front door, painting the ceiling, painting the walls, putting up and painting the bead board, redoing the wall with the door, redoing the living room wall - all of these could have been done without the cabinets. Then he told me that he wanted to be sure to have a full day's work since it was so far. ("So far" is about a twenty minutes.) And those jobs looked to me like they'd take a full day - probably more than one - especially when your day starts around 10 am and ends around 4:30 pm. 

Aside from there being no reason not to do those jobs, it make sense to do all the painting before any cabinets or flooring was installed. (And there was absolutely no reason to cut half the framing off the front door and leave it exposed to the elements.) Plus if he'd done those things, he'd be finished now. But he didn't and he isn't.  

He picked up the cabinets on Wednesday and installed them the same day. I was a bit surprised by that. I would have painted the ceiling and walls first. But he put up the cabinets. He has yet to level the doors. One door hasn't been put on yet and some of the shelves haven't been put in. The fill for the gaps hasn't been done yet, either. 

I had asked for a time line. I wanted to know what would be done and when. Instead I got a message that informed me of the days and hours he would be working. But then in typical contractor fashion, on one third of the days indicated he was a no-show and the other days he was an hour late. When he didn't show up as scheduled last Saturday and then indicated that he would be coming Monday afternoon instead of Monday morning, Mark let him know that he needed to show up for a discussion of the project. That was this week. It was made clear that this project would NOT be lasting throughout the summer. 

That day he worked until 7 pm. But here's the surprise. He laid the tile. Still no paint. Still no repair of the door, Still no bead board. He said he would be back on Wednesday and that he would be finished by Friday. 

I truly didn't see how he would be done by Friday. Especially when he didn't actually show up on Wednesday. And now it's Friday. He left at 2:30 this afternoon and said he'd be back at 4 pm. And here we are - 5:00 pm on Friday. Where is he? He still needs to paint the bead board, he still needs to finish the living room wall, and reframe the front door, and frame the door to the laundry room, and paint the shelf, and trim out the cabinets and level the doors, and hang the new light fixture, and grout the tile, and seal the tile (which can't be done for a few days after the tile is grouted). Have I missed anything? Probably. I think it's going to look fabulous when it's done but I think that any future redo's will NOT be contracted out. 

Here's where we started and where we are now.

Before demolition. Not pretty.

After gutting it.

Good progress.

Still a good way to go. 

A Day at Wind Cave National Park

Wind Cave National Park has a cave and an abundance of wildlife. I have learned that all caves are not alike. This one features a formation called "boxwork" which is unique to this cave (according to the park ranger). We took the Garden of Eden tour, which is the shortest and least strenuous of the three cave tours offered by the park.

Boxwork visible in the lower right

Above ground we saw bison or buffalo, at fairly close range. (I thought I would learn the difference but they seem to use the names interchangeably in the Dakotas.) We also saw some antelope, although they were too far away to get any really good photos.

And it was much easier to get good prairie dog photos at Wind Cave than it was at Custer. They were just so cute. Love to have some as pets but they'd totally wreck your back yard. There are so many holes in the ground it's a wonder the buffalo don't trip.

A Day at Custer State Park

A fabulous drive through the Black Hills on the Needles Highway. I think it's called the Needles Highway because there were several places to drive through that looked like the eye of a needle - carved out of rock. A bit scary when you're in an F-250.

I pulled this photo off the internet. The photo I took had so many people standing around that you couldn't actually see the tunnel. But here's a shot I took of one of the needles from the other side of the mountain.

Lots of scenic views.

In addition to rocks, there was also a lake, We stopped at the restaurant on the lake for lunch before continuing our drive.

All sorts of wildlife! Bison, antelope, prairie dog towns, and wild donkeys. The donkeys were not shy about looking for snacks.

A Day at Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Mountain

I've seen pictures of Mount Rushmore since I was a kid but I'd never been there. It's something every American citizen should see, (along with Washington DC). If memory serves, it took about 14 years to complete it. In addition to the mountain itself, there are any number of exhibits about Borglum, the sculptor and designer of the monument. We didn't bother to view those because the information is all readily available on the internet.

I spoke with my sister who visited there a year or so ago and she told me she liked Crazy Horse Mountain better, so I was quite eager to go there. Several years ago, I read a book, The Heart of Everything That Is. It was about the struggle between the Indians and white settlers in what is now the Dakotas. And although the book focused on Red Cloud, Crazy Horse was a key figure in the book and I was interested to go and learn more.

The folks at Crazy Horse Mountain are very proud of the fact that unlike Mount Rushmore, they have not accepted any federal funds. (I don't know whether they were offered and turned down or whether they just weren't offered.) And that's not the only difference between the two mountains.

Mount Rushmore is a national monument. Entry is free but there is a nominal parking fee - $5 for seniors. At Crazy Horse, they say the parking is free but there is a charge for admission. Oddly the charge for admission is based on the number of people in the vehicle and there is no break for seniors. It cost us $22 to go in.

I was a bit disappointed with Crazy Horse. It was so far away you couldn't see it very well. They were more than happy to take you up to it by bus for a fee in excess of $100 each. That wasn't happening. (It turns out that there was a bus trip to the base of the mountain for $4 each but that one wasn't obvious. Lesson learned - do your research before rather than after the visit.)

My other issue is that the exhibits in the museum were more about the sculptor and his family than about Crazy Horse. Which I suppose parallels Mount Rushmore in that much is made of the sculptor,

When completed, or perhaps I should say, if completed (it was started in 1948) it will be the largest sculpture in the world. The scale of it is mammoth. It even includes his horse! But right now about all that's complete after close to 70 years is Crazy Horse's face. It's supposed to be a memorial to all Native Americans. However, I didn't see much evidence of tribal support. I got the impression that this started as the dream of Chief Henry Standing Bear and the dream was transferred to Korczak Ziolkowski and since Korczak died in 1982 the dream now belongs to his family. I guess what I'm saying is that I'd like to have seen more about Crazy Horse and less about Ziolkowski. But that's just me. Both mountains are worth a visit.

Mount Rushmore

Driving away from Mount Rushmore

Texas state flag at Mount Rushmore

Ohio info at Mount Rushmore

Large model of what completed Crazy Horse Mountain will look like.

Same model, different angle

Small bronze model 

What the mountain looks like now