3-24-2017 - Donuts & Friday

Good morning. A little misty here as the last of the early morning rain moves south. The weather folks are calling for temps in the high 60s today. That is just crazy after having snow Wednesday.

Just house cleaning on my agenda for today.

Noel, I hope the girls love the movie. All of the "big girls" loved it when we went.

Psst....I was the only one who noticed the significance of Belle's dress in the final ball scenes. Look at the pattern closely. At first I thought it was odd compared to the dresses of others. Then I had a huge aha moment. Had to explain it to my friends after we left the theater.

Good morning......our "winter advisory" overnight warning resulted in a drizzle of rain, and 34* this a.m. It is cloudy, overcast, a bit foggy, the snow that happened thurs. has melted, or been done in by the drizzle.

Hope to get some impt. stuff accomplished today....who knows? LOL

RS: thanks for the tip on Belle's dress. I love Disney insiders and always look for hidden Mickeys. Have a great day.

Poirot: hope you finish your important to-do list today and start your weekend fresh.

Morning all.

Busy day ahead. Will she get it all done????? The clock is running. Bwhahaha. I am so glad it is Friday. It has been a very rough week.

Sadly, I need to move on to the 45 second commute to the office. But I have a snoring poodle in my lap. I may be a little late today as who really wants to disturb a poodle? Isn't that like 7 years bad luck??

Happy Friday.

Poirot, good luck getting things accomplished. I'm still sitting at my kitchen table instead of cleaning.

Robin, sleeping dogs and cats are so sweet and calming. A great way to start the work day. You have my 3 minute drive to the office beat.

Noel, I only spotted 2 Mickey shapes in the movie, and they were shadows. I'm sure there were more that I missed, but there were none in Belle's dress. You'll have to wait to see what is there.

Morning Everyone,

Another crazy busy day at work for me.

And it's still rather cold, but not as bad as the past few days. Rain/freezing rain is in our forecast for today.

Gena stars spring break today, so she's spending the day at the Boys & Girls Club. She'll be there next week too, except for Tuesday, when she and I will have a fun mom & Gena day. Which reminds me, I need to make an appointment for our pedicures on Tuesday.

Noel - enjoy the cooler weather and the movie.

RS - I'll have to check out Belle's dress whenever I get around to watching the movie.

Poirot - hope you get your important stuff done

Robin - Sleepy puppies sounds like a perfect reason to be late for work.

Happy Friday Everyone!

We will be clear and near 70* today. Going to try to take it easy. Had a rough couple of days participating in my much-loved aunt's funeral.

I have to shovel out the living room in anticipation of a Sunday birthday party for my son.

Got hospital bill for my minor outpatient surgery. The OR services were $16,000! The semi-total (so far) is about $29,000. And I didn't get a bill from the surgeon, yet. This is unconscionable, in my opinion, and illustrates cost-shifting. I am grateful, of course, that most was insurance-covered. Thinking back, it's no wonder that my 2 personal nurses were so attentive.

I need to get caught up on the Spectator, now. Enjoy the day, everyone!

PS: Finished watching last season's "Designated Survivor;" I am now hooked!

Manda: the only positive about a crazy workday is that time seems to fly by quickly. Hope that is true for you today. Your Mom & Gena day next Tuesday sounds like great fun. Freezing rain means be extra safe today. Have a fun Friday night at home.

RS: I will definitely pay attention to Belle's dress tonight.

AGuy: so very sorry that your beloved aunt passed. May God comfort you.

Hospital costs have risen under the healthcare plan, but not salaries for medical staff. Doctors can charge any fee and usually do. In Arizona, we have only one exchange and premiums/deductibles rose 125% last year. Thank goodness your I insurance paid part, but still, that is astronomical for outpatient surgery.

AGuy, I got my MRI bill yesterday for my liver scan, it was $2414.00. So two thousand four hundred and fourteen dollars. Okay, So they write off $1411.37, it is an ADJUSTMENT. Now you are just confusing me. Insurance paid $676.76. So six hundred seventy six dollars and seventy six cents. My bill is less than $200.00. I feel like the stores that quietly raise prices then have a "sale" so you end up paying the original price.

I simply do not understand insurance and health costs.

Good day. I made a quick trip to Walmart this morning for a few things. I unloaded my cart and went to put it in the cart corral. I noticed another cart had a bag in the kiddie seat and I could see something was in it, along with a receipt. I thought maybe someone had opened the merchandise and left the trash, but I checked anyway. It was someone's prescription medication in a pharmacy bag (I could hear the pills rattling when I shook the bag). I took it back inside to the pharmacy so they could contact the person. I know from experience how expensive medicines can be and necessary, too. I don't put stuff in the top of the cart anymore, because I've done the same thing and forgot to check. Hopefully the person gets his/her meds.

Take care.

In the past, I have found a woman's purse in the cart, a man's wallet, and even a book of traveler's checks lying in the street. Also, once a bag of groceries, that the store got surprised I returned to them. (I contacted the Purse owner and wallet owner myself. Took the travelers' checks to the police dept.

I have never left anything in a cart, so it is surprising to see some do so. not sure how that happens when one pushes a cart back to the corral. LOL

In my case, I put something in the top of the cart, got outside and realized I hadn't put it on the counter. I had to go back in and pay for the item. In the case today, the plastic thing that blocks the leg holes for the kiddie seat had fallen on top of the bag. I came up from the side and saw it, so maybe that's the reason.

Noel, I should have placed OR in quotation marks, because the area in question was just a small area the size of a three-walled ER parking space. Local anesthesia. I would like to see something Draconian done about cost-shifting.

JasonD mentioned Jigsaw from the "Saw" movies in Thursday's summary, which made me think of "Circle", too. Jordi Vilasuso (Dario) was in "Circle". Yep, I watched it again, lol.

Good evening. I finally made it to Wal-Mart for the prescriptions and some groceries this afternoon. Medical costs were a subject for me today too. At Walmart pharmacy they told me my husband's two glaucoma drops prescriptions were going to be $450. I nearly went into shock! Although we've been very blessed with Medicare and our supplemental for doctors and hospitals, we don't have any prescriptions coverage.

When we first got on Medicare we were both healthy and didn't take any medications, except for my thyroid, which is inexpensive. So we didn't feel a need to pay the extra for prescription coverage. But not long afterwards the husband got diabetes and glaucoma, both of which require ongoing medications. Now I'm told it would be so expensive to cover him for prescriptions, it wouldn't pay out.

So I've been paying $170 a month for the one eye drop, and about $50 for the other. When they told me today the total for the two would be $450, I tried to find out what had happened. Finally, one of the consultants figured out that when the prescription was renewed, it somehow got filled at 5 ml instead of the 3 ml I had been getting. I asked her to change it back to the 3 ml. It won't make any difference in the long run but somehow, paying $450 for two tiny bottles of eye drops at one time is psychologically overwhelming to me. As if $170 for one tiny bottle isn't enough already!

A. Guy, sympathies to you on the loss of your dear aunt. I hope your son's birthday party will bring some cheer your way.

I ran out of time and didn't make it to the other town to sign our taxes. Just as well. I was so ready to get home. It was in the 80s* but the wind was blowing hard again today, with dust mixed in. The sky was a dingy color in every direction.