Double Edged Sword

I’m having mixed feelings about this ‘being retired’ part of life.

After more than 40 years of working with other people, for other people, having them determine when I need to arrive at work, when I can leave, and what I have to be doing while I’m at work, I really love the freedom of determining my own schedule and working out my own time table. I no longer have to be at 5 to be at work by 7; now I get up between 7 and 8, and usually don’t have any place I need to be. I have some control over who I see, when I see them and what I do with them.

On the other hand, now that I have no one else to decide what I will do each day, I have to do that myself. After all, I’m retired, not dead. But I won’t last long if I don’t stay active and engaged, both physically and mentally.

So I decided to start my own business. I really didn’t have any money to spare to set it up, just a few dollars here and there, so it was going to involve a lot of hard work. And it does. Every morning when I get up, I have to decide what parts of my never-ending list of things to do I will tackle that day. And there are times when I wish I had somebody who would tell me which items have a higher priority, which items are worth my time and which are not.

So I plug along, learning new skills, and trying to make the best use of my time.

Still, when the mood hits me, I take the afternoon off and go see a movie. I think that might be the best part about being retired.

Working Around the Insurance Companies

A friend is on vacation this week, and she’s having fun, despite having to shave some of her medications every 2 or 3 days. Here’s the deal;

She has medical insurance through her former employer, the same medical insurance she had while she was working, but since she’s retired, the actual insurance company has changed. Apparently, this new company wants to ‘save’ every penny it can. No matter what the cost to the people who rely on them for help with medical bills.

My friend was diagnosed many, many years ago with chronic depression. After taking antidepressants and getting counseling for several years, she felt she had it under control and her doctor helped her wean herself from the antidepressants. She did well for over a decade.

Almost a year and a half ago, she realized the depression had snuck back into her life, and she asked her doctor to prescribe some antidepressants. There were some new ones available that he thought might be a good fit, the insurance company (at that time, the old one) had no problems approving them.

The insurance company changed, and the friend felt that particular antidepressant wasn’t working well, so her doctor changed her prescription. The insurance company threw up all sorts of road-blocks; ‘This drug is a level 2, and should not be prescribed without a clear indication this strong a drug is needed’, and who knew what else. Happily, her doctor and pharmacist argued with the insurance company on her behalf, and eventually, she got her new antidepressants.

All seemed to be going okay, although she still felt more depressed than not after several months. When she mentioned that to her doctor, he agreed to up her dose. She had just refilled her prescription based on the old dosage, and simply increased the number of pills she took each day from 2 to 3. Realizing her insurance company would need to ‘approve’ this higher dosage, she called her doctor’s office a FULL WEEK before she needed more pills so that the change could be made, and (she hoped), she would be able to refill the higher dosage without any problem.

She had to go for 3 days without any antidepressants before the insurance company finally approved the change in dosage. Once she started taking her pills again, it was a full week before she felt she could function.

When she realized she would be on vacation when it was time to refill her prescription, she cringed at the idea of fighting with the insurance company over an early refill. She would get home only 2 days AFTER she ran out of pills, but she didn’t want to go completely without for 2 days, and be unable to function for 4 or 5 days after that. So she’s been carefully skimming her dosage down to 2 pills every 3rd or 4th day, and taking the full dose of 3 pills the remaining days. On those days when she only takes 2 pills, she returns to her room a little earlier, in case some fogginess overtakes her as her drug level dips, and the following day, she may start her activities a little later, to give that drug level a chance to start raising.

She thinks she’s exercising some control, but the fact is, the insurance company has won. They have become the de facto death panels.

Tangled Web

A friend of mine was recently wondering how she could make a few extra bucks. A lot of people are, these days.

My friend is usually pretty savvy about all these ‘work at home’ schemes you see advertised on the internet. She’s looked into a lot of them over the years, and she’s learned to ignore all the hype. But this one didn’t have all that hype, it all sounded very above-board and fairly believable.

She signed up. She got a $5.00 bonus for doing so, and was promised she would be paid – yes, actually paid – for every survey she completed.

The next day, she sat down, intending to spend an hour filling out surveys and see how it went. After 2 ½ hours, she finally had enough and signed out of that website. She had made 50 cents, and isn’t sure how she had done that. When she calmed down, we talked about her latest experience.

“It had me fooled at first few,” she admitted. “After a while, I realized they were all yes-no questions; Do you suffer from back pain? Do you have allergies? That sort of thing. Then I realized that every time I answered ‘yes’ to anything, I was shunted to another ‘survey’. And that survey was set up exactly like the first, even asking the same questions. So if I answered ‘yes’ to a question in the 2^nd ‘survey’, I was shunted to another survey.”

“Sounds like it would be impossible to make any progress,” I suggested.

“Right. So I stopped worrying about giving ‘honest’ answers, and just answered ‘no’ to everything. Then I got to the end of one of those ‘layered’ surveys, and I was asked to choose 2 of the following wonderful offers.”

“Uh oh.”

“You know it. First, they didn’t offer anything I actually wanted. Second, if I had chosen even 1 of those ‘wonderful’ offers, I would have paid out far more than I would make on the survey. And third, if I did NOT choose any offers, my survey was not considered complete.”

“Bummer.”

“Yeah. I should have known better. Lesson learned. Again.”

She’s still looking for a way to make a few extra bucks.

What a Politician!

I call myself an Independent, because I don’t completely identify with either party. Most times when I vote, I’m voting against the one I think is the less desirable, rather than anybody I actually like.

So, Romney’s been visiting overseas. Apparently, he’s trying to show the American people that he’s ‘ready’ to be President. I’m not impressed.

He hasn’t managed to impress the people of the countries he’s visited, either. He stepped on toes (verbally) in England and Israel. When he tried to avoid any more problems by keeping his mouth shut (except for a well-rehearsed speech) in Poland, one of his ‘helpers’ lost his temper and used vulgar language telling reporters to have some respect in the holy Polish location they were in. Seems to me if the Polish people were insulted by the reporters trying to ask Mr. Romney questions, they would been even more insulted by the language used by Mr. Romney’s helper.

I did hear that the candidate’s assistant later apologized, but I have to wonder … did he apologize to the reporters for having lost his temper? Or to the Polish people for using such language in their sacred location? Is he still a member of Mr. Romney’s staff?

In my opinion, staff members are extensions of the candidate. If a staff member does something truly embarrassing, then I wait to see what happens. If that staff member faces consequences, that gives me a clue where the boss stands. If the staff member doesn’t face any consequences, then the boss is condoning whatever the staff member did.

In any case, I’m not thrilled with the prospect of having a president who insensitively insults some of our best allies. How would he treat countries we aren’t that close to?

True Colors

The more I hear about George Romney, the more I think I would have liked him. But I was too young to vote in 1968, so I didn’t pay any attention to politics. What little I know about George Romney is the bits of information I’ve learned from comments made during his son’s current candidacy for President.

When George was a candidate, he released a dozen years of tax returns. He wasn’t required to release that much, but he did it. To me, that says he wanted people to know he had nothing to hide, and was willing to go beyond what was required. A man of enthusiasm.

I don’t see those qualities in his son. I understand his father’s example of releasing a dozen years of taxes has become standard practice with presidential candidates. Surely Mitt knew that, but now that he is a candidate, he has released only 1 years’ tax form, and promised to release 2011’s “as soon as it’s done”.

Wait. It’s July and he hasn’t done last year’s taxes yet? Surely his bookkeeper knows these have to be done every year, right? You would think any bookkeeper working for someone as rich and important as a presidential candidate like Mitt Romney would have everything organized and streamlined so they could get his taxes filed on time.

“You don’t have any need to see any more tax forms,” the Romneys say. How about the need to know as much as possible about the person who may be elected the next president? Aren’t the American people entitled to that?

And now I hear that a group of people who had collected a few thousand signatures on a petition asking that Mr Romney release more tax forms did not find him in his political headquarters. No one in that office would accept the petition on Mr Romney’s behalf, and the people with the petition were escorted from the premises. Yeah, Mitt Romney sure does understand the American people.

There’s a saying that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. But I think Mitt is a whole different kind of apple than his father was.

History Fails Us

No, I think that title is incorrect. I think it’s the History classes that have failed us. They have certainly failed me. All the recent Presidential election craziness got me thinking about past Presidents and what they did or did not accomplish during their tenure in the White House. And I’ve discovered I know very little in that field.

That got me thinking back to all the history classes I had to take in school; Colorado history, Missouri history, US History (in more than 1 grade) and World history. In all of those classes, ‘learning’ consisted of memorizing names, dates and places. I promptly forgot all of those things as soon as the last test was done – they held no interest or perceived value to me.

Another thing I remembered about these classes is that they slogged through the 1600s, 1700s and first half of the 1800s. By the time they got done with the Civil War, we had about 3 or 4 weeks left in the school year, and we raced to get through to 1950. Even as a kid, I figured those years that (almost) reached my birth date might have more bearing on my immediate life than stuff that was 300 years old. But we raced through it so quickly, I can’t say that with any certainty.

Personally, I don’t think making kids memorize names, dates and places really teaches them anything. What do I remember of history? The tiny bits and pieces of humanity that they accidentally let slip into their lectures. Bits like the suffering of Washington’s troops, camped for the winter in Valley Forge, freezing and without supplies.

I have always wanted some information that would help me identify with people in history. What did the average family eat, wear, do for entertainment, and how did this super-important event you want me to remember change or influence their lives? Maybe then I would remember that event; it might mean something to me.

Some teachers have been modifying their math classes to make the problems more personal for individual students. Why can’t history classes be more personal?

Airflight Technology

Okay, so Trudy flew home from vacation in Orlando, and almost as soon as she got home, she came down with “airflight crud.” It’s to be expected, right? Everybody knows that when you’re stuck in a confined space with 100+ other people, you are exposed to all types of germs, greatly increasing the chance that something will get past your body’s defenses and settle in for a visit.

This connection is so well known, there are even ‘medications’ that were developed to help you avoid catching other people’s illness. The most common kinds are a combination of vitamins, zinc and maybe some herbs. Such remedies might help, if your body is low on these ingredients. But it’s kind of like that old question about prunes as a laxative; Is 6 enough? Is 12 too many?

Are airliners equipped with air scrubbers? Even if they are, I’m not sure that would help prevent the spread of sickness. I’m thinking air scrubbers remove things like dust and CO0, but that squirmy little germs find a way through. Does anybody know A) do airliners have air scrubbers, and B) do air air scrubbers stop germs?

If nothing else, the flight crew could spritz the cabin with antibacterial air freshener between flights. Maybe that would help confine the available illnesses to catch to those brought aboard for this flight, and not something from 3 flights ago.