One of the best things about holidays is that "peaceful, easy feeling" you get when everything is over and done with. You know what I mean? Its that time that comes after the frenzy of the holiday is finally finished. The dishes are done (mostly....I still have a few utensils that need attention), the extra chairs are back where they belong and the dining room is returned to its normal configuration. The Thanksgiving decorations are down, packed, and returned to storage. Just a few leftovers still lurking in the fridge, mostly condiments and the like. The house is still clean from the whirlwind of getting ready. Everything is in its place and God is in His heaven and all is right with the world....well, at least in my world!
There is nothing I should be doing (except for those utensils, drat it, but they can wait.) So this evening, is a "I don't have to go anywhere, do anything, need anything" Bonus Night!
I have plenty of evenings where I don't go, do, or need, but this is different because there is no guilt!! The Big Guy and I can sit back and relax and know that we've survived another holiday! Perhaps survive is the wrong word. I don't mean that holidays are things to endure and emerge victorious from. Its more amazement that we got everything done in time for one more year! Also, I suppose, at least to some extent I mean, we've lived through one more holiday(literally).
Like every other day, getting through the holiday is not guaranteed. Studies have shown that many people in extremely poor health seem to hold off death in order to reach some goal date
....Thanksgiving, New Year's Day, their birthday, someone's wedding, etc. The power of the mind and will is always amazing to me. Unfortunately though, after accomplishing that goal, their reprieve is over and for their families, their death will forever be associated with that holiday.
Hmmm, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go off on a tangent there.
Anyway, what I was talking about (before I so morbidly interrupted myself), was the feeling of accomplishment one has for a few days after a major holiday. Of course, the next big holiday is practically around the corner (just 24 shopping days till the big "C" holiday)! :-) Nevertheless, I am philosophically opposed to start any sort of decorating, planning, or even mentioning the big "C" holiday until December!
So tonight, I'm sitting around relaxing and enjoying that "peaceful, easy, feeling" and resting on my laurels after a successful and delightful Thanksgiving. I've got lots of time for that, after all, it won't be December until....Tuesday. TUESDAY??!! The day after tomorrow, Tuesday????
Oh, help!
"Over the River and Through the Woods to Grandmother's house we go!" Only this is Grandmother's house and the family is coming here! And through some sort of miraculous intervention, we will be ready (crossing fingers!)
The carpet was shampooed (sort of), the floors vacumned, the house dusted, and polished and de-cluttered. The fridge is roomy, the broken stove top burner has been repaired, the shopping done, the pies are baking (pecan and pumpkin). The leek has been chopped and steamed, the beverages chilled,the table set and looks good! It appears we are on track (crossing hopeful fingers!)
The house has been decorated, the welcome wreath is hung on the door, the silver has been polished, the stemware washed, serving pieces selected, the fireplace readied, the candles all set. That seems like everything (crossing fingers of both hands)!
We expect Ratchlet, TA, and M-t-G around 2:30 and plan to eat around 3:30. TA's mom and her beau will be joining us a bit later for dessert and games. We should be able to make it with little or no angst (crossing fingers tightly)!!
So what is left?? Getting up on time in the morning, watching a little of the Macy's parade, getting the turkey into the oven, getting the rest of the food prep underway, getting dressed, it should be just fine (crossing fingers again)!!
The likelihood of making it all come out on time and together with no disasters is up to fate. Thanks to the Big Guy, who worked like a Trojan, we've done all we could! There's nothing further to do tonight (crossing fingers and toes)!!
Oh, yes there is! What I must do before the night is any older, to give you all my very best wishes that your trip over the river and through the woods brings you the lovliest of holidays. Among many, many other things, I am thankful that you stop and read my blog. I hope each of you gets a wishbone and has your Happiest Thanksgiving ever (crossing fingers for you)!!
Hugs all around and blessings to you all!
Holidays in our family generally means "Company" coming and company coming generally means its time to fix up the house. I doubt that we are unique in this. Little Sis does it. Ratchlet does it. Any number of friends have mentioned doing it too. Of course, the difference comes in to what extent do you "fix up the house"?
Normal people will put away clutter, possibly polish the silver, maybe vacuum and dust, make the bathrooms all sparkly and shiny. Just kind of spiff up the place. We do that too, sometimes, so as not to be too embarrassed by our less than spotless house. Nevertheless, there are times when we go way beyond normal!
This is the time we'll shampoo the carpets or wash all the windows or even buy some new furniture! None of that is too unusual either, except we do it in the last two days before company is due! It is part of the phenomenon: Improving any one thing makes everything else look shabby!
I'm not too fond of cleaning stuff. So I tend to let things go more than I should. This is a fault. I recognize it as such but ultimately I decided it was a fault I could live with most of the time. This indulgence in my own failings is what leads to the two or three days of marathon dusting, washing, vacuuming, sweeping, scrubbing, scouring, and all things of that sort just before any major holiday!
We are two days away from Thanksgiving and the clan (such as it is) is gathering here for Thanksgiving dinner. The Big Guy and I are in our usual tizzy of trying to "spiff up the house." Nothing too drastic this time, the most involved project will be cleaning out the fridge. (Absolutely must do, there is no room for a big bird and all the flotsam and jetsom that goes along with it.) I can live with that.
This will not be the holiday that will take the prize for the most extreme example of what we have been known to do to spiff up the house. That prize was awarded the night of Ratchlet's high school Senior Prom. She invited 5 or 6 couples to meet at our house before the dance where photos were taken and flowers were pinned on and last minute adjustments made in their formal wear. After the prom, there was some sort of after-party they were all going to (parent-sponsored and chaperoned!) After that they were coming back to our house to change and head off for a day at the beach. We would provide breakfast for them before they took off again. A simple plan. Right?
Remember these were 16-18 year olds in the flush of their most exciting night ever. I doubt they would have noticed if we lived in a barn. Anyway, the Big Guy and I were going to have a buffet of eggs, sausage, fresh fruit, breakfast breads and a few other things, nothing too fancy, but better than an Egg McMuffin!
The kids arrived, we ooohed and aaahed over their finery, took some photos (the Big Guy did, not me) and sent them off at about 8:30 to their "Dancing Under the Sea" (or whatever it was called). They wouldn't be back until around 4:00 a.m. Not enough time to get a good night's sleep, cause we had to have the food ready, so we would be cooking in the wee small hours of the morning.
Sooooo, what did we do to pass the time?? We painted the living room and dining room!! Really! In the middle of the night, there we were with drop cloths, paint, rollers, brushes, and tape. When the kids left the room was white. When they got back the room was yellow! We had time to put up the paint, clean up the mess, get the furniture back in place and still have the hot breakfast there and waiting for them around 4:00!
Now you might say, why did you bother? They were kids all excited about being out "all night". What did they know from wall color?? Or care?
If you have been paying close attention, you might have been able to deduce the reason. Any guesses?? The clue was in the fact that they were going to their Senior Prom. Senior! Aha! You say, "Graduation!" Right!! Graduation was coming up very soon and we were planning to have lots of Company to share in Ratchlet's big day!
We weren't painting for the kids, or just for something to do. Nope! We were in Phase One of the "OMG, this house is a mess!! mode" We had friends coming! We had family coming!! We had in-laws coming!! That's why we were painting at 2:00 in the morning! We think of it as crisis management!
And it turned out great too! Well, it looked great, right after I got the new throw pillows to replace the ones that now looked kind of shabby....maybe I should have gotten new drapes too....
I must have missed the announcement, but when did everything become about money, money, money?? Morality, integrity, honor, honesty, choice and safety??? Oops, they're out the window if there is money to be made somewhere! Business has become all about greed, avarice, and manipulation!! I hate it! The thing that is most bothersome about this trend, is that we are all dragged along no matter what our personal beliefs, values, and ethics might be.
When I retired last December I was not eligible for any COBRA benefits and who could have afforded them anyway? I won't be eligible for Medicare for another year and a half. (Wow, there's still something I'm not old enough for!) So we signed me up for dependant health coverage through the Big Guy's employer.
I should preface the rest of this posting with a disclaimer that I have always gotten overwhelmed by employee benefit packages. They are always so convoluted and unclear and filled with little tiny print that describes the things they know people won't like. The whole process was always a pain in the...uhhh.... neck!
The insurance company offered by the employer is Aetna, a well-known and long time player in the medical field. Great! Then came the kicker. The prescription drug plan was NOT through Aetna at all. It was through something called MEDCO. Never heard of it. At first read, it seemed pretty straightforward. Go to your pharmacy, pay the co-pay, get your meds, and go home. Simple.
Then in that little tiny print it said "Oh, by the way, you could save money by ordering a 3 month supply from their mail-order center, delivered right to your mailbox and everything! Cool, huh?" Well, no thank you. I'm just fine with getting my meds through my friendly neighborhood pharmacy. But we signed up anyway, because no insurance coverage for meds is outrageously expensive!
I told the Big Guy I felt safer paying a bit more for my retail pharmacy and that I didn't want to use the mail option. And I gave him my reasons:
1. It is an unsafe practice of medical care! Who knows where or who fills those prescriptions?? Some grossly underpaid worker in a remote village in India or somewhere?? Are they pharmacists? Are they even trained? Are they committed to protecting my safety?? HAH! That isn't guaranteed anywhere in the literature!
2. The meds are vulnerable to theft or tampering! Once the meds are sent, they go through the mails or some freight delivery company. Who knows how many places they go or how many people have access to those little packets of pills?? I wouldn't let anyone touch my suitcases if I were flying somewhere, why ever would I be so cavalier about something I'm going to ingest directly into my body???
3. Then, suppose they make it through those perils and they arrive safe and sound at my address....in Texas! TEXAS!! Where the the outside temperatures can be anywhere from 15 F to 115F! When was the last time you had any kind of medications? Somewhere on the bottle or in the instructions it almost always says, "Keep in a cool, dry place." In Texas??? Oh, please!
4. Its damned incovenient to have to remember to order the refills in enough time not to run out.
So how would any of that benefit me or my health? "It would be cheaper!" Oh goodie, so when I'm lying on the floor in the last throes of my early demise from unsafe meds, I'll take comfort in the fact that, at least, I didn't pay full price!
Like I said, "No, Thank You!" The Big Guy didn't like spending the extra money but I was adamant! Okay, fast forward three months. I've gone to the pharmacy to pick up my meds and the price has doubled! Hey! That can't be right. Well, it was right. They told me that I had used up my allotted usage of the retail pharmacy and now as an incentive to use their WONDERFUL mail order service, I would pay double the initial rate. (Well......fu....dge...!)
Mikey had tried to tell me, but I guess I didn't really get it. After all, the literature all said "I could use the mail order..." That implies a choice, either you would or you wouldn't. Nowhere did it say that I must use it. No, they'll just charge you twice as much.
I may not have mentioned it, but I am just the tiniest bit stubborn. I don't like being forced to do anything. It just makes me dig in and resist even harder. (I blame it on the 1960s! Remember "Hell no, we won't go"??)
The reality was that most of my meds are generic and the co-pay was bearable, even at twice the amount, and they were still a lot less than full price! I thumbed my nose at them and continued to get my meds locally.
Since then about every 2 months I got a letter from MEDCO, "We notice that you are not taking advantage of the Enormous Cost Savings of our Mail Order option...." Then I started to get phone calls! There have been three. Two different men and one woman have called. "We notice that you are not taking advan...." STOP! Firstly, they are difficult to understand because even though they are speaking English, they are definitely from India (HAH!) or that part of the world, and their accents distort their words.
Anyway, I explained to each of them my reasons (see above) for "not taking advantage..." and that I had no plan to change my mind. (I might have mentioned something about "Hell freezing over", but I may have dreamed that.) They were all very polite, thanked me for my time, and I was let alone for another little while.
Today, I got their most recent "Important Announcement" mailing. and I quote,
"Your....plan allows you to purchase your meds at a retail phamacy a certain number of times before your co-pay increases Our records show....reached that limit. You can transfer....to MEDCO BY MAIL to avoid paying the co-payment increase at retail." (emphasis added)
In other words, they're raising the prices on retail to strong-arm you into using the mail option. And God only knows how much the increase will be!
Well, okay, okay, I give! I am out of options. I can't afford to pay more. I'll bite the bullet, take the risk, and start using their stupid mail order. But I don't have to like it. I am angry and resentful and will likely stay that way for a long time. I will never say a positive word about MEDCO to anyone.
So was any of this about improving my health care? No. Was any of it about reducing my burdens, financial or convenience? No. Do I expect any kind of positive outcome from doing it their way? No. Will I get some tremendous windfall of benefit to me?? No. So what was it about??? Who will benefit?? Its all about the "Money, Money, Money"! Their money, not mine!! Because you can be damn sure that the mail order business is a LOT cheaper to run than paying claims directly to retail pharmacies. Money! That's what its always about! People be damned!
You know, I can hardly wait for whatever final health care bill that comes out of Washington. Oh yeah, we're all going to have lots of fun then, just like this!!
I think everyone has figured out by now that I don't add a lot of photographs to this blog. As I look at other blogs, they seem to be loaded with a ton of wonderful candid family shots, or beautiful landscapes, or even abstract photos that are mysterious or funny or something. I'm so jealous. "So," you say, "Why don't you add more photos of your own?" (a perfectly logical question.) Well, there's a reason for that, Cameras hate me. Seriously! They do!!
It's not that I don't think I look good in photographs, or that I don't know how to use a camera. Oh no, its much more basic than that!
Whether digital, or Poloroid, or a little point and shoot gadget loaded with "Kodachrome" film, (does anyone still use film??)whenever any camera senses that I am in a place where photos are being taken, some little cosmic polterqeist who hates me for some reason, manages to do something to ensure that no good or even passable photos will result until I am no longer around. (Hearing your snorts in the background!) You don't believe me, do you? Well, read on my friends!
The very first experience I had with "Dirty Tricks Photography" was by far the worst. It was my wedding day! (I can hear your gasps, "No, not that day! Nooooo! Oh yes, My Wedding Day!) My cousin was married at that time to a really nice guy who was a professional photographer. As their wedding gift to us PhotoHubby offered to take the photos at the wedding. We were thrilled. We couldn't afford a professional photographer so this would be wonderful. How generous of them!!
The morning of the wedding, just after I got up, my mother snapped a quick shot of me sitting on the sofa in my nightgown with my hair still in rollers (this was a long time ago!) and looking like the walking dead. And then a short time later, after I had taken out the rollers and sort of combed out my hair, she took another quick snap of me in the mirror, still in my nightgown, with my veil perched on the top of my head. (I looked like I was playing "dress up" or something.)
Anyway, shortly thereafter, PhotoHubby arrived and shot, and flashed, and focused constantly the entire rest of the day. He was Everywhere, behind the priest on the altar during Mass, walking backwards back down the aisle with us, at the reception, cutting our cake....everywhere! He told us that night that he had shot several rolls and thought he had some great shots. He said he should have proof sheets for us in a week or so. I was so grateful and excited to see them. And off we went gleefully to our "honeymoon" (ahh, that's another story).
So, we're back at my aunt's house for dinner about a month later and my cousin and PhotoHubby were there as well. No one had said anything about the pictures (we didn't want to seem pushy), but I was anxious to see them. After the meal was over, PhotoHubby said, "I'm afraid I have some bad news." (Oh, crap! This can't be good!)
It seems that he and his partner in the photography business had had a huge blow-up about 3 days after our wedding, and said partner had, unbeknownst to PhotoHubby, packed up everything that was in the studio and left town. We were properly sympathetic and outraged for him. But then he made it clear that the jerk took everything, cameras, negatives, equipment, film. Film?? Our film?? All of it??? Even the stuff that didn't belong to him???? Yep, all gone, and PhotoHubby had no idea where he went. Well, there you go! There was absolutely no possibility of getting it back. I was heartbroken, but I managed not to cry until we got home. We couldn't even ask for our money back!
The sad fact was that no one else took any photos because Photo-Hubby was a "Professional!"
So ladies and gentlemen of the jury, in summation, poor little bride (me) has exactly two photographs recording her happy day....in her nightgown with a veil on her head! And the are no photos of the groom (Mikey) at all. See, because it hates me, the poltergeist planted that evil idea in the mind of the partner, leaving us with zilch!
And that was the start of my ongoing devilment by Dirty Tricks! Whenever I managed to remember to take my camera to some event or other, the battery would be dead, or the flash wouldn't flash, or a perfectly framed and enchanting photo of the ones I love, a tree will seem to sprout out of someone's head and the rest will have their eyes closed. Or the back of the camera will fly open and expose all the film! Photos that I thought were the right distance and lighting will emerge with the figures too far away to even recognize!
And its not just when I am the one taking the pictures, oh no, that would be too simple. If someone else is attempting photos and I'm around, well, suddenly there will be a big shadow, or the sun which has been behind a gray cloud bank the whole bloomin' day, will abrubtly poke through the clouds just long enough to make everyone squint! Up until Photoshop, nearly every color photo shows me with "Devil Red Eye." Its enough to scare little children! Those photos by others are too light, or too dark, or blurry, or double-exposed, or some damn thing!
Unfortunately, I don't seem to be a quick learner. I kept trying. Big problem #2....
The day? Ratchlet's Wedding Shower. (I'm hearing more gasps, I bet) I volunteered to take photos. Dear God, what was I thinking?? What was Ratchlet thinking?? It was a nice shower, with good food, lots of friends, some silly games, everybody had a nice time. Somewhere toward the end it finally hit me that I would probably need to change the film soon. I looked in the the little window to see how many shots I had left, but I couldn't see any numbers. Oh pooh, I must have finished the roll without realizing it. Not to worry, I had more film, even though the party was nearly over. So I flip open the back of the camera and....IT WAS FRIGGIN' EMPTY!!! I had been shooting the whole shower without any damn film in the camera! I wanted to cry, I wanted to die, I wanted to kill that damned poltergeist!! Why?? Why was he always doing this to me??? Why did he hate me so much??? It wasn't fair!
Ratchlet was very sweet about it. She never got mad, or yelled at me, or anything. But now, Ratchlet's hubby, TA, takes all the photos in our family and he NEVER focuses on me. It seems to be fooling the poltergeist so far.
