Subj : Re: Another Day In The ER To : Barry Martin From : Daryl Stout Date : Mon Nov 09 2020 09:25:00 DS> Never mind Fred Sanford..."It's the big one, Mabel!!" BM> 'Elizabeth', but yes. ...Being on Medicare now I've noticed the front BM> desk staff or whoever goes over charges before submitting to the BM> government does prep with "this is generally covered, this is generally BM> not and so you'll probably be billed ". At least it doens't BM> come as a total shock when get the statement, plus gives time to BM> scrounge up money to pay. I can never remember that name. :P Or you get something stating "This Is Not A Bill...but we're not paying for it". :P BM> Amtrack's nearest station is Galesburg, IL, about an hour's drive south BM> of here. They've been talking of creating/recreating a spur (?) to BM> Moline or maybe it's Rock Island -- either one is across the BM> Mississippi River from me and would take about ten or fifteen minutes BM> from the house. The one thing I liked about Biden is that he was pro-Amtrak. With COVID-19, I can NOT fly or take a bus. I'm looking forward to that train trip next June, which will be my last big trip outside of Arkansas. While the final Dance-A-Rama for Single Square Dancers USA will be in Des Moines next September, I just can't bring myself to flying. Plus, Amtrak goes across southern Iowa. BM> As far as local bus transportion, the good points include there are BM> easy connections between the two states and five cities, so that in BM> itself is quite an accomplishment! Bad news is I think the individual BM> routes run only once an hour, so getting anywhere by bus doens't seem BM> all that convenient. To me seems like small vans running more often BM> would make more sense. Unless you're in the northeast corridor, or in places with frequent commuter service, you're out of luck. BM> Wouldn't hurt. Put together a quick list of medical expenses you paid BM> outside of Medicare and compare to the monthly fee of the supplement BM> (less that initial deductible). For me it makes financial sense; BM> dental insurance I break even over the years; vision insurance would BM> have cost me more than paying out of pocket. (Part/most of vision is BM> now under Medicare I guess.) I'm likely going to have to get another ultrasound next week...I'm still having moderate discomfort. And, with the arthritis, I didn't rest well overnight. I have to head out later this morning to the podiatrist to get a monthly foot check and toenail trim...as the arthritis is so bad that I can't squeeze the clippers. DS> Never mind checking to see if the folds and the Velcro are DS> right (this will teach me to answer mail at 2am!!). :P BM> Velcro?! OUCH!!! This is TMI, but I had that hernia girdle/binder "a bit low". Yet, I didn't want the umbilical hernia to work toward the colon or the groin area. A similar deal is torsion of the testicle, which requires emergency surgery to repair. BM> Sometimes not saying the punch line has a better reaction! :) When the light comes on, that is. :P BM> The various malls here are doing from 'reasonably well considering' to BM> 'iffy'. Will just ramble on the Iowa-side ones. The largest one now BM> generally looks like a ghost town -- from the outside anyway, though BM> has had problems for years as its anchor stores generally are having BM> problems: Sears closed, JC Penney is tettering, Younkers closed -- all BM> well before COVID-19. Von Maur and Dillards are doing well. And so many of the big ones have filed for bankruptcy. Dillard's is based in Little Rock. I think of the joke where the woman is shopping at Macy's, and looking in the jewelery department. Well, she bends over, and farts. Hoping that no one nearby noticed her "oops" moment, she's horrified when she sees a young man asking her how he can help her. She describes the item she was looking at, and he replies "Ma'am...if you just [pooted] while looking at it, you're going to [crap] when I tell you the price!!". I guess I'm shopping at Dollar General!! BM> The two smaller malls don't have the big anchor stores, though do have BM> some sort of mid-sized anchor as draw. The 'mall replacement' is strip BM> malls, though some are pretty big. For whatever reason the strip malls BM> are doing well. Maybe just the new thing: shopping went from Downtown BM> to The Mall and now to strip malls. Strip malls is the word...they've stripped the business from the bigger ones, to where the buildings are naked without stores. DS> That was for the meatheads out there. :P BM> Gloria! Or as Archie said once to his wife "Edith!! Where do you get all this crapola??!!" DS> the whole floor looks like L"!! BM> Clever word play! That it was. DS> And, you thought your feet smelled back already!! BM> I was waiting for them to smell forward! And, dachshunds paws smell like Fritos. :P BM> It has a poopy attitude! Of the body parts, it's "the boss" (and boss spelled backwards is double SOB)...because if it shuts down, the whole body suffers. :P DS> I saw a cartoon, with a cat at work at a desk. The IN Box is DS> full of mice...the OUT box is full of kitty litter. :P BM> And in-between was the Working On It box. I missed that one somehow. Daryl .... I'm one step away from being rich. All I need is money. === MultiMail/Win v0.52 --- SBBSecho 3.11-Win32 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - tbolt.synchro.net (454:1/33) .