Yeah, let’s only do kindnesses for people who deserve them! That’s how you perform a mitzvah!
Over the weekend I decided to check into rates at other insurance companies. I ended up at NerdWallet, which get me up to get quotes from several different companies. I followed up with two of them and after providing them with my info, including the amount of coverage on my current policy I got rates roughly equivalent to my current policy. I’m probably going to check with a few others this week. I’m trying to avoid having to talk to an agent unless I have to, because I’m in no mood to deal with aggressive selling.
Oh, and I’m now on NerdWallet’s radar, and will probably start getting bombarded with offers of their other services.
No, this Havana Club really is from Cuba. Besides, we’re currently boycotting all US liquor because tariffs, so the Puerto Rican stuff wouldn’t even be available, just like all Bacardi is now off the shelves.
And speaking of rum, I was just about to head out to replenish my supply, but then I remembered that today is technically “Easter Monday” and while almost nobody considers it an actual holiday, certain institutions that are rolling in money and feature overpaid lazy good-for-nothing employees (e.g.- banks) are nevertheless closed today. So on a hunch, I checked the status of my nearby liquor store. Closed!
So are all the other nearby ones. To be fair, some are open, but they’re quite some distance away and it’s raining with poor visibility, so I’m just gonna sit here and pit the overpaid lazy good-for-nothing employees at the Ontario Liquor Board.
Fortunately, I still have the two essentials of life: vodka, and Caesar mix. I also have, at the back of a cupboard somewhere, high-octane Navy rum that tastes like gasoline and could probably substitute for it in a pinch. I understand that British sailors used to drink this stuff and loved it. But those were the guys who (seriously) were given “lemonade” that was basically a highly dilute solution of sulphuric acid in water, and I assume they loved that, tpp. Whereas I insist that my lemonade have had at least a nodding acquaintance with a lemon.
Thanks for the suggestion. The country of origin is Venezuela, and though my local store may not be carried in my local store, Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva is available for ordering in from the central warehouse. It’s not even all that expensive. I might try it but it’s a dark rum and I prefer the amber type. Cuban Havana Club is slightly darker than the Bacardi I used to drink, but so smooth that it will now be my go-to rum even after the embargo on US liquor ends.
I was so intrigued when I heard the stories of “Dunder Pits” in Jamaica. Some people mix a “Funk from the Goat’s Heads” rum with a mild one to temper it, but I found a tasty-yet-cheap, funky-yet-smooth one: Planteray Xaymaca Special Dry Jamaican Rum.
Do read up on those pits! And don’t wander in the Jamaican woods near stills…
Great, enticing rum stories just when I’m out of rum and all the nearby liquor stores are closed!
And I need rum right now – a need currently being met by vodka – because I passionately pit my APC 1500 so-called “SmartUPS”. Admittedly this thing is old and is on at least its third new battery spanning maybe 15 years over a total of four batteries including the original.
I’m in no position to schlep a heavy pair of 12v batteries glued together (the thing runs on 24V) down the stairs, drive a very long distance to a battery supply place, schlep the old battery in, take the old one out to the car, drive back, plus the hassle of the actual removal and reinstall which is always more difficult than it should be.
Fuck that noise. Meanwhile the thing is beeping and howling about “replace battery” and I worry that it may fail in some catastrophic way that blows my computer’s power supply, contrary to its entire original purpose. And lately the battery appears to be overheating because the fan’s been coming on regularly, which in itself is annoying.
So I finally got a heavy-duty surge protector with power conditioning whose major feature is: it has no fucking batteries to wear out! Powered everything down, replugged everything into the new device, powered everything up again. Now my speakers don’t work. OK, I had forgotten one small plug that was hard to see under the desk. Now everything works.
And the fucking UPS won’t shut the fuck up, even when powered off. It doesn’t beep any more, but it still tries to charge the defective battery, and the annoying fan still keeps coming on.
Now I’m thoroughly incensed, and with a Herculean effort, manage to move the heavy desk enough that I can unplug the cursed thing from the wall. Which I manage to do. Yay! It is now bereft of power!
And the fan still keeps coming on!
I opened it up and the battery is quite warm. I’m glad I shut it off and unplugged this cursed thing before something really bad happened. I assume that with no power and no load the battery will eventually cool down. FTR, these are not LI-ion fire hazards, they’re either gel or AGM lead-acid. Whatever they are, the whole thing is going to the hazardous waste disposal site.
I’m too old for this shit! No more UPS! If the power fails, it fails. If I was rich enough and didn’t absolutely loathe Elon Musk, I might have considered a Tesla Powerwall for the whole house, but I’m not and I do.
APCs are pieces of shit and I concur that alcohol consumption is an appropriate response to dealing with one.
(I am a CyberPower fan myself, after dealing with APC at my job for decades, and I still deal with it even today; I have to replace dozens of batteries that weigh over 50 lb each for a recall right now. And I did break down at one point and buy an APC for my home PC because it was on a crazy sale, and regretted it as it kept pestering me, and replaced with a CyberPower that has given me zero problems for the past 5 years.)
Good to know, thanks. I bought that APC partly because Dell had it on sale for a small fraction of the normal retail price, and because the bank I was doing some work for at the time was using them absolutely everywhere. But I have since indeed heard many bad things about them.
I was going to junk this one anyway, but you helped convince me it’s the right thing to do!
Back in Ye Olde Darke Ages APC made decent products. Not so much in a long time.
I’d still bring a hot or swollen AGM outside. If it splits the case I’d rather not have the mess on my office carpet. Don’t ask how I gained this wisdom tidbit.
I’ve been buying APC for so long that I didn’t realize there was a real alternative. Will definitely look into CyberPower the next time this one starts screeching randomly.
United Stealthcare’s web page is truly jacked.
I’ve often had trouble logging in. Sometimes it’ll ask for a code, I"ll have that sent, and the minute I try to log in, the code box DISAPPEARS. Lately, sometimes it’ll just say “we can’t verify you” and not let me log in.
When I do get in, one thing I’m interested in is the status of the prior authorization for my upcoming surgery. I saw, with interest, that it listed that as in progress, AND it listed some lab work I had done last year as having been approved. Cool.
Next day, neither was visible.
The day after that, BOTH were visible and it was approved.
Today, neither was visible again. Got on a chat with an agent “Oh, we only show outpatient PAs on that page, but you can see your letter in the Documents section”. Er… fine, but what happened to the one from last year???
At least this supposedly implies I’m good for a night in the hospital afterward, if that turns out to be needed… they do routine hysterectomies as DAY surgery now. Yay!
My current rum of choice (rum is pretty much the only hard liquor I drink) is Leatherback. It’s produced by North of 7 Distillery right here in Ottawa.
A few weeks ago I applied for widower’s benefits on my late wife’s SocSec account. Yesterday I received a letter confirming that me claim was approved. While I was impressed with the speed with which the claim was processed (less than the promised 30 days!) I was confused by the information about my benefit payments. First of all, the monthly benefit amount was $300 less than the amount I was quoted when I filed. Secondly, while it confirmed that I was entitled to benefits retroactive to Sept 2024, the total amount of back benefits it said I would be paid was nowhere near enough to cover the monthly benefits for that many months.
The letter included the number for my local office, so I opted to call them instead of the toll-free number. After a surprisingly short wait of less than half an hour I was talking to an agent. I explained my problems with the info on the letter and he agreed that it didn’t sound right to him. He pulled up my record and after a full review he came back on the line and admitted that he couldn’t figure out where the numbers on the letter came from. He confirmed that I did not have any debts which might be being withheld (and in any case the letter should have explained this) and told me that he would send a request to the payment center in Chicago for a full explanation of my payment status. (Which I found amusing because I used to work there.)
One thing that was brought up was that I have been entitled to Medicare since I turned 65 in 2017. I have been paying my Part B premiums on a quarterly basis rather than having them deducted from my Federal pension. Apparently now that I am going to be receiving monthly widower’s benefits making quarterly premium payments is no longer an option; the premiums will now be deducted from my benefits payments.
Yep. I’m in that situation too.
Gotcha: If your total income is such that IRMAA applies, they’ll also take the Part B (& part D if you have it) IRMAA out of your survivor benefits.
I’m retired and my only income is my Federal CSRS pension, IRA distributions, and dividend payments, all of which total to well under the limit for Part B premium increases. As I said, I’ve been making quarterly premium payments up til now; I just made a payment for May through July. I’m not sure how they’re resolve that, but I have faith that they’ll figure something out eventually.
My Part D is now included in my secondary Federal health benefit, so there’s no additional Medicare premium involved.
I started both Medicare A, B, & D and receiving my survivors benefits all at once when I turned 65 and retired from my W2 career. Which start-up entailed paying the first quarter of B & D, even though they’d be deducting that from my monthly payments once they started. So effectively your same situation.
About 2-3 months later a special SS payment arrived unexpectedly in my checking account. And about 2 weeks after that came a snail mail letter explaining that the unexpected payment was my refund of my B&D prepayment / overpayment and itemizing all the details.
I expect you’ll have a similar experience once the crazy numbers you ranted about earlier has been resolved.
Can I just say that all of this sounds like an unnecessarily complicated bureaucratic nightmare? All of these acronyms and payments… I can imagine that, as people experience cognitive decline and aren’t as able to stay on top of this, they either lose money or services that they don’t need to.
I recently managed to work through the Social Security system successfully but the Medicare system has been an absolute nightmare. And I am a professional social worker.
I’ve met with several people, researched online extensively, and think I might have a plan but it scares the bejeebus out of me to make a decision. I am continuing to work in part due to this issue (and expensive blood thinning medication) which is fine for now. But holy hell do they make it complicated for folks.
That was one of the possibilities that the agent mentioned. The award letter I received did say that I was entitled to Medicare effective August 2017; if for some reason my survivor benefits weren’t properly linked to the Medicare coverage I’ve had since then on my own SSN the system may be trying to collect Part B premiums due from August 2017 through now. I’ve got no idea what that would add up to without digging up my old payment records.
My knowledge of SocSec processes have (mercifully) been erased from my brain so I can’t recall how payment for past premiums would be collected. But I don’t think Medicare benefits can be retroactively awarded for seven years, or premiums be collected that far back.
Fortunately my mind is still reasonably functional so I can keep track of things like this. But I can see how a lot of people would just accept whatever they are told without questioning “the system”.
Good luck! I had what was supposed to be a routine hysterectomy in November. I won’t tell you the ordeal I had… I’ll just send you all the good vibes. 