Ugh. That happened to me when I was working at a call center doing open enrollment for Medicare. I wouldn’t have minded so much but I had a second job I had to get to and I wasn’t allowed to leave the call. I do t remember how we resolved the problem. I think I transferred the call to a manager and made them finish it for me. Sorry, but I’m not getting fired because of a situation out of my control. The call center paid better but the other job was my permanent position. Open enrollment only lasts for a short time.
After I logged off of work, I took the trash out, went out to buy milk and was sure that there was something else I meant to do. I was supposed to call my insurance company and find a new therapist.
While living in my rodent infested last apartment, I had a good therapist. I chose tele health for various reasons. I tried making the appointments on the same day and time each week. Usually, this was not possible, So occasionally I forgot an appointment, When this happened, my therapist woud call me at about fifteen minutes past the scheduled time for my appointment, She would remind me of the appointment, ask if I still wanted to keep it, and ask if I was okay. The company my therapist worked for went out of business suddenly and without any warning,
I scrambled to find a new psychiatrist and a new therapist. I found a new psychiatrist quickly, I am quite happy with him. He recommended I try a therapist through the company he works for. They had a therapist who took my insurance and did tele health. The firt few appointments were fine. Then, for some reason I thought our appointment was through Facetime on my phone. It was actually on Doxy, a web site. I was ready on time and sat by my phone the whole hour waiting for the Facetime call. Of course, it never came. I had to pay for the appointment, plus a fifty dollar late fee. I paid. I vowed never to miss an appointment with her again. Things were extremely bad during the year I lived at that apartment. My medication was not helping. The apartment was a rodent infested, drafty, noisy craphole in a high crime neighborhood with no grocery stores or restaurants in walking distance. So with all that was going on, I missed two more appointments. I just forgot about them. During the scheduled time of those appointments, my therapist never called or attempted to contact me, Her office never called or attempted to contact me during that time, They just sent a bill for the appointment plus a fifty dollar late fee. While I freely admit that I should have set reminders on my phone or someting, I also feel that she or her staff could have called and should have called. I stopped making appointments with her and resolved to find another therapist.
To find a new therapist, I have to call my insurance company. Then, I have to navigate the automated menu. When I do get a human being who can help me, they cannot e-mail the list of therapists as my last insurance company could. (I get insurance through my employer. They informed us a few months ago that they were changing insurance companies. We had no say in the matter.), I have to call, have them speak slowly and type or write down each therapist’s name, their company’s name and their contact information. Then, I have to call the therapists on my list. Generally, nobody is availabl and I get to leave a message. Then, I have to keep track of what therapists I already called and when. It is a pain in the ass and takes hours.
I will have to do it tomorrow after work.
Warning: First world problem.
This (non-political) rant was 4 months in the making, starting in August and culminating a couple days ago. To wit:
Aug: I have a perfectly good Android phone, a Samsung S10. It’s getting old, but it works fine, does what I need and I’ve long since accepted its quirks. I busted the back of the phone by dropping it and finally, after over a year of putting up with sharp shards on the back have just bought it a fresh new back glass case half for ~$100. Yaay.
Sep: I buy a new car. Which (unlike my last car) has the Android Auto phone interface and, per the owner’s manual, has a cool built-in magnetic charge plate that’s not compatible with my older phone that only charges via the USB-C plug. So time for a new phone so I can charge in the car without fussing with wires. $800 later I have a new Samsung S24. The transfer of my stuff went well, since it’s mostly in-cloud. But kudos to Samsung for a 98% seamless upgrade. But still major learning curve dealing with the new set of idiosyncrasies. And two visits to the store. And umpteen dollars at Amazon for charge plates for my bedside, desk, etc. Some of which deliveries get porch pirated, so I need to buy twice. And I discover the car doesn’t actually have the charge plate; its an option I didn’t get. The logo is there, but the guts behind the logo aren’t. Cue more Amazon and extra wires and double-sided tape and phone case with magnet ring and … But now I can toss the phone in its little compartment as the car maker intended and it locks in place and charges. Yaay me. It’s only money.
Oct: I’m slowly settled into all the new nuances of the new phone. And do honestly appreciate some of the cool new features. Which phone, with case and magnetic wallet weighs about double what my old one does with it’s stick-on stretch fabric card carrier. The new one is also slightly bigger before you add the protective case I decided to try. I hate shit in my pockets, and especially big shit. Uggh!
Nov: I’m settled into the new phone. Yaay me. It takes incredible pix, but is otherwise a slightly improved version of what I had. Not remotely worth the effort (or cost) of the upgrade. But sure nice now that I have it. Sigh. So now that there’s no thought of going back I decide to repurpose the old phone as a streaming source for my home sound system. So I won’t need to tie up my new phone doing that. Strip out the accounts and the apps I had installed it won’t need anymore, etc. I want a minimalist install that just does the streaming. Easy enough to accomplish. Soon enough that phone is a dumb streaming terminal. Yaay.
A couple days ago: I’m sitting at my easy chair where the side table has a shiny new charge plate for my new phone. Which is unoccupied at the moment. I’m fiddling with my old phone to change “channels” on the streaming audio. I absent-mindedly toss it onto the charge plate and it magnetically gloms on, makes the “I’m happily charging” noise, and proceeds to charge right up.
WTF!!!1!!??1!!
100% of the new phone exercise was unnecessary. The old phone does 100% of everything the new one does. Fuckety fuck fuk.
Like I said, first world problems.
As a Retired Old Fart™ on a pension, I was just eyeballing where my monthly income is going. I appear to be in a mode of deficit spending. Here’s what the breakdown looks like to me:
Food: 20%
Utilities (gas, electricity, phone, internet): 5%
Mortgage: -nil-
Liquor: 55%
Everything else: 20%
There must surely be something I can cut back on to save money. Any ideas? Anyone?
Nothing to add, but I admire that. I’m about the same.
Do you really need all that food ?
I’m trying to figure out how spending 100% of income is producing a deficit. I suppose maybe our fine mastiff’s math was liquor-impaired. 
I ran out front today to pull back the empty recycling cans.
Ahole nextdoor neighbor sauntered out at the ‘exact’ same time to retrieve his.
Now normally, this would be an opportunity to say ‘hi’ and to settle things between us.
But no, this is the guy who assaulted me in 2008 when Obama won. Hey, whatever. He was a no show at the block party so really who cares. But that’s when I noticed it: a right triangle shaped lump under his right pants pocket that was about 6 inches across the diagonal line.
It appears that Mr. Bully got himself a CCW… and is apparently very worried that someone (me?) is going to steal his recycling bin. 
My youngest is very smart, but at the same time quite dense. The Band is marching in the Veterans’ Day parade Saturday. He also is going to driving school on Saturday mornings this month. I had made an arrangement with said school so he could make up that missing morning on another day. He still insisted that he should email the Band Director to let him know he might miss the parade. His Mother and I both told him that is a Very Bad IdeaTM; nothing good would come of it.
This morning we get an email from the Band Director with the boy’s email and his response attached. The Director directly told him that the parade was one of the obligations we all agreed to at the beginning of the year. If you want to be in the Band, you MUST be available on rehearsal days, football games, and the Veterans’ Day Parade. The Director expressed extreme disappointment in The Boy and in us - we’ve had kids in The Band for eight years now.
I’ve just written back to tell him that The Boy had been told repeatedly that driving school was covered, when his make-up day was, not to email the Band Director, and that he will be marching Saturday morning. Mrs Magill is one of his most trusted parents. She is not looking forward to the game tonight.
For now. You’d have had to replace the old one anyway at some point, you just took care of it before it really started to be a pain in the ass.
Get rid of gas and wear a sweater. 
It does not take a Sherlock Holmes level of deduction to conclude that said canine was inebriated at the time, since that’s more or less the pup’s permanent condition. However, your error in assessing the math is that it describes only the allocation of funds received from the pup’s pension.
Every month when the pup receives his credit card bills, he lets out a sort of yelp or yowl, and with front paws flying, digs up savings to make up the deficit. Apparently the Scrooges who allocate pension funds in Canada are unaware of the high cost of liquor and decent wines.
Prejudice In My New Neighborhood
Even in my first few days here, I noticed signs of ant Israel bias. In one bathroom at a local coffee shop, putting up various stickers and writing messages seems to be not only tolerated but encouraged. Most of the stickers were for local bands. The largest message was “Stop Arming Israel!”. if this does not seem too bad to you, think it through, If we don’t arm Israel, how will they defend themselves? They won’t be able to. Which is fine because Israel has no right to exist. There are Palestinian flags everywhere. On a walk to a kwik e mart, I saw the words “Free Palesine” had been written into the sidewalk when the concrete was still wet. I don’t know if this anti Israel sentiment translates into antisemitism or how far it does. I am not afraid of being assaulted for wearing a yarmulke. I do fear that if I can find my mezzuzah and put it on my front door, it will be vandalised.
On the advice of a friend who has lived in the neighborhood for some time, I joined a neighborhood Facebook grouo, People advertising services (hair cutting, house cleaning etc) routinely state one price for white people and a discounted price for black people, Some include other people of color in that discount. This is prejudice and racism. It is also illegal. I have never bothered to comment on one of these posts to point any of this out. I would just be shouted at and accused of being the racist one.
I am pretty sure that the group, like all the other FB groups I belong to, officially has a no politics rule. Despite that, since the election it has been filled with anti Trump posts and posts on how to deal with the tragedy of Trump winning. Just now, I saw another political post. It blamed “White Liberals” for driving people to vote Trump. It had a linked video I did not bother to watch,
Last time I checked, white liberals all voted Harris. Trump won th popular vote due to Hispanic/Latino voters turning out for him in large numbers. But, hey rather than accept that and deal with it- let’s blame white people!
I’m also sure that there are MOVE supporters and Mumia Abhul Jamal supporters in the neighborhood. Since both are local things, I will explain.
MOVE was something of a cult. They had a compound. At one point, at least one member fired a gun at police, This lead to a massive police response and a stand off. There was no end or solution in sight, The mayor decided to have a helicopter fly low over the compound and drop an explosive charge on the roof, This was despite the knowledge that the compound had a number of children inside, The explosion did a lot of damage and started a large fire, Some people, including some children, inside the compound were killed. Most of the survivors were badly burned. A large of number of houses near the compound, where innocent bystamders lived, were destroyed.
Though their leader was killed, MOVE exists to this day, They portray themselves as innocent victims of a racist system. Yes dropping that explosive was evil and stupid on so many levels, Firing at the cops was also stupid, I’ve lived in Pennsylvania since 1993 and in Philadelphia since 1998. I have seen, heard and read much about MOVE. In general their current activities are legal but pointless and ineffective. Their stated goals are deeply stupid. Their positions on the issues are deeply stupid.
Mumia Abhul Jamal was a reporter. He had a different name then. At some point. he converted to islam and changed it. He shot a cop (I cannot remember why), The cop shot Mumia back before dying. John Africa, the aforementioned charismatic leader of MOVE, defended Mumia. BTW all members of MOVE change their last name to Africa, The trial had some problems. However, after a thorough study of all the material I could find on the death of officer Faulkner and the trial I came to two conclusions. Mumia killed Faulkner. No question whatsoever. A new, carefully monitoreed, by the book, completely fair and impartial trial would find Mumia guilty again, MOVE continues to insist that Mumia’s trial was so tainted that a new trial is warranted… They also maintain that officer Faulkner drove up and shot Mumia for some unknown reason- probably because officer Faulkner was white and Mumia was black. Then an unidentified man drove up in a car that left no tracks or evidence of its passing, shot officer Faulkner and then threw the gun to Mumia who relexively caught it. The MOVE website gave this version of events for years. But, it was changed after many years. The site originally got officer Faulkner’s name wrong. Mumia was sentenced to death. But enough people support hiim that no official has the guts to order his execution. Mumia has gone on to speak on radio programs and at least one college graduation from prison. Various celebrities who are against the death penalty in general have spoken in favor of commuting Mumia’s sentence to life in prison. I remember hearing Ed Asner do so, He basically said that the death penalty was barbaric and we should stop executing prisoners. MOVE responded by using Asner’s photo on signs and billboards. The signs and billboards read "Ed Asner Says ‘Free Mumia!’ " Of course, Asner never said that Mumia was innocent or that he should be freed, This is the kind of thing I have come ti exoect from MOVE.
It isn’t the casual racism and prejudice that bothers me so much. Many of the residents around here are liberal college students. In apparent rebellion against the system and their parents, they embrace Marx (despite the fact that Marx’s model produced testable hypotheses which have been tested and repeatedly proved Marx’s model to be false), becoming anti Israel and pro arab/pro Palestine (In this neighborhood, everybody seems to know about Israel’s pager attack on Hezbolla. Nobody seems to know that in year before the pager attack, Hezbolla fired over seven thousand rockets indiscriminately into Israel) and becoming pro Mumia/ pro MOVE (I have already dealth with them above). The thing that gets is that so many people eat up the propagande of Marx, Hezbolla, Hamas, Mumia and MOVE without questionng it or bothering to think rationally.
This is interesting.
I see a book in the library called On a Move by Mike Africa Jr.
It looks to be an interesting read.
BTW The name MOVE is neither an acroym nor an initialism. It is ‘a non-specific call to action.’
I remembered an article about MOVE protest I will recount here. I am doing this mostly because lately I feel compelled to post on the web. Is it stress over the election? Is it a reaction to the two week course of naproxen my orthopedist put me on? Who knows.
MOVE protested at the Philadelphia zoo. They were joined in the protest by a vegan group whose name I cannot remember. Though they kept their distance from people approachijng the box office to buy tickest and enter the y exzoo, and did not use violence of the threat of violence. They waved signs (I have no problem with that) and yelled all kinds of things at people. They explained to a reporter that keeping animals in cages was wrong and that there should be no zoos. They recommended taking a trip to Africa if you wanted to see the animals.
Once again, they are deeply stupid.
Wild game preserves on all continents have massive problems with poachers. India considered preserving its tiger population to be a point of national pride. An independent investigation revealed that in order to look good and maintain national pride, the Indian government had been lying about the tiger population and hiding how badly they were doing.I have no reason to think African game preserves are doing any better, For many species, the only hope of survival is zoos.
How much does it cost to go to your average zoo in America? I have no idea. Let’s say admission is $50. Let’s say meals, snacks and souveniers are another 50. Now, how much does a single round trip ticket to Africa cost? Keep in mind that once you get to Africa, you will not see all those animals in one (unless you go to a zoo), They come from countries and climates all over the continent. So, a family of five can visit the zoo for $500. I’m going to guess a single round trip ticket from America to Africa is at least that much. You’ll be staying a while, so add in food and hotel costs. You’ll be travelling all over the continent, so add that in. How much does that total for a family of five?
When a member of the vegan group approached move and said that there were many exciting vegam recipes you could use for the upcoming holiday of Thanksgiving, one of the MOVE members said ‘We don’t celebrate a holiday that comemorates the conquering of a people’,
As an adult, I have never had a professional or their staff call to see why I was late for an appointment. Ever. I’d be shocked if it happened.
It seems you have given up a therapist you were doing well with, for a not-so-good reason, and now you’re having a tough time finding a new one (who may also not call to tell you you’re missing an appt). Why not go back to the one you quit on, and maybe ask her to remind you to set a reminder on your phone before the end of each appt?
I can’t imagine giving up on a therapist, with all the troubles you’ve been having, for such a reason. So what if your previous one was willing to remind you?
I think that I remember that there was a lot more to the MOVE protest. On one side, Mayor Rizzo was PO’d that any person of color would ever dare stand up to his cops.
( a reliable source at the time indicated that when a revolver was pulled from a cops holster, a shot was to be fired into the ground before the cops would yell, “freeze!”. )
MOVE were not saints either though. They had taken over 4-6 tenement buildings and had re-enforced them. On the rooves, they added armor plating with razor wire on top to prevent any helicopter landings. The basements between the buildings had had tunnels dug through them so that supplies and soldiers could easily move from A to B to C. Lastly, the buildings were all well stocked with AR-15s and hundreds of cases of ammo.
When the police first rolled up, the building they were entering was barraceded shut.
Snipers then opened fire on the police cars. The police cars pulled back and SWAT trucks moved in. Suddenly the fire from the buildings in front of them stopped and snipers then opened up on the SWAT trucks rears. They then ended up pulling out.
One team got the smart idea to blow up the doors to a building and to go into the basement to get behind MOVE. Unfortunately, they found MOVE in well fortified and well supplied positions, making advance impossible.
It was at this point that Rizzo authorized the dropping of a bomb on the reinforced armor on top of the buildings ( even though that act was illegal ). The bomb had sufficient power to blast through the armor plating and to allow for dropping troops on top of that building. It was a very short time after that that MOVE realized that their position was untenable and they surrendered.
This story was recounted to me word for word from a relative who lived on the outskirts of Philadelphia at the time.
I accept most of the details of the story. I admit my memroy is fuzzy and I may get some things wrong. However, while Rizzo may have been chief of police at that time ( I don’t know and would have to Google things to find out), the mayor who authorized the dropping of the explosive was not Rizzo, but Wilson Goode.
Granted, this all came to me by word of mouth (and some of it TIME magazine, which was big back then). There were 3-4 extended family members attending Villanova at the time and some family had a house in the northern 'burbs. None were fans of MOVE, but even the very conservative family that lived in the burbs were horrified at how out of control Rizzo’s troops were.
A cousin went jugging at night in the neighborhood of that house in the 'burbs. His sweat pants had no pockets so no wallet. They were literally about to beat the snot out of him with nightsticks as they frog-marched him to his parents door. Thank God they were home. All for jogging at night.
My BIL went to Villanova at the time and I’ll admit he was a motorcycle riding troublemaker when he wasn’t in class or studying. He shared the Rizzo troops little “pull the gun, put a round in the dirt, and yell freeze” tactic as he had seen it. He’s dead now (unrelated) RIP.
Most of the MOVE info I read from TIME at the time, but some of that may be questionable since TIME back then was a lot like PEOPLE in the '90s. Still the graphics and maps of the tunnel systems between the buildings that they published were detailed & memorable.
Totally separate issue: I HATE raking leaves.