My ophthalmologist wanted me to use Restasis for my dry eye, but insurance covered hardly any of this extremely expensive eyedrop, nor its almost as expensive generic equivalent, cyclosporine. GoodRX was moot, because insurance didn’t refuse to cover it, it just didn’t cover much. So I went without, and got a mild scolding from the doc.
Then I thought, why involve insurance at all? I went back yesterday and told them to not even run it by Anthem, just show me the uncovered cost and then I’d see what GoodRX covered. Surprise! It worked. It took the cost down from $300 a month to $87, which I could afford. So now I’m taking cyclosporine like a good girl. Hopefully this isn’t a pharmacy loophole which will close abruptly.
Good morning all. Slept until 7am and have done nothing of consequence since then. I rather hoped to keep that up for most of the day, but there is a little shopping to be done and soccer workouts for the 10-11 year olds are from noon-3pm so I’ll probably stop by and see if I can be of any assistance, and then maybe the gym…so moderately active.
My bladder/kidneys are being rambunctious again (if you don’t want to read about my urine outgo, stop right here). Been more or less normal for the past couple weeks, around 2,000 milliliters and 6-8 trips to the bathroom, but this morning I was up at 1am and 5am and both times I passed about 700ml, which is pretty much max capacity, so 1400ml before I even got up. Will see how I do during the day, while it is not a major concern I am continuing to watch it.
Ok, back to normal programming…
Shoe, glad you survived the night, be interesting to see if the DST change affects your business tonight.
boo fae, happy band festival-izing.
Dicey, that’s a lot of shopping and fooding. Enjoy yourself!
FCM, hope they can get the glasses to fit. I’ll be going in April, there has been a change in my eyes, still 95% good but can tell that a few things aren’t as sharp as they usually are.
lucky, glad you found a loophole, so far I have had little doctoring but that time is coming for me, I have a GoodRx card and will have to keep an eye on things.
It’s 43F and cloudy outside. There is a chance of rain showers in the morning, but the afternoon will be mostly cloudy with a high temperature of 60F.
Shoe, I’m glad you made it through the night. Being fully staffed makes all the difference between smooth operations and complete chaos.
BooFae, have fun tonight!
FCM, I hope they can adjust the glasses properly for you.
I don’t have much on the agenda for today. Yesterday, I didn’t do anything but sweep the floors and wash dishes. Other than that, I was slothing to the highest degree. I watched some of the new season of F1 on Netflix and then caught up with some other shows on various platforms. Like I said, I was lazy. Oh wait! I dusted, too!
Today, however, I must get my butt in gear and knock out some chores. I need to do laundry for sure. I have much more laundry now because I wear two outfits daily (work clothes and then home clothes).
I should probably run the vacuum and I need to wash the floors either today or tomorrow.
I know, it sounds like such fun!
Alrighty, time for some more coffee. I’m way more tired than usual.
Good morning everyone. It’s going to be cold and rainy here, but I’m rather looking forward to it. It’ll finally clean the last of the salt off the roads, and we need the moisture.
I woke up with a craving for Hatch green chiles - I need to see who I can rustle up to join me for a meal at a New Mexican-style restaurant.
Test results were posted online overnight, and I think they did run everything they were supposed to. And the results actually weren’t that bad, so a big relief.
Vegan butter is delicious - I’m not sure I could tell the difference between it and regular butter.
flyboy Very interesting, thanks for posting - it looks like they’re continuing clinical trials.
shoe I hope you get a break soon
It shouldn’t be - I know several people that flip back and forth between their insurance/Medicare vs GoodRX depending on which is less expensive. I hope you notice a difference with the medication.
I was disappointed to learn it can’t be used on pet prescriptions, even at a regular pharmacy - would have saved me a couple of hundred bucks on an antibiotic once!
That is HUGE, if it works out. Diabetes kills a lot of people, often because of infections that can result. My brother was one of them.
Pumpernickel bagel for breakfast with a side of scrambled. Nothing on the agenda today, but it’s going to hit high 40s today, so perhaps a stroll is in order.
Back from erranding. I think my glasses are good now, but if not, I can go back and they’ll tweak them some more.
As I came out of the office, I saw bird poop on my car roof, so I decided to make a detour and drive thru the automated car wash. I even sprang for the $12 wash - prices range from $9 to $14 and I got the second to the most expensive - go me! But I was dismayed when I came out of my 3rd (or 4th) stop and noticed there was still bird poop on the roof. It was just a couple of spots, so I assume it dried out more than the rest, or the “soft touch” cycle was too soft. No biggie - a damp paper towel took care of it.
Now I’m having the last of the leftover soup, thinking about what I should do next. Maybe some raking? It’s a tad chilly, but mostly nice out. Decisions, decisions…
Started Typing: 11:10 AM ET
Clicked Reply: 12:06 PM ET
Belated “happy birthday,” boofae!
Yesterday was a very long day, on top of a long week. And Bailey decided that 6am was late enough for me to sleep (she barked her head off until I got up; that dog narrowly avoided theriocide), so I was exhausted from the get-go. By the end of the day I was so tired that English was about to become my second language. I actually spent a good 10 minutes last night frustratedly trying to figure out why Hulu wouldn’t let me watch a show that’s on Paramount+.
We had the final all-hands with HR late yesterday morning: for the vast majority of the folks on my contract, the official furlough starts today and layoffs will happen on Friday, 3/14. There is no hope of recall by the government. However, a few people – including my boss, our admin, and at least one of the other senior managers – have been given a 3-week “extension” in order to complete contract close-out activities and/or prepare a draft proposal for whenever the customer competes this work again, and I’m officially in that group (doing both). Phew!
Adding to the reprieve is that I reached out to my internal network asking about possible short-term work, and starting on Monday I’m going to be helping another program overhaul their contract deliverables. It’s part-time for now, because the close-out and proposal work will be my priority, but it could cover me full-time beyond the next 3 weeks if needed.
Remember the “stretch” job I applied for on Thursday? I actually interviewed for it yesterday afternoon! The interview lasted for 75 minutes, but the hiring manager was hard to read: I don’t think he disliked me, but I have no idea whether he liked me (as a candidate). I think I genuinely have a chance, but also won’t be surprised if I don’t get an offer. So I’m continuing to search/apply for internal positions. And I’ve been browsing open positions at some of the companies where friends and former colleagues work, but so far nothing has caught my eye. At some point I may need to step that up, but I don’t plan to start an external job search in earnest for at least another week.
Yesterday was tough: I had the final all-hands with HR where they announced the layoff date (that was a brutal meeting; so many people were understandably scared/angry), the interview, a meeting with the program manager I’m going to start supporting on Monday, final conversations with my direct reports, etc. I’ll be going to the office on Wednesday morning to turn in my government equipment: our admin is collecting everything, so I’ll get to see her in person one last time.
I’m still not sleeping well/enough: after Bailey’s early wakeup yesterday and the good news about temporarily still being employed I really expected to sleep in this morning, but my stupid brain woke me up at 6am again. Otherwise, though, I’m doing alright.
I have zero plans for today. I’ll probaby keep working on taking apart my nephew’s Batwing (I’m so close to being able to start rebuilding it!). I won’t be surprised if there’s some mid-afternoon nappage.
Yeesh.
If the boss was there, howcome you didn’t ask about the onboarding then?
Woah…any trainwrecks, or were you just super busy?
Oh wow, that’s excellent!
It’s unusual for our weather to be significantly different, but here it’s a bit too windy for raking.
Having pain twangs on the right thumb, so I dug out my Mueller hand/wrist support for the first time in a long time. I must have overdone it with weights yesterday.
Looks like spag and sauce for dinner. I’ve got some leftover andouille sausage I can put in it.
In addition to daily Wordle, I’ve started doing the daily Spelling Bee on NYT. It’s a good brain exercise, if a bit frustrating when it doesn’t recognize a cromulent word. It can take most of a day to finish at times, but I can usually get them all.
No wind at the moment, but it was forecast for this afternoon. Maybe I shouldn’t risk it?? Hmmmmm…
I can’t go at the moment anyway - I’m putting the ice maker thru its cleaning cycle. Once the vinegar bath is done, I need to flush it twice with fresh water, then make a batch or two of ice to finish the process - that will take at least 90 minutes. Who knows how windy it’ll be by then?
Just looked out the back window - oh no!! Trees are swaying!!!
I never got into Wordle, but I’ve done the NYT Spelling Bee every day for years — and last year I started playing Connections every day, too. I love them, even when I hate them.
Went to Canadian Tire to get some de-icer for the sidewalk. There were two brands available : one with a sorta generic de-icer name, and the Alaska brand. Guess which one I got?
It may just be a coincidence, but I got the last two genericy bags, and the pallet of Alaska brand was full.
This week was rough, with all the news of the erratic orange one trying to take down my country.
PS - having lunch at my neighbourhood pub, and the talk at the bar is to avoid any bourbon, not just Jack Daniels.
So I was on the tables(sorting and heaving, not dancing, that’s later at the bar ) for most of the sort, then loading on 200 South. I stopped at Harris Teeter for an onion which I tied to my belt which was the style at the time. I stopped at the Girl Scout booth, but they were sold out of Thin Mints. So I bought a box of Trefoils, and ordered 5 boxes of Thin Mints online. Laundry is in the dryer, so it’s naptime after I finsih my bacon, eggs, and gin&tonic.
I went later yesterday and my experience was equally disheartening. Their usual sales were -30% or -40% off, so -20% is an insult. The place was a mess (even worse than usual), the goods left were mostly the ‘weird’ or outlier things. I think they culled off the ‘good’ stuff and sold it en mass bulk to a reseller, leaving us mere mortal customers with the dregs. I left with nothing. No plans to go back because I’m sure the stale leavings at the warehouses are just as random and weird. I’ll have to find my humble Grandma sewing/crafting/mending supplies elsewhere, which sure won’t be WalMart (in case anyone was wondering-nor Amazon). There are several quilting stores in town, I’ll try to make do with those-at least they are all local businesses. Sadly they are much more expensive than Joann’s with a -40% off coupon every 3 weeks but I’ll just have to work on my delayed gratification and planning skills. [the last is worthy of a snort laugh, BTW]. Oh, well, it’s been months since I could see well enough to sew anyway.
Here’s a trick that might make those vials go farther if you’re willing to try it. You just have to be meticulous about following the method in all details. It’ll make that $87 last two or three times as long.
Of course every pharmacy can choose whether or not to accept a GoodRx coupon for any medication they feel like. So far mine has always accepted them but I live where there is a lot of competition so it behooves them to.
I started doing the NYT mini-crossword everyday as a free neuro-plasticity exercise for TBI cognitive rehab. Pre-brain bonk I could do the real crosswords but no longer. Years later I added Connections, because it was also free and I need more brain aerobics every day.
It has a much longer learning curve than other puzzles. I also allow myself to use the ‘cheats’, especially when I was learning how Connections thought.
Plus, if you do Connections everyday you can post your results on FB up against our boo fae’s. That makes it a lot more fun.
Consider giving it another try. I might go back and try Spelling Bee or Wordle since so many Mumpers like those. That might also mean I’ll need a Mumper to coach me initially via PMs.
My 7 yo granddaughter is a whiz at sudokus. My bonked brain just glazes over at those, not even gonna try. Word-based puzzles I’ll chance.
But I was dismayed when I came out of my 3rd (or 4th) stop and noticed there was still bird poop on the roof. It was just a couple of spots, so I assume it dried out more than the rest, or the “soft touch” cycle was too soft. No biggie - a damp paper towel took care of it.
Otherwise, though, I’m doing alright.
