Oh, HQ admin staff, you morons. Why do you insist on helping me? You booked me a room I did not need, and did not tell me until after it was too late to cancel, so I had to burn good will at my preferred lodging to get them to cancel the room I wanted to stay in. Now I’m at a motel I do not like, and it smells like a pond came here to die. It’s not even your job to book my travel! Please stop with the unasked for “help.” Assholes.
Another bureaucratic mess. I sent my FSA about a thousand bucks’ worth of pharmacy bills. Downloaded a list hot off the insurance company’s website, everything that hadn’t been paid for by the flx spending card, complete with patient name, date, medication, cost to us, and pharmacy (the one here in town or mail order). Sent the whole thing off. The claim was denied.
I got in touch with them. The only way to do so was to do a “chat.” I HATE “chats.” I hated them even worse when I was told by “Joseph,” the man in charge of my “chat,” that the issue was easily resolved: they just needed a little more information, specifically a copy of the original prescriptions written by the doctor, ideally a copy of the prescription as written on the prescription pad. Yes, he really said this.
I pushed back, of course. Surely that can’t be right, I wrote; prescription pads are entirely gone in my state (as in all states now?), have been for several years. Plus which I’ve done this many times before, I explained, using the same type of list from the same insurance company, and had never run into trouble. What’s the deal?
I do understand, Joseph wrote, but these are IRS regulations.
The fuck they are, I wrote (well, not quite so bluntly, I actually asked him to send me a copy of that regulation).
–Well, after several more go-rounds I managed to convince him that the list was legit. He said he’d overturn the denial and fasttrack the reimbursement. Which is good, but I expected the whole thing to take ten minutes, and it took forty.
I’m too fucking old for this.
40 minutes? Friend, you got off light. It took three fucking days to sort of resolve an issue that an airline created. And, yes, I was on the phone with the necessary outfits–yes, plural–to get that sort of resolved.
Thank you.
I melted down a bit there for a day. But upon reflecting, I’m going to go ahead and finish the project at hand, and then do some more me-oriented fun projects.
You got a chat? Someone actually reading what you wrote? Damn you’s fancy!
I’m currently playing a play-to-pretty game: the stuff you pay for is 99% cosmetic. They won’t take my money: I’ve been flagged for possible money-laundering (what the fuck does “buying a pretty dress for my virtual doll” have to do with money laundering, please?) and been told to send scans of my ID and CC to an American company. The American company are legit according to the game people, but I can find very little information about them on the internet. Attempts to contact the Americans requesting information on the exact regs which would entitle them to such scans are met with one of two email forms: either one telling me that I’m flagged for possible money-laundering and must send them scans of my ID and CC (front and back) or a different but still form email apologizing for any confusion and indicating that they only need to see certain specific pieces of info.
OK, no pretty dresses. Sorry, virtual doll!
So I play this mobile game based on a franchise I have long history with. I enjoy it, enough to throw a small amount of money their way occasionally, which I pretty much never do otherwise.
Their subreddit is great for strategy and advice. But man, some of the topics about how the game is run just brings out so many reactionaries. Like their nerfing of this or their noncommittal to that or their RL money bundle offer is mathematically a poor deal or directly worse than a previous longstanding one… There’s just so much (or enough) anger and bitterness that I feel that I shake my head at times. Just… don’t buy it? They may or may not be trying to “cheat” us, but you’d think they were going after YOU specifically, with that tone.
Chill. Seriously. Sheesh.
(I realize that such topics amplify negativity, especially online, because those like me won’t post for fear of causing an argument or seem like we’re belittling legit concerns or don’t want to be downvoted into oblivion. I realize that if the dev’s intent really is trying to “scam” new players with a less than ideal return, that’s bad. I realize that certain acts can lead to a shorter life for a game I enjoy and come off badly to its players. I just don’t feel personally insulted or outraged the way some of these people seem to. Like I said, just… don’t buy it? No need for hysteria, even if you do like the game and are concerned about its future THAT much, which, I dunno… I don’t feel that at times…)
He won’t find what’s up by fixing the tiller, just what’s down.
Lacunae Matata, I don’t know you or your backstory, so particular apologies for the unsolicited advice, but I too vote to keep the boat. Based on that one post, it seems you and your husband have some communication issues. Best of luck with working them out. Oh, and it’s a small thing, but you have one of the best usernames on the Dope.
I’ve had six doctor’s appointments this week. Five were planned in advance, and one was a follow-up from one of those five appointments. It’s nothing major, and not even for one thing, but holy crap, I am so glad to not have one today.
One of them was for my sense of smell, which got really messed up by probably-a-viral-infection. I still need an MRI. Spent like twenty minutes in the doctor’s office answering questions, including a detailed discussion about the removal of my IUD in 2016. Yesterday, they called me to schedule the MRI…then told me they couldn’t because I had an IUD. Nevermind that it’s an MRI of my head, it used to be a copper IUD, and I don’t have a fucking IUD. So, long call back, then a month out for the MRI. Because, you know, waiting doesn’t happen in the US.
Then, that evening, I went to Target to try to buy some white chocolate caramel apple pie Dove pieces, which are exclusive to Target and which the store’s website said they had in stock. Couldn’t find any. Store’s inventory said they had thirty two in stock. They could find zero of them, however, and suggested that, since I was running late (having grossly underestimated the time required to walk into a store and buy a thing) that I order it online. So I did.
They cancelled the order. That made me pretty furious. I just ordered them somewhere fifty miles away, and I’m going to pick them up on Saturday or something, but at that point, I’m really just doing this to spite our individual Target. So, basically, I’m driving to another city, to buy candy that I’m going to parcel out over the course of like two months, just because I’m too fucking stubborn to admit defeat.
Sad news on the kitty-cat front. Not mine, but Grandpa Mason, of Grandpa Mason and His Kittens, is going to be euthanized tonight. His kidney disease has gotten ahead of any care that can be given to him, and his quality of life isn’t, anymore. Everyone in the TinyKittens community is grieving, but none more than Shelly, who fought so hard to give him so much extra life.
I shall give my cat extra love tonight. Their lives are always too short.
I am 30. I am not old. But apparently I am old enough that I can sleep wrong or do some very small wrong thing and have my shoulder hurt the whole freakin week. It doesn’t hurt that bad, but it does enough that it has put me in a bad mood all week. And I’m not even sure what I did.
That is the worst, slalexan. I started physical therapy today for an injury that I got on Father’s Day. I kept thinking it was getting better, then it would go downhill for a while, then I would think now it’s getting better, etc. The worst part is that I wasn’t even aware of injuring it - it just started to hurt like the devil that night.
One of the kids* that I have acquired over the years called me yesterday evening in a panic asking if I knew of a vet that takes payments. Seems Rover** had caught himself on something and had a gash on his side. It’s close to his front leg where it gets a lot of movement and conveniently located where he could reach it to lick it. Of course, there are no vets locally that officially*** take payments.
I told him that I take payments and asked where are we meeting? The vet we both usually use had already told him they couldn’t get him in, so emergency vet it is.
Holy shit, kid, on the phone you really undersold what happened to Rover! I’m glad we’re here. Rover seems to not notice he has a gaping wound in his side. He just wants to love all the people we brought him to see. He’s a very sweet 80-pound mutt with a blocky head and goofy ears. Everyone gives him love and he is very happy to be at this new place.
Damage: Surgical removal of 6 inch by about 2 inches skin-and-tissue flap. The way he torn it, the skin could not be closed without removing the flap. 10 inches of stitches because of course they had to remove a lot of stuff to get to good tissue and skin. A lovely drainage tube. Cone of shame for many days. $825. I don’t think it would have been much cheaper at my vet, so I’m okay with that and not surprised. Shit’s expensive here.
This kid is my shade-tree mechanic so we will be trading labor for vet bills. Luckily, my cars are old and my daughter recently bought a rig that needs some work. We’ll be square in short order.
*We choose our family and my daughters brought home a lot of strays, both human and other.
**His real name.
***My vet will work with me, but usually it’s for something we work out in advance.
Aw. I hope the kittens can find some other adult they can curl up with. 
Sounds like you saved a good 'un, stretch!
I can’t seem to find the video now but I saw on Facebook last night that Aura has taken over the kitten snuggling duties. I legit ugly cried over a cat I never met. My cat has kidney disease and I’ve learned quite a bit from TinyKittens and Mason. Rest in peace, Mason, you did good.
And because this is the mini-rants thread, why the hell does a flu shot hurt so damn bad? Got my flu shot on Thursday and my arm is still sore!
Mason was pretty special. Makes you wonder how many other Masons there might be out there that we’ll never hear about. Aura seems to be a bit less patient than Mason, but I expect she’ll grow into the role.
Did you see that Shelly had formally adopted Mason on Wednesday?
I think her stifled sobs while she was petting Mason on that last day, when he was snuggled with Peggy and Piggy, was what got to me most. And that he let her touch him.
For fucks sake. I went close to 10 years without buying a new phone. The I got it knocked out of my hand, and cracked the screen to pieces, so I end end being forced to by new one. A Samsung s9+ because it was really a good deal,like 6 generations beyond my last one.
And I loved it (for the first month). In the month since then they have chances every fucking feature of the fucking phone in forced updates. The notification screen, It’s fucking gone( unless you hit a fucking icon on the load screen, which I cant do in gloves or with wet hands.
I can’t even figure out how to raise the screen brightness since they changed it yesterday and no-one has a guide on google out yet, and every menu is different.
Have you looked into Settings to figure out how to change the brightness?
I had not seen that Shelly adopted Mason, that’s wonderful. Shelly has such a big heart.
FFS, I am so damn glad I’m retiring at the end of the year. My company sent out the week’s schedule to everybody, for the week of 9-22 to 9-28. They sent it out tonight at 8:45pm.
Thanks for the stupendous advanced notice, assholes.