This too, has passed

It's 3:47pm as I start to type this and the sun is out, the sky is blue, and no Dear Prudence, I don't want to go play. ... Although tempting as it may be, seeing it's a cool 67 degrees and beautiful out.

The cool wind stroking the clouds across the sky make for a fall's day instead of a winter's day. I feel like I should be seeing autumn leaves on the ground rather than palm trees along the sidewalk. 

The afternoon is quite a difference in scene from this morning. Too bad I don't have the "before" pictures to add to this... 

I did want to post when the storms were over, to say it finished somewhere off to sea. There are places through out Florida that got hit hard, as some were mobile home parks and others were older communities. There was video somewhere of the interstate this morning, in the thick of it, where an overturned 18 wheeler created a back up of cars. I don't remember where it was, but if it were me in back of that, I'd be like "so much for getting out of dodge! This ain't no good.. talk about being a sitting duck!". 

The question remains... six months out of the year with snow and ice... or six months out of the year with hurricane or tornados?

A decade in Florida still has me boggled...

Cheers!

Tay, if you're reading this, I found you a new coffee service... 

Here and here

"Good" morning?

It's Sunday... you want to be able to sleep in, enjoy a relaxing breakfast, read up on the news... 

Not get woken up by the Emergency Alert System blaring your smart phone and then a land line vocal message... 

There's an active tornado warning happening this morning.

Even as I type this (8:40am), there are six (6) active warnings happening in the area, including a few cross streets that are "just minutes" from my house (and they connect to other cities). As I look out the kitchen window (because it's breakfast time and I'm having my coffee and smoothie), it's dark out - almost like sun setting dark, it's windy, but it's not pouring like it was about an hour ago. It's stormy dark too... like snow is coming, badly.

The sun was out and it was bucketing rain and a few booms of thunder for 10 minutes (that I noticed, right after the phone message came through). Priority was me and my mom got in our respective bathrooms and took showers. Then she called her friends who are in upstairs units, as well as those in low lying in houses - that are prone to quick flooding. Day or night, come to our unit because we are a center unit and can hide out for safety. 

But now that I say that... I'm thinking, "what about our / their cars?". I guess a car is better lost to nature than a body, yes. However, here she is telling people to come for safety but if we got hit, then how do they get back to their own places when it's time? Hopefully it won't get that way. Especially since the news is showing the mobile home parks that are destroyed because a couple places got hit by the tornado. 

You really put your life in your hands during storms when you live in a trailer park. Around here, insurance companies don't home insure the parks due to the various types of storms we get (hurricanes, tornadoes, etc). Aluminum cans get broken when dropped. Every time there's a weather event, the first pictures you see are mobile homes destroyed. As much as I could afford to live in one and would probably live in one, nofa king way am I moving into a park while in Florida. I'm not risking my life when hurricane season approaches (six months out of the year) or during windy events. At least with parks in snow country, yes, heavy snow can ruin roofs, but it can do that on a normal house too. Hurricanes ruin normal house roofs here, but don't blow houses down like a deck of cards like mobile homes are decimated. 

I'm all over the place right now because I can't think while the TV is on in my house. My mother is in the living room watching local news. The living room is off the dining room (where I am). With a 48" television blaring news, my focus is everywhere but typing. I want to type in the case we get power loss because it's starting to thunder again (8:49). 

The pictures on the television are crazy.. people uploading videos to local news. So it being 9:04am, the news is talking about probabilities of EF0-EF2 cones. As they were talking, my mother and I looked at each other like "shit" because we both heard the blaring of the Emergency Alert tone, but it wasn't on our phones. I said "it's their phones on the TV... give it a minute and we will probably get something... the noise is their end". 

The wind is picking up here and it's a steady rain. Thunder but lightning in other places they just said. The system is moving north, but there are little cones popping up around here. Wind spouts and rotation about 15 to 25 minutes from me. 

I'm sure we'll be find but I should probably cut my post here, as I just saw some lightning and we had a boom of thunder. I'm nervous about a looming power outage and should probably get the cell phone battery blocks charged while I can... 

I'll post an update when I can!

Cheers;

What's the deal with..

... doctors and co-pays?

Okay, we're gonna get a little off track for the new year here... but what else is new... when I get side tracked?

So what's the deal with doctors and co-pays?

More specifically, what's the deal with going to a wellness visit and ending up having to shell out money?

Okay, let me explain...

I was talking to some people at home and away, and they all say the same thing: Why, when you go to your doctor (any doctor) for a wellness visit (physical). it's free. Yet, if you bring up any problem(s), it becomes an actual doctor's visit and you have to pay for the appointment?

Break it down a little more...

You go for your yearly physical with your general practitioner (internist, whatever). It's the kind of appointment where they height and weight you. Already had you do blood work, so they're going to go over it with you. Perhaps tell you about medications for whatever is found in the work up or the fact you've got to do something with your weight. 

However...

The second you bring up something regarding medication or an ailment that's been bothering you, this freebie visit not turns in to a paid visit, as you're bringing up health challenges that is not normal to the visit you're in. 

I know someone who brought up a change in his (basic) allergy medication. He was at his physical and asked about using some over the counter meds as what he was being prescribed wasn't really working for him. He did some research on what seasonal allergy medications are more readily available, and wanted to know if that would conflict with any thing else he's taking. 

Well.. the doctor explained some things about the uses of the store bought meds versus what the guy is already taking, and wouldn't you know it, he walked out having to pay his co-pay. All because he raised questions about seasonal allergy medications. The doctor didn't bring it up, the guy did. Had he not asked, he wouldn't have been charged the visit.

I know someone else, who went to have their yearly, and brought up the fact they had some sporadic pain in an area. It wasn't every day, but it wasn't rare either. It came and went, and they don't know why. Doctor did another one over, asked pertinent questions, sent the person on their way out and the person paid their co-pay. I don't remember the answer to the pain questions, so I'm not going to go there. 

But... 

If you're going to go have a doctor's appointment and it's supposed to be a yearly exam where you go over anything or everything, why do you have to pay for it, if you end up asking questions relating to your health? The whole basis of the visit is a health visit. Why can't everything be (literally) put on the table and talked about, and still be covered? 

Yes, visits and conversations are coded differently for insurance purposes. I understand that. I got caught up into quite the few coding problems in the past decade. So trust me... I'm well familiar with insurance challenges. 

But still. Insurance is allowing you one free visit a year. And it has to be a year and a day later (or longer) to qualify for that visit. So if you're going to it and you want to bring something up, it shouldn't cost you extra because you spoke about a health issue. 

I mean hell, I had an appointment once, and all the doctor did, was talk about comic books. I'm not a fanboy and into all the sub genres or anything relating to comics. Sure, I know some of the characters, I've seen a movie or two, but I'm not fawning over any of it. I can barely keep up the conversation with one of my friends who will randomly start a Loki conversation with me (she lubs him). So when my doctor started a 40 minute trope of a monologue about X-Men and Batman and all MCU and DC characters, I'm like "this dude's gonna make me pay for this shit". Lo and behold, I had to pay my co-pay and we only talked for 2 minutes about my blood work. I was mad as hell. 

To top it off, that was the first and last time I saw him. I had recently changed doctors (because the one prior left the practice) and this guy accepted me. Every year since, for both wellness and otherwise visits, I've seen the nurse practitioners. I've yet to see him again. 

With all the health problems in our world today, among other worldly challenges, I ask again: What's the deal with going to the doctor for a wellness visit, mentioning a problem that's out of the spectrum of the visit, and you have to pay for it? Literally and figuratively? AND... the "wellness visit" you were there for... gets put back on record as not having it. As you're now having a doctor's visit, your wellness / physical goes back on the books for you to come back and do over. 

Help me figure that one out...

Stay healthy

Cherers;