And of course, what goes Up Up Up Upppp...

[captainsblog]

...must come down. Not to record lows or anything, but it's just been one of Those Days, at least on a 24-hour clock that began pretty much right after that last Upworthy post.

So, that bit about Eleanor's gym membership being fully covered and me using my wellness benefit toward my own? Hers still is, but let's talk about sex Dex wellness cards. If you're a United Statesian wage slave, you probably have one, or the ability to get one, as part of your overpriced, high deductible health insurance.  The Blues and Redshirts don't go out of their way to enable you with this benefit, but if you're proactive, they can provide either a full ride at a basic gym or anywhere from a couple to six months at higher-service joints.

Thus the point: assume nothing, and check everything. I have a red one with a 2023 expiry date. We used it last year for a Y membership for both of us that ended when COVID came. I'd planned on renewing it when things got normaler, but then Eleanor found out that her new Medicare supplement includes Y membership for her in full! Yay!

That got me right over to my gym to use it toward this month and a bit beyond. Except the card was declined. When I called to find out why, it turns out Independent Health requires you to call every January and "select your benefit." When you do, and of course I did so on the spot, they did not add $250 to the card. No, they send out a new one.

Major props to the studio manager at OTF Transit for straightening out somebody else's mess with me after an already full rich day for them over there.  And if you've got one of those critters, mark your calendar for every January to get the new one.

::marks calendar for January 2022 to get new one::

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I then headed home. Eleanor had been there all day, but was exhausted from all the mostly mental work she'd been doing on trying to get the bathroom reno on schedule.  We basically have three components: plumbing, tile and flooring under tile.  No one contractor does all three, or, best as we can tell, even two of them, so we are juggling a mélange of sourcings- from neighbors, coworkers, our own insurance company and an unfortunate dive into the site formerly known as Angie's List now just going by "Angi."

Plumber dude was first, and gave a decent quote and time frame. In fact, he's probably going to be ready before anyone else, which is a problem because once he does his removal fiddlybits, we're stuck with an unconnected hole in the ground that we'd rather not use for the purpose. At this point, we haven't even identified who is getting the tile out, the floor fixed and the new tile replaced, much less when, even much lesser for how much. It's clearly frustrating to her that she can't move forward with what can be done because of how tight the contractor market is right now.

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We then settled in to the final episodes of Sweet Tooth, and we loved it as far as it went.



Spoiler alert: the eighth and final episode ended on a cliffhanger. One that, if the series goes no further than the first series, will leave every character's arc completely unresolved.  There's speculation that it might not make it off the chopping block. And that would be a damn shame, because we found the acting, and interacting, to be superlative. The special effects were not really all that special, and there were relatively few Blow Up Real Good Avengers finale-like scenes to lure in the teenage boyz.  The stories were the important part, and it would rather suck if we didn't get to learn how they end.



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Speaking of Weird Deer Shit: Mama Doe was out there again at 5:30 this morning, and Pepper was on the case seconds later with barks that could be heard from miles away.  Eleanor was also up early:



She'd been getting up to pee about as often as Michael Douglas in Kominsky Method. She suspected a UTI, and hoped she'd just get prescribed, but they made her take the two hours of driving, waiting and brief doctoring to be sure.  Short answer is, they're not, but she came home with a scrip waiting to be filled, anyway,.... except it wasn't. The pharmacist wouldn't fill it because of a possible interaction with her blood pressure med.  So she's been waiting on an alternative that she might not get until right before she starts work at 2.



On the bright side, our PA did tell her I had my results from yesterday back already, and they're good. No change from a year ago, definitely not tumors, more like interior zits.  We'll just be checking them annually to make sure they don't get out of hand. The rest of my bloodwork from late last month also came through fine, so now it looks like I don't have to take those two hours out of my day next week to over them with her.

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And the final Down of the Day was the office wifi.  Emails stopped sending right around 9. Our router wasn't even showing up on the list of "available connections," which meant it was more of an issue than just unplugging and reconnecting it as we do at home several times a week. It took several hours to sort, which is why I was back home when Eleanor got home from her unexpected three hours dealing with her stuff.

At least she didn't get a referral to see Danny DeVito.

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Also at least, the 24 hour window of Downs seems to be closing. I just finished a phone court hearing where the judge and client were doing equal jobs of driving me crazy. I now have an outside appointment, a phone conference, and finally a workout which, indeed, did not cost me anything until the wellness card shows up.

Comments

[warriorsavant]

Gosh, US Health Care is better, you can get free gym memberships with it. (*snark*)
Some companies here do have supplemental policies, which might include "wellness benefits." When Nom was a corporate wage slave (albeit a decently paid one), she did use it for things.