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captainsblogWe've had a couple of moments in the past few days where our hearts and minds joined forces to defeat the cynical call of the budget spreadsheets that govern our lives, especially in these past months where income has been down and expenses (mostly last year's tax bills) are up.
Part of Eleanor's rehab from the accident was ordering some custom gloves that assist in the healing of the burned areas. She met with the woman who measures and fits them, and after learning that she'd be wearing them close to 24/7 for six months, she figured two pair would be a good idea. She has a pink pair and a blue pair, and one pair is almost always hanging on clothespins over the bathroom window after its day of hard work. Bonnie explained that our insurance would, likely, cover roughly half the tab, and we'd be responsible for something like $200 after they paid the claim.
Earlier this week, after Blue Cross sent a cryptic EOB last month saying "we think we'll pay for this but we reserve the right not to if we're cranky that day," we got Bonnie's bill, reflecting their apparent non-cranky payment. It was on a handwritten, self-carboning generic "invoice" form, and it was for only about half of what we expected. Eleanor quickly figured out that they'd billed, not for two pair, but for two gloves. This would have "saved" us a bit under 100 bucks, but would have cost that business twice as much. So we called, they looked into it, and yesterday while we were both out, Bonnie called with a very appreciative message for bringing it to her attention. She runs a very small shop, and with pre-digital era bookkeeping, Lord knows how many other orders of this kind got mixed up. Eleanor's going to offer to do some auditing for them (she did this in other businesses for years) to see if it can help out even more. For my part, I've paid the first invoice and will send in the second once Blue Cross makes its next, hopefully non-cranky, determination.
Until some other bills of mine get paid (and I think I just fired a slow-pay client last night for jerking around with my bills), it will reduce some much-needed cushion in our budget. Yet every time something like this happens, it seems, we get Just Enough in Just In Time and everything works out. Doing the right thing is kinda like that.
----
Then, this morning, a Friend gave that another test. Her would-be wife (damn NY and Texas gay-marriage stances) is doing Team In Training next month, and their minimum goal to participate is $3,000 of donations. I didn't know, until just now, that when you sign up for TNT (what, you thought there'd be some other acronym for it?), you become personally responsible for the difference between your minimum goal and what you donate. With the economy still in suckage, and Haiti taking many donors out of their circle right now, they are looking at a bill between $1,000 and $2,000 for the privilege of running a triathalon.
Unless we help. Which you can; here's the link to her training page. Any amount would help. Really. I know, the donation page is a PITA, especially if you're not using Inferno Explorer to display it, but tab from field to field and the info will all get in. Every penny goes to the cause. Please. Because it's, oh, well, you know....
----
(What does the GBS icon have to do with this? Just to remind me that Sean's lullaby album releases on Tuesday W00T!)
Part of Eleanor's rehab from the accident was ordering some custom gloves that assist in the healing of the burned areas. She met with the woman who measures and fits them, and after learning that she'd be wearing them close to 24/7 for six months, she figured two pair would be a good idea. She has a pink pair and a blue pair, and one pair is almost always hanging on clothespins over the bathroom window after its day of hard work. Bonnie explained that our insurance would, likely, cover roughly half the tab, and we'd be responsible for something like $200 after they paid the claim.
Earlier this week, after Blue Cross sent a cryptic EOB last month saying "we think we'll pay for this but we reserve the right not to if we're cranky that day," we got Bonnie's bill, reflecting their apparent non-cranky payment. It was on a handwritten, self-carboning generic "invoice" form, and it was for only about half of what we expected. Eleanor quickly figured out that they'd billed, not for two pair, but for two gloves. This would have "saved" us a bit under 100 bucks, but would have cost that business twice as much. So we called, they looked into it, and yesterday while we were both out, Bonnie called with a very appreciative message for bringing it to her attention. She runs a very small shop, and with pre-digital era bookkeeping, Lord knows how many other orders of this kind got mixed up. Eleanor's going to offer to do some auditing for them (she did this in other businesses for years) to see if it can help out even more. For my part, I've paid the first invoice and will send in the second once Blue Cross makes its next, hopefully non-cranky, determination.
Until some other bills of mine get paid (and I think I just fired a slow-pay client last night for jerking around with my bills), it will reduce some much-needed cushion in our budget. Yet every time something like this happens, it seems, we get Just Enough in Just In Time and everything works out. Doing the right thing is kinda like that.
----
Then, this morning, a Friend gave that another test. Her would-be wife (damn NY and Texas gay-marriage stances) is doing Team In Training next month, and their minimum goal to participate is $3,000 of donations. I didn't know, until just now, that when you sign up for TNT (what, you thought there'd be some other acronym for it?), you become personally responsible for the difference between your minimum goal and what you donate. With the economy still in suckage, and Haiti taking many donors out of their circle right now, they are looking at a bill between $1,000 and $2,000 for the privilege of running a triathalon.
Unless we help. Which you can; here's the link to her training page. Any amount would help. Really. I know, the donation page is a PITA, especially if you're not using Inferno Explorer to display it, but tab from field to field and the info will all get in. Every penny goes to the cause. Please. Because it's, oh, well, you know....
----
(What does the GBS icon have to do with this? Just to remind me that Sean's lullaby album releases on Tuesday W00T!)
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