After 10 games my team was 8-2 and tied for first place. After 15 games we were 8-7 – 5 straight losses and tied for 4th place. We won today, making us 9-7 and guaranteeing a winning season as just one game remains. So not a bad season, but one that was tantalizingly close to being a very good season. Oh, well. Such is senior softball.
Fixed!
It took a little over 7 months, but the body damage to the truck caused by the exploding tire has finally been repaired. And, contrary to expectations, I did not have to replace the entire bed – the appropriate parts were found in Georgia. It looks great. I even took the opportunity to fix the gas cover (the spring broke over a year ago and I have had to tape it shut) for an extra $125. The only problem is that the tonneau cover could not be re-installed so I either have to find a replacement cover or travel without a cover. This is not urgent, so I will mull it over a bit.
Categories: RV Living
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Humana insana-ty
About a month ago, as I was reviewing my Visa charges, I noticed that I was being billed for Humana supplemental Medicare insurance. This surprised me as I had switched to a Medicare Advantage plan with a different provider in December, effective Jan 1, 2022. Everything involved in that switchover – including changing the billing for my few prescription medications – went smoothly, so I discarded my Humana card.
Well, not totally smoothly, I guess. As soon as I realized that I was being charged for coverage that didn’t actually exist, I canceled the automatic billing via the Humana website (which confirmed that I had “no active policies”), to avoid incurring more charges. Then I tried to call the Humana “customer care center” to get a refund. That so-called “customer care center” was simply a series of about 8 upsell opportunities, via a robot. I tried, about 8 times, to get through to a real person, without success. Frustrated, I started swearing at the robot. She chided me for using “inappropriate language” and diverted my call to an escort service.
That’s right, folks, Humana hooked me up with a hooker.
It would be hilarious if if wasn’t so damn infuriating.
Today I decided to file a claim through Visa. I was actually able to talk to a person there and, surprisingly, she was able to immediately get a Humana person on the line. I explained the situation and after being switched to another real person and explaining the situation again, was able to achieve the promise of satisfaction.
But only a promise. The situation, as I understand it, is that my health insurance was canceled, effective 1/1/2022, as I expected. But for reasons that are unclear, I continued to be billed for the now non-existent coverage. That is bad enough, but because the coverage was no longer in effect, a check would have to be sent to my address on file, which is no longer valid (and hasn’t been valid for about 8 years – I guess that shows how healthy I have been as they have never had to send anything to my invalid address). To change the address is a separate request that she, as a “customer service specialist” was not authorized to perform. She would have to open a second customer care case and escalate it to a higher level to correct my address before she could issue a check!
I have a feeling that it will be months before I see that money.
Just insane.
But the hooker was very nice. Thanks, Humana. I will send you the bill.
Categories: Health
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A tour of south Florida
My younger son, Frank, is visiting me for 13 days. Yes, he is catching some sun at the resort pool, but he is also seriously looking to leave Massachusetts, where he has lived for 41 years, and relocate to south Florida. His criteria for a new home:
- It be warm year-round (almost all of Florida qualifies on this one)
- It be “near” the ocean. The definition of “near” is somewhat flexible.
- It must have public transportation (he doesn’t have a car and isn’t planning on getting one in the short term).
- It must be “affordable”. The definition of “affordable” depends on the job he gets.
- It must be far from his brother (currently in Ft Myers). He loves his brother dearly but knows that hanging out with him leads to trouble.
Primarily due to that last one, the first week with me was spent traveling to distant cities – Ft Lauderdale, Tampa, West Palm Beach and Miami. Each of those cities is two hours or more from Ft Myers, so we spent about 27 hours in the car, getting to/from the destination and driving around looking for neighborhoods that would offer affordable housing, good bus service and some employment opportunities. And a good beach.
The winner of this first round was Ft Lauderdale. He is very interested in working at the Ft Lauderdale-Hollywood airport (FLL) as a baggage handler. There is some excellent bus service to FLL and some beaches not far away. But FLL is also served by the Tri-Rail system, so housing near Tri-Rail stations in both the Miami and West Palm Beach areas is also feasible.
The trip to West Palm Beach cuts right across the middle of Florida, skirting Lake Okeechobee. I have often driven by Lake Okeechobee but had never seen it due to the high dikes that line its southern shore. On the return trip I decided to stop and get a photo. I expected to see a lot of water – not Lake Michigan but large, with a broad expanse of open water. What a disappointment! It looked more like a river than a lake.
On the return trip from Miami I took US 41 – the “old Alligator Alley”. You can actually spot alligators along this route. We stopped at the visitor’s center for Big Cypress National Preserve where a lot of alligators can be seen close up.
Tomorrow we plan on making a return trip to the Ft Lauderdale area, this time focusing on the areas to the south of FLL – Dania Beach and Hollywood.
Categories: Family, FL, Places
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High water mark?
My softball team is now 8-2 and tied for first place. There are 7 games left. We could win them all and end up at 15-2. Or this could be our high water mark and we could lose them all and end up with a losing record, 8-9. Time will tell.
Categories: Sports
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Softball endorphins
Physically, I am a mess right now. I have a groin pull that makes every step painful. And a swollen right knee. I played a softball game yesterday where I had someone run for me every time I reached first base.
So why do I feel so good? Softball endorphins, I guess. We have won our last 4 games, convincingly, making our record 6-2. Even better, the team that entered this week at 6-0 lost both games, making our two teams tied in the standings. I even played as a pool player in their game on Tuesday, helping a team that was 1-5 at the time beat a previously undefeated team by a score of 22-10. A convincing beatdown by an underdog.
It has all made me feel very good. So I limp down the street when walking Rusty, every step excruciating. With a big smile on my face.
Categories: Sports
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“Make Me” by Lee Child
Copyright 2015 by Lee Child. Published by Dell, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
This is #20 in the series of books by Lee Child featuring Jack Reacher, the footloose one-man police force. I don’t think there is such a thing as a bad Reacher book; they range from Good to Great. This one is pretty close to Great.
The story here starts with Reacher getting off the train in Mother’s Rest, a hole-in-the-wall town on the route from Oklahoma City to Chicago. He is simply curious why a town would be named Mother’s Rest. Just simple curiosity on the part of a guy with nothing better to do. But he immediately encounters a woman who mistakes him for someone else. She is a PI looking for a colleague who was last seen in Mother’s Rest. Reacher also attracts some puzzling attention from some of the locals. After searching the town and failing to discover the origin of the Mother’s Rest name he is ready to resume his trip to Chicago. But he sees something at the train station that is even more curious that the name of the town, so he decides to stay and to team up with the woman to figure out what is going on.
The team eventually expands to include a science writer from the LA Times and takes him and his new partners on a journey to Chicago, Oklahoma City and San Francisco. The plot gets deeper and deeper and the mayhem soon starts. The body count in this one – at least the deaths involving Reacher – is just 5, but there are a lot of other deaths involved in the plot. Plus Reacher busts a few skulls and nuts. That is what he does.
A good story, well written and very fast-paced.
9 out of 10.
Categories: Books
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2021 blog booklet
2021 was my first full year of travel without Jett. It had the seventh trips north and south (TN7 and TS7) plus the December cruise (PCL2). If you want the year in booklet form you can get it here.
Categories: Blogging
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“Regrets Only” by Nancy Geary
Copyright 2004 by Nancy Whitman Geary. Published by Time Warner Book Group, New York.
It is usually good when, in a mystery story, everything fits together. But sometimes everything fits together just a little too well to be realistic. I am thinking of some of the Agatha Christie books, like Ten Little Indians or Murder on the Orient Express. Entertaining, for sure, but too nicely packaged to be anything but fiction.
Regrets Only is such a book. Exhibit A: A psychiatrist who is being interviewed for a prestigious post offers three “character witnesses” who turn out to be, respectively, her ex-husband, the father of her illegitimate twins and the adoptive father of said twins. Really? She couldn’t get a priest or a rabbi? And wouldn’t at least one of the two who were involved with her undisclosed illegitimate offspring recuse himself because of the obvious ethical conflict?
Exhibit B: The rookie homicide detective assigned to the murder of this psychiatrist is dating – and in love with – the abandoned son of the victim. Again, shouldn’t she have recused herself due to her strong emotional involvement?
Exhibit C: The cop’s boyfriend, who owns a bar, hosts an exhibit of drawings by a troubled young artist who, as it later becomes known, is the half-brother of the owner. This is a gratuitous coincidence that has little bearing on the plot. Why even include this odd coincidence?
So, while I thought the book was well-written, the coincidences overwhelmed me.
5 out of 10.
Categories: Books
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The only consistent thing in senior softball: inconsistency
Last Thursday my team lost, 8-3, to the worst team in the league. It was their first victory and they were very happy. We played terribly. No one was hitting. Scoring just 3 runs in 7 innings of slow-pitch softball is just pathetic.
Today we beat a better team, 20-13. I cannot explain how a team can hit so poorly one day and hit so well a few days later. Everyone was hitting. Just inexplicable.
I played an early game as a pool player, then played my team’s game. Two games, 8 at-bats, one walk, three singles, two triples and two home runs. I can’t recall the last time I hit a home run. Two in one day? Inexplicable. And 7-for-7? As Vizzini says in The Princess Bride, inconceivable.
A good day of softball. But can I hit that well consistently? Not a chance. Inconsistency is the name of this particular game.
Categories: Sports
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