Winter 2014 March 11 Monday

39 degrees this mooring, but warmed up to a nice day.

Large part of the day was spent throwing stuff out/getting it ready to donate.  I am trying to use the concept of if I haven't used it and don't see a specific future need for it, it goes out.  (With the exception of my Hot Wheels, although I think they meet the criteria to keep). As usual, the books are the hardest, although I am making progress.  

Started the day off with a very early morning meeting (7:00 a.m., but had to leave at 6 a.m. to get there).    Good meeting, but the travel time will make it difficult to attend.  

Rode bike this afternoon (missed this morning due to the early morning).  Felt good and had the chance to see a large number of people and does to get into the terminal.  I am hoping I can build up to do the "Ride with the Summer" in 2015 and also I may get to chance to ride in "Free Wheel"  (Oklahoma bike ride of about 500 milesI), Ride across Kansas and the Ride Across Tennessee this year as a way to prepare for it.

I will be so glad to see flowers bloom and the trees turn green.  It has been a long winter.

Saw a story on 60 Minutes about how companies keep data about everyone and then try to get the info to sell to a marketing company, which leads to having over 1,000 spam e-mails!  Not only can they follow my data, they can provide information on where I go etc, which is kind of scary.   I may turn off my GPS on my phone, although I don't know why anyone would want to see what I am doing!  After reading "The Circle" I decided to take some steps to keep more information about myself private, so the 60 Minutes story came at the right time.  They mentioned two companies "harvest" and store the data, but don't sell it, which is almost scarier than the companies htt sell it.

Discovered today that the Tennessee Employment Security Commission is a joke.  Spent about two hours trying to get through with a simple question before I gave up.  I wonder how many others give up?  Just another example of the fat cat politicians bragging about "streamlining" or cutting is just political BS, they are actually drastically eliminating services pandering to the lowest common denominator to buy votes by screaming how they are "saving" money by hurting  to some of the people who need the services the most. 

I expect this will bite them hard eventually.

Winter 2014 February 26 Wednesday

30 degrees this morning.  I am tired of winter and ready for Spring!

Since I hadn't received the information I was supposed to receive from Medicare by today, I had to to the local Social Security Office and see the federal government in action.  I see the results of the political fat cats who brag about "cutting the budget" while they feather their own nest (My representative loves tax cuts, except for the crop support payments he gets of around 3/4 million dollars a year).  

i got their at 8:00 a.m. since they were only open from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.  There were already 10 people in line.  We stood in 27 degree weather for an hour as the line lengthened to about 50 people .  The building refused to let people in, even though it was 27 degrees and they had chairs inside.  By definition most of the people in line were either old or extremely young or disabled.  

I can't blame the people who work there, I blame the politicians who brag about "cutting costs" and not considering the effects on the people.  I don't see how they can sleep at night.

However this was one case where the representative I talked to was a "true federal bureaucrat".  She only wanted to get rid of me.  Most of the people I have dealt with at Medicare have been very helpful (once I get through to them frequently with a 2 or 3 hour wait).  She was truly uncaring and what I would consider a true uncaring bureaucrat who was there just for her paycheck.

Anyway, I got it done and got it sent in.  I can understand why people hate the federal government, but they are looking at the wrong place when they try to blame the people working there, they need to look at the politicians.  Of course, the original person I talked to with Medicare apparently never sent out what he was supposed to.

I talked with another person looking for a job the other day and we both agreed that the employers who require "on line applications" should try it themselves sometimes and they will see why they have a hard time getting good applications.  Most on-line applications are defective and almost impossible to fill out.  I was thinking it was just me, but apparently they are uniformly disliked.

On a good note, the dental surgery Tuesday morning apparently went well as my jaw feels good.  I am glad that part is over, I only have several crowns to put on the "posts" , which I believe I have done in about three months.

Now we need to decide on a "Medicare Supplement" policy.  After looking at everything we are going to the "Medigap" policy and not the Advantage Plan.  I am glad the process is over. (Almost, as soon as we get enrolled, which we only have two days to do.)

Today is the third Anniversary of the date I suddenly thought I had a lot of time to fill.  I have been busy the entire time, and still am woefully behind in my reading etc.