Insurance, Candy, and Other Random Tuesday Stuff

And now, a bit of random news and some happenings from around here, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked.  

Ms. JAI, my sometimes Monday (but not yesterday) client, is having an argument with her long term health care company again.  They pay for me to clean her house.  She writes me a check, and they reimburse her.

They review the time sheets on the 15th if you sent them in by the 10th.  If they get it after the 10th, they review it the next month.

She sends it in on the first, so their own records show they are getting it on the 6th/7th, but they are still telling her she gets it in too late to review and delaying it until the next month every time.

They give her the money, they just delay it.  She is not happy.  The plan is for me to start logging my hours on the website, but i have to teach her how to get on the website so she can let me do that.

In fact, i believe the delay tactic is because they want everyone, even elderly people who have trouble with this stuff, to do it all online.  If you don't, they penalize you.  Not very good customer service if you ask me.

Speaking of customer service, i received spectacular and fast service yesterday at the Post Office, of all places.  The line was short, the postal employee was pleasant and pointed me to a cheaper option to send the book i was mailing to a friend, and everyone in the office was in a good mood.  It was quite a change from having to wait for the one and only worker manning the desk to spend half an hour looking for one person's package and then snarl at you when it's finally your turn.

As is usual this time of year, i am buying candy for The Great Neighborhood Candy Exchange (a/k/a Halloween) one small bag at a time every time i am at the store.  It's a lot less painful that way.  As is also usual, i am hiding the candy and have lost the first bag i hid.  The biggest problem is that, after all these years, i've run out of reliable hiding places that the rest of the family cannot find, and now i'm having to go further afield, so i lose track.

Bigger Girl had some candy yesterday to take to her friend she's picking up from the airport.  Bigger Girl believes everyone needs cheering up with candy when being picked up at an airport, and with flying the way it is these days, she's probably right.  When i asked her where she got the candy (which is not the brand i'd bought, so i knew she hadn't found my stash), she said she picked it up at the football game this past weekend.  (Grandpa's tickets are in a section where the food is included in the ticket price and they have candy at all of the tables.)

"My friend Jon has cargo pockets sewn into the inside of his kilt!" she said.  Apparently that's where he carries his wallet and keys, and stashes candy.  Yes, that was the friend she invited to the game, and any time he's not on duty as a fire fighter, he wears his kilt, even to football games.

#1 Son and Friend Chris are doing okay so far both working for the same restaurant.  They are friends, but they have their moments.  So far, so good, and i hope it stays that way.

Little Girl showed me her favorite website for making memes, so i turned a Buff photo into one:

The problem is, half othe pictures i upload to the generator come out upside down, and i cannot figure out why.

Today is:

Buttering-Up Semi-Finals -- Fairy Calendar

Festival of Bacchus/Dionysus -- Ancient Roman Calendar (tasting the old and new wine and celebrating the harvest)

Independence Day -- Iraq

Kae Chun Jul -- Korea (National Foundation Day, BC 2333)

Morazan Day -- Honduras (Soldier's Day)

National Butterfly and Hummingbird Day -- internet generated; celebrate these beauties today, no matter where you are

National Carmel Custard Day

Nobel Conference 53 -- Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN, US (annual two-day symposium, this year In Search of Economic Balance)

Oschophoria -- Ancient Greek Calendar (in honor of the return of Theseus after killing the Minotaur; deities celebrated were Dionysius and either Athena or Ariadne, depending on the source cited; date approximate)

Relief of Leiden Day -- Netherlands

Reunification Day / Unity Day-- Germany

Sts. Ewald the Black and Ewald the Fair's Day (Patrons of Westphalia)

Techies' Day -- give your techies some well deserved appreciation

World Dairy Expo -- Madison, WI, US ("Discover New Dairy Worlds" is this year's theme; through Saturday)

Birthdays Today:

Neve Campbell, 1973

Gwen Stefani, 1969

Janel Maloney, 1969

Clive Owen, 1964

Jack P. Wagner, 1959

Dennis Eckersley, 1954

Stevie Ray Vaughan, 1954

Dave Winfield, 1951

Lindsey Buckingham, 1949

Roy Horn, 1944

Chubby Checker, 1941

Erik Bruhn, 1928

Gore Vidal, 1925

James Herriot (James Alfred Wight), 1916

Harvey Kurtzman, 1902

William Crawford Gorgas, 1854

George Bancroft, 1800

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"L.A. Law"(TV), 1986

"Scarecrow and Mrs. King"(TV), 1983

"Quincy"(TV), 1976

"The Dick Van Dyke Show"(TV), 1961

"The Andy Griffith Show"(TV), 1960

"The Pat Boone Show"(TV), 1957

"The Real McCoys"(TV), 1957

"Captain Kangaroo"(TV), 1955

"The Mickey Mouse Club"(TV), 1955

"Father Knows Best"(TV), 1954

"Our Miss Brooks"(TV), 1952

"The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet"(TV), 1952

The Maltese Falcon(Film, NYC release), 1941

Today in History:

The state of Gojoseon (modern-day Korea) is founded by Dangun Wanggeom during the reign of the Chinese emperor Yao, BC2333

The siege and battle of Alesia is ended by the surrender of Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, to Julius Caesar, BC52

Julius Caesar's assassins suffer a decisive defeat at the First Battle of Phillipi, BC42

Jews are expelled from Eger, Bohemia, 1430

The Duke of Montrose issues a warrant for the arrest of Rob Roy MacGregor, 1712

British Captain James Cook anchors in Alaska, 1778

General Napoleon Bonaparte first rises to national prominence being named to defend the French National Convention against armed counter-revolutionary rioters, 1795

George Washington proclaims the first national Thanksgiving Day will be held on Nov. 26, 1789

American author Edgar Allan Poe is found delirious in a gutter in Baltimore, Maryland under mysterious circumstances; it is the last time he is seen in public before his death, 1849

J.S. Thurman patents a motor-driven vacuum cleaner, 1899

The first conference on wireless telegraphy agrees to adopt SOS as the warning signal and sign of distress, 1906

Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and other Russian exiles in Vienna, Austria, found the Pravda newspaper, 1908

Mrs. W.H. Felton, of Georgia, becomes the first woman seated in the US Senate, 1922

A V-2 /A4-rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany is the first man-made object to reach space, 1942

The United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon, 1952

Germany is reunified, 1990

Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy is attacked by one of the show's tigers, 2003

Archaeologists on the Egypt-Gaza border find the first evidence of a 2,000-year-old city, 2010