Sorry. I think I accidentally posted a half-finished article I was working on last week here for a few hours this afternoon…
Random thoughts for a Wednesday afternoon:
- I brought my mom into the 21st century this past weekend by upgrading her original Bondi Blue iMac to from OS 8.5 to OS X. While the whole transition was a little hard on me, since I couldn’t swear too much while doing the install, it seems to have made things much more pleasant for her. She’s not really what you’d call an intensive user — she pretty much checks email, gets stock quotes online, and does the occasional bit of word processing — so the interface change isn’t causing her much grief. She just thinks it’s prettier…
- A little identity theft is an annoying thing. We’ve just determined that someone has been charging her Sprint phone to our checking account. Actually, it’s not such a big deal, as we’ve already closed the account and will be filing a police report shortly just for the record. In fact, Bank of America’s lack of any discernible customer service has made it an even easier call for us to move our money to a local credit union, so maybe there’s even a good side to it all…
- Why is EVERYTHING so much more convenient here than in The City of Doom™? It’s even easier to get a doctor’s appointment here; there’s none of that “six to eight weeks for a new patient appointment” bullshit you seen in SF.
- Is it just a coincidence that during the very year Mark and I moved here from California (where such things are commonplace), Charlotte experienced one of its hottest, driest summers ever AND suddenly began having some of the highest gas prices in the country? Just curious…
In case you needed a bit more proof that age and wisdom are not necessarily related, here it is…
Wow. My hometown just lost its primary industry. That’s a blow it wasn’t really prepared to take right now, I fear…
Unrelated: do any of you typography nerds (and I know there are a couple of you out there) have any idea what the font pictured above might be?
This has a certain appeal:
Smurfette is left for dead. Baby Smurf is left crying and orphaned as the Smurf’s village is carpet bombed by warplanes — a horrific scene and imagery not normally associated with the lovable blue-skinned cartoon characters.
Puts me in mind of the first art exhibit I ever attended in college. It was entitled “101 Uses for a Dead Smurf” or something to that effect. All in all, I think it still rates as the BEST art exhibit I’ve ever attended…
It’s only been 36 hours and I already miss my hubby. But I AM happy that a reader has provided me with the information I sought yesterday. Thanks Jon (a much nicer Jon, I might add, than the one who emailed this bit of this bit of bilge to M. Sturtle…
The font is Advertisers Gothic, by the way…
A post card from the past…
I remember visiting Underground Atlanta as a child, when my Dad and I would drive down to see my Mom while she was there on business. It was the early 1970s, right after the whole area had been “rediscovered”, and it was still rather a dark, adult-themed restaurant and entertainment center…
It was great in a sort of late 1960s nostalgia-obsessed sort of way which allowed it still to seem just a little seedy on some level despite being brand new on another. I remember there being a lot of that when I was a kid; it’s as if the whole country suddenly became enthralled with the turn of the century. This was the era of Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlors and Victoria Station Restaurants. Supermarkets sprouted faux gas lamps, red flocked wallpaper was suddenly hot again, and every restaurant looked a little like a Victorian San Francisco whorehouse…
Anyway, the old incarnation of Underground Atlanta was too cool to last. By 1980, the area was apparently pretty scary, and MARTA construction didn’t help, but a “new” Underground Atlanta rose (sank?) in 1989. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the same. I was horrified when I visited shortly after the renaissance; it was nothing but a big, bright, cheerful mall with a giant Coke bottle at its entrance…
Alas, it had fallen victim to that too common American tendency to take anything cool and interesting and turn it into a “family friendly” theme park version of its former self, eliminating pretty much any of the characteristics — and characters — which made it appealing in the first place. The “new and improved” Times Square is a prime example, although San Francisco is an even better one, since the transformation has happened almost citywide there…
I hope the rebirth of New Orleans doesn’t follow a similar pattern. I’m about 95% certain, though, that it will. It’s amazing the damage that an army of planners and developers armed with millions of tax dollars can do…
I don’t like living alone…
Happy birthday to the best Mom in the world…
In the shopping center near my house, across from the Wal-Mart Supercenter and next to the Dollar Tree, there is something called a Family Christian Store. Every time I drive by, I have to stifle my urge to walk in and ask what kind of Christians they have on sale today. Maybe something dependable AND economical, perhaps?
What I’d really like is a nice cute, young Mormon boy. They’re so shiny and fresh and healthy-looking , after all. Just like non-organic produce…
I’d also need to find out about their return policy, I suppose, because I’m almost sure I’d end up bringing him back after trying him out one or twice. Especially if he made the mistake of trying to start up a conversation. I understand that a restocking fee would probably apply, and I’m comfortable with that…
I’m so mad I could spit. I opted for COBRA coverage after leaving my job in San Francisco so as to maintain uninterrupted coverage. This means, of course, that I have to pay my own monthly premium. The specifics of that payment, as detailed in the letter sent to me when I signed up are as follows:
All future monthly premiums are due within 30 days of the due date, which is the first of each month. For example, the due date for the month of October is October 1, and you will have until October 31 to remit the premium. Failure to remit the premium within 30 days of the due date will result in a loss of coverage.
It’s as plain as it can be: payment for October must be received by the 31st of that month. What they don’t mention, in the above paragraph nor on ANY of the other paperwork and invoices they sent me, is that if you should happen to use this grace period they discuss and send your payment after the first of the month, all claims will be denied until they receive that check…
This really sucks. Not the policy, mind you, which I understand completely, but the fact that its implications were NEVER detailed to me in advance. Being a relatively intelligent person without psychic powers, I took a statement like “you will have until October 31 to remit the premium” at face value, particularly since there was no fine print suggesting I shouldn’t. And yes, I even checked for fine print. Silly me…
I explained all this to the nice lady at HealthComp, stressing how upset I was to be told — while standing in a Walgreens 90 miles from home — that my coverage had been “terminated” for non-payment. As she kept defending the policy to me, I kept telling her I had no problem with the goddamned policy, but with the shoddy way it was (never) communicated to me in advance. I still don’t think she ever quite got the message…
So instead of being at the State Fair tonight after spending some extra time with my mom, I’m back in Charlotte, fuming. I had to come home this morrning so I could collect all the documentation which would prove that I was, as far as I knew, completely current in my payments. For all the good it did me…
Anyway, it will all be cleared up in a day or two. And from now on, I’ll know that my due date with HealthComp is exactly 30 days earlier than they say it is…