Fiduciary

Fiduciary: “An individual in whom another has placed the utmost trust and confidence to manage and protect property or money. The relationship wherein one person has an obligation to act for another's benefit.”

Thanks to: http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/fiduciary

There are many occasions in life when you are dealing with people who say they will honestly represent your wants, needs and desires that this relationship is of utmost importance and their loyalty is to you and only you, sort of like being married, yep there you have it.

First of all it is used in real estate when having an agent finding a home for you, then of course any situation where you hire an agent, lawyer or anyone of that peculiar type of one on one relationship in a professional situation, but my question to all the people who have called recently to “help” me find the right plan to coincide with my Medicare, suitable for my needs and I have not gotten any outright commitment to that simple question, “Is your fiduciary relationship with me or the insurance companies?”

Is that too much to ask?

As any of my cohorts who may be turning sixty-five this year knows the world has been bombarding us with “insurance agents”, phone calls and literature on the topic of Medicare and all that it entails, trying to explain all the joys of belonging to this wonderful world of MEDICARE and our needs to have supplements to pick up the slack of the 20/80 split. Medicare itself automatically takes a flat fee of $104.90 for A, B, and D, from your Social Security payments before they reach you once you opt to be on it and then there is a gap in total coverage of that above mentioned amount of that 20% is what I think I got an understanding of it so far.

Other things too... as special medications' coverage and this and that’s, confusing…and so I did give in to a person coming over to narrow the complications down to perhaps understandable gibberish better or more.

Boring!

I sure wish I didn’t need anything special, but I do, due to my chronic ills and my very expensive special medication Copaxone @ 5K a month without coverage not counting its $150 co-pay all for the Multiple Sclerosis.

MS is no fun and the last thing I want to do is cost us a small fortune or put us in financial jeopardy but this medication that I have been on since 2010 has been keeping me stable, lesion wise.

So it is important to know what is what, but I also want to know who they are working for, me or the insurance companies. Thus my honest straight forward question.

But some of these people I have spoken to act as if I used a dirty word, since the last one giggled…sort of like when I say that my MS can exacerbate, which just means gets worse.

Could it be me?

Are there no more obligations to the customer to suit their needs at a fair price?

Business should not be who can shaft who first or gouge or hit and run, laughing all the way to their bank.

Am I living in another world?

A decent one that is only in my far off memories?

So I ask and to date have not received an answer, what’s with that?

I want to be represented for my needs and get a decent policy that won’t break the bank or cause me to question it every two minutes what is covered and what isn’t that is all.

Is that too much to ask?

I have taken to answering the phone like I said in a previous blog entry with a deep voice until they explain who they are and what they want.

Oddly enough, none of the people who called to make a house call have told me the name of their business, scary!

But they are all insistent to make an appointment, and the fact that they have our address from our phone number is causing a bit uneasiness; gone are the days that we bothered with an unlisted phone number, when Hubby was a cop and arrested people so it was prudent.

We paid for that anonymity, not much but we did have to pay, monthly I think.

Any-who, on that note of still trying hard to figure it all out allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask all you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

PS Back in the late 1980’s Hubby and I went to real estate school, but never sold anything but one of our own homes, it was during another depressive period in our economy. One open house did it when priced right.

Inconsiderate

The word above gives us all a moment in time to stop and look within ourselves to think could we have done this or think about when others may have been that way to us as individuals.

Hopefully not too often, but possibly it has happened once or twice that you have been on the receiving end of that negativity aimed in your direction.

Or without thinking you might have been rude enough or angry enough to also behave in that bad manner, but not too many times I hope; not like me at least.

Inconsiderate means to be: selfish, thoughtless, insensitive, uncharitable, unkind, uncaring, and careless.

Which reminds me of the old adage that especially my Dad would say: “To treat people how you want to be treated”, simple and concise and logical.

Then why do some people, including myself these days forget that simple concept?

EMOTIONS IMPATIENCE IGNORANCE!

Yep, I speaking for myself, but if you have succumbed to this irrational behavior your excuses may be more in depth to explain your reasoning, hmm?

Let’s put it this way, we all have flaws, even me, I jest, ha, any-who and for the betterment of myself and all the world I have determined that I should try harder to BEHAVE in difficult situations… who moi? SURE!

Yesterday at the mammogram women’s health center, one of the many available testing facilities my Dr. Nord has available to her being part of an enormous group called Millennium.

They have you yearly fill out a form about your health history, mine has not changed that much in the last several years, but they still want updates I suppose for their CYA.

So these forms are only three pages on one side.

And for the last few years I noticed a question that this year I decided to answer with a question mark, since in reality I am not quite sure.

It had to do with the question if I am an Ashkenazi Jew, which is from specific areas of Europe such as Germany, Poland as well Sephardic countries; the reason I put a question mark is that it is my belief my family was from England, Russia, and Austria and all in the 1800’s,since all were here by the end of that century and the very beginning of the 1900’s and my cousins, two, who are working on our genealogy which has only my father’s side, the Austrian one and we don’t know for sure other eastern European countries that have been thrown into the mix.

Now the significance for this information in pertaining to mammograms and possible breast cancer is for some unexplained, to me, reason many from that heritage seem to have more breast cancer in their families, so knowing your background is very important in that respect.

http://www.genetichealth.com/BROV_GEN_of_BROV_In_ASHJ.shtml

After reading once again, according to what I did read, I am more than likely one of the many from that region.

But when the technician asked me if I did not know I was Jewish because I had put the question mark I said of course I know, because I thought the question was more specific to from where my ancestors had come from, and even my quickie answer of Russia and Austria were indicative of the region considered of mine, and yet wise gal/stupid gal thought it was more likely people from Poland which I thought had not yet been determined in my cousins search as of yet.

Oops!

Anyway my stupidity in a quick answer was ignored; by a better person than I.

Now I do understand and have always understood the reasoning of why on a medical form they would ask that question now I can say that I am one of the many from that region.

On that note of trying to stop my rampant stupidity from overwhelming my personal reality allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask all of you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Complete it!

Some things are better left to the opposite sex to handle… (Did I just say that, lol?)

Sure many men today understand that women have their own set of abilities, and mine, husband, is not any different than any others, although decades ahead of most when knowing when to allow “his woman” to handle the finances.

Yeah, I did cringe using that expression. (His woman)

We have been equal partners in our marriage, in raising our two sons and also in three businesses, but when it comes to paying bills over the years it has gone back and forth all these forty-four years.

I have been the one in charge of paying bills over these last several and negotiating any financial issues, which for some reason has become more difficult over these last few years with my patience getting thinner than I like to admit, oh you all know though, don’t you?

So after turning my insides and worries every which way you can come up with reminding myself of all my financial spending mistakes just in the last few months and not being able to sleep with that worry, not to mention how it was effecting my health I asked Hubby to take over the realization that what happened in the emergency room was his first hand experience when the receiving clerk there told him that according to what she read off her computer after entering my insurance card that my co-pay was $450 not the bill that we received for over $2700!

Hubby went right to the top this morning and asked to speak to the CEO of the hospital and explained what happened and if we had been told differently we would have gone elsewhere, across the street in this case!

True they circumvented his call to a lesser titled person but she was quite reasonable and felt that we could and should pay ONLY the co-pay we were quoted and the agreement ensued immediately and the final agreement was two payments of $225 and so it was done via our credit card and the remainder will be paid next month, ta da!

Thank you Hubby!

Tag this time you were it!

And did great!

Moving on…

This morning in spite of the nasty night of little sleep; I was due for two medical tests today, fasting blood work including A1C (diabetes test), Hubby did his miracle with the bill when we got home, and my mammogram was this afternoon with results from that immediately, I’m good!

Blood work results will be told to me next week when I see my GP. Both tests were covered by Florida Blue 100% wow, something!

I had to cancel my bone density though due to finding out that Florida makes me soooo Blue unhealthy insurance company has a $100 co-pay, but when I reach that certain age of sixty-five it will be covered 100%, only a few more months and so I scheduled it for then.

Between my MS and my worries about everything these days, I seem to be sabotaging myself.

And yes I did feel stared at today with my latest scar added onto my upper lip…

On that note of I need to have some hope to try harder to feel better physically and mentally and so allow me to be the first one to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

PS I did not give up paying all bills or even negotiating them I just believe that Hubby  knew exactly what had transpired better than I since I was not in the room at that time. So there, still tough as ever!

Talk to you tomorrow!

Head bad!

Nothing, then everything

Just when you think life is fine and all is well… accidents happen!

An eight car pile up on I75 at our Punta Gorda, Florida mile 165, one dead and two in critical condition traffic still being stopped and redirected north on I75 is closed basically from that section. No information on why the crash occurred.

Only that apparently a dump truck was involved and may have caused the deadly accident, just in @ 6 P.M.: it (the dump truck) rear ended a car and caused the chain reaction, no names have been released.

Earlier today another crash just a few blocks from here our home was with a sheriff’s deputy who had caused an accident at Kings Hwy and rte 41/Tamiami Trail. No deaths but the last info were the deputy was being treated for minor injuries and that the cause was running the light.

In a split second lives can change, as always this is another wake up call and is definitely frightening. So close to home, we could even know the people hurt or the dead one, but so far no names have been released.

All our immediate family has been accounted for.

Moving on…

Perspective once again is a tough teacher in life of what truly counts.

In the snap of ones fingers things can change forever.

I know that we all have problems.

Some feel better discussing them and some do not.

It is what it is.

Hubby mowed our lawn today with it having grown due to untimely “dry season” rain and very sunny weather added in and it being a high of eighty six degrees, breaking or meeting the record in many areas of south west Florida, some places even had eighty seven degrees, on Page Field in Ft. Myers!

The norms for March are sixties at night and mid-seventies or low eighties during the day, and yes we are running higher than normal and contrary to public opinion this is NOT happening to annoy any of our friends to the north or west of our country it just is, really! LOL!

What can I say? It happens every once and a while… weather that is perfect, but more times than not here in PARADISE! So sorry didn’t mean to gloat, oh YES I DID! Big smile inserted here.

“Ah Florida if you don’t like the weather at one time of day, wait a bit and it will change to something you like better”, a localism.

Add in the other local expression or commercial sales pitch, like “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”, “Virginia is for Lovers”, ours in Florida has been, “The rules are different here!”

Vague or profound we all can interpret that anyway you wish.

Many believe that the mañana attitude of the islands starts here in our land that mimics the islands’ appeal with a laid-back tropical feel, of no rushing; things can wait until tomorrow, "mañana".

In conclusion; mine:

Odd how accidents can happen without logical reasoning, sure our weather has been perfect except for one little issue, fog.

We are a state surrounded by water on three sides, a peninsula and when the water temperature has gone down into the sixties and not gone up as of yet and the air temperatures have gone up, quite a bit, twenty degrees higher, you get ungodly FOG!

Now I am not saying it caused these newest accidents, when the bigger one happened it had lifted by mid-day, the morning one with the deputy might, I am only saying might have been a factor since it was in the morning, but I do not even know if that was the cause.

So even though we do not have snow we too have weather and things that make driving difficult we even have something called Florida ice, which is when after a severely dry season it does rain the oil and grease from vehicles causes the roadways to be very slippery until the rain neutralizes the roads surfaces and can become quite hazardous.

Paradise is not always perfect either, so there you have it!

On that note of rude awakenings, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know who, we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

EAT IT!

I’m a good person!

Now stop that chuckling.

I pay my bills the ones that I believe are mine and only mine and Hubby’s that is.

Get this, my emergency hospital visit that I had on February 6, 2015 at ten thirty at night, my patient responsibility is $2,751.76 since all of sudden the hospital that I have been going to for over twenty years that it is not in network!

Hubby sat with the billing woman who verified by my insurance card that it was, and my co-pay was around $450, at the hospital while I awaited treatment that amounted to a tetanus shot and gauze pads in a Zip-lock as well as a prescription for an anti-biotic.

No one touched me except for the shot that I argued I had had last in August of 2011 and did not actually need one now since they are supposed to last five years! That shot was $646.48 all by itself, and yet it is listed at Walgreen’s for just $35.00!

Gauze pads I suppose account for the remainder, since I am now waiting for an itemized bill.

Oh the actual bill was $3,672.76 -$921.00 paid by “my” insurance Florida makes me sooooooooooooo Blue unhealthy insurance company, leaving me with a balance to be paid of $2,751.76!

Why bother I ask to have any insurance if you claim that you cannot afford to pay a bill there are organizations and parts of the hospitals own monies that will pay, in forms of endowments and other private donations to take up the slack and that is without it going to TAXPAYERS!

I really thought that gouging was against the law!

Please someone tell me that I am right?

This was the last month of me finally paying off my MRI’s and Skipper’s ultrasound, all done, now this??????

I really had no choice at that hour, nothing was open and even if they were according to the claims guy Mr. Charles our local ones are NOT in network either!

I might as well come clean, it was a dog bite.

Yep, sweet little Gus, we think might be suffering from PTSD from his past.

Scenario, he was sleeping at the end of our bed, yep since we got him, December 27, 2014, as all before him. I kissed his sweet head on his white star and the next thing I know zap ouch pow I have an upper lip like road rash, but all I saw was blood even on my teeth. I ran to the bathroom that is where I saw the horror story closed the door and yelled to Hubby to get the crate out of the van and to put him into it in the house, since we, him and I, were going on a road trip to the hospital!

I had my own flashback going on from my last dog bite of about fifteen years ago with our other adoptee Andrew, but that WAS my fault I accidentally rolled over the collie Shepard’s tail with my computer chair and bent down when he yelped and forty stitches and plastic surgery later… so I was scared and even told Hubby I guess we would have to put Gus down, which we never did do to Andrew, although he did die a year later from cancer, but not from my mistake, but this time I felt it wasn’t, mine that is.

Fortunately, it was determined that this time little dog little bite and it was not as severe. Looked like road rash the PA described it and it did not even need any stitches, just that Augumentin antibiotic (from the pharmacy $10, mine) and a caught up tetanus shot and Neosporin (mine, free) and gauze (theirs, a small fortune), but I am more than sure I could have bought some cheaper at the grocery or anywhere for a few bucks!

Don’t worry once I calmed down and saw that I was OK, I realized that this nearly adult dog had had a past that we knew very little about, and like any soldier of war, in his case being on the street wars he needed a firm loving relationship from his adopted parents, and so I called the next morning to speak with a problem behavior trainer and so that is what we have been in the process of doing.

That costs money too!

So far in these little over two months of having this wild child/Cujo/ devil dog/ loving Gus baby boy it has been costly and another emotional roller coaster ride, and we have now not allowed him to sleep on our bed which goes without saying, oops I said it, and we now know  not to approach him while he sleeps, no matter how cute he looks.

Take two: it took me awhile to cozy up to him, as many will understand and I finally did, although while tickling his belly Saturday he bit my finger with a growl, we determined he had fallen asleep again on my lap while on his back, crazy!

Many would say forget it that he is not salvageable, but even this new vet and his tech feel he is as well as the trainer.

It is difficult, and so now you know why I have not been out and about like usual.

Albeit my lip has healed and Hubby even bought Mederma for me for scars… my self consciousness is over the top.

My finger bite I called the local walk in and they said as long as it doesn’t get infected which it hasn’t there is no need for anymore antibiotics.

My other fear for our little darling is him around others; I told Hubby that I worry and when he had been so incredible up until then. Scary and we have no idea what changed, he has been sick with stomach problems twice but we took care of them both times and they had different causes and he is off all meds now.

All in all, I have been getting screwed it appears every time we try to do the right thing, and yes Gus did growl at Hubby, but Hubby is faster.

Andrew was two months old when we got him and eight years old for his incident and of course being a collie Shepard mix much larger so more damage… (A refugee from Hurricane Andrew 1992)

Gosh, what would you do?

He, Gus, is fine when fully awake.

Although, that first vet had to muzzle him since he, Gus, went after him when he tried to take his temperature and that could have been the catalyst since my getting bitten and everything else happened after? Who knows...?

On that note of hope, hope, hope, what else have we got?

Allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share all those overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Today was another boring uneventful day and yet...

… Most of us will admit that isn’t that what we all strive for on any given Sunday?

Okay, perhaps some of us would prefer more excitement daily, but let’s face it quiet is also fine, especially if ordinarily your life goes wild and woolly too often, hmm? Wild and woolly?

“Definition: Uncultured and without laws.”

As per: http://www.idiomsphrases.com/wild-and-woolly/

“Someone undomesticated; Cannot be controlled; Savage”

As per: http://idiomsdictionary.org/wild-and-woolly/

“adj.

unrestrained; lawless: a wild-and-woolly frontier town.”

As per: http://www.idioms.thefreedictionary.com/wild-and-woolly

How much redundancy can anyone take?

But we all must admit that was exciting?

No?

Fun?

A waste of precious time?

Yes!

So never mind.

Alright, I do subscribe to the personal theory, at times, that one must make “happy” where none lives, huh?

Sure we all have happiness in us and we all know that it is up to us and only us to find it and utilize it to the hilt!

Now that is rather violent since, “the hilt” refers to a sword’s neck region of where it is actually held, the non-sharp part and swords are warriors method used for killing… not now but way back when, perhaps six or more centuries ago? Whoa was I way, way off/wrong, here is the real dope or scope on the poop about the actual use of swords: “Bronze Age sword

First known ancient swords were made of bronze and appeared during the 17th century BC.  They were about 50 to 90 cm that, technically, they could be categorized as daggers.  Swords from the Bronze Age were short because bronze easily bends in longer lengths. Prior to this era, cutting weapons and tools were made from stone and animal bones.”

 

http://www.2-clicks-swords.com/article/brief-history-of-swords.html

Moving on…

Any-who, we all can agree that Sundays for many faiths is there day of rest although so are Saturdays for many other, even Friday night’s start the Sabbath for many others…

So pretty much all weekends should be relaxing and spent however you or your family, if religious or non-religious believe to spend that day together or alone, true?

Well, I do think that I have covered all the main reasons that people should enjoy non-eventful Sundays or not?

Talking to you every day has become a true joy of my life.

Although, some days I appear not to reach as many of you as I would really like to, don’t worry though, I get it… you’re busy and haven’t been able to fit this drivel into your daily menus as some of my diehard fans have, now that is a scary expression “diehard”, who would want or care to die or even do it hard and what does that have to do with being a "fan"?

I wonder where that came from, oh just those Bruce Willis movies. Or those batteries?

Oh well, I will leave that in your court to decide, and so on that rough note allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy warm night(snow country pals) and kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!