My photo
No longer on the river and, again, an empty nester. Back to living on Fleming Island and making some more friends!

Monday, October 14, 2013

An at-home day

Happy Columbus Day everyone! Yes, it is a holiday which normally means the banks and post office are closed for business. It also means no school for the kids and no Bible study for us. Nuts! Not a single one of the attendees are affected by the work stoppage and Judy usually brings the kids along with her when there is no school. But, no Bible study for us today. That means no lunch at Longhorn, either!

It's a good thing, I guess, that I was home this a.m. because at last I got a call back from the insurance company regarding my health policy. It seems my insurance coverage expired last April, after my debit card did! I was issued a new card with a new expiration date but it never occurred to me the insurance was linked to this card. 

As I said to the nice lady who called me, a local number, it would have been lovely to get an e-mail or a letter about this, as there is a 30-day grace period when something like this occurs. She told me there was no note or anything on my account regarding them contacting me. They just dropped me like a hot potato! 

Maracella transferred me to an agent who could help get back on insurance, though I had to wait a year after being dropped to be picked up again by the same policy. I didn't really care which policy it was, just wanted to be covered. "Ben", in Miami, was able to help me find a similar package to what I had. He also did price the (ahem, ahem) AFFORDABLE Care Act's policy, just to see. Wow! 

While it covers "everything" like pre-existing conditions and so on, for the small price of 3 times what I am paying now, per month, with a $5000 deductible, I very politely refused. Holy cow! And that was lowest priced package offered. My sympathies to those who will be compelled to make such a purchase! I don't think I have ever reached my deductible in a year's time (thanks be to God for this!), even with everything being covered, there is no way I could justify paying such a terrible fee for health insurance. And then find a doctor who will take it...

Once this ordeal was taken care of, I got busy writing Thank You notes to the folks who made our Sunday event so wonderful. It took a trial run and one ruined card to figure out how they will go through the printer. Got it figured out, cards printed, and ready to be mailed tomorrow when mail service is operating again!
                                 
Justin asked me the other night if I could make a salad using bowtie pasta. He had picked up two boxes at Publix and has been asking for such a salad. I said I could use them, and got myself busy this afternoon in the kitchen cutting up summer sausage to use in the recipe. For the 'sauce' I used a mixture of mayo and Henri's Tasty Dressing. It tastes great, if I do say so myself! Had a nice sausage sandwich for lunch, while I was at it.

For dinner, Justin and I worked together making brats with caramelized onions (okay, Justin did most of that!) to have with our pasta salad. He got done working earlier than usual, and was quite hungry when he got home. To hold him over he had some banana nut bread, but we did decide to eat dinner earlier than usual. 

He has the 'habit' of having me watch "Duck Dynasty" before we watch "Jeopardy!". Tonight he said, "I think I am getting you to like it!" Tolerate, yes; like it, yes, but the reason I do like it is because he does! I love it that he likes it, and enjoys a wholesome program such as this. 

He knows I am skeptical of reality TV shows and will admit to the situations being contrived, but I try not to dissuade him from enjoying them. In fact, some of the family members on the program remind us of our friends in Middleburg! I am good sport, if nothing else. There you go, Jack! (One of the characters on Duck Dynasty uses "Jack" as punctuation in a sentence).