What Irked You Today?

[disabled modeler]

Dan buddy...sorry to hear that but I understand it well myself.  insurance companies raise rates at will...many times for no real reason its just greed in my opinion.  Whats a guy to do if he cant afford the payments at any point but go without...or...?   There greedy creeps.  Sure everything but income goes up over time but really..???   I guess they think were all just too stupid to shop around for another company..?

[unclescott58]

Just found out a cousin 2 years younger than I passed away on Monday, from lung cancer. I haven't seen or talked to Marc in 35, maybe 40 years. He moved to Texas, and we lossed touch with each other. He was one of 45 first cousins. Sad to say he never came back for any of the reunions we have had every 2 years, for many years now. It would have been nice to see him.

In the summer of 1972 I spent about week with his family while my folks were gone on trip. Marc and I had a blast. Together we went to a local department store in Cloquet, MN, were he lived, and bought several cool model cars. I bought two AMT kits. The Chevy Open Road camper and my first Derora. He bought two JoHan kits. The '66 Cadillac Ambulance and the when new '72 Cad Eldorado.

He's in Gods hands now. Reunited with his parents and brother. I love you Marc Weaver. I'm a little bit ticked, but mainly sad that I didn't get to see you or talk with you over the years. You left us at way to young of an age. Someday I hope to see you again, in heaven. But, that may be a while.

 

Edited September 8, 2016 by unclescott58

[disabled modeler]

Scott.... Very sorry to hear that...he is in a better place now and you have great memories of those good days.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Ongoing for more than 2 weeks now...my back is so bad I haven't been able to work, walk, or even sit at the computer doing paperwork or research for more than a few minutes at a time, much less any modeling. I've had chronic back problems most of my adult life, but this is the worst episode in over 30 years. 

It's driving me nuts being almost completely unproductive.

[10thumbs]

Bill, back problems, especially those at our age are very common and my experience is also fairly quickly diagnosed.  Just, the pain stays with you a while and that stinks.

I've had back surgery, luckily immediate relief and only a band aid was used to cover the small incision.

Meanwhile though,  both the wife and I have issues that come under the rubric, age.  She about crawled this week to the orthopedic babe that we both visit regularly.  Other than arthritis and rheumatism, nothing else new....except the prescription.

Pain sucks.  Increasing immobility too.

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Bill, back problems, especially those at our age are very common and my experience is also fairly quickly diagnosed.  Just, the pain stays with you a while and that stinks.

I've had back surgery, luckily immediate relief and only a band aid was used to cover the small incision.

 

I usually just take it easy for a day or three and it passes, but it's my own fault in large measure.

I've let myself gain about 30 pounds, which is causing additional strain. I've also not been exercising much lately, and did a 10-day driving trip recently...sitting for hours on end. Not good.

It'll get better. Just need to get over the hump to feeling well enough to start the exercise, and lose some weight. 

 

[cobraman]

Sorry to hear about your back problem Bill. Hopefully you will be back to your old self soon. I suspect as we get older we will hear more and more of this from the members here. I know for myself it is sometimes hard to admit I can not do what I once used to do.

[10thumbs]

Bill, man I have news for you.  A "10 day driving trip".  OK.  Is your wallet in your rear pocket?  Yes?  Think about it.  You're sitting intensively lop sided, and your muscles aren't those you had 20 years ago.

Been there.  I needed help to get on the x-ray table a while back. The doc lady (insanely beautiful), says to me....so young man (laugh), get rid of that fat wallet, place it in your jacket, just stop sitting on it.  That's what is causing your current pain.  She was right.  It went away after a couple of days.  Never had it in a back pocket since then, no more of those problems.

Just saying.

[Harry P.]

With all the medical issues so many of us are facing, maybe we need a whole new Forum category... "Sick Bay!" 

[crazyjim]

Yup.  Wallet in the front pocket for years.

Bill. . . you might want to try Bio Freeze.  It's wonderful stuff for aches and pains.  It's a little on the expensive side, but well worth to make pain go away.

[Snake45]

On August 12, I ordered the Sox & Martin and Dick Landy books from Amazon. I don't order from them often but have always been impressed with their speed--usually under a week, even with the "free shipping." Thought the books would be here by last weekend AT LEAST. Still no joy, even today (Aug 31). Logged onto my Amazon account today and it says the books HAVE NOT EVEN SHIPPED YET and expected delivery is Sep 8!!! WTF!

Meanwhile, I bought another old AMT Corvette off eBay Monday night from some random somebody, got an email last night that he's shipped it and chances are good I'll be able to play with it over Labor Day. (Most eBay sellers are REALLY good these days in my experience.)

August 12! Not Shipped Yet! WTF!

FINALLY got my books today, after 4 weeks or more. I guess they had to grow the trees to make the paper to print them on.

Both books look good.  I already have the Grumpy Jenkins book. Now if someone will just give me equally nice books on the cars of Jungle Jim and Dyno Don, I can model ALL my boyhood favorites!

[dieseldawg142]

....

Edited May 10, 2018 by dieseldawg142

[High octane]

Ongoing for more than 2 weeks now...my back is so bad I haven't been able to work, walk, or even sit at the computer doing paperwork or research for more than a few minutes at a time, much less any modeling. I've had chronic back problems most of my adult life, but this is the worst episode in over 30 years. 

It's driving me nuts being almost completely unproductive.

Have you considered seeing your back doctor and maybe getting an epidural? Or maybe an MRI and discussing your options with him? I've had back problems in the past that kept me out of work for four months. I was able to blame it on the job and get workman's comp, as well as all my medical bills paid, and a nice settlement as well. I still have back problems occasionally and I'm trying to avoid back surgery, however I believe the doc would have laser surgery done, which is supposedly a piece of cake. So he says, and also a good friend of mine who has had it done and he enjoys golfing weekly. I also heard that the incision to insert the laser is small enough to be covered with a band aid.

[Tom Geiger]

Dan it sounds like the advertisement was  "no increases for the life of the term".  So they honored that $40 payment and crossed their fingers that you didn't croak on their time.  Now that you are renewing for another 10 years, they take into account your current age, and what they want to charge today. They are counting on people not wanting to be bothered changing and just paying up.  Time to go shopping!

I like that stupid insurance company that Alex Trebec (isn't he one of yours?)  advertises on TV that it's "less than 30 cents a day per unit".  That gets my wife thinking we're getting insurance for $9 a month... then I tell her a "unit" is undefined and just a way to get suckers in the door. 

 

[Tom Geiger]

I was on the PA Turnpike this morning on my way to work.  Three lanes of traffic  fairly close but all moving at 70 or more mph.  Then I see a white flash and I think I just saw a car airborne come over the divider.  At the same instant everyone is jamming their brakes including me. Lots of screeching.  I was in the fast lane, so cars start moving into the shoulder to pass the stoppage.  I get up there and see at least three separate accidents and what's sitting in the middle of the center lane?   A friggin mattress!   

No doubt it came off a car going the opposite direction and went flying over the divider into the opposing traffic.  Nobody stopped on the other side, idiot probably didn't even know he lost it!  

Then my day was pure chaos, didn't even get a chance to stop for lunch.  Around 2pm I got a brief pause and went into the break room where they have a Pepsi machine (which I hate but would drink in the emergency situation) and a snack machine.  Both take coins or a single dollar bill and I have a $5 bill.   About an hour later I run down the hall to a printer, and spy the new break room on the opposite side of the building. It has a COKE machine that will take a $5 bill!  Amen!  It takes my bill, gives me a Diet Coke and then gives me $3.40 change in nickels and dimes!  I just had to laugh! Now I have this huge pocket full of change.

And as the rest of the day went, I didn't get out of there until 7pm.. and I was working from the most remote office today.  Got home at 8:45 and the wife tells me the printer isn't working... I go to see and yup, it's out of ink.  Well, she needs a resume to bring into her temp job tomorrow to be considered for  full time job, so I hop back in the car and pay the ransom price for a printer cartridge at Staples.  Yea, it never ends!

At least I wasn't one of the poor slobs who got tagged in the mattress debacle.  I was about a minute late for that mess! 

 

Edited September 9, 2016 by Tom Geiger

[bobthehobbyguy]

 They had to change the ads with Trebec. He used to say you couldn't be canceled for any reason. Somebody realized they could stop paying and still have the insurance. The wording was changed to say you have to pay the premium. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

...  I get up there and see at least three separate accidents and what's sitting in the middle of the center lane?   A friggin mattress!   

No doubt it came off a car going the opposite direction and went flying over the divider into the opposing traffic.  Nobody stopped on the other side, idiot probably didn't even know he lost it!  

 

A few years back some numbnutz lost a brand new washing machine out of the back of his truck, following car crashed into it, fool who lost it just kept going. I think there was a fatality involved. Police traced the paperwork on the washer to the store where it was purchased, got the buyer's name, and got him.

[High octane]

I was on the PA Turnpike this morning on my way to work.  Three lanes of traffic  fairly close but all moving at 70 or more mph.  Then I see a white flash and I think I just saw a car airborne come over the divider.  At the same instant everyone is jamming their brakes including me. Lots of screeching.  I was in the fast lane, so cars start moving into the shoulder to pass the stoppage.  I get up there and see at least three separate accidents and what's sitting in the middle of the center lane?   A friggin mattress!   

No doubt it came off a car going the opposite direction and went flying over the divider into the opposing traffic.  Nobody stopped on the other side, idiot probably didn't even know he lost it!  

Then my day was pure chaos, didn't even get a chance to stop for lunch.  Around 2pm I got a brief pause and went into the break room where they have a Pepsi machine (which I hate but would drink in the emergency situation) and a snack machine.  Both take coins or a single dollar bill and I have a $5 bill.   About an hour later I run down the hall to a printer, and spy the new break room on the opposite side of the building. It has a COKE machine that will take a $5 bill!  Amen!  It takes my bill, gives me a Diet Coke and then gives me $3.40 change in nickels and dimes!  I just had to laugh! Now I have this huge pocket full of change.

And as the rest of the day went, I didn't get out of there until 7pm.. and I was working from the most remote office today.  Got home at 8:45 and the wife tells me the printer isn't working... I go to see and yup, it's out of ink.  Well, she needs a resume to bring into her temp job tomorrow to be considered for  full time job, so I hop back in the car and pay the ransom price for a printer cartridge at Staples.  Yea, it never ends!

At least I wasn't one of the poor slobs who got tagged in the mattress debacle.  I was about a minute late for that mess! 

 

And here I thought that you worked from home, no?

[Tom Geiger]

And here I thought that you worked from home, no?

Technically I am self employed and work out of my house. It changes depending on what's going on.  I always work from home on Friday.  When we started the software upgrade I spent a lot of time at IT headquarters in Princeton, NJ for a couple of months.  My boss was in New Brunswick, NJ this week so I was there Wednesday and today. I'm home tomorrow.   Both of my management will be traveling the next two weeks so I'll work from home unless a meeting comes up. I'm just glad they are doing the traveling and I got out of it.  I will be running a meeting in Florida in October. I don't have an actual desk anywhere. I work on laptop and cell phone.   Sometimes I don't know what I'm doing until the day before.

Edited September 9, 2016 by Tom Geiger

[dieseldawg142]

..........

 

 

 

Edited May 10, 2018 by dieseldawg142

[Ace-Garageguy]

 

today i get a "nice" letter from these scabs telling me my term is up & it's now going to $159 per month!!??!! from $41????? that's 4 times as much!!

The insurance industry has become a license to steal. It was a good idea in the beginning, just like unions, but it's devolved into a game that's not about anything but getting money for nothing.

Every type of insurance has its own particular way of sticking it to the customer, but they ALL do it....and all WE do is keep on complaining as we continue to write the monthly checks.

 

[Harry P.]

There is probably no one single consumer product that needs to be looked at more carefully by the consumer, price-wise, than insurance. Prices for very similar or even exactly the same coverage varies wildly from one company to another.

Specifically, car insurance. By shopping around, I found the same exact coverage from Company B that I had been getting from Company A... for half the price. Literally half the price. If only I had shopped around sooner!

[cobraman]

Prices are insane !  Before her death about two weeks ago my sister was put on a different chemo treatment than she had been given to treat her cancer two years prior. This new ( to her ) treatment was 9,400 per treatment !  Nine thousand four hundred dollars !!!! Her insurance company had to ok the treatment which they did and the insurance covered a huge part of that. To me and my untrained mind I can not fathom a single treatment costing almost 10 grand. Don't get sick my friends.

[disabled modeler]

Dan...I think it would be time to go shopping for another insurance company if it were me. Yeah people on fixed or low incomes like me have a hard time dealing with the cost of everything. I hate greed buddy.

[Tom Geiger]

This new ( to her ) treatment was 9,400 per treatment !  Nine thousand four hundred dollars !!!! Her insurance company had to ok the treatment which they did and the insurance covered a huge part of that. To me and my untrained mind I can not fathom a single treatment costing almost 10 grand. Don't get sick my friends.

I can speak to that. Many cancer therapies are made by hand in small batches. There can be many stages in the production over a period of time as well. The target patient community for some of them is very small, so the costs of development and production need to be recouped over fewer doses.   When I worked for Wyeth, they had one therapy that was hand made in a lab by PhDs using very toxic ingredients.  For instance I was interviewing with a small unknown pharma company.  In my research I saw their main product was a cancer therapy that cost $6000 a dose.   Then I saw that the potential patient count was in the hundreds.  In those cases we are thankful that a company would be there who would spend resources on a therapy with such a small population.  Extremely important and lifesaving for each of those people, but not a large enough market to cover costs.

Note that this pricing is discounted and bargained down by the US government for Medicare and by the larger medical insurance companies.  If your sister's insurance company agreed to the cost, they had assured that it was cost effective.

I get hit just like everyone else.  I pay my own medical insurance and the monthly premium for my wife and I is more than our mortgage!