Where’d That Come From?

Today has been good. No worse for wear from yesterday’s activities, and the original plan was to basically do the same sorta thing tonight… including just getting on here and rambling about whatever, whenever I needed or wanted a break. But boy, as soon as the sun went down this evening “sleepy” caught up with me in a hurry. It’s not even 7pm yet, but I guarantee that if I let myself get comfy in the recliner, I would be out. I guess it shouldn’t be that big of a surprise, since I only got about four hours of sleep this morning, but now I’ve got a decision to make.

Last thing I wanna do is fight sleep, since it’s such a struggle for me to get good sleep… but I know that if I take a nap or even try to actually go to sleep for the night right now, there’s a really good chance that I’ll end up wide awake around 3am. Meh, I might take a shower in a minute and see which way that pushes me.

But hey, at least the first half of the day was decent. Nothing much happened with Tesla stock until well towards the close of the day, so I didn’t miss anything there… and since I was feeling a little nostalgic due to the dream that I had, one of the first things I did today was watch Frosty the Snowman. I just realized how close it actually is to Christmas, and that I hadn’t watched a single Christmas special yet. This year has sucked, for sure, but I’m still gonna do my best to self-administer some holiday cheer if I can.

But many of you know how I struggle to string together decent days sometimes, so just in case I ended up falling asleep for the night I wanted to pop in here first to confirm that today has been another good one. To be continued… maybe…

Well, Sure Didn’t Expect That

Slept most of the day away again, since I didn’t get to sleep until around dawn, but when I woke up I decided that I was really gonna take the day off and try to find something actually fun to do. 🙂 I can’t remember the last time I did something where I was like “This is a good time…” 😏

As I was going through all of my mail last night, I noticed that I got a thing from Hollywood that said I had $55 in free slot play today. 🤔 So I messaged Cassi to see if she’d want to meet me there when she got off work, and I’d let her play the free stuff while I’d take $100 from my surprise insurance check. Figured that would get us both out of our houses for a while, and let us play whatever new machines they installed since the last time I was there, forever ago.

I couldn’t believe it when on my second pull of this Monopoly machine, I hit this bonus wheel game… 😧

It’s kinda funny, ‘cuz the light was burned out on the wheel, so it was hard to tell what the arrow was aiming at – and for a moment I grumbled as it passed the “1000” and landed on the question mark. 😄 Not knowing what the bonus round was, I just stood there and watched as the money bags lined up. (Man, if it had only stopped on all three of them on that last reel, eh?) 😃 But yeah, before she had even gotten there – the first $20 that I played, just to kill time ’til she arrived… crazy stuff. 😊

I had them deduct the taxes from it before giving it to me, that way when I file at the end of the year I’ll get it all back as kind of a secondary surprise. 🙂 But that initial jackpot let us play a whole lot more than we would have otherwise, and me and her both ended up leaving with a good chunk of change. 🤑😎 It was crazy how we both had such good luck right there at the start, and then it pretty much continued through the rest of the time we spent there. That hardly ever happens, and is probably why I hadn’t been back in a while.

But between the two of us, we left with as much as that jackpot gave me… and then like I said, the $400-ish that they took out for all the taxes will be back in my pocket in a few months. Really good trip there this time, and hopefully we avoided touching anything with the ‘rona. 😬🤢🤮😷 (We did use the hand sanitizing stations whenever we saw them.) Speaking of that, even with that concern floating around… literally… it was still really crowded. 😳 I mean, I can’t talk, since I was there too… but yeah, it was surprising.

But it makes me feel good to be able to do something that not only distracted Cassi for the evening, but then to also have it wind up being a big financial help too. 😊 I’m big on karma… I feel like if I wouldn’t have shared, I wouldn’t have done as well as I did. I am still more nervous than your average Joe about COVID though, so I really hope that going out for the first time in a long time didn’t end up pushing my luck. 🤞🏻😟🙂

Unexpected

There’s a good chance I’ll be up until dawn, considering the time I woke up today… and that’s fine. I’m already starting to get some stuff done, mainly the stack of mail that was piling up here. 🤨 First off, I’m going to state right here that from now on I’m going to deal with the mail as it comes… or at least only every couple of days. (Rather than letting it collect for a week or longer.) My procrastination hasn’t bit me yet, but I’m at a point where certain pieces of mail may be a lot more important than others, so I think I better keep on top of it. 🧐

While I didn’t receive any communication from my attorneys or anyone on the “other side” of my workers comp case, I did get a response from my insurance company. 😯 With WC not paying for meds that they’re supposed to, that forced me to my paid medical insurance to see if they would jump in. 😬🙏🏻 Two positive bits so far, are that they appear to have decided that my most expensive medication will be covered, and they also cut me a check to reimburse me for part of the out-of-pocket money that I had spent to date. 😃 Definitely not the full amount that I paid, and definitely not for all purchases… but it’s a start. 😁👍🏻

There’s over a dozen pages of information, explanations, and reasonings… but I’ve decided that I’m not going to really go through that until daylight hours. I was able to pick out the news about my one med though, and luckily I did see the check that was somewhat hidden in the middle of it all. 🤓🔎💵 So, sometime tomorrow I’ll have an understanding of what’s really going to be covered from here on out, and what (if anything) else I’ll be able to collect as reimbursements because of that coverage. (If they decided coverage will retroactively cover the dates when I paid with cash.) So, yeah, that was a pleasant surprise.

And since it’s been a couple weeks since my last interaction with my attorneys, I think that after this weekend has passed I will probably make a few calls to see if I can not only get an update from their end, but also so I can let them know that progress has been made on my end with the insurance stuff. 🙂☎️👨🏻‍💼 I’m still irritated that I even had to do all that, and that there’s probably still more that will need to be done, because we’re essentially letting WC “off the hook” at the moment, when it comes to their obligation to pay for the medications which are still included in my claim. 😠

But the stuff from the insurance company definitely improved my mood as I was getting through the mail. So now I’ve got some extra motivation to get to work on some other stuff around here. But that involves tearing my ass away from all of my screens, which is difficult at the moment. But I think I better take advantage of this “oomph” while I’ve got it, eh? 😊

Surprise

I ordered a dolly from Amazon, to help me with the misc packing up of stuff that I’ve been doing. Just needed something to help me more easily move around the boxes, tubs, furniture, or whatever… but it was just as nice to be able to get a big box for the kitties to play in. This is the first time since Maggie got here that I’ve been able to cut some holes into a big box like this and turn it into a “house” for them to mess around in. Glad to report that they both like it and even had some fun playing together. 😊

Much Doctoring

It’s only half way through the week but I’ve taken care of the blood draw, the appointment for my off-and-on lower back issues, and then another appointment to go over the lab results and schedule some additional things that need to be checked off of the “Post ’18 Surgery / Keep an Eye on Stuff” list at some point during the next six months. 😯😊 That was a pleasant surprise to hear that last part… that my lab numbers didn’t trigger any sense of urgency from the doctor, and that I can just do those next things at my leisure. 🙂👍🏻

Tomorrow is gonna be a partial day off… probably gonna make a couple more phone calls (yay?) that need to be made, but other than that I’ll probably just potato in the AC here at home. It’s been effing hot so far this week, and looks like it’ll be just as bad (if not worse) as Independence Day approaches. 😓 Some of us are meeting up on Friday for my friend Jim’s birthday, and that’s gonna be outside, so I’m gonna cross my fingers and hope that we can find a place around here with both a low human count and lots of shade. 😎

Had a nice surprise towards the end of the day. 🙂 Well, nice for me, but slightly less nice for Dad. He wasn’t feeling great so he had someone take him over to the ER to get things checked out, and once they were done I went and picked him up and gave him a lift back home. 💁🏻‍♂️🚖 He seemed like he was feeling pretty good, relative to the reason for his trip out. I’m glad my car was cleaned out since a couple weeks ago though… heh… ‘cuz not only would I have been embarrassed for him to see it, but he also would have been sitting with his knees pinned to his chest due to all of the trash clutter in my passenger-side footwell. 🙄🤦🏻‍♂️😅

My sleep is still pretty screwy, so I’m almost positive that I’m gonna be up half the night tonight – but I’m not even gonna sweat it one way or the other. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Half the time, when I can’t sleep, it’s ‘cuz I’m stressing that I can’t sleep. But with nothing major on the agenda tomorrow, it doesn’t matter when I crap out or wake up. 😴 My nap today was solid though. 😊 I didn’t even hear when the lawn guys came and mowed… only noticing it once I was backing my car out of the driveway later in the day.

Grab, or Grab Not. There Is No Try.

Sun & Packages

This was interesting… and it shows that me and Genesee still have a pretty good link with each other… because we both received packages today from each other, with neither of us having told the other person that it was coming. 😄 Not only that, but both of our packages were based around the same thing. The Child, otherwise known as “Baby Yoda” from The Mandalorian.

It was months ago when we were both watching the series at the same time, but several states away of course, and we both had the idea to get something “Baby Yoda” for each other. 😊 But Disney wanted to keep the character a complete secret / surprise, so they didn’t even have any Baby Yoda stuff in production yet, let alone manufactured and ready for sale.

So, without even knowing it, while I was sitting here pre-ordering her a Baby Yoda stuffy doll that makes noises, she was pre-ordering me a couple of Baby Yoda figures to add to my toy shelves. 😳 Err, my “collectibles” shelf. 😁 It was so long ago when we placed the orders, that when the figures arrived today I wasn’t sure if I had pre-ordered them for myself or what… because I was looking at them hard for a potential purchase, but ended up not pulling the trigger – thinking I’ve got enough toys for a grown ass man. 🙄🤷🏻‍♂️😏 So, yeah, that was pretty kewl… I’ll try to throw a pic of them up here tomorrow.

Second half of the day was just too nice to stay inside the house. (Unfortunately most of Lancaster apparently had that same thought, ‘cuz there were so many cars out on the road and in line at the fast food joints.) I was originally planning on just going to the nearby park and sitting there for a while, mostly so I could listen to Agust D’s new “mixtape” album on my car’s stereo. (Agust D is the alternate name that Suga from BTS goes by for his solo releases.) So even though we aren’t going to see them in concert tomorrow as planned (Boo. 🥺😟 ) it was nice that he dropped an entire album today.

But the weather was too nice, the clouds too kewl, so I continued into town to make a loop of the city, get some air, and listen to the whole album before heading home. 😊 I clicked the dashcam to save several 30 second clips, then threw together a video showing the variety in the sky. 🤔 I don’t know if they were extra pretty like it felt like, or if it’s just because we haven’t seen the sun in forever… but yeah, this afternoon ended up being the first time that I’ve actually felt almost good in quite a while. 🤷🏻‍♂️🙂

(As usual, click the bottom right to put it into full screen mode and make sure it’s at least in 720p)

Blue Angels / Thunderbirds

Looks like they’ve sprung for cameras like the 360 cam I’ve got for each of their cockpits… 😯😃🤓

It’s a shame that people on Twitter and on the news had to take something nice / distracting like this and poop all over it though. You’ve got one group of folks that are talking about how much it cost to do the performance, saying how the money should have been spent on PPE for the hospitals and doctors… and then the second group is mad because the mayor of NYC scolded the Jewish folks who held / attended a funeral in which hundreds of people attended, flouting social distancing rules… and the bitchy people complained that the folks who went outside to watch the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds fly over weren’t scolded in the same way for their supposed “gathering” to do so. 😐 Because those two things are apples to apples and definitely make for a perfect comparison. (Note the heavy sarcasm in that last sentence please.)

Quite a video though… those guys / gals are brave / nuts. 😊

Oh, and as for the cost of the show, and the hospitals needing supplies… I can almost guarantee you that not a single hospital or doctor is going to ask for PPE or supplies and be told, “Well, we would have been able to get you that extra ventilator, but we had that airplane show the other day, so…” 🙄😅🤦🏻‍♂️ I mean, let’s be real. The hospitals and doctors are going to get the help that they get. The Blue Angels / Thunderbirds show isn’t going to reduce whatever help those folks would / are able to get from the government any more than Pence’s trip to the NIH did, or Trump’s flights back and forth to his properties. 😒 Let the people have some fun. You know how many kids were probably thrilled when they stepped outside and saw that stuff? 😁

See? The grumps even tainted my viewing experience, and I wasn’t even there. 😏🤷🏻‍♂️