Maybe....just maybe we might get our insurance back. Yesterday, we get a call from the benefits person and she informed us that we cannot get our insurance reinstated even if we disenroll from our prescription plan, which we already have done. I wasn't home when she called, so hubby talked to her. He said he really let her have it. She reminded him that the call is being recorded, which was fine with him....that way everybody who listens to it will know exactly what we think. He told her that we have no medical insurance because somebody told us something that was wrong, and now we have no prescription plan because somebody else told us something that was wrong. I think he told her how incompetent the whole group of them are!!

Anyway, so today while I was at work, he gets another call from a different woman telling us that they will make an exception, and we can get our insurance reinstated back from Jan. 1 if we send in Mar and April payments by Mar. 15. They will send us a bill. In the meantime, we are still waiting for confirmation from the prescription place saying that we are not enrolled with them anymore. Until we get that, we can't do anything. Hopefully, it will work out and we will get our insurance back.

In the meantime, I am trying very hard to stay calm and keep my blood pressure from going through the roof......
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Brinks thinks he's the boss of me!!....I'll be downstairs and I'll hear him cooing and cooing and making this warbling sound he makes and when I open the downstairs door, there he is.....sitting on the step right by the door. Then he looks at me like he's saying "HEY....get your ass up here cause I'm bored!!" So I go up the stairs and he's in front of me going up one step at a time, then when he gets to the top he starts walking down the hallway towards the computer room and I'm following behind him. He likes when I'm on the computer. Cause then he sits on my shoulder or my head or on top of the computer and he bends his head down and looks at the screen to see what I'm doing. He likes it when I put on the pigeon youtube videos. My husband says when he's on the computer, Brinks sits on his shoulder and pecks at his glasses and watches the screen.

I bought him a bigger birdbath tub and he really likes it. I took a picture and I'll have to get it downloaded so I can post it.

Off to bed....and my book....

I'm Stressssssssssed..............

I added a few people on my list of bloggers to the right. The Dairy Wife is mother to The Farmhouse Kids, but she keeps separate blogs. She met her current husband after a divorce and became pregnate with triplets. The kids are adorable as you will see with her pictures of them. I think she must be a professional photographer because of how great her pictures are. Anyway, she also has older children and is also a grandma! Her and her husband live on a dairy farm with cows, etc. I love reading about the kids and her life.

It's Always Something is Joan and she lives in Canada and her blogs are just plain funny as hell to read.
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We are still trying to straighten out this medical insurance mess and I doubt if we will. Currently, we have no insurance. Nobody at JCI seems to know anything. And they lie, lie, lie. Basically, they don't want to continue carrying coverage for their retirees and they will find any loophole and even help create one so they can "legally" drop the coverage.

Basically, if you have prescription drug coverage with your employer and you decide to enroll in a Medicare Part D prescription plan, then your employer has the right to cancel you and your spouse's insurance. Apparently, with the fiasco of Medicare Part D, congress decided to encourage employers to carry prescription coverage with their Medical Supplement plan for retirees....and they will give them subsidiary money to do so (and money is always the bottom line). So if you enroll in another company, then they lose their subsidiary money for you from the government. When hubby's medical plan switched over to the Supplement coverage, he called the benefits department and ASKED if the Supplement would still carry prescription coverage as the full benefits did (that's what I have...full benefits with prescription), and he was told NO. Also when I received my prescription card, he never got one which confirmed to us that he had no prescription coverage. So as much of a pain in the ass it is to do, he had to get online and try and figure out the best Part D plan and we would have to pay another monthly premium. Something any normal person would not want to do if they already have prescription coverage being paid for already with your medical plan. So now JCI is telling us that apparently his medical supplement plan DOES include prescription drug coverage and since we enrolled with another company then they have the right to cancel us!...plain and simple....and they DO NOT have to let us know when they do it. They can just cancel us and not say anything and let us think we have insurance when we don't. Oh, and apparently they can even still send us bills for premiums! Cause that's what they did. We got a bill the middle of January for February and we paid it and they cashed the check. Personally, I would consider that FRAUD!!

THEN....the woman who has been "looking into" this just told us Friday that if we can get disenrolled with the prescription company then they can reinstate our insurance....GREAT! or so we thought. She told us to call her on Monday and let her know if we can get disenrolled and have a confirmation sent to us to fax to them. So hubby calls the company and cancels his prescription coverage and requests a letter of confirmation sent to us. I call "Simone" today to tell her and, of course, she isn't working today and I end up talking to "Jody". Well, Jody informs us that even if we cancel our prescription coverage, we CANNOT be reinstated. Once we are canceled for having Part D, you can't get reinstated. WHAT???!! Simone told us on Friday that we can, now we can't. Like a year ago, we were told we didn't have prescription, but apparently we do. Like I said in my other post....idiots and morons.

So "Jody" is going to "look into it" and "get back with me" and she will put a "rush" on it for us, and she really "apologizes" for all this. FU!!!

Stress causes strokes....so I really don't need this....cause I have no f'ng insurance!

I'm going to bed....working tomorrow....

On the very first day, God created the cow. He said to the cow, "Today I have created you! As a cow, you must go to the field with the farmer all day long. You will work all day under the sun! I will give you a life span of 50 years."
The cow objected, "What? This kind of a tough life you want me to live for 50 years? Let me have 20 years, and the 30 years I'll give back to you." So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the dog. God said to the dog, "You are supposed to do is to sit all day by the door of your house. Any people that come in, you will have to bark at them! I'll give a life span of 20 years."
The dog objected, "What? All day long to sit by the door? No way! I give you back my other 10 years of life!" So God agreed.

On the third day, God created the monkey. He said to the monkey, "Monkeys have to entertain people. You've got to make them laugh and do monkey tricks. I'll give you 20 years life span."
The monkey objected. "What? Make them laugh? Do monkey faces and tricks? Ten years will do, and the other 10 years I'll give you back." So God agreed.

On the fourth day, God created man and said to him, "Your job is to sleep, eat, and play. You will enjoy very much in your life. All you need to do is to enjoy and do nothing. This kind of life, I'll give you a 20 year life span."
The man objected. "What? Such a good life! Eat, play, sleep, do nothing? Enjoy the best and you expect me to live only for 20 years? No way, man!....Why don't we make a deal? Since the cow gave you back 30 years, and the dog gave you back 10 years and the monkey gave you back 10 years, I will take them from you! That makes my life span 70 years, right?" So God agreed.

AND THAT'S WHY.... In our first 20 years, we eat, sleep, play, enjoy the best and do nothing much. For the next 30 years, we work all day long, suffer and get to support the family. For the next 10 years, we entertain our grandchildren by making monkey faces and monkey tricks. And for the last 10 years, we stay at home, sit by the front door and bark at people!

Vote for Brinks.....

I keep forgetting to post this. I entered Brinks' picture of him by the cop car on this pet photo contest. It runs til the end of the month. The website is www.pets-place.net. They have four categories....dog, cat, theme and pets and Brinks is under the pet one. A direct link to his category would be www.pets-place.net/FreePetContest.html. So maybe you could give him a vote. It's all for fun...there's no prizes or anything. I just thought it would be cute to see Brinks' picture in a contest.

My son entered little Pippi and we're hoping she will be in next month's contest.
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Okay, so American Idol was on tonight and two guys and two girls got booted from the 24. I phoned in votes for six girls and one got booted tonight; and of the six guys I voted for one got booted. Yes, now that all those silly auditions are over with the show gets somewhat better. At least there are some good singers this year.

Working tomorrow....haven't got a clue what I'm going to wear....that's the one part I hate about working...trying to figure out what to wear!

BCBS Update....

Okay, so I ain't hearing nothing from the woman from the benefits service center who is suppose to be trying to find out what is going on with my insurance. She told me last Thursday she would get back with me in 24-48 hours....LAST THURSDAY! I know I'm not great at math, but I am pretty sure that today is more than 48 hours. The guy I talked to on Monday told me that she is scheduled to call me on Tuesday. And I'm pretty sure that Tuesday was like 2 days ago!!

So I called Blue Cross myself. According to the somewhat intelligent sounding woman my coverage was cancelled on Jan 8, and also so was my husband's! According to her, both our coverages were cancelled by JCI....hubby's past employer whom we have our coverage with. So she called the JCI benefits center and talked to a couple people. And she said that they are checking into it and someone will get back with me....??????????????? Yeah?, like WHEN??? Cause in the meantime, we have no freakin health insurance coverage.

This is what I think happened. Last year, we sent our payments to an address in Milwaukee. Then they changed things in January and the payments now go to Illinois. Well, I think that when the morons in Milwaukee didn't get our payment, they cancelled our coverage.....and the idiots in Illinois simply cashed our checks and didn't bother letting the morons in Milwaukee know that they are getting the checks now.

Now here is the really confusing idiotic part. According to BCBS, we are both cancelled as of Jan 8....both of us. So yesterday or the day before, we get this bill notice crediting our account for the Jan-Feb payments of MY premium only, and subtracted the premium for my husband for March, leaving us still with monies credited....WHAT????...My husband's coverage is cancelled too....so why is only MY premiums being credited back to us and they are still charging us for hubby's premium? The fact that they are crediting our account shows that they obviously received the payments, right? Besides the fact that I have the cancelled checks to prove they not only received but they were cashed by them on time. We were not late with the payments.

Actually, last month I get a notice telling me that my DENTAL coverage was cancelled due to non-payment. I called and the woman told me that I was indeed still covered...they received our check. She even called the insurance company who confirmed that we were covered. She had no idea why I would get a notice telling me I was cancelled. She assured me just last month that our coverages, both dental and medical were paid and covered. Well, somebody better tell those morons in Milwaukee then!!

No water.....No insurance.....

I got back from Caseville yesterday and worked today. Guess what??? I had no freakin' water at my cottage!! I got up there and turned the water on. At first it didn't come right out and I figured that maybe there was ice in the line, so I waited. Pretty soon, the water was coming out and I thought everything was okay. Then it started coming out slower and slower and then nothing. Then I noticed that the pump wasn't running. By Saturday there was still nothing, so I opened up the pump house and the hot scot heater WASN'T EVEN WORKING! It's this little heater thing you plug in and when the temp drops it automatically heats up. Last year it was fine. Anyway, it ain't working now and my pump was frozen. So I bought a new one and plugged it in and it started heating up. When I woke up Sunday I could hear the pump running and I'm like "GOOD!"....but when I got up there still wasn't any water, and my pump was running and running. My neighbors said it had been running since morning. I just shut the damn thing off. My neighbor said that it probably has to be primed again to get the water flowing through the pipes. Or maybe the water in the holding tank is all frozen still. Who knows....I just shut the damn thing off and we'll deal with it in the Spring!!!!!

So I was running with my jugs (water jugs...haha) up town where I can fill them with water for a quarter. At least I could flush the toilets with buckets of water and wash myself. I so HATE when I don't have water....

Shanty Days was fun....lots of people there. I went to the Chili-Cookoff and tasted all the chili's and voted for the best. I went to watch the Polar Bear Dip but it was too crowded and no place to park. I went up to the Eagles Saturday night and they had Karaoke. My neighbors were there too and my girlfriend and we all had a great time.
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Apparently, my insurance company has dropped my health coverage! I've been on the phone trying to figure out what the hell happened. I sent my Jan and Feb payment in....I have the cancelled checks. Now they are crediting me the amounts. Hubby is still covered and we still have dental, but my coverage is dropped. We never got any notices from Blue Cross. My only clue was they denied a payment from when I went to my ob/gyn in January...saying that I wasn't covered. The check I sent was for both me and hubby....one check....he's covered and I got dropped. My only claim was when I had pneumonia in November.....hubby had shoulder surgery and therapy...he's covered and I got dropped.....GO FIGURE

I'm trying to get answers from the benefit center. I called last Thursday, again yesterday. Someone was suppose to call today but didn't. Someone screwed up. I am so sick of trying to straighten out someone else's screwups!!! So I have no health insurance. Tomorrow, I'll probably get hit by a bus.....

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF BRINKS.....

Brinks wakes up in the morning and walks to the bathroom to do his business.



Then he takes his morning bath getting all clean for the day....



He enjoys eating a hearty breakfast....sunflower seeds, grains and greens.



Grooming himself in the dresser mirror....preening and plucking his feathers....looking good for the day.



Hanging out with friends....




"Hey!...You talkin' to ME?!".....Bonding with his mirror buddy.



Taking a stroll down the steps to try and check out the lower level...



Time for a nighttime popcorn snack....hmmmmm he loves his popcorn!



Time for bed....Every night he perches in the corner of the door and sleeps...zzzzzzz

Ramblings......

1. Saturday was hubby's birthday....so everyone sing a belated birthday song to him....What did we do? Well, usually we go out to eat with our youngest son and his current significant other. But they are having problems and she went back to her condo and he had to work Saturday. So I was hoping that hubby and I could still go out for his birthday. Nahhhhhh.....I went out for some takeout chinese food. I gave him a bag of goodies and a shirt and jeans, but he says that the jeans are "not his style" so I guess I'll have to take them back. I thought they were oh-so cool....they were blackish with fading down the legs and neat stitching on the pockets that matched the shirt. I guess I'll have to go to Salvation Army to find "his style"...cause they don't make them ANYMORE!!!!!...THEY WENT OUT WITH THE 80'S!!!


2. BITCH OF THE MONTH: Heather Mills McCartney!!...God, what a f'ng whore....she marrys and sleeps with Paul and now she wants all his money for her services. I'd like to rip her GOOD leg off and smack her with it.


3. BRINKS.....I left the downstairs door open over the weekend and hubby came out and told me to watch the dogs cause "Brinks is downstairs".....holy-moley....I knew he was gonna do that cause he's so damn curious as to what is down there. So there he sat on top of the door and bobbin' his head and looking all over the place, checking everything out. We eventually got him back up the stairs. I put a mirror in the hallway and a newspaper under it and now he sits there and coos at himself and lays there like he's found a buddy to bond with...hahahaha Right now he's sitting on top of my computer watching me. He likes to watch me type. The other day hubby came upstairs to use the computer and Brinks was already on it....on the keyboards!...typing with his toes and the monitor screen was doing stuff....too funny. Yesterday was Monday and he took his Monday bath. I swear, for the last 3 Mondays he sits in this bigger bowl of water I have for him to use as a birdbath....every Monday!...how does he know it's Monday. He sits in the water and then he bobs his beak in the water and picks at his feathers like he's washing himself.

My upstairs is full of feathers....he must be molting or something. Sunday I vacuumed everything and wiped off all the bird turds everywhere and spot cleaned parts of the carpet...everything was clean and now there's messy papers and feathers everywhere again....grrrrrrrrrr!


4. A friend's daughter is getting married and her shower is next Sunday. I won't be here cause I'll be in Caseville for the Shanty Days weekend so I won't be going. I'm going to just send a gift card from Target where she is registered. Anyway, but I got her gift registry thing to see what she wanted. I couldn't believe they had a Nintendo Guitar WII thing on there.....WTF??...It's a bridal shower not a Xmas list.

5. I worked yesterday and I don't go back in until Thursday. Then Friday I'm leaving for Caseville and won't be back until Monday....a nice long weekend. Maybe I'll take one of the dogs. Hubby can watch over the zoo til I return.

6. I still have a critter somewhere in my house. I can hear it at night in the walls. And I still find birdseed in weird places. Like when I came back from Caseville and there was birdseed between my mattress and box springs in my bed!!! I was changing the sheets and on the edge I noticed the seeds. I picked up the mattress and there was a bunch of birdseed there. And I opened up my stereo turntable to play a record and there was birdseed in the corner. It's everywhere. Brinks is not doing it, but some little chipmonk or mouse is. OH YEAH....and I got out this box (with openings on the sides for carrying) under this table where I have some crap stored until I can get my computer desk set up right and there was birdseed in there too, but also there was all this cottony stuff like a nest. I couldn't figure out what it was at first. Then I noticed I had these two chair cushions sitting on top of the box and when I took the top one off, the bottom one was all chewed up with the stuffing sticking out!!....damn critter ruined my cushion and made himself a little next in my box. I told hubby he better set some traps.

That's all my ramblings for now, I guess.....

Good Old 1958......

As usual there is nothing good on TV again tonight. I can't believe how many channels we now get on our television and it all sucks. I wish I was back in 1958. I found an old 1958 TV guide that my dad had and this is what I could be watching:

7:00......Don Ameche or Amos 'N' Andy
7:30......I Love Lucy or Wagon Train
8:30......Father Knows Best
9:00......Ozzie and Harriet
9:30......Betty White Comedy
10:00.....U.S. Steel Hour or This is Your Life
1/2 hour of News...then
11:30.....Jack Paar

It's so weird seeing all these old TV listings as new shows instead of reruns. Personally, I like the old reruns now as opposed to all the junk they think is entertainment. Tonight was the last of the Idol auditions....Thank God....There was nothing else to watch. Tomorrow is LOST!!....gotta love Lost....I'm hoping this season will be really really good.

I bought one of those homedic sound machines for Brinks. One of the sounds is Summer Night sounds. I figure he has to start getting use to outdoor night sounds instead of TV and radio that I keep on for him. Today he discovered the mirror I have sitting on this dresser and he kept pecking at himself and cooing. I know he must be bored sitting around here all day and night....poor little guy. We're up here a lot though with being on the computer, so he's not always alone. I know he is getting curious about the downstairs. It's bad enough that he has taken over the entire upstairs but now he wants to check out the downstairs too. I am always finding him on the steps. Sometimes I open up the door and he's right there on the bottom step. If he could open the door, he would! Then he goes back upstairs hopping one step at a time....so cute.

He's been molting like crazy lately....feathers everywhere. So now I'm noticing new feather spines growing on his head, so he looks a little weird now with these pointy things sticking out.

That's about it.....nothing on TV tonight...

Super Sunday.....

It's Superbowl night!!....yippee....WOW....hiphiphoowahhhhh...

I don't know a thing about football, but the Superbowl is kinda cool cause of the funny commercials and the half-time entertainment....which tonight was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. They put on a great half-time show. Too bad it's only for 15 minutes. I would love to have seen more of them playing their great tunes.

That baby at the computer commercial is a riot...LOL....and didja see the Fed Ex commercial with all the pigeons??...hilarious....I think Brinks helped film that one!

I kept asking hubby questions during the game and I think they were somewhat intelligent questions from somebody that doesn't know anything 'bout the game...like

1. How old is the oldest football player?
Hubby answered...35
2. Are the footballs still made of pigskin?
Hubby answered...yes
3. Why are their uniforms covered in green crap if it is indoors and the grass isn't even real?
Hubby answered....huh
4. Is it half-time yet?
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I've been having back problems and today it's somewhat better. I think I've been overdoing it at the gym. First I had real low back pain and it eventually went away around the beginning of the week. By Wednesday I was thinking how the pain in my back was completely gone. Then Thursday I got out of bed and WHAM....the pain in my back was horrible...and it was in a different place....not real low, but more in the middle and around the left side. I was in bed Thursday and Friday. My husband gave me these prescription pills he had that zonked me out. He gave me a muscle relaxer and Motrin...plus I was talking Aleve. Saturday it was better and I was able to go to this Estate Sale that I couldn't get to on Friday, but I felt woozy like I was in the ozones or something from all the meds I was taking. Today it is much much better. I was hoping to get back up to Caseville before I start work next week, but no chance with my back out.

Yep...I start my tax seasonal job with my CPA on Tuesday. That's why I've been working my ass off at the gym...trying to lose some weight so I can get into my clothes. But this weekend I think I ate too much. We got pizza last night....and I always do alot for SuperBowl, so I ate munchies, veggies and dip, rye bread and dip, leftover pizza, chicken wings and chicken strips. But NO BEER!!!....so that should help.

Last Saturday I went out with a friend to dinner, and I only had coke, coffee and water....NO BEER....so I would think that if beer puts weight ON, then no beer should take weight OFF....right???....we'll shall see

Guess I'll go back downstairs and see who won the game.....ciao...