Tired of the Commercials

Medicare enrollment is about to end for this year. In two days, this should alleviate the constant pounding to buy insurance plans. Some might be confused by the constant barrage of supposedly sweet deals, and the commercials reflect the attempt to win you over with "free" stuff. Regardless, there are few things some don't know. 

Those commercials promising special deals come with some spare baggage. First, the less you have to pay, the more you're restricted from choosing your health professionals. The policies that actually give you money through health credit cards demand you either go to the doctors they can coerce into signing a contract with the insurance carrier, or they don't pay anything. In larger population areas, this allows you to see the better doctors, but that usually means long waiting times for visits. In rural areas, long drives might be necessary to just go for a checkup, and in some situations, a large part of your state the insurance companies might not even include your area. 

The most important thing to remember is that some of the commercials are not actually by the insurance companies. They are commercials where insurance agents pay a fee to a company, which transfers the caller to them for a possible new client. Insurance agents receive a fee for every person they get to sign on a policy, and regardless of your state, are licensed and must follow insurance laws. The laws of that state dictate what they can offer, and the slick commercials are basically throwing you into a pool, which is filled with those agents willing to take a chance on getting enough policies to pay for their fee to be included. You meet your agent by a phone call, and probably have absolutely no information on their reliability, or whether they will be honest about the policy you're about to buy,

If I had to recommend what people should do when they have to deal with Medicare, I would say read everything you can about the system, find a good insurance agent to represent you, and if you can afford it, go with a supplemental policy called a Medigap policy. Those pay whatever Medicare doesn't pay, and allow you to see any doctor you want. 

Meanwhile, From The Nose Bleed Section

They caught the person responsible for planting the fake pipe bombs (or were they fake?) on January 6 when the supposed insurrection was in full swing. Bondi said the last group of supposed administrator of the alphabet agencies were sitting on their hands, and whistling to the wind. Who knows? We haven't been given much to warm our hearts on justice being served. 

Speaking of justice. Regardless of what is reported, placed in investigation, or tossed around Congress, I don't have a fuzzy feeling about the state of justice in the United States. Too many obvious criminals are allowed to continue their stints in Congress, or allowed to sell books, when they should have been flogged, tarred and feathered, tied to a rail, and tossed into a pit of raw sewage.

I don't know how everyone feels, but the economy sucks. Inflation has stolen at least 25% of my income in the last four years, and nobody is reporting how they performed the procedure outlined above in solving this problem. 

Illegals have shown the worst of people in other countries only become problems in other countries. The best solution is to deport any found, close down all immigration, and give at least twenty years for those that legally immigrated to become accustomed to the American way of life.

Regardless of what's being reported, the desperate adds on television indicate the Christmas sales will be abysmal. The deals are too good, and in my opinion, it looks like the major outlets will do just about anything to break even. 

Trump has suggested giving newborn families $1000 for each baby. That's fair, but I won't my share to be retroactive to the year I was born and the money gathering 6% interest. 

I'm helping my wife to make some homemade vegetable beef soup. We have different opinions, but manage to work together on the production. It tastes really good, and the slow simmer will bring out all the flavors.

It's Better, But....

Our county has been working on improving the drainage in our subdivision. As far as I know, this is the first time this has been done since it was started back in the late seventies. I'm guessing the numerous appeals on property taxes has created some attention. 

The subdivision was built by a somewhat shady developer. The original road was created by using borrowed soil for the road bed, and the ditches left by "borrowing" the soil were never profiled for drainage, and the property owners just threw some culverts into the ditch to gain access to their property. This created some problems, since this resulted in ponding between some culverts, which led to constant wet ditches, and the crappy road (which was only oiled sand) took a beating. Eventually the county took over the road, placed a durable surface, and this helped. 

The original developer tried to mitigate water problems by building a levee around the subdivision, and placed a pump station to pump out the water. This was a disaster, since the pump station was a joke, and fell into disrepair. The levee now not only blocked natural drainage, it caused the adjacent creek to pond water upstream, which slowed down drainage further. Holes were cut in the levee, which helped mitigate the created problem, but the original drainage problems still existed. 

The county just finished profiling the ditches, cutting them to drain, and this helped the drainage tremendously. They're now water-jetting the culverts to remove sediment. Some culverts obviously need to be changed to facilitate drainage, but whether that happens is yet to be seen. With the improved drainage, and limited funds, I don't see this happening. We'll see, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

So, How Much Did They Feed Them?

According to this article, soybean oil may cause obesity.  Maybe it does, but maybe they fed the mice a half gallon each every day, with a pack of cookies. That would make them fat, and help continue the funds for research.

Lack of Accountability

I've been reading reports about how SNAP money was being paid to illegal aliens, with some being transferred to other countries. That's terrible, but what is most terrible is the fact those in charge of the money allowed it to happen. To me, that's treason. Regardless of whether there's a declared war, or not, giving aid to foreign countries at the harm of the United States economy can be described in no other way.

Dreary, Wet and Cold

Up to a few days ago, we had weather that was the wonderful balance between Summer and Winter. Mild temperatures kept it from getting above eighty, or below the mid-fifties. No rain, pleasant sun, and dry. That's over for now. 

The day before yesterday brought thunderstorms at night, and 5 1/2 inches of rain. Yesterday it was mostly cloudy and the temperature didn't get above the mid-fifties. Today it started raining before sunrise, and at 10:30 tonight, there's still a misting rain. The temperature never reached past 45 degrees, which made the nasty weather worse. 

Tomorrow is supposed to allow clearing, but more rain is forecast starting Wednesday night and last into the weekend. At least it's not supposed to freeze, but miserable weather is expected. 

All together we've had around 8 inches of rain, which will saturate the ground. Until Spring arrives, the ground will be soft, and venturing off pavement can lead to calling a wrecker. Hopefully, we won't get much freezing weather, or any frozen precipitation. Down here, that's always a recipe for shutting most everything down, too many car wrecks, and the dreaded times without electricity.