Techno Dinosaur April 8, 2012

Techno Dinosaur April 8, 2012

Today there are multiple issues from me, the techno dinosaur.  When I try to do stuff on the computer or the internet, some days I just get frustrated.

My favorite web site for doctors to bitch and complain has just gone to the cloud.  Now, half the time I try to check in, I get:

 Sorry, we were unable to locate the page you requested.

It might have been removed or might be temporarily unavailable. If you typed the page address in the address bar, please make sure that it is spelled correctly and try again. Or, you can go to our HOME PAGE and try a new Search for Postings.

Return to the (name removed to protect the guilty) homepage

I have posted a question about this, but their tech people won’t be in until tomorrow. 

I also tried to copy you a really cool youtube video that someone had on their web site.  All I could get was the URL.  I have no idea why.

Computer Guy was working on my office computer last week.  He works while gaming with my kids after being fed my Mr. Lasermed.  I took the computer back to the office and found out he had deleted the entire office medical record system.  Unfortunately, the kids were out of school, so I went in late.  I found this out 15 minutes before I was supposed to start patients.

AAARRRGGGHHH!

I hope Computer Guy is having a great vacation with his real family.  My computer is waiting for him when he comes back.  (He restored it before he left).

 

Another Routine Disturbance. Sigh!

Will the people who changed the timing for the traffic light please fix it?

Like most people, we drive the same way to school every day.  There really aren’t a lot of choices for us. 

Last week the State Road people were installing a new traffic light along the route.  It replaced one that was already there, so there shouldn’t be any problem.  WRONG!!!!  When they installed it, they didn’t time it the same as it was before.  Traffic is backed up significantly at busy times of day. 

One of those times is when we are going to high school in the morning.  It disturbs Mr. Impatient.  He gets upset and fusses about it.  Then he “perseverates” about it all day.  Mr. Lasermed and I (and Tall Guy and Three Speed) have had to listen to this since last Friday.  That’s when they finished changing the light.

Last night, it went on for about 2 hours. 

Can the people responsible for fixing the timing on the traffic lights please do their jobs? 

Thank you.

Finding the Silver Lining Inside the Cloud

This time of year is time for many of us to do taxes.  It is not my favorite thing to do.  Fortunately, I am somewhat obsessive about keeping track regularly on my computer of expenditures. 

I print out the year from my check book and cash expenditures.  Check.

I print out the year from my office receipts.  Check.

I start looking for all the other paperwork.  Not so check.

This is where I have to depend on other people.  The members of my family who swear that they have given me whatever paper it is that I am currently looking for (the spousal division).  Or look at me with that blank stare that tells me that they have no idea what I am talking about (the high school division). 

I spent 4 days last week looking for a 1099 that my husband swore he had given me.  I cleaned the entire surface of my desk.  That’s the silver lining.  I didn’t find it.  I asked him to look for it at home.  He found it in less than 5 minutes.

Yes, he is still alive.  No, you may not inquire about my blood pressure. 

Nothing Went Right

It's been a bad week around here.  I already posted about Three Speed’s accident.  Yesterday was my weekly trip to the “big box store”.  No names, but I’m sure you have one like it near you.  Traffic was awful.  They still haven’t finished the construction on the interstate that has been going on since the spring thaw.  They are also still working on the major intersection by the store.  They changed the timing of the light, so you have to sit at the turn for about 4 cycles before you get through. 

When we pulled into our space, a nice fellow came over to tell us that our front tire was “a little low”.  When we went inside, they didn’t have any of those little scooters that some of us with health issues use to get around the “BIG” box store.  I decided not to wait, since I had Tall Guy with me, and he was being cranky.  This turned out to be a bad decision. 

I have been having cardiac arrhythmias for the last six months.  My heart started to act up somewhere around frozen foods.  This is all the way in the back of the store.  Then I accidently grabbed the wrong item because someone had placed a similar item in that spot.  After we checked out, Tall Guy noticed.  We had to go to Customer Relations to exchange the items.  The people check your items at the door, so the ticket has to be right.  It took forever to explain to the Customer Relations Person that we had already gone and gotten the item we wanted to exchange for.  You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work there.

When Tall Guy started filling up the tire, it started bulging out.  We went back to the big box store, since they sell tires – I got the last batch there.  The nice man at the tire place told me it wasn’t safe to drive on that tire.  (This day is getting better by the minute!) It would be 4 (four) hours until he could get to my van.  It also cost over $300 that was not in my budget right now.  This was after having to pay for the medical care yesterday “out of pocket”.

Mind you, I have frozen food in the back of this van.  I looked at Tall Guy and said, “Shall we call Dad?”

Mr. Lasermed was not happy to have to come 30 minutes to rescue us.  He had to bring Mr. Impatient with him.  You can’t leave him alone.  That’s another story.  Anyone with an autistic child can fill you in.  Mr. Impatient was repeating the same questions over and over and over in Mr. Lasermed’s van all the way to get me.  He had to deal with all the above traffic issues AND Mr. Impatient. 

We also had to stop and pick up one of Mr. Lasermed’s prescriptions on the way home.  We didn’t get it on the way there because I had just called in the refill before we left to go.  When we got to the pharmacy, the amount they told us was different than what the pharmacist had told me before we left.  That’s because the young woman at the window tried to give us the prescription for someone with my husband’s last name but a different first name.  To make it more confusing, this fellow has the same first name as Mr. Impatient.  So we got to hear about that for about 10 miles down the road. 

I think I have recovered today enough to at least write about it. 

Oops! What is a Mom / Doctor To Do?

Three Speed takes a spill!

The reason there haven’t been any posts for the last couple of days is that there has been some excitement in the Lasermed house.  Three Speed fell and injured himself at school in the middle of the school day.  He injured both of his ankles, one more than the other.  When I got home, he was on the couch with an ice pack, pillows and a courageous look. 

We had to make a decision about whether or not to take him to the Emergency Department.  [This is the current terminology, since it isn’t a “room” anymore.]  His ankle was “non-displaced” to my semi-professional eye.  That means it looked swollen, but not bent at a funny angle.  Mr. Lasermed, who was a paramedic in his former life, agreed with this. 

Just to be sure, I called and spoke with the ED doctor.  They don’t have an orthopedist in our hospital all the time.  So we would get an X-ray, a bill from the radiologist, the ED doc, and a fee for using the ED.  OR... We could wait until the AM, and go to the orthopedics office, where they have their own X-ray machine, and we get to see the doctor we need to see.

We decided to wait.  We iced it, elevated it, waited until the next day and went to the orthopedics office. Nothing broken (thank goodness), but he can’t march in band for 6 weeks. He saw the "old man" in the practice.  He doesn’t do surgery any more, but has more experience than any of the other doctors there. The gentleman doesn't like gel packs for icing – he prefers frozen veggies!  I think it’s a waste of veggies, but he says they conform better to the injured part. 

Three Speed is on the couch even as I write this.  He’s feeling better.  Now it’s almost hard to keep him down.  His foot is purpling nicely.  It is still quite swollen.

And we saved well over $1000 in medical charges. 

New Video – Wear Your Seatbelt

In a former life, Mr. Lasermed was a paramedic.  He taught me the value of wearing seatbelts.  I don’t like them, but I wear them.  This is a great internet video to help make the point: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p916yeFa2Xk&noredirect=1

The Band, The Yearbook and The Umbrella

Or – How I Have Spent Part of My Weekend

You may have noticed that nice photo of the band to the right in my blog.  That’s a wonderful photo of the Eagles Band when they went to Disney a couple of years ago.  Tall Guy and Three Speed are in their fourth and final year with the band.

I have to admit that they didn’t look quite so sharp this weekend.  It really wasn’t their fault.  It has been cold.  Saturday night it was 46^o F while we were watching the band competition.  I believe it was a little bit warmer Friday at the football game.  They marched in their rain gear.

It also has been raining for longer than the biblical 40 days and 40 nights.  It stopped for a while on Friday.  So Friday was just cold.  Saturday was wet and intermittently heavy to light, misty rain. 

If I haven’t told you, I have arthritis.  Thanks, Mom.  And Dad.  So cold and wet is my least favorite weather.  However, I am a Mom who tries to get to all the kids stuff.  I put on as many layers as I could think of.  I took my cane and my umbrella and off we went.   

Mr. Lasermed drove, so he could let us off at the entrance.  We also took Tall Guy’s girlfriend, Yearbook Gal.  Her job was to take photos of the band.  In the rain. 

We bought “candy grams” for the band boys.  This sends candy to some tired and wet kids.  I let Yearbook Gal send the one to Tall Guy.  Aren’t I sweet?  And I sprung for the group rate so they would have lots to eat.  They also offer small animals, flowers (that’s another story, and I got in big trouble for that one) and “air grams” where you send a short message to the band member over the intercom.

We got food for Mr. Impatient.  We girls got hot chocolate.  It was mostly hot water.  It felt good going down.  I reached in the pockets of my raincoat and found…. Gloves!  I felt like it was my birthday or something!

When the band came on, we had to figure out how to keep the camera dry.  So I held the umbrella over YG while she took pictures.  I hope they came out.  As soon as the band left the field, we went out and sat in the car until they were ready to go home.  We turned on the heater to warm ourselves up.  I brought my ever present crocheting project.  Once my fingers thawed out, I worked while we waited. 

So I got my Mom stuff done, and the baby blanket is making progress. 

Customer “Service”

Or Not

I just got off the phone with the cable company.  I probably don’t need to say any more for most of you. 

The first call I made was “before the office was open”. 

The second time I called, I got hung up on. 

The third time I called, I pressed 4 for “service” and got “billing”.  This was the same extension that had hung up on me the last time.  It wasn’t the proper department.  I got transferred three different times. 

Supposedly they fixed the e-mail problem with the bill I have had for over two years.  I will wait and see about that. 

They don’t care and didn’t apologize that I didn’t get the last bill.  They don’t care and didn’t apologize about having shut off my service in the middle of the night.  Mr. Impatient gets up at 4:30 AM to play on the internet.  It wasn’t working.  Neither was the TV.  Moooommmmmmm…….   

I apologized that I am a little cranky from having to find my credit card and pay a bill at 5 AM. 

Now can they please explain why the bill is going up by $30 per month?  Oh, I see.  We had a special rate, and now we don’t.  And something about cable boxes that weren’t available in my area until last week.  I can exchange them at the billing office and save $9.95 per month. 

I’ll get back to them on that.

I’m proud of myself for not slamming down the phone or swearing.  I’ll let Mr. Lasermed decide about the boxes.  I don’t do electronics.