Updates

So it's been brought to my attention that I often bring up my various crises without ever telling you what happened after. That's because most of the time, everything seems to resolve eventually, and that part's not so funny. But just so I don't leave anyone hanging (I'd hate for you to lose sleep over my oh-so-exciting dramas), here's a bit of an update on my recent life events.

Tucker: STILL stinks but slowly becoming bearable

Mia: Completely unaffected by her swimming incident

Doggies: Still costing us a fortune -- i forgot to list food on that itemization of expenses, for which we pay about $100 per month. On the plus side, Bandit's cone seems to be less stinky now that we let it air out for a few weeks, saving us that 20-something bucks.

Me: No MS just yet, although this week, my back seems to be particularly painful -- possibly degenerative disc disease?

India trip: My passport actually came in a little over a week!! Yay for the US Passport Service. I called to check on the status on a Fri, one week after they received it just to see if there was anything I could do to speed it up. I thought it was a little bit snide of the agent to make me go through a long explanation of why I needed it in a hurry before saying, "I have good news for you. It's already in the mail and should reach you by tomorrow or Mon." Really, did we have to go through the whole rigamarole of when I was travelling, how quickly did I need it, etc?

So now I'm waiting on my Visa. Yes, we need a Visa even though we're just going for 2 weeks. I sent it in. They seem pretty fast about granting it and sending it back. G's already gotten his and it took less than a week! But with mine, apparently, I needed to send them my old passport with my previous Visa in it. Don't ask me why. Maybe to make sure I didn't start a riot or something on my last trip? Do they note those kinds of things on Visas when you leave the country? To give them credit, they might have stated that several times on their site and in the application documents but I missed it somehow. It wasn't an issue for G cuz he's never had an Indian visa before. So then I had to send that in separately, prolonging the process even more. But it all seems good now, and status updates on their website suggest that they've been moving along with processing and should have it by this week. Just in time!

Various medical/dental issues: Hmm, I guess these ended up being a bit more of a pain. For dental, I was trying to figure out if I should sign up for a separate dental plan or not. My medical covers basic cleanings and x-rays twice a year, and does anyone do anything more than that at the dentist? But its weird. My medical coverage offers a dental indemnity plan. So basically, I go to a dentist of my choice. They submit the bills to my medical insurance company, the insurance company pays some allotted amount for the covered services, and I cover the rest. But here was the catch. Well there were several. First of all, no one I initially talked to had heard of an "indemnity plan" for dental care. Dentist offices asked me if I had an HMO or PPO, I said neither, they got confused and told me they didn't cover my plan. THEN my insurance company was also very vague about how much they actually covered for each of the regular dental services. Apparently, it wasn't a 100%. They decided on what was reasonable and that's all they would pay. Which is fine except that apparently what was reasonable was top secret info that they couldn't release without killing me. So how the hell was I supposed to figure out if I needed additional coverage if I couldn't figure out how much out of pocket I'd be with just my indemnity. To make matters worse, I only had 90 days to sign up for a dental plan if I wanted one, and nobody was making it easy for me to make a decision. I finally opted not to sign up for a dental plan, went with my medical to the first dentist that didn't seem confused by the whole situation, and haven't gotten any bills yet. So hopefully that means its all good and everything was covered. But who knows?

With the vision, actually some of you sent me some recommendations. Thanks so much for that! They were much appreciated. But when I went to check them out, they weren't on my Vision Plan's list of accepted providers. I was already kind of tired of dealing with insurance docs by that point, so didn't feel like calling to find out how I go about seeing an out-of-area provider. I ended up keeping the appt I made with the doc in Hollister, and she turned out to be awesome. The last terrible attempt I made to get contacts, the optometrist - this young high schooler from Wisconsin, I'm positive - told me that they couldn't measure me for hard lenses because I wasn't wearing them. And then they couldn't fit me without my most recent prescription. They gave me the run around for 2 pointless visits! This doc told me all that was a bunch of bull and measured me in minutes. And the rest of our visit was spent fine tuning (hard lenses sit right on your cornea so fit is kind of an issue). It was great. What sucks is that they keep normal biz hours, and my contacts arrived 2 weeks ago, and I still haven't had time to go get them because they're always already closed by the time I get back into town. But otherwise, no complaints! Thanks, J., for your general price guidelines too! They stayed right in that ball park, so I know I'm not getting ripped off.

Tahoe dog incident: Sigh, never needed to write an angry letter after all. The guy backed down after my friend sent the city after him, and they found out he was in violation for the deck spacing AND for having a hot tub on the deck, too. She recently sent him another letter pointing out this new piece of evidence, and he asked her to send over the vet bills.

Idiots and climate change: Still exist. Not long after I posted that note, an annoying co-worker happened to announce that he didn't believe in man-made climate change. He likened it to other "mis-representations" in history and made some random comments about the liberal media. What do you want to bet he doesn't believe in the Holocaust either? And now I'm wondering if this issue is just following me around to annoy me.

I think that's a good roundup, don't you? Let me know if there's anything else that has you hanging on the edge of your seat. :)