Today is National Hot Tub
Day, so that industry tells me that I can relax.
The problem is that I don’t own a hot tub, and I have things on my plate to take care of, so I can’t relax.
Perhaps if things were different, and I had a hot tub, I could relax, but the fact of the matter is that I don’t … and I can’t.
Exactly one month from today, I celebrate my birthday, and it is a big one, the 65th birthday of my existence on earth, and I will really and truly be a “senior citizen” by definition, even though I don’t feel like one.
Fred Mertz from “I Love Lucy” … now that was a senior citizen.
Me, I feel like a young’un compared to Fred, more like Opie on “The Andy Griffith Show” than like dear old Fred.
But in reality, I am more like Fred now than Opie, and how old was actor William Frawley when he played Fred? Was he even 65 years of age?
Nope. When the show started in 1951, he was the same age that I am now, 64 years of age.
I don’t think I look as old as dear old Fred did back then, but maybe to some real young’uns, I do.
And this is a very important week for me as far as my health is concerned.
This is the final week that I have to use my horrid interim health plan, the one I was forced to get by the government because I lost my health insurance when my wife retired, as the health insurance that my family had all came from her place of work.
This health insurance is absolutely horrid, and I have had problems with it from the get-go.
I vowed not to use it for the five months that I have had it, but I did have a few prior appointments to fulfill … and as expected, I paid through the nose for them, with my bills being four times as much as they were when I was under my wife’s plan.
Now, this week, on April 1—yes, April Fools Day—I can put that all behind me, as I will officially dovetail into Medicare, and can use that and the supplementary plan I have to get the best bang for my health insurance buck.
Sure, I have to pay for Medicare—which is reprehensible, as it has to come out of my monthly Social Security payment, which is miniscule to begin with—but it cannot be as bad as what I had … even the doctors I have had to visit have concurred that the plan I had was the worst possible plan, so I figure that Medicare just has to be better …
No assumptions here, because as you know, once you assume something …
So let’s say that I hope Medicare is better than what I once had … and for those of you out there that don’t have to use Medicare because your retirement benefits allow you to use what you have been using, just kiss the floor that you don’t have to go through what I have been through since my wife left her job.
It has been an experience—and not a Jimi Hendrix Experience—to say the least.
So I just have to get through today, tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday, and if I can successfully maneuver those days, I can chuck my current insurance card into the garbage pail and move on to Medicare.
And to even alert both New York State and the insurance company that I would not be using their services anymore was a chore in itself, so when I chuck the current insurance card, I will bury it way down in the garbage pail for good measure.
But the pain reverberates, as I will have to pay the federal government in taxes for the three months I used this horrid plan, because whatever stipend I got from New York State to pay for the plan is considered earned income by the feds, so I look at it as the health plan that keeps on giving …
Giving me agita.
But at least it will be over and done with by the time I have to pay my taxes for 2023.
Hooray for that!
So this week, I just have to get through today and the three days after that, and I will be home free.
No lightning striking me … no trips or falls … no falling down the stairs … no nothing this week.
I have to keep safe so that I can kiss this insurance goodbye!
And it all leads into my birthday month, which I hope will be a good one.
But all the fun begins on April 1, April Fool’s Day, so I have to be wary of that …
No, there is no relaxation for me at all.
But happy National Hot Tub Day to all anyway.
Everybody into the pool!
The problem is that I don’t own a hot tub, and I have things on my plate to take care of, so I can’t relax.
Perhaps if things were different, and I had a hot tub, I could relax, but the fact of the matter is that I don’t … and I can’t.
Exactly one month from today, I celebrate my birthday, and it is a big one, the 65th birthday of my existence on earth, and I will really and truly be a “senior citizen” by definition, even though I don’t feel like one.
Fred Mertz from “I Love Lucy” … now that was a senior citizen.
Me, I feel like a young’un compared to Fred, more like Opie on “The Andy Griffith Show” than like dear old Fred.
But in reality, I am more like Fred now than Opie, and how old was actor William Frawley when he played Fred? Was he even 65 years of age?
Nope. When the show started in 1951, he was the same age that I am now, 64 years of age.
I don’t think I look as old as dear old Fred did back then, but maybe to some real young’uns, I do.
And this is a very important week for me as far as my health is concerned.
This is the final week that I have to use my horrid interim health plan, the one I was forced to get by the government because I lost my health insurance when my wife retired, as the health insurance that my family had all came from her place of work.
This health insurance is absolutely horrid, and I have had problems with it from the get-go.
I vowed not to use it for the five months that I have had it, but I did have a few prior appointments to fulfill … and as expected, I paid through the nose for them, with my bills being four times as much as they were when I was under my wife’s plan.
Now, this week, on April 1—yes, April Fools Day—I can put that all behind me, as I will officially dovetail into Medicare, and can use that and the supplementary plan I have to get the best bang for my health insurance buck.
Sure, I have to pay for Medicare—which is reprehensible, as it has to come out of my monthly Social Security payment, which is miniscule to begin with—but it cannot be as bad as what I had … even the doctors I have had to visit have concurred that the plan I had was the worst possible plan, so I figure that Medicare just has to be better …
No assumptions here, because as you know, once you assume something …
So let’s say that I hope Medicare is better than what I once had … and for those of you out there that don’t have to use Medicare because your retirement benefits allow you to use what you have been using, just kiss the floor that you don’t have to go through what I have been through since my wife left her job.
It has been an experience—and not a Jimi Hendrix Experience—to say the least.
So I just have to get through today, tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday, and if I can successfully maneuver those days, I can chuck my current insurance card into the garbage pail and move on to Medicare.
And to even alert both New York State and the insurance company that I would not be using their services anymore was a chore in itself, so when I chuck the current insurance card, I will bury it way down in the garbage pail for good measure.
But the pain reverberates, as I will have to pay the federal government in taxes for the three months I used this horrid plan, because whatever stipend I got from New York State to pay for the plan is considered earned income by the feds, so I look at it as the health plan that keeps on giving …
Giving me agita.
But at least it will be over and done with by the time I have to pay my taxes for 2023.
Hooray for that!
So this week, I just have to get through today and the three days after that, and I will be home free.
No lightning striking me … no trips or falls … no falling down the stairs … no nothing this week.
I have to keep safe so that I can kiss this insurance goodbye!
And it all leads into my birthday month, which I hope will be a good one.
But all the fun begins on April 1, April Fool’s Day, so I have to be wary of that …
No, there is no relaxation for me at all.
But happy National Hot Tub Day to all anyway.
Everybody into the pool!
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