Not fun days
Yesterday, I had to go over to the clinic to pick up meds and drop off re-applications for benefits from the county for both Sis and me. First, I BAKED in the heat. I was ditzy and scattered because my brain was sizzling in my skull. At 2pm it was 99° with a heat index around 112°. Horrible.
I hit the eligibility office first. I anticipated just dropping off the paperwork. That wasn't the case. I was in line behind several women, none of whom spoke English fluently. One of my biggest annoyances with this particular clinic is the complacency of the security guards (except for Carlos, who is AMAZING: super sweet, caring, and willing to help anyone with anything). The particular one working the desk yesterday is the second worst. Instead of getting someone to translate, he was doing that thing where you speak English slowly and loudly, as if that helps the language barrier at all. The lady was finally getting the gist when something that really pissed me off happened. With the application, you need to submit any forms showing other insurance coverage, like Medicare or Medicaid. She had her medicaid forms with her. He told her that she needed to get copies made of those forms because if she turned her application as is, they would keep those forms and she wouldn't have them anymore. What pissed me off was that he wouldn't make copies of the forms for her. I'm lucky that we have a scanner/printer in the house so I could make copies of my stuff. I'm sure she didn't have something like that. He then told her to walk to a convenience store down the street or to the Texas Workforce Commission office which was miles away. IN THE KILLER (literally) HEAT. I thought that was ridiculous. Not everyone can afford to pay $0.50 per copy of several pages. I can't imagine that it would cost a lot for the county to make copies for people who don't have access to a copier. He said, "It's rules and regulations. I can't do anything." No "sorry," no apologies of any kind. I voiced my opinion that it was really disappointing that the "rules and regulations" would force people to go out of their way to make copies of forms, when it wouldn't be a large hassle to have the employees of the office make the copies themselves. He just looked at me like I had two heads. I finally got past him, and walked down to the other end of the counter to actually turn in the forms. The woman there looked at me like I had two heads and leprosy and told me to move two feet to the other side of the linoleum. I asked why, and she said it was for privacy reasons. My thought: because two feet keeps me from hearing what's happening *eyeroll*. She finally took my forms, stamped them, and said that Sis and I would get an answer in 14 days by mail. That's okay for me, since my card doesn't expire until the end of August, but as I mentioned in my previous post, Sis' has already expired and she can't get anything done until she gets reinstated.
At least, after I walked across the parking lot to the clinic proper to get my meds from the pharmacy, the wait was only 2 minutes. That's the shortest wait I've ever experienced. I generally wait for 15-45 minutes to pick up my meds. It's even longer if I've just turned in a scrip that needs to be filled at that time.
For most of the summer, I've been able to live up in my room with just the a/c and my ceiling fan on and be very comfortable temperature wise. The past few days have had me still be uncomfortably warm even with the fan set on decapitate (have you seen that Mythbusters episode? Scary). I'm hoping the heat will break soon - though not this week it seems - so we won't be so hot. When Mom and Sis are warm, I KNOW it's hot outside, since they are generally complaining at how cold I keep the house in order not to live sweating. (I explain that it's either keep the temperature lower than they'd prefer and have them wear long sleeves, or I could walk around mostly naked. They choose option 1, thankfully.) Though I wish I could find my tank top, because sometimes short sleeves are too much coverage. Check out the current forecast:
I'm SO not looking forward to being out in the heat on Friday to go to therapy. I might have to hit Walmart and buy a couple of cheap tank tops to wear at home.
I just learned that my church is asking for those of us who knit or crochet to make scarves to give to the homeless. A lot of homeless live down in the Houston Medical Center area where my church is located. On weekday mornings, the church holds what they call the Way Station, a ministry that feeds breakfast to those who need it. (Approximately 300 people come every day, isn't that amazing?) They're asking for 400 scarves by Christmas. I can crank out a scarf pretty quickly, so I know I can contribute a bunch between now and then. I've already been knitting tons of prayer shawls to give to those who need them in the hospitals in the area. Knitting for these causes is something that makes me feel really good.
Finally, something else that makes me feel good: I just went to Bissell's facebook page. For every person who likes their page and registers (just your name and email, no need to get emails from them), they donate $0.50 to Petfinder.com Foundation. "Petfinder.com Foundation works with shelters, rescue organizations and animal welfare organizations across the country to help ensure that no adopt-able pet is euthanized for lack of a good home." I think that's so awesome. We have kept all the cats we have because we know that they might not get adopted from the humane society and get euthanized. If you Facebook, please do this.
ETA: The temp is now 101°, having climbed those 2 degrees in the 30 minutes it took to write this post.
ETA2: I just spilled my entire glass of Coke on myself and my bed. One of those things where you're holding something and your hand just opens of its own volition. My very first thought and scream: "SHIIIIIIITTTT!!" I had to pull off the sheets and take them downstairs to wash (they needed it anyway, so it's okay, but I wasn't planning on doing that today). My legs were dripping and covered in Coke, and I was hoping to grab some paper towels once I got down into the kitchen. Naturally, there were no paper towels. We are out of paper towels. I threw the sheets in the washer while my legs were getting sticky. I went to Mom's bathroom to grab a small towel to wipe down my legs. There were no small towels to be had. I was rapidly getting even more frustrated. I also wanted something absorbent to put on my mattress pad that was still soggy so I could sit on my bed again. Nothing was available. I finally grabbed my own hair towel, which I was loathe to use, and wet it down to wipe down my legs and de-sticky-fy them. Sis only finally asked what the problem was after 10 minutes of me running around the house yelling nothing but curse words - think the scene in The King's Speech where he spits out as many curse words as he can think of all at once. That was me. I've changed my icon to something more appropriate.
I hit the eligibility office first. I anticipated just dropping off the paperwork. That wasn't the case. I was in line behind several women, none of whom spoke English fluently. One of my biggest annoyances with this particular clinic is the complacency of the security guards (except for Carlos, who is AMAZING: super sweet, caring, and willing to help anyone with anything). The particular one working the desk yesterday is the second worst. Instead of getting someone to translate, he was doing that thing where you speak English slowly and loudly, as if that helps the language barrier at all. The lady was finally getting the gist when something that really pissed me off happened. With the application, you need to submit any forms showing other insurance coverage, like Medicare or Medicaid. She had her medicaid forms with her. He told her that she needed to get copies made of those forms because if she turned her application as is, they would keep those forms and she wouldn't have them anymore. What pissed me off was that he wouldn't make copies of the forms for her. I'm lucky that we have a scanner/printer in the house so I could make copies of my stuff. I'm sure she didn't have something like that. He then told her to walk to a convenience store down the street or to the Texas Workforce Commission office which was miles away. IN THE KILLER (literally) HEAT. I thought that was ridiculous. Not everyone can afford to pay $0.50 per copy of several pages. I can't imagine that it would cost a lot for the county to make copies for people who don't have access to a copier. He said, "It's rules and regulations. I can't do anything." No "sorry," no apologies of any kind. I voiced my opinion that it was really disappointing that the "rules and regulations" would force people to go out of their way to make copies of forms, when it wouldn't be a large hassle to have the employees of the office make the copies themselves. He just looked at me like I had two heads. I finally got past him, and walked down to the other end of the counter to actually turn in the forms. The woman there looked at me like I had two heads and leprosy and told me to move two feet to the other side of the linoleum. I asked why, and she said it was for privacy reasons. My thought: because two feet keeps me from hearing what's happening *eyeroll*. She finally took my forms, stamped them, and said that Sis and I would get an answer in 14 days by mail. That's okay for me, since my card doesn't expire until the end of August, but as I mentioned in my previous post, Sis' has already expired and she can't get anything done until she gets reinstated.
At least, after I walked across the parking lot to the clinic proper to get my meds from the pharmacy, the wait was only 2 minutes. That's the shortest wait I've ever experienced. I generally wait for 15-45 minutes to pick up my meds. It's even longer if I've just turned in a scrip that needs to be filled at that time.
For most of the summer, I've been able to live up in my room with just the a/c and my ceiling fan on and be very comfortable temperature wise. The past few days have had me still be uncomfortably warm even with the fan set on decapitate (have you seen that Mythbusters episode? Scary). I'm hoping the heat will break soon - though not this week it seems - so we won't be so hot. When Mom and Sis are warm, I KNOW it's hot outside, since they are generally complaining at how cold I keep the house in order not to live sweating. (I explain that it's either keep the temperature lower than they'd prefer and have them wear long sleeves, or I could walk around mostly naked. They choose option 1, thankfully.) Though I wish I could find my tank top, because sometimes short sleeves are too much coverage. Check out the current forecast:
I'm SO not looking forward to being out in the heat on Friday to go to therapy. I might have to hit Walmart and buy a couple of cheap tank tops to wear at home.
I just learned that my church is asking for those of us who knit or crochet to make scarves to give to the homeless. A lot of homeless live down in the Houston Medical Center area where my church is located. On weekday mornings, the church holds what they call the Way Station, a ministry that feeds breakfast to those who need it. (Approximately 300 people come every day, isn't that amazing?) They're asking for 400 scarves by Christmas. I can crank out a scarf pretty quickly, so I know I can contribute a bunch between now and then. I've already been knitting tons of prayer shawls to give to those who need them in the hospitals in the area. Knitting for these causes is something that makes me feel really good.
Finally, something else that makes me feel good: I just went to Bissell's facebook page. For every person who likes their page and registers (just your name and email, no need to get emails from them), they donate $0.50 to Petfinder.com Foundation. "Petfinder.com Foundation works with shelters, rescue organizations and animal welfare organizations across the country to help ensure that no adopt-able pet is euthanized for lack of a good home." I think that's so awesome. We have kept all the cats we have because we know that they might not get adopted from the humane society and get euthanized. If you Facebook, please do this.
ETA: The temp is now 101°, having climbed those 2 degrees in the 30 minutes it took to write this post.
ETA2: I just spilled my entire glass of Coke on myself and my bed. One of those things where you're holding something and your hand just opens of its own volition. My very first thought and scream: "SHIIIIIIITTTT!!" I had to pull off the sheets and take them downstairs to wash (they needed it anyway, so it's okay, but I wasn't planning on doing that today). My legs were dripping and covered in Coke, and I was hoping to grab some paper towels once I got down into the kitchen. Naturally, there were no paper towels. We are out of paper towels. I threw the sheets in the washer while my legs were getting sticky. I went to Mom's bathroom to grab a small towel to wipe down my legs. There were no small towels to be had. I was rapidly getting even more frustrated. I also wanted something absorbent to put on my mattress pad that was still soggy so I could sit on my bed again. Nothing was available. I finally grabbed my own hair towel, which I was loathe to use, and wet it down to wipe down my legs and de-sticky-fy them. Sis only finally asked what the problem was after 10 minutes of me running around the house yelling nothing but curse words - think the scene in The King's Speech where he spits out as many curse words as he can think of all at once. That was me. I've changed my icon to something more appropriate.