TICTH T and his administration's plans to mess with US social safety net programs--both food programs and Social Security Disability programs. The latter applies to me. I just now read about this (Yahoo), and am having a mild freakout. Working on calming down.
I'll write my Congress critters, but they're likely to already be sensitive to this. (Pelosi, Fenstein, and Harris.)
In other news, LL's doctor has forgotten for the third time in three months to issue him a refill on the vital meds that keep his OCD in check, and as usual, the local pharmacy is having trouble getting her to respond. I'm going to have to knock some heads together. Wormwood, listen to your uncle or yours will be one of them...
Oh for heaven's sake - you've got one pharmacist-type person who wants to give you more medicine than you need, and LL has another who doesn't want to give him enough???
LL has his medicine as of two hours ago, at least for a month more. Apparently the doctor's office pulled their fingers out of their ears and did the shit they were supposed to do, and in a timely manner, glory be. (The local pharmacist has been nothing but helpful--in LL's case, the doctor's office is the culprit.)
I'm still dreading going through this all over again in roughly three weeks.
His dosage is somewhat unstable at the moment, which is probably the reason for the month-by-month. (Though to the best of my knowledge, NOBODY here does prescriptions that last for a year. Six months is the longest I've seen.)
Still, there's no excuse for not renewing the prescription at our last face-to-face visit two weeks ago, nor for having a totally inept office procedure that results in multiple lost faxes from the pharmacy and no other way to contact the doctor--not for us (I'm resigned to that) but for the pharmacist!
In an ideal world, we'd be given three or more months of refills at a time (at least), with the understanding that the dosage would be modified if needed at each visit. That would prevent this sort of panic every three-four weeks. As it is, we can't put it on automatic refill, we can't stock up, and God knows what will happen if either we or the doctor go unreachble for while (surgery, vacation, rescheduled appointment...)
We can't go find another doctor. Shrinks here take a year or more to see new non-critical patients, and if you don't like the one you've got (or have problems with the office!) it'll be at least a year before you get in anywhere else. And that's for a child.
May that shrink lie for ever on Sigmund Freud's couch in Hell, and in never-ending turmoil discover that all his troubles started because he wanted to have sex with his mother, and he saw his father's genitalia as an infant! And may analysts of the most divergent schools vociferously argue with each other about him, and about more causes and further procedures, endlessly, and without aim!
--I had a doctor who was...shall we say...personality-impaired and passive-aggressive...to both clinic staff and (some) patients. Doctor turned down my pharmacy's prescription renewal request *in order to get me to call in, and then be told to schedule an appointment*. Seriously. Mind, doctor didn't tell the pharmacy that was what was going on. I had an interesting convo with a clinic staff member, and found out more about the doctor's behavior.
Another time, I inquired about possible side-effects of a new med. "If I prescribed it, there won't be any side-effects!" (eyeroll) And once, during an appointment, I said/asked something he didn't like. So doctor turned away from me, got busy, and totally ignored me further. So I left. Fortunately, I got out of that doctor's practice.
--Another doctor's office could take weeks to get back to me--or not at all. Doctor felt they couldn't/shouldn't interfere. Eventually, I came into the care of the PAs (physician's assistants) in the office, when the doctor was unavailable for some time. Big improvement. They returned calls *themselves*, possibly on their way home from work. They paid more attention, and listened, and helped. They were better doctors than many MDs. If that's ever an option, maybe look into it.
--I've used the same in-person pharmacy for a long time, and they're almost always very good. They've interceded with doctors' offices for me; and (when possible) give me a partial refill to hold me over until the refill is authorized.
Yikes! I'm feeling guilty now. In all other respects, the shrink is a good one, and I have no way of knowing whether the ongoing problem lies with her or with some faceless minion in the agency where she sees us. I definitely commend the local pharmacist who promised to spot us three days of meds if we couldn't get the office to respond in time. Our next resort was going to be a begging call to our old pediatrician--so glad we didn't have to go that far.
TICTH the labyrinthine procedure for transferring money electronically from a Canadian bank to a British one. I have electronic banking, but to transfer money from my account to my brother's (expenses to do with the sale of my dad's house) entailed faffing about on the computer and then his having to go to a Western Union branch and get the money in cash.
In the end we decided a few trips to a cashline machine would be easier.
Of course, if a certain brainless piglet had thought to bring her cheque-book with her ...
TICTH the labyrinthine procedure for transferring money electronically from a Canadian bank to a British one. I have electronic banking, but to transfer money from my account to my brother's (expenses to do with the sale of my dad's house) entailed faffing about on the computer and then his having to go to a Western Union branch and get the money in cash.
In the end we decided a few trips to a cashline machine would be easier.
Of course, if a certain brainless piglet had thought to bring her cheque-book with her ...
I wonder if it would be feasible to take a sterling cash advance from a Canadian credit card and then transfer it online from a Canadian chequing account to the credit card as quickly as possible to minimise the charges? Moving cash across the Atlantic is unbelievable in these electronic days. Keeping an account in Scotland all these years has been very useful for us. Customers in the UK and anywhere else in Europe can pay me in a couple of minutes of online banking activity, but when I want to move the cash here, I still have to write a cheque and deposit it in the Canadian bank, which then takes several weeks to clear.
Thanks for the suggestion, ST, but I don't have a credit card.
We nearly lost the house we were buying in St. John's because of the glacial pace of banking services. D. had got our British bank to (electronically) transfer the money from the sale of our house in Belfast to his bank in Canada, and wrote a cheque for the deposit on our new house. The cheque bounced, because the Canadian bank said the transfer would take three weeks (!) to clear.
The seller, assuming we weren't serious, then sold the house to someone else, and it was only because the other buyers couldn't get their finances sorted out and had to pull out of the deal that we were able to re-offer and get the British bank to assure the Canadian one that the money was in our account. What a palaver.
We nearly lost the house we were buying in St. John's because of the glacial pace of banking services.
And yet the banking markets can respond in milliseconds - meaning there was a fuss when a recent Bank of England announcement was released eight seconds early! http://tiny.cc/hmcbiz
Thirty years ago when I was doing conveyancing the quickest way to move money (within the U.K.) was to get our bank to issue a bankers’ draft which could be collected from the nearest convenient branch. We would then walk it round to the nearest branch of their bank for payment in, and it would be treated immediately as cleared funds. It was cheaper, quicker and more reliable than what was in those days called telegraphic transfer.
If you're planning on dying, and your Will is more complicated than "give it all to the cats' home", and your surviving partner is liable to end up in a home, in the name of God and all his Holy Angels appoint a bloody solicitor as an executor unless you have a relative you really hate and, like the gods, seek to destroy them but first drive them mad.
I'm sorry, but I'm indulging in further condemnation.
The b****** who, on hearing his soon-to-be-ex-wife was going to buy my house threw a hissy fit and did something to block the purchase, can rot in the lowest, hottest part of Hell as far as I'm concerned.
If you're planning on dying, and your Will is more complicated than "give it all to the cats' home", and your surviving partner is liable to end up in a home, in the name of God and all his Holy Angels appoint a bloody solicitor as an executor unless you have a relative you really hate and, like the gods, seek to destroy them but first drive them mad.
My future trustee is a partner in a well-known law firm. And I'm doing as much as I can to make life easier for him. (For example, I'll prepay for my cremation and related hoohah next week.)
It does indeed behove us to think of, and prepare for, these things. My Old Dad, although he knew he was dying, left it until the last minute (well, the last two weeks) to make a Will.
Even when he did, it was a home-made affair, drawn up by a friend, but, fortunately, was (a) legal, and (b) simple (everything left to My Old Mum!).
For some reason that made me think of Piglet (in Winnie-the-Pooh), who had the misguided belief that his grandfather was called "Trespassers William" - always abbreviated to "Will", of course.
For some reason that made me think of Piglet (in Winnie-the-Pooh), who had the misguided belief that his grandfather was called "Trespassers William" - always abbreviated to "Will" ...
We used to refer to our house as "Trespassers W", because Piglet* lived there.
* a very appealing knitted version, made by my sister-in-law for me 30-something years ago, and adopted as a sort of mascot - where we went, he went. He was the inspiration behind my Ship name, and is sitting on the table beside me as I type.
When I was a child my favourite stuffed toy was a pink calico piglet that Mum picked up at a fund-raising stall. The maker's enthusiasm was greater than their skill, as my piglet was lopsided. Its nose wasn't very well attached either and it was lost on a Wellington sightseeing bus. . None of that made any difference to me and I loved it until it totally fell apart.
ICTH Archbishop Cardinal Vincent Nichols and the board of governors of Westminster Cathedral Choir School whose short-sighted and foolish decision to dispense with full boarding has not only led to pupils living outside London having to leave (as predicted), but is surely part of the decision of the Master of Music, Martin Baker, to leave the Cathedral. Even when the cathedral was heavily in debt previous archbishops have been staunch and unflagging in their support for the UK's only Roman Catholic full choral foundation; sadly Cardinal Nichols seems unwilling and/or unable to emulate his august predecessors.
Comments
(:notworthy:)
I'll write my Congress critters, but they're likely to already be sensitive to this. (Pelosi, Fenstein, and Harris.)
...I'll get me asbestos jacket.
LL has his medicine as of two hours ago, at least for a month more. Apparently the doctor's office pulled their fingers out of their ears and did the shit they were supposed to do, and in a timely manner, glory be. (The local pharmacist has been nothing but helpful--in LL's case, the doctor's office is the culprit.)
I'm still dreading going through this all over again in roughly three weeks.
Still, there's no excuse for not renewing the prescription at our last face-to-face visit two weeks ago, nor for having a totally inept office procedure that results in multiple lost faxes from the pharmacy and no other way to contact the doctor--not for us (I'm resigned to that) but for the pharmacist!
In an ideal world, we'd be given three or more months of refills at a time (at least), with the understanding that the dosage would be modified if needed at each visit. That would prevent this sort of panic every three-four weeks. As it is, we can't put it on automatic refill, we can't stock up, and God knows what will happen if either we or the doctor go unreachble for while (surgery, vacation, rescheduled appointment...)
We can't go find another doctor. Shrinks here take a year or more to see new non-critical patients, and if you don't like the one you've got (or have problems with the office!) it'll be at least a year before you get in anywhere else. And that's for a child.
I am so grateful both my G.P and pharmacist are so competent, accessible and friendly and, thanks to government subsidies, inexpensive.
--I'm glad your kid finally got the meds.
--I had a doctor who was...shall we say...personality-impaired and passive-aggressive...to both clinic staff and (some) patients. Doctor turned down my pharmacy's prescription renewal request *in order to get me to call in, and then be told to schedule an appointment*. Seriously. Mind, doctor didn't tell the pharmacy that was what was going on. I had an interesting convo with a clinic staff member, and found out more about the doctor's behavior.
Another time, I inquired about possible side-effects of a new med. "If I prescribed it, there won't be any side-effects!" (eyeroll) And once, during an appointment, I said/asked something he didn't like. So doctor turned away from me, got busy, and totally ignored me further. So I left. Fortunately, I got out of that doctor's practice.
--Another doctor's office could take weeks to get back to me--or not at all. Doctor felt they couldn't/shouldn't interfere. Eventually, I came into the care of the PAs (physician's assistants) in the office, when the doctor was unavailable for some time. Big improvement. They returned calls *themselves*, possibly on their way home from work. They paid more attention, and listened, and helped. They were better doctors than many MDs. If that's ever an option, maybe look into it.
--I've used the same in-person pharmacy for a long time, and they're almost always very good. They've interceded with doctors' offices for me; and (when possible) give me a partial refill to hold me over until the refill is authorized.
In the end we decided a few trips to a cashline machine would be easier.
Of course, if a certain brainless piglet had thought to bring her cheque-book with her ...
I wonder if it would be feasible to take a sterling cash advance from a Canadian credit card and then transfer it online from a Canadian chequing account to the credit card as quickly as possible to minimise the charges? Moving cash across the Atlantic is unbelievable in these electronic days. Keeping an account in Scotland all these years has been very useful for us. Customers in the UK and anywhere else in Europe can pay me in a couple of minutes of online banking activity, but when I want to move the cash here, I still have to write a cheque and deposit it in the Canadian bank, which then takes several weeks to clear.
We nearly lost the house we were buying in St. John's because of the glacial pace of banking services. D. had got our British bank to (electronically) transfer the money from the sale of our house in Belfast to his bank in Canada, and wrote a cheque for the deposit on our new house. The cheque bounced, because the Canadian bank said the transfer would take three weeks (!) to clear.
The seller, assuming we weren't serious, then sold the house to someone else, and it was only because the other buyers couldn't get their finances sorted out and had to pull out of the deal that we were able to re-offer and get the British bank to assure the Canadian one that the money was in our account. What a palaver.
The b****** who, on hearing his soon-to-be-ex-wife was going to buy my house threw a hissy fit and did something to block the purchase, can rot in the lowest, hottest part of Hell as far as I'm concerned.
TBF - the deceased thought it was simple. Events following her death made it less so.
I may have to miss church tomorrow, and we are to have A Procession Of The Kings (sic), which we have Not Done Before...
If I live, I shall report further...
Even when he did, it was a home-made affair, drawn up by a friend, but, fortunately, was (a) legal, and (b) simple (everything left to My Old Mum!).
Still caused us all a bit of a fret, though.
I'll get my nightcap and bedsocks ...
Ok, will someone with more experience with Epiphany services please explain what is bad about a "procession of (the) kings"?
Thx.
Probably the issue is...
In the bible they are not kings. They are described as ‘wise men’.
(There is also no indication of how many...)
Some details were ‘filled in’ later...
When I was a child I always wondered where Orient Are was.
And - in fact! - we shall be singing that hymn this morning ... Oyster cards at the ready!
* a very appealing knitted version, made by my sister-in-law for me 30-something years ago, and adopted as a sort of mascot - where we went, he went. He was the inspiration behind my Ship name, and is sitting on the table beside me as I type.