(Translated: Damn! My curtido is yummy!) I finally remembered to check on the progress of my ferments. I had made a half gallon of sauerkraut and a half gallon of curtido with ONE HALF of the giant cabbage. This year I decided to go au naturel with my sauerkraut, as opposed to my usual blueberry/caraway seed sauerkraut. I also decided to try a new curtido recipe, as I wasn't all that thrilled with previous results. OMG. It is delicioso! I got the recipe from the book included in my Mason Fermentation kit. In addition to the usual carrot/cabbage/red chili of yore, they added grated garlic and oregano. I love it! And it's purty.
Since I know y'all can't wait to hear the latest in my social security wranglings, let me say that I found yet another reason to go local. I laid out my concerns to a local representative of the SSA and she said (to paraphrase), "well, I wouldn't give the government more money than I have to - it will take forever to get it back. You'd be better off just going with the flow and it will resolve itself." When I voiced concern over getting cut off because I didn't pay the quarterly bill (there's a slight gap of 2-3 weeks between when the bill is due and when they will be taking Medicare out of my SS payment), she said, "if they harass you in any way, just call us." So.
I am tackling the insurance issue today with "Gary". I have an appointment with my dermatologist in mid-December and I was dreading finding out if or if not she accepted Humana. I finally pulled up the BGPs and checked this morning. Hallelujah! She does. Good thing, too. It takes a year to get an appointment with this woman. She refuses to use a PA, so it's one doctor to every 5,000 patients. Crazy pants.
I'm trying to find ways to bring the homogenous-ness of my days into some kind of focus. So far, it's not working out as well as I hoped. Some of it has to do with the fact that I am unable to do more than one largish task a day. I cannot tell you how frustrating that is. Yesterday, it took me an hour to get all my recycling and trash into my car for the trip to the transfer station. At least they are still taking pity on me and sort everything when I get there. I am planning a trip to the grocery store today - I figure I will get there when they open so that there will be fewer potential Covid-carriers milling about. I have a short list, but I will go bonkers if I spend more time in this house.
Also on the agenda is: take down wind chimes, take out compost, vacuum, sweep, clean bathrooms, wash dog blankets. I can hardly stand the potential thrill of it all. (sound of dripping sarcasm) I have had the vacuuming, sweeping and cleaning on the agenda for an alarming amount of time. I manage to segue off to something totally irrelevant every time I am faced with housework. Such as waxing the top of Lorenzo, the dining room table. I may need an intervention. Or cleaning service.
In my defense, at least a little purging has been done - I have tons of books on gardening, homesteading and self-sufficiency type stuff. Looking to the future - and my tiny home - my library is going to have to be severely curtailed. I had a big box of books to put on FB marketplace and figured it would be one of those, "I'd like that ONE and could you deliver it to my house, 30 miles from you?" However, it appears that there are a few young families that are taking the plunge, so I ended up with three requests in a row. Miracle of all miracles, the second family (first one lived 40 miles from me and wanted delivery...) picked it up within an hour of requesting it. I am going to go through the second batch and will just send them along to the same family.
15 comments:
We love Humana!! Sounds like you are getting a lot of stuff done. The kids will be velcroed to you soon since you’re home so much!! Just enjoy.....
Just enjoy......there’s no rush to go anywhere now. The kids will be velcroed to your legs soon since you’re home so much!!
We live Humana and the OTC drugstore is great!
Hurrah for a local, sane SSA rep, especially with sanity being in such short supply this year. Thankfully ALL the bloggers I follow seem to have all their marbles, which is reassuring. Sounds like thinks are going well there, relatively speaking. Vacuuming and dusting is on my list today, too; I hate it when the floor is gritty.
Just looked up some Curtido recipes. It looks tasty. You have been very busy! Sounds like all the phone calls and paper wrangling are stressful. Hope it can be resolved soon.
I am so relieved we do not have to go through private insurance north of the border. A lot of things aren't covered but for major things and emergecencies we are well taken care of. My doctor visits are currently by phone call only. I can tell by his questions he is trying to figure out if covid isolation is taking its toll. I'm being a bit naughty by asking him the same questions back. I am also cleaning and sorting. It is slightly depressing my life has whittled down to the domestic arts, of which I'm not a fan. Should I be worried you are naming your furniture?
Your SSA office sounds like a dream come true. There is no phoning ours other than to schedule an appointment with a robot and pre-pandemic, appointments were generally three months out. I can't even fathom how long one must wait for an appointment with the pandemic, or even if I can get an appointment.
My patience with Craigslist and FB Marketplace are very thin anymore. I post in the ad that the first person who arrives with cash gets the item and since I have provided all the information there is to know, I will not answer any questions unless you ask them in person with cash in your hand.
your future tiny home? did I miss something here? you're selling the homestead? glad you have a good local person to help you with the SS and Medicare. my supplement id AARP through United Healthcare. United and Humana were the only ones to offer supplemental in my county and my brother-in-law was repping United at the time so the choice was easy for me. I've been happy with it.
I switched to United years ago. My agent said "You know I won't make as much!"
I've never had any reason to change.
I think I need to look up recipes for curtido. I'd love to branch out on my ferments!
Your dining room table is named Lorenzo? Must be a story there!
Yup local SSA folks rock ! When I was needing to file a claim for a reimbursement on a already made payment for a 3 month period
just a week prior to Geoffrey’s death they were very helpful. And spot on as to let the process correct itself. However in my case a gentle nudge from my state representative moved the final stumbling block a bit faster.
I do caution that you expect to see it when it happens. It was June when I got the check he passed in November.
I do my grocery shopping every Monday morning about 9:00 a.m. There are remarkably few shoppers at that time.
I am pretty good about putting things away and keeping surfaces ordered or clear, but cleaning?? Not so much. Bathrooms get pretty bad before even I am embarrassed enough to do the "deed." At some point I WILL need a cleaning service. My knees just don't allow me to do much that requires me to kneel on them, like tubs and shower stall floors.
That's great that the local Social Security rep is offering to help you out! Working on the insurance end of things I hate Humana! I can tell you this off the Record haha, when I call to find out about a pre-authorization it goes to a call center overseas. Everyone has the same accent oh, they all have one syllable first names like Bob or Joe or Sue. If you ask a question that isn't in their normal scripting it throws them completely off. They have so much background noise I could barely hear them half the time. Personally I would never use it as a patient because if it's that much trouble getting through to the provider side it just slows things down. Glad you're having a good experience with them! I just went to my new dermatologist last week that was quite an adventure. I had my first full body skin cancer screen which went very well. I was really happy I didn't have anything on my back at all! Had tons of sunburns as a young kid before the invention of SPF. However I did have two little spots I pointed out to him on my nose and yes you heard it right. I now have to burn marks on my nose going into the holidays oh joy. Basically two blisters about 3/4 of an inch across but now they are healing up and shrinking rapidly. My chiropractor bless her heart use her laser on my two wounds to help them heal up faster. I told my husband no photos please until after the holidays during family gatherings. The flip side is I'm happy that this is a good remedy for small precancerous growths. Hopefully when it's all healed up I'll be good to go if not I'll be back for a biopsy oh joy. That's great that some families are getting into being more self-sufficient! I'm starting to think I should probably get rid of some of my books to this since I don't really use them anymore. The good thing about being online is she can find so much information anymore that I'm not really buying books like I used to especially about things like homesteading. So happy for you that you are retired wish I could join that group but got a few more years to go maybe fingers crossed. Who knows how long this whole covid-19 drama will last, I had always planned on working part-time and or volunteering. We've just gone to a stricter mode here in Boise. They just closed are libraries again except for in-person appointments for computer use. What can you do
You know, since I've been home, I have discovered something amazing. Once I get my house tidy, it just sort of stays that way. It's an effort to get it to that point when it requires only a daily sort of 'maintenance' though. Next time you have something to give away, see if someone wants to swap services for whatever it is you want to be rid of. Maybe you can get the big stuff done and merely stick to maintaining what's been done.
Your struggles with bureaucracy make me sickish. There is nothing I hate more than those interminable phone calls listening to canned music for an eternity before someone finally answers.
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