random thoughts – Day 2,090 (Saturday) – technology

It was another morning with snow flying and creating a pretty scene outside the window while I drank coffee. The ground became coated, but it wasn’t anything that seemed to need shoveling and most of us on the street didn’t. The snow stopped, the sun came out, and the streets were eventually just wet.

An errand required a trip out of the house. The persnickety key fob, which was looked at and tested by the dude in the Jeep service department on Friday, is worse than before. The guy was going to pull the new battery he had tried in it so I didn’t have to pay the $10 sales price, but I think he neglected to put the old, semi-functional one back in because things are all kinds of nutty now.

Before the tech touched it, having the fob near the door handle would unlock the door, avoiding the need to fumble with fob buttons or juggle packages and bags. Now, I have to extract the metal key from the fob and insert it into the lock to open the door. To start the car, I have to touch the fob to the start button, then depress the brake and push the start button. 

Excuse me, the key fob is right here.

If the door is opened after the car is started, the dashboard displays the message, “Key fob has left the vehicle” like it’s Elvis exiting the building or something. But no, dear technology demon overlord, the fob and I are still right here in the car, and dear fobby appears to not be speaking to you at present. Hopefully the new fob will arrive on Tuesday, everyone and thing will be on speaking terms again, and this will be nothing but a memory by Wednesday.

This nonsense with unlocking and starting the car, constant dashboard messaging, the navigation system that frequently glitches out when I need it most, and the expense of fixing the many things expertly engineered to break on a profit-enhancing corporate schedule makes me really hate technology, in cars and elsewhere. I miss the pre-computerized cars that didn’t need a $300 key fob. I don’t need my appliances to communicate with each other or tell me I need milk. 

random thoughts – Day 2,089 (Friday) – tires and fob

The day dawned with a plan. A drive to Chelmsford was needed for a 9:30 routine annual medical thing. This was a change from the plan set 24 hours previously which was for me to sleep as long as I wanted and then sit around drinking coffee and applying for jobs, but it was favorable in that it avoided me having to get up at oh-dark-thirty next Wednesday to get to Lowell for the thing. After that, Mom and I could go to Fitchburg for a couple errands, which was the original plan set a day earlier.

I called Mom before I left to let her know it would be about 11:00 when we could begin our errand. Being a very cold morning, the remote start button on the fob was tapped twice to give the car a head start warming up. This, along with the heated seat and steering wheel, are possibly my favorite features, especially since the roof panels chose to become problematic and now whistle when driving at 50 mph or higher. It didn’t work. I ended up starting the car the old-school way – while shivering inside it. Once running, the car declared it was nine degrees, but the accuracy of that is questionable.

After backing out of the driveway and turning down the street, my nemesis the dashboard informed me that all four tires were experiencing low tire pressure. I returned to the comfort of my carport to inflate the tires with my recently bought inflater thing, starting with the one with the lowest pressure (28 psi). It sounded like the air was coming out as I fought to attach the gizmo to the tire valve, then the unit danced around the asphalt while it allegedly added air. It was extra hard to pull the gizmo off the tire valve. Despite the effort, the results on the dashboard were not greatly improved. I took a calculated risk, said “to hell with it,” and drove to Chelmsford. The tire pressure increased with the travel, but not by much.

The fob has been increasingly cranky, and in the past couple weeks, it randomly wouldn’t lock or unlock the doors or remote start the car. It was possible it was the battery, which hadn’t been replaced in June with the annual car inspection because I went to the local garage for the sticker instead of the dealership for an oil change, battery replacement, and inspection sticker. At least the doors still unlocked when the fob was near the handle so it wasn’t totally a lost cause.

Back at home, Mom’s plans had changed and the errands were cancelled. The snow angel neighbor knocked on the door to say he saw me freezing my ass off earlier (his words) and that he had a compressor and tire gauge and offered to help after he had lunch. We exchanged phone numbers and later he texted to say he could address my low psi.

During the tire inflation, the dashboard claimed the tires were still low even when the compressor gauge indicated they were at 35 psi. The compressor setting had to be bumped up to 40 psi for the car’s dashboard to hit 35. Talk about annoying dashboard technology. He joked the bill would be in the mail and I joked I would pay it in cookies and now it looks like I'll be baking for the snow angel/ tire inflater across the street which seems like the start of a Hallmark movie.

After the tire inflation, during which we whined about expensive and complicated automobile technology, the Jeep dealership was visited to have the fob checked. The car came with only one fob, which I didn’t learn until delivery and I have guarded it like it was the key to salvation ever since. The fob has a physical key inside, accessed by fighting a very tiny slider which was clearly not designed or tested by anyone who ever paid good money for a manicure. It required some swearing, but I got the key out of the fob to lock the door before going into the dealership service center. 

Problem fob and key.

The battery was changed. The fob was tested. There was no improvement. A new fob was ordered ($280 plus programming fee) and should be in on Tuesday. This seemed a lot easier than when I bought the Jeep and the salesman acted like it required an act of the gods to get another fob, promised to do so anyway and then didn’t, reinforcing every stereotype and negative impression I’ve ever had of car salespeople. 

Fun note – since the service guy opened up the fob and replaced the battery, it’s worse. It used to unlock from a short distance sometimes and always opened the door when the fob was near the handle, but now the key is required at all times to be inserted into the keyhole to open the door. This wouldn’t be bad if it wasn’t such a pain in the arse to remove, and once out of the fob, the key is a free agent and could be easily dropped. Yay. I look forward to crawling under the car to reach for the dropped key.

The day wasn't total frustration. The third time was the charm and after previous calls that never went much further than the AI bot assistant, I finally connected with a human representative at the the company that holds the Bank's 401k plan. Due to the merger, the plan is being dissolved and I needed to move my account somewhere. It was a relief to have that done with.

random thoughts – Day 2,088 (Thursday) – health and progress

The physical therapy is nearly done with good progress and one week left to go. Today, a patient arrived in a Santa onesie. During one of his exercises, he said it was a good thing no children were present to see the therapist torturing Santa and then he added her to the naughty list. My therapist and I chuckled over at our station.

Black tinsel tree.

Another healthcare related appointment that was scheduled a year ago was coming up next Wednesday. In Lowell. At 6:45. In the morning. This was great for the many years when I lived five minutes away from the appointment site. I would go before work and be at my desk right on time like it was any other work day. Driving to Lowell from Gardner for a 6:45 a.m. appointment is an entirely different story. I would have done it if there was nothing available at a later time, but I got lucky when I called to ask. There was an opening tomorrow in their Chelmsford location at 9:30 a.m.

Christmas Eve will be at my house this year, which was decided this morning in a conversation with Mom. It is the perfect inspiration get my arse in gear and finish decorating for Christmas and working on the guest room. A string of battery-operated lights was bought for the black tinsel tree and it was decorated with silver and crystal ornaments and a garland of tiny plastic icicles. 

Hoodie with
special  powers?

Also bought today was a plain black super soft hoodie, and a Christmas hoodie printed with rows of candy canes, snowflakes, trees, paw prints alternating with hearts, and Black kitties in Santa hats. I have never been one to buy Christmas attire, but for $5 I couldn’t resist the cozy hoodie and changed into it as soon as I got home. It may have helped with the decorating, but it’s hard to tell. Over the next few weeks, further tests will be conducted on the motivational properties of the Christmas hoodie.

The guest room activity required emptying a deep bookcase to move it to the other side of the room where it won’t interfere with the trundle daybed should it ever need to be used. A smaller bookcase was placed in the spot where the other one had been and both were filled with books, which cleared some of the clutter from the room. Two shelves were stacked under the window between the bookcases for no particular reason other than clearing them from the so-called craft room. More progress!

random thoughts – Day 2,087 (Wednesday) – angels and blue tooth

Tuesday’s snow began at 9:45 a.m. and at 10:30 p.m. when I went to bed it was still snowing. I don’t know when it stopped, but a weather post indicated Gardner got 7.5 inches of snow. At 5:00 this morning I heard noise in my driveway. It wasn’t loud, it was just there, and I slid out of bed and peeked out the window to see someone on a riding snowblower with a headlight clearing my driveway. I thought it was StepDad.

As I drank coffee, the sun rose above the trees. It cast a long shadow of the tree in the front yard onto the snow. The silver tree in the front window made reflections onto the wall above the window and the leaded glass window in the front door made reflections on the wall. 

Later, Mom called. She and StepDad were wondering who had cleared their driveway, mine, and the house on the other side of theirs. I told her what I saw and so far, our collective best guess was the guy across the street who helped me yesterday. Later, StepDad came back to my house with his walk behind snowblower and cleared the front walk and the area closest to the car. It appears that my guardian angel has a couple companion snow removal angels.

I was definitely not sad that I didn’t need to shovel and instead invested the time in applying for jobs. This was followed by looking at dental and vision plans and calling my dentist’s office (again) for further counsel on the coverages they accept after finding a list on their website of the one they stopped accepting throughout 2025. That’s when I learned my dentist has its own office plan similar to some of those offered by the big insurance companies and I could sign up before my appointment today and it would cover the x-rays and the discounts would apply to the visit.

I arrived in Fitchburg early enough to visit a gas station before my appointment. Stupidly, I took a wrong turn and ended up at the same station where I had trouble with the gas pump turning off a week or two ago. The nozzle placement is an ongoing situation, but it happens more at that one station from hell.

To complicate things, someone from another car came over to ask me how I like my Renegade because she is considering buying one. So there I was, on a bit of a time crunch, fighting with a gas pump, swearing up a storm in my head due to said gas pump, and trying to hold a civilized conversation. It was a lot. I immediately pointed out the gas tank issue, which has been an ongoing battle since 2021 when I bought the Jeep. To emphasize my point, the pump turned off every few seconds and I was trying very hard not to swear out loud (and said so), ended up spilling gas, and in the end I finally said “fuck it” and gave up on pumping gas. When I put the nozzle back on the pump the display showed barely three gallons added instead of the half tank I wanted, so it was a colossal waste of time. And the other person just kept patiently waiting for me to answer her questions and talk more about 2017 Jeep Renegades. 

Part of me wanted to tell her to shut the hell up so I could focus on filling my tank and get to the dentist, but I didn’t and was nice to her. I told her what I liked about the vehicle, plus the troubles I had with the roof panels not closing (twice), the surprisingly small cargo area, and she witnessed the gas nozzle challenge.

Ha! I have Bluetooth!

As for the visit in the dental chair, it went as well as it could have. The dentist and the assistant were really nice. The problem broken tooth was examined, x-rayed, photographed, and capped with the strongest material they. I now temporarily have a blue tooth. Literally. Like Papa Smurf blue. 

I asked if I could now receive music though my new blue tooth (which would be really cool) and we all chuckled but maybe they were just being polite to me like I was polite to girl at the gas station earlier. In two weeks, I will return for the tooth to be checked and preparations made for a crown. Until then, I need to avoid biting hard things at that tooth.

random thoughts – Day 2,086 (Tuesday) – whine and snow

During May, June, and July, thanks to the bank merger that put me out of a job and group health insurance coverage, I had the senior citizen thrill of enrolling in Medicare and shopping for the extra plans that cost money to cover all the many things Medicare doesn’t (basically everything) and provide lifetime penalties for delaying enrolling certain features. It was actually lucky I was so close to qualifying for the old people’s coverage after the merger. I think. I am now allowed the privilege of paying hundreds of dollars a month (and have three ID cards!) for Medicare Part B, a Supplemental Plan that supposedly isn’t limited to network stuff, and a prescription drug plan that I enrolled in August 1^st and which sent a letter in October that it is being discontinued December 31 so I got the thrill of searching for another one all over again. 

In June, at my regular dental cleaning and while I still had Blue Cross Blue Shield medical and dental insurance, I mentioned a tooth that had recently begun to hurt if something smallish like granola, seeds or grains from bread, a crunchy chip, etc., hit it just right. The dentist looked at it and declared he didn’t see anything.

After the summer highlighted with the stress of unemployment and moving, I felt like I could finally pause for breath. That is when the pinched something or other in my neck bestowed me with roughly ten weeks (so far!) of misery, specialist visits, x-rays, and physical therapy.

A couple weeks ago, as the light was appearing at the end of a long tunnel, the tooth started acting up again. The pain from seeds and such was more frequent and it became mildly sensitive to cold but only sometimes. I kept forgetting to call the dentist or remembered and received the answering machine message because the office was closed for the day.

My annual eye exam, booked a year ago, hit the calendar last week with a reminder text from the office. After confirming the appointment, the office called me about my insurance. They saw that my BCBS was no longer in effect. We learned together that my vision discount plan is not accepted by their office. The appointment was cancelled. 

I finally remembered to call the dentist late in the afternoon the day after Thanksgiving and got the message that the office was closed. On Monday, I remembered to call early and got an appointment for Tuesday. As in today, during the forecasted time for the snow storm and which would require going there directly from physical therapy, but I was willing to take on the challenges of weather and time.

Early this morning and remembering the cancelled eye exam, it occurred to me that the dentist probably didn’t have my new insurance info and I called the office. It wasn’t good. The supplemental plan I have has a dental discount program that my dental office of the past 12 years isn’t currently part of. To pay out of pocket for the visit is $200 and I don’t know what that includes besides someone looking in my mouth.

Based mostly on the insurance situation and partly on the coming snow, the appointment was cancelled so I can figure something out for standalone dental insurance coverage or find a dentist that takes the discount plan. After PT, I visited many web sites in search of info and called the group that helped me choose my coverages a few months ago. A call to talk specifically about dental and vision coverage is scheduled for the 16^th and now I get to look forward to spending even more money and potentially have a fourth ID card. Can't wait!

Early-afternoon, as the snow that had begun falling at 9:45 continued to steadily descend from the sky and accumulate on the ground, there was a debate about whether to make macaroni and cheese or layered zucchini with sauce, cheeses, and other vegetables. Or maybe both because there were no plans to leave the house and I was feeling all domesticated. 

While macaroni cooked in the saucepan, veggie chopping commenced. A sliver of raw zucchini was popped into my mouth and the tooth that was the subject of the appointment for which I would have been sitting in the dental chair at that very moment if not for the insurance stuff, broke off around the filling. The chunk sat on my tongue and I was glad I didn’t swallow it. It seems the “figure something out” clock had already run out (with nothing figured out) and I called the dentist office where they were on their way out due to the snow. I now have an appointment on Wednesday afternoon.

My hatred of the American healthcare system is at an all-time high. Who the hell decided that a person’s job should be the gateway to comprehensive health coverage? And that, no matter what the plan, eyes and teeth require separate coverage (especially where dental problems can contribute to issues like heart disease, stroke, and dementia)? Of course, there is no money to made in a healthy population or cures and the system needs to keep us barely alive or at best at some perpetual level of unwellness for as long as possible so they can continue to rob us of premiums, deductibles, co-pays, penalties for not having coverage or buying it at the wrong time, and whatever new crap they dream up.

Looks like I never touched it.

I went outside to shovel and burn off my aggravation. Halfway through clearing a couple inches of snow from the driveway the guy across the street came over with his snowblower and finished it off. That let me work on the front walk and front stairs and I was grateful. 

Six hours later, it was still snowing. The front stairs, walkway, and driveway looked like I never shoveled at all and I hope it stops soon. There will be another winter workout in the morning (after coffee).

random thoughts – Day 2,085 (Monday) – in motion

Working on a project with a friend has been exactly the kick in the derriere I needed to break an inertia cycle that has gone on for far too long. I sprang out of bed ready to tackle the tasks mentally mapped after the learning experience of the earlier effort over the weekend.

After the first setup.

The project involved some photos, so while the setup was set up, later in the day things moved into another, different little shoot. The idea was potential images for this year’s holiday cards because I still like to torture myself with the self-imposed torture of it. Based on past years, I’m a full ten days ahead of the usual timeline that has me sweating, swearing, and grasping for ideas on a deadline. There are already two potential backup layouts done in case the snowstorm we’ve been promised for this week isn’t as photogenic as I am hoping.

Thank goodness that with all the stuff that was shed before moving, a black trifold presentation board that had been used for a roller derby project years ago wasn’t one of them, and more importantly, I knew where it was. During the move, it was taped around some fragile artworks. The past couple days it has served as a photo backdrop. For one phase of things today, it had a front load frame attached to it with painter’s tape so I could change various pieces into and out of it quickly. Later, the frame was removed for the next phase of things.

The new ring light cantilever stand and the cell phone tripod got a workout. It was a lot easier to control things when the lighting could be adjusted independently of the camera.

Wreath on the door.

The energy of working on a project propelled me to other activity during the day. The floors were vacuumed so I could empty the cannister before the trash went out. The dead mums were finally removed from the front stairs and the solar lanterns were brought into the house. Wreaths were retrieved from the shed and hung on the front and back doors. I took a walk down the street to the mailbox. 

A mirror that belongs on a dresser and was taken apart to be painted black in the fall had been “temporarily” (ha ha) stuffed in the shed when the old paint wouldn’t sand off. This afternoon, it was taken from the shed, reassembled, and set back atop the dresser for the winter. Maybe next spring the dresser and mirror will finally be painted to match the accompanying chest of drawers done in the fall.

Once I'm in in motion, I can stay in motion. I just need a little kickstart.

random thoughts – Day 2,084 (Sunday) – cards and treasures

It was another gray day with a side of snow flurries followed by rain. In other words, the perfect weather for staying home and testing a new ring light/cell phone floor stand setup. The dining room is now a makeshift photo studio with a touch of Christmas decorating chaos with storage totes, delivery boxes, and stuff strewn about.

There were challenges, including the floor base not sitting level (possibly a flooring issue) making it impossible to get the cell phone level. A day planner stuffed under one side solved the leveling problem. After a series of photos was shot and analyzed, it was concluded that having the cell in its own holder independent of the lighting might be a better idea. MacGyver-esque solutions were attempted using materials in the house. One possibility included setting the phone in the center of a roll of duct tape. It fit, but kept tipping and causing parallax error.

Skip-Bo.

The latter half of the afternoon was spent at Mom’s with two of the nieces and the nephew playing Skip-Bo. During a lull in the action, an internet search for a cell phone tripod provided a result for one at Ocean State Lob Lot, around the corner and down the street. As soon as the card games ended and we all scattered, I went to the store.

During the search for the tripod, other treasures were found. A pair of dark red boots I’ve looked at the last three times I was in the store and successfully talked myself out of buying because I have an abundance of footwear were 30% off today and were bought. Ornaments were 30% off and I got a box of black and silver balls and a string of lights for the black tinsel tree. It turned out a bulb is missing on the old string, along with the little bag containing spare bulbs and fuses, which are probably in the big tub of lights that were donated before moving. And the string of new lights is much too long for the tree. Errrr.

Treasures.

After wandering the store gathering the extra items and not finding the tripod, I finally asked a store team member for help. The item was in the makeup aisle. Huh? Even better, it was in a plain brown box with “Torjim” printed on the side. I would never have found it without help.

The new tripod is pretty cool. It works for cameras and cell phones and has a bubble level, a feature not included in the much more expensive camera tripod bought years ago. Tomorrow there will be more photos.