The Things Which Could Be Worse Need Cats To Make Them Better Complaint Thread

Mistara · October 2018

carrie58 said:

Mistara said:

anyway ... who bakin cookies? is officially October

squirrels wanna know why hamsters get all the love

Didn't bake any cookies but made some dried Sweet potato chips with pumpkin pie seasoning on them ,turned out pretty good take care of you woman

yumma!

Mistara · October 2018

kyoto kid said:

Mistara said:

i'home!!!

was in hospital again, 5 days.

was putputting my rolerator last caturday. stopped to rest on it halfway home. polceman found me passed out. called a rescur truck. then they called ambulance.

they prescribed me on a second insulin pen, humalog. and a 3rd bp pill. i havent been working the hours i need to pay for any of it,

and learned even when approved for disability 3-5 months lter, income starts 6 months later. medicare starts 2 years later. i's be without insurance for about 3 years.
cried myself to sleep a few times while in hospital. they brought in psychiatrist consult. wanted to give anti-depressants.

.

anyway ... who bakin cookies? is officially October

squirrels wanna know why hamsters get all the love

...good they came by and you are OK.

Yeah, you don't get benefits for the first five months. What I would do is inquire about SSI (Social Security Supplemental Income). Even though you were working it sounds like you lost a lot of time and wages. They had me do that and it covered that 5 month gap.

I wish psychiatrists would understand that anxiety due to financial difficulties is not something that can be mitigated with "uppers" as they don't get to the root of the issue (and end up costing you more out of pocket)

I'm actually dreading having to go on Medicare as that means having to shell out and extra 136$ a month from my meagre benefit cheque on top of all the other expenses (including rent which is about 50% of my monthly income). I'm already barely scraping by month to month as it is.

you havta pay for mediare?

after they take out all that from our paycheqs our whole life?

mann, thats some racket they got going

Mistara · October 2018

complaint not going to last read post, forum sending me to bottom of page

LeatherGryphon · October 2018

kyoto kid said:

Mistara said:

...

I'm actually dreading having to go on Medicare as that means having to shell out and extra 136$ a month from my meagre benefit cheque on top of all the other expenses (including rent which is about 50% of my monthly income). I'm already barely scraping by month to month as it is.

If you're healthy and plan on being healthy, and accident free then it's a no brainer. However, consider the alternatives. One trip to the emergency room for something relatively minor could be the equivalent of 6 months of Medicare payments. Have you priced uninsured drugs lately? Heaven forbid you slip on the ice and break a leg, or wreck your wrist. I went through a few years of uninsured health problems just before I was able to get Medicare. It's scary. Yeah, the insurance is a bite out your life but from this point on your health is on a continual downslope. You can level off and keep a few things under control for a while but it doesn't ever get better.

DanaTA · October 2018

Take care of yourself, Mystara!

Dana

kyoto kid · October 2018

LeatherGryphon said:

kyoto kid said:

Mistara said:

...

I'm actually dreading having to go on Medicare as that means having to shell out and extra 136$ a month from my meagre benefit cheque on top of all the other expenses (including rent which is about 50% of my monthly income). I'm already barely scraping by month to month as it is.

If you're healthy and plan on being healthy, and accident free then it's a no brainer. However, consider the alternatives. One trip to the emergency room for something relatively minor could be the equivalent of 6 months of Medicare payments. Have you priced uninsured drugs lately? Heaven forbid you slip on the ice and break a leg, or wreck your wrist. I went through a few years of uninsured health problems just before I was able to get Medicare. It's scary. Yeah, the insurance is a bite out your life but from this point on your health is on a continual downslope. You can level off and keep a few things under control for a while but it doesn't ever get better.

...well ice is one reason I'm staying put here in Portland and not even considering going back to Milwaukee or any other midwest city even if living and housing costs are lower there.

I don't even get 1,000$ a month (got this silly notion to go self employed for a while many years ago and then go back to school for a few more years). 136$ a month out of what is left after paying rent (50% of my benefit cheque in what supposedly qualifies as "low income housing") utilities (about another 125$ - 130$ per month after cancelling my previous phone service and reactivating the old flip phone), having to pay out of pocket for at least a week's worth of groceries as my SNAP benefits keep getting reduced (apologies but mac and orange chemicals with mercury laden Tuna in a tin and margerine as the base does not constitute a healthy diet, especially at our age), as well as life's other "little necessities" (not covered by SNAP) that add up each month (and I'm not speaking of Daz content).

I side with Mistra on this. The monthly Medicare premium is only about 20$ less than the (crappy) health plan my former company offered when I was earning almost twice per month (before taxes) than what I receive now (and back then I had to choose between the health plan or a transit pass to get to work so I could keep my job).

TangoAlpha · October 2018

Mistara said:

i'home!!!

was in hospital again, 5 days.

was putputting my rolerator last caturday. stopped to rest on it halfway home. polceman found me passed out. called a rescur truck. then they called ambulance.

they prescribed me on a second insulin pen, humalog. and a 3rd bp pill. i havent been working the hours i need to pay for any of it,

and learned even when approved for disability 3-5 months lter, income starts 6 months later. medicare starts 2 years later. i's be without insurance for about 3 years.
cried myself to sleep a few times while in hospital. they brought in psychiatrist consult. wanted to give anti-depressants.

.

anyway ... who bakin cookies? is officially October

squirrels wanna know why hamsters get all the love

Sorry to hear you were back in the hospital. Glad you're out, & hope you continue to improve.

Mistara said:

That's like me in the bath! Doc says I have to keep my leg over the side (out of the water) for another week!

McGyver · October 2018

LeatherGryphon said:

kyoto kid said:

LeatherGryphon said:

McGyver said:

TangoAlpha said:

DanaTA said:

TangoAlpha said:

DanaTA said:

TangoAlpha said:

Miss Bad Wolf said:

kyoto kid said:

.

National Health Service. One of the better things about being British

I always confuse that with the "Nautical Hamster Service"... Which few people know was a secret naval program during World War Two...

From what I understand the Royal Navy trained hundreds of hamsters to man (or "hamster") tiny little torpedo boats to protect the coastal waters from German subs.

It was the brainchild of Sir Neville Gambolputty, grandnephew of Johann Gambolputty, the famous explorer who is most famous for disappearing and not being memorable... Sir (his first name... he wasn't knighted or anything), was a bit eccentric and had a penchant for dressing up hamsters as historical figures and training them to wrestle in tiny arenas which were replicas of obscure Ancient Greek amphitheaters.

He was particularly fond of having them wrestle each other in hypothetical scenarios like "What if Abraham Lincoln and Jane Austin got into a scuffle over an alfalfa pellet"... Most of the scenarios involved alfalfa pellets.

One day in early 1940, while dressing up one of his hamsters as Admiral Sir Henry D'Esterre Darby, he was struck by how stunningly magnificent and noble the hamster looked... It is quite possibly this epiphany was the result of him being struck moments before by a large chunk of rotted wood that had fallen on his head from the ceiling of his dilapidated family manor (both his family and his family manor were quite dilapidated).

Still reeling from his head injuries, he envisioned a fleet of tiny naval vessels manned by hamsters. These tiny warships would be too small for the Germans to torpedo and the hamsters' ability to inflate their cheeks with air would exclude the need for life rafts and floatation vests which would be a huge savings in materials and labour.

He immediately set about carving several tiny aircraft carriers out of some large wooden beams he found in the main dining hall.

This proved to be a mistake as he soon learned hamsters were terrible pilots and would immediately crash their tiny replica Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers after getting airborne... This was compounded by the fact that the wood he used to carve the ship, was actually holding up much of the ceiling of the main dining hall, which promptly fell on him, further concussing him and crushing the vessel.

After much thought he settled on torpedo boats because he didn't like ordering lumber and there was only enough lumber left from the collapsed dining hall ceiling to build a small fleet of patrol boats.

His determination and multiple brain concussions soon paid off... After two months of diligent uniform sewing and ship building he had a tiny fleet of brave hamster sailors.

He immediately brought his idea to the attention of the Admiralty Naval Staff who were apparently either quite drunk at the time or misinformed as to the size and capabilities of hamsters. The program was given the order to proceed as quickly as possible and on the cool morning of 21 April 1940 the first six vessels were launched from a low dock at the Scapa Flow naval base.

Sir Neville Gambolputty watched proudly as his fleet of tiny hamster warriors sailed off to defend the British isles from the German navy.
His pride was short lived as the entire fleet of ten ships sank just feet from the dock in the slightly choppy water. Even more tragic was the fact that Sir had not actually ever tested to see how well hamsters float, nor was he aware that every one of his crew had their cheek pouches stuffed with nuts and alfalfa pellets which they refused to give up or spit out. Their cheeks filled to capacity, they were weighed down and all of them sank to the bottom, resulting in the loss of every member of the fleet.

Saddened by the loss, but still determined to prove his hamsters could change the course of the war, Gambolputty pushed forward and experimented with bolder and far more innovative designs for the vessels.

All of which pretty much met with the same results, except for TCMB (Tiny Coastal Motor Boat) 215, which managed to putter about in great big circles until it struck and exploded again the hull of a nearby moored dingy, slightly scuffing the paint. Needless to say, I suppose... TCMB 215 and her entire crew were lost.

It was determined that while ahead of its time, the technology and materials were not ready for the open seas or the slightly choppy, or even fairly calm waters of an open sea.

The entire Hamster Defense Fleet was reassigned to guarding various ponds and small lakes across Britain, in the event Hitler had some crazy plans to invade England via ponds and lakes.

The NHS continued to defend ponds for the duration of the war, torpedoing an occasional shifty looking duck or goose. Despite their courageous actions defending the empire against questionable waterfowl, they suffered great losses... Mostly due to accidents related to the fact that hamsters are extremely nearsighted and not very bright. Of the six hundred Tiny Coastal Motor Boats launched, by the end of the war only three survived... And of those three, one was snatched up by a passing terrier who ran off with it while the crew was disembarking.

By that point the NHS was deemed a bit unnecessary and rather damned silly and was stricken from the official history of the Royal Navy.

Sir Neville Gambolputty continued to pursue hamster and small rodent based military projects in secret up until 1972 when he was shot in the face by a chinchilla with a grenade launcher. It was a small wound but it soon became infected and he lost his left eye, which fell out during a budget meeting. He was forced to retire from his Rodent Research position and given an honorary knighthood for his contributions to waterfowl population management during the war.

Sir Sir Neville Gambolputty continued to work in private to fulfill his dream of sending a British hamster to the moon, right up until his death in 1979 when his first moon rocket launch crashed into the restored ceiling of the main dining hall at Gambolputty manor, bringing the poorly repaired roof down on him and his tiny astrohamsternauts.

I suppose this isn't a widely know history and may well have been some sort of alternate timeline I experienced or perhaps invented after having drank too much... But whatever the actual facts, I always confuse the two abbreviations.

Are you an escapee from Mad Magazine or the Monty Python group?

...I've been wondering the same myself.as these writings are hilariously brilliant.

I am curious however, is Sir Neville Gambolputty any relation to the composer Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern- schplenden- schlitter- crasscrenbon- fried- digger- dingle- dangle- dongle- dungle- burstein- von- knacker- thrasher- apple- banger- horowitz- ticolensic- grander- knotty- spelltinkle- grandlich- grumblemeyer- spelterwasser- kurstlich- himbleeisen- bahnwagen- gutenabend- bitte- ein- nürnburger- bratwustle- gerspurten- mitz- weimache- luber- hundsfut- gumberaber- shönedanker- kalbsfleisch- mittler- aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm?

Congratulations... You are the first person ever to make that connection.

For at least six years here I've been making reference to Johann Gambolputty in various little stories, but my use of the name goes back a few decades... I used the the name as a tribute to the Monty Python character years and years ago for a crazy treasure hunt I put together for some friends... According to that timeline, he was a fictitious German explorer and musician who disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle around 1911...

The idea of the game was to find Gambolputty's manuscript and use the information contained within to deactivate an ancient artifact that would destroy the world if you didn't shut it down within two days... It was like a really complicated "Escape Room" game, only it took place all over NYC... The remains of the manuscript were actually hidden in the rubble of Blackwell Manor on Roosevelt Island (that's the building used in the 2002 Spider-Man movie, where the Green Goblin get killed)... Back in the late 80s in NYC you could still get away with stuff like that, nowadays the DHS would probably get involved and it would make the news...

But anyway... My friends were all fans of Monty Python and nobody ever figured that out... Over the years I've resurrected that character many times and nobody ever commented... I even used the character as the backstory included with my Atlantis Megadome model... Nobody every commented or noticed...

I've always used the character in a context where there was a good chance a Python fan would notice.

So congratulations... You are the first person since around 1988 to have figured out the connection.

Now I really have to go steal that lighthouse beacon... You deserve some sort of prize.

LeatherGryphon · October 2018

McGyver said:

LeatherGryphon said:

kyoto kid said:

LeatherGryphon said:

McGyver said:

TangoAlpha said:

DanaTA said:

TangoAlpha said:

DanaTA said:

TangoAlpha said:

Miss Bad Wolf said:

kyoto kid said:

.

National Health Service. One of the better things about being British

I always confuse that with the "Nautical Hamster Service"... Which few people know was a secret naval program during World War Two...

From what I understand the Royal Navy trained hundreds of hamsters to man (or "hamster") tiny little torpedo boats to protect the coastal waters from German subs.

It was the brainchild of Sir Neville Gambolputty, grandnephew of Johann Gambolputty, the famous explorer who is most famous for disappearing and not being memorable... Sir (his first name... he wasn't knighted or anything), was a bit eccentric and had a penchant for dressing up hamsters as historical figures and training them to wrestle in tiny arenas which were replicas of obscure Ancient Greek amphitheaters.

He was particularly fond of having them wrestle each other in hypothetical scenarios like "What if Abraham Lincoln and Jane Austin got into a scuffle over an alfalfa pellet"... Most of the scenarios involved alfalfa pellets.

One day in early 1940, while dressing up one of his hamsters as Admiral Sir Henry D'Esterre Darby, he was struck by how stunningly magnificent and noble the hamster looked... It is quite possibly this epiphany was the result of him being struck moments before by a large chunk of rotted wood that had fallen on his head from the ceiling of his dilapidated family manor (both his family and his family manor were quite dilapidated).

Still reeling from his head injuries, he envisioned a fleet of tiny naval vessels manned by hamsters. These tiny warships would be too small for the Germans to torpedo and the hamsters' ability to inflate their cheeks with air would exclude the need for life rafts and floatation vests which would be a huge savings in materials and labour.

He immediately set about carving several tiny aircraft carriers out of some large wooden beams he found in the main dining hall.

This proved to be a mistake as he soon learned hamsters were terrible pilots and would immediately crash their tiny replica Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers after getting airborne... This was compounded by the fact that the wood he used to carve the ship, was actually holding up much of the ceiling of the main dining hall, which promptly fell on him, further concussing him and crushing the vessel.

After much thought he settled on torpedo boats because he didn't like ordering lumber and there was only enough lumber left from the collapsed dining hall ceiling to build a small fleet of patrol boats.

His determination and multiple brain concussions soon paid off... After two months of diligent uniform sewing and ship building he had a tiny fleet of brave hamster sailors.

He immediately brought his idea to the attention of the Admiralty Naval Staff who were apparently either quite drunk at the time or misinformed as to the size and capabilities of hamsters. The program was given the order to proceed as quickly as possible and on the cool morning of 21 April 1940 the first six vessels were launched from a low dock at the Scapa Flow naval base.

Sir Neville Gambolputty watched proudly as his fleet of tiny hamster warriors sailed off to defend the British isles from the German navy.
His pride was short lived as the entire fleet of ten ships sank just feet from the dock in the slightly choppy water. Even more tragic was the fact that Sir had not actually ever tested to see how well hamsters float, nor was he aware that every one of his crew had their cheek pouches stuffed with nuts and alfalfa pellets which they refused to give up or spit out. Their cheeks filled to capacity, they were weighed down and all of them sank to the bottom, resulting in the loss of every member of the fleet.

Saddened by the loss, but still determined to prove his hamsters could change the course of the war, Gambolputty pushed forward and experimented with bolder and far more innovative designs for the vessels.

All of which pretty much met with the same results, except for TCMB (Tiny Coastal Motor Boat) 215, which managed to putter about in great big circles until it struck and exploded again the hull of a nearby moored dingy, slightly scuffing the paint. Needless to say, I suppose... TCMB 215 and her entire crew were lost.

It was determined that while ahead of its time, the technology and materials were not ready for the open seas or the slightly choppy, or even fairly calm waters of an open sea.

The entire Hamster Defense Fleet was reassigned to guarding various ponds and small lakes across Britain, in the event Hitler had some crazy plans to invade England via ponds and lakes.

The NHS continued to defend ponds for the duration of the war, torpedoing an occasional shifty looking duck or goose. Despite their courageous actions defending the empire against questionable waterfowl, they suffered great losses... Mostly due to accidents related to the fact that hamsters are extremely nearsighted and not very bright. Of the six hundred Tiny Coastal Motor Boats launched, by the end of the war only three survived... And of those three, one was snatched up by a passing terrier who ran off with it while the crew was disembarking.

By that point the NHS was deemed a bit unnecessary and rather damned silly and was stricken from the official history of the Royal Navy.

Sir Neville Gambolputty continued to pursue hamster and small rodent based military projects in secret up until 1972 when he was shot in the face by a chinchilla with a grenade launcher. It was a small wound but it soon became infected and he lost his left eye, which fell out during a budget meeting. He was forced to retire from his Rodent Research position and given an honorary knighthood for his contributions to waterfowl population management during the war.

Sir Sir Neville Gambolputty continued to work in private to fulfill his dream of sending a British hamster to the moon, right up until his death in 1979 when his first moon rocket launch crashed into the restored ceiling of the main dining hall at Gambolputty manor, bringing the poorly repaired roof down on him and his tiny astrohamsternauts.

I suppose this isn't a widely know history and may well have been some sort of alternate timeline I experienced or perhaps invented after having drank too much... But whatever the actual facts, I always confuse the two abbreviations.

Are you an escapee from Mad Magazine or the Monty Python group?

...I've been wondering the same myself.as these writings are hilariously brilliant.

I am curious however, is Sir Neville Gambolputty any relation to the composer Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern- schplenden- schlitter- crasscrenbon- fried- digger- dingle- dangle- dongle- dungle- burstein- von- knacker- thrasher- apple- banger- horowitz- ticolensic- grander- knotty- spelltinkle- grandlich- grumblemeyer- spelterwasser- kurstlich- himbleeisen- bahnwagen- gutenabend- bitte- ein- nürnburger- bratwustle- gerspurten- mitz- weimache- luber- hundsfut- gumberaber- shönedanker- kalbsfleisch- mittler- aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm?

Congratulations... You are the first person ever to make that connection.

For at least six years here I've been making reference to Johann Gambolputty in various little stories, but my use of the name goes back a few decades... I used the the name as a tribute to the Monty Python character years and years ago for a crazy treasure hunt I put together for some friends... According to that timeline, he was a fictitious German explorer and musician who disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle around 1911...

The idea of the game was to find Gambolputty's manuscript and use the information contained within to deactivate an ancient artifact that would destroy the world if you didn't shut it down within two days... It was like a really complicated "Escape Room" game, only it took place all over NYC... The remains of the manuscript were actually hidden in the rubble of Blackwell Manor on Roosevelt Island (that's the building used in the 2002 Spider-Man movie, where the Green Goblin get killed)... Back in the late 80s in NYC you could still get away with stuff like that, nowadays the DHS would probably get involved and it would make the news...

But anyway... My friends were all fans of Monty Python and nobody ever figured that out... Over the years I've resurrected that character many times and nobody ever commented... I even used the character as the backstory included with my Atlantis Megadome model... Nobody every commented or noticed...

I've always used the character in a context where there was a good chance a Python fan would notice.

So congratulations... You are the first person since around 1988 to have figured out the connection.

Now I really have to go steal that lighthouse beacon... You deserve some sort of prize.

Congratulations! You are the first person since the Monty Python days that I've seen make reference to the Gambolputty name and my brain latched on to it. My brain seems to remember certain things from the late '60s though the early '70 where memories were apparently anchored by the effects of aromatic smoke, lava lamps, and undulating UV posters. I am pleased that I've been able to satisfy your long search but regret not being part of your original search. A prize is not needed but should you feel compelled, a 500 pound tree ornament would be acceptable. Although I would prefer a way to restore my short term memory. It helps considerably when trying to avoid a second breakfast. I am of the considerable opinion that my missing short term memory capability is at least in part due to the effects of aromatic smoke, lava lamps, and undulating UV posters during the early '70s.

TJohn · October 2018

If McG

McGyver said:

LeatherGryphon said:

kyoto kid said:

LeatherGryphon said:

McGyver said:

TangoAlpha said:

DanaTA said:

TangoAlpha said:

DanaTA said:

TangoAlpha said:

Miss Bad Wolf said:

kyoto kid said:

.

National Health Service. One of the better things about being British

I always confuse that with the "Nautical Hamster Service"... Which few people know was a secret naval program during World War Two...

From what I understand the Royal Navy trained hundreds of hamsters to man (or "hamster") tiny little torpedo boats to protect the coastal waters from German subs.

It was the brainchild of Sir Neville Gambolputty, grandnephew of Johann Gambolputty, the famous explorer who is most famous for disappearing and not being memorable... Sir (his first name... he wasn't knighted or anything), was a bit eccentric and had a penchant for dressing up hamsters as historical figures and training them to wrestle in tiny arenas which were replicas of obscure Ancient Greek amphitheaters.

He was particularly fond of having them wrestle each other in hypothetical scenarios like "What if Abraham Lincoln and Jane Austin got into a scuffle over an alfalfa pellet"... Most of the scenarios involved alfalfa pellets.

One day in early 1940, while dressing up one of his hamsters as Admiral Sir Henry D'Esterre Darby, he was struck by how stunningly magnificent and noble the hamster looked... It is quite possibly this epiphany was the result of him being struck moments before by a large chunk of rotted wood that had fallen on his head from the ceiling of his dilapidated family manor (both his family and his family manor were quite dilapidated).

Still reeling from his head injuries, he envisioned a fleet of tiny naval vessels manned by hamsters. These tiny warships would be too small for the Germans to torpedo and the hamsters' ability to inflate their cheeks with air would exclude the need for life rafts and floatation vests which would be a huge savings in materials and labour.

He immediately set about carving several tiny aircraft carriers out of some large wooden beams he found in the main dining hall.

This proved to be a mistake as he soon learned hamsters were terrible pilots and would immediately crash their tiny replica Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers after getting airborne... This was compounded by the fact that the wood he used to carve the ship, was actually holding up much of the ceiling of the main dining hall, which promptly fell on him, further concussing him and crushing the vessel.

After much thought he settled on torpedo boats because he didn't like ordering lumber and there was only enough lumber left from the collapsed dining hall ceiling to build a small fleet of patrol boats.

His determination and multiple brain concussions soon paid off... After two months of diligent uniform sewing and ship building he had a tiny fleet of brave hamster sailors.

He immediately brought his idea to the attention of the Admiralty Naval Staff who were apparently either quite drunk at the time or misinformed as to the size and capabilities of hamsters. The program was given the order to proceed as quickly as possible and on the cool morning of 21 April 1940 the first six vessels were launched from a low dock at the Scapa Flow naval base.

Sir Neville Gambolputty watched proudly as his fleet of tiny hamster warriors sailed off to defend the British isles from the German navy.
His pride was short lived as the entire fleet of ten ships sank just feet from the dock in the slightly choppy water. Even more tragic was the fact that Sir had not actually ever tested to see how well hamsters float, nor was he aware that every one of his crew had their cheek pouches stuffed with nuts and alfalfa pellets which they refused to give up or spit out. Their cheeks filled to capacity, they were weighed down and all of them sank to the bottom, resulting in the loss of every member of the fleet.

Saddened by the loss, but still determined to prove his hamsters could change the course of the war, Gambolputty pushed forward and experimented with bolder and far more innovative designs for the vessels.

All of which pretty much met with the same results, except for TCMB (Tiny Coastal Motor Boat) 215, which managed to putter about in great big circles until it struck and exploded again the hull of a nearby moored dingy, slightly scuffing the paint. Needless to say, I suppose... TCMB 215 and her entire crew were lost.

It was determined that while ahead of its time, the technology and materials were not ready for the open seas or the slightly choppy, or even fairly calm waters of an open sea.

The entire Hamster Defense Fleet was reassigned to guarding various ponds and small lakes across Britain, in the event Hitler had some crazy plans to invade England via ponds and lakes.

The NHS continued to defend ponds for the duration of the war, torpedoing an occasional shifty looking duck or goose. Despite their courageous actions defending the empire against questionable waterfowl, they suffered great losses... Mostly due to accidents related to the fact that hamsters are extremely nearsighted and not very bright. Of the six hundred Tiny Coastal Motor Boats launched, by the end of the war only three survived... And of those three, one was snatched up by a passing terrier who ran off with it while the crew was disembarking.

By that point the NHS was deemed a bit unnecessary and rather damned silly and was stricken from the official history of the Royal Navy.

Sir Neville Gambolputty continued to pursue hamster and small rodent based military projects in secret up until 1972 when he was shot in the face by a chinchilla with a grenade launcher. It was a small wound but it soon became infected and he lost his left eye, which fell out during a budget meeting. He was forced to retire from his Rodent Research position and given an honorary knighthood for his contributions to waterfowl population management during the war.

Sir Sir Neville Gambolputty continued to work in private to fulfill his dream of sending a British hamster to the moon, right up until his death in 1979 when his first moon rocket launch crashed into the restored ceiling of the main dining hall at Gambolputty manor, bringing the poorly repaired roof down on him and his tiny astrohamsternauts.

I suppose this isn't a widely know history and may well have been some sort of alternate timeline I experienced or perhaps invented after having drank too much... But whatever the actual facts, I always confuse the two abbreviations.

Are you an escapee from Mad Magazine or the Monty Python group?

...I've been wondering the same myself.as these writings are hilariously brilliant.

I am curious however, is Sir Neville Gambolputty any relation to the composer Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern- schplenden- schlitter- crasscrenbon- fried- digger- dingle- dangle- dongle- dungle- burstein- von- knacker- thrasher- apple- banger- horowitz- ticolensic- grander- knotty- spelltinkle- grandlich- grumblemeyer- spelterwasser- kurstlich- himbleeisen- bahnwagen- gutenabend- bitte- ein- nürnburger- bratwustle- gerspurten- mitz- weimache- luber- hundsfut- gumberaber- shönedanker- kalbsfleisch- mittler- aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm?

Congratulations... You are the first person ever to make that connection.

For at least six years here I've been making reference to Johann Gambolputty in various little stories, but my use of the name goes back a few decades... I used the the name as a tribute to the Monty Python character years and years ago for a crazy treasure hunt I put together for some friends... According to that timeline, he was a fictitious German explorer and musician who disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle around 1911...

The idea of the game was to find Gambolputty's manuscript and use the information contained within to deactivate an ancient artifact that would destroy the world if you didn't shut it down within two days... It was like a really complicated "Escape Room" game, only it took place all over NYC... The remains of the manuscript were actually hidden in the rubble of Blackwell Manor on Roosevelt Island (that's the building used in the 2002 Spider-Man movie, where the Green Goblin get killed)... Back in the late 80s in NYC you could still get away with stuff like that, nowadays the DHS would probably get involved and it would make the news...

But anyway... My friends were all fans of Monty Python and nobody ever figured that out... Over the years I've resurrected that character many times and nobody ever commented... I even used the character as the backstory included with my Atlantis Megadome model... Nobody every commented or noticed...

I've always used the character in a context where there was a good chance a Python fan would notice.

So congratulations... You are the first person since around 1988 to have figured out the connection.

Now I really have to go steal that lighthouse beacon... You deserve some sort of prize.

Oh I immediately made the connection. I just didn't have the patience to type out Gambolputty's whole name.

starionwolf · October 2018

The dental office closed at 2:00 PM today. I guess I'll call them on Tuesday after Columbus day.

TSasha Smith · October 2018

just saw a guy who went by Venom. He mentioned something or someone named Carnage. Oops Venom thinks I said too much.

kyoto kid · October 2018

...rainy FishFryDay.today. Good day to stay in and plan a good Cajun dinner as the market actually had catfish for once.

TJohn · October 2018

Got a new pair of diabetic shoes today. Yay.

Had a toenail removed too. Double yay.

McGyver · October 2018

@ Tjohn

Well, congratulations too!...

There is actually a second lighthouse beacon on display... But I'm not sure I can manage two beacon heists at once...

Would seashells or a ziplock bag full of sand be an ok substitute?

TJohn · October 2018

McGyver said:

@ Tjohn

Well, congratulations too!...

There is actually a second lighthouse beacon on display... But I'm not sure I can manage two beacon heists at once...

Would seashells or a ziplock bag full of sand be an ok substitute?

Is it enough sand to pound?

kyoto kid · October 2018

McGyver said:

LeatherGryphon said:

kyoto kid said:

LeatherGryphon said:

McGyver said:

TangoAlpha said:

DanaTA said:

TangoAlpha said:

DanaTA said:

TangoAlpha said:

Miss Bad Wolf said:

kyoto kid said:

.

National Health Service. One of the better things about being British

I always confuse that with the "Nautical Hamster Service"... Which few people know was a secret naval program during World War Two...

From what I understand the Royal Navy trained hundreds of hamsters to man (or "hamster") tiny little torpedo boats to protect the coastal waters from German subs.

It was the brainchild of Sir Neville Gambolputty, grandnephew of Johann Gambolputty, the famous explorer who is most famous for disappearing and not being memorable... Sir (his first name... he wasn't knighted or anything), was a bit eccentric and had a penchant for dressing up hamsters as historical figures and training them to wrestle in tiny arenas which were replicas of obscure Ancient Greek amphitheaters.

He was particularly fond of having them wrestle each other in hypothetical scenarios like "What if Abraham Lincoln and Jane Austin got into a scuffle over an alfalfa pellet"... Most of the scenarios involved alfalfa pellets.

One day in early 1940, while dressing up one of his hamsters as Admiral Sir Henry D'Esterre Darby, he was struck by how stunningly magnificent and noble the hamster looked... It is quite possibly this epiphany was the result of him being struck moments before by a large chunk of rotted wood that had fallen on his head from the ceiling of his dilapidated family manor (both his family and his family manor were quite dilapidated).

Still reeling from his head injuries, he envisioned a fleet of tiny naval vessels manned by hamsters. These tiny warships would be too small for the Germans to torpedo and the hamsters' ability to inflate their cheeks with air would exclude the need for life rafts and floatation vests which would be a huge savings in materials and labour.

He immediately set about carving several tiny aircraft carriers out of some large wooden beams he found in the main dining hall.

This proved to be a mistake as he soon learned hamsters were terrible pilots and would immediately crash their tiny replica Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers after getting airborne... This was compounded by the fact that the wood he used to carve the ship, was actually holding up much of the ceiling of the main dining hall, which promptly fell on him, further concussing him and crushing the vessel.

After much thought he settled on torpedo boats because he didn't like ordering lumber and there was only enough lumber left from the collapsed dining hall ceiling to build a small fleet of patrol boats.

His determination and multiple brain concussions soon paid off... After two months of diligent uniform sewing and ship building he had a tiny fleet of brave hamster sailors.

He immediately brought his idea to the attention of the Admiralty Naval Staff who were apparently either quite drunk at the time or misinformed as to the size and capabilities of hamsters. The program was given the order to proceed as quickly as possible and on the cool morning of 21 April 1940 the first six vessels were launched from a low dock at the Scapa Flow naval base.

Sir Neville Gambolputty watched proudly as his fleet of tiny hamster warriors sailed off to defend the British isles from the German navy.
His pride was short lived as the entire fleet of ten ships sank just feet from the dock in the slightly choppy water. Even more tragic was the fact that Sir had not actually ever tested to see how well hamsters float, nor was he aware that every one of his crew had their cheek pouches stuffed with nuts and alfalfa pellets which they refused to give up or spit out. Their cheeks filled to capacity, they were weighed down and all of them sank to the bottom, resulting in the loss of every member of the fleet.

Saddened by the loss, but still determined to prove his hamsters could change the course of the war, Gambolputty pushed forward and experimented with bolder and far more innovative designs for the vessels.

All of which pretty much met with the same results, except for TCMB (Tiny Coastal Motor Boat) 215, which managed to putter about in great big circles until it struck and exploded again the hull of a nearby moored dingy, slightly scuffing the paint. Needless to say, I suppose... TCMB 215 and her entire crew were lost.

It was determined that while ahead of its time, the technology and materials were not ready for the open seas or the slightly choppy, or even fairly calm waters of an open sea.

The entire Hamster Defense Fleet was reassigned to guarding various ponds and small lakes across Britain, in the event Hitler had some crazy plans to invade England via ponds and lakes.

The NHS continued to defend ponds for the duration of the war, torpedoing an occasional shifty looking duck or goose. Despite their courageous actions defending the empire against questionable waterfowl, they suffered great losses... Mostly due to accidents related to the fact that hamsters are extremely nearsighted and not very bright. Of the six hundred Tiny Coastal Motor Boats launched, by the end of the war only three survived... And of those three, one was snatched up by a passing terrier who ran off with it while the crew was disembarking.

By that point the NHS was deemed a bit unnecessary and rather damned silly and was stricken from the official history of the Royal Navy.

Sir Neville Gambolputty continued to pursue hamster and small rodent based military projects in secret up until 1972 when he was shot in the face by a chinchilla with a grenade launcher. It was a small wound but it soon became infected and he lost his left eye, which fell out during a budget meeting. He was forced to retire from his Rodent Research position and given an honorary knighthood for his contributions to waterfowl population management during the war.

Sir Sir Neville Gambolputty continued to work in private to fulfill his dream of sending a British hamster to the moon, right up until his death in 1979 when his first moon rocket launch crashed into the restored ceiling of the main dining hall at Gambolputty manor, bringing the poorly repaired roof down on him and his tiny astrohamsternauts.

I suppose this isn't a widely know history and may well have been some sort of alternate timeline I experienced or perhaps invented after having drank too much... But whatever the actual facts, I always confuse the two abbreviations.

Are you an escapee from Mad Magazine or the Monty Python group?

...I've been wondering the same myself.as these writings are hilariously brilliant.

I am curious however, is Sir Neville Gambolputty any relation to the composer Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern- schplenden- schlitter- crasscrenbon- fried- digger- dingle- dangle- dongle- dungle- burstein- von- knacker- thrasher- apple- banger- horowitz- ticolensic- grander- knotty- spelltinkle- grandlich- grumblemeyer- spelterwasser- kurstlich- himbleeisen- bahnwagen- gutenabend- bitte- ein- nürnburger- bratwustle- gerspurten- mitz- weimache- luber- hundsfut- gumberaber- shönedanker- kalbsfleisch- mittler- aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm?

Congratulations... You are the first person ever to make that connection.

For at least six years here I've been making reference to Johann Gambolputty in various little stories, but my use of the name goes back a few decades... I used the the name as a tribute to the Monty Python character years and years ago for a crazy treasure hunt I put together for some friends... According to that timeline, he was a fictitious German explorer and musician who disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle around 1911...

The idea of the game was to find Gambolputty's manuscript and use the information contained within to deactivate an ancient artifact that would destroy the world if you didn't shut it down within two days... It was like a really complicated "Escape Room" game, only it took place all over NYC... The remains of the manuscript were actually hidden in the rubble of Blackwell Manor on Roosevelt Island (that's the building used in the 2002 Spider-Man movie, where the Green Goblin get killed)... Back in the late 80s in NYC you could still get away with stuff like that, nowadays the DHS would probably get involved and it would make the news...

But anyway... My friends were all fans of Monty Python and nobody ever figured that out... Over the years I've resurrected that character many times and nobody ever commented... I even used the character as the backstory included with my Atlantis Megadome model... Nobody every commented or noticed...

I've always used the character in a context where there was a good chance a Python fan would notice.

So congratulations... You are the first person since around 1988 to have figured out the connection.

Now I really have to go steal that lighthouse beacon... You deserve some sort of prize.

...what, not the beautiful lounge suite Karl Marx didn't win?

McGyver · October 2018

Tjohn said:

McGyver said:

@ Tjohn

Well, congratulations too!...

There is actually a second lighthouse beacon on display... But I'm not sure I can manage two beacon heists at once...

Would seashells or a ziplock bag full of sand be an ok substitute?

Is it enough sand to pound?

Actually it's about three pounds of sand...

McGyver · October 2018

kyoto kid said:

McGyver said:

LeatherGryphon said:

kyoto kid said:

LeatherGryphon said:

McGyver said:

TangoAlpha said:

DanaTA said:

TangoAlpha said:

DanaTA said:

TangoAlpha said:

Miss Bad Wolf said:

kyoto kid said:

.

National Health Service. One of the better things about being British

I always confuse that with the "Nautical Hamster Service"... Which few people know was a secret naval program during World War Two...

From what I understand the Royal Navy trained hundreds of hamsters to man (or "hamster") tiny little torpedo boats to protect the coastal waters from German subs.

It was the brainchild of Sir Neville Gambolputty, grandnephew of Johann Gambolputty, the famous explorer who is most famous for disappearing and not being memorable... Sir (his first name... he wasn't knighted or anything), was a bit eccentric and had a penchant for dressing up hamsters as historical figures and training them to wrestle in tiny arenas which were replicas of obscure Ancient Greek amphitheaters.

He was particularly fond of having them wrestle each other in hypothetical scenarios like "What if Abraham Lincoln and Jane Austin got into a scuffle over an alfalfa pellet"... Most of the scenarios involved alfalfa pellets.

One day in early 1940, while dressing up one of his hamsters as Admiral Sir Henry D'Esterre Darby, he was struck by how stunningly magnificent and noble the hamster looked... It is quite possibly this epiphany was the result of him being struck moments before by a large chunk of rotted wood that had fallen on his head from the ceiling of his dilapidated family manor (both his family and his family manor were quite dilapidated).

Still reeling from his head injuries, he envisioned a fleet of tiny naval vessels manned by hamsters. These tiny warships would be too small for the Germans to torpedo and the hamsters' ability to inflate their cheeks with air would exclude the need for life rafts and floatation vests which would be a huge savings in materials and labour.

He immediately set about carving several tiny aircraft carriers out of some large wooden beams he found in the main dining hall.

This proved to be a mistake as he soon learned hamsters were terrible pilots and would immediately crash their tiny replica Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers after getting airborne... This was compounded by the fact that the wood he used to carve the ship, was actually holding up much of the ceiling of the main dining hall, which promptly fell on him, further concussing him and crushing the vessel.

After much thought he settled on torpedo boats because he didn't like ordering lumber and there was only enough lumber left from the collapsed dining hall ceiling to build a small fleet of patrol boats.

His determination and multiple brain concussions soon paid off... After two months of diligent uniform sewing and ship building he had a tiny fleet of brave hamster sailors.

He immediately brought his idea to the attention of the Admiralty Naval Staff who were apparently either quite drunk at the time or misinformed as to the size and capabilities of hamsters. The program was given the order to proceed as quickly as possible and on the cool morning of 21 April 1940 the first six vessels were launched from a low dock at the Scapa Flow naval base.

Sir Neville Gambolputty watched proudly as his fleet of tiny hamster warriors sailed off to defend the British isles from the German navy.
His pride was short lived as the entire fleet of ten ships sank just feet from the dock in the slightly choppy water. Even more tragic was the fact that Sir had not actually ever tested to see how well hamsters float, nor was he aware that every one of his crew had their cheek pouches stuffed with nuts and alfalfa pellets which they refused to give up or spit out. Their cheeks filled to capacity, they were weighed down and all of them sank to the bottom, resulting in the loss of every member of the fleet.

Saddened by the loss, but still determined to prove his hamsters could change the course of the war, Gambolputty pushed forward and experimented with bolder and far more innovative designs for the vessels.

All of which pretty much met with the same results, except for TCMB (Tiny Coastal Motor Boat) 215, which managed to putter about in great big circles until it struck and exploded again the hull of a nearby moored dingy, slightly scuffing the paint. Needless to say, I suppose... TCMB 215 and her entire crew were lost.

It was determined that while ahead of its time, the technology and materials were not ready for the open seas or the slightly choppy, or even fairly calm waters of an open sea.

The entire Hamster Defense Fleet was reassigned to guarding various ponds and small lakes across Britain, in the event Hitler had some crazy plans to invade England via ponds and lakes.

The NHS continued to defend ponds for the duration of the war, torpedoing an occasional shifty looking duck or goose. Despite their courageous actions defending the empire against questionable waterfowl, they suffered great losses... Mostly due to accidents related to the fact that hamsters are extremely nearsighted and not very bright. Of the six hundred Tiny Coastal Motor Boats launched, by the end of the war only three survived... And of those three, one was snatched up by a passing terrier who ran off with it while the crew was disembarking.

By that point the NHS was deemed a bit unnecessary and rather damned silly and was stricken from the official history of the Royal Navy.

Sir Neville Gambolputty continued to pursue hamster and small rodent based military projects in secret up until 1972 when he was shot in the face by a chinchilla with a grenade launcher. It was a small wound but it soon became infected and he lost his left eye, which fell out during a budget meeting. He was forced to retire from his Rodent Research position and given an honorary knighthood for his contributions to waterfowl population management during the war.

Sir Sir Neville Gambolputty continued to work in private to fulfill his dream of sending a British hamster to the moon, right up until his death in 1979 when his first moon rocket launch crashed into the restored ceiling of the main dining hall at Gambolputty manor, bringing the poorly repaired roof down on him and his tiny astrohamsternauts.

I suppose this isn't a widely know history and may well have been some sort of alternate timeline I experienced or perhaps invented after having drank too much... But whatever the actual facts, I always confuse the two abbreviations.

Are you an escapee from Mad Magazine or the Monty Python group?

...I've been wondering the same myself.as these writings are hilariously brilliant.

I am curious however, is Sir Neville Gambolputty any relation to the composer Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern- schplenden- schlitter- crasscrenbon- fried- digger- dingle- dangle- dongle- dungle- burstein- von- knacker- thrasher- apple- banger- horowitz- ticolensic- grander- knotty- spelltinkle- grandlich- grumblemeyer- spelterwasser- kurstlich- himbleeisen- bahnwagen- gutenabend- bitte- ein- nürnburger- bratwustle- gerspurten- mitz- weimache- luber- hundsfut- gumberaber- shönedanker- kalbsfleisch- mittler- aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm?

Congratulations... You are the first person ever to make that connection.

For at least six years here I've been making reference to Johann Gambolputty in various little stories, but my use of the name goes back a few decades... I used the the name as a tribute to the Monty Python character years and years ago for a crazy treasure hunt I put together for some friends... According to that timeline, he was a fictitious German explorer and musician who disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle around 1911...

The idea of the game was to find Gambolputty's manuscript and use the information contained within to deactivate an ancient artifact that would destroy the world if you didn't shut it down within two days... It was like a really complicated "Escape Room" game, only it took place all over NYC... The remains of the manuscript were actually hidden in the rubble of Blackwell Manor on Roosevelt Island (that's the building used in the 2002 Spider-Man movie, where the Green Goblin get killed)... Back in the late 80s in NYC you could still get away with stuff like that, nowadays the DHS would probably get involved and it would make the news...

But anyway... My friends were all fans of Monty Python and nobody ever figured that out... Over the years I've resurrected that character many times and nobody ever commented... I even used the character as the backstory included with my Atlantis Megadome model... Nobody every commented or noticed...

I've always used the character in a context where there was a good chance a Python fan would notice.

So congratulations... You are the first person since around 1988 to have figured out the connection.

Now I really have to go steal that lighthouse beacon... You deserve some sort of prize.

...what, not the beautiful lounge suite Karl Marx didn't win?

No... That was finally taken away by someone on Craigslist...

TJohn · October 2018

McGyver said:

Tjohn said:

McGyver said:

@ Tjohn

Well, congratulations too!...

There is actually a second lighthouse beacon on display... But I'm not sure I can manage two beacon heists at once...

Would seashells or a ziplock bag full of sand be an ok substitute?

Is it enough sand to pound?

Actually it's about three pounds of sand...

Oh that's plenty!

Subtropic Pixel · October 2018

LeatherGryphon said:

Amalthea said:

DanaTA said:

LeatherGryphon said:

Complaint: My over-the-counter supplements cost more than my prescribed drugs. I take a multivitamin daily and I take Glucosamine/Condroitin for cartilage repair for my knees. I always wait for the drugstore to issue a coupon or have a sale (often 2 for 1) on those items but still I freak out when I go to buy them because I buy in the big bottles to get the most bang for the buck. But those things aren't covered under insurance. I started out today happy that I was within sight of getting my budget under control next month. Now after the drugstore visit the light at the end of the tunnel suddenly got a lot dimmer.

Non-complaint: All my prescription drugs are covered significantly by my Medicare drug plan, (so far). If I had to pay for them without help I'd be dead 5 years ago.

I used to take Move Free (brand name glucosamine/condroitin). I stopped. It didn't repair anything! I had a torn cartilage. Now I have no cartilage!!! I paid a lot of money for those damned pills! I was told that I'd eventually need a knee replacement. Good luck with that, couldn't afford it.

Dana

The supplemein act back in the 70s gave the supplement industry free of the FDA oversight that the drug industry has.The result is a huge mess. Many don't have the ingredients they claim, others hav them but not in the stated amounts, others have contaminants. It's possible that you were one one of the ones that falls into one of those catagories. Also many glucosamine/condroitin supplements have enough glucosamine (1500 mg) but not enough chondroitin to fully utilize it (1200 mg) and thus only help people with minor issues. Now it doesn't matter as it is just a repair treatment instead of a replacement one and you don't have anything to repair. i wish that the scientists would start doing clinical trials on people in their 40s and 50s with mild problems in their fingers instead of concentrating on elderly with very bad knees because the former group would show that under the right conditions this stuff does work even though the latter group doesn't gain any benifit. This lack of trials showing efficasy is wht insurance doesn't pay for it.

Name brand doesn't mean anything with this stuff. The drug store I get mine at was out of the brand that was helping me so I got another brand which was a name brand and my left knee got worse. It took a month of being back on the first brand before my knee was back to where it was when I had to switch. As a result I keep extra on hand.

G&C still works for me. However, I know that if I stop taking it then, about 2 or 3 weeks later knee pains come back. So after starting to take it again it takes about a month or 6 weeks and the pain sessions lower in intensity and frequency (i.e. non-crippling and non-constant). Believe me I'd like to stop having to take those horse pills twice a day and have tried it but hey, don't question what works. I'd chew sea urchins if it would help.

This is precisely how G&C works. Same deal with my back. Miss for a few weeks and you'd think I turned into SlinkeyDog. Miss for a month and I can hardly move from the back spasms. I too use Move Free, because others don't work. But then I don't have any herniated or ruptured discs or anything. I get mine at Sam's Club, but you can get that brand anywhere, which I will do if I land in a strange city and find that I forgot my vitamin organizer.

Subtropic Pixel · October 2018

LeatherGryphon said:

kyoto kid said:

Mistara said:

...

I'm actually dreading having to go on Medicare as that means having to shell out and extra 136$ a month from my meagre benefit cheque on top of all the other expenses (including rent which is about 50% of my monthly income). I'm already barely scraping by month to month as it is.

If you're healthy and plan on being healthy, and accident free then it's a no brainer. However, consider the alternatives. One trip to the emergency room for something relatively minor could be the equivalent of 6 months of Medicare payments. Have you priced uninsured drugs lately? Heaven forbid you slip on the ice and break a leg, or wreck your wrist. I went through a few years of uninsured health problems just before I was able to get Medicare. It's scary. Yeah, the insurance is a bite out your life but from this point on your health is on a continual downslope. You can level off and keep a few things under control for a while but it doesn't ever get better.

Words of wisdom right there, KK. A friend of mine retired early and had to go about 7 years just to get to Medicare age. Yes, he paid the $900 per month for his family of three, because that was the right thing to do; especially with a 10 year old girl who was into high-diving, gymnastics, and in a couple of years, cars and boys.

kyoto kid · October 2018

...just don't see how I can afford an additional 136$ a month hit out of the little that is left after rent bills, food, and other necessities. If my rent were the recommended 28% instead of 50% of my income it wouldn't be an issue, however where I am that is the best I could find given the fact low income housing here is at a critical shortage and wait lists are measured in multiple years, not weeks or months. Shared housing is not a solution as none of it is low income certified and thus is actually more expensive with tiny rooms way out in the burbs going for 200 - 300$ more (and that's not including a share of the utilities) than what I am paying where I am am living. Portland is just stupid expensive when it comes to housing. True, it isn't as extreme as the Bay Area or Seattle....yet, but is heading that way.

Thankfully, I only have myself to be concerned about.

PixelPie · October 2018

Mistara said:

kyoto kid said:

Mistara said:

i'home!!!

was in hospital again, 5 days.

was putputting my rolerator last caturday. stopped to rest on it halfway home. polceman found me passed out. called a rescur truck. then they called ambulance.

they prescribed me on a second insulin pen, humalog. and a 3rd bp pill. i havent been working the hours i need to pay for any of it,

and learned even when approved for disability 3-5 months lter, income starts 6 months later. medicare starts 2 years later. i's be without insurance for about 3 years.
cried myself to sleep a few times while in hospital. they brought in psychiatrist consult. wanted to give anti-depressants.

.

anyway ... who bakin cookies? is officially October

squirrels wanna know why hamsters get all the love

...good they came by and you are OK.

Yeah, you don't get benefits for the first five months. What I would do is inquire about SSI (Social Security Supplemental Income). Even though you were working it sounds like you lost a lot of time and wages. They had me do that and it covered that 5 month gap.

I wish psychiatrists would understand that anxiety due to financial difficulties is not something that can be mitigated with "uppers" as they don't get to the root of the issue (and end up costing you more out of pocket)

I'm actually dreading having to go on Medicare as that means having to shell out and extra 136$ a month from my meagre benefit cheque on top of all the other expenses (including rent which is about 50% of my monthly income). I'm already barely scraping by month to month as it is.

you havta pay for mediare?

after they take out all that from our paycheqs our whole life?

mann, thats some racket they got going

really paying for medicare ? yeah racket.. my hip hurts ..been to 3 doctors and they all want to give me a surgery. Sux getting old..

LeatherGryphon · October 2018

kyoto kid said:

...just don't see how I can afford an additional 136$ a month hit out of the little that is left after rent bills, food, and other necessities. If my rent were the recommended 28% instead of 50% of my income it wouldn't be an issue, however where I am that is the best I could find given the fact low income housing here is at a critical shortage and wait lists are measured in multiple years, not weeks or months. Shared housing is not a solution as none of it is low income certified and thus is actually more expensive with tiny rooms way out in the burbs going for 200 - 300$ more (and that's not including a share of the utilities) than what I am paying where I am am living. Portland is just stupid expensive when it comes to housing. True, it isn't as extreme as the Bay Area or Seattle....yet, but is heading that way.

Thankfully, I only have myself to be concerned about.

Make sure you have a good advisor for low income entitlements. In NY, state Medicade can supplement federal Medicare for some low income people. Also, drugstores sometimes have access to a low-income plan that is managed by the state or county. Some states I believe will refund the Medicare premium payment. Don't overlook anything on the table.

RitaCeleste · October 2018

I did not mean to offend with my earlier post. Sorry. It hurt me deeply that it was thought bad enough to remove. I don't like hurting. I am not going to post anymore. I'll be fine doing other things.

kyoto kid · October 2018

LeatherGryphon said:

kyoto kid said:

...just don't see how I can afford an additional 136$ a month hit out of the little that is left after rent bills, food, and other necessities. If my rent were the recommended 28% instead of 50% of my income it wouldn't be an issue, however where I am that is the best I could find given the fact low income housing here is at a critical shortage and wait lists are measured in multiple years, not weeks or months. Shared housing is not a solution as none of it is low income certified and thus is actually more expensive with tiny rooms way out in the burbs going for 200 - 300$ more (and that's not including a share of the utilities) than what I am paying where I am am living. Portland is just stupid expensive when it comes to housing. True, it isn't as extreme as the Bay Area or Seattle....yet, but is heading that way.

Thankfully, I only have myself to be concerned about.

Make sure you have a good advisor for low income entitlements. In NY, state Medicade can supplement federal Medicare for some low income people. Also, drugstores sometimes have access to a low-income plan that is managed by the state or county. Some states I believe will refund the Medicare premium payment. Don't overlook anything on the table.

...not sure where Oregon stands on this but I will check into it next week. Currently covered under the OHP which is funded by Medicaid.

LeatherGryphon · October 2018

RitaCeleste please don't stop posting. We'd miss you. We need posts to keep this a lively thread. I was so pleased when I saw you start popping in here adding fresh thoughts and different takes on life. Sometimes it gets rather monotonous in here without lots of different voices. Post removals are a fact of life, whether we think they are deserved or not. Just rub the sore spot a moment and it soon fades away.

kyoto kid · October 2018

...just steer clear of politics and religion and you'll be fine.

I'm good at straying over the line now and then and afterwards feel "well that post will probably be removed" (to find I was right the next morning). It's not a personal thing, it's to keep these forums from degenerating to what we see on social media and other discussion platforms. When I get such a notice I nod and say to myself "yeah, kind of overstepped on that one."

kyoto kid · October 2018

...gah, my brain hurts (was on the Social Security FB page a few minutes ago). 'Nuff for one evening..

Time for Blackened catfish, garlic tarragon roasted red potatoes, and slow simmered buttered baby carrots.

Notifications

The Things Which Could Be Worse Need Cats To Make Them Better Complaint Thread

Comments

Adding to Cart…