Rowing this morning was a reenactment of Aesop's fable of the Tortoise and the
Hare. For some reason, despite the fact that this is fall and we're heading into
head race (5000m) season, everyone seemed to be doing short sprint pieces. I was
rowing at about 50% pressure, trying to just keep going and keep the water bearks
to a minimum. So they'd race past me and then stop and I'd row on by while they
sat panting. Then I'd get to the end of the lake, turn around, pass them as they
recovered, they'd race past again, and again I'd pass them when they stopped. It
would have been fairly gratifying (REALLY gratifying would be if they couldn't
pass me at all), except that on some of those passes I got mercilessly waked by
the accompanying coaching launches. It was bad; I'm stable enough in the boat that
I never came near tipping , but it does slow me down and there were a couple of
points where I was getting a tiny bit seasick.
Or maybe that was from
the late meal and lack of sleep. I've been thoroughly spoiled lately; last week I
was in training and work paid for all my breakfasts, lunches, and snacks, and
Rudder's company gave us
tickets to see the Diamondbacks beat the Rockies, from a suite. This week, I
paid for my own lunches, but on Tuesday I got to go out for a steak dinner from work (not
to mention a few extra bonuses) and last night, one of Rudder's vendors invited us
out to a really, really good steak dinner, at a place notable for the quality of
both their beef and their wine cellar. I don't know what I'll do next week when I
have to pay for all of my own meals!
TIP OF THE DAY:
If your
health insurance is a PPO and you want to find out whether a medical provider
(those would be what we used to call "doctors and nurses") participates in the
network, apparently you must ask whether they "participate" in that insurance
network, rather than whether they "accept" the insurance. Becuase I used the wrong
word, my insurance has just informed that the convenient mobile service that
provided my baseline
mammogram is actually out-of-network and therefore they will only pay $26
of the $147 claim. This was after I cleared up the part where the
insurance refused the claim because they tried to bill it in my name instead of
Rudder's -- insurance at my last job was through the same company, but that
account closed over a year ago, after they laid me off. Obviously the mammogram
company have larceny in their hearts are well, because when they billed me (in the
letter telling me insurance coverage was refused), they only billed for half the
amount they would have charged the company. Therefore, I'm sure that whatever
residual I have to pay will be much less than $147 - 26 = 121, but it still
peeves me that I have to pay anything at all over the normal copay (which is what
we used to call a "copayment"). I'll argue it down as far as possible, naturally,
but I doubt I'll win this one entirely. Sigh. So much for doing responsible
preventive medicine.
Note: I'm linking to myself all over the place
today, in honor of Kinetix,
because he's my favorite of the journalers chosen for the latest Diary Survivor. That's not entirely
fair, since there are only two people on that list I've been reading regularly,
but I have read him for a long time and he amuses me frequently.