Grant's 27th Year

[GrantRobertson]

Grant, I was diagnosed with Fibro back in the 90s (really, truly, official by a neurologist and everything!). Over the next five years or so I found out that my symptoms were actually due to a Magnesium deficiency and as long as I take my Mag supplements, I'm asymptomatic. That means taking bioavailable forms (most supplements use Mag Oxide, which is useless and goes right through you). If you have the funds, you might want to try Mag Aspartate, Citrate, Orotate, or a combination of those up to your bio limit - which is you on the toilet! I split it up over three meals so I don't have so much laxative effect.

Also, for depression, I found that supplementing with metafolin, a methylated folic acid, had a dramatic effect on my depression!

For sleep I tried everything, and I mean everything! I found that the only real relief I got was with 10 mg of Melatonin taken on an empty stomach 2 hrs before bedtime, along with 50 mg of generic Benadryl. I usually get a solid 4 hours out of that and happy to get it!

Just picked up magnesium malate. Melatonin in slow release capsules. And fish oil.

I'll see how that goes.

 

[GrantRobertson]

I have a Skype interview tomorrow for a technical writing position with the state of Michigan, in Lansing. I've been told I am the top candidate. It is a 10 month contract on W2. The take home pay would be enough to buy a shuttle every month. Though, I would likely get a cheap apartment on a six month lease to get me through the winter.

Everyone have spaghetti for me tonight. I am a Pastafarian. [emoji6]

 

[lpavelchak0204]

I have a Skype interview tomorrow for a technical writing position with the state of Michigan, in Lansing. I've been told I am the top candidate. It is a 10 month contract on W2. The take home pay would be enough to buy a shuttle every month.  Though, I would likely get a cheap apartment on a six month lease to get me through the winter.

Everyone have spaghetti for me tonight. I am a Pastafarian.  [emoji6]

I am a Pastafarian too. I'll have spaghetti for you tonight... I've been meaning to try out my camp stove! I'll make skillet spaghetti. I'll brown a 1/4 of very lean ground beef with a small diced onion and a garlic clove. Add a small can of tomato sauce and a little extra water and the pasta. Then dust it all with cheese and a few springs of fresh basil. Thanks for putting the idea in my head and giving me the motivation to eat something beside dry cereal. I'm new to this life style and have lost 18 pounds in just a couple of weeks.

Lynne

 

[GrantRobertson]

I am a Pastafarian too. I'll have spaghetti for you tonight... I've been meaning to try out my camp stove! I'll make skillet spaghetti. I'll brown a 1/4 of very lean ground beef with a small diced onion and a garlic clove. Add a small can of tomato sauce and a little extra water and the pasta. Then dust it all with cheese and a few springs of fresh basil. Thanks for putting the idea in my head and giving me the motivation to eat something beside dry cereal. I'm new to this life style and have lost 18 pounds in just a couple of weeks.

Lynne

Thanks Lynne, but too late. The recruiter called early to tell me the government contractor had just hired who the recruiter thought was the least qualified candidate. It's a whole rat's nest of government contractors with all the normal internal politics and cronyism. The recruiter was livid and vented to me about all the internal politics he had to deal with for almost half an hour. I ended up consoling HIM.

But no interview, so no job. I'm working now, but the job sucks and doesn't pay much.

You did make me hungry though.

 

[jimindenver]

Lansing is not to far from where I grew up. What a depressing place to winter. I hope you find something better soon Grant.

 

[GrantRobertson]

The VA just sent me a bill for all the psychological care I have received from them since September of 2014. They say I owe them $2,139 for services I thought were free, due to my low income. I have refiled for eligibility every year and at no time did they tell me I was no longer eligible for free care.

I feel as if I have just been stabbed in the gut by the people and organisation that I thought was there to help me.

Fortunately, the VA clinic is right across the street from where I work, at the VA Financial Services Center, processing medical claims. (No, the irony is not lost on me.) I will stop in and see WTF is going on, before I go into work.

Some days, I just can't wait for the world to end.

 

[offroad]

The VA just sent me a bill for all the psychological care I have received from them since September of 2014. They say I owe them $2,139 for services I thought were free, due to my low income. I have refiled for eligibility every year and at no time did they tell me I was no longer eligible for free care.

I feel as if I have just been stabbed in the gut by the people and organisation that I thought was there to help me.

Fortunately, the VA clinic is right across the street from where I work, at the VA Financial Services Center, processing medical claims. (No, the irony is not lost on me.) I will stop in and see WTF is going on, before I go into work.

Some days, I just can't wait for the world to end.

did you have other insurance coverage, and not just VA benefits from low income?   Did they expect you to give them that information?  Assume you just got the job at the VA, and you were dirt poor previously.  It sounds pretty bad that they are now giving you a bill for services from years ago, without explaining what the income qualifications are.

Which priority group were you in?  priority group 7?  You still had to make copays in that one even if you are poor.


http://www.military.com/benefits/veterans-health-care/va-health-care-eligibility.html

 

[offroad]

There is a government worker culture of blame on the customer for not knowing the red tape process. Silly but true. You have to be smarter than the people who are not helping you. -- to get va to fix this.

 

[GrantRobertson]

Went to the VA eligibility office. They had me call Income Verification. They told me that because I earned too much in 2013, I lost my eligibility. They said they sent me two letters in 2014 and 2015 but both were returned as undeliverable. I have been at my son's off and on for over a year now. Two, if you count a previous stint. So, the only way those letters got returned is If my son's ex-to-be got hold of them before he did.

Now, one big problem is that my eligibility is based on what I made the previous year. Not on what I was making at the time of treatment. Another problem is that there is no mechanism within the system to warn me that I will be billed a co-pay for a treatment BEFORE I receive said treatment. So I received treatment for over a year without knowing that there would be a co-pay. Finally, they say on these charges for over a year before billing me. I have received other bills from them for prescription co-pay and paid them. They just didn't get around to adding these things to my bill till now.


Here is what I am most afraid of: I had cataract surgery in 2014. If they send me a bill for that, I am done for. I don't know if I will ever be able to get out of that hole.

The most depressing part is that I actually work for the VA Financial Services Center processing medical claims. The whole system is so totally messed up from top to bottom that this kind of crap is inevitable. I know that millions of other veterans are going through the same things that I am going through for no reason other than incompetence and internal politics from top to bottom.

 

[GrantRobertson]

How ironic!

I just got an email about a job as an Eligibility Support Specialist working in a call center for a contractor for the VA. The job pays only $11.54 per hour.

There seems to be plenty of money to pay contractors to bandage over the mess but never enough money or gumption to actually fix the problem.

 

[GotSmart]

How ironic!

I just got an email about a job as an Eligibility Support Specialist working in a call center for a contractor for the VA. The job pays only $11.54 per hour.

There seems to be plenty of money to pay contractors to bandage over the mess but never enough money or gumption to actually fix the problem.

Congratulations, you now qualify for the job as head of the VA.   :s

 

[offroad]

You may need to literally sue the VA. To get them to fix the issue. And to take responsibility for their own billing errors and delays.

 

[GrantRobertson]

I got a tattoo today. I've been thinking about it for a long time. It is merely four words, two on the inside of each forearm, in open, block letters...

LOVE CARE THINK DO

Over the past few years, those four words have become my internal motto. My personal religion, if you will. I just recently decided that I need to stop hiding myself from the world.

I will post pictures when they heal up.

 

[GrantRobertson]

Gaaaahhhh!!!  I hate Austin around this time of year. I have suffered through two previous allergy seasons here and it was the most miserable two months (each year) that I have ever experienced. For me it is like having a terrible head cold for two months running (pun intended). I have to take four to six times the recommended dose of Allegra (actually the Wal-Greens knock-off) just to be functional at all. Those two months feel like two decades.

I got a steroid shot from the ENT doctor at the VA clinic a few weeks ago. However, that doesn't seem to have done a thing. And this year, it has hit me three weeks early.

For the curious, the problem is both mold and massively high pollen counts from the juniper trees that have overrun the area because they are drought tolerant. Of course, the people around here call it Cedar Fever because they want to believe the trees are cedar trees. But they're not. They're just giant shrubs. Entire forests of nothing but shrubs.

I wish I could just run away from it. But I don't have enough money saved up yet. Plus there are the expected expenses for getting the mechanicals on Mothra fixed up right. So, I will have to just suffer through one more season. However, I promise you, this will be my last winter in Austin, TX - or anywhere in TX, for that matter.

 

[GrantRobertson]

Well, I have just been informed that I may have less than two weeks left to live in my son's old house. His wife finally signed the divorce paperwork so he can finally sell this house. He makes enough money to just pay people to come in and move things for him and then pay people to come in and clean everything up for him. So that means things will move pretty darned fast, once he has that paperwork in hand.

Of course, the timing on everything couldn't be worse. If I have to have the transmission repaired on Mothra, then I may not have any place to stay while it is in the shop. I guess there is always living in the car. It's not as if others here haven't done that. There is also the fact that Mothra is just a hollow, rusted shell right now. And there are still huge holes to close up.

Well, at least I have a job  ...   for now.

 

[GrantRobertson]

Good news: We will now be allowed to work an extra 1.5 hours per night for overtime. In addition to the 6 - 8 hours of overtime we are also working on Saturdays. So this adds up to about $1070 - $1228 additional savings per month. On top of the $1400 I was saving already, that is $2470 - $2628 savings per month.

I may actually be in a situation where I have more money than time. It will certainly get me to my goals a lot faster, but I will have less time to actually DO anything.

 

[highdesertranger]

ain't that the way of life. highdesertranger

 

[Patrick46]

Here's what life has taught me...

Either you'll have the money, or the time. NEVER Both at the same time.

So, the only way to handle this correctly, is to purchase and stockpile the things you're gonna need for your project...while you've GOT the money to buy them.
...then, when you 'DO' have the time, you'll have the parts, the tools, and the place already set-up to complete your original project.

I've built a home, and lots of choppers, hot-rods, and mixed projects using this system...and from what I've found, it's the only way that actually works!

 

[GrantRobertson]

I'm gonna let you all in on a little secret:

I am exhausted, and overwhelmed, and scared, and profoundly lonely.

I work at a job that rivals Office Space in its level of BS and cronyism, where I am forced to guess my way through processing medical claims for veterans because NO ONE knows how anything is supposed to be done. My frustration is made worse, knowing all this incompetence is directly harming veterans, many of whom are struggling in the last month's of their lives. What's even worse is knowing that ALL of this should be done automatically by software instead of screwed up by legions of uneducated, poorly trained slackers.

I have a few weeks worth of only a few hours per day to try to get my RV even campable, let alone liveable.

I have the opportunity to work lots of overtime, but that means more time being frustrated and less time to work on the RV.

This forum is truly my ONLY source of community right now. And now it seems I got a cadre of codgers who are more interested in passive agressive insults and derailing my treads than truly being helpful. If you think what someone is planning will lead to problems, explain what those problem are. Don't demand the original poster explain over and over why they don't want to do it your way. Don't assume the original poster is an incompetent idiot just because they are not aware of common conventions. And if someone calls you out on your passive aggressive BS, don't go off all butt-hurt as if YOU are the injured party.

If you have suggestions, try to keep in mind the limitations of the situation of the original poster. Don't keep telling them that they should "take off and nuke it from orbit" when they gotta live there tomorrow.

Seriously, I came to this forum because I thought the people here had compassion for their fellow human beings who are living in the same situation. What I'm finding instead is a small group, trying to assert their dominance, making it difficult or uncomfortable for others to contribute.

It is NOT that I don't want advice. But if your only advice is, "You're an idiot. You're doing it all wrong. Do it the way I would do it in my giant shop with my comparatively unlimited budget and all my huge collection of tools and my unlimited timeframe," then don't be surprised if I get tired of hearing it.

All I am asking for is a little compassion and empathy, without all the testosterone-laden, passive aggressive, BS.

 

[Sabatical]

I'd be exhausted too if i were in your shoes. It sounds like you really need an upgrade to your support network. Easier said than done i know. Personally i spent nine months this year counting the days until we could drive back to the desert to be with folks that we really care about and who also care about us. The isolation of not fitting into the mold at home coupled with gloomy weather makes for plenty of trying times.
I just read this thread from the beginning today and now have a better understanding of your situation. The downside to forums is interacting with folks whom we don't really know. They don't know the whole of our situation and vice versa. I try to be understanding that most folks come at a problem or project from a different angle than myself. It can be frustrating but it's still your life and you don't have to justify it to anybody.
The good news is that when you get the chance to interact with some here in person it will be very fullfilling.