So on my European vacation, I somehow picked up a fungal skin rash on my arm… and mistakenly took it for just an allergic reaction and put hydrocortisone on it for 2-3 days before it blew up and it was obvious what it was. Fortunately, that was during the flight home and upon arrival quickly picked up OTC cream at Walmart. Got tons better for several days and then seemed to have stalled - meanwhile my whole body started itching TERRIBLY head to toe. Go to your dermatologist right? Well, they can’t see me for a month, but they’ll put me on a cancellation list… Anyhow, in the last 3 days things have progressed much better, so I figure I saved $200…
H just called to let me know the dermatologist called him. Oh, they have a cancellation? Oh no. It’s the results of his biopsy and he has basal cell carcinoma and has to get that taken care of ASAP. But, his biopsy was TWO MONTHS AGO! He’s like “why are you just telling me this now?” We called and left messages. Ummm. no you didn’t. How about snail mail? Ugh…
And it’s the only place in town, and the doctor’s are nice… but sheesh… I’m not impressed.
And this is the town where H’s PCP neglected to mention for at least 3-4 years (that’s all the records they gave me) that showed his WBC was sky high and increasing every year and really should see an oncologist… (He has CLL that was only discovered when he got his hip replaced.)
Kudos to the mother of my son’s roommate: She wrote Son a check for the amount the roommate charged (stole). I’m very relieved, because S was stressed out over the situation. In general, he likes this roommate and I think they can move forward now.
Holy crap! I had ds1 and DIL’s flight info wrong. They are coming in TONIGHT, not tomorrow, and I haven’t bought his gifts and haven’t in any way washed linen or cleaned the guest room and dh has gone to work and ds2 is using my car. AACK! I knew this was all going way too smoothly.
I tried to convert my 401k to an IRA last week. It was supposed to be done by Friday so I could transfer some of it to a Roth today. On Friday, after the customer service dept was closed, I got an email telling me to call them ASAP as they needed more info. I was able to reach the 401k customer service Friday night and they said all they could tell me was the money was gone from my account and ‘should’ post as an IRA on Saturday, that there was nothing wrong. Didn’t post. Called the number on the letter today. Nope, they don’t know anything about it, sent me back to 401k side of business. Nope, it’s gone from them, and it can take a lot longer than 2 days (as Dylan had told me), The IRA person said 8-10 days! No one could tell me where my money was. They also kept saying the money was going to a Roth IRA, but that was wrong because I only want a small amount of it in Roth to get a tax advantage this year.
Two hours later, Dylan admits he made a mistake (there really WAS something wrong). No one called me, Dylan can’t get the money back into 401k, my only choices are to take the ‘buy’ date as of today and lose any money from last week and buy the Roth tomorrow, or put in a dispute and get the amount from last week in ‘a few weeks’ and not get the Roth by year end. Or I can take the check from the 401k and roll it over into another fund but that won’t happen by the end of the year so no tax benefit.
They don’t care if I pull all my money out. Nothing like being a customer for 25 years and having customer service tell you there is nothing wrong but they don’t know where your money is and there is nothing they can do about it and there is NO ONE you can talk to see where your money is or to give you a statement today that you even have money with them (all three accounts, 401k, Roth, IRA show $0 since last wednesday).
Yes Jeremy, the extremely rude customer service guy from Illinois, will be getting a complaint filed against him and the company will get a complaint filed with the federal regulator. Luckily, it is all recorded as they told me every time they transferred me to another person.
If you mentioned all your symptoms to the doctor I drove hours to take you to yesterday maybe you wouldn’t be in the ER in the middle of the night. I know you are old and unwell but I’m exhausted and driving hours again today.
Crud. It’s been over 8 years since I’ve had a fall. (Last time I tripped on a cracked sidewalk while hurrying to catch a bus.) Today I tripped over a box of kitty litter in the laundry room of my own house. I stumbled/fell all the way across the room, bouncing off the dryer to land against the storage cupboards where the vacuum cleaner fell on top of me.
Although the fall scared me, I’m not seriously hurt. (Just some bruises and badly sprained big toe). For that I am profoundly grateful. It could have been so much worse.
But what really makes me mad…..is the next time I go to see my PCP I will have to answer “yes” to the “Have you fallen in the last ____ months?” question
Thanks, New York Times, for the “informative” article about toilet rats. 2025 hasn’t given me enough nightmares; lets just add that to the litany of horrors.
One of my favorite Youtubers died. I’ve been watching his videos for over 10 years. For 10+ years, he’s posted a video almost every day.
There’s a lot of fake people out there in Internet-land. But this guy was genuine, humble, down to earth, genuine, witty, encouraging to others, the whole 9 yards. The whole enchilada. His best friend posted a heartbreaking and very touching video today talking about him.
I’ve been randomly crying, sometimes even bawling, over the death of a person I’ve never actually met in person.
This Youtuber is the reason I pull over on the side of the road on road trips and I roll down the window to have a conversation with the cows or horses.
He was a really good guy. The world was a better place with him in it. I’m grateful that he chose to share his life with everyone for so many years. He was the sort of person who you don’t have to try to guess what his values are…he lived those values every day.
So in the spirit of that Youtuber, I’m gonna go get a piping hot caffeinated beverage tomorrow at Starbucks. Join me…shall you?
Not sure where to put this but since in some other threads people were noting some top cc threads of 2025, it is now a banner, but also here is a link: (there are more categories when you click the link )
