Health Insurance is KILLING me

It's open enrollment season and apps are flying around. I anticipated signing up for myself and my husband and having the company pay for it. Altho the company only offered to pay for half of my coverage upfront. Soon it became clear the owner most definitely did NOT want to pay anything. Well, in CA you are required to pay SOMETHING. I really didn't want to miss out on the opportunity of any benefit that any company would provide. But with only over priced policies available, I was looking at having to pay out $750 assuming the company would pay for half my insurance which at this point, was not even sure. My boss kindly said I could "owe them" later. So here I was looking at wracking up debt at the tune of $1000/month and for what ? There are no pressing needs. I just can't do it. After turning in my application to signup, I reneged and said I was declining coverage. It just doesn't make any sense. So my boss decided out-of-hand that the company will indeed cover half of our premium and screw the other owner (she's half owner). She asked if that would change my answer. I thought about it for awhile but being tired and cranky, it was difficult to do so and I found myself not able to concentrate on anything but this. My hopes of having the company pick up the entire tab had vanished. It really bothered me that I could not take advantage of what the company WAS offering. It would seem only fair if you going to allot a certain dollar value to all employees per month, shouldnt you at least give me a little something in my check since i'm NOT taking the plan? Well that's the way I feel But do you think I would ask for that? No. Not now. Maybe later when i can afford to piss people off with my greed. So then I said I should get the dental at least, my teeth are in disrepair and i could use it. So i asked, are you going to pay for half of that? It's somewhere in the $30-$50/month range. And she said "no". "NO"???? WTF ????? So once again I said fuck it. Don't want it. At this point I am so worked up I am ready to cry. Ridiculous. So then she says, she will pay for it and I say "Don't bother. It doent make any sense anyways. Dental doesnt cover much and i can't afford to pay what they DONT cover now anyways ! So why waste the money, right?" UGH I have never been so depressed over something so stupid. This Health Insurance deal is KILLING me !

I'm going online now to search for some home blood testing kits and other laboratory goodies to stuff in our stockings. Merry Christmas !

Flying High (Again)

Flying is not much like it used to be. Getting on a plane recently, I had cause to ponder it.

I remember a time when flying to my Mother's house from my boarding school, she decided it would better to pick me up in Oakland rather than drive to San Francisco. Which no doubt, is a better idea. But, if you're familiar with the Bay Area at all, you know that the distance between these two cities is approx nine miles, or the distance of a bridge over the bay. Sure it takes longer than that to drive around to the actual airport, especially in Bay Area traffic. And the SF Airport is not located in the actual city like some airports (thankfully). But taking an actual flight across the bay ? Is just ridiculous. And that, my friends, is what I had to do. I remember it clearly because I was young enough to not realize how silly of an idea it was. Until I got on the plane and we were in the air for approx 5 minutes to jump over the Bay. I looked into it. You can't even GET a flight like that any more. Which I find humorous. It makes sense. I dont think anyone could charge enough to warrant getting a plane in the air any more for that brief amount of time. Nonetheless, it was a flight I won't forget :)

There have been other changes to flying in the past 20 years too. And since the time span i indicated is TWENTY years and not ten, not all changes have to do with 9-11. Besides not getting the free meal (and now, not even getting free fucking peanuts), do you remember when pilots actually served as  tour guides too? They used to tell you to "look out the right side of the plane and you will see 'X'". What ever happened to that? I'm still interested in knowing. I suppose some angry business travellers got tired of being woken up. But somehow, the magic of flying became a borish chore instead. As we flew yesterday and I got a glimpse of some mountains, I looked closely. Below me where large granite formations and, possibly even a waterfall ? I thought we might be over Yosemite but I had no way of knowing. It made sense though. Yosemite is almost a straight line to my house and my house is definitely in the flight plan of those heading to the Bay, which is also almost a straight line to get there.

Of course, as usual, I usually run a blog through my head and then never type it out and post it. In this case, I decided to actually do it since it had been on my mind and of course, once again, I cannot recall all the thoughts that had gone through my head, there seemed to be more but I can't currently recall what they were.

Bad Neighbor but Good Bass

Does anyone have a solution on how to deal with living near Satan ? Yes my neighbor is that bad. Granted she is across the street and down one house and yet still her bullshit affects my life daily. I am so sick of it I want nothing more than to see her dead. That's not very humane, granted, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I am, however, willing to take suggestions and action to prevent me from attempting to kill her and all who dwell in the House of Ill Repute. The latest ? Threats from her current jailbait fling. Waiting on MY PROPERTY for my MY HUSBAND to come home so he could threaten him. Of course the police were called but they are such useless things in matters such as these. And it all comes to nothing no matter what I do. Every piece of security installed in my house is directly related to activity from that house. From security cameras, perimiter alarms, No Trespassing signs, weapons of varying degrees. Next stop ? I guess a wall along my property. What other choice do I have ???

At least music has always been there for me. And in times of great stress and need to vent, I grab the mike and let myself be heard. Hopefully all the way across the street no less. I don't see why not. Our PA system ROCKS. And i'm ever so grateful that despite my month long lapse, my fingers did not fail me on bass. I can't understand why sometimes i am so lazy about things that make me feel so good !!! Nothing is quite as awesome as generating your own goose bumps from music. I think I'll be back for more. I need it and it needs me.

Motor Mounts and Grilled Steak

Hello and welcome to DA PIT

I decided, after seeing Chicky's blog and wanting to blog in a long time and not finding the right platform, to give this place a try. I hope they don't allow friends here because in my estimation, "blog friends" eventually lead to "blog failure", at least for me they do. We can go into that later. For now, WELCOME !

Today I want to talk about Life's Long Journey and the learning experience. You might not know that based on the title of my blog.

When you're 13, you think you know everything.

When you're 16 you think you know everything.

When you're 21, you DO know everything, in fact, you're convinced of it.

At some point after 25 you realize you never knew everything and you never will, but if you keep learning, you might be alright. At the ripe old age of 38, I learned a couple of things in the past week.

I had recently seen an article on Yahoo for tips for grilling steak. Now I am not a fan of eating steak, but my husband is. I made a mental note to tell him about it so he could read it. Of course by the time I remember to tell him, I can no longer find the article that was so interesting to me. A search for grilling tips brought a lot of different articles and videos so we decided to read a few and watch a few videos and see what we could learn. Taking some of the most common threads from everything we took in, we decided on a plan of action.

Dave had selected his favorite cut of steak, a nice T-bone about 1" thick. Contrary to his natural inclinations of dousing his meat in a marinade or rub, we decided to follow the simplest of paths. First, allow your steak to come to room temperature. Once it is, we prepared with a coating of olive oil and a healthy smattering of salt and pepper. 

The charcoal had been heating up and we waited until the coals were completely ashed over and super hot. About 400-500 degrees is where you want your grill. They say if you cant hold your hand over the flame for more than a second or two, it's the right temperature. We did not try to do this at home. When the grill was ready, the steak went on. Now I will be the first to admit, I do not know all the details of how long to cook what cut if you want it medium, or well, etc. We decided 4 minutes on a side would be sufficient for Dave's steak to be somewhere in the medium rare to medium area. You want to turn your steak as little as possible and use tongs, do not use forks.

For presentation purposes only, mid way through cooking the first side of the steak, move it at a 45 degree angle to get the cross hatch grill marks. We did not do this either. After 4 minutes, the steak was turned over. As we watched it continue to cook, we decided that 4 more minutes might be too much so we took it off after the 3 minute marker and took it inside to allow the steak to rest for 5-10 minutes. The meat continues to cook by the heat already contained on the exterior.

Dave said it was the best steak he ever made. I don't doubt it for a second either. Every bite he took, a noise of pure delight was produced. He now even feels confidant enough to grill steaks for family and friends. I took great enjoyment in trying this new endeavor even though steak will never be one of those things that I crave, the learning experience was a pleasant one and I'm glad I added it to my collection of knowledge. 

For the second part of my learning experience for the week was about motor mounts aka engine mounts. When my car decided it did not want to start (because I paid it off the previous month you see), I had it towed into my favorite mechanics place. As they dug into my problem and discovered my bad starter had started blowing relays, they also discovered that one of my motor mounts was going to "imminently fail". Now I have heard of motor mounts before and could guess by their name what they are for. But it took a little more research to fully understand what was going on here. First of all, getting the mount replaced while they were already this deep into the car would keep me from having to pay twice for the labor. Before I gave the okay, it was back to the internet for more research.

I still don't know how many motor mounts I have, but I got a good look at a variety of them online. Prices ranged from $10 to $150. Apparently they are unique for each location on the vehicle. I asked my mechanic why they were charging me $160. Their reply - it's the one we could get today. What else could I do ? Research informed me that if I am an aggressive driver (which I am), this could wear them out quicker due to their function. What is their function ? Apparently, beside what you can gleam from it's name, it does more than just mount the motor. It keeps the motor tethered to the rest of your car frame. I guess this is one of the reasons why it is so important. If your motor mounts fail, and your engine is jumping around, it could damage any number of other components. This is the only thing I have heard in favor of actually bringing down the aggressiveness of my driving. It all makes sense now !

It's Time to play Would You Rather ?

Would You Rather .............?

1. Slam your finger in a door or get your nipple pierced ?
2. Kiss a Hobo or Kiss your boss ?
3. Have a tooth pulled with only a local or get a brazilian wax ?
4. Be cellibate for the rest of your life or be deaf ?
5. Make a speech on any topic in front of 1000 people or get your nipple pierced in front of 10 people ?
6. Have to have your foot amputated or your hand ?
7. Be caught in a rain storm 10 miles from home while out bike riding or trip and fall down while no one was watching ?

Okay that is all for now ! Let me hear your answers