Month: August 2025

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I Tried.

So yesterday afternoon, I decided I really needed to get the heck out of the house.

I thought to myself it’s not going to be too cold, so I packed my tent, some water, my little JetBoil so I could have coffee in the morning, Really BAD coffee, the instant was very past it’s expiration date. I packed a small container of leftover chicken & rice for dinner and a bagel for breakfast. Tossed the sleeping bag in the pack, assorted dog treats, a little food for the dog and his collapsable bowls.

A simple overnight camping trip. No fire. It would have been nice to have a campfire but that’s out of the question in Southern California mountains this time of year.

I had my battery powered lantern, my headlamp, a few other items, and my old faithful handheld HAM Radio. It was in case of emergency, and allowed me to check the weather forecast if I saw clouds rolling in.

I purposely left my damn cellphone, sitting on its charger. I forgot to take my actual “Big Boy” camera! D’OH! Oh well…

Hiked about an hour up the mountain didn’t get as far as I wanted to because a certain someone had to stop every 4 feet to sniff every blade of grass. (Looking at you, dog!)

Got the tent set up near a nice rock outcropping that was almost perfect chair height. I had dinner, drank a little bourbon, and watched the sun go down.

It was blissful, silent, and except for the dog wondering what the hell we were doing, restful. Eventually he just accepted that we were fine, he had food and water, knew where I was, and settled down.

The evening was beautiful, just what I needed. Not quite idyllic, I’d have preferred a babbling brook too, but one makes do.

Around 8 or so, with a very confused dog, I zipped the door of the tent shut and  crawled into the sleeping bag. I don’t think the dog got much sleep.

He was on guard watching the view through the screen of the tent door and I’m not sure he liked the mesh of the tent roof. Next time perhaps I’ll set up with the rain fly so he doesn’t feel so exposed. I was just about asleep. 

My watch buzzed. A text message… “Please call me when you get a chance.” Okay whatever. I rolled over and went to sleep.

My mistake was not putting the damn watch in airplane mode right then and there.

Another message buzzed. This one from a person connected to the person who sent the first message. “I gave X your contact information. Nothing important, we haven’t talked in a very long time. How are you? Touch base when you have a chance.”

“Okay… I’ll get right on that, when I get around to it.”

As I was falling asleep again, I thought to myself, “I haven’t heard from either of these people in well over a year. They do know it’s Labor Day weekend don’t they? What the actual fuck is going on?” I drifted off deciding I’d handle it on Tuesday.

I had enough food, water, and dog treats to last well into Monday if I wanted.

It was a nice spot, a very small valley cutout in the “V” between two mountain peaks. This was not a proper campsite if rain was in the forecast but aside from the “Chair” rock outcropping it was pretty smooth and mostly level.

I could see the sky and stars, crickets were chirping, and I could hear a pair of owls talking to each other from trees on either side of the valley. I told my watch I was going to sleep. It went dark and would be silent until I told it I was awake. Aside from the dog shifting around and giving a nervous bark once during the night, I slept pretty soundly.

Dawn was glorious and I felt at peace. I made coffee, walking around my little campsite in my boxers and boots. No-one was around so who’d care? The dog has seen much worse!

He and I played “Fetch the Treat” in the cool morning air. I had my bagel with a bit of peanut butter and jelly, and thought about camping one more night.

My mistake was taking my watch out of “sleep”. I was considering hiking further up the valley and spending another night nearer the Pacific Crest Trail. That would mean a strenuous climb if I went straight up, or perhaps there was a way around that was less of a sheer climb. 

The watch has topographical mapping and I thought I’d take a look for another path.

More text messages, emails, and a phone call transcription from the person that texted me last night. The call was at 8:23am. The transcription was typical soft pedaling when someone is going to ask you for something but they don’t want to just come out with it.

I rolled my eyes and again thought, “Tuesday. I’ll deal with whatever this is, on Tuesday.”

I strike camp. There’s a path that looks like it changes elevation more gradually. The dog and I were walking happily in a rocky gully at the east end of the valley. There were some of the biggest pieces of actinolite I’ve ever seen, and large pieces of maybe calcite strewn around among the big chunks of granite.

We’d covered maybe another mile and the climb was getting steeper. The gully was narrowing, getting more rugged, I was looking at the Topo map searching for a possible path that could get us out of the gully without having to climb up 30 foot mostly smooth rock faces.

I didn’t have any rope or climbing gear and being alone, didn’t want to risk a fall. Even the dog was looking at me like, “Well, what do we do now?” He’s a very good climber and for him to look back at me probably means I’m not going to free climb a rock face.

Another voicemail transcript from the same person. The time stamp is 9:21. This one is more insistent.

“For FUCKS SAKE!” I muttered, making a mental note to shut down this kind of shit being forwarded to my watch. 

Another text message timestamped 9:23. It too is more insistent.

Maybe my real mental note should be, “Bring a fucking map, or the old Garmin GPS instead of wearing a smart watch while camping. Maybe I’ll just drop the hammer, and spend money I don’t have, on a decent Timex or that sweet Omega I’ve been jonesing for.”

Although, if I’ve got the Garmin I’ll know what time it is, if I’m curious. For that matter the HAM rig has a clock in it too.

The dog & I backtrack a bit, then find another path that veers off away from the gully and keeps moving up. I’ve got my eye on this sweet smooth spot that might afford a spectacular view toward the West. I doubt I’ll be able to see the ocean but the view itself should be commanding.

We hike a while longer, then stop to rest under one of the few trees. The pup is thirsty, I fill his little water dish and check our bearing while he’s resting in the shade. The hike is steeper than the Topo on the watch screen led me to believe it would be.

It’s a nice challenge and in all this has been a cheap adventure. I’m enjoying myself, I’m even thinking of stripping and doing part of the hike nude. Again, no-one around and the dog wouldn’t care.

BUZZZ! Another fucking voicemail transcript from the same person. The text of the voicemail appears more insistent than the previous two. Now it’s commanding instead of “call when you get a chance.”

BUZZZ! Another text message asking me to call, from the person who gave little Miss Insistent my number.

FUUUUUUCCCKKKK!

Can’t a man have some peace and quiet?

These are people Jerry used to work with. Little Miss Insistent is a business owner and like all female business owners, or female bosses, for that matter will not say what they fucking mean.

Instead they say something indirect and then get pissed when a man doesn’t read between the lines and JUMP to do whatever the fuck they are demanding without actually using demanding words.

After all if they used demanding words, they’d be rude. Instead they prefer to annoy the shit out of you.

Standing there, an unknown number of miles from where I want to be, I realize that I’m not going to have any peace until I call these women back. My phone is at least 3 hours hike down this fucking mountain and they’ve managed to piss me off.

So much for having some mental break time on a holiday weekend!

I decide, “Fuck IT! I’m heading back home, back to the noise of weekend projects, chainsaws, and cars blaring rap music as they drive to the meth dealers house up the block.”

The peaceful mood I was working on is gone.

I’m thankful that I had most of one night. I guess that’s all I fucking deserve or can expect.

On the way back down the mountain it occurs to me that this right here is one of the reasons I hate working for women. I don’t even work for these people but fuck if they’re not behaving like I owe them something.

Maybe I’m just easily triggered after years of this kind of shit when I was working. This is the behavior of bosses all over America that fail to plan then tell you at 5:00 on a Friday they need you to work the weekend. They’re not asking… They’re ordering you to flush your plans because they couldn’t plan. 

The capper is always that they’re never going to be in the office over the weekend. They’re going to be out with their friends on their boats, or at Disneyland, or the beach.

They thoughtlessly condemn their employees to a weekend in a cubical farm and come Monday morning they’ll ask how your weekend was. They tend to get pissed when you point out your weekend was spent in the office after you cancelled your plans to be with your friends at Havasu.

After all, the truth is rude. It’s equally rude to point out their hypocrisy. Then women will try to make it better by saying something like, “Well you’re the only one I trust to do this…” 

Which is also bullshit. What they really mean is, “You’re the only one dumb enough, or You’re the only one without family obligations, or You’re the only male in the department  & the mom’s need to be home with their children.” In any of the cases it boils down to since you’re a male, you’re the only one they can fuck over with impunity.

It’s a fucking holiday weekend! I don’t work for you & damn even though I’m retired is it so impossible to believe that I might have plans?

1874043 03400 1280c-1073273447.I swear, I’d love to find a S&M orgy to call them back from.

The slap of leather, groans, and “Ohhhh Daddy Fuck me harder!” Would make a perfect background for me to return the phone call. 

“Hello, how are you?“

“I’m good… ‘OH YEAH! Take my load you whore!’ “

As I’m pumping a load into someone would be perfect!

I can hear that conversation;

“Where on earth are you?“

“Oh, I’m at the annual Labor Day orgy. They’ve got Viagra and Cialis in candy dishes everywhere. I’ve been fucking for 48 hours straight. ‘Yeah man on your knees, suck my cock.’ Uhh, What did you need?” 

I wonder if I should play a porn really loud in the background when I call back? Do you think they’d get the picture? Probably not, no-one has introspection, respect, or common sense, anymore.

Cell phones have absolutely ruined us.

There was a time when you left a message and that was it. No one had expectations of immediate responses. These days, it’s what? An hour before someone is hammering on your phone again?

Who the fuck calls someone on a Sunday, holiday weekend or not, at 8 or 9 am? There are people who might be in a church pew at that exact time. You’re going to interrupt their prayers & worship time?

This whole thing reminds me of a client I dropped. This daffy queen would wait till the day before every damn holiday then call to demand I rework his company website so they’d have new holiday pricing in effect at opening of business the day after the holiday.

It wouldn’t have been quite as annoying if he paid his fucking bill or at least gave me a discount on his services. Hell, I’d have swapped services.

When I finally dropped him, I realized that he didn’t value my service and he didn’t value me as a person. I haven’t missed the annoyance.

The last time I looked at his site, it was a mess. I’m sure he was paying someone a shit ton of money for it too.

Time for me to do something constructive. I’m going to go burn some aggression off with yard work.

Fuck technology and our hyper connected world! I’ve turned off the message forwarding to my damn watch. So If I don’t have my damn phone with me, leave a message! 

I sincerely hope everyone else has a peaceful remainder of their Labor Day.

[For those of you wondering, the photos are from previous walks/hikes, (except the orgy scene,) since I forgot my big boy camera. I thought this post could use some color.]

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Very confusing messages and candidate.

GettyImages 2230161607 640x480.We all know Newsom is running for President. Come on… we can admit it.

Okay, so what’s his message?

His gerrymandering thing is concerning.

Although I secretly admit that if they redraw the lines, my community might get taken out of Judy Chu’s district and put back into a district belonging to someone who has a clue about where we are, and how our needs differ from the aristocracy in her core area.

That being said, Newsom is 100% wrong. Polls suggest that the people of California oppose his redrawing the lines at this time. We supposedly have a Fair and Impartial redistricting committee put in place by the California electorate to prevent this sort of thing.

That committee was voted for, by the people of California. “Fair and Impartial” has become a somewhat nebulous term these days, especially when it comes to our redistricting committee.

I believe that the lines were in fact gerrymandered in the last redraw. There appeared to be a concerted effort to slice up conservative Republican strongholds in the High Desert communities, and in the Central Valley.

Not that it mattered too much in the 2024 election. If you look at the votes that went for Trump in California, even the coastal cities were a lot redder than in past elections.

Newsom, in my opinion is wrong forcing this issue because he’s essentially saying to the people of California, “You didn’t do it right, so I’m going to defy your will, the California Constitution, and I’m going to do what I please,” I think there’s a term for that… 

In fact there are multiple terms for that, most of which are applied to President Trump every hour of every day. “Dictator”, “Tyrant”, “King”…

How is what Newsom’s doing any different? In a way it underscores that in California the voters only have an illusion of choice.

To me it says, “You the people are in control, only so long as you do things my way. If you defy me, I’m going to take away your control.” That’s not a functioning Democracy, or Republic. That’s the very definition of a dictatorship. Wait, isn’t that one of the things the Democrat party hates about Putin?

Honestly, it’s not a good look for a future President. I don’t care which political party you’re a member of.

Newsom suggested on a podcast with tech journalist Kara Swisher, that Trump was going to place ICE agents at the polls in the midterm election as an act of intimidation.

Wait. What? How is that an act of intimidation? I thought only citizens voted in our safe, free, and fair elections. Why would that be intimidating? Unless Newsom said something he shouldn’t have, implicitly admitting Non-Citizens were voting in our elections.

Noooo that can’t be true. Non-Citizens, illegal or not, would never vote illegally.

I suppose that what he meant to say was ICE presence could deter naturalized Citizens from voting. I could see that, maybe.

But I’ve never known a naturalized citizen who was the least bit hesitant to proudly show their proof of naturalization.

I know a number of people who went through the citizenship process. They’re Mexican, South American, Russian, Ukrainian, and Algerian. These are people I know personally.

Hell some of them I helped coach for their citizenship tests, and guess what? We threw them welcome parties to celebrate their achievement in becoming U.S. Citizens. One of these people I personally took with me to the polling location for a presidential election. It was his first time casting a vote in this country and I was honored to vote with him.

These folks went through the process, they waited their turn, and entered our country legally and with our blessing.

Newsom’s concern about ICE possibly being at the polls could be assuaged if California implemented Voter ID.

I do hope that some bright Republican campaign person takes that thought and runs with it. With voter ID in place, there’s no need to have ICE at the polling places is there?

Newsom told Politico that he believes Trump will run in 2028.

This is a presidential candidate?

Has he read the United States Constitution?

Just because his auntie has become fossilized in Washington D.C. doesn’t mean that Presidential term limits don’t apply. He claimed he’s been sent two dozen Trump 2028 hats.

So? Sure there are people who’d probably like to see Trump in office for 3 terms. However that’s not likely to happen because it would require amending the Constitution.  Changing the Constitution is a big deal and should never be taken lightly. I’ll stand up with a bunch of other people from both political parties to prevent that.

Not because I’m worried about Trump having a third term. But because If we open that door, I believe we open the door to amending or nullifying every other right or limitation of government power enshrined in the Constitution.

Like the right to free speech, freedom from unreasonable search & seizure, to bear arms, and anything else a President or political party finds inconvenient.

We saw in the Biden administration, and during COVID, that there are people who would, without hesitation, abridge our freedoms. We know now that censorship (a clear violation of the First amendment,) was in fact being applied to social media, & internet information sources by our Government. We know this from testimony in congressional hearings.

Even with the Constitutional protections in place, there are breathtaking examples of misuse of power. Those misuses are not limited to the Biden Administration.

Biden’s people were just more rabid, and less subtle in how they tried to take our freedom.

Don’t get me wrong, I have questions and concerns about the Constitutionality of some of Trumps Executive Orders, and if he’s over-reaching the boundaries of his office. I’m also not particularly thrilled about the white house ballroom, and I personally don’t like all the gold leaf he’s applied to rooms in the White House.

That’s not based in politics, it’s a matter of taste and I think it looks tacky. But that’s my opinion. I prefer quiet contemplative spaces and gold sparkling everywhere is distracting to me.

I believe Trump is as prone to all the same mistakes that power and wealth bring as anyone else. Technically he’s “Nouveau riche” so I’ll make allowances for his flashy style. I’m eternally poor, so flash is not in my repertoire.

Thursday and Friday in the wake of the latest school shooting, we have people demanding to take gun ownership away from all Americans. Yet, most of the recent school shootings have been carried out by a very select and specific group.

A group I should add that enjoys considerable legal protection and who actively attempts to censor all dissenting opinions, under the watchful eye of a particular stripe of media & government officials who are interested only in virtue signaling.

These people are not howling for gun control to be safe, they don’t care about children or even who is doing the shooting.

They want the kind of censorship and oppression that’s becoming commonplace in the UK, where grannies can be arrested for saying they like bacon at a muslim protest. Where little girls are arrested for defending themselves against rape in Scotland.

Scotland!?!

Of all places I’d never have expected a little girl to be arrested for defending herself. I’d have expected her to be hoisted up on the shoulders of burly men in full clan colors, taken to the town square and having the mayor say “Good on you lass.”

But nope! She’s arrested for protecting herself, only because some scum migrant thought he was entitled to have his filthy way with her. Had it been anyone but a muslim migrant she’d be sitting home with her parents having a cup of tea. Why? Because politicians keep virtue signaling and making excuses that Muslims don’t understand they’re not supposed to rape women or little girls. What happened to “Believe all women?” Or that violence against women mustn’t be tolerated? Or that sexualization of children is bad?

All that goes out the window, when politicians, any politicians, can use the situation to virtue signal. Usually, they’re virtue signaling to a group their either fear, or that gives them some perceived advantage with a voting block.

Newsom claims he’s getting tough on crime, yet refuses to fully fund proposition 36. He claims it would be too costly and the state is running a deficit. Proposition 36 passed in a landslide. Something over 60%. It was the will of the people, you know, that “Democracy” Newsom claims to represent…

It essentially reversed a soft on crime stance that permitted theft up to a certain dollar amount without being a felony. So, go to your local Target or Walmart with a calculator, stay under $900 or so and steal as much as you can. Just stay under the limit and you’ll be out of jail, if you’re caught, within hours.

At the same time, Newsom is spending millions on his gerrymandering scheme “Defending against an existential threat to Democracy.” 

Let me get this straight, he’s denying democracy, to “defend” democracy?

He’s doing this over Texas redistricting to improve representation of a two party electorate? Texas politics is not something I’m at all conversant in. But if Texas is un-gerrymandering its congressional districts in an attempt to create more balanced Congressional representation, isn’t that a good thing?

Don’t even get me started on Newsom’s messaging on X. He’s all over the map!

Maybe Newsom really is a “Lizard Person” He’s certainly acting like a chameleon hanging on a flatscreen TV.

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Happy Labor Day Weekend

It’s been a couple of weeks for me.

Not really rough, but tiresome.

Last week, the Fraud Department of one of my credit cards contacted while I was on the way to the car service people. Someone was trying to book a 4K stay at a luxury resort in Wyoming using the card I’d just pulled out of the safe for the car repair.

Great!!! Just what I needed. More annoying was that Apple and CarPlay won’t let you press or select any numbers while driving. 

Know what that means? If you’re stuck in traffic and have something like this happen, you can’t get through the fucking phone tree. “Please make a selection… Please make a selection… Please make a selection… Please make a selection… Please make a selection… Please make a selection… I didn’t hear anything, Goodbye!”

I haven’t found out if it’s a setting I can change in the phone or if this is some “New” feature. I turned off CarPlay, dug my earbuds out of my pocket, put them in, then dialed the number again. This time I could press buttons and was breaking the law doing it. I also wasn’t able to use the fancy built in functions in my damn car like hands free interfaces and the Microphones and speakers built into the car.

Very annoying! What are business people who are reliant on entering extensions, or even pressing 1 for English, 2 for Spanish, 3 for Hindi, 4 for Farsi supposed to do? There are people that make a living going from client to client all day long. How are they supposed to call a client to say they’re hung up in traffic and will be an hour late?

Unintended consequences! Someone didn’t think this through.

Did a quick search and it appears this is some bullshit thing that the car manufacturers did. BMW, Kia, Ford, Hyundai, Subaru, and others customer’s are all bitching about it in IOS 18. I’d seen it once before, and had also noticed I couldn’t scroll through my contacts list anymore either.

Sometimes Siri, and the BMW voice recognition just doesn’t understand what you’re saying due to traffic / road noise. Try getting Siri to understand you while you’re sitting next to an Idling big rig, or someone in the car next to you rattling your teeth with their overly amplified bass music. That happens all the time in epic Southern California traffic jams.

What’s the point of a safety feature that forces you to be unsafe to accomplish a simple thing like make a phone call, or call your next client whose name you kind remember but not exactly?

I swear to God, I’m sick of living in “nanny world”.

If I can’t use my phone driving with a fully integrated hands free system then what’s the point of having a damn phone with me all the time? Honestly, maybe going back to land lines with answering machines wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

I guess having CarPlay installed in the car isn’t that much of a priority anymore. If it’s this broken why bother? Maybe I’ll disconnect from CarPlay and see if my system will allow just a bluetooth or wired connection to work properly.

Sounds like an interesting experiment for sometime this weekend.

Anyhow, the 4K charge was declined, and all the other charges were declined/reversed as well. I might be on the hook for $50 but thankfully that’s it.

The person I finally got to talk to after navigating the phone tree, entering zip code, account numbers and all the rest of the bullshit to verify I was indeed a person, was actually helpful. They closed the account then issued a new card which arrived FedEx the next day.

I still have no idea how that number got out into the wild. The card had been in my safe for over a year, and wasn’t being used for any recurring payments. In fact I hadn’t charged anything on the card for at least 18 months.

The situation was handled but really hacked me off.

I checked all the other accounts and found no unrecognized charges.

Today, I was notified that one of the credit reporting agencies had a breach of 4 million records Name, address, phone number, SS number, DOB, and literally everything else a credit reporting agency has access to, probably including account numbers.

Thrilling!

So be mindful out there, check those transactions, especially over this holiday weekend. I sincerely hope that the fuckers trying to take a luxury vacation on my dime get screwed or worse.

I’d personally like a few hours with them, in a good old fashioned S&M dungeon. Believe me, they’d not have a good time. I’d make Torquemada look like an amateur. At least when I was done, they wouldn’t contaminate the gene pool any further. Testicle paté anyone? I feel pretty much the same way about the call scammers too.

To get a feel for what I’m saying, watch the movie “The Beekeeper” No S&M but the protagonist burns a bunch of telephone scammers shit down. It’s very satisfying!

Starting with the credit card, an unexpectedly expensive car repair, and dealing with various aspects of the medical profession I need the long weekend. I’m not working, if I was also dealing with the stresses of a job, I’d be a complete nut case.

“I’m getting too old for this shit!” To quote Danny Glover in “Lethal Weapon” 

I think I’m going to turn off the technology and take a techno-break for the next few days.

If you’re looking for a good binge show and you’ve got Amazon Prime, I can recommend “The Terminal List” everyone gets what’s coming to them, deservedly so. It’s another pretty darn satisfying series.

Time for me to pack it in.

Have a great long weekend.

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First Doctor’s appointment at this age

They gave me a minimal dementia test. They asked me to draw a clock after asking me to remember three words.

Yawn!

The young lady administering the test had a problem, (she was quiet, but obviously concerned,) when I started drawing the clock. Then she added that the clock show show 11:10.

I guess she thought I was having a problem when I started drawing the numbers.

I started with twelve, then 6, then 3, then 9, at the four cardinal points inside the circle. Then I added 1,2 then 4,5 then 7,8 then 10, 11.

When I started, she looked a little confused. I paused for a second or two. Visualizing the clock as I wanted it to appear. Then I started drawing. At that point she realized I wasn’t nuts, I simply had a plan. I drew the hands hour shorter and minute longer, indicating the requested time.

Then she asked me the three words. I gave them back in alphabetical order, then asked her if I was supposed to give them back in the order she said them.

She just smiled. 

My memories are apparently functional. As is planning, and visualizing.

All of this was with me running on empty. I’d walked the dog his 2.5 miles, showered, shaved, and had not eaten or had coffee with any sugar in it. It was 11:00 am and I had been really growly when I showed up for the appointment. It took over an hour to get there, traffic was stupid heavy.

Plus after spending 2 hours fighting their stupid web site on Sunday, I was annoyed they didn’t have the data available.

This was not a good combination. Me hungry, bordering on hangry and yet more stupid legal paperwork. They of course wanted an emergency contact. Which experience has shown me is a soft pedal way for them to target someone else if the bill isn’t paid.

I guess I’m overly suspicious.

I really don’t trust the medical profession anymore.

I liked the Dr. but as is in all visits these days, he had to play with his computer a lot. I was about to fire him. But then he actually examined me. He executed a good save.

I told him about a previous doctor I’d fired precisely because all he did was play on the computer the whole appointment. He seemed taken aback by that. I pay for a doctor’s expertise in medical matters not computer science. This is a “benefit” of the Obamacare BS and also the medicare system.

Doctors, even good ones, spend more time in filling out shitty online forms than they do hands-on with their patients.

He was suggesting blood work, and reminded me that it was time for a colonoscopy. Great! That’s going to be a problem. I’m going to need to have someone take the time to transport me on “The Day” Grrr.

I’m considering that when I have this done, I’m not going to be put out. There have been too many reports of medical people hitting IVs with vaccines they think a person should have.

I pushed back on the colonoscopy and he said I could do the home kit but if analysis was inconclusive I’d have to do the full thing.

The problem I have with doctors, particularly in the case of colonoscopies, is that if they find something, usually they’ll find it, then they’ll make another appointment to take care of it, then they’ll make another appointment to recheck that they fixed the problem, on and on. Until you say “Enough!“

If the doctors are already there, and they see the problem, they should fix the problem. But they don’t make as much money that way.

The Doc also suggested an ultrasound of my aorta. Yeah, I smoked so apparently in men It increases the risk of an aortic rupture. It’s probably worthwhile.

I don’t want to get sucked into the endless cycle of doctors, and medical appointments defining what’s left of my life. That’s not quality, it’s the final indignity of a life enslaved by working for the illusion of a retirement full of sunsets and travel.

——— Update 8/28 ———  

Okay,

I’m done with this Doctors office.

1) They’ve been spamming me to fill out a satisfaction survey since I left their office yesterday. I suppose I could fill out their survey saying that I was dissatisfied. I doubt seriously that it will change a damn thing.

2) I asked the Nurse or whatever she was, in-office if the Doctor could add one more test to the battery of tests he’d ordered. She said she’d ask and there’d be a modified lab order in their portal. Haven’t seen that yet.

3) The doctor issued another RX for a combo med I’ve been taking for years, but we’d discussed reducing the amount of one of the components, with the goal of getting off or minimizing the medication. The RX he issued is the exact same dosage. I noticed the error before I headed to the pharmacy and instead of going through the nightmare of the pharmacy, I sent a message via their patient portal noting that this wan’t what we’d discussed and that in any event I’m not going to do 30 day RXs if it’s decided that there will be no change to the med. I want 90 day supplies.

4) As I mentioned above, the Doctor asked about colonoscopy. I told him I was not particularly interested. He said that we could do the “poo in a box” version then make a determination about doing the necessity of the full monty version. This morning, I get a call from an Indian (Dot not Feather) demanding that I call him back to schedule my upcoming colonoscopy.

5) Nowhere in their portal is there mention of making arrangements for the aortic ultrasound.

In other words, this is exactly what I will not do. I will not slave myself to the medical industrial complex so they can destroy my quality of life with endless tests, appointments, and medications, while they milk insurance fees.

I’m not angry about getting old, I refuse to live in terror of the next phase of aging or the next mega disease. I will not relinquish my life to yet another bunch of assholes telling me how to conduct my life.

I spent my adult working life enslaved to corporations and people who saw me as a easily replaceable cog or stepping stone to their goals. I sure as hell am not willing to allow myself to be enslaved to the medical profession and I will never allow these healthcare professionals to “COVID” me again.

Obviously these people or this practice is too damn busy to pay attention. If they can’t pay attention on minor issues, can I trust them to pay attention in the event of a major issue?

As a courtesy, I went to their website to cancel the October follow-up appointment to review the medication changes and lab results.

Since the medication changes weren’t made, and nothing else discussed in the appointment was as we discussed I’m not going to need to be at an appointment now am I?

Their system wouldn’t let me cancel the appointment without providing an explanation.

That was probably a mistake on their part. Because it was pretty much the only way for me to tell them what I thought.

I filled their demanding little box.

Wrong RX. (not what was discussed in appointment.)

Got a call from some unintelligible person demanding to schedule my upcoming colonoscopy (not what was discussed in appointment.)

I lost my other half of 34 years in 2023 due in part, to similar lack of precision / failure to listen on the part of a hospital, and the medical group where he was a patient. My feeling today is exactly the same as when I was dealing with his care. He was not just another body, and neither am I.

I do not want the remainder of my life, however long or short that may be, circumscribed by endless tests, labs, appointments, medications, and insurance billing opportunities.

Your staff and the Doctor are all very nice. You’re all doing your jobs as dictated by policy, procedure, and prevailing medical guidelines. I understand this, but I’m a person who is quite good at taking care of myself. I’m also a minimalist.

Biology in general, and Human biology, specifically appear to operate far better with a light touch. My experiences with medical intervention have generally resulted in poorer, rather than improved outcomes. 

I have zero desire to live a repeat of what the medical profession put the light of my life through in his last years. 

I’m going to take a step back, or a breath, then determine what I want to do, and how I want to do it. Even if that means filling out yet another ream of paperwork to see a physician.

Should I decide to go forward with the lab work, I’ll make an appointment to review the results.

FYI, My choice to cancel an appointment should not require a MANDATORY explanation.

The whole time I was writing that, I kept hearing Jerry telling me to “be nice”.

Then I remembered why I’d always maintained a doctor in Orange County. I’ve kept the Doctor in San Diego for the same reason.

It’s because the doctors, all of the doctors I’ve ever tried to work with in the San Bernardino area were sloppy just like this bunch appears to be. The doctors I dealt with for Jerry were, with one exception, the worst.

In 20+ years working with my doctor in OC he never made a mistake with prescriptions, or procedures, and with the exception of a dermatologist, (who are all basically shithead frat boys of the medical profession,) he referred me to the best specialists, meaning they knew their shit and were on the ball, when I needed them.

In part I think it was because the folks he referred me to, were the same people he went to for his care. (He was always searching for a decent dermatologist too.)

I actually fought with Jerry about changing doctors when he first started having problems. I wanted him to go to an Orange County doctor, specifically mine. Jerry had mentioned things in the years prior to him starting to have problems, which concerned me about the local practices. I felt that if he saw my Doctor, he’d be referred to the “right” specialists and would get better care.

I know that sounds elitist and effete.

Jerry didn’t want to have to travel that far. In the end, it might not have made a difference, but I doubt I’ll ever change my opinion that poor lackadaisical medical care led directly to his death.

Now, I’m going to try to rescind all the legal documents one must sign to see a fucking doctor, and at the same time make sure this practice cancels any authorization requests for additional tests. It may be insurance money, but damn if I’m going to let that money be spent wastefully.

Then I’ll work on finding another Doctor, or I’ll keep the guy in San Diego at least until I get the rest of my life sorted out.

Posted on

Well now I’ve got their attention.

Microsoft Word Logo.Microsoft increased their “Personal” subscription price for Office 365 from something like $65 to $99 per year.

I’ll admit that’s not a lot of cash.

The problem is I barely used Microsoft software.

Outlook wasn’t any better than the mail client supplied with MacOS. The Apple email client works instantly and easily across all Apple devices. For its faults, it is reliable and doesn’t require for you put your contacts on Microsoft servers to be blasted across all their properties like LinkedIn and such.

In the entire time I’ve had Microsoft office, I don’t think I ever used PowerPoint for anything personal. I used it at work, but not at home. Excel, got more use, but not enough to justify the cost.

Word was about the only application I used with any frequency. As Word has evolved, it’s become less pleasurable and more annoying to use. So I wasn’t using it as much either. I was using Pages, Ulysses, or Scrivner. The latter two are configured more for writing things like stories. They’re clean and focused on their purpose. 

As I looked at the renewal. I realized it was the same price for 4 applications on a Mac as the price for what? 6 applications on Windows, and that I was really only using 25% of the Mac applications, I decided not to renew.

I made the decision about a month ago. The expiration date came & went. I’ve removed the Microsoft applications from my devices and now, I’m getting email notifications saying my subscription has lapsed and I should re-subscribe immediately to regain the benefits provided by their products.

Nope. Not interested. I’ve got a decent desktop publishing application, and Apple’s Pages for word processing documents. What Word or Pages couldn’t or can’t do, the desktop publisher can. Apple’s Numbers, and Keynote handle spreadsheets and presentations.

I’ve never used Keynote either. Nothing against it, I just don’t do that kind of presentation thing. I could, but why? I’m not presenting anything to anybody these days.

All the Apple apps read Microsoft formatted documents, they can output Microsoft compatible files and PDF documents if I need to share something, and they’re free.

Plus, I just saved 3 GB, (4 GB if you count Outlook which I’d purged a long time ago,) of space on my internal drive.

The Apple products all have the ability to back up versions, and like the Microsoft versions can save their data to cloud based storage. In the case of Microsoft, they insist that you use their cloud and refuse to turn on backups of documents unless the document is saved in their cloud.

Apple products likewise prefer to save their documents in the Apple Cloud which is end to end encrypted, and which through the use of Apple’s AFP system are encrypted in the cloud so that supposedly, even Apple can’t hack them.

I never much liked Microsoft’s cloud solution either and therefore didn’t use it.

This leads me to wonder about maintaining Windows on my Mac. Most of the apps that I routinely use are available on the Mac, so the reason for maintaining VMWare and running Windows is greatly diminished. VMWare having been sold and their subsequent moves regarding VMWare Fusion (the Mac VMWare) also calls into question the necessity to allocate 40GB of disk storage there. I don’t recall the last time I fired up VMWare or the Windows system. It’s Windows 11 which is okay, but there’s not much point in having it, if I’m not going to use it.

Thinking about it, and that my job search is going nowhere, maybe I should just back it up to the NAS and flush it from my Mac. If I need it, I can pull it from the NAS, if I don’t need it, It won’t be taking up space needlessly and I’ll know the answer.

Besides, it might be better to do away with VMWare and instead go to Parallels in the event that I need Windows on the Mac. Perhaps a better solution would be that if due to employment needs, I need a Windows machine, I just buy a cheap assed Windows laptop. Those are a dime a dozen.

This may be a stepping off point from Microsoft for me. They have nothing that I can’t get elsewhere. I have to point out that Pages, opens native Word docs faster than Word does on my Mac. That’s pretty darn interesting.