Category: Mens Health

Posted on

The Best Legitimate massage in 100 miles.

Reception

Just got off the massage table and I feel like a million bucks.

Although I’m a bit addled so I’m having a Starbucks to kinda wake back up.

Heres the deal, if you’re looking for the best legitimate massage between LA/OC and Palm Springs you really need to go see my friend Mark.

No Questions! Just go. He’s the best, works on everybody and is reasonably priced to boot. 

Here’s my story… I called to schedule my usual massage & Mark tells me he’s got a new address. His old studio was great so I think, “What’s up?”

Massage Room 1

The deal is this, after years of him working 5 days a week for Massage Envy (Who, as an aside, I wouldn’t do business with because of their nasty attitude and even crappier policies.) Mark decided to open his own place. 

He’s got a very nice multi room space in a small shopping plaza. The new studio is beautifully done, its quiet and very relaxing. 

His plan is to build out the other rooms, provide space for some other licensed massage folks and then provide no attitude, quality massages for everyone.

I have no doubt that he’ll succeed. During the years he was at Massage Envy, as a courtesy, he worked on me in his smaller private studio. I should add, he was working on me on HIS Day off. 

Yeah, that’s the kind of guy he is, a truly decent & caring human being.

Path To Relaxation

Mark’s repertoire includes a variety of massage styles and everything from simple massage to hot stones and stretching. (In truth, I haven’t sampled all the different modalities Mark offers. Hey, I’m a simple kind of guy.)

Mark is, and has been licensed forever. This is in stark contrast to many of the folks you see in ads on craigslist or wherever else. That license issue is important because it says he’s had real training, knows his stuff, and is capable of doing deep work without causing injury. 

For me, there’s nothing like laying down on the warm table and just drifting away.

I prefer really deep massage and in many of our sessions, I’ve screamed like a little girl and called him every name in the book. Sometimes I’ve done both at the same time.  

Mark’s strong hands will relax you, and he doesn’t have a problem with you screaming like a little girl, even if you’re a big ‘ol hockey player.

Mark also can do gentle. A few times when I’ve really hurt myself, he’s patiently and gently worked out the hurt spots. We won’t discuss the numerous occasions where I fell asleep because I was comfortable, safe, and relaxed. 

So all that being said… with all the stresses of the holiday season, take a little bit of time out for yourself.

Go see Mark. You aren’t going to have a “Happy Ending” but you’ll leave his place Happy and relaxed.

BCard

 

 

 

Posted on

Enjoying the rain today and glad its not tomorrow.

Man Walking In The Rain - pixgood.com

It’s been raining here all day.

I had to dash out for a little while to deal with a client issue. Thankfully traffic wasn’t too bad and I didn’t have to go far. 

The rain in my local area has been pretty constant. Not terribly heavy so a lot of it is soaking into the ground. I noticed the wash was roaring but that’s not surprising since the mountain to the south is over 8000 feet of mostly bare granite.  Almost all of the water that or snow that falls there runs straight into the wash. I see that water rushing downhill and I think it’s a pity we can’t capture it just long enough to let it soak into the slopes.

I got lucky too. I’ve got a Drs. Appointment tomorrow, so the majority of the storm should have passed and the roads won’t be oil slicks.

Doctor

It’s my annual physical so I get to do the full monty, sigh.

In general, I don’t mind having my nether regions squeezed & fondled. But usually I know I’m going to have a nice orgasm at the end. The anti-climax of a medical exam is a real letdown.  Thank god I don’t have a medical fetish or I’d be really frustrated. 

As it is I have to go in fasting. Fine, I don’t usually eat breakfast anyway.

I can’t have my usual coffee either and that makes me just a TAD cranky. The appointment isn’t until 11am, I can’t even imagine what I’ll be like in the waiting room.

Exam Room Waiting

It’s been a while since I had sex as well.

I can’t rub one out either because the Doc likes a PSA test where you’ve been fasting on the sex front as well. I’ll ask him if the robins egg blue of my balls is appropriate for the PSA test.

As much as I love that guy, there are times when I wonder if he’s a closet sadist! 

On the up side, it gives me fodder to mess with him. Maybe after he’s done with the exam  I’ll ask him if I could have a few minutes alone with a tube of lube and offer to whitewash one wall of the exam room and maybe part of the ceiling too.

I don’t know if that would freak him out or just embarrass him. Either way I get to exact a little revenge. I like the idea of him trying to keep it together with his next patient. I suspect that secretly, he looks forward to me putting a little chaos, and off color humor into his day.

I guess that’s why he calls me “Trouble”

Posted on

You know, I’m beginning to think this is all a SCAM

Healthcare Insurance Logos

Welcome to Open Enrollment! Your ACA plan is serving you… UP!

As I’ve chronicled over the past year I’ve been involved with a nightmare called Anthem Blue Cross of California.

A month or two ago I was told that I’d have to wait for open enrollment to change my health care, I’m still not even sure how that works, or how they think that is going to work. I can change my health care any time I want to, ALL I have to do is not pay the bill!

And speaking of bills… I understood having open enrollment periods when I was working for a corporation. That makes sense, it tends to allow the company to budget their expenses and keeps the employees from jumping healthcare providers each time they don’t like something.

HealthInsurance Marketplace

However, since I’m paying the bill, I’m the one buying the goods or in this case services, why do I have to screw around with open enrollment at all?

caduceus

Technically, as a consumer of the insurance service, I am the Insurance company’s employer. As such, I ultimately have the capacity (Or I would in a non-socialist country…)  to hire and fire a poor provider at will. Oh yeah, but NOT under Obamacare.

Anyway, I’m shopping.

I can’t see myself putting up with more of the same from Anthem and not being able to see my primary care physician, (Even though they said I could. Then when I found that I couldn’t, they told me he must have dropped out of their network. But I have a PPO plan, networks are irrelevant… Well apparently it’s not really a PPO and My Doctor was NEVER in the plan they sold me). Or not being able to find a dermatologist. (And neither could they within 90 miles of my location.) 

Assurant

You see, I’ve been paying through the nose for a policy that was at best only a catastrophic plan with prescription coverage because none of the doctors I wanted to see were in fact accepting the Anthem Pseudo- PPO. I could have saved about 1/2 of my medical costs per month by just having a catastrophic care plan, and paying for everything else out of pocket which is essentially what I’m doing anyway.  By the way, a catastrophic plan is one of the options I’m looking into.

Under the “Won’t get fooled again” premise I’m trying to compare companies based on how they’re rated by consumers. As I’ve been sorting through the data I’ve discovered a couple of interesting things. 

NewHealthinsurance Marketplace2

1) Of five companies I’ve checked on thus far, only two will allow me to purchase their policies based on my zip code.

All of these companies appear to service California but apparently they don’t all service the county in which I live.  

Sorry folks I’m an all or nothing kind of guy. If you’re selectively insuring counties that means that technically I can’t move from one county to another until the next open enrollment period. Doesn’t that also mean that when I drive across county lines, I’m out of network? Either you sell in all of California or don’t sell at all. 

I recall speaking to some insurance agent last year. That person said that even though I could purchase their insurance policy, AND that my Doctor was in their network, AND that the policy and my doctor were compatible, I still would be unable to see my doctor. Their explanation for this was that since my doctor and I were in different counties, he would be considered “Out of Network”. I seem to recall not purchasing that particular policy.

2) I can’t narrow down if my county theory is correct without requesting a quote from each possible provider — this is significantly slowing down the shopping process.

More Logos

The upshot of all of this is that insurance shopping, which was always painful, has now become 100 fold more painful because there is no simple way to sort through the data to compare stuff. I have noticed that every policy seems to have an ACA metallic moniker;

Bronze, Silver, Tin, Rusted Iron, Busted Galvanized Pipe, Copper, Pyrite…

All of which mean the same damn thing…

I’m beginning to think we have no choice in policies, just a choice in the company administering them. 

In dealing with all of this bullcrap, I think that I’d rather pound my own testicles with a sledgehammer, (1000 FemNazis just came in their jeans) than shop for health insurance!

I just don’t think I have medical coverage for that…