Recently in Ramblings Category

My buddy Mike posted this and if you really read it and think about it, they are true words to live by.

http://www.mikeberggren.com/?p=182

Wow... It's been some time since I posted... Yes I am still alive, but it seems like every time I come up with a brilliant idea for something, I don't have my computer with me.

Well the last few weeks have been real busy. First my Honda Civic that I keep over in the Bay Area broke down. Honda called me up and said it was going to cost $1500+ to fix it. Apparently the engine coil arced and fried the engine computer ($845). Hell no! No way am I going to spend $1500 when I bought the car for $3000. So since Honda told me what went wrong, and a call into my buddy Scott (Honda man), I knew I could fix the car myself. $240 in parts later and a Saturday morning with my dad, the car is back up and running like new.

While I was waiting for the parts to show up, off to Connecticut I went for a customer visit. One day out, customer visits and then fly home that night... Talk about a long few days.

Now for a bit of Japanese humor.

 

Okay... After listening to the newest song from Carlos Santana I really need to learn how to play the guitar.. Check it out.

If anyone has some suggestions on where to start I really would love to be able to play at 1/10 the skill of that man.

I will first of say that I feel that I am one lucky guy. I have a great supporting wife and two wonderful healthy kids which I am thankful. What we've been going through lately is our son has somewhat of a speech delay that from everything that we've been reading about is most likely tied to the fact that he never crawled as a baby. At 10 months he popped up and started walking. There are studies that link ones speech development to the crossover motions that you get when you crawl as a baby. Well we're having to play catch up and he is going to Occupational Therapy once a week for an hour. The only issue is that this therapist is not on our insurance list nor do they submit claims to the insurance company. So this brings all the paperwork on myself. Every time we go  I have to pay $80 bucks and then submit a claim form with the invoice.

Well I had done what I had been told my the insurance company to later find out we were missing the diagnosis codes.That took me two weeks to get that fixed so I had to re-submit 6 claims with the correct codes. Well a month later I call to check on the status. Well according to the lady on the phone they haven't gotten any new submittal forms from me... I went ballistic, all she would do would repeat what was on the screen. Round and round, she finally hung up on my since I basically told her that she can't help me that I want to talk with someone new. I called back and got a much nicer rep that told me that things can tend to get "lost" in the mail and that I should re-submit all the claim forms again. I grumbled and then asked if they have a fax #. She told me that she wasn't supposed to give it out but she gave it to me anyways.

This morning I send off 18 pages of claim forms and I'm hoping this is the end of them "losing" my submissions.

This is why I have a great dis-like for insurance companies. A word of advice to those that have to work with insurance companies. Challenge everything from them. If you don't like the response or the coverage, tell whomever you are talking to, to re-submit it. This has worked many times for us and instead of paying $1500 out of pocket for a procedure, I just had to pay $20 after I told them that I didn't like their response and to re-submit the claim.

Challenge everything!

As many of you know I ride the ACE Train to work and back. It's an interesting experience as there's every type of person on the train. Janitors, Principles, Helicopter Pilots, etc. You name it, we have it. There is a group of older men that like to play poker on the way home and this is serious as there is money involved. Sometimes you will see $20's change hand. The reason why I point out this group is that all of them, mostly over 45 or so, think it is necessary every time they get on to the train is to greet each other with a fist bump. It's somewhat comical since many of them hang their fist out there for 30 or 45 seconds trying to get a bump where in fact they just look silly with their fist hanging out there. I found this on YouTube... This would be interesting to see in real life.

I don't have many pet peeves, but one of my top ones is a "limp wrist" handshake. Come on now buddy, are you a dude or not. Shake my hand like you have some confidence. You never get a second chance to make a first impression.  

I saw this article today and couldn't pass it up.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/worklife/11/05/cb.hand.shake/index.html

This is just too good to pass it up.

This morning as I got off the train and was walking up to my car, I noticed that the front door was unlocked. "OH man, here we go", was the thought that went through my mind. I was thinking that perhaps the lock was busted, the window might be broken and that everything else in the car was trashed. But no, the lock was not busted (slimjim job), the window was not broken and the seats were not trashed. Yes, the stereo was gone, but Mr. Professional Thief did not hack the wiring harness. I have to admit that yes I am bummed out, but I am happy that it was not the trash the car while I rip you off scenario. 

With that, I must give a big thanks to Mr. Professional Thief. 

I'm off to eBay to buy a used Honda stereo for $15 plus shipping. 

Again another interesting conversation between my wife and I. You must think that I'm weird, but in fact, I'm a doode and want to stay like that.

I make no claim that I know everything when it comes to etiquette, but there are a few things that I am quite certain of. For example, when you go to a movie with another doode and there are plenty of seats around, when you go to sit down,  you leave a seat between the two of you. I don't know what it is, but I do believe that it ingrained into the male mind since birth. My wife thinks us guys are silly as the female species doesn't behave this way. They are more than happy to sit next to each other, okay fine by me, but I want my one seat distance.

Another prime example. When you walk into the bathroom at work and a co-worker is at the urinal, do you walk up and take the one right next to him? No. The unsaid rule is that you leave one urinal between the two of you. Ideal conditions would be that there are a total of 3 urinals on the wall. If there are only two, go find one of the stalls.

While I'm on the mind set of the urinal, I want to take this time to remind my fellow man. When I'm at the urinal relieving myself, please don't strike up a conversation. I am in no position to respond, I have priorities to take care of. I'm not trying to be rude, I'll be more than happy to converse once you wash your hands.

I've probably already written about Barry "SHOOT ME UP" Bonds. I am so sick of hearing about him. Let's look at the brief facts.

• He is not the same skinny kid that came from the Pittsburgh Pirates
• His HEAD is huge
• If it wasn't for the ROIDS, he wouldn't be close to breaking the all time home run record. His body would of broken down 5 years ago.

Push the eject button please.....