Month: April 2004

Wow, today has sucked

I might get a blog entry online later, but I doubt it. I’m in the process of writing a letter to St. Charles Medical Center’s (SCMC) billing department, and it’s taking all the strength I have to not get angry.

Anybody who’s read this blog long knows I had back surgery in December. It was a very necessary surgery, but I wasn’t insured, so I have to pay out of pocket. Most of the folks involved cut me deals on the costs, but SCMC has been less than friendly. The lady that I’ve been dealing with there has been less than friendly, and didn’t even care to hear what I’ve been going through, that I have no extra money, blah, blah. I’ve already paid the bill down from $3100 down to $2100, but they’re requiring me (according to this lady) to pay it all off in six months. Right, like I have an extra $350/month to spend. I just got a letter today from them saying that if I don’t start making good payments, they’re going to send me to collections. Lovely…

I don’t expect them to wipe it all off, but generally when as many people reduce costs like they did (the anesthesiologist even did), the hospital should follow suit. Heck, since I’m paying cash, at the very least they could reduce it to what the insurance companies would reimburse them for (which is usually like 60-75%). I just don’t want to be billed like an insurance company, I want to be billed like a human who is struggling to pay his bills and feed his kids as it is. I just thank God that Michelle has finally outgrown her intolerance to anything but the horribly expensive baby formula, so I might have a few bucks to pay down the bill.

As always, donations are being accepted, and if anybody’s got a large chunk of cash burning a hole in their pocket, you’re welcome to send it to SCMC on my behalf ;-). I just want this bill to go away so I can not worry about it anymore. I hate being in debt more than anything — granted, I have student loans and a house payment, but otherwise, I have no debt other than this bill.

OK, I’m done now — just had to get that off my chest. Meanwhile at work, I have to build an offsite backup server since I’m just sick of dealing with my tape drives. So at least I get to buy computer parts, so that always makes my day when I get to spend other people’s money. Regular blogging to return tomorrow when I catch up with everything.

Update: BTW: Everybody’s pointed out that I haven’t really talked much about my surgery. You’re right, I haven’t, because I don’t like to drown people in my personal crap, but the surgery helped a ton, and I’m about 100 times more functional than before. I’m able to walk again, and even jogged a hundred yards (which felt really…well….funny). I still get pain down there now and again because the scar tissue occassionally still hits the nerve, but I’m still far better than before.

April 28, 2004

Bend Blogging Summary

We have another Bend blogger! A hearty welcome to Shannon at There’s Always Something. She’s transplanted here from the oh-so-lovely state of Nebraska, and loves blogging. She’s running her site on Blogspot, but it would appear she doesn’t have an RSS feed. Bummer…

So that brings up the total of Bend bloggers to the following (not including me an this site):

Jon at Chuggnutt is the PHP/MySQL geek among us, and also runs BendBuzz.com.
Dane at Brainside Out, who has been blogging for quite a while. Expect to see him in the ER soon.
Chris at Monkey In A Box runs an entertaining site. I helped him get setup with hosting and MT back in the day, but he’s off my server, venturing off into his own land now.
Roger at High Desert Skeptic has come out of hiding and is blogging more often now. He was running the Central Oregon For Dean site before Dean dropped out.
Simone at On The Bright Side makes a living taking awesome pictures. She’s technically not in Bend, but since LaPine isn’t an incorporated city yet, she’s getting listed. That, and her husband works with my dad now and again, so it’s all good.
Josh at Mr. Snazz doesn’t update his site too much, but he’s into Geocaching and has some Geocoins out there.
Nick never updates his site, but he could still be considered a blogger.
Barney’s probably the ultimate blogger as the reporter for Bend.com and while Bend.com technically isn’t a blog, Barney works his ass off to get content on there, and deserves some sort of recognition.
And of course, Shannon, who I mentioned above.
I actually know of one more blogger who I can’t link to because she runs a private blog (for good reason). If she’s reading this and gives me permission, I’ll happily link to her (she know who she is).

So that brings it to 10 bloggers that I know of that blog in Bend/LaPine. Anybody else know of any that I’m missing (any where in Central Oregon)? Feel free to post a comment here and I’ll get it added to my blogroll.

Shannon said in an email to me earlier that we really need a Central Oregon blogger meet up. I’m starting to agree with her.

April 27, 2004

I can see Kerry taking advantage of this

George W. Bush may think he’s the most powerful man in the world, but it doesn’t give him the right to clean his glasses on an unsuspecting citizen. Like Francis, I’d like to see John Kerry pick this video up:

Wouldn’t it make a great prime time ad? “George W. Bush thinks it’s okay to wipe his glasses on other people’s clothing. He also thinks it’s okay to wipe his ass on the First Amendment. What is George W. Bush wiping on you?”

April 27, 2004