redbird | Recent Entries

Hi. This is an online substitute for a paper journal, as well as a place to talk to people, so a lot of what's here is quotidian stuff about my life and place. ~~These days, that's more exploring the Seattle area than what's in bloom right now in my corner of the world.~~ As of March 2016, "place" is the Boston area: we moved to Arlington, Mass., in March 2016, then Somerville a year and a half later. I'm now living in Boston with @cattitude and @adrian_turtle, still figuring out my way around Brighton and other parts of Boston, and how long it actually takes to get to my various medical and other appointments on the other side of the Charles. Some of the basics about me are in my userinfo; the userpic with this sticky post is a photo of me, taken in 2007, in case you're wondering whether I'm the redbird you know from elsewhere.

Long ago when the net was flat, I spent a bunch of time on Usenet, mostly rassef and alt.polyamory; I did some of my growing up in science fiction fandom, which in my case meant writing in/for a lot of apas. If you don't know why I subscribed to your journal, we probably have friends in common, and either one of them said "this person is cool" or you posted interesting comments, and I looked at your journal and found it interesting.

Anyone is welcome to read and comment on my journal (though I screen comments on some posts). I do post some things locked and/or filtered. I am more likely to give access to people I know, either previously (online or off) or from interactions here. If we know each other but I might not recognize your username, please leave a note here so I can make the connection.

If we don't already know each other, welcome, and please introduce yourself. I'm screening all comments to this post, so you can tell me "Hi, it's $old_friend" without other people seeing the connection between your username here and other names or handles you use. Or comment on other posts, and I'll get some feeling for what you're like.

There are a half-dozen access-locked posts in here, none recent, with nude photos of me (all tagged "nudes"). I grant access to most people who ask (and many who don't), and those aren't the posts I consider private.

I generally use a cut tag for details of exercise or (rarer) body size/shape posts, and I tend to avoid other people's discussion of weight and dieting. By request, I'll be cut-tagging discussions of covid masks. If there are other things you would like similar warnings about, let me know. (I am assuming the current level of cut-tagging on exercise is okay for everyone reading this journal; if not, let me know and I'll see what I can do to address that.) I also use cut tags for things that even I don't find very interesting, but may need to look up later: Dreamwidth as external memory.

I'm (still) posting about politics. I'm not cut-tagging those posts, but I am going to try to label the entries that are entirely or mostly about politics, rather than drop a paragraph about calling my senators in between discussions of out-of-town visitors and cucumbers, in case your self-care means you need to rake a break from reading about politics.

I'm also still posting about the coronavirus pandemic, how I'm dealing with the situation, etc. Most of those posts are tagged with "COVID-19," "life during covid-19," or "the new normal" (or "the new normal?") and some are also tagged "coronavirus"

[last updated July 17, 2024]

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No, I did not spend all the money in my wallet on chocolate*, but I treated us to a box of chocolates from Serenade, the chocolatier in Brookline with a wide selection of vegan chocolates.

I took the bus to Brookline Village, walked a little extra because I was wrong about which bus stop to use, walked into the shop, and asked for a one-pound box.

I bought two vegan caramels, which Adrian had asked for; I'd have gotten more, but I wasn't sure what she or Cattitude think of sea salt caramel. Just for myself, I got six dairy truffles, three lemon and three lime. The rest was a few (vegan) chocolate creams, and a lot of chocolate-dipped fruit and nuts, including several of their excellent chocolate covered plums, a candy I haven't seen anywhere else.

I came home via Trader Joe's, where I bought fruit, a bell pepper, hummus, pre-cooked chicken sausages, a carton of chocolate ice cream, and a box of frozen vanilla and chocolate macarons.

Even counting the chocolate part of the groceries, I would have had money left from the $79 that happens to be how much cash is in my wallet right now. That's a pretty arbitrary metric, since I don't always have the same amount of cash (I do make a point of having some, because cash still comes in handy sometimes).

*see yesterday's post

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I just made another call to Fidelity (investment company) about the inherited IRA. They are going to generate a "Letter of Acceptance" form and send it to BNY, and then (I hope) we will have the money out of my mother's name before the end of the year, which will please my brother as executor of the estate.

The bit where the advisor told me to search for something on the website, and that led to an irrelevant form, was not encouraging--I think he overheard me saying to

cattitude that I'm starting to understand why people hide their money under mattresses.

Jonathan said this should take 1-2 business days at the BNY end, and that he'll let me know when the transfer has gone through.

I am not going to spend all my money on chocolate, probably not even all the money currently in my wallet, but it's tempting.

Current Mood: worn out

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tl;dr still waiting for things

The latest on that inherited IRA is that I got two email messages from Fidelity today, one saying that I needed to do something [unspecified] to transfer the money from BNY, and one saying specifically that BNY had told Fidelity that they, BNY, needed to talk to me.

So, I called BNY, and after various annoyances with their phone tree, talked to someone. He told me that they had no record yet of receiving the form I sent by next-day mail, but that if the form had arrived late Wednesday they might not be scanned until late today or even Monday. Also that once the form is scanned into the BNY system, it may take a few days before they actually transfer the money into my name, which would be necessary in order to move it to Fidelity.

So, I can (and probably will) call Monday to check that the form was in fact been received, but he thinks I should call later in the week, maybe Wednesday, maybe as late as Friday, and ask for my brand-new account number. Once I have that number, I have to fill out appropriate paperwork with Fidelity. *sigh*

I am both annoyed that even paying for next-day delivery, this is taking several days, and thinking that if I hadn’t paid for faster delivery I would be a few days further behind.

The man also said that once the funds are transferred, they will send me an acknowledgement by mail, including the new account number. However, waiting for that to arrive (rather than getting the information by phone) does not seem prudent, given the IRS deadline for the 2025 required minimum distribution.

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I went out in the cold today, took a shuttle buses that was replacing the central part of the green line, and walked into a Fidelity office to get the medallion signature I need on the BNY form.

They provided the medallion for my signature, but the woman who handled that told me she thought I would need to redo the _Fidelity_ forms once BNY had transferred the funds, because the inherited IRA would need a brand-new account, not the one I created for the purpose a few weeks ago. Having printed and signed those forms, I asked her to keep them, in case they are usable. (She may have been thinking I'm trying to move the money into an account that already has money in it.)

She also said I do need to put the form with the medallion signature in the mail to BNY, Fidelity can't send it to them electronically. I brought the medallion-ized form home with me, but before I put it in the mail I'm going to scan it and upload the scan to the Fidelity website, in case the previous advisor is right and they can do this electronically.

So that will be another outing in the cold, to a post office, in the hope the letter gets to BNY in good season despite both Christmas packages and the Republican effort to destroy the postal service. Fortunately, there are post office branches at this end of the green line, the part that's still running trolleys.

ETA: I scanned the document, and just uploaded it to the Fidelity website, with a message explaining that I will be mailing the hardcopy to BNY tomorrow.

First: The cat in question seems to be basically well.

So,

cattitude has been worrying on and off that our cat Kaja was getting skinny. A few days agp. that got to the point of calling the vet and then taking the cat in for a check-up.

At the exam, the vet told Cattitude that Kaja has not lost weight; if anything, she has gained an ounce or two. What's going on is, the cat has lost some muscle mass, which has led to some redistribution of her weight, and what Cattitude noted was that her legs were thinner. The vet said it was probably arthritis, drew blood to test for some more serious problems, and sent her home.

We got the results this morning, and they are reassuring: Kaja's kidney function, liver function, and thyroid are all fine. So is her blood sugar.

The email said we could have them do X-rays to check for arthritis, but that would require sedating the cat.

Or, they can assume it's arthritis, and give her monthly injections of a pain-killer to treat that, and see how she's doing in a few months.

The third choice is to just monitor the cat's health for now, and give her omega-3 supplements. We need to discuss the choices, but it's Saturday, and none of them involves "so call the vet and set this up right away."

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cats,
kaja

I went to the dentist yesterday to get my teeth cleaned, and on my way out made a follow-up appointment. When I got home, I realized that they'd given me an earlier appointment than I thought, or wanted, so I had to call them today.

I also got halfway through filing a claim for insurance reimbursement last night, before realizing that I didn't have the right paperwork. In the process, I found out how to file a claim for the glasses I had made a couple of months ago, which I'd thought would be complicated.

Those forms require a National Provider Identification number, which can be found online. Praise wikipedia! Googling didn't find me the relevant website, but the Wikipedia article has a link to it. The website is searchable by anyone, if you have the provider's name and location, and "Arlington, MA" was sufficient, without the street address.

Having talked to the dentist's office, I now have a 3:00 appointment for my next cleaning, and have submitted the insurance claim.

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Books read in the last couple of months:

Sofia Samatar, The Winged Histories:. This is odd and somewhat disjointed, set in the same secondary world as A Stranger in Olondria (which I read ages ago and remember very little about). The threads all come together at the end. I’d been displeased earlier because I thought we’d lost both the first narrative voice, which I liked, and the continuity of the narrator's story. The book does get back to her story, or at least her sister and cousin’s stories.

James Thurber, The Thirteen Clocks: read aloud, because Adrian had never read it. Still delightful, a fairy tale set in a world where people have at least heard of fairy tales.

Lorraine Baston, Rules: A Short History of What We Live By. Baston talks about rules as measuring devices, as sets of instructions, and as models, and various shifts in meaning over time. She talks about thick and thin rules, thick rules being ones with (more) examples and details, and which anticipate more exceptions. A about the change in how people learn/are taught all sorts of things, including math. I enjoyed this, and if that description sounds interesting you probably will too.

Edward Eager, The Time Garden: Children's magical adventures while spending the summer with a relative because their parents are in London, working on the premiere of a play. Another read-aloud, this one was new to me, and fun.

Helen Scales, What the Wild Sea Can Be: The state, as of 2023, and possible futures of the ocean and ocean life in the Anthropocene, according to an oceanographer. I asked the library for this because I liked the author's book about mollusks.

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I signed up for a 2026 Medicare Advantage (part C) plan today. I had it narrowed it down to two plans, and decided yesterday which one I like better. There are minor differences--in particular, the one I chose has a lower copay for physical therapy--but there don't seem to be significant differences. It also has a slightly better rating, according to the Medicare.gov site, by half a star, but that might not be significant (an average 3.7 rounds to 3.5, and 3.8 rounds to 4).

Now, it should just be a matter of telling various doctors and pharmacies that my insurance has changed as of Jan. 1st, and maybe dealing with a new mail-order pharmacy for the Kesimpta.

They gave me a confirmation number, and if I don't hear from the company in the next few days I will call. (Normal open enrollment ends Dec. 7, but I have a "special election period" that runs through February.)

Current Mood: accomplished

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I think I have arranged to transfer the inherited IRA money from my mother's account at BNY to a new account in my name at Fidelity. It's at Fidelity because they were willing and able to do this, rather than telling me that I would have to go somewhere else to get a medallion signature.

A couple of weeks ago Adrian's advisor at Fidelity said that they could provide the medallion signature, and would do it for free because she has an account there. When she called this morning to make an appointment, they told her that they couldn't do that for her partner, but if I created an account today to transfer the money into, I could go there tomorrow and get the medallion signature. So, I called Fidelity to set up the account.

That went more smoothly than I expected. Someone walked me through the process of creating the new account, and setting up the transfer. He said the Fidelity back office people will take care of moving the money, and he didn't think I would need the medallion signature, meaning I don't need to go to their office. The website said the "estimated completion date" was Dec. 16, and the man I was talking to said it would probably be sooner than that.

I want this to be done before the end of the year, so I can take the 2025 required minimum distribution.

I am hopeful that this will work, even if they call me and tell ne to come in and get the medallion signature guarantee.

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I picked up my new glasses today, and I like them. I am seeing better than with the old glasses, either because it's a slightly different prescription, because the old pair had gotten scratched, or some combination.

A few hours later, the lenses have gotten smudged, so I am going to clean them after posting this.

I stopped on the way home at New City Microcreamery, which now has a branch in Arlington Center, half a block from the optician's. After tasting a few flavors, I bought a pint of dairy cinnamon ice cream for myself, and a pint of vegan peanut butter for

adrian_turtle, at her request.

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Following up on my post from Monday:

adrian_turtle talked to a different advisor (also with SHINE, like the person we talked to Monday).

He told her that "CommonHealth" is a Medigap plan, which you can only enroll in if you are under 65 and on Medicare because you're disabled. They don't require you to have less than X amount of money or income, but the premiums are based on a percentage of your income, and for us would be significantly less than a standard Medigap plan. He urged her to apply by printing the form and sending it in with a cover letter saying that this is a CommonHealth application, because otherwise they might treat it as a MassHealth application, which is not what we'd be looking for.

Edited to add: the only part of this information that's relevant for me right now is the "special election period"--because I inherited money this year, while I could enroll in CommonHealth, it wouldn't save money and might cost more than a standard Medigap policy. I have made a calendar entry to check in one year, and in two years, to see if it makes sense then.

Standard Medicare Open Enrollment ends on Dec. 7th, making this seem urgent--especially if we want to trust it to the post office--but I remembered that the letter saying my current Medicare Advantage plan won't be offered next year said I therefore have more time to choose a new plan.

So, I opened a chat window at Medicare.gov, and ran into a weird bit of terminology. Open enrollment ends on Dec. 7th, but I have a "special election period" from Dec. 8 to the end of February. The agent wanted to make clear that if I don't choose a plan by Dec. 31st, I wouldn't have Part D drug coverage or a Medicare Advantage plan.

I then asked if the special election period also applied to Medigap, and they told me that Medigap doesn't have annual open enrollment, if you don't buy it within six months after starting on Medicare the private insurance companies don't have to sell it to you. At that point, I thanked him and said that Massachusetts has different rules, and I think I need to talk to someone from the state.

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I just had a phone appointment with someone, funded by the state of Massachusetts, to help decide between basic Medicare plus a Medigap plan, or a Medicare Advantage plan. I have gotten some useful information, but am going to double-check everything, because in at least one case what she told me contradicts what the official Medicare.gov site says. It's a relatively minor point--the existence of a roommate discount for some Medigap plans--but I asked about which plans it applied to, and she said it doesn't exist.

The new and interesting information is that apparently, because I am under 65 and disabled, I'm eligible for a Medicaid plan, without an income limit. It's called CommonHealth, and seems to be part of the state's "Commonwealth Care." If I understand correctly, after Medicare paid 80% of a bill, it would cover the rest, but only at providers that take MassHealth.

If I got basic Medicare (parts A and B), a part D drug plan, and a Medigap plan, I could see any provider that takes Medicare, without worrying about what's in-network. However, a Medigap plan would cost significantly more than this CommonHealth thing.

Or, I could sign up for another Medicare Advantage plan. The advantage there is there are some that would cost no more than the Medicare Part B premium. The disadvantage is being limited to in-network providers unless I'm willing to pay significantly more for that service.

I thought the question was, is it worth $250-$300/month (Medigap + prescription coverage) more to not have to worry about being in-network and prior authorization. It sounds like this CommonHealth plan would cost significantly less per month, but if the provider doesn't take MassHealth, I'd be paying 20%. Which gets back to the larger problem that there's no way to find out what number that will be 20% until after the visit.

If I understood correctly, all these options have copays for some things, and CommonHealth may require prior authorization for some things.

Current Mood: confused

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The handyman came this afternoon, took our air conditioners out of the windows, and moved them to the basement. First, he met

cattitude at our storage unit, so he could transport another bookcase and several boxes of books. We have also brought some boxes of books from the storage unit in a Lyft, but that doesn't work for moving bookcases.

We have now hired the same guy a few times; we also hired him and his brother to put up curtain rods and hang curtains. (The ceilings in this apartment are too high for us to have sensibly installed the curtain rods ourselves).

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air conditioner

After putting it off for a while, I read through the manuscript of a non-quite-autobiographical book about my mother's life, and sent the editor some comments. This was difficult because it's largely about her experiences as a child survivor of the Holocaust. It's based on a series of interviews with my mother, which the editor was doing and compiling when my mother died unexpectedly. So that went back this afternoon.

The delivery pharmacy somehow got the wrong dosage of one of my prescriptions. This is annoying partly because I noticed the problem, told them, and we both contacted my doctor. (The prescription is 1/day, and they filled it as half a pill every day.) I thought we'd agreed that they would hold off until one of us heard back from her, and I took delivery yesterday because I thought they were bringing the other thing I'd ordered. So now I have to contact Carmen again, and figure out what to do here.

After several days of looking at Medicare open enrollment stuff, I sent an email this afternoon to the state-funded office that provides free advice on the subject, asking for an appointment. The questions are, roughly, do I want Medicare Advantage next year, or do I want basic Medicare, a separate (Part D) drug plan, and a Medigap policy. My existing Medicare Advantage plan isn't being offered next year, so I have options, but also have to decide something.

We have, however, heard back from the handyman/moving guy, and arranged for him to take the air conditioners out of our windows, and also bring more things from the storage unit. He took just long enough to get back to us that Adrian was trying to find someone else to do the job, but I'm glad we don't have to.

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I had my twice-a-year appointment with the neurologist. All the low-tech neurology stuff was fine, with little change from the previous exam. We are reducing my dose of gabapentin, which we talked about last time, and I told him I want to give that a try.

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health,
neurologist

The three of us voted this afternoon, then went to the supermarket, where we had to deal with a pushy person who wanted us to sign dodgy-looking petitions: he said they were for same-day voter registration, but I noticed that the page he wanted us to sign didn't say what we were signing for. There are dozens of possible state ballot questions for next year, so it could be almost anything. (The procedure in Massachusetts, as I understand it, is people or organizations say "I want to put this on the ballot," and then the attorney general vets the proposals, and either OKs them or explains why not. After that, they can collect signatures.)

The only thing on the ballot in Boston today was city council seats, after the incumbent mayor's main opponent formally withdrew after coming in a distant second in the primary. Happily, I had a choice of five or six good candidates for the four at-large city council seats.

Addendum: there are in fact forty-seven "petition initiatives" on the state website, including a few that are labeled as versions A, B, or even C of the same thing. The list is on the state website: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/ballot-initiatives-submitted-for-the-2026-biennial-statewide-election-proposed-laws-and-2028-biennial-statewide-election-proposed-constitutional-amendments

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politics:massachusetts

After several days in a row of being able to walk more than is now typical for me, and also doing PT, yesterday my ankle hurt enough that I stayed put as much as possible. I took a naproxen around lunchtime, which made no descernible difference.

I'm doing significantly better today, in terms of ankle and other joint pain. I didn't go for a walk, but did go outside to take out trash and spend a few minutes outdoors during daylight, and then started on what has turned out to be a lot of PT exercises. We're back on standard time as of this morning, meaning the sun set in Boston at 4:35 (we're near the eastern edge of this time zone).

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I had to call the management company about the heat again today. I and I think at least one other neighbor called in a problem Monday, and they sent someone who made a fix that he said might be temporary, but also said he had ordered parts for a longer-term solution. Tuesday was OK, but by the time I got up this morning [Thursday] the heat clearly wasn't working again.

The management company sent someone over fairly quickly. He first knocked to let me know they were here and thank me for reporting the problem, then came back to tell me they had to look at a sensor in Adrian’s room. So she hurriedly put on her bathrobe, the three of us masked, and I invited them in, with a warning about not letting the cats in. They looked at it, and came back a while later to replace it—apparently there was something wrong with the thermostat, and they replaced the sensors in each apartment, because they couldn’t be sure of which one was the problem. The heat came back on within the hour, and we’re OK for now.

Adrian and Cattitude both thanked me for being Speaker to Landlord on this one.

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landlord,
quotidian

I went to Somerville this morning for a fasting blood draw, to repeat the blood glucose test from a few weeks ago. She also ordered an A1C test and, apparently, a basic metabolic panel. I don't remember Carneb mentioning the basic metabolic panel, but I asked the receptionist to check whether I'd already had one recently, and he said I hadn't, so sure. I can spare an extra test tube of blood, I just didn't want to have to fight an insurance company about it.

From there, I took the bus to Arlington, hoping to order new glasses, but the optician's office was closed, with no sign explaining why. (It's a one-man shop, so if Ron is sick, there's nobody else to open the office or post a sign explaining when he'll be back.) Before making another trip, I'll call and confirm that he's open; it's an easier trip from Davis Square than from here in Brighton.

The timing worked for me to stop at Lizzy's Ice Cream on the way home; I bought pints of black raspberry, black cherry, and blueberry, which was listed as a seasonal flavor.

I may have overdone things, but when I woke up this morning it seemed like good timing for the fasting blood draw.

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I went to my doctor today, for an annual physical and so she could write the next Ritalin prescription.

So: I had a fasting blood test last month, and the glucose number was high enough that she is ordering a re-test and an A1C test, which means another morning trip to Somerville on an empty stomach. My "bad" cholesterol is high, but not high enough for her to be prescribing statins right now. My "good" cholesterol is also high, but apparently that's less protective in older patients, and I'm approaching that age.

I also asked her to look at my calves, because I frequently have swelling by the end of the day, especially in the left calf. She said it sounded like a vascular issue, then measured the circumference of both my calves. The left calf is noticeably bigger, which supports the idea that there's some kind of vascular issue.

What I'm supposed to do for that is try to reduce my sodium intake, and try wearing compression socks for at least a little while each day. Reducing sodium intake means I'll be looking at ingredient labels for quantities--right now, I'm mostly checking to make sure that various things don't contain any of the various things that we know that one of the three of us needs to avoid.

Carmen also did a breast exam (no longer part of the standard physical exam, but she asked if I still wanted one, and I said yes), and looked at my back for any suspicious moles or freckles. Also, before the appointment they asked if I was OK having them check height and weight, and I said yes, then asked the assistant how tall I now am. Five feet two inches, confirming what I think is what the neurologist's office said, which is an inch or so less than when I was 30.

( grumbling about paperwork and MyChart )

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Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

Don't mourn, organize

Sticky: Welcome

chocolate

inherited IRA, part I don't even know

IRA

more IRA paperwork

cat health worries

dentist, and insurance

Wednesday reading

signed up for a 2026 Medicare plan

this time for sure

new glasses

More about Medicare

Medicare questions/decisions

air conditioners moved

a few things make a post

neurologist

voted

(no subject)

building heat

(no subject)

physical exam

About Me

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