2024 Life Logs, Day 270: You Win Some, You Lose Some
Date: Thursday, September 26, 2024
Weather: Cloudy with Sprinkles, Felt Warmer; High Temp 68, Low 60 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
When I walked out the door this morning with Shadow, it felt noticeably warmer than yesterday. The remained cloudy with a little rain in the afternoon, so the fact that I ended up having to spend most of the day inside wasn’t such a bummer. The outside just didn’t beckon today.
I spent my morning in a Newcomers/Encore annual Field Trip group planning meeting. Christina Brodie and I co-lead this group that is my favorite activity. I love the way we come together in a brainstorming session every September and walk out the door with a year’s worth of wonderful trips to be planned. Different members offer to plan the trips and Christina and I just facilitate. But the two of us do always organize at least one of the trips because we enjoy doing it. It was almost noon when I got home. The first thing I did was check on the appeal I submitted yesterday to try and keep my sister’s Medicare Advantage co-paying her stay in the rehabilitation center. I have won every appeal up to now, but when I checked the website, I saw that I had lost this one. I called to find out why and was told they would have a nurse call me to read the report to me. I was also told I could submit a Reconsideration Appeal. What a process this has become. While waiting for the nurse to call, I talked to Brian, my sister’s Durable POA, to inform him, and then I got a call from the rehab facility explaining some of what was happening in more detail. And for whatever reason, during all of these calls I had really spotty cell service. When I called to make the Reconsideration Appeal, I got to the very end and was then disconnected. I had to call back and start all over with a new person. And even though I could only hear about half of what was being said, I think the determination is that my sister will be going back to her assisted living facility sooner than I was expecting. So, I am going into high gear to start making those arrangements.
While all of this was happening, I was also trying to do some prep for the wine group Octoberfest we are having at my house on Saturday evening. I did a little more shopping and a little more cleaning. On my way back from my shopping trip, I stopped by the Goldstones to pick up a baking pan of mine. Jed was furiously getting dinner for the boys as he had to leave in 5 minutes to get to Meet the Teacher Night at the high school. He was going to have to meet with both Sam’s teachers and Jonah’s teachers since Heather was still not home from Climate Week in New York City. He was feeling very much like a single parent. I heard from Heather last night as she wanted me to know that she saw the elephants (the ones I saw in Newport) in the Meat Packing District yesterday. I think Heather get home late tonight. I’ll look forward to hearing more about the elephants.
When I got home and started fixing dinner all of a sudden the electricity went off. I looked online and saw that a sliver of Falmouth had no power. The cause was unknown. I texted the Goldpebbles to see if they had also lost power, but they were fine. And I was fine as I have a whole house generator. But after awhile, the generator went off, everything went black for a moment and the lights came back on. Then it went black again, the generator came back on, and with a little lag time, the lights and tv returned. This continued on and off craziness continued for the next hour and then it was steady generator. Just as I started writing this log at 10:40, the electricity seems to be back on for good.
I am thinking of the people in northern Florida tonight. Hurricane Helene is making landfall in the next hour and the forecast for damage sounds devastating. It makes the inconvenience of on and off power seem very, very trivial.
