East Coast Swing!

Do you have CreateTV on your digital TV? If so, check out this week’s Saturday Marathon theme: East Coast Swing. From the website:

Tour the east coast with chefs Todd English, John Shields and world traveler Burt Wolf. From Maine to Pennsylvania, viewers will visit the sites and hear about the foods of this popular region. Through the eyes of these “foodie” hosts, viewers will enjoy a Maine clambake, get a taste of Salt Water Taffy in Atlantic City and check out rich history in Boston!

It’s not all completely New England, but a lot if it is. Equitrekking and Endless Feast visit Vermont. There will also be an Endless Feast show features New Hampshire. Massachusetts is represented here by Burt Wolf, Todd English, and John Shields….Shields also will have a show featuring a Maine clambake. And Passport To Adventure takes a trip to Connecticut.

Other shows in the ‘thon will feature New York, Philadelphia, and New Jersey. None of them are shows about how to lose weight, trust me on this one!

These shows are in a six-hour block, starting at 6AM Eastern time, and repeating at noon, 6PM, and midnight, so you can watch when it’s convenient for you. Please visit createtv.com to get a schedule for your area, should you live elsewhere and want to see these shows.

Enjoy!

Summer plans…

Memorial Day weekend just ended, but already, we’ve made plans for Labor Day weekend. We’ve only been to one Portland Sea Dogs game this year, and I wanted to get tickets for at least one or two more games. But the only ones that we could get that fit into our busy schedule are for August 30-31, Labor Day weekend.

We’ve sometimes stayed at the Inn at St. John in Portland when we do Sea Dogs games, but not this time. Too danged expensive in the summer, over a holiday weekend. I checked, even a cheap double bed room would cost almost $300 for two nights.

Although the Inn at St. John is VERY convenient to the ballpark, it’s just a short walk…we decided that it would be nice to stay with Dan & Danielle in York Beach instead. Yeah, it’s about an hour’s drive from Portland, but we like to stay with them sometimes, anyway.

Their place is called the Homestead Inn Guest House. Dan is a Justice of the Peace; he performed our wedding ceremony nearly eight years ago, and we’ve stayed with them many times since.

The price is also right; only $80 a night. Even over Labor Day weekend.

We’ll probably make a trip up there to see them sooner, when there are no ball games that we have tickets to. When, I’m not sure. In any case, it’s always good to see them.
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As for the 4th of July weekend, we’re pretty much staying home. I think we have a ball game on the 6th, but on the actual holiday, we’re staying home. Too many crazies out. And there is NO WAY we’ll ever go to the Pops thing at the Esplanade in Boston. Getting home from that has got to be a nightmare, with the crowds and all. When I lived in the Washington DC area, I once went to the 4th of July thing they have on the National Mall. The fireworks ended shortly after 10PM, but I didn’t get home until almost three in the morning. That’s how crowded the Metro was, it took forever just to get on a train. On a normal day, the same trip would have taken less than 30 minutes.

No doubt it’s like that here, too…so, NEVER AGAIN! I’d rather do just about anything else…clean the toilet, read “War & Peace”, surf the ‘net for life insurance quotes…anything but dealing with that mob scene. I don’t know how people can do it; I really don’t.

So, once again, we will stay home and watch all of the festivities on TV.  Suits me just fine.  At least at home, there’s no long line for the bathroom.  And we can drink beer.  Maybe I will buy some seafood and replicate Jasper White’s indoor clambake at home.

That’s enough celebration for us!

Something I’ve noticed…

…at the supermarket. You know how the chains here, such as Stop & Shop and Shaws, have banks in them? They are branches of one of the “big box banks” we have around here.

What I’ve noticed is that on Thursdays and Fridays, which are the most common paydays, people are lined up a mile long at these banks, mostly likely to cash their paychecks. And I get the feeling that most of these people do not have accounts with these banks; it’s more likely that their paychecks are drawn on these banks, and therefore they can cash them there.

I don’t think these people have bank accounts at all. Most employers now offer direct deposit, so there’s little need to actually go to the bank at all. Mike’s company offers it, so he has his pay deposited directly to our bank account. This has come in VERY handy for times when payday falls on a day when we’re away on vacation. We can access the money right away through any ATM, and not have to wait until we get back, and he gets to the bank to deposit a check.

There is no charge for direct deposit, and most people who have this option will use it.

There’s a simple reason why it seems that so many people don’t have bank accounts: the cost. The “big box banks” that are in the supermarkets tend to charge hefty fees just for a basic checking account. We used to use one of those banks, but switched after getting sick of all of the mergers. Every time our bank merged with another one, they’d dump us into an account that was more expensive than the last one. Enough was enough!

These banks may offer “free checking”, but read the small print. It’s only free if you maintain a rather hefty minimum balance. Most people don’t make anywhere near enough money to maintain such a balance. The people who can afford it least are the ones who get hit up for high monthly fees.

The two biggest banks in the Boston area have branches all over the place, and I think that this makes people think that there ARE no other banks here. Surely they all got sucked up in mergers? Nope, not so. There ARE affordable options out there, if you know where to look.

You can go with a smaller bank, one that is very local and doesn’t have a branch on every corner. These banks also do not advertise heavily; they don’t shell out millions of dollars to be “the official bank of the Boston Red Sox” or anything like that. Therefore, the fees are much lower. This is the route that we went. Our bank charges a small fee, five bucks, in months when our balance falls below $250. That is a LOT less than we paid with the Red Sox official bank.

Another option is to open a free checking account online. These accounts are often 100% free, no minimum balance required at all.  The one I linked to here even offers free checks!  Even we don’t get free checks from our bank.

So, if you think you can’t afford a bank account, think again.  If your company offers direct deposit, internet banking could be the answer.  And yes, they will send you a free debit Mastercard, so you can access your money from any ATM, and use it at stores.  You also won’t have to pay through the nose for money orders when bill-paying time rolls around.

Best of all, you’ll never have to stand in line at the bank on payday again.  I personally hate standing in lines, the time is always better spent doing something else!

Only in Messychusetts, part #59,860,456…

Used to be, wineries outside of Massachusetts couldn’t ship here at all. I think the law has changed, somewhat, but I’m still confused as to what it really is.

This is the most recent news article I could find on the issue, and it doesn’t look good. Basically, all out of state wineries would have to go through expensive distributors, or get special licenses, which also cost an arm and a leg.  They can’t just direct ship wine, be it to a mom & pop liquor store, or to a private home.

I was offered the opportunity to receive a free shipment of wine from this wine club to try and blog about. Unfortunately, I was unable to accept this generous offer, because Massachusetts was on the list of states that they couldn’t ship to.

Another article I read, I forget where now,  said that Massachusetts was  restricting win shipments in order to prevent underage drinking.  Yeah, right…teenagers are gonna steal mom & dad’s credit card and order expensive wines online so they can get drunk.  I don’t think so.  What do teens care about pricey wines, they just want the cheapest swill they can find, so they can get drunk.  And they want it NOW, they wouldn’t want to wait two weeks to get it.  Much quicker to find someone old enough to go into the local packy and buy them a six-pack of Olde Swillington beer for three bucks.

Besides, on the wine club site, it says that an adult who is 21 or older must be present at the time of delivery to sign for the shipment.  I assume this means that the delivery person will ask to see a valid ID before releasing the package.  That would make it pretty hard for teens to order wine without mom & dad knowing about it.  (Of course, they would soon learn about it when they see the charges on the pilfered credit card.)

Welcome to Massachusetts…the land of stupid laws!

Ted Kennedy…

…was released from the hospital today. They let him WALK out…I guess if you’re a Kennedy, you get special privileges, and don’t have to languish in a hospital room for half a day, waiting for someone to come up with a wheelchair. This happened to Mike both times when he was in The Hospital From Hell, and also when he had his colonoscopy, as an outpatient at the same hospital.

The colonoscopy thing really pissed me off. Mike had gone in for the procedure in the morning, and they were to call me when it was done, so I could come and pick him up. They called and told me that someone would have Mike at the entrance, in a wheelchair, at noon.

So I drove over there, only to have some rent-a-cop stationed at the parking lot entrance tell me that the lot and grargage were full, and that I was not allowed to enter. I told him that I was picking up a patient at noon, at the front entrance, who had just come out of anesthesia after a colonoscopy, and was told to pick him up at the main entrance. After a little bit of arguing, Rent-A-Cop finally let me in. It was exactly noon at this point, but no Mike. I sat there, parked illegally at the entrance because there was no place else to park, waiting, and hoping that Rent-A -Cop or one of his colleagues wouldn’t make me move.

I sat there for 40 minutes before Mike was finally wheeled down. WHY do they do this to people? They should KNOW that their parking lot and garage fills up by 9AM, and there aren’t any spaces opening up until well past noon. It’s illegal to be parked at the entrance where I was; I was lucky I didn’t get s ticket or be asked to move to who knows where. They told me they’d have him at the door at noon, and they didn’t.

Mass General, where Ted Kennedy was, isn’t much better, at least not when it comes to mere mortals. Teddy may go around saying that he had a nice experience there (well, as nice as can be for being in a hospital), that he was comfortable and well-cared for. But it’s because of who he is, that he and his family are treated well. It wasn’t that way for Mike and me…

He had to go there as an outpatient for some kind of heart procedure, some kind of test. I opted to stay there the whole time, because driving in and out of there is a PITA, and I didn’t want to do it more than once in a day. Apparently, they had to put him under for this thing.

The guy at the desk had told me that they would let me know when it was done, when I could go in and see him. I waited and waited, nothing. I asked a few times, nothing. I got hungry and decided to go get some lunch. I gave the guy at the desk my cell phone number, told him I was going to lunch, and to please call me when I could go and see Mike.

Rather than risk my life by eating nasty hospital cafeteria food, I left the hospital and walked around, stopping at a Finagle A Bagel shop to buy something to eat. It was really nice out that day, so I sat outside and ate it. Then I went back to the hospital.

During all this time, nobody called. When I returned, I asked how Mike was, and they said I couldn’t see him yet.

Hours later, someone finally told me that Mike had been moved to a regular hospital room for recovery, and that I could go see him; they told me where it was.

Turned out that Mike had been sitting in that room for HOURS, even before I left for lunch, and was wondering where I was. He had kept asking nurses where I was, did anyone tell me where he was. They didn’t know, and obviously could not be arsed to find out. Well, at least until shifts changed and a different nurse came on, and did take the trouble to find me.

Geez, I know they’re busy and all, but how much trouble is it to pick up a phone and make a call? If he was better at memorizing phone numbers, he could have called me himself, but he’s not, and I had his wallet that has his phone list in it. I always take his wallet and keys when he’s in the hospital, to keep people from stealing it. I should have left him the phone list.

Anyway, a nurse came in shortly after I did, and told us that somebody was coming up with a wheelchair, and for Mike to get dressed and ready to leave. I was relieved, because this would mean that I would get to avoid the worst of Boston rush hour.

But it was not to be. We were left to wait for over two hours, it was around 5:30 by the time we got out of there. Driving home was sheer hell.

I can’t help but notice that Teddy was not released smack in the middle of rush hour. Middle of the day, middle of the week, the drive to the Cape shouldn’t be too bad. But if it was Mike, and we were going to the Cape, no doubt they would have waited until Friday during evening rush hour to release him, and it would take us 10 hours to get to the Cape.

Another gripe with Mass General – their billing practices. On another occasion, Mike went there for some sort of consultation/second opinion thing. We assumed that our insurance covered it, we never got any bills from the hospital.

But we did start getting letters and phone calls from a collection agency, to the tune of $3,000. Just to TALK to some doctors? And how can they send us to collections, when they never even sent us a damned bill? That actually IS illegal.

The thing is, we now have Cigna for health insurance, not our choice, it’s all Mike’s employer has. Cigna is notorious for trying to get out of paying for anything, and doctors and hospitals know that. Mass General knew that they’d never get three grand out of Cigna. So they decided to try to scare us into forking it over by siccing a collection agency on us. Bad move.

Mike called them on it, told them that he KNEW it was illegal to send an account to collections without sending a regular bill out first. He asked to see copies of any bills sent to us, in the event that the got lost in the mail or something. There were none. So Mass General had no choice but to try to collect from Cigna. They did, and the bill was settled for just a few hundred dollars, not the three grand they wanted. And, by law, they can’t collect the rest from us. All we were liable for was the $15.00 co-pay, and he paid that up front. We owed them nothing.

Everybody says that health care in Boston is among the best in the world, but from our experience, we just don’t see it. If Mike really needs to go to a hospital again, maybe we should look into New York City travel; maybe the hospitals there are better, and treat people in a more respectful, professional manner than they do here.

Even if your name is not Ted Kennedy.

I’m sure that Senators have much better insurance than we do, and Mass General will never sic a collection agency on Teddy and his family.  Even if they did bill him, he’s rich and has plenty of money to pay.  Perhaps I should write a letter to Senator Kennedy telling him of our bad experiences with his beloved Mass General (and Melrose-Wakefield, as well).  If he cares so much about having good health care for all, as he’s known to, he would be outraged.  He’s never been poor a day in his life, so what would he know of how regular people live?  He needs to know that even people like us, who have insurance, are getting screwed.

Anyhoo, I was saddened to hear that Teddy has a malignant brain tumor.  I wish him and his family the best.