Running Bear's October 2026 Coffee Shop

[troyphoto]

Troy - Hope that you're feeling better after your second mishap. Regarding your crappy insurance. With my company insurance when I worked, they also didn't pay for out of network care...unless one of their network doctors referred me to an out of network doctor. Then they covered about 80%. You might check with your provider if you haven't already.

Insurance is similar, yet different.

The docs I'm seeing are "in network"

BUT, All Ortho Surgeries, Bariatric surgeries, and soon to be all Cancer treatments/surgeries HAVE to go through the Carrum group. That's how the employer saves money on their share of the main policy. All costs are covered if I do have the surgery through Carrum's "Center of Excellence" down in Indpls. Including milage and any hotel stays. But I don't want my post op recovery day or two in a hotel. Nothing is comfortable. so it's lay on the bed for 48 hours.

I can request a wavier, and have the local group do the surgery, BUT then I'm on my deductible. AND I have the 20-40% out of pocket depending on the proceedure.

Insurance is and has been changing. I long for the insurance we could get even 5 years ago.

 

[Texas Hobo]

Good morning, all! Still some pleasant weather here, albeit on the warm side in the afternoons. Wife is prepping a grocery list, so guess we're going Krogering later.
On this day in history, the Gun Fight at OK Corral.
I did manage to squeeze in a small operating session yesterday. Mostly a switcher cleared the yard tracks so next session all the pick ups can be delivered to the yard before being picked up by the road engines. (Isn't imagination great)

STAY SAFE (My train of thought has left the station)
LATER

 

[TLOC]

T

Hay Tom! Not many actual fruit/veggie fields in Wenatchee. Railroad Avenue is even gone although you can navigate behind the buildings somewhat and is pretty much devoid of storage/processors - nothing like it used to be, still a Cherry processor and Dovex along with some smaller ma/pa ones. Now storage/processors are located in/near Monitor, Cashmere, Dryden, Quincy and Ephrata. Monitor, Cashmere and Dryden; West on US2, Quincy and Ephrata East of Wenatchee ( US2 ). Up US97 has processors and small(er) orchards. Might feed AI some of those names and see what shakes out.

L8r

Thanks Todd. As you and I have discussed before Ai is dangerous enough to be believable. The scene is supposed to be 1965 but you saw one of the images it kept reverting to. John called about 20 minutes ago. He forgot to put the year 1965 in the imagining requests. Says he will start requesting images after his lunch. Glad it’s him needing to go down this rabbit hole. 16” x 40’ is what we need to fill the back drop. Not a small chore. He’s been to Wenatchee and has an understanding of the scene. I’m relying on GooglevEarth.

Best to Maria on using the GLP1. Ozempic was great to help regulate my glucose levels but didn’t help with the weight at all. Mounjaro helped the weight loss but the A1C went up. Now it’s back to counting carbs and more exercising and the weight is finally in retreat.

 

[NYC_George]

Swal - I am a true believer in the processed foods will kill you line of thinking. That being said, I still have a few here and there, but probably less than 2% of my overall diet. Does beer count as processed??? As I have posted before, I grow and preserve a good supply of my own organically grown vegetables and prepare most meals at home. I can proudly say that at age 74, I have never eaten at a McDonald's in my whole life!

That's great news Willie ("I have never eaten at McDonalds my whole life") I wish I could say the same, but I'm smarter now. And you grow your own food. You'll be a member of the forum another 50 years. I don't grow my own food like you, but I buy organic everything now. I hope it's not another scam. I had a very good doctor who tried to get me off eating any processed food products. I wish I would have listened to him sooner. I don't buy anything processed now. I think what has help me the most lately is getting up and walking 3 miles with Murphy every morning. I so use to doing it now, it's like no trouble at all. It's just part of my daily routine. There are 10 foods they say everyone should be having everyday if you want to live a long and healthy life. I'll list them in another post. Swal

 

[TLOC]

@shortwrench that medium blue truck looks damn nice!
@TLOC tom that first picture (AI) looks as it has taken a screenshot out of a heavy modded Cities Skylines 2 Game

Cheers
Marco

Marco, I’ve never played a sims game but I believe it. Ai has to mine for info somewhere and eachbAi assistant does it differently. I used that as a comparison on image 2 the one from Google Earth as Ai deciding what it should be not what it is. I find Google Earth to be good for reference points but seldom for modeling inspiration. Ai used is for defining a scene but after it has developed, a scene inspiration.

In the entry to the train room scene is a good example. There must have been over 100 design changes before getting to this Ai created scene for Upper Peninsula of Michigan layout

That scene was developed with data from the US Forest Service, the Michigan Department of Natural resources and Google Earth screen shoots and then much massaging

All that data provided info on rock croppings, trees and the color of the ground cover east of Nauganee, Michigan. Not an easily accessible area to get to. We added to each scene. Used an inspiration or if you prefer a guide. My co-creator of the scenes did a great job IMO,

 

[TLOC]

Medical crap! This morning Terry was notified her CtPet scan Thursday is $12,000+ of which Medicare will pay its share and we pay the balance. So she called and asked what our share will be and the run around began. It’s started at $2500 or roughly 20% but as she asked more questions it started coming down to around $1000.

So I asked ChatGpt what our cost should be and it’s saying around $1200. The hospital cannot use the full charge of $12000+ and say after Medicare we pay 20%. Our 20% is calculated by what Medicare is actually billed not that $12000+ cost. We know the hospital charge of $12,000+ we do not know the true billing to Medicare yet. Ai says maybe $1500!

We already disputed the charges last week to the procedure and overnight stay charges. This is going to be fun because this will invigorate Terry and take her mind off other things.

Because we are self pay after Medicare pays they have to disclose the actual charge that Medicare will accept and it’s not $12000. That $12000 is used for tax purposes as write offs for the medical facility. If the hospital says it 12000 but Medicare only will accept a $5000 charge that $7000 charge is not our responsibilty only 20% of $5000 billed to Medicare which is $1000. However the unpaid $7000 is a write offs therefore it can be written off as a lost to charity care! Oh what a weave has been sown!

I heard about the games hospitals and clinics paid my last 21 years working in the consumer medical debt collection agency now we are part of it. Terry will follow every penny while she is well enough!

We know enough to not get screwed without explanation. However, medicines are a different story and our pharmacy has already told ius to be prepared for sticker shock on her drug regiments! They will help keep us informed

 

[TLOC]