So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Trenchfriend]

Monetization of every aspect of human existence from the cradle to the grave -- It's the American Way!

A german term, but doesn't rhyme in english language:

"From the cradle to the grave, the human needs the carpenters goods/merchandise."

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Monetization of every aspect of human existence from the cradle to the grave -- It's the American Way!

I've been Monetized & I hope it lasts to the grave.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A german term, but doesn't rhyme in english language:

"From the cradle to the grave, the human needs the carpenters goods/merchandise."

In America, of course, the human *is* the merchandise.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I think, bicycle repair shops intentional estimate the costs higher than they are in the end, to make the customer feel good on paying the bill.
I awaited, that this would happen again. The estimate was around 102 Euro and finally, the bill was 71,86 Euro and additional, she found an mistake in it and I had to pay 66,86 Euro.

 

[Formeruser012523]

That doesn't help when you are using an android powered device or use chrome as a browser. furthermore, even if you have never used a Google account, device, or anything else you are still being tracked. Many Americans say if you have nothing to hide,you have nothing to fear. That's like saying if you have nothing to say you have no need for the 1st Ammendment.

Funny, I tried to reply to this on my new android and couldn't. I had to download Duckduckgo as a separate app. I just use it so I won't see the same ads every website I go on as that irks me. Personal preference, I guess. But, yeah, I know we're all being tracked no matter what we do, or like, or type. We're just a number, especially in the U. S. From birth.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Always fun to bring in the mail. Cost of recent eye surgery -- $1100 per eye. Cost covered by insurance -- bupkis. I guess retaining my sight so that I can continue to work is considered "an elective choice."

F. the insurance industry and the American health care system.

 

[Fading Fast]

Always fun to bring in the mail. Cost of recent eye surgery -- $1100 per eye. Cost covered by insurance -- bupkis. I guess retaining my sight so that I can continue to work is considered "an elective choice."

F. the insurance industry and the American health care system.

Was the surgery successful as I know your eyes have been giving you much trouble?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, so far. I do have more floaters in the right eye than I had before, and I seem to have more trouble focusing close than I did before. I have to go back in February for another checkup, so I'm going to start saving my empty bottles now so I'll be ready.

 

[GHT]

Monetization of every aspect of human existence from the cradle to the grave -- It's the American Way!

It's also the an immediately recognisable American export. However, I guess you could say that it's an American import in which they saw great potential, refined the idea and then exported it to the world.

In January 1698, the tradition of comprehensive market communications began when John Castaing started to issue a detailed list of market prices called, The Course of The Exchange and Other Things, from his base at Jonathan’s Coffee House every Tuesday & Friday. The money men who emigrated to America took the idea of a stock market.

Almost a 100 years later, the NYSE was founded on the 17th of May, 1792 when 24 stockbrokers signed the Buttonwood Agreement on Wall Street in New York City. Famously, they met beneath a Buttonwood tree and formed a centralised exchanged for the burgeoning securities market in the United States.

 

[AmateisGal]

Always fun to bring in the mail. Cost of recent eye surgery -- $1100 per eye. Cost covered by insurance -- bupkis. I guess retaining my sight so that I can continue to work is considered "an elective choice."

F. the insurance industry and the American health care system.

Lizzie, on this we totally agree. I am sick and tired - literally - of worrying about my healthcare costs. When you have chronic illnesses - rheumatoid arthritis, migraines, fibromyalgia - and have to go in for checkups constantly or deal with flares or go to specialists, it costs a LOT of money. Thank God my prescription plan is decent.

 

[AmateisGal]

Summer. Okay, okay, maybe it doesn't exactly fit this thread, but I am beyond tired of summer. I don't function well in heat and humidity. Maybe I need to move somewhere else.

 

[GHT]

Summer. Okay, okay, maybe it doesn't exactly fit this thread, but I am beyond tired of summer. I don't function well in heat and humidity. Maybe I need to move somewhere else.

You've been to the UK a few times, we have many American immigrant. This year we also had the extremes of weather, in March we had a blizzard dubbed The Beast from the East. Ten weeks later and we were into sub tropical temperatures, but all that was in keeping with the rest of the northern hemisphere, by and large our weather is changeable but clement, and if you apply for, and are accepted as a UK citizen, your health bill will be no more, courtesy of our NHS. So when can we expect you?

 

[tonyb]

Got hit with another $2,141 out of pocket week before last. This on top of my $1,200 out-of-pocket procedure a month or so ago, and the $800 I had to shell out for my piece of a colonoscopy.

Oh, and one of my docs switched meds on me. So my prescription co-pays went up another 40 bucks a month.

At least I’m here to gripe about it.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Summer. Okay, okay, maybe it doesn't exactly fit this thread, but I am beyond tired of summer. I don't function well in heat and humidity. Maybe I need to move somewhere else.

Yep. I hate it too, when humidity exceeds 55%. In Germany normally in June, but in the last years with this tropical late summer, August does the same.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

by and large our weather is changeable but clement,

Was changeable but clement........For the times they are a-changin'

 

[Hercule]

Got hit with another $2,141 out of pocket week before last. This on top of my $1,200 out-of-pocket procedure a month or so ago, and the $800 I had to shell out for my piece of a colonoscopy.

Oh, and one of my docs switched meds on me. So my prescription co-pays went up another 40 bucks a month.

At least I’m here to gripe about it.

Isn't the colonoscopy entirely covered by whatever's left of AHC? That's what I was told at my last office visit. As for the meds, talk to the pharmacist. My issue is with the little tests that are done in the office that are paid out of pocket. My DR. actually got real huffy when I insisted he order proper lab work if he wanted tests done. Enough with those $25 finger pricks. He seemed clueless to the fact that those little tests are where the office makes its money.

Speaking of meds, I tried to call in a renewal at my Dr's office and the nurse asked me what I was taking and what the dosage was. My response was, how the hell do I know, You tell me, YOU'VE got my medical records, I can't prescribe them myself! Don't be lazy, go look. She then proceeded to argue with me, then I asked if she was suggesting that the records might not be accurate. That shut the conversation down quite nicely. She called me back about a half hour later informing me that renewals had been submitted and that I was good to go for another several months.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Summer. Okay, okay, maybe it doesn't exactly fit this thread, but I am beyond tired of summer. I don't function well in heat and humidity. Maybe I need to move somewhere else.

This has been the most brutal summer of my life. Usually we get one or two weeks out of the season when it's that damp, stupid rotting-plant-life heat-and-humidity business, but it's been like that here continuously since the first week of July, and I'm ready to go on a rampage. It's bad enough on the people, but it's becoming almost impossible to keep our projection booth cool enough for the digital projector to function normally -- I have two air conditioners set at 64 degrees running 24/7 in the booth, but once the projector's been running for an hour or so it's at the upper edge of its safe operating range.

On top of all that, the climate is now just ducky for all kinds of new grotesque biting insects we never had before. Blackflies and mosquitoes I know how to deal with, but these tiny little red arachnid looking things that chew the flesh off your ankles are something new and highly distressing.

Over the last ten years or so it's gotten so there is no moderation here when it comes to temperatures. It's either 5 below zero or pushing 90. A pox on both.

 

[MisterCairo]

Pull-tab lids on tins and cans that take 50psi of force to remove, then curl up at the speed of sound at your knuckles.

 

[Formeruser012523]

On top of all that, the climate is now just ducky for all kinds of new grotesque biting insects we never had before. Blackflies and mosquitoes I know how to deal with, but these tiny little red arachnid looking things that chew the flesh off your ankles are something new and highly distressing.

Over the last ten years or so it's gotten so there is no moderation here when it comes to temperatures. It's either 5 below zero or pushing 90. A pox on both.

Come to Texas. 90 is considered "cool" this time of year. So, I'm just gonna point and laugh, if you don't mind? Mosquitoes, creepy crawlies, and dreadful humidity are just a part of everyday life for us. ALWAYS! It's a miracle to keep all that out of the house. And to keep the house at a relatively cool temperature during most of the summer.

My favorite things are the national weather reports of "heat waves" from the northeast where the hottest temps are a whopping 80. Here we practically break out the sweaters. That's autumn.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I went to Arizona once for four days in August and it was one of the most unsatisactory experiences of my life. From the moment of walking off the plane to walking back onto it was like having the blast nozzle from a gas-station hand dryer blowing right in your face, 24 hours a day. Nertz to that.