RevUp

Our PCP suggested that my wife and I get RevUp. 

https://getrevup.com/ Based solely on our PCP's recommendation, we agreed. We didn't realize at the time that RevUp is a "remote care" service located in Solana Beach CA. 

I'll be 79 this year and my wife will be 77. Currently we live independently in our own home. Thanks be to God. We realize that there may come a time when we're unable to live independently in our own home. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Back to RevUp. We didn't know the cost when we got RevUp. We were told that medicare would pay for most of the cost. Then the bills came. For $198 a month we both get a 10 + or - minute phone call from RevUp. That's almost $5,000 a year! Medicare pays 72% and we pay the rest. Needless to say, we decided that RevUp is NOT for us.

Unless you live by yourself, have serious health problems, and you aren't independently wealthy, then, in our opinion, RevUp is NOT for you.

I did learn a lesson with this episode with RevUp. In the future I will be monitoring our PCP's recommendations MUCH more closely. 

Dear DOGE

Elon Musk

Department of Government Efficiency

Washington, DC

Re: junk mail

Dear Elon,

Now that you've chainsawed USAID, the Department of Education, the Pentagon, etc., I would like to draw your attention to the poster child for government inefficiency--USPS, and in particular, junk mail. 

90% of our mail is junk mail. Instead of raising the price of a first class stamp to 73 cents, the USPS should raise the rate for junk mail to $73 per ounce. 

Not only would eliminating junk mail reduce the amount of mail handled by the USPS a hundredfold and reduce the amount of junk mail being sent to landfills a hundredfold, but also eliminating junk mail would be a great service to the American people. 

A hundredfold decrease in junk mail would allow you to chainsaw USPS staff AND reduce the cost of a first class stamp to a more reasonable 25 cents.

Talk about win-win!

Sincerely,

(your name)

cc Donald Trump, White House, Washington, DC

https://flickr.com/photos/stephenvandyke/96983232

attribution: Stephen VanDyke and flickr

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PEretiredAD

Take a look at my new blog: peretiredad.blogspot.com

AD may be the worst assault on customers yet.

fundraisers in pubic schools

My wife and I are old timers. I'm in my late 70s and my wife isn't far behind. As a kid I went to private schools and my wife went to public schools. Many of my friends went to public schools.

In private grade school we sold magazine subscriptions for fundraisers. I didn't particularly like hawking magazine subscriptions door-to-door, but I did what I had to do. My friends in public school didn't hawk magazine subscriptions door-to-door and their parents didn't have to pay tuition like my parents did. Their parents (and my parents) paid taxes for their children's public education.

It began when our four kids went to public school. First it was for supplies--paper, glue, crayons, etc. They were even required to bring rolls of toilet paper to school.

Today we got an email from our grandson saying that he was helping our granddaughter raise funds for a "fun run" to remodel and buy new furniture for her classroom. Contributors were encouraged to pledge $$$ per lap. My granddaughter's goal (she's in kindergarten) is $360!!!

WHOA!!! In this state (and many others, I suspect) public schools are typically the responsibility of local government. One would think that includes school remodeling and furniture.

The fundraiser is very sophisticated. It looks like it was put together by a professional fundraiser/snake oil vendor.

What's this world coming to?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/howardlake/3698848347/

attribution: Howard Lake and flickr

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brutal cold, heat pump and space heaters

The cold weather has been brutal. 

In 2017 my wife and I bought a new, relatively small home with a heat pump. It's our first experience with a heat pump. The problems are:

1. the fan unit is located just on the other side of our bedroom window. It's noisy.
2. the thermostat is located in a hallway towards the back of the house. When we set it to 70 degrees, it's 70 degrees in the hallway and colder everywhere else.
3. The heat pump itself is located in a utility room that is accessed from the garage which is located inside the perimeter walls of the house. The heated air from the heat pump is transmitted by ducts located in the crawl space under the house. When it's brutally cold, by the time the "heated" air reaches the back of the house it's barely warm--and that's with "auxiliary heat" from the heat pump (electrically heated coils similar to a space heater).

To solve problems 2 and 3 I bought two space heaters (dr. heater)--one for the front of the house and the other for the back. With them the heat from the space heaters goes directly to the spaces where the extra heat is needed. No more expensive, barely warm "auxiliary heat" from the heat pump. I save a little money by paying less for the direct heat from the space heaters than paying for the barely warm "auxiliary heat" from the heat pump.

Stay warm! (and pay a little less)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cold_day_in_Lagarelhos,_Vinhais.jpg

attribution: Lagarelhos Vinhais via Wikimedia Commons

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