Just about anyplace that has zoning has rules and regulations about what you can do in a particular zone. Keeping residential and commercial properties separated is intended to be for the good of the community. I can understand all that. What I don't understand is why people need a Home Owners Association AND an Management company. To me it's just a bunch of kids who never grew up and need supervision in order to get trough their daily routine.
Before I moved to O'Fallon where there are literally hundreds of covenants I must comply with I lived in a suburb where no such things existed. There were city ordinances, of course, but that's about all I had to follow to live peacefully. I have no idea how many people worked out of their home in my old neighborhood because they kept it all under cover or were doing the kind of business that was invisible to the neighbors. Once in a while a contractor or landscaper would park too many of his trucks in his own driveway and the cops would pay them a visit to remind them of the ordinances. I have no doubt some busybody neighbor called the cops, but that would fall under the heading of self-regulation. We didn't need no stinkin' HOA back there and people mostly behaved.
What I find interesting in your ramblings is that so many people are apparently working out of their homes and are concentrated in your neighborhood. Self-employment is often a better deal than working for The Man, but I'm surprised so many folks around you (including yourself) are doing it. Apparently the local authorities don't mind because they are collecting all those extraneous taxes businesses must pay.
_______
I sense a minor turn to the bright side with this pandemic we are experiencing. We needed some groceries so I ventured out to Dierbergs this morning. I got most of what I needed and took a walk down the paper products aisle to see how things looked. To my utter amazement the shelves were almost entirely filled with paper towels and ... toilet paper. None of it was a recognizable brand and there was a limit of 4 to a customer. While it's not what it used to be, it is an improvement over just a week ago.
_______
I attribute the server errors you and I are seeing to the virus. Not only is the Internet being overloaded, but so are the website hosting services. I didn't put in a trouble ticket yet, but if it gets any more obnoxious than it is I will do exactly that. I can anticipate what they will tell me but it never hurts to let them know I'm not getting the service I'm paying for.
Outdated Medical Software
Re: Outdated Medical Software
The subdivision my dad and mom moved into when I was 16 years old had so many rules it was unbelievable.
But on the good side of the line, many of them made a whole lot of sense too.
Even where I lived in Creve Coeur, although we didn't have an HOA, we did have a subdivision trustee and rules we had to follow. For example, you can't change the color of your house without approval from the board of trustees. On the bright side, this prevents purple, dayglo pink, and orange houses. But what I wanted to do, was within their guidelines but I had to explain to them the steps to achieve what the final product would look like. They were happy with it and said my house was the gleaming star on the block. AHEM, I AM the Only House on my block, hi hi. But I knew what they meant.
My dad could not park a vehicle with business lettering on it overnight in his driveway, but did get by with it a couple of times as he loaded one up for a fishing trip with plans to leave in the morning. But to be safe, he put a tarp over it for the night.
________
One of the reasons we can have non-visible businesses where I live is because this was actually Knox County up until about three years after I moved in and we got annexed by the City of Knoxville, which more than doubled our taxes, while the services we enjoyed got cut in half, and our house insurance went up a tad because of it.
Partly because our subdivision rules allowed for several things the city rules did not allow.
For example: We can have a fence in our front yard up to our property line. I've never lived anywhere that allowed that, fences always had to stop at the building line with no part of the fence in front of that line.
We are allowed home based businesses provided we are not open to retail walk-in customers, with the exception of the grocery store (which is now an antique shop) and a little 5 store strip mall, and of course the churches.
Apparently there are no rules against Meth Labs and the number of walk-in customers they have, hi hi!
__________
Ironically, none of our stores were ever out of TP, paper towels, or hand sanitizer. Well, maybe Walmart might have been, but we only shop at the mom n pop stores if possible, and Kroger. Kroger did have a limit of 9 rolls, unless they were packaged more than that per package, then you were limited to only 1 package.
There was no limit at all at the food service place, but they only carried commercial grade TP, like the Array Brand I buy from them. There never was a shortage on those large diameter rolls at any of the stores that sold them.
Then too, we do have a couple of paper mills here, but only one makes TP, and that's Georgia/Pacific. The other one only makes newspaper and regular paper, plus paper on rolls for wrapping, but not Kraft paper. I used to get my office use paper from their retail store until it closed a few years ago.
__________
Usually, after I got that message, if I waited a minute or two I could get in and the speed was up to normal, no drag.
I think I mentioned Comcast is turning off residential zones for an hour, but a different zone each day. So far we've only been hit once that I know of.
However, with so many stores closed right now, it is said they are shifting some of the residential load over to the commercial feed temporarily. Of those they shifted, they notice a much higher download speed than ever before too.
Saw a post from a guy who said he normally gets 35 to 50 mbps and for two days it has been up over 85 mbps, but he don't know why.
__________
On a different note: I know nothing about fiber optic cable. I know on wire cable they can add boosters, or perhaps repeaters to keep the signal strength up. And unless you run fiber into your house and have a fiber modem, they convert the fiber optic signal back to a cable signal on the pole outside your house.
But how on earth can they add a booster to fiber optics?
I read that AT&T was adding a booster on their fiber optic cable to enhance service in the Pigeon Forge/Gattlinburg area, our tourist trap area. But the article didn't expound on it at all, other than saying this was the ideal time for upgrades to that area, along with badly needed road repairs. Our tourist areas look like ghost towns right now. No activity at all.
But on the good side of the line, many of them made a whole lot of sense too.
Even where I lived in Creve Coeur, although we didn't have an HOA, we did have a subdivision trustee and rules we had to follow. For example, you can't change the color of your house without approval from the board of trustees. On the bright side, this prevents purple, dayglo pink, and orange houses. But what I wanted to do, was within their guidelines but I had to explain to them the steps to achieve what the final product would look like. They were happy with it and said my house was the gleaming star on the block. AHEM, I AM the Only House on my block, hi hi. But I knew what they meant.
My dad could not park a vehicle with business lettering on it overnight in his driveway, but did get by with it a couple of times as he loaded one up for a fishing trip with plans to leave in the morning. But to be safe, he put a tarp over it for the night.
________
One of the reasons we can have non-visible businesses where I live is because this was actually Knox County up until about three years after I moved in and we got annexed by the City of Knoxville, which more than doubled our taxes, while the services we enjoyed got cut in half, and our house insurance went up a tad because of it.
Partly because our subdivision rules allowed for several things the city rules did not allow.
For example: We can have a fence in our front yard up to our property line. I've never lived anywhere that allowed that, fences always had to stop at the building line with no part of the fence in front of that line.
We are allowed home based businesses provided we are not open to retail walk-in customers, with the exception of the grocery store (which is now an antique shop) and a little 5 store strip mall, and of course the churches.
Apparently there are no rules against Meth Labs and the number of walk-in customers they have, hi hi!
__________
Ironically, none of our stores were ever out of TP, paper towels, or hand sanitizer. Well, maybe Walmart might have been, but we only shop at the mom n pop stores if possible, and Kroger. Kroger did have a limit of 9 rolls, unless they were packaged more than that per package, then you were limited to only 1 package.
There was no limit at all at the food service place, but they only carried commercial grade TP, like the Array Brand I buy from them. There never was a shortage on those large diameter rolls at any of the stores that sold them.
Then too, we do have a couple of paper mills here, but only one makes TP, and that's Georgia/Pacific. The other one only makes newspaper and regular paper, plus paper on rolls for wrapping, but not Kraft paper. I used to get my office use paper from their retail store until it closed a few years ago.
__________
Usually, after I got that message, if I waited a minute or two I could get in and the speed was up to normal, no drag.
I think I mentioned Comcast is turning off residential zones for an hour, but a different zone each day. So far we've only been hit once that I know of.
However, with so many stores closed right now, it is said they are shifting some of the residential load over to the commercial feed temporarily. Of those they shifted, they notice a much higher download speed than ever before too.
Saw a post from a guy who said he normally gets 35 to 50 mbps and for two days it has been up over 85 mbps, but he don't know why.
__________
On a different note: I know nothing about fiber optic cable. I know on wire cable they can add boosters, or perhaps repeaters to keep the signal strength up. And unless you run fiber into your house and have a fiber modem, they convert the fiber optic signal back to a cable signal on the pole outside your house.
But how on earth can they add a booster to fiber optics?
I read that AT&T was adding a booster on their fiber optic cable to enhance service in the Pigeon Forge/Gattlinburg area, our tourist trap area. But the article didn't expound on it at all, other than saying this was the ideal time for upgrades to that area, along with badly needed road repairs. Our tourist areas look like ghost towns right now. No activity at all.
Re: Outdated Medical Software
LASER = Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. The key word is amplification. It's not a problem if you have the money for the equipment. And no, I can't explain it to you unless I looked it up. I did know how it was done at one point in my career as electronics technician, but all that was in a different space/time continuum.But how on earth can they add a booster to fiber optics?
I was talking to my other buddy in Franklin TN yesterday and he was telling me of the shortage of ground beef. They too had plenty of paper products and he had all the Purell he needed to survive this pandemic. I'm certain all these variations can be explained by that supply chain disruption. Some parts of the country are closer to the source than others. The way I see it is it will take about a month for the system to self-adjust. By then the demands should shift again toward a more normal direction and the supply chain will need to be recalibrated. After that happens, then we could expect the second wave of this virus and go through all this one more time. Hopefully by the end of that second cycle there will be an antidote readily available. Otherwise we should prepare for a third round.
I like to bitch and moan a lot about how "different" it is living here in Missouri. This actually is a great place to live, but I spent the first seven decades (count them) of my life learning to live among 13 million other lost souls. Making the change is not easy for an old guy like myself. O'Fallon impressed me as a "reach-out" community almost from day one. There are a lot of charities and a lot of people doing mission work roaming about all over the place. While all that charity is clearly visible, I've mentioned a few times that the warm friendliness for which these parts are known seems a bit superficial. I might have to change my opinion given what I experienced this morning.
First of all I got a call on the landline, which I typically ignore. I didn't recognize the name of the lady, but when I failed to answer the first time she called a second time thereafter. That generally means it's important, or the bots are malfunctioning. The call was from our automobile/house insurance agent who was simply checking on our welfare. I told her we are fortunate enough not to need welfare, and that made her laugh. My guess is she is hearing a lot of sad stories and my bit of humor was a refreshing break. Anyway, she told me to be sure to call her if we need anything. OK, check that.
I was out front pulling weeds when the neighbor from across the street stopped by. He wanted to know if everything was OK with me and my wife. I assured him we were doing fine and actually were enjoying the empty stores when we went shopping. We did some friendly chit chat and in parting he too told me to let him know if there is anything we need. That's two offers in less than an hour. hmmm
After weed pulling I cut the grass that I did not finish cutting the other day. As I was mowing the lawn the neighbor adjacent to me moseyed out of his house to do something on his patio. He looked me straight in the eye as we passed at a distance, but no wave, no smile, no acknowledgement of my presence whatsoever. I am not sure what to think of all this.
Re: Outdated Medical Software
OK, with your help I figured out how to search it. They use a DFA amplifier, which uses a pump laser to dope the fiber, sorta like multiplexing. Looks simple enough, but I'm sure it is highly complex.
Our grocery stores down here seem to be well stocked, but do run out of meat, and sometimes eggs, but milk is still in good supply. As people quit panic hoarding the supply chain is catching back up. It's sad the farmers are having to dump so much stuff though.
What we are not seeing are the discounted price items. Like eggs for example, they usually had all grades priced accordingly for size and grade, and then they had the discount grade, which they no longer have right now.
Almost all stores are controlling how many people can be inside at once, and outside the store they have either areas marked at 6 to 10 foot intervals where you wait in line, so no one is closer than 6 feet or more from anyone else. Only one person in an aisle at a time, and they now have arrows on the floor to follow.
I don't know about Kroger since we have not been there, but the frau says our little grocery store we usually go to, now has a plastic shield between the customer and the cashier. If you are paying by cash, you lay it out so they can count it without touching it. They make change from the register and pass it through the window to you, from new money only, or money from the bank that is over a week old since touched by human hands. They tilt the tray you put your money in, and it is falling into a plastic box sitting just above the floor on another box. I'm sure it will be treated with UV or something before it is counted and put into their bank deposit. They still have the credit card machine on the outside of the glass for the customer to use, but you don't touch the buttons, they have a coffee stir dispenser that feeds out a new stick when you take one out. Looks like it runs on batteries, hi hi. You use the coffee stir to push the buttons and sign the screen, then put it in the waste bin. The frau was surprised they had so many wipe dispensers set up. 4 by the shopping carts, 1 at the end of each aisle, at each end, and several along the meat and dairy wall lanes.
Seems almost like overkill, but maybe not.
My move to Tennessee was a major lifestyle change for me. It was like moving from the products hub for everything, to East Podunk with nothing anywhere. Although we now have a Home Depot and Lowe's within 5 miles, when I first moved here and was doing renovations, the closest large hardware store was out in Alcoa, about 30 miles.
I used to joke with my son on the phone about life down here. You drive 30 miles to the gas station, fill up, drive 30 miles to the store, come back and stop at the gas station to fill up again, then go home, and hope you have enough gas to get back to the gas station again. And the new media goes wild with a major traffic jamb which consists of more than 6 cars at the same stop light. It wasn't that bad of course, but close, compared to back home, hi hi.
It has grown up considerably in my dozen or so years down here. Hmm, make that 17 years!
I have a lot of people I don't know check up on my by phone. Let's see, their is Rachel from CardHolder Services wanting to reduce the interest rate on my 0% interest no annual fee credit card, Janet from the Warranty Division wanting me to extend my car warranty which is about to expire on my '97 Blazer, Michael wanting to talk about my health plan, and of course several others wanting me to donate to this or that cause.
We do chat with the neighbors from afar quite often. Some smile, most are fairly grumpy, but that's all the time, hi hi.
One neighbor does check in with the frau by phone every morning, and the frau calls a couple of folks every morning too.
I hide in my office from 8 am until 10 pm except for two trips to the house, one for lunch and one for dinner. So I never see anyone, and actually like it that way. I would make a good hermit, hi hi.
Someone must have donated those cheap vinyl gloves like you get from paint stores, hi hi.
There are five in a package, the package is plastic wrapped, and the mailman is leaving one package in each mailbox, including those he normally don't stop at, which will make his route take longer for sure.
I did find out if they are using an Amazon truck they cannot put anything into the mailboxes, even though they are letter carriers. The Amazon trucks are only used for parcel deliveries to the door, when the package did not go out via the normal route with the mail carrier. Now if a mailman is in a mail truck, he can put an Amazon package in the mailbox.
Had to chuckle when I heard that, because the rural mail carriers use their own vehicles, but they do have the magnetic thing on the top with the flashing lights and the big sign on the back of the vehicles, sometimes on the doors too. I know they cannot open or close a mailbox without having those things on their vehicle.
Something else interesting, we also have both an Amish and a Mennonite community nearby.
Technically both are anabaptists, but the Mennonites have electric, appliances, and work around town.
The mailman leaves all the mail for the Amish community in a small front office by the main road.
But for the Mennonite, he runs a route just like he does to our houses, some of that is a walking route too.
There is electric and a telephone in the front office building for the Amish, and some emergency equipment as well plugged in to keep it charged up I guess.
Well, that's my little tid bit for today!
Our grocery stores down here seem to be well stocked, but do run out of meat, and sometimes eggs, but milk is still in good supply. As people quit panic hoarding the supply chain is catching back up. It's sad the farmers are having to dump so much stuff though.
What we are not seeing are the discounted price items. Like eggs for example, they usually had all grades priced accordingly for size and grade, and then they had the discount grade, which they no longer have right now.
Almost all stores are controlling how many people can be inside at once, and outside the store they have either areas marked at 6 to 10 foot intervals where you wait in line, so no one is closer than 6 feet or more from anyone else. Only one person in an aisle at a time, and they now have arrows on the floor to follow.
I don't know about Kroger since we have not been there, but the frau says our little grocery store we usually go to, now has a plastic shield between the customer and the cashier. If you are paying by cash, you lay it out so they can count it without touching it. They make change from the register and pass it through the window to you, from new money only, or money from the bank that is over a week old since touched by human hands. They tilt the tray you put your money in, and it is falling into a plastic box sitting just above the floor on another box. I'm sure it will be treated with UV or something before it is counted and put into their bank deposit. They still have the credit card machine on the outside of the glass for the customer to use, but you don't touch the buttons, they have a coffee stir dispenser that feeds out a new stick when you take one out. Looks like it runs on batteries, hi hi. You use the coffee stir to push the buttons and sign the screen, then put it in the waste bin. The frau was surprised they had so many wipe dispensers set up. 4 by the shopping carts, 1 at the end of each aisle, at each end, and several along the meat and dairy wall lanes.
Seems almost like overkill, but maybe not.
My move to Tennessee was a major lifestyle change for me. It was like moving from the products hub for everything, to East Podunk with nothing anywhere. Although we now have a Home Depot and Lowe's within 5 miles, when I first moved here and was doing renovations, the closest large hardware store was out in Alcoa, about 30 miles.
I used to joke with my son on the phone about life down here. You drive 30 miles to the gas station, fill up, drive 30 miles to the store, come back and stop at the gas station to fill up again, then go home, and hope you have enough gas to get back to the gas station again. And the new media goes wild with a major traffic jamb which consists of more than 6 cars at the same stop light. It wasn't that bad of course, but close, compared to back home, hi hi.
It has grown up considerably in my dozen or so years down here. Hmm, make that 17 years!
I have a lot of people I don't know check up on my by phone. Let's see, their is Rachel from CardHolder Services wanting to reduce the interest rate on my 0% interest no annual fee credit card, Janet from the Warranty Division wanting me to extend my car warranty which is about to expire on my '97 Blazer, Michael wanting to talk about my health plan, and of course several others wanting me to donate to this or that cause.
We do chat with the neighbors from afar quite often. Some smile, most are fairly grumpy, but that's all the time, hi hi.
One neighbor does check in with the frau by phone every morning, and the frau calls a couple of folks every morning too.
I hide in my office from 8 am until 10 pm except for two trips to the house, one for lunch and one for dinner. So I never see anyone, and actually like it that way. I would make a good hermit, hi hi.
Someone must have donated those cheap vinyl gloves like you get from paint stores, hi hi.
There are five in a package, the package is plastic wrapped, and the mailman is leaving one package in each mailbox, including those he normally don't stop at, which will make his route take longer for sure.
I did find out if they are using an Amazon truck they cannot put anything into the mailboxes, even though they are letter carriers. The Amazon trucks are only used for parcel deliveries to the door, when the package did not go out via the normal route with the mail carrier. Now if a mailman is in a mail truck, he can put an Amazon package in the mailbox.
Had to chuckle when I heard that, because the rural mail carriers use their own vehicles, but they do have the magnetic thing on the top with the flashing lights and the big sign on the back of the vehicles, sometimes on the doors too. I know they cannot open or close a mailbox without having those things on their vehicle.
Something else interesting, we also have both an Amish and a Mennonite community nearby.
Technically both are anabaptists, but the Mennonites have electric, appliances, and work around town.
The mailman leaves all the mail for the Amish community in a small front office by the main road.
But for the Mennonite, he runs a route just like he does to our houses, some of that is a walking route too.
There is electric and a telephone in the front office building for the Amish, and some emergency equipment as well plugged in to keep it charged up I guess.
Well, that's my little tid bit for today!
Re: Outdated Medical Software
The response to this virus plague is widely varied, even within the town of O'Fallon. There are some general guidelines that everybody is following, like the social distancing, but the detailed efforts are all different. For example ...
I went to Dierberg the other day. There are doors at either end of the store, but now one is only for entry and the other is only for exiting. A monitor, who I assume is a store employee, stands guard at each door. There are signs all over telling you what to do, but the most significant thing they want is only one person per family inside the store. I guess the guard is the bouncer who will take care of those who don't want to comply. Clearly no less than 75% of the people shopping were wearing face masks of various kinds. One guy looked like the Frito Bandito with just a bandana tied around his head. All the store employees had face masks as did the delivery and stock people. Shopping was pretty much normal. Sanitizer cloth was provided to wipe down the shopping carts, which the customer had to do themselves. There weren't that many people in the store and it was easy to keep one's proper social distance. Just about everybody took that distancing in stride. At the checkout there were plexiglass walls on both sides of the lane. Don't know about self checkers because I didn't go that route. The groceries were loaded on the conveyor about half way down the strip - you could not get closer to the till tart because of the plexiglass wall. A small cut out in the glass allowed for exchanging money, but I didn't see anybody offer hard cash so that I don't know what they do in that case. It's been a long time since they abandoned signatures for the credit card so that all I had to do was slip my card in the slot and then withdraw it when done. At Schnucks I don't even have to do that. I can tap my card on a dimple next to the keypad and the magic happens without inserting or swiping anything. I did note that there were no obvious sanitizers near the CC machine, which I thought was an oversight. Anyway, it was pretty well controlled; maybe too well.
Today I made a trek over to Walgreens to pick up some meds and some Ben & Jerry for the lady of the house. The entry looked normal. No signs. No bouncers. No nothing. Just fewer people parked in the lot. At the pharmacy there were marked spaces on the floor, which they did not seem to have at the Dierberg checkout. No plexiglass at all, however. The pharmacist had a mask on and I was asked to punch in a phone number to verify my identity. I looked at her in shock and asked if she REALLY wanted me to TOUCH that keypad. She said yes, and showed me the bottle of sanitizer I can use after I touch the keypad. OK, it was nice they had sanitizer. Too bad there wasn't any on the shelf for sale. Then I went for the ice cream and stood in line at the front checkout. It was a zig zag maze with marked standing spots, but not much else was different. No plexiglass there either. but she too had a bottle of sanitize and was not wearing a mask. I saw only one register for cash, and again don't know what they do for people with hard currency.
Both Dierbergs (Schnucks too) and Walgreens had near field capability so that I could have forgone the CC altogether and just brushed my clever phone within a centimeter or two of their machine. The more I think about it, the more I like that idea. I might have to activate my mobile computer to do such things before this pandemic maxes out.
I went to Dierberg the other day. There are doors at either end of the store, but now one is only for entry and the other is only for exiting. A monitor, who I assume is a store employee, stands guard at each door. There are signs all over telling you what to do, but the most significant thing they want is only one person per family inside the store. I guess the guard is the bouncer who will take care of those who don't want to comply. Clearly no less than 75% of the people shopping were wearing face masks of various kinds. One guy looked like the Frito Bandito with just a bandana tied around his head. All the store employees had face masks as did the delivery and stock people. Shopping was pretty much normal. Sanitizer cloth was provided to wipe down the shopping carts, which the customer had to do themselves. There weren't that many people in the store and it was easy to keep one's proper social distance. Just about everybody took that distancing in stride. At the checkout there were plexiglass walls on both sides of the lane. Don't know about self checkers because I didn't go that route. The groceries were loaded on the conveyor about half way down the strip - you could not get closer to the till tart because of the plexiglass wall. A small cut out in the glass allowed for exchanging money, but I didn't see anybody offer hard cash so that I don't know what they do in that case. It's been a long time since they abandoned signatures for the credit card so that all I had to do was slip my card in the slot and then withdraw it when done. At Schnucks I don't even have to do that. I can tap my card on a dimple next to the keypad and the magic happens without inserting or swiping anything. I did note that there were no obvious sanitizers near the CC machine, which I thought was an oversight. Anyway, it was pretty well controlled; maybe too well.
Today I made a trek over to Walgreens to pick up some meds and some Ben & Jerry for the lady of the house. The entry looked normal. No signs. No bouncers. No nothing. Just fewer people parked in the lot. At the pharmacy there were marked spaces on the floor, which they did not seem to have at the Dierberg checkout. No plexiglass at all, however. The pharmacist had a mask on and I was asked to punch in a phone number to verify my identity. I looked at her in shock and asked if she REALLY wanted me to TOUCH that keypad. She said yes, and showed me the bottle of sanitizer I can use after I touch the keypad. OK, it was nice they had sanitizer. Too bad there wasn't any on the shelf for sale. Then I went for the ice cream and stood in line at the front checkout. It was a zig zag maze with marked standing spots, but not much else was different. No plexiglass there either. but she too had a bottle of sanitize and was not wearing a mask. I saw only one register for cash, and again don't know what they do for people with hard currency.
Both Dierbergs (Schnucks too) and Walgreens had near field capability so that I could have forgone the CC altogether and just brushed my clever phone within a centimeter or two of their machine. The more I think about it, the more I like that idea. I might have to activate my mobile computer to do such things before this pandemic maxes out.
Re: Outdated Medical Software
I've still not been out myself, which is OK with me.
I have a script ready at Walgreens, two actually, but they told me not to come to pick up until the 18th.
I thought that was odd, since they usually tell me to pick it up the next day, and I'm almost out of one important one.
Told Debi when it has to be picked up, and she said they are doing that to everybody. They bag your order like always, but then it sits for 5 days on a roller rack like the library uses, each of their ten roller racks has a date on it.
She asked her cousin who works there what's up. She said it's to make sure no virus is on the package you receive.
You'll see when you go to pick up your order, they don't touch the bags, they use a pair of tongs that is sitting in a jar of probably alcohol. And after you get your bag, they wipe out the drive-up drawer after each customer.
If you have a co-pay, they request you pay it on-line to save billing costs. They are not accepting money at the pick-up window outside. Inside they are though.
Sounds like overkill there too, but perhaps they know something we don't?
I have a script ready at Walgreens, two actually, but they told me not to come to pick up until the 18th.
I thought that was odd, since they usually tell me to pick it up the next day, and I'm almost out of one important one.
Told Debi when it has to be picked up, and she said they are doing that to everybody. They bag your order like always, but then it sits for 5 days on a roller rack like the library uses, each of their ten roller racks has a date on it.
She asked her cousin who works there what's up. She said it's to make sure no virus is on the package you receive.
You'll see when you go to pick up your order, they don't touch the bags, they use a pair of tongs that is sitting in a jar of probably alcohol. And after you get your bag, they wipe out the drive-up drawer after each customer.
If you have a co-pay, they request you pay it on-line to save billing costs. They are not accepting money at the pick-up window outside. Inside they are though.
Sounds like overkill there too, but perhaps they know something we don't?
Re: Outdated Medical Software
I find your Walgreens story to be most interesting. I just picked up a prescription from them yesterday and it was nothing like you describe. Last year we dealt with CVS and changed insurance so that this year we had to switch over to Walgreens. That means all the outstanding scripts at CVS had to be transferred over to Walgreens. It seems simple because the Walgreens website had provisions to do just that. List the name and the Rx # and they will call CVS to get the transfer. The first time I needed something in January the website said it was all done. Come and get the drug I ordered. When I got there they never heard of me, the drug, and were suspicious about CVS. So I had to make a return trip with the physical evidence in hand. They then called CVS and filled the order while I waited ... an hour.
OK, I figured things might go slow during the transition but the exact same thing happened a few weeks later. Ordered things on the Walgreens website and they didn't know anything about it when I came to pick it up. After the third time this happened I brought the printouts of the emails they were sending me. I might have been a little rude and wanted an explanation of what the web site is supposed to be used for if nobody in the store seems to know it exists. They apologized, but guess what happened the fourth time. Trip #4 was made after the virus plague was upon us and all the combat gear was in place at the drug counter. By this time corporate Walgreens was into helping people big time offering free delivery and a lot of other stuff so that us old people don't have to come to the store. Seeing as to how I was obviously one of those old people, they filled my order immediately. Had it done in 5 minutes.
Trip #5 was made yesterday. This was the last of the transfers from CVS and probably the least critical of all the meds I use. Being a slow learner, I went to the Walgreens website one more time and did the transfer request. They sent an e-mail immediately saying they got my instructions. Next email was instructions to come and get it the next day at 11:00 AM. I've read that story before and didn't have much confidence in achieving success, but when I got there the order was ready and waiting for me. This is the pharmacy that wanted me to punch in my phone number to their keypad. When I questioned it they gave me a squirt of disinfectant for my hands. OK, that was cool. The clerk was wearing a face mask but no gloves. She stapled the register receipt to my bag of drugs and handed it over as if nothing was amiss. I did this all with a credit card, but from what I could discern there was only one cash register. I have a suspicion that the people using hard currency didn't get scrubbed down money for change. There was no crowd in the store, but there also were no restrictions. Anybody who could walk in was welcome. Few, if any, of the customers wore masks. Dierbergs was a lot more protective than was Walgreens. Obviously everybody is on their own with this pandemic thing.
OK, I figured things might go slow during the transition but the exact same thing happened a few weeks later. Ordered things on the Walgreens website and they didn't know anything about it when I came to pick it up. After the third time this happened I brought the printouts of the emails they were sending me. I might have been a little rude and wanted an explanation of what the web site is supposed to be used for if nobody in the store seems to know it exists. They apologized, but guess what happened the fourth time. Trip #4 was made after the virus plague was upon us and all the combat gear was in place at the drug counter. By this time corporate Walgreens was into helping people big time offering free delivery and a lot of other stuff so that us old people don't have to come to the store. Seeing as to how I was obviously one of those old people, they filled my order immediately. Had it done in 5 minutes.
Trip #5 was made yesterday. This was the last of the transfers from CVS and probably the least critical of all the meds I use. Being a slow learner, I went to the Walgreens website one more time and did the transfer request. They sent an e-mail immediately saying they got my instructions. Next email was instructions to come and get it the next day at 11:00 AM. I've read that story before and didn't have much confidence in achieving success, but when I got there the order was ready and waiting for me. This is the pharmacy that wanted me to punch in my phone number to their keypad. When I questioned it they gave me a squirt of disinfectant for my hands. OK, that was cool. The clerk was wearing a face mask but no gloves. She stapled the register receipt to my bag of drugs and handed it over as if nothing was amiss. I did this all with a credit card, but from what I could discern there was only one cash register. I have a suspicion that the people using hard currency didn't get scrubbed down money for change. There was no crowd in the store, but there also were no restrictions. Anybody who could walk in was welcome. Few, if any, of the customers wore masks. Dierbergs was a lot more protective than was Walgreens. Obviously everybody is on their own with this pandemic thing.
Re: Outdated Medical Software
When I switched from Walmart to Walgreens, I had the doc write me all new prescriptions.
Then when I went to pick them up, they said my insurance company denied them because I'm not out yet, and still have refills available at Walmart.
They made the call to Walmart and got everything cleared up, so the next time I went, whatever I was supposed to get was ready.
Then they did something I consider great!
I filled out a form to have my scripts adjusted so they all were ready at the same time.
Seemed odd at first when I picked up my scripts for the first time, some bottles only had like 3 to 7 pills in them.
But now I only have to go once every three months and they have everything all ready in a bag.
Still cutting it close on one script that I'm out of before they have the refills.
I like to fill my pill dispenser for the entire week, and this one pill always only has three days left at the time I fill my dispenser. Messes up my filling schedule. It does force me to go to the pharmacy on the day my order is due for pick-up.
One strange thing about Walgreens is, I get checks from them, one was 1.66, another was 3.33, which is a pain because then I have to take them to the bank which costs more in fuel than the check is worth.
Seems my insurance company dictates to them what they can charge for a drug, hi hi.
Then when I went to pick them up, they said my insurance company denied them because I'm not out yet, and still have refills available at Walmart.
They made the call to Walmart and got everything cleared up, so the next time I went, whatever I was supposed to get was ready.
Then they did something I consider great!
I filled out a form to have my scripts adjusted so they all were ready at the same time.
Seemed odd at first when I picked up my scripts for the first time, some bottles only had like 3 to 7 pills in them.
But now I only have to go once every three months and they have everything all ready in a bag.
Still cutting it close on one script that I'm out of before they have the refills.
I like to fill my pill dispenser for the entire week, and this one pill always only has three days left at the time I fill my dispenser. Messes up my filling schedule. It does force me to go to the pharmacy on the day my order is due for pick-up.
One strange thing about Walgreens is, I get checks from them, one was 1.66, another was 3.33, which is a pain because then I have to take them to the bank which costs more in fuel than the check is worth.
Seems my insurance company dictates to them what they can charge for a drug, hi hi.
Re: Outdated Medical Software
I'm pretty sure I have the option to coordinate the prescription refills I need, but I have never bothered. I'm not bothered by trips to the pharmacy mainly because I have nothing better to do anyway. LOL A long long time ago all my drugs were supplied by mail order. The insurance company of that day wanted it that way. I had to mail forms in to request refills because there wasn't much e-commerce in those days. It was during those years that I managed to get ahead of the game. I have a 90 day supply of everything in reserve while I'm eating up the regular prescription. Normally insurance companies will not pay if you order too soon, but these mail order people didn't seem to care.
So, now I have different insurance, and it's all done online. I still have that 90 day buffer and will only run out of drugs if they are new and not in my stock pile. That did in fact happen with an additional hypertension pill I now take. Oddly enough after a year or so I have about a 6 week reserve. I'm guessing if I keep ordering as soon as it is allowed I will be able to accumulate that 90 day excess in due time. Walgreens seems to be up to speed now and that's all I'm concerned about. I don't want to go there unless I have to pick something up. They did it once in a row now, so maybe there is hope.
So, now I have different insurance, and it's all done online. I still have that 90 day buffer and will only run out of drugs if they are new and not in my stock pile. That did in fact happen with an additional hypertension pill I now take. Oddly enough after a year or so I have about a 6 week reserve. I'm guessing if I keep ordering as soon as it is allowed I will be able to accumulate that 90 day excess in due time. Walgreens seems to be up to speed now and that's all I'm concerned about. I don't want to go there unless I have to pick something up. They did it once in a row now, so maybe there is hope.
Re: Outdated Medical Software
I too used mail order as required by my insurance company at the time.
Even though I told them my doc took me off of a particular script, they still kept sending them until the number of refills were used up. It stopped when he wouldn't authorize another round since I was no longer on that drug, hi hi.
It came to pass that the local pharmacies began offering the drugs for the same price as the mail order places, if you bought in 90 day supplies. Plus Walmart would include some menial things the insurance did not cover. The only thing that irked me was Walmart had several drugs you could buy without insurance for four bucks. But if you had insurance on file with them, you got them free, however, they billed the insurance company the full price which pushed you into the donut hole faster.
Once we were wise to this, especially with the frau landing in the donut hole at the end of February or early March, we moved to Walgreens, but also go to Walmart to buy some scripts without an insurance claim to get the Walmart price.
I'm back to getting some things by mail order once again, but only those things that go along with Durable Equipment as peripheral drugs. This way my supplemental plan pays for the script as a durable equipment component. I still have to pay my deductible each year on that plan.
But I'll tell you one thing, they do have a major money making gimmick.
The drug I'm getting costs 110 bucks, and besides billing my insurance for that.
They add another charge of 133 dollar called a dispensing charge.
I hope I live long enough for it to backfire on them, hi hi.
You see, by them accepting the contract, they are stuck with it. So am I, because I can't change.
Medicare only authorizes 2 years on one thing and 3 years on the other, but they cannot stop providing for me after they no longer get paid. And they cannot charge me a co-pay larger than 20 bucks. Which I have discovered will actually be 60 bucks each refill because it is 20 bucks per month co-pay. So they are not losing money that's for sure!
Even though I told them my doc took me off of a particular script, they still kept sending them until the number of refills were used up. It stopped when he wouldn't authorize another round since I was no longer on that drug, hi hi.
It came to pass that the local pharmacies began offering the drugs for the same price as the mail order places, if you bought in 90 day supplies. Plus Walmart would include some menial things the insurance did not cover. The only thing that irked me was Walmart had several drugs you could buy without insurance for four bucks. But if you had insurance on file with them, you got them free, however, they billed the insurance company the full price which pushed you into the donut hole faster.
Once we were wise to this, especially with the frau landing in the donut hole at the end of February or early March, we moved to Walgreens, but also go to Walmart to buy some scripts without an insurance claim to get the Walmart price.
I'm back to getting some things by mail order once again, but only those things that go along with Durable Equipment as peripheral drugs. This way my supplemental plan pays for the script as a durable equipment component. I still have to pay my deductible each year on that plan.
But I'll tell you one thing, they do have a major money making gimmick.
The drug I'm getting costs 110 bucks, and besides billing my insurance for that.
They add another charge of 133 dollar called a dispensing charge.
I hope I live long enough for it to backfire on them, hi hi.
You see, by them accepting the contract, they are stuck with it. So am I, because I can't change.
Medicare only authorizes 2 years on one thing and 3 years on the other, but they cannot stop providing for me after they no longer get paid. And they cannot charge me a co-pay larger than 20 bucks. Which I have discovered will actually be 60 bucks each refill because it is 20 bucks per month co-pay. So they are not losing money that's for sure!
Re: Outdated Medical Software
Healthcare, drugs et. al., is like any other business in America. They exist only to maximize profits. It doesn't matter who pays for the service or medications, it is not a loss to anybody. The only advantage to using insurance is the large scale leverage they have to negotiate prices. Sometimes you can get a better price than they can, but that drug is not a loss item to anybody. That's basically the argument for single payer healthcare. One payer would be more efficient than the chaos we see now. At the end of the day that hospital stay costs exactly the same no matter who pays for it. It must or the hospital would be out of business. I seriously doubt it will ever come down to a single payer for healthcare. It makes too much sense to do it that way.
One of my doctors who I no longer need to see keeps me on their mailing list. During this pandemic they are remaining open for business. If you don't want to sit around in their waiting room, you can sit in your car if you give the front desk your mobile number. Plus, they put as many patients as is practical on telemed. This is basically a conference call with some medical person who can perform an office call over the Internet. I'm thinking after this virus goes away and people start to think hard about the future, there will be a lot more remote "office visits" going on. Some things still need the personal touch, but maybe half the people who see doctors on a regular basis can talk to a robot instead and get just as good service. It's all available right now. All that is needed is the incentive to switch. This pandemic might be that incentive.
One of my doctors who I no longer need to see keeps me on their mailing list. During this pandemic they are remaining open for business. If you don't want to sit around in their waiting room, you can sit in your car if you give the front desk your mobile number. Plus, they put as many patients as is practical on telemed. This is basically a conference call with some medical person who can perform an office call over the Internet. I'm thinking after this virus goes away and people start to think hard about the future, there will be a lot more remote "office visits" going on. Some things still need the personal touch, but maybe half the people who see doctors on a regular basis can talk to a robot instead and get just as good service. It's all available right now. All that is needed is the incentive to switch. This pandemic might be that incentive.
Re: Outdated Medical Software
I know this is going back a lot of years, but my pediatrician was often paid with tangible items and foodstuffs instead of money. Even so his rates were most reasonable for those who paid in cash.
The times changed fast after health insurance became the norm. Doctors upped their rates considerably!
I still had the same doctor at age 10, and he only charged our family his normal rates, plus a little for inflation.
But if we wanted to use our health insurance plan, which was Blue Cross and Blue Shield at the time, he would have to charge a rate that was like 5 times higher than what he considered his normal rate.
By the time I was 15, he was forced to bill through insurance if you had it.
Nevertheless, this man was amazing!
When I was 22 years old, he was around 65 years old and still practicing medicine, and was still MY doctor, although he was a pediatrician. He was a true family doctor. And although almost no doctors made house calls anymore. My wife called him when I was sick, very sick, expecting him to tell her to call an ambulance. He told her not to call and he would be right over. I had the Hong Kong Flu and was unconscious for about a week. But my wife said he came over to our apartment every day at lunch, and again after dinner and sat with me. I never knew this until later. My wife said he said I was too bad to be moved, and taking me to the hospital might lead to complications.
Needless to say, insurance did not cover his visits or most of what he did for me. Yet I never got a bill from him.
I did go to him once every three months like clockwork after that bout with the flu.
And about the time I turned 30 he told me, I'm at the age now where I should have an adult doctor, not a pediatrician. I may have something happen that he is not fluent in. He said besides, I'm slowly closing down my practice. Time for me to retire.
He called me about a week later and said I found the perfect doctor for you and sent all of your charts over to him, you will love him. He will call you for an appointment later this week.
I don't know what kind of pull our family doctor had, but it must have been a lot for what happened.
My new doctor was closed on Tuesdays because that is the day he did all of his paperwork.
But my appointment was made for a Tuesday. All that were there was him and a nurse who did all the preliminaries like every doctors office.
Thereafter he decided it worked out great for me to come in on Tuesdays. So, from about the age of 33 to the age of 56 when I left to move south to Tennessee, he was my doctor, and always saw me on Tuesdays, four times a year, and I never had to pay a co-pay or extra bill from him. He always took whatever the insurance paid him.
I did have to see a few specialists during that time, where I did have to pay what the insurance didn't cover.
Perhaps it is a good thing I did move south, because I heard he passed away suddenly about 2 years after I had made the move.
Now dig this, my doctor I've had since I moved down here, just up and quit his practice about a year ago. He was part of a group so I still go and get seen by another doctor or two in that group, but they have not hired someone to replace him yet. I think they were hoping he would come back, but from what I hear through the grapevine, it's not going to happen.
The only e-mails I get from doctors offices, is a notice to go to their website as their is a message or two there for me.
Now if I hooked up a camera to my computer, my current doctors all do video conferencing. Seems like a waste of time to me though. During this pandemic, I keep track of my Blood Pressure, Blood Glucose, O2 levels, Heart Rate, and exercise data. I just place this info on the correspondence page to whichever doctor contacted me last. I can get by doing this until my new appointment they set in June. Then they will do my annual, quarterly, and lab work all on the same day. Although, for insurance purposes, they have to treat each thing as a different appointment and with a different doctor for each. Sheee... At least they are running all three back to back for me this time.
The times changed fast after health insurance became the norm. Doctors upped their rates considerably!
I still had the same doctor at age 10, and he only charged our family his normal rates, plus a little for inflation.
But if we wanted to use our health insurance plan, which was Blue Cross and Blue Shield at the time, he would have to charge a rate that was like 5 times higher than what he considered his normal rate.
By the time I was 15, he was forced to bill through insurance if you had it.
Nevertheless, this man was amazing!
When I was 22 years old, he was around 65 years old and still practicing medicine, and was still MY doctor, although he was a pediatrician. He was a true family doctor. And although almost no doctors made house calls anymore. My wife called him when I was sick, very sick, expecting him to tell her to call an ambulance. He told her not to call and he would be right over. I had the Hong Kong Flu and was unconscious for about a week. But my wife said he came over to our apartment every day at lunch, and again after dinner and sat with me. I never knew this until later. My wife said he said I was too bad to be moved, and taking me to the hospital might lead to complications.
Needless to say, insurance did not cover his visits or most of what he did for me. Yet I never got a bill from him.
I did go to him once every three months like clockwork after that bout with the flu.
And about the time I turned 30 he told me, I'm at the age now where I should have an adult doctor, not a pediatrician. I may have something happen that he is not fluent in. He said besides, I'm slowly closing down my practice. Time for me to retire.
He called me about a week later and said I found the perfect doctor for you and sent all of your charts over to him, you will love him. He will call you for an appointment later this week.
I don't know what kind of pull our family doctor had, but it must have been a lot for what happened.
My new doctor was closed on Tuesdays because that is the day he did all of his paperwork.
But my appointment was made for a Tuesday. All that were there was him and a nurse who did all the preliminaries like every doctors office.
Thereafter he decided it worked out great for me to come in on Tuesdays. So, from about the age of 33 to the age of 56 when I left to move south to Tennessee, he was my doctor, and always saw me on Tuesdays, four times a year, and I never had to pay a co-pay or extra bill from him. He always took whatever the insurance paid him.
I did have to see a few specialists during that time, where I did have to pay what the insurance didn't cover.
Perhaps it is a good thing I did move south, because I heard he passed away suddenly about 2 years after I had made the move.
Now dig this, my doctor I've had since I moved down here, just up and quit his practice about a year ago. He was part of a group so I still go and get seen by another doctor or two in that group, but they have not hired someone to replace him yet. I think they were hoping he would come back, but from what I hear through the grapevine, it's not going to happen.
The only e-mails I get from doctors offices, is a notice to go to their website as their is a message or two there for me.
Now if I hooked up a camera to my computer, my current doctors all do video conferencing. Seems like a waste of time to me though. During this pandemic, I keep track of my Blood Pressure, Blood Glucose, O2 levels, Heart Rate, and exercise data. I just place this info on the correspondence page to whichever doctor contacted me last. I can get by doing this until my new appointment they set in June. Then they will do my annual, quarterly, and lab work all on the same day. Although, for insurance purposes, they have to treat each thing as a different appointment and with a different doctor for each. Sheee... At least they are running all three back to back for me this time.
Re: Outdated Medical Software
Your memories of doctors go back to prehistoric times. LOL Those country doctors came out of an era where people actually looked after each other. In the current century it's more like a business than a caring friendship. Part of the change is due to there simply not being enough doctors to take care of all the potential patients. That's one reason house calls are so rare these days. It takes too much time.
I have one memory of our family doctor, Dr Kell, from the days before I entered kindergarten. I can still see an image of the office and the doctor coming at me with a sharp instrument. It seems I had some kind of pus bag between my fingers and the doctor simply drained it in his office. I'm sure that would require out patient surgery in 2020, but the memory of Dr Kell stuck because I was terrified. And it hurt when he stabbed me. LOL The other thing I recall is that it had to be a 2-3 mile walk to his office. We didn't have a car and walking was quicker than the public transportation we would have to take. I find it odd that I would have such a memory of a single incident as a youth. I must have really been traumatized.
It's also odd to me that your doctors took off on Tuesday to do paperwork. All the doctors had Wednesday off up in Chicago-ville.
I have one memory of our family doctor, Dr Kell, from the days before I entered kindergarten. I can still see an image of the office and the doctor coming at me with a sharp instrument. It seems I had some kind of pus bag between my fingers and the doctor simply drained it in his office. I'm sure that would require out patient surgery in 2020, but the memory of Dr Kell stuck because I was terrified. And it hurt when he stabbed me. LOL The other thing I recall is that it had to be a 2-3 mile walk to his office. We didn't have a car and walking was quicker than the public transportation we would have to take. I find it odd that I would have such a memory of a single incident as a youth. I must have really been traumatized.
It's also odd to me that your doctors took off on Tuesday to do paperwork. All the doctors had Wednesday off up in Chicago-ville.
Re: Outdated Medical Software
I remember a few traumatic dentist and doctor experiences when I was a tyke.
I was in the hospital to get my tonsils out, probably only 7 or 8 years old.
I had a previous experience with sleeping pills from when I was sick at home with something, probably a bad case of poison oak or something and the doc had mom give me some sleeping pills. They had the opposite affect on me, I was as wide awake as if they dosed me with caffeine, hi hi.
I told the nurse this and she didn't believe me and gave me a dose of sleeping pills.
I was up all night roaming the halls and even went out on the balcony where some construction was going on.
Took a battery powered radio with me that belonged to my grandpa and turned it on. These old radios were big and heavy.
And luck of the Irish, I tripped over a board and dropped it when I was on my way back in. Which of course alerted all the nurses on the floor who came running. I got a good scolding too.
They didn't put me back in my bed, the used one of those caged beds they use for active toddlers, hi hi.
I didn't get a wink of sleep until the next night after my mom told them No Sleeping Pills, hi hi.
Yes, most doctors take off on Wednesday, which is why my doctor was open on Wednesday, he was on-call at the hospital every Wednesday, so folks HATED having a Wednesday appointment with him because he might be called out of the office.
My late wife had a doctor named Dr. Rosenbloom she had to go see once every other week after her heart surgery. He appointment was on a Tuesday also, and there were very few there, just the doc, a nurse, and perhaps one or two patients. But go to his office any other day of the week and it was packed solid.
I don't remember his name, but we had a doctor who came by our greenhouses every day that the temp was over 80 degrees outside, which meant it was close to a hundred inside the greenhouses. As far as I know, his only task was to make sure the employees took their salt tablet, because he gave them to them and made sure they took them. We only had like 5 or 6 with their doctors orders not to take any salt, most of them were older too.
He not only went to our greenhouses, but most of them in Des Peres and Kirkwood too.
I don't know if it was a law or not back then, but come around 1968 no docs ever came around anymore. But we did have big white metal boxes at the lead end of every 5th greenhouse from 1967 to 1975, then they were all replaced by Zee Pharmaceuticals and were heavily stocked with everything for both emergencies and when needed usages. There was a lot of pilfering at first of some of the items that folks wanted for at home, but as soon as they got stocked up, the pilfering slowed down to a dull roar.
Up in the cut flower shop we only had one of the Zee boxes, but it was about twice the size as the ones in the greenhouses, and did not have the seal and clamp, probably to keep humidity out in the greenhouses. One guy came buy and replenished what was missing about once every two or three weeks and dad would get a bill. Ironically the bill was never as high as one would think. More often than not it was only around 80 to 100 bucks, at first it was closer to 150 bucks but simmered down. Not bad when you consider the number of greenhouses and employees we had. These were kept fully stocked up until 1984 when we were scheduled to close.
I was in the hospital to get my tonsils out, probably only 7 or 8 years old.
I had a previous experience with sleeping pills from when I was sick at home with something, probably a bad case of poison oak or something and the doc had mom give me some sleeping pills. They had the opposite affect on me, I was as wide awake as if they dosed me with caffeine, hi hi.
I told the nurse this and she didn't believe me and gave me a dose of sleeping pills.
I was up all night roaming the halls and even went out on the balcony where some construction was going on.
Took a battery powered radio with me that belonged to my grandpa and turned it on. These old radios were big and heavy.
And luck of the Irish, I tripped over a board and dropped it when I was on my way back in. Which of course alerted all the nurses on the floor who came running. I got a good scolding too.
They didn't put me back in my bed, the used one of those caged beds they use for active toddlers, hi hi.
I didn't get a wink of sleep until the next night after my mom told them No Sleeping Pills, hi hi.
Yes, most doctors take off on Wednesday, which is why my doctor was open on Wednesday, he was on-call at the hospital every Wednesday, so folks HATED having a Wednesday appointment with him because he might be called out of the office.
My late wife had a doctor named Dr. Rosenbloom she had to go see once every other week after her heart surgery. He appointment was on a Tuesday also, and there were very few there, just the doc, a nurse, and perhaps one or two patients. But go to his office any other day of the week and it was packed solid.
I don't remember his name, but we had a doctor who came by our greenhouses every day that the temp was over 80 degrees outside, which meant it was close to a hundred inside the greenhouses. As far as I know, his only task was to make sure the employees took their salt tablet, because he gave them to them and made sure they took them. We only had like 5 or 6 with their doctors orders not to take any salt, most of them were older too.
He not only went to our greenhouses, but most of them in Des Peres and Kirkwood too.
I don't know if it was a law or not back then, but come around 1968 no docs ever came around anymore. But we did have big white metal boxes at the lead end of every 5th greenhouse from 1967 to 1975, then they were all replaced by Zee Pharmaceuticals and were heavily stocked with everything for both emergencies and when needed usages. There was a lot of pilfering at first of some of the items that folks wanted for at home, but as soon as they got stocked up, the pilfering slowed down to a dull roar.
Up in the cut flower shop we only had one of the Zee boxes, but it was about twice the size as the ones in the greenhouses, and did not have the seal and clamp, probably to keep humidity out in the greenhouses. One guy came buy and replenished what was missing about once every two or three weeks and dad would get a bill. Ironically the bill was never as high as one would think. More often than not it was only around 80 to 100 bucks, at first it was closer to 150 bucks but simmered down. Not bad when you consider the number of greenhouses and employees we had. These were kept fully stocked up until 1984 when we were scheduled to close.
Re: Outdated Medical Software
The first dentist I ever visited was old school. He had a drill that was operated like an old sewing machine. There was a foot peddle that he pumped to make the drill he was using on my molars work. That was amazing enough, but he only gave Novocaine to you as a option if you requested it. I recall some of that drilling hurt and my whole head would vibrate from that grinder, but it was all bearable. At the time I was interested in hypnosis, as was he. So I would use that to get through the sessions, but obviously I wasn't too good at it because it still hurt. In addition to all that draconian experience, those were the days when mercury was used in fillings. It's amazing I didn't die before I got out of puberty. LOL
At Motorola there were 5000 people under one roof and it was a legal requirement to have a nurse on duty. There were small first aide stations throughout the plant too, but I don't recall seeing any of them actually being used. That too must have been a legal requirement and not anything actually useful. The first Motorola factory I worked in was located in the city of Chicago proper and there was no air conditioning in those days. At home only the bedroom had a/c. People might have suffered from the heat in the factory, but that too isn't part of my memory. We all just took the heat in stride because that is how it was done at home too. Then again, the radio building factory didn't have the same kind of humidity as would be present in a greenhouse. We did have solder pots though.
At Motorola there were 5000 people under one roof and it was a legal requirement to have a nurse on duty. There were small first aide stations throughout the plant too, but I don't recall seeing any of them actually being used. That too must have been a legal requirement and not anything actually useful. The first Motorola factory I worked in was located in the city of Chicago proper and there was no air conditioning in those days. At home only the bedroom had a/c. People might have suffered from the heat in the factory, but that too isn't part of my memory. We all just took the heat in stride because that is how it was done at home too. Then again, the radio building factory didn't have the same kind of humidity as would be present in a greenhouse. We did have solder pots though.
Re: Outdated Medical Software
Yes I remember the foot pumped drills with the belts and pulleys.
One of my early dentists used gas, and one later either.
After that it was Novocaine.
I was a guinea pig for Washington School of Dentistry. 9 hours in the chair getting two class 5 gold foils.
And let me tell you Novocaine only lasts about 1 hour tops, hi hi.
However, your body seems to shut down the nerves after a while, so I could let the students work away.
Both of them passed their tests for class 5 gold foils.
We had to have a room with a small bed in each of our greenhouse ranges to appease the government.
I remember when we they removed some of the benches to install them.
Then, shortly after that, we had to install two bathrooms in each greenhouse range as well.
Didn't make sense really because we had a large break area with four bathrooms between the two main ranges of greenhouses. Had something to do with the distance from the farthest point in the corner of each greenhouse range, even though no one worked in those far distant corners. All the potting areas were at the other end closest to the bathrooms.
Employees never had a problem getting to the break room for lunch, or stopping by the vending machines during the day.
It was not uncommon for us to have over 250 employees on payroll, sometimes as high as 275 around holidays due to the extra drivers and sales staff. But once the government got involved in our business, we had to be very careful not to cross the 250 employee count during the busy holidays. I don't remember the reason now, but something big happened with the government if you had more than 250 employees, even if many of them were family members. I think it would change our classification from horticultural/farming to Industrial or something like that, and open another big can of worms. The fields where we raised crops outside would be reclassified and no longer considered farm land too. It was bad enough when they classified our saran houses as structural improvements and reclassified the land they sat on. A saran house is simply an area where we installed poles with wires over the top, to pull the screening to protect the plants from birds and add some shade from the sun. It also broke the large raindrops into smaller drops as well. Only put up in the summer for a few months then taken back down again. But the area was still taxed like it had a building on it.
Not as high of a tax as our Quanset style greenhouses had. But our all glass normal greenhouses were taxed really high for us being horticultural. Grandpa would have turned over in his grave had he seen all the new laws, licenses, fees, and taxes we now had to pay.
But in reality, no business pays taxes of any kind. Their customers pay the taxes for them!
How? All expenses go into the cost of goods sold, which is then marked up to obtain our profit margin.
One of my early dentists used gas, and one later either.
After that it was Novocaine.
I was a guinea pig for Washington School of Dentistry. 9 hours in the chair getting two class 5 gold foils.
And let me tell you Novocaine only lasts about 1 hour tops, hi hi.
However, your body seems to shut down the nerves after a while, so I could let the students work away.
Both of them passed their tests for class 5 gold foils.
We had to have a room with a small bed in each of our greenhouse ranges to appease the government.
I remember when we they removed some of the benches to install them.
Then, shortly after that, we had to install two bathrooms in each greenhouse range as well.
Didn't make sense really because we had a large break area with four bathrooms between the two main ranges of greenhouses. Had something to do with the distance from the farthest point in the corner of each greenhouse range, even though no one worked in those far distant corners. All the potting areas were at the other end closest to the bathrooms.
Employees never had a problem getting to the break room for lunch, or stopping by the vending machines during the day.
It was not uncommon for us to have over 250 employees on payroll, sometimes as high as 275 around holidays due to the extra drivers and sales staff. But once the government got involved in our business, we had to be very careful not to cross the 250 employee count during the busy holidays. I don't remember the reason now, but something big happened with the government if you had more than 250 employees, even if many of them were family members. I think it would change our classification from horticultural/farming to Industrial or something like that, and open another big can of worms. The fields where we raised crops outside would be reclassified and no longer considered farm land too. It was bad enough when they classified our saran houses as structural improvements and reclassified the land they sat on. A saran house is simply an area where we installed poles with wires over the top, to pull the screening to protect the plants from birds and add some shade from the sun. It also broke the large raindrops into smaller drops as well. Only put up in the summer for a few months then taken back down again. But the area was still taxed like it had a building on it.
Not as high of a tax as our Quanset style greenhouses had. But our all glass normal greenhouses were taxed really high for us being horticultural. Grandpa would have turned over in his grave had he seen all the new laws, licenses, fees, and taxes we now had to pay.
But in reality, no business pays taxes of any kind. Their customers pay the taxes for them!
How? All expenses go into the cost of goods sold, which is then marked up to obtain our profit margin.
Re: Outdated Medical Software
It's interesting that you should mention the Washington School of Dentistry. After I built my house in the Chicago suburbs, I moved about ten miles from my previous residence. That was just enough to put me out of the range of any doctors I had seen previously. I didn't need a lot of dental work, but I was very happy when about a year after I moved a dentist built his house two doors down from me. He graduated from Washington Dental School and display the certificates in his office. His home was 5000 sq ft compared to my 1500. LOL Then again he had a few daughters each of which needed a bedroom of their own. I believe it was his first born daughter who also graduated from Washington as a dentist. The first time I met her she could barely walk because she was so young. Then, a year or so before I left town I had to visit her in her dad's office because he was out of town and I needed some immediate care. Then, too, when my own daughter lived down here in Clayton I attended her graduation exercises at Washington when she obtained a degree in ... the gods know what. LOL She was into child care at the time and the degree had something to do with that. Anyway, Washington U is a popular place apparently.
You are right about the government making life difficult for small businesses, not to mention the large corporations too. There is a lot of talk about how the government has it's fingers into too many things, but that often happens because a company abuses it's position of authority over it's working staff and/or it's customers. A lot of shops are run by honest people, but all those laws and the taxes it takes to enforce them are due to the low life which also is free to operate a business. Somebody has to keep them honest. Now, if we only had a way to keep the government honest too ...
You are right about the government making life difficult for small businesses, not to mention the large corporations too. There is a lot of talk about how the government has it's fingers into too many things, but that often happens because a company abuses it's position of authority over it's working staff and/or it's customers. A lot of shops are run by honest people, but all those laws and the taxes it takes to enforce them are due to the low life which also is free to operate a business. Somebody has to keep them honest. Now, if we only had a way to keep the government honest too ...
Re: Outdated Medical Software
The Washington Dental School closed down somewhere in the 1990s due to a new more modern school opening, but not run by Wash U. though. During the highlight of its era, it was the Go-To Dental School.
They made my first and second set of dentures and they fit perfectly and I never gagged on them.
I've spent probably over 6 grand trying to get a pair I could wear through dentists, and never got a decent pair.
So for the past 18 years or so, I've not worn any dentures at all. I did if I went out, but could only stand them for about an hour. I even learned how to work on them to make them better, and about the time I get them just right, my mouth changed too much and I needed new ones. I've had a few religns also that never worked out well.
I never could afford the soft dentures, they cost an arm and a leg and don't last but a couple of years.
And I surely couldn't afford teeth implants at 10 grand a tooth either, hi hi.
If the laws were enforced against poly-tick-ians there would be nobody left in office.
They are the crookedest bunch of vermin on the planet!
All of them, on both sides!
They made my first and second set of dentures and they fit perfectly and I never gagged on them.
I've spent probably over 6 grand trying to get a pair I could wear through dentists, and never got a decent pair.
So for the past 18 years or so, I've not worn any dentures at all. I did if I went out, but could only stand them for about an hour. I even learned how to work on them to make them better, and about the time I get them just right, my mouth changed too much and I needed new ones. I've had a few religns also that never worked out well.
I never could afford the soft dentures, they cost an arm and a leg and don't last but a couple of years.
And I surely couldn't afford teeth implants at 10 grand a tooth either, hi hi.
If the laws were enforced against poly-tick-ians there would be nobody left in office.
They are the crookedest bunch of vermin on the planet!
All of them, on both sides!
Re: Outdated Medical Software
I dread the thought of dentures. Just about everyone I know who wears them has problems. I have a mouth full of fillings in just about every tooth and that seems to be holding up pretty well. It's very unusual too given how many years some of those fillings have been in place. I have two upper molars missing; one on each side. I've learned to deal with the gaps to the point that they are not bothersome. I could get bridges or implants, but given my negative outlook on anything artificial being part of my body, I passed on that option when it was offered.
My wife had attempted an implant on one of her lower molars many years ago. I think it was under 5-grand at the time and our insurance didn't cover it, or not much of it. The surgeon managed to damage a nerve in wife's jaw so that she no longer has feeling in part of her mouth and jaw. The implant didn't react well and they had to remove it. So, we gave the surgeon all those thousands of dollars for nothing. I understand the technology is much better these days, but unless it's critical, I'm not doing it. LOL
My wife had attempted an implant on one of her lower molars many years ago. I think it was under 5-grand at the time and our insurance didn't cover it, or not much of it. The surgeon managed to damage a nerve in wife's jaw so that she no longer has feeling in part of her mouth and jaw. The implant didn't react well and they had to remove it. So, we gave the surgeon all those thousands of dollars for nothing. I understand the technology is much better these days, but unless it's critical, I'm not doing it. LOL
Re: Outdated Medical Software
I hear ya! I wasted way too much money on dentists.
The sad thing is, I had perfect teeth, only a few fillings in the back molars.
Got zapped with some high voltage, which welded my mouth shut, burned my right hand and the bottom of my right foot, and oddly enough, the big toe on my left foot.
And this was with my super thick rubber soled boots on too.
After that, the jolt must have killed the nerves in all of my teeth, because they all went bad within a year after that.
I don't know why dentists cannot get the quality dentures like the students at the school made for me.
I honestly loved those dentures more than my real teeth. No tingle when I ate apples, and I could still eat corn on the cob with them like they were my own teeth. Never a problem with them, until I outgrew them and they couldn't be relined anymore. Our gums and jaw bones apparently keep shrinking over time.
Mom had two implanted posts, installed to hold her lower dentures in place, since she really didn't have much bone left either.
The sad thing is, I had perfect teeth, only a few fillings in the back molars.
Got zapped with some high voltage, which welded my mouth shut, burned my right hand and the bottom of my right foot, and oddly enough, the big toe on my left foot.
And this was with my super thick rubber soled boots on too.
After that, the jolt must have killed the nerves in all of my teeth, because they all went bad within a year after that.
I don't know why dentists cannot get the quality dentures like the students at the school made for me.
I honestly loved those dentures more than my real teeth. No tingle when I ate apples, and I could still eat corn on the cob with them like they were my own teeth. Never a problem with them, until I outgrew them and they couldn't be relined anymore. Our gums and jaw bones apparently keep shrinking over time.
Mom had two implanted posts, installed to hold her lower dentures in place, since she really didn't have much bone left either.