Cleave

I thought I would have more time to read and post since retiring 4 weeks ago -- wrong!

I've been riding more days per week but fewer miles per ride. Our Green Dream Home is taking up a lot of my time, including doing some hands-on rework:

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1Q...OySuvGJDF8tank

Over 10 years ago when United Airlines was still in bankruptcy protection, I flew with them a couple of times.

Everyone I encountered back then from the counter at the airport to gate personnel to flight attendants were all talking to each other about how bad things were at the company and they didn't seem to care if customers heard them. They were also the antithesis of creating "friendly skies."

I didn't fly on them for years after those flights and then a few years ago, my wife and I flew United to Colorado for a wedding. Both going and coming home, service was poor and we had a long delay at the gate leaving Denver to make things worse. That was it for me and I haven't used United since.

Cleave

Originally posted to my Twitter and Facebook feeds:

Bit of metal lodged in my cornea. Waiting for authorization through new (retirement) insurer/old medical group to see an ophthalmologist.

After a number of replies to what I intended to be a health insurance rant, I posted this:

Thank you everyone for your concern. The problem with with posting my displeasure with health insurance companies and their attendant medical groups on Twitter and Facebook in less than 140 characters is that I exorcised my friends' medical advise/knowledge. To put your concerns to rest, here is the complete story or, as they say, you asked for it. Oh, and yes, I applied the antibiotic eyedrops that my doctor prescribed today.

Last Thursday, I was working on our new home and Nina was with me. Something got into my eye and Nina and I immediately went next door where we live and I washed my eye out using the kitchen sink sprayer at a medium setting. After washing it out a few times, I had no acute pain in my eye (and my eye never hurt that much) and Nina looked at my eye and couldn't see anything. However, it still felt like something -- nothing sharp -- was in my eye. The rest of Thursday, my eye felt a little funny but I had no vision problems. I also rinsed out my eye in the shower that evening. Friday was the same. I rode my bike in the morning, worked on house stuff, and went to bed with no problems.

Saturday morning I rode my bike again and then Nina and I went to a retirement seminar with our wealth management company. I felt fine there but an hour or so after getting home my eye was very bloodshot and they was a dull pain, not a sharp pain, near the top of my eye, under the eyelid. Nina went to the drug store and purchased some fresh eyewash for me. The wash didn't really help.

Sunday morning was race day and my eye didn't feel better, but it didn't feel worse. I decided to go because I could see clearly and there wasn't any (nor had there been) any discharge from my eye. I did both of my planned races and felt fine during the races but after the races I was very tired. I took a short nap and then drove home. My eye was still achy and the lids were swollen. No vision problem but something was definitely wrong. I slept a lot the rest of the day.

I woke up this morning and felt a lot better and most of the swelling of my eye lids was gone. My eye was still bloodshot but less so.

As most of you know, I retired about a month ago. When Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas, Boeing eliminated retiree medical insurance for former McDonnell Douglas salaried employees of which I am (was) one. Complicating matters, Boeing eliminated the health insurance plan that I had for something like 20 years at the end of 2016. I had to select a new plan for my remaining time at Boeing and my Primary Care Physician (PCP) was not part of any of those plans. To my benefit, Nina's employer provides retiree health insurance for their employees and spouses. I started on Nina's plan on April 1st and our PCP is in her plan. No problem right?

I called our doctor's office this morning and made an appointment for this afternoon. My doctor listened to this story and looked at my eye and couldn't see anything. Then he put some kind of dye in my eye so that he could use this black light illuminated, magnifying device and he saw the metal. He remarked that it must not be steel because there was no rust on it. He thought he could remove it and applied some numbing drops to my eye. He then used what looked like a Q-tip to try to dab the piece of metal out of my eye. He couldn't do it.

He said he would refer me to an ophthalmologist who could easily remove it. He also gave me a prescription for antibiotic eye drops. When he asked his office administrator to set it up she quickly discovered that I was not in the eligibility database for their medical group. She placed an urgent request with them and said that I should also call them to get them to add me quickly. To make a long and semi-irate story short, the medical group said that my new insurance company had not sent them information stating that I was covered and that they only showed my old insurance expiring at the end of 2016. They said they would rush adding me to the database but that they couldn't guarantee anything before the close of business tomorrow. They suggested I call my insurance company to see what other option I had.

I called the insurance company and they said that the only other option I had was to go to an emergency room for treatment. I called the covered emergency room, which I been to previously, and asked if they could provide the needed care and they said they thought they could. They also said it would probably be around 5 hours -- par for the course.

Called back my doctor and told him what happened. He said that he preferred that I wait so that I could see the specialist. That's where I am. I can see. I have no pain and no other symptoms other than a bloodshot eye.

You asked.

Racer Ex 

Insurance has been and will be a PIA. We have "very good" coverage (comparatively, though it's no where what it was 20 years ago). Got some hearing aids a month or so ago. I have a benefit for these devices. The admin at the place where I got them explained that my company rejects the claims for going out of the plan's providers. There is no provider in Nevada.

"You'll probably need to fight them on this".

I included a cover letter with my claim form. We shall see.

Keep us posted on the orb. No safety glasses?

['''[

Heathpack 

Heal up, @Cleave! Hope you get the insurance thing straightened out.


We got new insurance at work and at first the pharmacy wouldn't fill Mr. H's prescription. They said his age was wrong. The insurance said he was 2 years old. Lol, talk about robbing the cradle.

globecanvas

How the heck do you get your high school junior started when looking for colleges.

YogaKat

It's been quite awhile since I've been on so I've been trying to catch up reading what everyone has been up to.

My new full time job (in addition to the one that pays the bills) is wrestling mom. My days have been filled with working all day then driving daughter to practice in the evenings. Also the weekend tournaments that last a minimum of four hours. At peak folkstyle season she was doing 20 hours of practice a week between jr high team and her club team. Now she is in peak shape and I'm 20 lbs overweight and out of shape. They have moved into freestyle/greco-roman season so we are skipping most of the tournaments, although she still has practice every evening Monday through Friday.

I have caught a few group rides here and there and hoping to get back in the saddle more often. Also going through a bit of delayed post broken arm lack of confidence. One of the groups I ride with is a ladies group in my area. One of our ladies was hit by a car on the way to the gym one morning and we now have a ghost bike set up in town. We did a memorial ride on the day we set up the bike. We just ordered matching jerseys and added a heart with her initials in her honor. It's been really hard to get that "what if I wipe out and get run over" thing out of my mind.

There is my quick summary. Hello again all!

Racer Ex 

Welcome back YK!

You're the third person this week I know who has expressed the doubts and fears we all deal with being "out there". I passed this on to two of them in hopes that it might help them process through this. Not advocating one way or the other, but I'll go ahead and post it here:

1) I am eventually going to die. Don't know when or how. Have come close on several occasions over my lifetime. Still here. A lot of people I knew aren't. Some went in accidents, some woke up one morning with an odd cough. Some went very young, some were very old. You just never know. Life is a dice roll.

2) Life is short, so doing the things you love and being with the people you love is a pretty good plan. Best way to be happy.

3) If I love something that has risk involved, I try to mitigate that within the parameters I can control, and affect positive change within those that others may control. Then I go back to #1.

4) Stuff happens. Sometimes that stuff re calibrates your risk/reward equation. At that point you can either try to work through that and get back to a good balance, or move on. I quit racing motorcycles in 86 because it stopped being fun. I went back and did it a bit in the 90's and then quit again. When I got nailed by the mako in 2000 it severely re calibrated me. I kept diving because I loved it, though it took me a year or more to get even close to that former balance. Still diving. Far fewer times when I find myself with the rise of fear up my spine. Never goes away completely though.

5) We're all different, and we change over time. That requires some self evaluation from time to time. When the motorcycle stuff was going on I pictured my life without it. I was OK with that, the few things I would miss were a few things. When I pictured my life without the ocean, I felt like there would be a hole there.

I really like riding my bikes. Keeps me from getting fat, keeps me in shape, meet a lot of great people through the sport. Deep chord that's been there since I was a kid. I avoid stupid roads and stupid races. I ride under the impression that I'm invisible, because I've been hit twice on motorcycles and once on a bike. They win. Only one of those I might have avoided being a bit more vigilant. Not a perfect record but not horrible for 50-something years on two wheels. Sadly, a lot bike folks don't. Still, I know that someone might hit me while texting or when they drop their coffee in their lap. Or I could eff up and hit a tree mountain biking. Or get killed by a mountain lion out on a ride in the woods.

I also know that my grandmother died in her 40's, my mom did the same and my dad had his first heart attack before 50. So I'm probably ahead of the game.

Heathpack 

Welcome back to the bike, @YogaKat.


Words of wisdom from Ex, I really agree with so much of what he says.

YogaKat

Thank you both for the warm re-welcome.

Very wise words indeed. Must be something going around lately.

It was sometime in winter when my doubts and fears surfaced but I didn't recognize it as such and chalked it up to just being busy with the kiddo. It even crossed my mind that this just might be too much a risk but then I realized I have to have my bike time. Even my daughter was on me a few weeks about about not riding much, she and my husband know I need (yes need) to be out there. I'm a much happier person when I'm riding regularly. My plan is to overcome through cognitive behavior riding.

I've noticed that another factor is that since we have moved we no longer live by bike paths so it's all road cycling or driving my bike somewhere. Honestly I prefer the road to the paths despite my nagging little doubts.

I was in a horrible roll over (in the air) car wreck back in 2010 and it took almost a year before I could drive my car anywhere aside from to work and back. Now I drive my daughter to practices and tournaments all over the place and I still have small panic attacks once in awhile while driving. Although not nearly as many as I used to. They are now few and far between. It will take a little time to get my confidence back. One pedal stoke at a time.

No matter what my pace is, I still plan on doing the TT series that I randomly found last year. It's only five miles from the house and it was fun.

revchuck 

Glad to see you back here, YK!

IBOHUNT

Welcome back YK

IBOHUNT

What @Heathpack said.... words of wisdom.

Thank you sir.
I may have avoided this last accident if I were more vigilant. I've only been on the bike as an adult for 5 years or so. My record isn't very good. Not sure how many more hits to the head I can take...

IBOHUNT

Since I'm not back on the bike yet(!) I'm doing a lot of cleaning of them. This includes the assortment of chains and cassettes which brings me to the tip of the day

Make sure you get the cassettes and chains out of the dishwasher before the spouse gets home....

Ya'll are welcome

Heathpack 

Hang in there @IBOHUNT. You'll feel better about life when you can ride again. I still don't know what to say about the woman who took you out. WTF?

Bandera

Although I was never subjected to high decibel race pipes on my motorcycles and used ear plugs in full face helmets decades of sticking my head into the airflow, rock concerts and top down roadster driving has not been kind to my hearing. With a bit of tinnitus and reduced ability to do a proper "shoulder check" I've installed simple bar-end mirrors by Sprintech on my bikes to improve situational awareness.

Sprintech Racing

As with mirrors on any vehicle Never Trust them but these work for me especially when setting up for a left turn across traffic.
OK, call me Fred.

-Bandera

IBOHUNT

I give me a week until I'm on the bike. Maybe sooner on the trainer.

All I ever see when these letters come up now is

What's The Fuss? It's a 3x5 @ 114%

Bandera

Two rural bridges that I ride across several times a week had so much debris littering the shoulder in both directions that cyclists are forced into the lanes of traffic to avoid busted 2x4s and sheetrock like a minefield of detritus.

What to do?

1) Moan and complain to riding partners?
B) Wait for County Public Services to clean up?
III) Do it yourself.


On a rest day with light Sunday traffic I donned a hi-vis cycling vest, work gloves and wielding a stiff broom cleared the debris and swept both bridges clear-ish: Done.

-Bandera

YogaKat

Jeeze IBOHUNT, I had to read back to see what happened. Sorry to hear and hope you are healing well.

Heathpack 

This would not apply for rural bridges or for stuff that happens outside of town, but maybe I've mentioned that I kind of live in a cycling paradise?


Our town has an app. You see something hazardous on the road or on a bike path, all you need to do is stop and report the hazard and the app reports the hazard and tags its GPS location automatically. They usually come out and address the issue the same day or at the very least within 24 hours. Its really amazing how quickly they take care of this stuff.

echappist

just did some tubular glue removal intervals. took 10 minutes to apply the glue removal gel and 80 minutes to scrape off most of the glue off one wheel. FML. This is an improvement from my previous method of inhaling toluene and spending 2 hours to scrape off glue. Ugh...

tubeless is looking all the more attractive

Heathpack 

Sounds fun.

Racer Ex 

Visions of Kramer adopting the highway. Wondering how many people you knew drove by and figured you were doing community service? Seriously, good for you. I stop and chuck rocks and debris out of bike lanes on a regular basis. Even clean the MTB trails.

Chappy, we have had the tubeless discussion. The only tubulars I still have are on the track bike. Haven't looked back. I figure the few extra grams are mostly if not fully offset by the better Crr, and far fewer flats in races isn't the worst problem to have.

echappist

What's their braking performance like? Main concern is that if I apply a handful of brakes, the thing might heat up and blow the tire off the brake track (i've seen that happen with regular carbon clinchers). That's an issue i don't have to deal with for tubulars. Though truth be told, it's not like i'd be doing that many races with difficult descents, so this may just be a moot point.

Racer Ex 

No tube means the rim will fail before the tire in the case of carbon. FWIW tubular glue will likely fail near that point as well.

Most tubes will blow out in the 180-200 degree range.

echappist

so is that safer or less safe? I'm a bit dense at the moment, typing this as i take a break from doing STR