The Messengers of Yesh Web Address

Friday, February 23, 2018

Hope Deferred

Last week when I normally would be doing the blog I was on the way to pay a medical bill. The deal they gave me was if I paid it within 30 days, I would save $696.08. I wanted to pay online, but it was showing the full amount not the deal amount. I needed to go in person to make sure I wasn't charged that extra $696.08. When I tried to pay, my debit card was declined. Say what? The cashier lady tried smaller amounts. None of them worked. I ended up calling the bank. There was a problem with the debit card system. They were working on it. After waiting about an hour for it to get fixed, I had to leave without paying anything, because the office had to get ready to close for the day. It's a 39+ mile trip one way. With the other stop I had to make, it was a 4-hour trip. For nothing. I had to go back Tuesday. My bank had fixed the system. It worked perfectly. Yay! But wait. There's more.

I just logged into the online payment system. Guess how much it says I owe? $696.08. Where is my early payment discount? Argh. Do you know how much of that amount I'm going to pay? If you guessed $0, you're right. Because the office wrote my discount down on paper during my first visit. I have proof. I'm holding them to it. Of course, I'll probably have to go to the main medical center in person, not the little office I went to, and argue with them to honor that. And sadly, that bill is only one of several.

If you've followed the blog for a while, you know I've been saving up to start a business of some kind and I was almost there. I was a few months away at the most. The medical bills have destroyed that dream for now. It looks like, short of a miracle, I'm going to be paying off medical bills for a while. It's been discouraging.

I guess I'm back to working on YouTube. I've been practicing. Maybe I'll be able to bless enough people that it will come back to me.

It's getting late in the afternoon, and Todd and Danielle haven't dropped by yet. Today's the day Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes sends out the prize patrol. Their commercials have been on a lot. Todd and Danielle work for them. I hope they get here soon. I've been looking forward to seeing them.

Have a great weekend.

Friday, February 9, 2018

Doing Better, New Book Idea

My throat is doing better. The CT scan was inconclusive. However, a few days before the scan I was so tired I fell asleep in a chair that's not even that great for sitting in. My head was tilted to the side but supported. Over an hour after I sat down, there was a giant pop, and a lot of the pressure I was feeling in my throat went away. Eustachian tube problem? I don't know for sure. How could I presume a diagnosis for something that baffles multiple doctors? I'm still having problems, but I'm much more functional now. When I see how the bills are going to settle out, I might get a second opinion somewhere in a different health network. The ENT specialist I saw was completely useless.

Two good things happened this week. I got a new belt. The old one had some kind of fake leather cover on it that was wearing off. I didn't realize how cheap it was when I bought it. Despite that, it's lasted for a number of years, so it wasn't that cheap. I was more careful when selecting the new one. It's genuine leather and has no fake coating on it. Nor does it have any stitching along the sides like the old one, which is a red flag indicating layers of materials. I expect it to be strong and manly and last for quite a while.

The other good thing is that the solution to a problem I've had with a book idea suddenly appeared, bringing with it a flood of ideas. It's been on the back burner several years. It's a fictional account of real medical malpractice. The original concept never quite gelled, because the main character was an evil doctor. The new idea brings in a different character to expose the evil. "Based on a true story..." Since it's based on real events, for legal and safety reasons I may publish it under a pen name. We'll see.

My working method is to write down ideas in a small pad. I use a legal pad if the ideas are big enough. I started out with a small pad and quickly upgraded. I have lists of characters, scenes, ideas, plot points, etc. I wrote a couple of chapters to help work through some of the problems I was having. It's amazing how many problems go away once pen hits paper. One of the characters got changed into a woman. I couldn't have solved that through brainstorming alone. The story is going to be in first person, which I've never used and have never been a fan of. For this story it works. And it turns out to be easier then third in a lot of ways. I can see why so many writers use it. It lessens the work load. I'm actually liking writing in it more than I like reading it. I prefer third for reading.

So. I'm still struggling with the cover for AoE. I've gotten a minimal amount of progress made on that. Remember the mystery/romance I wrote a few years ago and occasionally reference? I'm going to try to do the cover for that simultaneous to AoE's. It should be simpler and easier. I'll still need to go through that book later and make a change before putting it on Amazon under a pen name. I also need to get the AoE cover figured out before doing much more on the death panel book. That's it for this week. I'm feeling better but not great.

Have a great weekend.