Stories and other stuff

 A few months back, I broke a crown and had to have it replaced.  Like a dummy, I didn't check with a dentist to see if he took my insurance.  The first one I called said they could get me in the next day and when I told them what insurance I had, they didn't tell me they weren't preferred providers.   Such is life.  I had the money to pay out of pocket but they did tell me they'd bill my insurances for me.  They only billed one and I sort of forgot about it after that.  I'm only gonna get a couple of hundred back but right now, a couple of hundred will come in handy with the holidays approaching and my retirement still in an interim pay status. About a month ago, I got the notices from my primary insurance that they didn't pay.  No surprises there; crowns aren't covered.  There's a lot of reasons I have the supplemental dental insurance.  But nothing from that carrier.  I tried logging into my account several times without suc...

 First off, if you old, you know what that number means.  If you're a country music fan, you might think it's a line from a Ronnie Milsap song.  For the rest of you, it's what Ivory soap purports itself to be... I shared that with you because I have a story to tell about Ivory soap.  Without going into too many details, I couldn't sleep last night and in the middle of the night, a hot shower sounded good.  In the first place, my back hurts so a hot anything sounds good, but I thought maybe a shower would help me relax and take my mind off of some things I was dealing with.   I'm a body wash guy, but there's a bar of Ivory in the shower in case I need it.  It's a good soap to wash one's face with and for some reason, I opted to grab the bar of soap instead of the body wash last night.  I know that's kind of personal stuff, but the thing is this....I felt better and as I was washing with the 99 44/100% pure soap, I got to thinking about somethi...

 I have Casa Bonita (almost) By The Sea to myself for a few days.  One of the opportunities that affords me is to enjoy Big Comfy Bed 2.0.  I'm camped out in the guest room most of the time.  One thing I've learned is that water is horribly expensive and as I was laying here last night not sleeping, I noticed the repair I tried on the toilet did not work.  I heard it running several times so I decided that today was the day to fix it. The sign by the toilet repair parts at the ACE hardware suggested that if I bought the universal tank repair kit, I would only have to make one trip.  I causally mentioned to the clerk that I was hoping for a one trip day.   When I started disassembling the toilet, I noticed that my toilet has three screws that hold the tank to the bowl.  I've never seen that before....  most toilets only have two.  The kit did have three screws in it, so I thought at least I had enough parts to do the job.  The t...

 I had to come back to Utah to vote.  Utah is still my legal residence although I am spending quite a bit of time out of town due to the COVID situation in the home state.  I'm planning on making Oregon my permanent home after the first of the year.  In the mean time, I wanted to cast my ballot in this election. I went to church today and got to see my friends there.  I also got something unexpected:  Answers to just about everything that was on my heart when I left Oregon on Thursday. Sometimes it's hard to understand, let alone do, what God asks you and as always, He's been so faithful.  I've not been knowing what to do with a couple of things going on at home, but He seemed to be telling me not to take matters into my own hands.  I got confirmation of that with a story the lady that prays for me told me.  I had to let her know that the thing she's been praying for finally happened, but not quite the way either of us had hoped.  She th...

 I made some rolls today to pair with a pot of chicken soup.  Someone at my house was under the weather and the chicken soup is my go-to for not feeling good.  Nothing else seems to work.  I once made some for the Wondermutt because I read online that it helps doggos too. I love that dog. I'm usually a Rhodes rolls guy.  They're good rolls and they require not a lot of attention.  I didn't have any in the freezer and I did have some buttermilk that needed to be used up because it expired today, so rolls got made.  I found the oddest recipe (odd to me, anyway) for rolls, written by some guy because the recipe flows terribly and the directions also kinda were hard to follow.  The rolls were, though, amazingly good. I've never been a big bread baker.  It's hard to get bread right.  The last few loaves have been really good, though, and so were the rolls.  Maybe it's the altitude (or, more correctly, the lack of altitude).  Anyway....

 One of the things I find interesting about my life is that, for good or bad, I never know from one day to the next what will happen.  Here's a little story or three about that: As some of you know, I have some house guests here.  On the day that I was going to pick up my mini-project, the Tahoe, my house guests had vehicle trouble and the plan to meet the sellers of the Tahoe went south.  With the help of the intermediaries, we were able to get the deal done;  just not as I'd planned.  I had to go back and have the sellers sign the title in the correct place though, which took a few more days to happen.  It all worked out, but none of it according to plan.   I'm learning not to hold fast to my plans.  Things never seem to go the way I think they ought to.  But as always, there's a Scripture verse to hang onto and it's from James 4:13-15 and it says: "Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and...

 Earlier in the week, an Amber alert was issued in Utah.  The subject of that alert was a young boy whose non-custodial mother abducted him.  He was found with her, right here in Coos Bay/North Bend on Thursday.  I should have shared that Amber alert or paid a little more attention to it because on Thursday I saw a blue car with a Utah plate in the parking lot of the restaurant I was at. I was having coffee with a new friend on Thursday.  I'm glad I met her.  She's really helped me feel at home.  I know her from church and I thought it would be nice to hear her story; to get to know her a little bit.  One thing she told me really stood out and I'd like to share that with all y'all. Some blessings last the rest of your life.  I'd heard this before in a story a preacher told about not having to buy his own clothes.  Other people just buy his clothes.  I'd heard some negative things about this man, honestly forget his name, so I kind o...