I have been bad about blogging which if you care about following me you already know. I can’t say what the problem is but I am trying to get past it. It has been a wacky seven or eight months what with starting work again as a contractor for a major corporation and then getting the opportunity to apply for the same job at the corporation as a full-time employee w/ benefits.
Forgive me if I don’t mention any company names. A few years ago I would not have worried about doing so but, even though I have never made good or bad comments about a company I have worked for or am working for and would never do so in my blog, I still feel it is risky to be too specific. So much for free speech, eh?
The new job involved a major learning curve mostly for call center support but also for systems/desktop support. I feel like I have done quite well. I may not be the star for the newly established support center but am certainly one of the stars. Finally starting as a full time employee this week has been the cap on the whole venture.
I finally have health benefits which is mucho beuno as you will see later in this entry. Additional benefits besides health such as education and training with the company are a big positive. As I have mentioned to some of you who might read this, the pay is subpar, from my point of view, as much as 25% less than many of us in the group have earned, but the benefits help to make up for the direct loss in income. I think the opportunities for the future with this company are very good. I am already enrolled for a web server admin class in May which bodes well.
On the personal side, I have been laying kind of low. Having been w/o health insurance since last June, I haven’t been riding my motorcyle or skiing much. My last health insurance quote was for $450 a month due to pre-existing conditions. Thanks “Obamacare!”
I did get up to Vermont for my good friend Linda’s 50th birthday in December. I stopped in Avoca, PA, about halfway up, to see my friend Terry and his boys. I think that Linda was surprised when she saw me with the crowd at her house but who knows. That was an 1100 mile road trip crammed into about three days but well worth it. I did get about 2.5 hours in on the slopes at Killington on the way up which was nice. Only time I have skiied since I tore my ACL at Seven Springs in 2008.
Turkey Day was spent with my sister Julie who lives about a mile away from me. Christmas was spent with my sister Kim in SE Virginia. We went on Christmas morning to her husband’s parent’s house for breakfast and the ceremonial tearing apart of the Xmas presents for the kids and grandkids. Madness I say!
It took a longer than I expected drive to go camping at the northern part of the Chesapeake Bay a month or so ago. And I didn’t have the cash I needed to get into the “unattended” gate at the park. Of course, I saw 3 or 4 park staff members there including one who stopped by my campsite to give me the money I had overpaid for the site. I figured it would just be a donation to the park system but… I was at Elk Neck State Park.
For those of you in the know, I am playing in a Cornhole league that friends of mine have sponsored for a few years. On Fridays, when the WX is good, we all get out and throw some bags. Unfortunately, the WX has sucked so my partner and I have to hook up w/ the teams that we missed games with and make them up.
I mentioned that I was glad to have health benefits again through my employer, who wouldn’t’ be, eh? Recently my blood pressure and cholesterol levels have skyrocketed despite my efforts to keep them down using natural supplements. My blood pressure was so high the other day I almost went to the emergency room. Being a man, that was of course out of the question.
I did go to “Urgent Care” at my doctor’s office the next day. My blood pressure was still high. I got an EKG which was okay but had some possible anomalies. I got an immediate referral to the cardiologist at my “doctor’s office” and since I was paying out of pocket I had no insurance “people” to deal with, which was nice. Unfortunately, the cardiologist scheduled me for a “Nuclear Stress Test” for which I had the insurance coverage but no documentation.
I have had to put the test on hold. Hope I don’t die first….
