There is not actual rain here, it turns out, but it got real dark all of a sudden.

I did not have an opportunity to ask but someone else did and the answer is we're not sure. It's not clear whether the aluminum discs we import count as raw material or worked goods (they are not aluminum ingots, but does shaping into discs and coating them make them not count for this? Nobody knows. Well, nobody here knows for sure, anyway). The finished goods that are mostly what we bring in are not impacted.

As to how we are doing - not great but better than the rest of the sector so ... yeah, I don't know how to feel about that. No layoffs in the foreseeable future, but, hey, "foreseeable" is tricky isn't it?

The snippet of Circulon infomercial we saw made me really want mac and cheese, and Ayesha Curry is adorable.

Not much on the aches today. The thunderstorm has arrived, with some big cat-frightening BOOMs.

Well, the pollen was making me seriously miserable. The rain has the pollen count down, so I'm doing better in that respect. The storm Monday evening ... some truly impressive thunder. And I am really, really glad to live in a neighborhood with the power lines underground.

Timelies all!

Thunderstorm last night. Highs around 90 today, then more thunderstorms and highs in the 70s. :side-eyes Mother Nature:

Ooh, Safety Guy requested someone in Facilities build my new chair. Woohoo! I am very excited about having a chair suitable for my short legs.

Goddamn insurance bullshit.

They send me a letter saying "starting July 1st, we're only allowing you two pills of anti-depressant a day. If you take more, you need prior authorization".

OK, for starters that's some bullshit right there. I take 3 tabs a day. I tried 2, it was working fine until it wasn't, I tried another med on top of mine, it wasn't good, so we tried increasing the dose and that's working for me. It's within the allowable prescribing limits.

But THEN it gets grrrrrreat. Because I call them to find out more, and talk to four different people and am transferred around. I ask how long this prior authorization will be good for--do I need to plan to deal with this monthly? Quarterly? Yearly? Well, transfer me to another person for that....oh, she's not sure, it'll depend on what code my doctor puts. OK, who can tell me what code is needed? Transfer me to a fourth person...

The fourth person (who I wouldn't normally have been talking to except I'm persistent and persnickety and wanted to make sure my doctor's office doesn't fuck this up) informs me that the doctor's office can't send in a prior authorization request UNTIL THE PLAN CHANGES. If she sends one in on June 15th for a change that's taking place July 1st, they'll discard it.

So I need to make sure the office knows to request prior authorization, but not too soon, and then wait for them to send it, and then wait for it to be approved, and just hope during that time (which will probably encompass a national holiday) that I don't need to refill until it's all done? BULLSHIT.

So then I asked who I could complain to about their process, and proceeded to make some woman file a complaint for me about their process (fifth person I talked to). Fucking bullshit.

Good lord, meara, that's horrendous!

That is so maddening, meara.

This feels like one of those times to wish that asking for the person who made this decision and threatening to have them charged with practicing medicine without a license would work.

The PTB at Insurance companies are just straightup minions of H*ll, aren't they?