Sorry you are having a bad week, Gud. Medical expenses are way too confusing, I'm sorry you have to deal with that. Getting a bill for an ER visit is just not a thing that should happen. It's an emergency!

I hear you on that, Rick.

I just found myself thinking that Jesse should ask her milkman to bring her an extra pint. That's something fictional people have been known to do, I think?

Yes! Or I could buy a pint, actually... Also another friend just suggested something shelf-stable...

Grocery order delivered, no toilet paper.

Getting a bill for an ER visit is just not a thing that should happen. It's an emergency!

At the very least you should get one bill and it should be in-network or not, not a slew of bills all with their own insurance network associations. I already paid this physicans group a couple grand ages ago, after they threatened to send a bill I never received to a collection agency. Now a year later, I'm getting contacted by a collection agency over some other bill I never received or some adjustment to the charges I was never informed about? WTF? How can this be fucking legal?

That's ridiculous. None of that should work like that!

I hate our medical system so very much.

Gud, if it's not that much, I guess you could consider the value of your time and if it's worth fighting them over it. I dunno: I hate to see them get away with soaking people, but your peace of mind is worth a lot.

I don't think I could fight them, after I contacted them and gave them my address so they would actually send me a bill, they kept sending bills with different amounts. I don't think anyone could determine what amount was actually supposed to be paid.

I think if I ever got involved in politics it would be for a ballot initiative to make it that out-of-network third-party providers in hospitals had to negotiate their fee with the insurance company/hospital if the hospital was in-network for the patient and the patient paid one bill. I think some states have something like that.

Good to see you, Gud! Even during a bad stretch you are a welcome sight here.

Rick - I can't even with people arguing that in-person teaching can be replaced by online. It's ridiculous. You need a seminar structure with the teacher carefully/subtly guiding the conversation, pulling people in, engaging the room. It's vastly different. There are so many more cues given off by both student and teacher in person.

I mean, I love stand-up comedy specials, but even a pretty-good comedian in person is generally so much funnier. Because it's all about timing and they can modulate in real time to the room.

Teaching a large class on Zoom is like being the DJ in absentia for a party you can't attend. You just aren't present enough to feel the room, to see what's working, and to move the experience forward for the participants.

Rick, I don't teach large classes, but wow — this really hit home for me.