Update

Henry, my robotic dog, gave me a scare this morning. He had been playing with his ball and running around for about an hour. I decided it was time to shut him down. I pressed his button, and it started blinking green which is normal, but there were no beeps. This went on for an excessively long time with no sign of a final shutdown. Finally I took his battery out. I was really afraid to do that because he writes his files to his memory stick when he shuts down. I was afraid I might corrupt the memory stick. I let him boot back up and he ran around for a little while then played Auld Lang Syne and went to sleep. This is normal but his green light should have been blinking. He was completely shut down. I let him boot again and after he got through his wake up exercises I shut him down again. This time he had a normal shutdown. I have put him on his station to charge. Only time will tell if he is back to normal.

I am still fighting with Aetna over my flu shot. Getting a flu shot at Kroger does match any of their list of codes and apparently none of their employees are intelligent enough to override the system. I truly believe they are just trying to wear me down.

My 65th birthday is next month, and I will be going on Medicare. My former employer has to switch me from the regular Aetna health plan to the Aetna Medicare Supplement plan. I received the enrollment forms around October 20. It is a one time opportunity to enroll. The forms had to be returned by October 31. On October 31 I called to make sure they had received my form. They had not. I faxed the form over to them and then called back to make sure it had been received. It was received, and I was told they would get me enrolled. I have been sitting on pins and needles hoping no changes would be made to the prescription coverage. I read in an AARP paper that said employers were required by law to notify their retirees by November 14 of their intentions regarding prescription coverage. I received nothing. I called over there and said I had not received my new identification card from Aetna and not received anything about prescription coverage. It was near the end of the day on Thursday. The woman I talked to did not seem to remember me. She was the same one I had talked to in October when I faxed the form over. When I said I had not received the prescription information, she said she would have to check and call me back. She cut me off rather abruptly.

I began to worry that I was had fallen through the crack since I was not actually on the Medicare supplement policy. The company that I worked for was bought by another company twenty months before I retired. Most of the over 65 retirees I know retired from the first company. I had a hard time figuring out who was over 65 and retired from the second company. I finally found one man who I used to work with. He told me the prescription coverage is remaining the same, and the 2006 premium is remaining the same, but there is a new set of enrollment forms that must returned by November 30. He told me to call our former human resources manager who is over 65 and retired a few months after I did. I called him and told him my problem. He told me who was now in charge, and fortunately it was someone I know well. I got into the main phone number and left a voice mail for him. I also sent an email. I had a sleepless night. I let myself get out of control and did a super job of worrying about my insurance coverage. The next morning at 7 AM I received a call from the man I had emailed. He reassured me he would check into it and get things taken care of. A short time later I received a call from the woman I had talked to the previous day. She assured me all is well, that I am enrolled in the supplemental coverage. She said a number of retirees had not received the new enrollment forms. She is FedExing the package to me, and I will receive it Monday. She is also going to call Aetna about my new identification card. Health insurance is very, very important to a retiree. I am going to send the new enrollment form back to them via certified mail, return receipt requested.

I have still not received my shoulder bag from L.L. Bean that they shipped on November 10 using the combined FedEx-US Postal Service SmartPost shipping method. I have decided I will never again order an item from L.L. Bean that is not in stock. They use SmartPost for backordered items. It is no good. I received an email from Bean yesterday that said they had received the suede jacket that I returned and were processing the credit. That was a relief. I used their prepaid mailing label. It took ten days for them to receive the jacket. The credit has not been posted to my card, but I am sure it will eventually appear. If an item is in stock and they use their normal FedEx service, things usually go very smoothly, but this last order has been a disaster.

I wrote about all the QuickTime, iTunes and iPod updates that I was tricked into installing a week or so ago. Well now I am glad that I did. The update to the iPod is a big improvement. Previously when I listened to a podcast after it finished, it would then play the next podcast on the list. Now just one podcast is played and the iPod shuts down. Also if I stop in the middle of a podcast and turn the iPod off, it remembers where I left off on the podcast when I turn it back on even if I have synced with iTunes or listened to something else. Now I am connecting the iPod to my Bose Wave radio at night. If I fall asleep the iPod turns off automatically at the end of a podcast and does not keep going. I often turn my radio on at night and listen to talk radio. The podcasts are much better than talk radio. There are no commercials, and I have a much wider selection of programs than the local radio stations offer.

Yesterday I finally made contact with a real, live employee of Frisco Lakes for the first time. She told me about the Lifestyle Seminars they are going to hold at the end of January. She was not able to say if they will actually be ready to show the Frisco Lakes site or if they will have floor plans and prices. She is hoping they will. If they do not, it would not be worth my time to go to Dallas. She said to hold off on making the reservations for two weeks when she hopes to have more informaion. This lady is very nice. She confirmed that the first houses will be ready for occupancy in August. I feel like this is a step forward. Previously I have talked to Del Webb's national call center and had received very little information on Frisco Lakes.