Pretty yellow new leaves

Not cool. Many people are being told at the Doctor that their insurance is cancelled even though we were all told at USAID that it was extended by a month and doesn’t end until August 12. Not cool is your wife being told that while she is at the doctor. 

Thank goodness for the Signal group so I knew about this ahead of time, so that I could tell Karen ahead of time, so she could call and ask for a reminder of what to do and I could say that they have to call the insurance company, not just put it in the computer system. I haven’t gotten any war plans yet though, but I don’t check the Signal groups that often.

The Signal groups became such a source of trauma that I rarely go in. You need the information, like staying up to date on the news, but it isn’t good for you.  

However, even on the phone for half an hour, the insurance company kept saying our insurance had expired.  

Karen was turned away. 

This afternoon I spent about two hours with the insurance company. The woman had a horse, a sword, a shield. She was amazing. She was upset that Karen had turned up, in person, and been turned away. This should never have happened. She called the doctor’s office, twice. She tried to get us a new appointment that is not a month out (by which time who knows what insurance we will have?). She will call with us again tomorrow. 

Basically, the doctor’s staff just called the number in their computer which got them to enrollment who said the insurance had expired, the end. Ideally, Karen would have called and would have called “member services” whose number is on the back and they would have told the doctor’s staff that she is covered. But you can’t know what you don’t know.

I shared the info with the Signal group.

I went for a good walk to emotionally regulate. 

This evening I wrote to a wonderful engineering company that the company I was working for teamed with TWELVE years ago and …. He remembered me. He remembered me and he added a bunch of people to the email so I can develop new, additional contacts at the company and we can all get together and meet my new company. 

So something crummy happened today and I don’t like it because Karen is seeing this doctor to have cataract surgery and even though it is a standard surgery it is still surgery on your eyeballs
But
Two people were exceptionally kind to me in ways that really matter. 

Ukraine knocked out three Russian Msta-S howitzer systems over two days. I checked, that unpronounceable mishmash is the name. A Ukrainian drone destroyed another one a few days ago. They only cost $1.7 million each. They have video. They also have video of a drone destroying a Russian long-range cannon a week ago. 

July 17th they destroyed two others. They used drones to find them and artillery strikes to end them. 

They are scary and look like tanks. 

Reports from the eastern front suggest an increasing number of Russian soldiers are rebelling against their own officers. Increasing numbers are refusing orders, killing their commanders, and surrendering en masse. The most recent was near Bakhmut where the Russian soldiers refused to launch a high-risk assault. This is what happens when your soldiers realize you consider them expendable.