Whine Alert!

It’s Scrooge again. I know, I know, “Tis the season to be jolly.” Well, I may be fat, but I’m not Santa Claus; I’m not even Mrs. Claus. And it’s a sure bet I’m not jolly. As a matter of fact, I’m decidedly UNjolly. Depressed even. Seems like there’s more hassle than happiness this December. So here’s my top seven whines, in no particular order of their ability to induce the blues:

1. Cold Weather. Okay, northern neighbors can ignore this. I know the Canadian contingent, for example, is snowed under with below zero temps. But us southern folk don’t take well to even double digit freezing temperatures. It’s supposed to be warm in the south, thank you very much! My fibromyalgia and other chronic pain doesn’t like being chilled to the bone, so somebody turn up the heat! (P.S. I reserve the right to whine about it being TOO hot come summer.)

2. Early Medical Appointments. Who makes appointments for therapy at 7:45am? That’s fine for early birds who actually LIKE to get up early, but for those of us that prefer to greet the day a little later, it stinks. But be that as it may, tomorrow morning we’ll be up early to take Jess to his first outpatient physical therapy session.

3. Housework. If you do it, nobody notices. If it doesn’t get done, everyone notices. Especially the dirty dishes and dirty clothes and cooking meals parts. A never ending, thankless task. Cleaning is mindless work, but meal prep is mind boggling with always trying to think up something to fix. Day after day, what to fix to eat!?!

4. My Office. Jonathan and I rearranged the furniture before Jess had surgery. We thought and thought about the possible arrangements, and thought we chose the best one. And maybe we did, but I don’t like it. In fact, when I walk around to my computer I’m thinking, “I hate this.” Trouble is, I can’t think of a better way to do it. With 2 windows, a closet, vent, and door to work around, the options are limited.

5. When doing something nice turns into an obligation. Ever have this happen? You do something for someone on a fairly regular basis, not because you have to, but just because you’re trying to do something nice, and somehow, it ends up becoming an expected obligation. Then it doesn’t matter how busy you are or what you might have going on in your life, you’re expected to continue with whatever it was.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy doing things for other people. But sometimes it gets rather depressing when everyone else is expecting you to do for them, and almost nobody ever volunteers to do something for YOU, especially when you've got some heavy duty stuff going on. What’s with that? (I could write a really lengthy post on this one, but for now, ‘nuff said.)

6. Creeping Bills. Bet you’ve got some of these. Bills like the phone bill and cable bill and other stuff that is supposed to be the same price, but somehow they keep finding things to tack onto the bills so they slowly creep up and get more and more expensive. Then of course, there’s the utilities and groceries and other bills that are also creeping up in cost, so you’re paying more and more for the same thing. As the saying goes, "Just when I think I can make ends meet, somebody moves the ends!"

7. Health Insurance. A creeping bill in a class by itself. Sure, we have Medicare. But it's not like Medicare is free. It's just a government funded insurance, and they take a chunk out of your social security every month to pay for it. And since Medicare doesn’t begin to cover everything, you also need to get supplemental insurance. And of course, the better the insurance, the more it costs, so somewhere along the line you have to make a decision of how much you can afford to pay every month versus what kind of coverage you’re going to get.

Obviously, unless you’re really well-off, you’re not going to have insurance that pays for everything. For instance, for Jess's knee surgery there was a hefty co-pay up front for the hospital, and the same again for the rehab center. What worries me is what other bills they'll send us.

For example, Jess was checking our insurance manual today to see how much they pay for blood transfusions. Well, guess what? They don’t pay ANYTHING until you’ve already had THREE units of blood. That’s right, until you get to unit 4, you’re on your own. So we pay for three units, the insurance pays for only one unit. Not much you can do about it, right? Who’s going to say, "Oh well, guess I’ll just bleed to death, cause I sure can’t afford to pay for blood."

Fortunately, we're not forced to choose between paying for health care or paying for utilities or buying food. I’m sure we’re better off than a lot of people, but there must be a way to make health care more affordable.

And there you have it, my top seven whines of the moment. I could think of several minor irritations, but enough is enough! And yes, I know I'm blessed and lots of people have it worse than me, but that doesn't change the fact that right now, I've got the blues.