78F at 6am. Hot and humid today, I think.
Finally rented the rent house. Which is great, but now I have to change the locks, and empty the garage. At least this will be the last time I mow….
Also have the job that was interrupted to finish, one day of consulting for a company this week, and all the other stuff going on too.
Not feeling well either.
Poor me. It’s a great life if you don’t weaken.
n
If you have to change locks regularly, try the Kwikset SmartKey locks. You can rekey a lock on the door in about 30 seconds. See https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00115YD4W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1&tag=ttgnet-20 for a rekeying kit.
I just did a quick search to confirm that a lot of people think Kwikset SmartKey locks are very vulnerable to picking or other attacks.
@rick, I’ve done enough kwikset type keyways that I can do one in less than 5 minutes, if there are no mechanical issues, and if I don’t screw up and lose a spring. I’ve got a big bag o pins and usually buy only one rekey kit per time, just to get some more disposable tools, and a couple of keys.
This time I’ll be keying everything to match the storm/security door. It has a kwikset keyway, but I don’t know how to crack it open, so I’ll match it. The previous tenants didn’t actually use that lock/key.
I’ll probably buy one knob set just in case. I remember some issues with the last rekey, but not the specifics.
It’s a skill every landlord should have, as it saves a ton of money.
WRT the smartkey, it would mean changing all the entry sets, and that would be more expense than I need on this house.
n
Last time I swapped (worn but still working) locksets out, I saved the old sets so I can swap them in for a quick key change, in case I lose a key or something and think somebody could have found it.
Swapping out the knob or deadbolt is quick, requiring minimal skill.
It’s a skill every landlord should have, as it saves a ton of money.
In addition to the external locks, our landlord in Vantucky swapped out most of the internal doorknobs with the cheapest cr*p available — yet another strange thing she did before we moved into the house.
Divorced. First-time landlord. I’m guessing she bought the house with the settlement check from the ex-. Colors were *dark*, carpeting and walls, and all the closet hardware was half-a**ed, screwed in without anchors.
Lock-changing is always one thing I think of doing when I move to a new house.
But, I never can find the ’round-tuit’ to get it done. I might even have a re-key kit somewhere in the garage that I bought years ago. Still, the lack of the ’round-tuit’ is an issue.
Might help that I live in a nice neighborhood, and the previous owners weren’t goofballs, as far as I can tell.
The best most household locks do is keep lazy intruders out. A dog backed up by an armed home owner is more effective.
Finally rented the rent house. Which is great, but now I have to change the locks, and empty the garage. At least this will be the last time I mow….
Congrats ! It is always a most excellent feeling when one gets the first month’s rent in CASH and the deposit in CASH. Yes, I require the rental relationship to be consummated with CASH for the first month. Checks afterwards but that initial month must be CASH. Yes, I will take 100s.
Today’s CTA and TEE tests went very well. I do not even remember the TEE test as they gave me fentanyl and another drug right before the professor doctor, the resident, and the intern started in on me with the esophageal probe. I woke up an hour later and promptly went back to sleep for another 30 minutes.
The best most household locks do is keep lazy intruders out. A dog backed up by an armed home owner is more effective.
Locks are to tell honest people where the limits are. Conversely, a person breaking through locks is not an honest person and can be shot here in The Great State of Texas.
That’s great Lynn, I hope everything else goes as smoothly.
n
@lynn Glad to hear that the initial tests went well. Hope the next steps go well too.
OK, I have a serious gripe about the healthcare system that I have uttered before and probably will again. I am having surgery on Thursday and have NO idea what the cost is. I did have to make a down payment of $1,200 yesterday via credit card to Methodist for my BCBS deductible yesterday so I could undergo today’s testing. They also asked me for another $4K for my copays but agreed to send me a bill for those.
But there are other entities billing me also. Such as my electro-cardiologist, etc, etc, etc. I have no idea who is going to get my copays and who is going to get stiffed by BCBS. No idea whatsoever.
Today’s CTA and TEE tests went very well.
Excellent news!
@lynn regarding the healthcare system
Unfortunately there is no concept of cost in the system. All the matters is how much some entity will pay for any procedure or item. Usually it’s the government or an insurance company. Sometimes it’s an individual. It’s a complete mess.
Another facet of the fubar-ness that is the health insurance (*not health care*) system: If the team that worked on Lynn performs a total of 15 of those procedures this week, on patients with 15 different insurance policies, they can be assured of being paid at least 12 different amounts.
Some Pop Tarts are frosted in Florida tonight. Adam Putnam sitting in the Governor’s mansion has been a done deal for 20 years.
http://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/08/28/ron-desantis-victory-was-a-blow-to-the-political-establishment-but-to-his-supporters-it-was-expected/
And the Graham family won’t return to the mansion in January
http://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/08/28/gillum-scores-stunning-victory-in-democratic-nomination-for-governor/
The Progs will data mine the heck out of the big race in Florida, just like Texas. Gillum won’t win, but the Democrats will learn a lot.
I would give it to you in rolled dimes, then make you count it to make certain it is all there before I get the receipt.
And you will find that many of these additional providers are out of network. Thus they bill you what they want, BCBS will pay a small amount, count it as out of network, thus applying to your out of network deductible, and you are responsible for the rest of the non-discounted amount. Even if you meet your maximum out-of-pocket you will still be paying these other providers.
Experienced this when my wife had kidney stones. Facility was in-network. No one that worked at the facility was in-network. I got stuck with some significant amounts. Even though my maximum out-of-pocket had been met. One provider billed me $1,800, BCBS paid $200.00 because I had met my maximum out of pocket, I was stuck with the additional $1,600.00. There were several providers involved.
When my wife had her hip replaced that required a hospital stay. One doctor whom neither one of us knew, stuck his head in the door and asked how she was doing. Did nothing else. Got a bill from that doctor for $500.00 for “consulting”. I refused to pay as I had not authorized the service and if he did not like it take me to court and I will take him before the medical board for fraud. Never heard back.
The system is completely broken. You don’t know your costs beforehand. You will get slammed with charges after the fact, many charges that insurance will not cover. Your only recourse is to demand a payment plan and extend the payments to the providers for as long as possible. And pay the amount in rolled dimes.
When my wife had her hip replaced that required a hospital stay. One doctor whom neither one of us knew, stuck his head in the door and asked how she was doing. Did nothing else. Got a bill from that doctor for $500.00 for “consulting”
Yeah, we saw those “consulting” doctors when my father-in-law was at UT Southwestern in the heart transplant program.
Lisa Loeb’s filthy rich doctor daddy stucky his head in the door and dropped off one of his daughter’s albums on a consultation visit. That cat screeching was probably the most expensive CD in my father-in-law’s collection.
UT Southwestern isn’t so much a hospital as a group of rackets. Dr. Loeb is an opthamologist, and my father-in-law didn’t have any eye issues beyond needing strong glasses.
Congratulations @lynn on getting through your initial tests. Now on to the Big Shoe (as Ed Sullivan would say, there I go dating myself again).
Medical billing is an art and purposely designed by Big Medical, Big Pharma, and Big Gooberment to be as ununderstandable as possible. Just the fact that it takes tens of thousands of codes, sophisticated computer programs, and highly specialized and certified people to do the billing is the first indication that the system was designed to do something other than heal you.
As I believe I have said before, the first thing the health no-care system does to you is a wallet biopsy. It determines how much you can pay and therefore what kind of care you will get. Later in life, the system is designed to get as close to 100% of your assets as they can and then when you die they will go after your heirs for even more.
Long gone are the days when you could trade a chicken to your doctor for good medical care.