So yesterday I ran over to the dentist’s office to get my teeth cleaned. As you’ll recall, I canned Delta Dental when it became clear that Delta’s huge deductible, its $20 copays, and its skimpy coverage would combine to cost as much as or more than what it would take to simply pay the darned dentist out of pocket.
When I explained to him that I’d dropped the dental insurance, that I’m permanently unemployed, that I’m over the hill, and that I can’t afford to make separate paid trips to his office just to chat with him about what he plans to do, he cut his fee by 10 percent. This resulted in a significant reduction in the amount I owed him: from about $170 to about $140.
This was somewhat cheering.
The arborist came by in the afternoon to look at the damage inflicted by the idiot roofers. He was not pleased by what he saw.
As to the stump of the major branch those clowns chopped off the desert willow, cutting out a good quarter of the crown and stealing much-needed shade from the front courtyard, he opined that left the way it was it would die back, rot, and leave the tree vulnerable to bacterial infection and insects. To head off this fate, he cut it all the way back to the trunk.
I’m still dead furious about the damage to that beautiful tree, but it least now it looks better cosmetically.
The SOBs did the same thing to the paloverde in back: hacked off a chunk of a thick, major branch, this one casting shade on the west side. I’m afraid that little antic will make the westside deck unusable in the summer. Before they pulled this stunt, I actually was able to sit out there in the shade even when it was very hot. But now too much sun will pour down on that area to make it livable anytime after about mid-April. Just flicking infuriating.
He cut back that branch to a point where he thought the tree might be able to stop the mortification of the damaged area, although he made no guarantee. He said it will die back some. If it starts to die back further than a certain point, which it certainly could, then that entire limb will have to be removed, too.
Amazingly, he performed these small bits of tree surgery for free. I offered to pay him at least a trip charge; he said how about $10 for the gas.
So that was pretty astonishing. Now I’ll have to hire him to come back and do some serious (and seriously well-paying…) work as soon as I have the money. If I ever do. LOL!
Speaking of money, I haven’t received my 2011 back sick leave payment (RASL), which was supposed to be disbursed in February. The woman who runs that program took herself a nice long vacation this month; she’s not supposed to get back until today, when of course I have to spend the entire day in the classroom or lurking on the campus between classes.
State retirees who elected to participate in the 403(b) plan rather than the state’s pension fund are required to take a drawdown from investments to remain eligible for all three payouts of their RASL. I’m concerned that she’s decided the $1 a month that Fidelity told me was OK is NOT OK, and that she will announce she’s decided I’m “not retired” and will refuse to pay me any further.
This is another stage in the endless runaround the state deals out to its retired employees. Every time I asked someone in the state GAO (which administers the RASL program) what was the minimum amount I could draw down, I was told to talk to the people at Fidelity. Every time I asked someone at Fidelity, he would say he didn’t know or he would find out and get back to me. Obviously, “get back to you” is run-around talk for “flake off, please.” Finally I reached a middle-management type who claimed that you could take as little as $1.00 a month and still remain eligible for RASL, and that a number of Arizona state retirees he works with have done exactly that.
Nevertheless, given that the money hasn’t shown up, I expect the RASL administrator to announce that the buck a month doesn’t qualify, thereby giving me the shaft in the biggest way possible. It’s a fitting good-bye from state service.
I’m so sorry to read about your trees! I live in the desert too and I know just how much of a difference it makes in the summer’s heat to benefit from that shade. Not to mention the fact that it took years for those trees to grow in the first place. Did you give the roofers permission to cut the branches down or did they just go ahead and hack away? I would be royally ticked off if that happened to my eucalyptus and/or cottonwood.
@ Quest: Nope. Nothing was said to me to the effect that they planned to do anything like that. The trees were not in their way. If I’d had any clue, I’d have told them not to do it.
They waited till I was out of the house to commit their vandalism.
I agree that it really stinks that they damaged those trees. I don’t live in the desert, but my deck is still too hot during the summer without shade. I would be very upset if a source of shade was taken away do to another person’s carelessness.
I like how you got the lower price on dental care. I was shocked to hear that you were paying $20 copays with Delta Dental. I have them in Wisconsin and have never had a copay.
Your experiences, and those your engaged readers and I have similarly experienced, make it almost easy to understand how one could “go Postal.” Seriously, though, I wish you well.
So…. any chance the roofing company will fess up and pay for the damages??
@ sandra jensen: Well, I really can’t imagine what value one could put in a few tree limbs. The arborist accepted 10 bucks to cover his gas but otherwise refused to charge anything. There’s really nothing to be done other than wait and hope the trees will fill in. It’s not like I’m having to take the trees out and replace them.
I’ve complained at Angie’s List, where I found the guy’s name. That’s about all I can think of.