The Message Forum is an ongoing dialogue among classmates. The goal is to encourage friendly interaction, including interaction among classmates who really didn't know each other. Experience on the site has revealed that certain topics tend to cause friction and hard feelings, especially politics and religion. 

Although politics and religion are not completely off-limits, classmates are asked to be positive in their posts and not to be too repetitive or allow a dialog to degenerate into an argument. 

Forums work when people participate - so don't be bashful! Click the "Post Response" button to add your entry to the forum.

Steve Keene

Janalu,

You are so nice.  I will pass it on to Mak.!

Lowell Tuttle

Lowell Tuttle

Steve, that is cool about your daughter.

I am dealing with the TRS BCBS health care plan right now.   Got a form signed by brother in law to handle bills that he has to pay (deductibles and co pays.)  They are extremely nice and available on the phone...I am thankful for that.   And, they offerred to counsel me on which deductible provider bill to pay so it's certain to go against his Max out of pocket.

With all health care plans there is a term which is loosely heard by us.  It is "covered expenses."   

health care plans have max pays for annual deductibles and co pays.  However, that is of COVERED expenses.  BCBS has a asterisk on all their claim paid provider forms which says you SHOULD not pay the provider more than the covered expenses allowed by BCBS.   I think the key word there is SHOULD.  It doesn't say you DON:T have to pay.  

Example is ambulance bills.   Covered expense allowed is 500.   They pay that.   You owe whatever the ambulance company charges.   In this case, it is the City of Houston charging 1500.   That 1000 you pay does not go against your max out of pocket.   You should see what a helicopter life flight uncovered expense is.  25,000 to 100,000 is the reality.

So, if we pay all these bills, we hit his max co pay with TRS BCBS at about 6000.   Then, for now, the expenses that are/were "uncovered" amount to about 18000 more.

I think that is the kind of account that Holly works on.   If you have something, apparently they will come after you.   :

Lance says he files them in his trash can.  

Next step might be some kind of trust called a Miller's Trust.   Attorney...confusion...we are getting close to that step.

Sandra Spieker (Ringo)

Steve,

I saw the Ju Jitsu match that MacKenzie competed in on Saturday.  Wow!  She is is tough and a champion!  Congratulations to her and her husband too!  I love the martial arts!

Wayne Gary

Lowell,

Check with BCBS and I think what you are seeing isyou should pay the "contracted price for service" and pay that.  The provider will take that amount as paid in full.  Porviders have  a 'List" price then the amount allowed by either insurance or medicare.

When you go the the pharmacy and get a prescription they will say the price is "X" then you say I have insurance they they say your co-pay is "Y" then you check Good Rx and can get a lower price "Z".  You pay the lowest price and not worry about either the list price.

On some of my prescriptions I have found the GoodRx price is less than the insurance price. 

If you check with the City you might find they will accept the $500 and paid in full.

David Cordell

Steve -- Why didn't you invite me to MacKenzie's competition?? Frisco is next to Plano!

Bob D. -- Funny you should mention Bill Moore. He and I had the same National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test score (141).The cut-off for semifinalist was 142. One more point and I would have received a $10,000 scholarship from my father's employer -- Sun Oil Company. That was a lot of money in those days. Still is! Instead, I received a National Merit Letter of Commendation, which for me was a Letter of Sympathy.

Here is something that has haunted me for 50+ years. While taking the exam, there were a couple of questions early-on that threw me off balance. I lost my confidence and started being consumed by the fear that my score would be an embarrassment. In retrospect, after receiving my score, I realized that I almost certainly hurt my performance by allowing myself to be dragged down by negative thoughts. Ack!! Just one more point!!!

One result -- As a professor, I have told my students something like this when referring to multiple choice exams: "Creating a good multiple choice exam is very difficult, and all of them have flaws. Just assume that ten percent of the questions will be tricky, picky, irrelevant, stupid, or whatever. When you get to one that seems to meet that definition, just say to yourself, 'There's one of them.' Take your best shot, then move on and forget about it."

As I recall, Jean and Don were in the 150s on the 160-max National Merit exam. One of them beat the other on National Merit, and it was the opposite on SAT. I think Steve Gardner was third at 148. Seems like the others were in the 142-145 ranges, but I may not have known all the scores. 

About Virginia Hawes -- she lives in Oregon and is a physician. She had a health scare a few years ago, but I think she is doing well. Still looked great the last time I saw her.

Wayne Gary

David,

I saw where you would advise your students about your test questions: "tricky, picky, irrelevant, stupid, or whatever"

At A&M we referred to them as "chicken shit" questions.  I had one Prof that several times when he came in with the stack of tests he had feathers on and in the stack.

In HS I date Tommie Lou Mc Millan and her father tought 1 class at N. Texas.  He would tell the students he would at times have a T/F test with long strings of true or false answers.  One test of 105 questions the first 100 were True and the last 5 were false.  No one got 100.

Hope you are relaxing now you have retired. Let me know when you want to go back to the range.

Kurt Fischer

Jim:

I am always amazed with your stories of your wild and crazy youth and college days.  Our paths were so very different.  

In high school I dated quite a bit, but my time was always spent at places like the Studio Club or movie theaters, etc.  I never knowingly hung around the drug scene.  Shoots, I'm not sure I was even aware there was a drug scene.  In my first semester at Texas Tech I became a Christian.  At the time there was a local church (Lubbock Bible Church) with a pastor who taught in an exegetical manner from the Bible, line upon line and precept upon precept.  Much of my non-study time was spent listening to taped sermons and, since a book like Deuteronomy would have over 100 sermons, it would consume a couple of hours a day.  I was about as straight arrow as they come.

I met my wife-to-be at SMU's MBA program.  We were married while still in school, I went to work with Arthur Andersen the Monday after we graduated, and our first born came along in a few months.  Since then I have worked and raised a family.

I guess the nice part of this is after all these years and such very different paths in life, we are both still standing and communicating with our fellow classmates.  

Kurt Fischer

David:

Walking through the updated Tom Thumb at Parker and Independence today reminded me of my father's retirement.

He had a group of 5-7 friends from various professions who would meet each morning, first at the local Kroger and later at the donut shop, to talk and solve the world's problems.  I remember printing a proclamation on his 70th birthday and posting it at the donut shop so others could celebrate the day.  But this took place many years after his group began getting together.

While I'm 69 and I believe you have turned 70, I can't seem to picture meeting together for coffee and donuts every day.  I guess the times have changed.  On the other hand, they did have lasting friendships, mostly based on a desire to talk with and get to know interesting individuals.

Hollis Carolyn Heyn

Kurt:

Daryl Summers used to breakfast each morning with a regular group of cronies at Cindy's.  They would show up just before opening time, and if the wait staff were busy with other duties, Daryl would start the coffee a brewing.  I wonder if that group still meets.  If so, stopping into chat would probably yield some great Daryl stories.  Miss that wonderful guy.

Jim Bedwell

Kurt,

Yeah, it's been a wild ride. But we're basically in the same place today, ONLY DUE TO GOD!!!!! Wish I'd taken your path!! I just hope Tommy can redeem his lost soul.

Plus the year before I got into drugs, I was really into the alcohol for that previous year, so that was junior year. Pathetic.

But, "Betty Butkus"?!?!??!?!

Chief Stephen Toenails,

Wow, CONGRATS on your daughter's achievement!!!! Obviously she takes after her mother's side of the family!!!!! hahahahahhahahahaha!!!

Usually I ask for phone numbers of daughters of friends (or strangers), but with my history of romantic success, her obvious physical capabilities, and your warning about her, I don't think I'll ask you for hers!!

Chief Jimi Bob Bedpost

Jim Bedwell

Please remember Greg Gutfeld of FNC is the one who, after the Muslims were trying to open that mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan, remember? Anyway Gutfeld stated publicly that he, on one of the other floors of that highrise that would house the new mosque, planned on opening a gay bar that catered to gay Muslims!

Jim Bedwell

Kurt,

Truly, do you ever regret never getting into drugs? I'm pretty hard-pressed to think of anybody who might think that, except for Mark Tuinei, and look where that got him! Actually I bet he had dabbled before in stuff.

I hadn't known you were really good/great at math back in the day, likely better than I, and that was my best subject! But I did love the history stuff.................otherwise I really did HATE school as much as probably a lot of people who did a lot more poorly than I did there.

Also for somebody who's supposed to be one of the smarter ones, really, I am AMAZED at the number and degree of the STUPID things I've said & done in my life. To say that would be what you would expect from somebody who was afflicted with the Down's syndrome, would be an insult to all of them, though less to other people of average native intelligence, but an insult nonetheless. Basically I've done more stupid things that just about anybody I know of! Really to my shame, and at the judgment seat you will be even more perplexed at what you hear about me. My skeleton closet is FAR LARGER than ANY closet found in a master bedroom of a newly built McMansion in my old 50's neighborhood near Dealey Elementary on Royal Lane!! Anyway, here's an important verse that this reminds me of.............well, here's a better one I was just reading, one of my very favorite, and unrelated to the verse I was looking for:

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Cor 2:9) - I don't know which version but here's the link:

https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/

I was LOVING the 1st chapter & then the 2nd - as you know, you can't really describe what it does to a born again person internally to read these AGAPE words. OH MY!!!!!! For those that don't know, the agape love is the divine unconditional love that is so much higher than our conditional human version. God loved Saddam up through the hanging!!! He wasn't pleased with his behavior obviously but He still loved him!!!! Too bad the English is not as rich as the Greek that the New Testament was written in - there are a few dffierent Greek words for love with different shades of meaning found therein, as we know, Kurt.

Have a TREMENDOUS remainder of your Father's Day in our Lord & Savior!!!

Chief Regenerated & Redeemed (due to You Know Who)

David Cordell

Kurt --

"Exegetical"?  

Wait! I think that was one of the vocabulary words I missed on the National Merit exam!

Steve Keene

Kurt,

I was as straight as an arrow in high school, too.  The only thing I did was paper houses and on Halloween throw a few eggs.  My only experience with drugs in high school came one time when Tommy Thomas and I decided to go to the Gemini Drive Inn on a Friday night to look for girls.  We talked some guy into buying a bottle of sloe gin that we drank with Dr. Pepper.  That put me off booze until I went to college at UT and discovered beer.

Sandra,

Thanks for the kudos for Makenzie.  In her first match, the girl caught her by surprise and pulled her down and got her leg over her and she was down 5 point to 0.  My son said, Dad maybe she is not going to do so well.  I looked in her eye and saw that look that she was pissed,  She has used that look on me a time or two and I know to back off.  I told my son that she had the other girl right where she wants her.  Next thing you know after five minutes it,is 15 to 5 in her favor.  I asked her about it and she said, I put my toe in her eye and then put all my weight on her face and choked her with my belt in a legal move.  She said you get most of your points with leg position advantage, but when somebody has all their weight on your face and your eyes pressured and  your air choked off, the last thing you think about is your legs. 

David,

I would have called you but I figured you were on a picnic blanket somewhere watching Shakespeare in the Park.

Hollis,

I love to eat at Cindys.  I take my girls there for breakfast all the time and then get some stuff from the bakery for later.  My new spot I like is Chelsea Corner.  They have the best upscale brunches in town,  other than St. Martins.

Sandra Spieker (Ringo)

Lowell,

A Judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought forth by employees of  Houston Hospital who were against a vaccine mandate.  They have until the 21st to get a vaccine or get fired.  I am with the Judge.  My brother in law has a compromised immune system due to a liver transplant.  He has recieved three doses of the vaccine and through a testing program with John's Hopkins to track his antibody response, he has learned he still has no antibodies against the virus.  If hopsitals don't require their employees to get vaccinated then this madness will continue.  How are vulnerable people expected to live?  Herd immunity.

Edited to add this:

When I went to Europe with my mother in my early teens vaccines were required to travel overseas.  Small pox, polio, and others.  We got the shots or did not get a visa.  This is vaccine mandate is not something new.  It worked then to prevent the spread of contagious diseases and it will work now. 

I hope your brother in laws medical expense get resolved without undue hardship.  Insurance companies rule.  Doctors advice, orders and prescriptions are often overrulled to the demands of insurance companies, at the expense of paitents lives and livelyhoods.  My heart goes out to you and him.

Bob Davidson

David -- the test I was really rattled on was the Bar Exam.  The first day is called Multistate -- it is a multiple choice test of general legal knowledge given in most states.  There are five possible answers and you have to pick the answer that is most right -- usually one is blatantly wrong and the rest partially right.  Basically, lawyers being assholes to aspiring lawyers.  It's four hours in the morning, an hour lunch break, then four more in the afternoon.  I totally blew my confidence after the morning -- when I walked out to eat lunch, I was behind a group that was talking about the answers to some of the questions, ones I'd had doubts about, and their consensus was that I was wrong on each one.  I spent lunch wondering if I should bother going back to be embarrassed even more.  Obviously, I did well enough to be allowed to practice law, but my confidence was totally zapped and I doubted myself on each answer.

We watched Doctor Zhivago this weekend.  I hadn't seen it since early high school and found it very enjoyable as a story and so, so sad.  The saddest part was seeing the vision of the leftists realized in Russia.  I remember the joke in the 90s -- communism is dead everywhere but North Korea and American college campuses.  Now you'd have to add our public schools, the mainstream media, woke corporations, the Silicon Valley lordlings, the billionaire class, the bureaucracy, and the Democrat Party.

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Fly your U.S. flags today with pride!

Happy Birthday Jerry May!  It's nice and sunny and warm(?) for you!

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Did you hear that Obama has admitted, inadvertently, in his intervue with Anderson Cooper, that he is a racist?  He guffawed at Republicans as he spoke to Cooper, saying it was a quite something that Republicans are offended at Critical Race Theory, a theory which was highlighted in the NYT a while back.

He asked Cooper, "Who knew that Republicans would have a problem with Critical Race Theory?" as he chuckled and grinned toward Cooper for agreement, knowing that Cooper is a CNN cooperative.

Critcal Race Theory is absolutely a racist theory that is based on fiction, and it tries to tell everyone that Caucasians are racist from the "git-go;" that America is founded on the premise of slavery being our utmost intent, as soon as we hit the American shores in 1619.  As Obama once stated, "Racism is in the DNA of America."

Obama agrees with the theory and can't understand why most of us, particularly Republicans, do not!

I remember Charles Krauthammer saying that he suspected Obama was a sly and calculating individual.

Krauthammer was correct 99.9% of the time.

David Cordell

Bob,

Doctor Zhivago was a great movie, but very depressing. Rod Steiger/Julie Christie rape scene bothered me, as did the confiscation of DZ's home, and lots more. Didn't like seeing him die in the end, either.  

There is an interesting juxtaposition of leadership styles in one brief segment of the movie. A uniformed sargeant (I suppose) stands atop a barrel and barks out orders in an exceedingly condescending manner. He gets shot by his own men. Then the next brief scene shows Tom Courney urging his charges on in a sort of "follow me, men" approach.

I think DZ lost to Sound of Music for best picture that year, which I disagreed with. That said, I have only watched DZ once in the past 50 years, but have watched S of M multiple times. When my son performed in S of M on Broadway with Richard Chamberlain, I learned that the stage version has two good songs that weren't in the movie. 

Sandra,I have been fully vaccinated, but I have friends who refuse to be vaccinated because the vaccines only have "emergency" approval. Should we be concerned about that? I remember, as a boy, reading about thalidomide babies.

David Cordell

Images of thalidomide babies.

https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrCwohdmMdg.HoATh8PxQt.;_ylu=Y29sbwNiZjEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Nj?p=thalidomide+babies&type=asbw_8063_CHW_US_tid20031&param1=eHz%2FER7rdQTQ2dy4JSaIUhkGkwp%2FFtDXCMQtVrHUiYpJgiqLDICDihUO5rpy9%2Fpp&param2=9dUI1n2R0BLDxNuWfiP4aSFOTltNdSPoIx38%2BUf%2FiXrvPdoGmStdlfwLFZYDvqkAJrWWk4yNReCLnBD%2FqPsDZd7olTZcV8HMx1G%2Fk786sE2Tis1g8dJd8zxVWs%2BbKztBnq1TfqUiqPYK9pXifXmJF23GuXP%2F%2FuMqmznMxQq%2BppDodU1jXOPDLperLdz33z3VYOwUcPZYsTcBR38b0LU9HLo0sT%2BFHl5CFy6H5cSxjc6bLZabnFEm%2BL8DWl0Yqc6vubcE%2BJ91Oc9XKMP0mea7oIe6O%2Bva50c3Gd1EdzGCXlM%3D&param3=NwVEMR%2FzKcG52XsVBYEh2zk2Yklq85vdfspZPoqz2M1qypHRDDTed5vIiOf0QJloJAws3N4BZ2OFCPQG%2BRw4WpTnzaTq2VmIHxERXcUW3rVQCtxOG%2BsIEOUp0%2Ff9ylXTGucyJu3wBF4BE4auNWzgxMMHQEphTJydaZDKF5XxuuR%2FbL22ER7hG8HMlT8gNip5pzSlb1arP0n3msY6EF07j2NFEOER9H7f0NNlsesRYJAxx7VZhggRNUuH%2FgItweVu56zAS%2FHunSAnFBzzsNLH2aIuIM4aBOVUrZd4cBzvdMlHDonjuO2EP%2BRfwlzrAzx5CQTX0yvMyk3W4sw3E2ln7FvgkCB8P7%2FHV9d7hX%2FEmQmUtw6RnQ8j4tLOCTZPRf82i0RffXQpWZGDe%2Fy0f9Zq4A%3D%3D&param4=Yl9RvzGLXoj3YaR74m15DKj%2FBwAHocjnBOhm8OyIA38%3D&hsimp=yhs-syn&hspart=iba&ei=UTF-8&fr=yhs-iba-syn

Sandra Spieker (Ringo)

David,

The Covid vaccines are RNA delivery based ways to fight viruus.  The technology is ground breaking and could result in the development of vaccines to combat HIV and cancer.  Here is a great article from MIT which explains how these vaccines work.  MIT Article

As for the emergency use designation, I figure that if (over today's count -173 million) have received at least one dose, and those people who have recieved the vaccine have only experienced a scant few severe reactions,  that is it safe and effective.  These vaccines have been in development for many years, not just less than a year.  There are more numerous drugs that are approved by the FDA that have more side affects, and long term issues than this vaccine.  Yet those drugs are used frequently, advertised on television and pushed for anything from arthritis, to crohns disease and we make no stink about it at all.  This vaccine might just save us from ourselves if we would just cooperate with one another. The latest alzhiemer drug has the unfortunate side affect of brain bleeds, but it was approved none the less.  Even some of the board members on the FDA resigned because of the approval.  The vaccine, not so much.  

Our current panic driven mindset of 30% of the population to discredit science and acedemia is more worrisome to me than the approval of this vaccine. 

Wayne Gary

David

The FDA normally waits until the large study is completed after 2-3 years.  I am in a study that will last 27 months. This will give information on how long the protecton lasts.  We could not wait 2-3 years for standard apporvial but after 6 months of the large scale trial there was enough data  to show it is safe and effective. They are now working on final approvial. With final approvial they will know if and how often a booster is required.

David Cordell

Sandra,

With all due respect, you don't have all the answers and you seem unwilling to accept that anyone could possibly think differently than you do. You imply that 30% of the population are morons and you refuse to accept that they may have logical reasons for their hesitance.

There is a normal process for approving medicines. It was bypassed because of the emergency nature of the pandemic. It is fortunate for all of us that President Trump had the guts to push the envelope. 

But what are the long-term effects of the vaccine? We don't know. There have been cases recently of boys who have had heart issues after taking the vaccine. Why? 

A broader issue --

The word "science" comes from the Latin root meaning "to know". When I hear "follow the science", I always wonder what they really "know" versus what they don't know, and the latter includes what they haven't even  anticipated. What we "know" changes, as the contradictory pronouncements from Dr. Fauci evidence. 

Much of what they "knew" about the virus one year ago was wrong, including where it originated. In other words, they don't really know what they know.

Knowledge is good, but as Pope noted, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. A little knowledge combined with hubris and arrogance makes for a poisonous mixture.

My wife and I took the vaccine we determined that the odds are in our favor. Is a healthy 25-year-old with O positive blood better off to take the vaccine than not to take it? I don't know.

David Cordell

Here's some fun for the ladies.