Living with MCL

I’ve been reading this blog, Far Beyond the Stars, a blog about living minimally, and the quote “less stuff more living” came to mind.

That’s how a family in Denmark described their life, after an interviewer commented on how small their home was. A home half the size of the average home in the US, without a lot of stuff, but a home none the less, and one that seemed quite comfortable for a husband, wife and two kids.

That interview happened quite awhile ago, but that statement has stuck in my mind all this time. (It also came up while talking with the couple from Germany we met at the Aureole Wine Weekend.)

It just got me thinking about how materialistic we have become in the US. Even myself, although I don’t consider myself overly materialistic, or one who strives to impress anyone. Yeah, we have a lot of the usual stuff, including a 52″ wide screen LCD TV, with built in surround sound (we watch a lot of TV), but that’s pretty much the only over indulgence. Oh yeah, there are my two bicycles (which I do get significant use out of), but they’re very likely worth more than the 3 cars I own (at least two of them anyways).

And I almost forgot about our house, which, admittedly is bigger than we need. I would move, but it would likely cost more to do so, but more importantly it would be too upsetting for the cats, and I wouldn’t do that to them.

Beyond that, there isn’t much I would call anything extravagant, and there really isn’t much else I want or crave for, except for maybe a new bike, but I really consider that more a necessity than a luxury.

Okay, I think I’m starting to get a little long winded here, but I wanted to point out that guys blog. I really think it would do everyone a lot of good to follow at least some of his advice.

And on an unrelated [but related to this blog] note, it seems I’ve dodged a bullet for now. I’m happy to report my platelet count is back to within the normal range at 168 thou/cumm. WHEW! Finally after a week of being a nervous wreck, I can at last relax [at least a little].

The only thing I can say is 2010 is not shaping up much better. And I had such high hopes.

For starters Sylvia (my 89 year old aunt who lives with us) went back into the hospital for the 3^rd time on Thursday, and I’m afraid this time she’s not going to be getting out all too soon. And the day before, as Edie was turning into the gas station, she cut the corner a little too tight, and drove right into the curb blowing out the sidewall of the left front tire. $185 [the cost of the new tire] later she was back on her way again. Edie commented that the price of gas at that station was pretty good [which it was], but it ended up being the most expensive tank of gas she ever purchased.

And then today, I discovered American Express (AMEX) sided with The Golden Truffle (a restaurant in Costa Mesa where Edie and I had dinner on 11/14/2009), for which I was billed twice.

Simple logic should tell you the charge was a duplication. The charges are identical, and they have consecutive transaction numbers.

The problem is the restaurant has produced two receipts, allegedly signed by me.

Now why in the world would a restaurant give me two receipts to sign for the identical amount? If a mistake was made when entering the transaction, a legitimate vendor/merchant would simply void the transaction, and recharge the card for the correct amount. Plus it would have been down right impossible to have spent that much money on dinner at that restaurant. It wasn’t that good.

There can be no other possible explanation for such shenanigans, at least in my opinion, except to defraud the customer. In this case me.

Supposedly the two receipts are in the mail so I can review them, but even if there are two receipts with my signature (which I can only assume there are), one of those receipts was not signed by me.

So today I have filed a complaint with the fraud department at AMEX to try and resolve this issue. I may even have to go and file a police complaint against The Golden Truffle, but we’ll wait and see.

I’m just a little concerned AMEX won’t be reasonable. After all they’re the company which wouldn’t give me a good will credit for the annual fee ($70) on my Starwood Preferred Credit card last April, even considering the fact I was generating over $1000 per year in merchant fees. I ended up canceling that card.

Of course this could be a back door attempt to get that $70 fee, especially since I don’t use my other AMEX card nearly as much, or maybe they just don’t like me.

My only consolation is my back appears to be getting better, and I’m riding pretty good. Of course at the rate things are going this year, that could all change as well.

There was excitement on the home front today, and as always when something like this happens, Edie was not around. She was out for her morning walk.

I had just finished a short bike ride, and was just sitting down at the computer to read the news, and answer a few emails, when I hear Sylvia’s coffee cup drop to the floor, and some strange noises emanating from her room. I immediately jumped up to see Sylvia flailing about.

Now Sylvia has had Transient Ischemic Attacks (TIA’s) before, but nothing at all resembling what was going on this time. This did not look good. So I immediately called for the paramedics.

Fortunately the paramedics arrived in short order, as I was starting to get a little nervous, and I had just been disconnected from the 911 operator, when my phone went into emergency mode (no joking). Well, at least that’s what it said on the phone display.

So here I sit at home, Edie is still at the hospital, waiting to learn what the doctors at the hospital are going to do next, and also wondering what might have happened had I gone to work today, and no one would have been around when Sylvia had her seizure.

Update 11/25/2009 8:45 PM

Sylvia seems to be doing fine. She’s sitting up, watching TV, and eating.

So she’ll definitely be spending Thanksgiving in the hospital. We’ll learn more on Friday.

That was a suggestion from Lyndon Baines Johnson’s National Security Advisor, McGeorge Bundy, on what to do in Vietnam, about 6 months into Johnson’s presidency after Kennedy’s assasination.

No matter what your views on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the tapes of LBJ, as presented by Bill Moyers on PBS (part 1 and part 2), sheds tremendous light on the complexities and the struggles LBJ dealt with in deciding the course of action to be taken in Vietnam.

They are TRULY enlightening, to say the least, and even President Obama would do well to listen to them! IMO, it’s a great piece of journalism. Something we could use a lot more of now a days.

Editor’s note: Johnson dismissed that suggestion out of hand, but I just wonder now what would have happened had he not? And I wonder if that same piece of advice might not be such a bad suggestion for putting an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well?