It must be Black Friday/Cyber Monday. I ordered a bunch of stuff on Amazon over the weekend and several items were delayed. One item, a poster frame, was delayed several times, and now it is just missing.
I have never seen this before. I have had several delayed deliveries but none where the package was l0st. Amazon ended up automatically cancelling the original order and placed another order for the same product at $0. It was very confusing.
Today, UPS delivered the original order. I thought I read that I will have to return one of the items if both end up arriving. To avoid that scenario, I cancelled the replacement order since it has not shipped yet. Now when I look at my account, the replacement order does not even exist, and it shows the original order as returned. Yet I still have one poster frame in my possession. Super confusing.
I just received another delivery. It is the keyboard case for my new iPad that has yet to be delivered. I purchased the wrong case, received it yesterday, returned it earlier this afternoon to Amazon Fresh, and the replacement is here already. World-class logistics.
The only weird thing is that I received a text from the driver. Typically, Amazon package delivery drivers do not text. I do receive texts from Amazon Fresh delivery drivers, but these are guys in their private cars. The text said this:
I can understand the part about pets, but dark? It is 2:14 in the afternoon, and my entire neighborhood is single-family houses. I am not sure why the driver thinks it may be dark by my front door. The delivery “truck” was a Honda Accord so maybe they are using Amazon Fresh drivers to make these totally unnecessary same-day deliveries of non-food stuff.
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So, I have received my Logitech keyboard case (twice) and the Apple Pencil 2. Just waiting for the actual iPad Pro to be delivered.
The calendar app on my MacBook just popped up a notification informing me that today is Native American Heritage Day. It is sad if it is only one day since the other three minority cultures get an entire month. This year, it is also the same day as Black Friday. Nobody is going to celebrate or learn about Native American Heritage while fighting the crowd of shoppers at Walmart.
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Ugh, it is the day after Thanksgiving. Is that supposed to be some counterpoint to the traditional Thanksgiving holiday?
November 25, 2022. I think I bought too much stuff today. For real Amazon delivery guy is coming by three times today. And tomorrow. And Sunday,
The biggest purchase is a new 11″ Apple iPad Pro. I have several iPads but they are all fairly old and I cannot run iOS 16 on any of them.
iPad Model
Release Year
Discontinued
iPad 2
2011
March 2014
iPad 4
2012
October 2014
iPad mini 2
2013
March 2017
iPad Air 2
2014
March 2017
I did purchase two iPad Pros after the iPad Air 2, but those were for my parents. I do feel a bit justified in buying a new iPad since the “newest” models I have were discontinued almost six years ago. I also bought an Apple Pencil 2, and a keyboard case from Logitech that cost way too much.
Another large purchase was a portable power station. I am kind of building an emergency kit, and one of the big items is stable power. I have about 3.6 kW of solar panels on my house, but since the system is grid-tied, I am unsure on how to reroute the DC power if needed. The power output is likely too large to be useful without a voltage converter. In my Tesla, there is a ~75 kWh battery, but I have no idea how to use that if there is a prolonged power outage. Long story short, I purchased a Jackery Explorer 300, which has a 293 kWh battery. It seems like a lot but that will get my Tesla about a mile down the highway. To be self-reliant, I purchased the matching 100 W solar panel that will charge the Explorer 300 in 3.5 hours. Together, the system is normally $600 but there were some Black Friday coupons that saved me about $180.
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I just received another delivery. It is just some peanuts and other mixed nuts. It arrived about half an hour after the previous delivery, so it is likely another driver. Are there multiple warehouses that ship to my house? I would love to spend a day at Amazon learning about their logistics process.
I paid $60 last week for a Paramedics Membership with the City of Orange. When I first moved here in 2009, there was no additional charge for paramedic services. Then suddenly one year, the option to include $2 per month was included in our water/sewer bill to opt-in. That then became a $48 one-time fee payable only by check, and now it is $60.
This is basically insurance for paramedic calls. It covers all services for everyone in your household (up to ten people) anywhere in Orange and covers visitors to your house. My problem with this setup is that local emergency services is a monopoly. When you call 911 for a medical emergency, the call is routed to the fire department. You cannot choose another provider. Knowing that it is a captive market, the fire department refuses to participate in any insurance networks, so they will always be out-of-network and can charge astronomical fees.
I experienced this fucked-up system twice while I was on dialysis. The first time was when I had severe hypoglycemia. I woke up in the morning delirious and my parents called 911. The paramedics game me a glucose/dextrose IV and took me to the St. Joseph hospital ER. Even though I enrolled in the program, the fire department still tried to bill me about $2,000. The billing office claimed that someone else lives at my house, so I was not covered. It took over three months to clear that up. I also got a 30-second ride from the dialysis clinic to the ER due to a likely panic attack. I remember the fire department sending a similar bill to insurance, but that was somehow paid by insurance, and I did not have to pay.
Why are paramedics not covered by my property tax? Police and remaining fire department services are included. I think it is because you can use fear to motivate residents who are old or in poor health to sign up. If they do not, then the fire department can charge thousands of dollars for services. I really want to see if they are making money on this program and what the justification is to increase the fees from $24 to $48 then $60 in just a few years.
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I have lived in three other cities, five if you include my immediate family, in Orange County. No other city charges separately for providing basic emergency service for residents. The City of Orange also forces you to get a business license and pay fees if you claim business expenses on your taxes. I used to incur some travel expenses when I helped my friend with his company in China. This was not an issue when I lived in Brea or Costa Mesa. However, as soon as I moved to Orange, I got a notice demanding I get a license that costs a minimum of $65 each year. The city provides absolutely zero services, but they want their pound of flesh. Fucking assholes.
This says there were five notifications from my Apple Watch. I did see a few that said sound levels were greater than 95 dB. I found a chart on sound levels and the concert was like an ice cream truck.
During my video call with UCLA Transplant Center, the doctor said that I should continue to wear a mask indoors since flu season is upon us again. I did get a flu shot in late September, and I just got the latest bivalent booster from Moderna last week. Since case count has been very low, I think I have been lulled into complacency, and have not been too rigorous in wearing a mask at work. Now, I am receiving emails from county health agencies warning that the number of new cases is increasing again.
Here is recent new case count for Los Angeles County:
Orange County:
It is hard to see any trends in the Orange County chart since the scale is messed up by last year’s Omicron spike. Here is the last 90 days from another source:
There does seem to be a slight increase, but it is hard to tell if it is just noise, or the start of another winter spike in cases. In any case, I am scheduled for another Evusheld injection in early December. Hopefully, that and the last booster shot will prevent another infection.
I went to Elton John’s Yellow Brick Road Tour last night at Dodger Stadium. It is supposed to be his farewell tour, but it seems that he has had several final concerts. I do not usually listen to his songs, but I did know about half of the songs he performed at the concert. My sister and her partner are fans, and they really loved the show.
Since we were driving to Dodger Stadium from Irvine, we left at 5:00 pm but it still took about two-and-a-half hours to get there. Dodger Stadium holds about 56,000 people and it felt like the show was sold out. When we got to our seats at around 8:00 pm, the stadium was only about one-third full. By the time Elton came on stage at 8:15 pm, most of the seats were filled. The concert was about two hours long with two short encores. My iPhone was running out of batteries, so I only recorded one song and took a few photos.
Overall, I enjoyed the show even though I did not know all the songs. Elton looked good for someone who is 75 years old. The band was great and included some original members from the sixties. My one complaint was the sound. I spent a few years volunteering as a sound engineer at a large church, and the sound guy last night was total shit. The volume was way too loud; the average was close to 100 dB with peaks up to 110 dB. My Apple watch gave me five warnings about the sound level. Even worse, the mix was muddled. For some songs, you could not make out any of the lyrics as the instruments overpowered Elton’s voice. Total cost was about $300 for me. I am glad I got to see him in concert, just wished I could hear him sing.
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With dialysis then COVID, this was my first concert in a long time. I had thought about going to the Blackpink concert this weekend, but decided two $300+ concerts was too much for one week.
Re: Important information about your post-transplant follow-up care
Dear Transplant Patients,
We are writing to share some important information with you. In order to continue providing excellent post-transplant follow-up care to all of our newly transplanted patients and those experiencing new urgent problems with their transplanted kidney, we will be requiring every post-transplant patient have their own local nephrologist (kidney doctor) who will follow you every two months with routine lab work, and a Primary Care Physician (PCP). This will ensure your needs can be addressed in a timely manner, once you are stable and transitioned back to your local nephrologist and PCP for management. This means we will no longer be able to provide primary nephrology care or handle medication refills after you are transitioned back to their care.
Our team will continue to see you annually to monitor your transplanted kidney function, and for any urgent kidney transplant issues you may develop.
We will be working with you to connect you to a local nephrologist and PCP based on your insurance and to ensure a smooth transition over the next few months. Once you are connected to a local team, and have scheduled an appointment with your nephrologist, a member of our team will reach out to them and update them on your care.
We will make sure they have all of your pertinent medical records in order to manage your care moving forward.
Please do not hesitate to ask our team if you have any questions. We are here to help during this transition process. Thank you for allowing us to continue to be part of your care.
Best regards,
Your UCLA Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Team
I received this automated letter from UCLA Transplant Center today. It is basically a goodbye letter handing me off to my local nephrologist. This was done about a year post-transplant, but I guess this notice makes it official. I am already on a two-month schedule with my local nephrologist, though I have not seen my PCP for a few years.
Dr. Jeffrey Veale. He is the surgeon that “installed” my sister’s donated kidney.
My online pharmacy offered this free program to help me manage my health, so I signed up. They send you a wireless scale and assigned you a health counselor. I was assigned to Alicia.
I just set up the scale today. You basically open the box, insert four AA batteries (they were Duracell), and step on the scale. I was expecting to have to connect the scale to my Wi-Fi network, but after my weigh-in, the scale blinked a bit, and sent my weight somewhere. I looked online and the scale connects over either AT&T or T-Mobile’s cellular network to send data. I did not know it was possible without a SIM card. Omada also must have pre-configured the scale, so they know to associate the weight data to my account.
Initially, I thought the program was just collecting weight data and sending me information. However, it appears that I need to track food intake and activity in addition to tracking weight. There is also homework and likely chat sessions with Alicia. It is definitely more work but I need accountability to start the weight loss process.
I have both a Windows PC and a MacBook Pro. Now both are asking me to upgrade the OS to the next major release. Windows 11 has been released for months and each time I restart my PC, I get a message to update. I have not done so yet.
Today, I noticed an update notification on the System Preferences icon. It turns out there is a major macOS release too. I am still using version 12.6, codenamed Monterey. The latest version is 13.0.1, codenamed Ventura. Apple is still going with California place names.
Each time there is a major OS release or revision, I am always hesitant on upgrading. I want to check out the new features, but I am always afraid that bugs in the update will make the experience worse.
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I just started the update process on my Mac. Hope it does not brick.
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Updated: November 11, 2022 @2:37 pm
I was right. MacOS Ventura has more of an iOS feel. The system settings (renamed?) window looks totally different from all the previous MacOS versions, and very much like the iOS settings.
One other place I feel Apple messed up is the screen display settings. For some reason, there are a lot less options for external monitors. I have a Samsung U32R59x. It is a 4k monitor with 3840 x 2160 resolution, but MacOS says 1920 x 1080 is default. That makes the screen image huge but reduces the desktop size. If you set it at full resolution, the text becomes tiny. In MacOS 12, you can scale the text larger but maintain the high resolution for movies. This option appears to be gone. I now have the resolution at 2560 x 1440, which is a good compromise, but I lose the ability to control the refresh rate, and again, I cannot view videos at 4k resolution.
I lived with my parents for the past ten plus years until they purchased their own house earlier this year. Since they have always handled cooking and food costs, I am not as aware of the impact of the recent high inflation rates groceries. I mainly paid for costs related to the house, such as property taxes and utilities, which are less susceptible to inflation.
On Friday, I stopped by the local Raising Canes to get a Box Combo. I was surprised at the cost, which was $12.66 including tax. This was much higher than what I remembered. Since I always pay with the same credit card, I could search for older transactions online and found these data points:
Date
Cost
11/11/2020
$12.66
8/31/2022
$10.85
6/28/2021
$10.19
4/28/2021
$9.82
1/26/2021
$9.52
The last date is interesting as it is the day before my kidney transplant. It was probably not the best food choice right before major surgery.
If we take the first and last dates and call it 21 months, the inflation rate is (12.66 – 9.52)/9.52*(12/ 21) or about 18.8% per year. Now if we look at actual inflation, it is nowhere near that high. Here is a chart for Consumer Price Index (CPI) for urban consumers over the same period:
If the numbers are too small, the index starts at 262.200 and ends at 298.062. That works out to about 7.8% per year. So, we can probably say that Raising Canes Box Combo’s price is increasing at 2.4x inflation during the past two years. That sucks.
Of course, it is just not chicken. My sister, my younger niece, and me went to get ramen last night. We got three bowls of ramen, an order of California rolls, and some edamame appetizers. The total with tax was about $70 or $85 with a 20% tip. That seems absurdly expensive for mediocre ramen. Let us hope that with dropping gas prices, inflation will be lower in the future.
My new senior manager started this past Monday, while my departing analyst just turned in her formal two-week notice. We knew the analyst was leaving several weeks ago so I have been going into the office to train in person. Unfortunately, I have two areas of responsibility and the two staff changes are not related.
For the new manager, I am picking up a bunch of responsibilities from another group. We are not sure if I will get any analysts along with the extra work, either internally or externally. We did make an offer yesterday to a candidate to replace my analyst, but even if he accepts right away, he will miss my departing analyst, and I will be responsible for his training. I will likely forget 50% of the work instructions so he may need to figure a lot out by himself. I also have a second opening that was transferred to me from another department so there is still a lot of uncertainty.
What is certain is that the daily two-to-three-hour (both ways) commute is killing me. There was an accident with a motorcycle rider fatality Wednesday morning, and it took me over two hours to get to work.
It is sad that someone died. It also caused an hour delay for thousands of morning commuters. Here is an article from Los Angeles Times. The motorcyclist crashed into a Caltrans attenuator truck that was designed to absorb crashes into Caltrans vehicles.
It is a new group, and all the members seem really young. I really liked the intro chords, which appears to be Fmaj7, Gmaj7, and Amaj7. On the third line, there is also a Dmaj7 followed by Dm7. It is hard to play on the guitar unless I cheat on some of the chords.
I am kind of losing interest in K-Pop as all the second-generation idol groups retire. However, I did hear that KARA may be making a comeback and performing at the 2022 MAMA Awards. I also want to point out that MAMA stands for Mnet Asian Music Awards, so 2022 MAMA Awards is really Mnet Asian Music Awards Awards. Sigh…
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While we are here, below is another newish song that I like from a fourth generation K-Pop girl group.
After Like – IVE
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The youngest member of NewJeans is fourteen. That seems awfully young to be involved in the cutthroat K-Pop industry. My niece is older than that.
After all the difficulty with trying to get my labs done at UCLA, the results came back very quickly. Here are results as compared to my lab results from Quest at the end of September:
Test
Quest (Sept 2022)
UCLA (Nov 2022)
Creatinine
1.46 mg/dL
1.49 mg/dL
EGFR
57 mL/min/1.73m^2
55 mL/min/1.73m^2
Urea Nitrogen (BUN)
34
30
Potassium
4.7 mmol/L
5.3 mmol/L
Phosphate
3.3 mg/dL
3.7 mg/dL
Calcium (two tests)
10.1 mg/dL or 10.9 mg/dL
10.1 mg/dL
PTH
207 pg/mL
Hemoglobin
17.6 g/dL
17.2 g/dL
Hematocrit
51.4%
52.6
UCLA appears not to have tested my PTH levels. My tacrolimus levels were 10.5, which I believe is slightly higher than the desired range. At my local nephrologist, the value was slightly low. Strange.
The values from the two labs are different but they show the same out-of-range items. Even though creatinine was high for both, the readings are not that different from past tests.
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Huh. I guess I did not publish the post above so I will just continue. I had the actual appointment on 11/9 and it took only ten minutes. The only change was reducing the Tacrolimus from 7 mg to 6 mg since the UCLA lab result was high. The transplant nephrologist also asked me to get my annual ultrasound, and to get both the bivalent vaccine booster and then Evusheld. I will have to contact my local nephrologist and have her set up appointments with local providers.
I got labs done this morning for an appointment with the UCLA transplant center next week. It has been about nine months since I spoke with them. During the last appointment, the transplant nephrologist did ask if I wanted to wait six-months or twelve-months for the next appointment, so I am still ok on timing.
It was my second visit to the UCLA lab site this week. I originally scheduled the lab appointment for Wednesday morning. However, they were unable to find the lab order for me, so I had to cancel. I have done this same process many times, and this was the first time there was a problem. I am also very sure that I cannot make a lab appointment if there is no lab order in the system.
Long story short, the transplant center called me Wednesday afternoon while I was at work. They entered the lab order into the system, and I was able to reschedule the lab appointment for this morning. The blood draw was only three tubes instead of the normal six to seven tubes. All good, I hope.
Flowers in front of the UCLA Hematology/Oncology building where I got my blood drawn this morning.
I received this strange email at 1:00 am this morning. It looks like a phishing email where you are asked to log into an account at a fake site, but the email was apparently from appleid@id.apple.com. Of course, email addresses can be spoofed, but he full email header looked legit. My email web portal even showed “This message is from a trusted sender” at the top. I typed out the included URL into a browser and it brought up the correct Apple ID website.
Obviously, I did not make a change to my Apple ID nor email address(es). My Apple ID does not match what was in the email either. I tried using my correct account credentials and the website brought up the right information. When I tried to use the listed email address, which is my personal email, Apple said no account exists. Very strange. Even if the email was faked, I do not understand the scam.
Since you must enter your first and last name when searching for an account, my guess is that someone created an Apple account and typed in my personal email in error. Or some tried to update their account with a new email and made a typo. I guess the only thing I can do is ignore the email and hope nothing bad happens. Very strange.
I have two different insulin prescriptions. The white pen is Toujeo, a long-lasting version that I inject in the morning. The other is Humalog, a fast-acting insulin that I inject before each meal. They are made by different companies and come in different delivery packages.
I have always liked the white pens better. It feels like a higher quality build and has a much more defined “clicks” when you inject the insulin. I am not sure if each drug company, in this case Sanofi‐Aventis and Eli Lilly, design and manufacture their own pens (not the insulin), or if they purchase them from a third party. In any case, I wish they would standardize the form factor. At least the pen needles are standardized so I do not have to buy two differnt needles.
Back to the quality issue, a second Humalog pen failed on me this week. In both cases, the dose selection wheel is either broken or disengaged so you cannot inject the remaining insulin left in the pen. Also in both cases, about one-quarter of the insulin originally in the pen must be discarded. Such a waste since insulin costs so much here in the US.
Remember I said that Edgepark rejected my order for more Libre 2 continuous glucose monitor (CGM) sensors? Well, they shipped me the refill order for seven sensors last week. In the box, there was a line for seven sensors at $222.74 each totaling $1,559.18. However, under “customer responsibility” it showed $0. This is confusing since I was told many times that I would need to pay a 20% co-pay since Medicare only paid 80%. I also went online to check my Medicare account, and this has not been billed. I paid $192.48 for the reader and seven sensors previously.
Even more confusing, Edgepark sent me a check for $91.94. There was no explanation other than calling it an “overpayment” refund. Overpayment on what? If I look at Edgepark’s website for my order history, each item ordered says “Co-pay/deductible applied” with no dollar details. This must be the worst customer website ever. There is almost zero information available on each order. I guess I will have to call them to figure out if the recent order is $0 for me, and why I was sent a refund check.
BTW, I have not opened any of the new sensor boxes since I am wary that Edgepark screwed up and will bill me $1,500+. I am still using the old finger-prick test strips for now.
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There is a menu option that says, “Balance & Payments.” If I click that, all I get is this page: no balance due but there is an error so I really do not know the answer.
A director is usually a department or division head in a business. The director supervises and leads a group of managers and employees in a particular area of an organization. For example, large companies may have a director of human resources, marketing, production and information technology.
For someone with a director title, I have very few direct reports. In fact, I only have two currently: a manager and an analyst. I do have another manager starting in about a week, but I was just informed that my analyst is quitting. The problem is that the analyst position is specialized, and we do not have any potential internal replacement candidates. I need to start the process of recruiting an external hire, but that will likely take a long time. In the meantime, the analyst is going to train me in doing their regular tasks so I can transfer the knowledge later. I have done most of the tasks before, but there is about 25% that I am unfamiliar with.
Oh, and I will also need to train the new manager to take over some of my existing responsibilities. The upcoming three to four months are going to be super busy and I may need to go into the office more often each week. 😭
Life with chronic diseases 