I'll just entertain myself

Now I have Snausages ads everywhere I go on the computer.

Do they look appetizing?

Not to me.

Drinking green tea and trying to enjoy the stinking football game when I know I should be hard at work on my book titled Mining the Dirt For Stars.

I clear my history every night and scan my computer. It seems to remove some things so I don't get ads and other such trash I don't want.

Takes about 10 minutes, but I think it is worth it.

("Probably not" alter ego says.....)

A reason I'm not so diligent, there are going to be ads no matter what. I ignore them mostly anyway.

"Are you Doc Holiday?"

(Cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough) "Yes."

Speaking of ads, here is info on the Joe Namath and JJ Walker ads:

Before changing its name to Benefytt Technologies, the company sold short-term health insurance policies under the name Health Insurance Innovations. Robin suggests that its biggest innovation was to charge $500 a month to unsuspecting people for a health insurance policy that failed to cover their basic, let alone their catastrophic, medical needs.

Health Insurance Innovations (Benefytt Technologies) was mired in lawsuits. It was also caught in a sea of state and FTC actions for violating its obligations and forced to pay out tens of millions to settle.

In 2020, it paid a $1.5 million fine for violating Washington state laws 50,000 times.

Much like the Medicare Advantage plans that the company now pushes, it is always morphing, making it impossible to oversee adequately, let alone to be kept in check and penalized appropriately. As Robin explains, it’s “regulatory Whac-a-Mole.”

What are you getting when you sign up for one of Benefytt Technologies’ Medicare Advantage plans? I can just about guarantee you that it’s not what you think. I can also guarantee that CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) does not have the resources to ensure that these Medicare Advantage plans are doing right by people with Medicare. It also lacks the tools to punish them appropriately and protect you if it catches them violating their contractual obligations.
https://justcareusa.org/medicare-advantage-tune-out-the-joe-namath-ads/?link_id=8&can_id=855d6133b6e7cfa658d46dbe9b0d5678&source=email-drug-prices-omicron-and-foods-that-wreak-havoc-on-your-memory&email_referrer=email_1387650&email_subject=heres-how-president-biden-just-made-collecting-benefits-easier&fbclid=IwAR04m9yOekO9g8yrvztB9wjTvc8LdCEP8cSYN4lB8Odpv8v8CUI3vIIMvoY

Going to a funeral service tomorrow. No it's not mine. He was a good man and it's a shame he didn't live longer. He was active and happy up until he caught the virus.

Home from the service. Just a breather. We will meet again at the veteran's cemetery for another service. I don't mind the extra service because we were going there anyway to decorate my wife's parents' gravesite.

Oh, that was your neighbour friend you recently spoke about?

Same person. He got the gun salute, taps, and the widow received a flag. During the service in front of me there was a kid of about fifteen going to pieces. His anguish made my eyes a bit misty. My wife and I got a hamburger on the way home.

You know, edgar, you are entertaining a lot more than just yourself. I thank you for sharing a bit of your life with us.

Yeah... agree. What kind of burger?

Does Hold the pickles Hold the lettuce Special orders don't upset us mean anything?

Thanks Roger.

My dog was kinda miffed that he didn't see me all day. But a taste of the burger meat assuaged his anger a bit.

I've never been happy with the funeral services I've attended. It's not my lack of religion that's speaking out. I understand that people in general want to be told that such and such is with "the Lord," or whatever and at such a moment in their lives wouldn't challenge that. But consider the one today. The minister pauses the monitor that has been flipping photos for an hour, then turns on a recording of a poorly performed hymn that drones on forever. He sits in a chair off to the side while it plays through. Then the moment of prayer. After which he lavishly praises the deceased for a long winded time. Next he plays a recording of Amazing Grace performed by the same incompetent vocalist and the vocalist improvises long in between the verses whatever, making the song ten times longer than the Judy Collins record. While he sits to the side in a chair. Then the obligatory sermon, in which he brings in as many references to death as he has researched over a thirty year career. Then another long bit of music, mostly this time slightly up tempo somewhat western music mostly instrumental, but still unbearable crap. Then the final prayer.

I'm going to make up a play list of songs for my funeral, to be recordings by artists I love.

First the opening rifts of a song from the Band's Big Pink Album. Can't recall the song title but have the album to search it out. It's heavy on organ. Next, Joan Baez doing Dylan's I Shall be Released. Followed by Dylan himself from the album Highway 61 Revisited, singing Tombstone Blues.

It's always a shame when people don't take the time and care to do a lovely job, whatever it might be. Your neighbour deserved something a lot better than that.

I've decided not to have any service at all and, in fact, I'm going to write my own obituary... something that will make my friends and family laugh. Maybe I will have climbed Mt. Everest and sailed to the South Pacific, was known for my wonderful singing voice, etc, etc.

I read an obituary in the paper written by the deceased a few years ago that made me laugh my head off. It really showcased this gentleman and his sense of humour. I would have gone to his "celebration" had I been in town and have always regretted not going and learning more about him. He sounded like a real character. I didn't even know him and I haven't forgotten that obituary or the gent. Imagine how people who knew him remember him.

I did attend one funeral in which I had the only unhappy face. He knew he was going to die and he instructed his wife and minister that people celebrate the transition sending him to heaven. They told many humerous stories about him. Somebody told that they had never heard a negative word from the man. I had tears in my eyes looking in their smiling faces. That was long ago. Likely I could have managed it better today.

Nothing wrong with having tears in your eyes, edgar.