Sunday, January 22, 2012

After This, It's Time To Close The Left Door For A While

There's a saying in the trucking industry - if you want to save money, you need to keep the left door closed. It means every time you open that left door, you're likely spending money - going to get a snack, stopping for a meal, going shopping, etc.

Well it seems our left door has been open a little too long this last visit home. We've been here for a month and the dollars are pouring out of our pocket. We've done a lot of our normal dining out, plenty of Dunkin' Donuts visits because they just built one near our house, and little shopping trips here and there that have added up - mostly our normal stuff. But nothing has cost more than our medical.

Ed went to the dentist first. He had x-rays and a new crown put in. They clipped him for $1,300.00.

Then I went, got a cleaning, got x-rays and a crown, and my bill was $2,309.00.

I was referred to a periodontist, which I wrote about in
this post. The office visit was $108.00 and the recommended treatment plan was $15,520.00. But, I'm paying cash, so she's going to give it to me for a cool $8,000.00.

Today I went to Urgent Care for a cough I've been having for the last three weeks. At first it started out as just a dry, hacking type of cough. Then this week, it was a little phlegmy. Then I couldn't sleep through the night because the coughing kept me awake. Ed, as usual, didn't hear a thing. He was snoring like a baby.

Urgent care gave me a breathing treatment, took x-rays and wrote me a prescription for a five-day antibiotic. I have bronchitis. That all came to $196.00. They didn't give me anything for the cough, the x-ray showed I didn't have pneumonia (joy!), and she just told me to take the antibiotic and to keep taking my asthma inhalers. Gee thanks, doc. You mean do something I've been doing for twenty-nine years now? Okay, great.

See what happens when we're home with lots of extra time on our hands?? We won't get back to work until February because now we're on our way to Florida to attend something called "Appreciation Days" that our company hosts for all their owner-operators. We don't have a load, so we'll be deadheading from Arizona to get there in time. We're meeting
our friends, so in addition to attending the company event together, we'll be dining out with them and if time permits also going to the Jacksonville Boat Show since the boys really want to go. I have a feeling Ed will find a way to squeeze that in.

So although the left door is technically "closed" during the drive there, it won't really be closed until we get back to work in February. The first week's pay is going straight to paying the dentist, and after that, we'll do two or three more loads to take care of the periodontist.

Or, we might be looking into a
special kind of vacation - one like our very wise friends have taken. That's definitely going to be part of our dinner conversation while we're in Florida.

Time to pick their brains!


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
1 YEAR AGO:
I Think I’ve Seen This Person On Facebook
2 YEARS AGO: Eating Crud Is So Much Tastier Than Eating Crow
3 YEARS AGO: Chihuly In The Trees
4 YEARS AGO: Is It Really SO Hard??
5 YEARS AGO: Snowball In Hell
6 YEARS AGO: The Southern Family Tree

3 comments:

ELH said...

enjoy your trip,at least you're south and out of the ice and snow...now are you still planning on going to the mid-america truck show in kentucky in march??

The Daily Rant said...

ELH: We really enjoying going to the truck show in March, so we might have to work that in somehow. Ed usually likes to look at new products, etc. and I just mainly like to people watch. We'll see what happens....in the 8 years we've been together, I think we've only missed it once.

Unknown said...

I stumbled upon your blog and have enjoyed looking around! Love your words and pics.