Pick me up on your way down

when you're blue and all alone....

I can use all the advice I can get. That sounded like advice to me! You've guessed, haven't you? I dug up another old friend yesterday!

I actually posted on a musicians board and someone got me the lead I needed to get to a friend that was also a foster brother in my youth. I haven't seen him since his mom died. It's been about 15 years. More than twenty since we had a sit down visit.

His life has been hard and long. He lost a daughter to juvenile diabeties and his wife left him. Once we had talked a little I thought maybe I had cheered HIM up. How's that for cosmic backwards? The mom and the sis haven't seen him in even longer and I have them set up for bible study tonight. He will be there for dinner! Sis is in on it, mom is not. She and Dad took this kid in at 14 and he lived with us about a year I think.

He told me that, aside from teaching him guitar, Dad sold him his first car for twenty five dollars. It was a major beater but it ran! We had been on his mind. I told him I hate cooking for one, come on down! So I am doing scalloped potatoes and ham, the mom is bringing a salad and the sis is doing a dessert. I have the electric guitar up with a mic and the accoustic ready so that when she pulls in we can be playing the song she hates most in the world.

"House of the Rising Sun" was hot when I was a teen. My dad had a band so they had to learn it. Tonight's guest had a band with the neighbor boys and they had to learn it. I had to learn it, the uncle had to learn it, the cousin had to learn it. Mom heard that song screwed up everyway you could get it wrong before we all mastered it. She HATES it. But the guest is the one that made her craziest with it. He had an electric guitar and it was LOUD. You could hear it all over the property.

So when she pulls in I will send the BigE out to give her a hand and leave the door open. Then we will fire up! She will be all, like, "OH NO! not THAT song!" and then when she gets in there he will be. I so love this kind of fun!

Last night was pretty decent. The mate's eldest and the eldest grand, BigE, went over early and made all the stuff for burrietos, I just had to stir up my beans. We had a nice meal and they cleaned that up while I cleaned up the rest of the house a little. The BigE is staying for a day or two. The dogs were thrilled to see him!

The mate's eldest left after awhile but we got to keep the boy. He listened to me ramble all over the place. Poor kid! But it was nice to have someone to talk to. I made tonight's main dish and cleaned up the mess and half baked it. All we do tonight is add cheese and heat to bubbling.

More happy thoughts were nice. I wish they all stayed that way. But I have been dealing with the motorcycle insurance company and the Credit Card Insurance Company and the one I had the policy on the mate with. It has been bad. But I am learning. You have the choice to learn or not.

That insurance you pay every month on the credit cards that we learned only covers the primary card holder? If your balance is more than about one thousand dollars and your card holder dies from a condition he had before the card was issued, they limit what they will pay.

Now the doc says the mate died from a massive coronary. So the insurance company has not paid the card off yet. I got another bill for a minimum payment due for April.....I filed the paperwork in February.

Why is it not paid? They have to have a doctor's statement that the mate didn't have a heart problem. I ask why they need that? Even if he had gotten heart trouble it was not a pre existing condition, we have had that same card number since '99.

No. I am wrong. You know how every couple years they issue you a new card? That is a new beginning date for your health conditions.

If you have a card with an expiration date of 4/06 and you were diagnosed with cancer then when you get the new card that is good till '08 your cancer is a 'pre-existing condition now. They will only pay a small part of what you owe, your family is stuck with the rest. So there you go, team. Screwed again.

It took five calls to get the bike insurance correct. It is now in my name and on my bike. This stuff just makes you go over and over the same stuff again and again. Anything to not pay the insured one cent more than they absolutely are forced to. It's a scam from your first policy to your last. I am so tired of dealing with it I almost told them all to screw off.

I may, still. you never know. But for now, I am done with it till tomorrow and can go on and have fun messing up the mom and seeing an old friend tonight! See you later everyone!