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Wasted 1/2 vacation day. Was supposed to go in today to get the first steps of a crown made for my implant. Dentist cancelled due to illness. Looks like some colder weather headed my way next week, and I assume some of that will hit at least Chris and John. Of course there's Greg north of me and our contributer in Wisconsin. High of 12° on Monday, with a low of 5°, might be a tad warmer along the lakeshore where I'm at..
Wasted 1/2 vacation day. Was supposed to go in today to get the first steps of a crown made for my implant. Dentist cancelled due to illness. Looks like some colder weather headed my way next week, and I assume some of that will hit at least Chris and John. Of course there's Greg north of me and our contributer in Wisconsin. High of 12° on Monday, with a low of 5°, might be a tad warmer along the lakeshore where I'm at..
Yeah we are getting cold for a couple days, but we should hit 50 on Friday; melt all this stuff.
So my fridge seems completely fixed. Set to defaults, it's at 40 and 7 degrees in the fridge and freezer. I realized that this switch has been gradually failing for quite some time, making it run warmer than set, and making the compressor false start a few times and then quit after a few seconds. Until it just flat out refused to go unless one cycled or banged the switch was when it got my attention fully.
The nice thing is appliances, under the housewife pleasing veneer, are often similar and parts go used for a long time over model series under the hood.
Wasted 1/2 vacation day. Was supposed to go in today to get the first steps of a crown made for my implant. Dentist cancelled due to illness. Looks like some colder weather headed my way next week, and I assume some of that will hit at least Chris and John. Of course there's Greg north of me and our contributer in Wisconsin. High of 12° on Monday, with a low of 5°, might be a tad warmer along the lakeshore where I'm at..
Dan - That really sucks! Sorry you're going to have to wait a whole month to get back in. My wife is in the middle of having a crown right now too, but they were able to save the natural tooth/root and not have to go the implant route. She was in last week to have the tooth shave down and get the impression for the crown. She goes back on the 3rd of February to have the crown put on..
Colder here too, overnight low of around 7° tonight, but supposed to get close to 50° on Friday.
My dentist owns his own Cerec milling unit/machine. They're the bomb-diggity. Requires no impression molds & waiting on a lab to create a crown, saving patient having to return to fit a crown. They use a CAD/CAM scope to capture your teeth, drop a block into the Cerec and w/in an hour you're done. BTW, for anyone interested a dental tooth/crown block costs ~($50-$150). A Cerec unit costs new ~$25K-$30K - there are used units available. One available on eBay for <$10K...
My dentist owns his own Cerec milling unit/machine.
My former dentist dentist used one of these, 6 axis milling machine. Asked if i wanted to see it, "sure", and watched it for a couple of minutes while it made my crown. takes about 15 minutes to make a crown. I had to drop him as they quit accepting my dental insurance. Really nice guy. gave me his cell and said if I have a dental emergency I could call at any hour, and he would meet me at the office.
My skin cracks terribly in winter months from dry air. Over the years I keep a room/house cold air humidifier running in the house. It's always done a very good job, but I've found this year is far drier & for a longer duration so I opted to supplement the cold air humidifier w/ an additional warm air mist humidifier so the Vicks humidifier arrived today & I'm giving it a test run. I bought some Vicks VapoSteam medicated liquid (Camphor + Eucalyptus) to add to the reservoir. So far so good - I like it.
My skin cracks terribly in winter months from dry air. Over the years I keep a room/house cold air humidifier running in the house. It's always done a very good job, but I've found this year is far drier & for a longer duration so I opted to supplement the cold air humidifier w/ an additional warm air mist humidifier so the Vicks humidifier arrived today & I'm giving it a test run. I bought some Vicks VapoSteam medicated liquid (Camphor + Eucalyptus) to add to the reservoir. So far so good - I like it.
Norm - I have noticed this Winter has been drier than usual too. I hope the new Vicks humidifier gives you some more relief. My last heating bill that I just paid today online said that the billing period this year was 7°F colder than the same period last year. That's a huge difference, and as a result the furnace has obviously been coming on more often and for longer periods of time. I've seen a very large increase in the build up of static electricity, and the aggravation of eczema on my face. Much, much drier than we're normally used to!
Dentists are the only one calling it cad/cam, and they are muy analoso about it. I tell my did, ya know, we just call them CNC machines in the industry....
I hope everyone has been having a great day. Me, not so much. I have been commenting on other's posts the last 4 or 5-days, but not much about what's been going on with me.
Early last week I decided what route I was going to go regarding signing up for Medicare. I got on the Social Security (SSA) website and the 1st step is to establish a SSA Account. There are 2 options/systems for the authentication of your identity to establish your SSA account. One is a system/website called Login.gov. I had already established a Login.gov account back in 2021to communicate with OPM in regard to my Federal Annuity. On the SSA website it stresses to use your existing Login.gov Account to Login to establish your SSA Account. I used my Login.gov Username/Password to get into the SSA Account generation software and the 1st thing it asked me to do was enter a bunch of PII which it would then bounce off of my Login.gov data to verify my identity. I am 100% sure all the data I entered was correct, but it failed the validation and locked me out for 24-hrs. I tried again 2-days later, triple checking the data I entered, and it failed again, locking me out again. I called SSA Monday, waiting 2-hours on hold, to speak to an SSA Agent, only to have them tell me the problem had to be a problem with the data on the Login.gov site. I called Login.gov and got a great Agent who walked me through a very rigorous authentication of my data including an upload of my Missouri Driver's License and the uploading of a selfie facial recognition video to check against the picture on my license. All my data on Login.gov validated and the Agent suggested I try the SSA site again to validate my data there. I tried SSA again, input my data again, and it failed again. Fuche!!!!
I mentioned earlier there are 2 potential ID validation systems that can be used to establish a SSA Account, one being the Login.gov, the other is called ID.me. I got on the ID.me site and rapidly established an account with them, and authenticated my PII and ID with their rigorous process that is very similar to Login.gov. I then got back on SSA trying to validate my ID using my new ID.me Login and credentials. Got into SSA ok and entered all my PII again, hit the validate button, and you guessed it, the SOB failed again. Double Fuche!!! So, now I've authenticated all my PII on two very trusted sites, Login.gov and ID.me, but when SSA pings their info about me against the data from either site it fails. The problem has to be on the SSA side. I called SSA back, this time only being on hold 1 and 1/2 hours, and explained the issue. The only thing they could tell me is that I would have to set-up an online appointment with a "Special Agent", the soonest of which is 31 January!!! AiYiYi, you just can't make this $hit up! What a colossal cluster F*#&!
Chris, I had a bunch of troubles w/ SSA on line when I was getting Medicare, etc. Finally I called and made a in person appt with the SSA office in Mt Pleasant. I was expecting a bunch of snotty/rude people but was pleasantly surprised- very helpful and friendly. Since then I don't even try online. If I need to talk to them I set up a appt. Face to face is so much better.
Chris, I had a bunch of troubles w/ SSA on line when I was getting Medicare, etc. Finally I called and made a in person appt with the SSA office in Mt Pleasant. I was expecting a bunch of snotty/rude people but was pleasantly surprised- very helpful and friendly. Since then I don't even try online. If I need to talk to them I set up a appt. Face to face is so much better.
Originally Posted by otto72
Very frustrating Chris. Hang in there.
Greg/Keith - Thanks for the encouragement. The appointment I have on the 31st is a phone appointment, I'm praying we can "Gitr Done"!
I've never had an issue w/ the ssa.gov site in the past ten years. I transitioned to the login.gov site November 11, 2024. I haven't had an issue, per se, w/ login.gov.; however, I'll note there is what appears to be a 'glitch' between the two sites. When you login to the login.gov site, it rolls up the other United States federal government sites you have access to and they are displayed on the login.gov site/page. You click on one of the Federal agencies & it takes you back to login.gov (which is what you initially logged in with) - that's fucked up. You click on the login.gov 'button' and it says you're already logged in to login.gov. So, effectively SNAFU!
I've never had an issue w/ the ssa.gov site in the past ten years. I transitioned to the login.gov site November 11, 2024. I haven't had an issue, per se, w/ login.gov.; however, I'll note there is what appears to be a 'glitch' between the two sites.
Interesting. I have been using Login.gov to connect with OPM in regard to my Federal Annuity since June, 2022 with nary a glitch. Obviously, my experience with the SSA site to date has been nothing short of a nightmare!
I finished watching Reacher (Amazon Prime) - pretty good.
I really enjoyed the movie with Tom Cruise but never checked out the series. The series is one I know my wife wouldn't be interested in, but I'm gonna find some time to at least check out a couple of episodes to determine if it's worth watching on my own. Thanks for the review!
Interesting. I have been using Login.gov to connect with OPM in regard to my Federal Annuity since June, 2022 with nary a glitch. Obviously, my experience with the SSA site to date has been nothing short of a nightmare!
Unlike yourself but fortunate for me, I already had a SSA account when I (they=SSA) transitioned to login.gov. Therefore, my transition (11/2024) was seamless. I will say it's peculiar during the transition they changed from using my USERNAME to using an E-MAIL address.
Unlike yourself but fortunate for me, I already had a SSA account when I (they=SSA) transitioned to login.gov. Therefore, my transition (11/2024) was seamless. I will say it's peculiar during the transition they changed from using my USERNAME to using an E-MAIL address.
When I retired in May, 2018 OPM was still using a site that required a USERNAME designated by the User, which is how I started. The June, 2022 date was when OPM transitioned to using Login.gov and at least for me it was seamless with no issues.
Roger that. This is a SSA issue IMO. Like OPM, if you already had an OPM account ‘prior’ to transition to login.gov the transition was seamless. Because you didn’t have a SSA account they (SSA) screwed you over, I guess. It should have been seamless for you to create the SSA account having already identified yourself via login.gov
Roger that. This is a SSA issue IMO. Like OPM, if you already had an OPM account ‘prior’ to transition to login.gov the transition was seamless. Because you didn’t have a SSA account they (SSA) screwed you over, I guess. It should have been seamless for you to create the SSA account having already identified yourself via login.gov
I finished watching Reacher (Amazon Prime) - pretty good.
I was annoyed at season 2. It was ok. Season 1 was so much better. Now they think they've got the hard vibe down, they're toning it down. The babe in the last one kept her clothes on; it was so contrived. If you're going to be page to stage with Reacher, and you need to be, as the Tom Cruise movies sucked, a few things happen in a Reacher story. A lot of fights and gunfights happen, so people get beat up and die badly. Reacher usually bangs the local hot law enforcement girl or some other hot girl. There is literally a line in Killing Floor "Roscoe, you have the....third....best *** in the universe." Now, that line is there for a reason. Did we see Roscoe's ***? No.
It's just stupid. Hollywood has to **** up every story they get because they think they can do it better than the guy that thought it up. There are very few examples of the screenplay being better than the novel. Most are far worse. The only one that comes to mind, and it's a tie with two different ways of doing it, is Kubrick's and King's The Shining. Kubrick modified King's work, and both works are pillars of greatness.
Thunder & Lightning is off to the proofers. Still fighting on how to save money mailing that thing.
