SMART Technology Is Driving Grandma CRAZY!

Well maybe I should say..."CRAZIER!"

I finally got my estrogen problem straightened out to my satisfaction and was feeling pretty good about that snafu when my printer and USB camera cable decided to go on the fritz at almost the same time. That meant I had no way of downloading my latest photos to print. I have become quite the amateur photographer loving to save precious memories of my grandkids and their pets.

I bought a nice Nikon last year and have really enjoyed it but found out the USB cable it comes with is a piece of crap. I looked it up and read reviews and probably would not have bought the camera if I knew I was going to have trouble with the cable. I read several reviews about it and they were not good, most of them were not as kind as I'm trying to be. :).

When the cable first went out I ignored it because my Kodak printer allowed me to put the memory card in it and download photos that way and I did...until the cartridge carrier jammed and I broke it trying to get it unjammed. I know they cost as much to repair as a new one so I went looking for  a new printer at a large electronic chain store yesterday. Found out Kodak went out of business which made me kind of sad. When I was a kid that was the only brand of camera anyone I knew owned. Guess new SMART technology and copy-catters took their toll on them.

I told the clerk I mostly printed photos and he suggested an HP Photosmart that seemed to have all the functions I needed and a few I didn't. It did have a slot for a memory card I assumed worked like my Kodak had...put the photos directly into my picture file so I could edit or crop them before I printed them.

 I was so wrong! After I brought it home and installed it, I found that memory card slot would only allow you to send them to Snapfish online. No...I do not want to publish my grandkids photos online!

I was back at the electronics store when they opened this morning to find out if maybe I just couldn't figure it out, or to trade it in for a printer that does what I want it to do. Low and behold...I find out they don't make anything but "wireless" printers anymore that don't allow you to use a memory card to download photos to your computer. They want you to keep everything on the memory card and edit on that tiny little screen and print directly from it...and I suppose if you lose that over loaded tiny memory card you must be sheet out of luck..not to mention how much time you would have to spend looking though that tiny screen for a  photo you wanted to print.. I had always erased the memory card after downloading to my computer from it. Smart Progress? Not according to this old grandma!

So then the clerk talks me into buying a memory card reader I can plug directly into my computer and download from the card thataway. So I bought it, came home and plugged it in and it did download to a file somewhere in the bowels of this SMART Windows 8 software I hate that came on this SMART computer and I have yet to find the file...it darn sure didn't go into my picture file where I expected it to. The one I know how to use and email from.

Then the kids wonder why I won't get a SMART phone and I tell them it's because I use a flippin phone to talk on...not to download SMART Apps dumb Grandma's can't figure out..

Stay tuned for my next crisis.

 

Insurance Companies Now Decide How Much Estrogen I Need?

I learn more and more each day just how the insurance companies are going to make Obamacare work and I'm not liking it.

 I'm a senior citizen on limited income and have been on a Medicare supplement for over 10 years and was happy with it. The co-pays were reasonable and so were generic prescriptions....but, they took a huge jump this year when Obamacare went into effect. I didn't mind paying a little more for specialists visits or diagnostic tests but I do mind what I found out this morning.

The mail order pharmacy my doctor recommended called with a recorded message saying my estrogen refill was denied by my insurance company for the second time my doctor sent it in and an explanation was being mailed. Well I didn't want to wait for the postman so I called my Medicare supplement I've been on ever since I went on Medicare.

I was prescribed estrogen almost 40 years ago by a little Jewish lady doctor who told me to stay on a low dose for good and don't let any "man" doctor tell me different...my bones and body would thank me for it in my old age. She looked pretty darn good physically and mentally alert in her 70's so I obeyed her. Every time I changed doctors I told them the story and they prescribed it for me.

The last bone scan I had they told me I had the bones of a 25 year old...healthy. I silently thanked the old lady doctor. My "sexual" organs have remained in good working shape and I "occasionally" thanked the lady doctor for that satisfying side effect.

When my Mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in her early 80's, the doctor asked if she had ever been on estrogen replacement and she hadn't so they put her on it...a little too late. The lab lady who does my yearly mammograms told me to let her know if I ever went off the estrogen because it would make a big change in my breast tissue. I didn't like that idea.

Now my insurance company tells me my generic estrogen tablets were raised to a "tier 4" drug the first of the year and even if I can get an exemption from my doctor to continue the estrogen it will cost me $95 dollars a month... rather than the six dollars I paid for a three month supply.

Say what? Who the hell decided old women don't need their estrogen?

MY INSURANCE PROVIDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!