MACA - Take Three

In November '24 and again on July 4 this year, I wrote about the apparent lack of competence that has developed in this country, and titled the first one MACA: Make America Competent Again, concluding that before we can make America great again, we first need to get her back to basic competence. This week is making me think it's going to be a long road...

What a difference a day makes

Tuesday was a day of surprises, mostly pleasant. I won't go into details but suffice to say things moved along quite nicely. Yesterday started out ok, but then started falling apart.

Wednesday is the regular garbage/recycling day for our neighborhood, so I hauled out the green garbage bin and the blue recycling bin shortly after 7 a.m. When I was leaving for cardiac rehab around 9:30, I noticed the garbage bin had been emptied so I pulled it back behind the fence at the back of the front yard. When I returned from rehab around 11:30 a.m., the recycling bin was still waiting at the curb for emptying.

That bin was still there when I headed out around 1:00 p.m. to take a bill to the post office and another one to my energy provider's office where I dropped it off. (As usual, the receipt was in my email when I got back home; some places still do things right.) After lunch at a deli, I got a few groceries at the store, then headed home. When I arrived around 2:30 p.m. I noticed the bin had been moved. After putting up the cold items (it was hot and muggy: it is July and I am in Texas on the coast.), I went to put up the recycling bin and found it had only been half emptied. Guess they were running late for some reason and just gave it a lick and a promise; they will have to try harder two weeks from now on the next pickup date.

At the grocery store, they were out of the house brand organic unsweetened almond milk so I had to substitute a different brand, for almost twice the price. They seemed to be low on a number of items in the refrigerated section; maybe the truck was late. I asked a young woman who was loading carts for pickup orders to check; she walked into the cooler but could find no one in there.

When I was walking into the store, I saw a bag of ice in a wall-size cooler across the room from me jump off the shelf and land on the floor, propping open the door part way. I found a group of store employees at a check stand and told them what I saw; one of them went to take care of it right away. I'm guessing the bags of ice were not carefully loaded in, or a customer disturbed the stack when taking one out.

At least an employee jumped on it when I told them. Suppose I hadn't noticed, or just walked right by and didn't say anything, which I could have easily done. I should say that this particular grocer does pay well and treats employees right, and it shows. The occasional out-of-stock issues are likely supply chain problems beyond the local store's control. But that's just moving the problem up the chain.

Is It Just Me?

Am I just adding on some years, and getting a little crotchety? I don't think so. What's wrong with wanting things done properly, in a reasonable time? Last week it seemed like many drivers were going around town with their heads up... not alert for problems but having their heads in another part of their anatomy. Driving too slow, driving too fast, rolling around 4-way-stop corners, taking two lanes of the road, not sure which lane they actually want, making a left turn with around a 30 degree angle instead of closer to 90 degrees, ignoring emergency vehicles with flashing lights and so on.

One driver yesterday found out the hard way about driving too fast. There's a street in an older part of town that makes a curve and at the next light changes names. The speed limit also changes at that intersection. Before it the limit is 30 mph; after it the limit is 35. I drive that street five days a week, so I have become aware of the limit, and the fact the city sometimes puts motorcycle police in place on a side street.

I was in the right hand lane going 30 or maybe 31 and someone in a small SUV came blazing by in the left lane going at least 35, and as we passed that corner, the motorcycle cop pulled out with red and blue lights on. They pulled over in front of me into the parking lot of the store where I was headed. Sorry for them; but just past the light five or six blocks down, there is a big speed limit sign clearly marked 30 mph. When I first saw the motorcycle teams, I double checked the next time I was on the road.

I'm careful, but with the speed change up ahead, it's almost a speed trap, because most 4-lane streets in the city have 35 mph limits. I suppose the difference is that in between the major streets with lights, that street is all residential, with commercial activity only around the lighted intersections.

Speed limits also change as you move along the various roads in the city, some logically, some not so logically. I think some of the changes relate to how the city has grown: as you move from the older, more established parts of town and enter the newer sections that used to be countryside, the speed limits tend to increase, from 30 in most residential areas, to 35 on feeder roads or around commercial activity, to 40 or 45 as you reach areas that were country when I arrived here 53 years ago. And of course there are higher speed limits on freeways and controlled access highways around the city.

That said, many drivers seem to take speed limits as suggestions, not requirements. It's not unusual to find the flow of traffic moving 3 to 5 mph above the marked limits, with some individuals doing well over that. Except in certain areas, like I noted above, or for really outrageous speed there is not much enforcement. The only thing that seems to slow traffic down some is construction, and thanks to several bond issues there is always construction going on somewhere in the city limits.

The Bill, Please

In previous articles, I've noted how I was having problems getting payments for bills sent by mail getting delivered on time. I solved that issue for some out-of-state companies by creating a new, small bank account for those bills and transferring enough money to pay the bills each month via phone with a debit card. That seems to be working fine, except...

This month, I've had two companies who are usually good about billing via email fail to send a bill. I called one to complain, and they basically pled ignorance after checking to make sure they had my correct email address. Believe me, I have two email accounts, and I check each one several times a day. And I check all mail that goes into the junk folder: I discovered years ago that the provider's junk algorithm changes from day to day, letting some things go through for a while, then sending them to junk all of a sudden. So it's highly unlikely I will miss something properly sent.

Back to the missing bills: because it is that time of month, I decided to login to the various accounts, and found the bills there, just never sent to me. So they will get paid on time. Maybe it's to the point where if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself... with the proviso: if you can.

And the topper came yesterday afternoon: an email from the hospital corporation that runs the place where I get cardiac rehab. It's simple: states the service and the payment amount. Then it states: "Pay online quickly and securely below" with a "PAY NOW" button under that. Then it states: "Thank you for your prompt attention. The link to make your payment will expire in 72 hours. For questions regarding this message, financial assistance or paying online, please call" and included a phone number.

Since I initially didn't want to pay online, I tried calling the number. The first time, there was no ring, just dead silence. I hung up and called again, and got a recording "The number (a string of numbers, nothing near the one I called) is not available. Leave a message" followed by "The mailbox is full" and the line went dead.

Out of curiosity, I decided to click the “PAY NOW” button. That took me to a page that said “Payment Link Is Expired. Please call the number in the email you received.” This was about three hours after the email came in, certainly less than 72 hours. That explains why that mailbox is full. Not surprising that it's full: no one trying to pay a bill was able to get through and left messages until it filled up.

I sent a reply email detailing all the above and adding some suggestions. So far I haven't heard back from them. I expect it will be interesting. Because they have struggled to set up a billing system for their new location, I have only received a couple of bills. At first, it was covered by my insurance, except for a small copay. Working with a local rep (who is difficult to reach by phone), I decided to make a one-time payment covering all 36 sessions. That really threw their accounting system into a spin. It seems the system requires a new account number each month. Only when you consider that a hospital's customers (patients) rarely stay more than a month does that make any kind of sense. They finally figured out how to break up the one-time payment and I ended up getting a rebate of around $12. (I don't remember the exact amount.)

It does require modifications for the system to include patients, like cardiac rehab, who stay on for months, and years. I'm not sure they have figured it out yet. But they're trying to attach a digital payment process to it anyway. I can only anticipate more fun in the days ahead.

No Delivery

Another issue I have been having is getting timely delivery of packages from various companies when I order supplements and other health related items. Of the various shippers they use, FedEx stands out as the only one without at least a few problems, and the USPS as the one with the most head-scratcher delivery issues.

I have already detailed several of those issues. It has been getting better this year, but this week added a new puzzler. On July 8, I placed two separate orders about 10 minutes apart to the same company (involving discount coupons); both orders were shipped on the next day, July 9 and I received tracking information. Yesterday, July 16, one of the orders arrived in my mailbox. Today, the tracking of the other order, placed the same day and shipped the same day as the first order, states the package shipped from Utah on the 10th is in Houston, which is approximately 150 miles from here, and has been since the 15th. Estimated date of delivery is July 19th. Although there is an intermediary delivery service, final delivery is via USPS. Why it should take four days to travel 150 miles is beyond me, especially since it made it from Utah to Texas in five days.

Last minute update: I was working on this article late yesterday evening and must have drifted off. When I finally regained consciousness, it was near my bedtime, so I saved what I had finished and began preparations for bed.

As of noon today, no response yet from the hospital corporation, except an email with health suggestions. Sigh.