Quick follow up on the whole doctors bill/insurance rant. I found two key pieces of information in my insurance benefits book.

1. If you go to an in network hospital ER, ANY work done there by ANYONE, will be paid at the same rate as an in network provider, regardless of whether they are in your network or not.

2. In an emergency situation, you can go to ANY hospital ANYWHERE in the world, and it will be counted as in network.

So I called the insurance company, and they made the correction, and they are sending me the rest of the money they owe me. Had I not called, they would have just ripped me off. Fuck them. Anyway, at least now I don't have to go through the trouble of finding and buying alternate insurance to get the coverage I need. I just need to make sure the bills and benefits are all correct.
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Today is my first hockey game for about 50 days. Vacation, holidays, game cancellations have kept me away, for what has become my longest stretch without hockey since I started playing the sport back in 1997.

Since I have been exercising and eating right, I should be way better off. As of today, I am 29.6 pounds (which I will happily round up to 30 for conversational advantage) lighter than the last time I played, and I can now run a little over 5 miles in 30 minutes without even breaking a sweat.

The team has struggled since I last played. I my own mind, it is because I wasn't there. Realistically, I think there is just stiffer competition this season. Anyway, tonight's game I believe is against a lesser opponent, so it should be a good game to ease back in with. Anything less than a dominating victory is unacceptable.