Paula Ticks

The presidential election is just around the corner. I would urge all Americans who will be voting to vote Republican. I am not going to try to justify this position with a lot of information specifically designed to persuade you. 90% of it would be Republican Party propaganda anyway. I merely appeal to your common sense and ask you to think about it long enough prior to the election to make a wise choice.

I realize this may be difficult for those of you who are "Democrat then, Democrat now, Democrat forever!" But please try to filter through the propaganda of your own party long enough to see that most of what either party tells you is propaganda, specifically designed to persuade the public into an uninformed decision.

Forget about personalities. It doesn't really matter who the Republican candidate is for the most part. The Republican/Democrat platforms are what you will be deciding on in the final analyses. This is where you say, "Oh, I didn't know that!"

The media, thinking we are all stupid to some degree, report the campaign news as if it all centered on the personalities of the candidates. The sad fact is, for the most part we are all stupid to a large degree because we do think it is about personalities. And we think that because that is how the media reports it. Huh? What was the middle one? There was no middle one, was there?

Hey! Let go of my tail!

Pharmacy Culture

I have been a pharmacy technician at a large chain drug store for about 14 months now. I like it except that sometimes we get butthead of the month about ten times a day. Days like that are best forgotten as soon as you can. Get it over and forget about it. Yeah!

Anyway, the day of a pharmacy technician can be pleasant or it can be hell. Our customers control this. If it is a day when all our nice customers are visiting us it will be a pleasant day. However, if it is a day of the same ten or twenty customers calling on the phone every ten minutes to see if doctor so and so has called in their prescription of Vicodin yet then it will be a day of hell on earth. Usually days like that are also accompanied by the five or ten customers you will have to explain to over and over many times that their insurance will not pay for their Valium today because they just got enough to kill an elephant 5 days ago and they should have plenty of Valium to last another 25 days. Offering to pay cash won't work either because no Pharmacist eager to keep their license will allow them to have it that early either. Also offering to pay cash instead of waiting for the insurance to pay is a sure sign of abuse, or they are selling the stuff, and most of our customers don't realize we suspect what they are up to.

I offer the following advice to all who want a smooth and friendly rapport with their pharmacy staff the next time they need a prescription filled.

1. Always have the information you know they are going to ask you for already written somewhere on the prescription where it does not interfere with what the doctor wrote, like on the back side.

2. If you can't read the doctor's writing we can't either. So don't get mad when we have to take extra time to call him to ask him what he wrote. PS: Never leave the doctor's office not knowing what he wrote.

3. Your insurance is your insurance. We don't know anything about your insurance. If we did it would be our insurance and not your insurance. In other words, we don't know why your copay is so high this month. Your pharmacy might accept your insurance but really all they know is how to make the claim for you, and not much else. It is in your best interest for you to know everything about your prescription coverage.

4. If your pharmacy has a drive thru, don't use it every time you visit. Get out, go inside and stretch your legs, chat with the pharmacy staff, if they are not too busy and forgive them if they are. You will get better service most of the time if you let them get to know you and you seem understanding of what they must be going through to get your prescriptions ready. Also remember, a pharmacy drive thru is not intended for speedy service. If you want something at a drive thru in just a few minutes, go to McDonalds. If you need your medicine right now, go inside and wait for it.

5. I can't speak for every pharmacy, but most of the time where I work we haven't been sitting on our asses until you showed up. In other words, I understand you need your medicine right away, but you aren't the only person I am filling prescriptions for at the moment. Even if the waiting area is empty, there is usually a queue or list of prescriptions to be filled on my computer screen behind the counter where you can't see.

6. If I tell you that the insurance I have on record for you has just refused to pay for your prescription because they say you are no longer covered, arguing with me about it is not going to get them to pay. However, providing me with the updated insurance information you got in the mail two months ago might get them to pay.

These six bits of pharmacy customer advice should enable you to better enjoy your future visits to the pharmacy. I know if every patron who comes to our pharmacy would adhere to them a lot more of my days there would be a lot less stressful.

What a Bloggy Idea!

Tonight I was actually "search spying" and the term blog scrolled up and I clicked on it to see what this was. I had seen the term before somewhere, but where, I don't remember. Anyway, after checking it out and not ever in my life done much in the way of taking a risk, I decided to start my own blog. I kind of liked the idea of letting the world know about me without the risk of letting the world know who I am exactly, though with the state of affairs in the computer hacking field I was probably discovered right away. It does not matter really, but if I can maintain the mystery of anonymity the better. I decided to name this blog "My Life as I Saw It" because I'm just a funny guy and like to make plays on words and their meanings.

I intend to express my thoughts, mostly of the humorous kind, on this page. I may get serious now and then but not very often. I hope the occasional interloper will enjoy and I would entreat anyone to post any comments they feel are appropriate to them. Life is short, too short in fact to be too serious too much of the time.

Enjoy