I’d rather be a door than a doormat.
After all, who wants to be stepped on and left to display everyone else’s dirt?

A door, now…
A door can be opened to fresh ideas, sunny smiles, and even to a skinned knee that needs attention.
Or it can be firmly closed against those who would drag you down or cause you pain or suck the spirit from you.  Yes, a door is meant to be closed against the meany people.

Doors and doormats, though, don’t get to choose how to behave.  It’s preordained.
We, on the other hand, have free will.  Aristotle said so, though learned men have argued about that ever since.  Still… how we act in certain situations merits pondering.

  Doncha think so?

1960s Political Cartoon

Operable words:  “used to.”  Until recently — actually, until yesterday’s issue — our local paper was the one bright spot in the vast field of journalistic endeavor that makes itself available weekly, daily, even minute-by-minute via every intrusive vehicle the communication world has yet imagined.  But yesterday, though the newspaper arrived online, in my email, and in my post office mailbox, I could find very little to read with any sort of appreciation.

Take the news about the bond failure.  On the face of it: good news to me.  But as I read the reporter’s account and found that he mentioned “Ocean Beach School”… that was the end of my appreciation.  If a seasoned reporter cannot keep the names of our four schools straight, how accurate is the rest of his reporting???   And when one of the voters’ concerns was specifically the importance of community schools, just which community is the Ocean Beach School in, anyway?  I mean how hard is it to remember that it’s Ocean Park School, located in a community of that same name.  (Or did I miss yet another name change in our area?)

1960s Political Cartoon

And then that whole Cold War “Fallout Shelter” and “Dark Bunker” stuff in the “Peninsula Life” Section?  It’s probably just me, but I lived through all of that in the 1960s.  It was stressful then and I don’t find reliving it informative or useful or less stressful now.  We learned nothing from those years, as far as I can tell, except how to stir the pot and get the public upset enough to further support the war machine.  But that’s just me… an old lady wondering what progress, if any, we’ve made in my 86-year-long lifetime.

1960s Political Cartoon

Until now, I’ve always found the Observer a breath of fresh air.  It reminds me that there are many wonderful people doing remarkable things in our small corner of the world.  It even leads me to believe that we are not alone — that other rural areas (and even pockets of the metro areas) share many of our positive values and their residents work hard to keep focused on what they can do to help their neighbors and make things better right here at home.

Perhaps I’m just going through a bad patch and missed the good news.  I hope that’s the situation — or, worst case scenario, that the Observer, itself, was having a bad week.

Remembering Oscar Madison of “The Odd Couple” on Income Tax Day

Well, it used to be one of those dreaded yearly milestones — staying up late the night before, crossing every T and dotting every I and making sure to get your return in the mail and postmarked before midnight on the 15th of April.  No one asked for extensions in time in those days.  We didn’t want to draw attention to ourselves and risk being audited.

I don’t remember exactly when that entire “Income Tax Scenario” began to change.  Maybe about the time that H and R Block started in 1955.  At least that’s the first place I remember going to for help with all those forms and reports.  Or maybe the dreaded income tax just didn’t seem so onerous by the 1960s and ’70s when government agencies of one kind or another began to permeate our existence.

This year, with Nyel in the hospital for almost an entire month just before April 15th, we didn’t give any of it a thought.  We contacted our CPA and asked her to file for an extension and have slept easy right through last night.  On the other hand, there was an excise tax payment due to the State of Washington for the few books that I’ve sold at retail this year.  Nyel always takes care of that online — easy-peasy.

But yesterday, even the Help Line Lady at the State Revenue Office could NOT help us out.  It was a computer mess-up with repeated  lock-outs to our information.  Frustrating to the max.  Fortunately, the Help Line Lady ran into the same techie difficulties we did and filed for an extension on the spot — the downside being more hours with someone on the phone today trying to figure out what went wrong with the computer algorithm.  Nyel is truly a saint!

So… if you are in a similar circumstance due to the dreaded April 15th date, you have our greatest sympathy.  This too shall pass.

You may remember that on March 7, 2022 — exactly one month ago today — I wrote this in my Oysterville Daybook blog:
1:00 – 3:30 — Composed a letter to the Head of the Billing Department at OHSU outlining my frustration with their failure to submit our claim to Blue Cross.  (See yesterday’s blog: “It’s the principal of the thing.”)  I sent copies of said letter to the President of OHSU (at friend Steve’s suggestion) as well as to each of the eight Directors who sit on the OHSU Board, as listed on their website.  (They cleverly include no phone numbers.  But we’ve played that hurry-up-and-get-disconnected-game with OHSU before so no matter…)

With the original letter to the Head of Billing, I attached a $40 check to pay the “bill” that I did not owe so that I would not be turned over to small claims court.  I had no expectations of getting a response but, in fact, within a week or so I did hear from someone in their Customer Relations Department saying that she was “looking into the matter” and to expect a response as to her findings within thirty days.

What I received last week was a check from OHSU, made out to me,in the amount of $40 with this generic note attached:  We are refunding an overpayment on your account for medical services at OHS.  The overpayment occurred due to over collection of patient payments.  Should you have any questions, please call our customer service department at (503)494-8760.

“Overpayment” my ass!  That was NOT the issue.  But, never mind.  They finally submitted my claim to my secondary insurance company which was all I had expected them to do in the first place.  As I figure it, I’m only out the postage on the ten letters I sent and, by rights, they should reimburse that, too!! But I am SO done with them, I could care less.

And here endeth some sort of lesson — for whom, I’m not sure!