Good morning! Welcome to #weekendcoffeeshare, hosted by Natalie of Natalie the Explorer, please come on in and have a drink and a chat.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you I have been super distracted this week because I have been under severe emotional distress. On Monday night, I received another financial statement from the dental clinic where I got my major oral surgery in 2021. It was the second statement I received, the one being in May. It showed I owed almost $15,000.

After dropping my mom off at the airport and coming home to a quiet house, I called the insurance. I had authorization from my health insurance that they would cover at least most of the procedure. It was a pretty major procedure that included putting me in deep sedation for several hours. I knew I needed to pay something but $15,000 was not that sum and thinking of this number made me hyperventilation.

When my call to the insurance company finally connected to an agent, I told him my problem and asked if he would talk to the clinic for me. He put me on hold while he called the clinic but suddenly, the hold music stopped and a dial tone appeared. Before I knew it, someone from the clinic answered. That little sneaky agent! Did he press a wrong button or did he do it on purpose?

The receptionist transfered me to the office manager. I explained my situation and she insisted I called my insurance instead. “That was what I did,” I said and look where that has gotten me. In the end, she agreed to call the insurance agency because I told her I didn’t want to play the middle person since I knew nothing about this.

After 2 days, she finally called me back and told me she finally reached a higher-level person at the insurance to explain to her what the heck was going on with my claim. In the end, the $15,000 bill became a $2,600 bill.

In that moment, all my jitters disappeared and I blew out a breath of relief. I swear, if I can sue for emotional distress, I would. It’s been 3 years since the surgery, I’ve never received a bill. I haven’t moved nor has my phone number changed. They could’ve contacted me at anytime demanding payment but instead, they’ve chosen to send me this bill with an astronomical amount, for what, to cause me to have a panic attack? To not able to eat or sleep for over a month?

If we were having coffee, I would tell you I harvested the first tomato from the garden yesterday – Friday. It’s a yellow cherry variety called “Sunsugar”. It was one of the favorite varieties I grew last year, although it’s tasting a little bit different this year. Perhaps, it’s not ripe enough?

Finally, if we were having coffee, I would show you the progress on the 2 new raised beds in the front garden.

Isn’t it amazing how fast they grow? The bed in the shade was installed on the 1st of June and I didn’t plant until a week later. It’s now the end of June and things are filling in nicely.

The other raised bed was installed in April. I put 6 sweet potato vines on the left side of the bed, 4 peppers in the middle and three napa cabbages on the right. Except for the napa cabbages, which were planted in late April, everything was planted in the middle of May up to a few weeks ago. It’s surprising how the sun and heat affect plants in different ways because while it made these plants grow fast, the sun and heat also managed to killed one of the trees in the same garden.

I appreciate you stopping by. Until next we chat. 🙂