Almost 7 in the dark, mudder mania, rare win

Last night I had a brief meeting after work regarding an upcoming race since I am more or less the club contact for the event.  By the time I got home it was pretty much dark.

Well at some point I got it in my head I wanted to try a max muscle up attempt.  The swelling in my thumb has receded thanks to the steroids so I figured it was my window of opportunity.

Oh, speaking of my thumb. I had my follow up appointment at the clinic yesterday.  The PA said that both my blood work and X-ray came back fine with none of the typical indicators of gout or any other problem for that matter.  I told her that I had another bad swelling episode on Thanksgiving but at this point things had calmed back down, probably thanks to the steroids.

Despite the negative test results, the PA still is not certain that the issue is not gout.  Her plan of treatment is for me to come in next week for yet another blood draw by mumbling Justin Bieber and then a follow up a week after that to compare results and to see if any flare ups have reoccurred since the roid treatment.  So basically the outcome at this point is still, “Who knows?”

So anyway back to muscle ups.  Even though it was dark and getting quite chilly by Florida standards I wanted to try a set.  I knew I needed lighting if I wanted the attempt to be on video so I lugged out the two CFL lanterns that we use at many of our races for early morning lighting.  I used bungee cords to hang one lamp over each pull up support.

My Crossfit Clitheroe hoody was not ideal clothing for muscle ups.  Several times my thumbs got stuck in the front pocket during the transition.  I managed to set a new PR, grinding out 6 reps and narrowly missing on a 7th.

I would like to work on being able to do my reps more in a rapid fire succession.  Right now I feel like I need to pause at the top of each one to clear my head and make sure I do what I need to at the bottom of the movement.  I suppose that will come with more practice.  I have tried a few times to bang them out but I wind up messing up my angle/pull/kip timing most of the time.

If you would like to see my first nighttime muscle ups, click here.

So my first Tough Mudder is only a couple days away.  To be honest I have been trying to not think about it too much.  There is only one aspect of the event I am really dreading, the cold water obstacles.  I am fine with getting muddy, crawling through narrow pipes, climbing walls, traveling 12 miles by foot, carrying heavy objects, running through flames and wires with 10,000 volts.  But I totally will hate repeatedly having to jump into ice cold water.  Some of the obstacles literally have ice added to the H2O.

I suppose like anything else, my first exposure will be the worst.  I was glad to see that the predicted morning temperatures for Saturday have risen a few degrees to make being wet slightly less miserable. It will definitely be one of those races that sticks with you forever.

So last week I outlined my billing issues with my dentist.  In a nutshell, for several years I have been getting larger than expected out of pocket bills and have been paying them resentfully.  Well I dug in and did some more investigation after getting yet another unexpectedly high “PLEASE PAY THIS AMOUNT” statement from the dentist after my latest visit.

What I discovered was there was a discrepancy between what the dentist and the insurance company said I should be charged.  My benefit statement from my insurance indicated the dentist was supposed to be honoring a reduced rate for their services and I was then responsible for 20% of that reduced amount.  The dentist was billing me at full rate which is why my out of pocket charges were soaring.

When I contacted the dentist office about this they claimed they were not “in network” with my insurer and that was the reason for the difference.  Well doing some simple math revealed that was not the reason.

I called up Cigna and explained my issue.  The rep said that although my dentist is not an “in network” office they do participate in some other plan that requires them to honor the reduced rate.  I found this info very interesting.

I called up the dentist office and relayed this to them.  The had no idea what I was talking about.   I told them they should talk to Cigna directly, which they said they would.

To be honest I figured I would get some bullshit answer back from the dentist which would require me to escalate my crusade against the additional billing. Instead I got a message back yesterday that I was indeed correct.  The dentist should have been billing me at a reduced rate.  Imagine that.  They said they would send out a revised bill once they adjust the numbers.

Now if I wanted to be a real prick, I could point out that not only did their f up apply to this most recent visit but all of our visits for the last several years.  I bet we have over paid  somewhere in the hundreds of dollars over that time period.  I’ll leave it alone though, trying to dig through all those old records would be a mess for all parties involved.  I’ll be satisfied with winning this battle and that future visits to the office will be more reasonable with out of pocket expenditures.

Tonight the Eagles play the Seahawks on NFL network.  Unless Ali feels strongly otherwise, I don’t think I am going to even bother watching the game.  I really don’t care enough at this point to jump through the hoops to see the team if they aren’t on broadcast television.