I stand by my earlier complaint while also acknowledging what sleeperblues said. It is indeed a sad fact that for many people, when money gets tight, medical bills get pushed to the back of the line and frequently don't get paid at all. Unfortunately, those doctors still have a practice to run and employees they must pay, regardless of whether someone has paid their bill or not. I suppose I pine for "the old days" myself. For the majority of my adult life, we lived paycheck to paycheck. We could budget to pay you in installments but we just didn't have a lump sum to give you upfront to pay in advance. Hubby and I have managed, over the past 10 years, to work our way out of that lower class (paycheck to paycheck) predicament into a solidly middle class status. Before that, it was (largely) an honor system. We promised we would pay what we could, when we could, until the balance was paid; the doctors took us at our word AND we fulfilled our obligation. Unfortunately, too many have gamed the system for too long and now, an increasing number of doctors and facilities require full upfront payment. Luckily for me, I've established a rapport with my regular physicians and dentists and they KNOW I'm "good for it" and they allow me to get needed services and pay out over time if I need to. I worry for my children though. It has taken years of seeing the same practitioners before we reached a comfortable spot that I could get what I need and they know I won't shaft them. What will my kids do in 15 years if they are just starting out and can't afford 1000 upfront for, say a root canal and crown?

Ditto. TV ads on occasion but no radio. But then the stations I listen to would not necessarily be attracting those who have an interest in this site.

I sometimes have trouble remember whether things really happened or if I just dreamed them. I've always had extremely vivid dreams, whose memories persisted with me long after I have woken up. When I was young (before my mid 20s), I used to go into trances in which I seemed to be partially dreaming and partially awake. These could happen when I seemed to be fully awake and could be quite disorienting. In my trances, I would feel that I had lost contact with the physical world to some extent and sometimes had the sensation of floating. I could also see different rooms from the one I was physically in. I think this happened partly because I am hypoglycemic and have passed out during some of the more extreme episodes of this. I have been able to control is (since my mid 20s) with diet, but more recently I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, and that may also have played an effect. I also go immediately into a dream-like trance under certain strobe lights, which have a hypnotic effect on me. The strobe lights have to flash at a very specific rate, but when they do, I immediately go under and enter a dream state. Afterwards, I do not remember where I am.

We did something similar when our dog was a puppy. We had a fenced yard but the deck was several steps from the yard and at first he was too small to go down the steps. We bought sod from Home Depot. Then the weather started to get rainy so he built a little lean to on the deck so the puppy didn’t get wet. We kept the sod on the deck until spring. we picked up the poop and replaced the sod a couple of times