We seem to spend an increasing proportion of our time on what can only be described as trivial pursuits. Here are some examples from my recent experience.
The drooping shower head. I know this is really trivial, but it is annoying to say the least when the shower head will not stand up and deliver its hot water onto you when taking a shower. Our shower head is attached to a flexible chrome tube that inserts into a groove in a plastic holder. The problem is that the shower head is too heavy and the screws on either side of the plastic holder are not tight enough to keep the head horizontal. The shower head droops down and the water then sprays onto the back of the shower. On several occasions I took the shower head holder apart and tightened the screws, but it is a fiddly business and soon enough the screws come loose again and the head droops. Also, the flexible chrome tube has come apart at just the point where the tube bends where it is attached to the plastic holder and this makes the drooping worse. I came up with what I think is a simple but elegant solution. I wound silver foil tape around the chrome tube where it is coming apart. This not only strengthens the tube, but by making it bulky or thick enough the tape then acts as a support for the shower head and prevents it drooping. Case solved.
The Yahoo id fiasco. Have you ever had this problem, you sign into your e-mail as you have done thousands of times before, and up comes a page that says “you are cohenjack”, and when you correct it to what is your id “cohen.jack” up comes another page that tells you you must change your password. So you do this and insert a new password (after receiving an e-mail from Yahoo) and then immediately the same page pops up saying “you are cohenjack.” I did this again and then gave up and wrote to the Yahoo customer service. They wrote back, each time a different person, and offered various inanities, but did not solve the problem. They suggested that I delete all the caches and cookies in the browser (Chrome) and I did this, but it did not work. So after they gave up on me and told me they could not help me I was on my own. But, I noticed two things, first that the new password worked on my smart phone and my laptop, but not on my desk top computer. Also, where the caches and cookies were deleted there was also an option to delete all passwords. I knew this would cause me to have to reinsert every remembered password, but I did it. I deleted all passwords in the browser and lo and behold it worked (and I did this without consulting my son). Case solved.
The Form 17 problem. Every time the doctor orders a procedure he gives you a permission slip (hofnaya), in my latest case for a bone density scan, but it could be an X-ray or CAT scan. If the test needs to be done at a facility outside the Sick Fund (Kupat Holim) that you belong to, you have to get the permission of the Sick Fund (in my case Maccabi). This is given as the infamous Form 17 (tofes shvaesray). But, in order to get this form you must first make an appointment at the required external facility. I asked the clerk at the information desk in Maccabi what number I should call to get the appointment and I requested that I be able to have the scan done in Netanya at Laniado Hospital, where I had gone before. She gave me a tel number. I tried this number several times and it was not a working number. So I went back to the information desk and another clerk told me that I had been given the wrong area code and she corrected it and this was the general number for Assuta Hospital. I told her I wanted to go to Laniado, so she looked up that number and it was entirely different. I called that number and after some confusion they told me that they do not do bone scans. So I called Assuta and made an appointment and I wrote the details on the hofnaya and went to the office, but it was closed again (for the second time). The information desk clerk then told me I could fax or e-mail the hofnaya to them and they would send the Form 17 back to me. So I e-mailed a scan of the hofnaya, and they sent the Form 17 back to me by e-mail the next day. That’s progress. Case solved (PS. In the paper today it says that patients in future will be able to get the Form 17 via their smart phone with an app).
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