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Big confession to make you feel better: I’ve had to eat out daily since October because I’ve moved into a place and the existing roommates ended up being absolute slobs in the kitchen and no amount of prodding and pleading has worked. Also they leave the fridge door open sometimes until I close it. It’s very expensive to have a kitchen and not use it.
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Jun 12, 2023 20:28
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| # ? May 11, 2024 21:48 |
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Not sure this is the right thread, but gently caress it. Since I don't trust google results, anyone have a tested/confirmed correct method for disputing ridiculous hospital bills? Our son gets croup so occasionally we have to take his rear end to the ER in the middle of the night. The last visit was easily twice the cost of previous visits, but the process was identical. The bill has 1 line for "ER" for a huge sum of money, and a 2nd line for the steroid, and that's really it. After insurance we're looking at $1,500 for... idk what, a quick once-over for vitals, checking blood oxygen, and a steroid. We can afford it, but no two bills have been the same with this one being pretty nuts, and the pre-insurance number has always been different so tracking down the issue is tough. To be sure, this is all in network. Or at least it should be I know getting a lined out, itemized bill is step 1 here, and then calling and bitching about it, but... I dunno about the rest here.
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Jun 21, 2023 13:26
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Start by asking for itemized bills for all the er visits. Things may miraculously change. Also you might save substantial money if you can do urgent care.
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Jun 21, 2023 15:25
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I'm sorry, the whole "bitching about the bill and haggling over it" part sucks. I saw someone with an elderly parent who just hired someone to fight this poo poo for them, but that sort of skill set doesn't seem to be something you can just find on Yelp quite yet. When I got balance billed I told them to gently caress right off I would never pay, and told the surgeon if he sent me to collections over it i would sue him. But that seems extreme for 1.5k. (Balance billing is illegal in Colorado, but I guess if your insurance is out of state they can't do anything about it? This surgeon had set up an entire separate practice for people who fell into his trap at the ER).
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Jun 21, 2023 15:43
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Baddog posted:(Balance billing is illegal in Colorado, but I guess if your insurance is out of state they can't do anything about it? This surgeon had set up an entire separate practice for people who fell into his trap at the ER). loving pathologist at a surgery center was setup like this. All in network and planned. He isn't in network with any insurance though and is just the preferred provider for the surgery center. His whole phone tree and scripts are setup to trick people into paying. It's insane the number of people they definitely trick into paying hundreds or thousands of dollars in illegal bills. gently caress the system don't pay poo poo until everything is itemized and you've talked through it with you insurance.
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Jun 21, 2023 16:45
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Yeah urgent care unfortunately is not generally an option in the middle of the night. And yeah, for $1,500 this is inconvenience territory, not tear out all the stops territory. But considering we probably have 2-3 more years of this, we're going to have to figure out something here because I'd assume this won't be the last time we get the random number generator treatment.
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Jun 21, 2023 19:40
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H110Hawk posted:Start by asking for itemized bills for all the er visits. Things may miraculously change. The last urgent care I went to switched to ER billing after ‘closing.’ Same facility but a significant upcharge for having anything bad happen after 9pm.
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Jun 21, 2023 19:49
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H110Hawk posted:loving pathologist at a surgery center was setup like this. All in network and planned. He isn't in network with any insurance though and is just the preferred provider for the surgery center. His whole phone tree and scripts are setup to trick people into paying. It's insane the number of people they definitely trick into paying hundreds or thousands of dollars in illegal bills. All so shady. This guy was actually in network at that hospital for planned surgeries, but had a separate "practice" for when he got called in for emergencies on people with out of state insurance. Seems so unethical.
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Jun 21, 2023 20:00
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This is dumb I have to ask this, but it’s a dumb country. Is there some primer or know your patient rights/insurance stuff, or is that all too broad because each state is different and so is each insurance plan? I probably should have gone to the hospital when I had really bad chest pain a month ago, but I wouldn’t be lying if I said insurance trickery make me think twice about going, and I wasn’t sure if I could go in and say “rule out a heart attack so I can go home and task aspirin for thirty cents a pill and not $80”
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Jun 21, 2023 21:16
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buglord posted:This is dumb I have to ask this, but it’s a dumb country. Is there some primer or know your patient rights/insurance stuff, or is that all too broad because each state is different and so is each insurance plan? I probably should have gone to the hospital when I had really bad chest pain a month ago, but I wouldn’t be lying if I said insurance trickery make me think twice about going, and I wasn’t sure if I could go in and say “rule out a heart attack so I can go home and task aspirin for thirty cents a pill and not $80” I used to work in the healthcare industry, in a couple different sections. In short, the answer to your question is “lol”.
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Jun 21, 2023 21:36
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buglord posted:This is dumb I have to ask this, but it’s a dumb country. Is there some primer or know your patient rights/insurance stuff, or is that all too broad because each state is different and so is each insurance plan? I probably should have gone to the hospital when I had really bad chest pain a month ago, but I wouldn’t be lying if I said insurance trickery make me think twice about going, and I wasn’t sure if I could go in and say “rule out a heart attack so I can go home and task aspirin for thirty cents a pill and not $80” "Chest pain" is a pretty magical way to have your ER visit treated appropriately by your insurance. But "lol" is the answer. Depending on the state you live in there will be certain minimum rights afforded to you. Regardless of whether the doctors (who are beyond reproach - I tried to file a complaint about the pathologist above and no one gave a poo poo), your insurance (hope you have free time), or both follow the law. The truth is everyone really wants your insurance to pay. Remember that. Don't pay poo poo until everyone has exhausted their will to listen to you discuss things with them. Take meticulous notes (company, name, date, reference number, topic, and any firm promises made) whenever you are dealing with bills. They only hold as much power over you as you fear them.
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Jun 21, 2023 21:43
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Please go get your chest pain checked out tho. I've been there too, and shrugged it off until I could get an appointment with my PCP. But drat, it was kinda dumb, and if we keep doing that it will catch us one of these days. Getting old sucks, everything aches and it's hard to tell "is this a regular slept on it wrong ache or an oh gently caress kind of a thing" Dealing with the bill is painful, but not potentially deadly. I am curious if someone has gone to urgent care for chest pain, did they just get sent right on to the ER.
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Jun 21, 2023 22:10
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Baddog posted:Please go get your chest pain checked out tho. I've been there too, and shrugged it off until I could get an appointment with my PCP. Thanks for the info all.
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Jun 21, 2023 22:38
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Baddog posted:Please go get your chest pain checked out tho. I've been there too, and shrugged it off until I could get an appointment with my PCP. But drat, it was kinda dumb, and if we keep doing that it will catch us one of these days. Getting old sucks, everything aches and it's hard to tell "is this a regular slept on it wrong ache or an oh gently caress kind of a thing" Yeah you only get one you. Go to the doctor. My dad did this. Shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, chest pain. Walked in the front door of the closest urgent care and they went  and asked why the hell he didn't call 911. He left in an ambulance after THEY called 911 or whatever they do there. You knew he was in bad shape because he had a coworker drive him there.
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Jun 21, 2023 23:05
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I have “good” insurance, but a trip to the ER with covid-related heart pain still cost me north of $1k  Verdict was “yeah it just happens sometimes, we dunno, nothing to be done”
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Jun 22, 2023 01:05
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i like nice words
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You're vax injured you have three months to live make your time.
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Jun 22, 2023 01:19
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I went to urgent care once with chest pain. They hooked me up to an EKG and I was fine. Ended up going to ER later that night because it felt like there was a piece of rebar going through my chest. Turns out it was just a real bad cold.
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Jun 22, 2023 12:09
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I went to the ER with chest pain once when I was like 19. Turns out I had just pulled a muscle in my chest, probably from a family trip a week or so earlier where my Mom made me lift and carry her suitcase she jammed like 45 lbs of poo poo into (and then is surprised she can't move it ooh I need someone young and strong to help me). I still occasionally make fun of her for the time she "put her son in the hospital" because she can't stop packing like an insane person.
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Jun 22, 2023 15:43
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mrmcd posted:I went to the ER with chest pain once when I was like 19. Turns out I had just pulled a muscle in my chest, probably from a family trip a week or so earlier where my Mom made me lift and carry her suitcase she jammed like 45 lbs of poo poo into (and then is surprised she can't move it ooh I need someone young and strong to help me). I still occasionally make fun of her for the time she "put her son in the hospital" because she can't stop packing like an insane person. I went to the ED with chest pain when I was 23.Turns out I had bruised my sternum and intercostal muscles when I fell funny at judo, but only started feeling things weren't quite right a day or so after. Felt like a right twit at that reveal, heh. Feeling thankful about my countries socialised medicine, coz this insurance talk sounds like a nightmare.
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Jun 22, 2023 18:47
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mrmcd posted:I went to the ER with chest pain once when I was like 19. Turns out I had just pulled a muscle in my chest, probably from a family trip a week or so earlier where my Mom made me lift and carry her suitcase she jammed like 45 lbs of poo poo into (and then is surprised she can't move it ooh I need someone young and strong to help me). I still occasionally make fun of her for the time she "put her son in the hospital" because she can't stop packing like an insane person. She should be making fun of you if lifting 45 lbs put you in the hospital at age 19.
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Jun 22, 2023 19:39
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At 19 you're like oh poo poo this is the worst pain I've ever felt oh gently caress me. And then at 50 you're shrugging off a massive heart attack cus it kinda just feels like that one time and that ended up being nothing. Just need to lay down for a sec.
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Jun 22, 2023 21:20
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Hi friends I'm back it has been quite a while. In the time during my absence I paid off my mortgage (with some help from my brother) and have been able to max out my 401k and Roth IRA every year. I'm currently waiting on an appraisal on a new house so we can close on the sale and should be selling my current place after I move for roughly what the new place costs. I'll probably end up with like a 10-15k balance on the mortgage for the new house after everything is said and done. I decided to buy first and sell my current house after because I didn't want to put in offers contingent on the sale of my house, and it felt like less stress to just move and then do all the cleanup and house sale fixes after the place was empty. It'll probably end up costing me a bit more overall since I gotta pay on the full mortgage balance for a couple months but should be fine in the end, I think it's worth it to not do showings while I live here. I hope ya'all've been achieving your fiscal dreams while I've been off doing other things.
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Jun 24, 2023 01:12
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There's no entrepreneur thread anymore, but maybe this goes here- Cancer lays bare human frailty, and the small business owner is no exception. Watching this dude go from stoked hustling to build his biz, squabbling with competitors and collaborators, and grinding out some profit. First diagnosis/chemo knocked him down, but he still keep plugged into work. He "beat it" and went right back to grinding. Now cancer's back, and he's still just grinding away. I guess I don't know what else I expect, quitting would probably just be depressing for him. I guess we do what we know, dying or not. Maybe he'll leave more to his family this way? Hopefully he's taking a little more time to be with his people and go skydiving or whatever.
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Jul 27, 2023 20:51
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I have an older family member who came to the US illegally back in the 90s. She worked under the table for many years and has in her possession about $100K+ in cash. She was always afraid of opening a bank account because of her immigration status, so she hoarded the cash she received. How on earth do we get that cash into a bank account? We want to legitimize this but we also don't want her to get into trouble and risk being deported.
Weaponized Autism fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Aug 3, 2023 |
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Aug 3, 2023 19:03
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Weaponized Autism posted:I have an older family member who came to the US illegally back in the 90s. She worked under the table for many years and has in her possession about $100K+ in cash. She was always afraid of opening a bank account because of her immigration status, so she hoarded the cash she received. How on earth do we get that cash into a bank account? We want to legitimize this but we also don't want her to get into trouble and risk being deported. She should worry about civil forfeiture. The only way to legitimize it is to pay her taxes on it unfortunately. Is she now a green card holder or?
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Aug 3, 2023 19:41
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H110Hawk posted:She should worry about civil forfeiture. The only way to legitimize it is to pay her taxes on it unfortunately. Is she now a green card holder or? That does not necessarily mean reporting it all in the current year, though. It may be better (and more correct) to file back taxes for years it was earned, assuming she hasn't been filing all along. If that's the plan, speak with a tax professional for guidance. Of course if she has been filing her taxes and reporting it, then that aspect is a non issue.
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Aug 4, 2023 00:34
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Just in case it’s crossing her mind, structuring deposits is itself a felony and you will get caught, so be sure she doesn’t try that
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Aug 4, 2023 10:38
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H110Hawk posted:She should worry about civil forfeiture. The only way to legitimize it is to pay her taxes on it unfortunately. Is she now a green card holder or? No GC, no work visa. What's made this more complicated is that apparently she has filed taxes before (as a dependent), but never showed income. Basically, she came to the US and never filed for an immigration status that allowed her to obtain a work visa. She worked for cash for many years, and the people she worked for understood her status, and they were worried as well for hiring someone without work authorization. Her husband is in the same situation, except in his case, he DID file his tax returns properly (and the company he works for just doesn't care of the legal ramifications for whatever reason). They both have ITINs, just not work visas of any kind. Once the husband started working, they both started filing for taxes initially as dependents of another family member, and then eventually I think they were just filing by themselves or jointly. And throughout all their filings, she never once mentioned her income. Going the route of paying back taxes seems like the way to go, but it just makes it more complicated because of her immigration status. I feel like I need to talk to both an immigration attorney AND a tax professional on this one. I think if she had never filed, she'd be in a better situation, but she has filed and purposefully neglected to mention her income which the IRS can, and probably would, penalize her for. Anne Whateley posted:Just in case it’s crossing her mind, structuring deposits is itself a felony and you will get caught, so be sure she doesn’t try that Yeah I need to tell them about this, it's something they were considering.
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Aug 4, 2023 12:44
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Weaponized Autism posted:No GC, no work visa. What's made this more complicated is that apparently she has filed taxes before (as a dependent), but never showed income. Basically, she came to the US and never filed for an immigration status that allowed her to obtain a work visa. She worked for cash for many years, and the people she worked for understood her status, and they were worried as well for hiring someone without work authorization. Her husband is in the same situation, except in his case, he DID file his tax returns properly (and the company he works for just doesn't care of the legal ramifications for whatever reason). They both have ITINs, just not work visas of any kind. Once the husband started working, they both started filing for taxes initially as dependents of another family member, and then eventually I think they were just filing by themselves or jointly. And throughout all their filings, she never once mentioned her income. She needs an immigration attorney. Honestly a bank might not be a great idea for her unfortunately. Structuring is step 1 in the state stealing all your money with 0 recourse. Somehow "the people vs $100k cash" is totally legal even though when called for evidence the cash never replies. It's like going to court in China.
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Aug 4, 2023 16:13
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Weaponized Autism posted:I feel like I need to talk to both an immigration attorney AND a tax professional on this one. You absolutely do.
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Aug 4, 2023 20:56
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I do not want to pay for a career coach but god drat do I not know what to do next. I'm officially out of the "early career" stage and I'm looking at the possible trajectories and I can't tell what sucks least. Someone tell me what to do!!! (posted without any context, information about my job, or a general desire to do anything other than complain at 8 AM when I'm already late for work)
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Aug 9, 2023 13:11
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I went through the same thing a few years ago and my university’s alumni relations department was surprisingly helpful. Even though I was nearly a decade out of school and miles away, one of the directors got on a ~30 min call with me and we talked through the job I was leaving and options for what could be next. My current career is a pretty obvious pivot in retrospect, but I might not have thought of it without that conversation. There’s also a career path thread here in BFC if you want to give goons more details.
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Aug 9, 2023 14:15
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Doc Fission posted:I do not want to pay for a career coach but god drat do I not know what to do next. I'm officially out of the "early career" stage and I'm looking at the possible trajectories and I can't tell what sucks least. Someone tell me what to do!!! (posted without any context, information about my job, or a general desire to do anything other than complain at 8 AM when I'm already late for work) I have friends who have paid career coaches to get themselves out of ruts in their career. They found a huge amount of value in it. The problem is finding the good ones. Because for $4,000 I can do 4 zoom coaching sessions for you on your career trajectory. 
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Aug 9, 2023 15:01
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My.mom and sister just lost both their houses in the maui fire. They are all safe. What the gently caress can I even do for them? Sorry for downer posting, I just need a hug today.
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Aug 9, 2023 20:38
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moana posted:My.mom and sister just lost both their houses in the maui fire. They are all safe. What the gently caress can I even do for them? Sorry for downer posting, I just need a hug today. Goddamn that sucks Moana. Glad they are safe. Looks like an absolutely devastating poo poo show over there right now. I hope the government gets on top of organizing help and supplies over there. Hopefully hotels will take people in. Tourists should be cancelling for the next few weeks, at a minimum.
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Aug 9, 2023 21:12
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moana posted:My.mom and sister just lost both their houses in the maui fire. They are all safe. What the gently caress can I even do for them? Sorry for downer posting, I just need a hug today. *virtual hug* I’m really sorry to hear that Moana. You’re always a really nice and decent human on these forums, so I have to assume your family is too. Which, this would be awful even if they weren’t good people, but I guess the point is…it’s awful to feel helpless. I’m sure if there was more that could be done, you’d do it. But in the meantime I hope they’re at least physically healthy. That’s something at least. Hopefully they’ll be taken care of soon.
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Aug 9, 2023 21:48
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Yeah, I just learned my sister couldn't get the cats. I'm breaking down over here a little. Living in california, I always thought it would be my house that set on fire 
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Aug 9, 2023 22:32
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moana posted:Yeah, I just learned my sister couldn't get the cats. I'm breaking down over here a little. Living in california, I always thought it would be my house that set on fire Oof. I'm very sorry to hear that. These are all normal emotions to tragedy and it's OK to have them.
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Aug 9, 2023 23:07
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Yeah, I'm just bouncing back and forth between helplessness, grief, and seething anger at climate change deniers.
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Aug 9, 2023 23:11
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So sorry Moana. Terrible. Looks like Southwest and Hawaiian are offering pretty much free inter-island flights (19 bucks) if your family would be better off getting off Maui for now. I dunno, but Oahu has to have more resources/avail housing? Maybe?
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Aug 9, 2023 23:47
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