Do you ever make a choice that you know is not really the smartest thing, yet for some reason that means something to you, you decide to do it anyway?

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(While I am telling you what I think I am about to do I will also show you some neat (to me) pieces of whimsical metal art that are on my porch.) I've had this kite balancer for several years. I love it, just because it is a kite.

The company I work for is too big for it's britches. It pays me decent, so I'll not complain. It has sustained me being singly out on my own for about 25 years now. I'm proof positive that one can fly by the seat of their pants and still get by in this world. Yes.... I'm bragging ! ha ha Typing that made me laugh! A few times I barely got by, but I DID get by and have lived long enough to tell you about it.

So.... like many other big companies, mine offers insurance plans and I have always paid for that. A number of years back, they decided that they needed to dally with the requirements and we had to fill out some health questions and let a "nurse?" take our vitals and blah blah blah and well... ok.... THEN, a few years after that, they decided that now... they need to stick you with a needle and take your blood out of your body and do whatever tests they wanted and call it a Health Fair or the such.

Now I don't like needles but more than that, I thought it was wrong that they wanted to be that personally invasive. I have a doctor, I do all those tests a couple times a year already and I had a real issue with it, Here is the kicker though....

They said it was voluntary and we didn't have to do it, however, they then added penalties on our insurance premiums if we didn't. It started slow for smokers and eventually worked it's way to people who did not have twig bodies. The part I really loved was when their claim was that we would get "discounts" on our premiums if we proved we didn't smoke and if we were not over their weight limit and if we WERE over their weight limit, if we lost 10% a year, we would still get the discount (until we didn't lose 10 more percent any of the following years, at which time it would go back up.)

Are you with me ? Of course I didn't like it, because I was still miffed they wanted my blood. Not only that, there never really WAS a discount persay, because our premiums NEVER went down from where they had always been, but if you were overweight or smoked, your premium WENT UP. Can you imagine how many conversations went on that said the smoking and fat thing weren't penalties, but getting them was a discount? It was Gaslighting for idiots only.... at it's best of course, but that was how it went. They kept denying it was a penalty.

😏 Whatever !

Most of the time I felt like I couldn't afford the penalties to stand my ground on not having to give my blood to the company. Now though, I can and although I have an appointment tomorrow to give it up, I am thinking about cancelling the appointment right after I finish this post.

I would like to retire in a year. A total miracle would have to happen to make that a sane idea, but I'm going to keep watching for one ha ha ! I know it sounds like I am changing the subject, but I'm not, you see, if I don't do this voluntary blood donation tomorrow, nothing will change the rest of this year, but starting in January I will have to pay more for my insurance. If I do retire though, it will only be 6 or 7 months and I think I don't care about that. The warm fuzzies that I would get right now, today, just for refusing to go along would make me smile every time I think about it ! (which would be frequently)

Although I know it would not be considered smart to throw some money away, I am still pretty convinced that it will still make me very happy.

Yes.... I am nuts sometimes, but I just NEED to do this one time just because I can!

So that is where I am right now, on this Tuesday evening, just after work. I had a two hour call that made my last break start less than a half hour before I was supposed to get off of work and when I logged back on the phones I got another call that held me till 20 minutes after I was supposed to be off for the day. It sure does sound like a good day to be a renegade.... .doesn't it??

It's ok to tell me how dumb this is in a comment or encourage me in a bad way. I promise I will laugh at it all.

Hope you are doing something defiant in your life and enjoying it.

Love you ! Mean it !

Jacey

Somebody said my cover photo gif does not show on the outside of my post. I am putting it down here to see if it shows inside the post and just not as a cover photo/gif. This is a test !