This may be old news for people in East Plano, but if you have been driving to Allen or West Plano to get your HEB fix, Murphy is probably closer. I knew it was being built but thought it wasn't opening for a few months. It's packed with people wanting to see the new place. Hopefully it will slow down a little. On the other hand, if it stays packed, maybe HEB will open a store in East Plano.
Three times while walking back to the house after checking the mail, a large gray bird swooped down from behind and banged into my head. Not hard enough to hurt, but it definitely startled me. It tried several other times but I'm getting better at checking behind me when I'm in the yard. ChatGPT guessed at the Gray Hawk breed and that may be right. It also said it probably has a nest near by and that I should carry an umbrella when I check the mail rather than do anything to antagonize it. Has anyone experienced this? Any tricks or tips for dealing with it?
Edit: Based on replies and looking at picture, my best guess is that it's a Mississippi Kite. I see what looks like a large nest in the neighbor's tree, fairly close to the mailbox. I've never seen a bird in that tree and the swooping always comes from the direction of a tree across the street and that tree is where it returns after making a few passes. The tree across the street seem far enough away that I wouldn't be a threat, but maybe it uses that tree for some kind of over watch. I guess I'll wait until sunset to check the mail and hope the mower makes enough noise to keep it away when doing yard work.
I bought a house with solar in Plano Texas a couple of months ago. The previous owner had a contract with their grid provider that was scheduled to end in a few months. I agreed to take it over so I could have some time to evaluate my options rather than locking myself in with a provider for up to 2 years without knowing anything about my usage pattern.
Here and other places online I see references to an annual True Up bill, but I can't find any info on whether I could be subject to one. Is it specific to certain states or providers? Whenever I hear about it, the true up is in the companies favor. Is that normal or is it just a bias in the people that post about it?
Plumbers are coming in a few days to replace my old sewer lines. I was clearing out piles of old leaves left against the house by the previous owner and when I pulled on one pile with a rake, it started buzzing and then a bumble bee popped out. From the size of the pile and the amount of buzzing, I assume it's a large nest. I'd prefer not to kill them, but it's right in a spot where the plumbers will have to dig, so one way or another, it has to be gone by Wednesday.
Any recommendation for bee specialists or pest control people that can handle this as soon as Monday or Tuesday?
Edit: I used The Texas Association of Professional Bee Removers website recommend by Baldacchino and got a hold of Ryan Giesecke. He and a coworker got here around 10pm and spent about an hour an a half vacuuming up the bumble bees and moving the nest. They do it at night when the bees are all in the nest, As far as they could tell, only one bee got away. Seems like a success.
I only take 2 meds and both are cheap, so getting part D isn't for what I take now. It's to cover the risk that I suddenly need to take some cancer medicine that costs $10,000. Since all the plans have the same max out of pocket of around $2,000, I don't really care what tier a plan assigns to a drug or whether they would cover 80% or 40% of the cost. What I do care about is whether a drug is not covered at all. The monthly premiums for plans available to me range from $0 to about $160 with most being $20 to $100. I have no medical expertise, so just looking at a list of drugs doesn't really help. Is a $0 plan risky? Are the expensive plans worth the extra money. I think it come down to one of the Wellcare plans at $0 or AARP/UHC at about $115, simply because $0 is appealling and AARP/UHC is who I have for part G. Wellcare has the highest rated plans assuming those aren't like fake Amazon ratings.
Any thoughts or opinions would be helpful.
Edit: Thanks all, those were some fast responses. It seems to be a universal consensus to pick what's best today and deal with changes in the future.