Hugh's Worthless Blog

WUSTL Family HMO Premiums 2004-2019 It is open enrollment time at good old Washington University , and for the first time I have switched from the HMO/EPO choice we have been using forever to the HDHP (high deductible health plan) that the university is offering and obviously pushing. The university is even contributing $800 each year to our HSA for the family plan ($400 for single plans), and with the EPO premiums now about 3.5 times the HDHP premiums ($475.79 vs $136.89) we decided it was time to switch.  Since I have been with the university over 15 years and they now store all our old paystubs on line, it was easy for me to extract the data to see how the family HMO premiums have increased over time. Back in 2004, the HMO premiums were only $189.75 per month which was less than 5% of my gross salary. For 2019 the $475.79 represents a 150% increase whereas my university salary has only increased about 70% over those 15 years. This now represents  almost 7% of my sa...

A new semester started this Monday on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis , but along with the new faces within our building there was also new construction outside our building. A brand new sidewalk now connects the sidewalk between our building (Scott Rudolph Hall) and Physics (Crow/Compton) and the northern door of Brookings Hall. There is also now a large mulched area just west of the sidewalk, just east of Cupples I (Math), which I am hoping will eventually be filled with some lovely plants of some sort and maybe even some benches or statues (who knows?) This is the first time the northern door to North Brookings has been open since the week after commencement, as well as the stairway into the northeast corner of the quadrangle. Now I am just waiting for them to open the southern door near my office in Rudolph Hall. Since the undergraduates have returned I have now seen multiple students staring at their cell phones walk straight through the first set...

No Exit! Just try leaving our building! We are lucky that most of the students, faculty and staff at Washington University in St. Louis are very bright, motivated individuals. Otherwise they would never be able to navigate around the east end of campus this summer to get where they need to go. This summer the east end is truly a mess with both ends of Brookings Hall being closed off, as well as the area just north of the Brown School of Social Work as well of the area south of our building, Scott Rudolph Hall , which just a few weeks ago was still a lovely landscaped area. Just last week I heard a terrible noise outside my window and saw an earth moving construction vehicle ripping up the concrete sidewalks next to our building. Scene from Rudolph Hall, May 25, 2018 - One Week after Commencement So now we only have one fully available entrance/exit to our building, the door to the west leading to Compton and Crow ( Physics ) so we must plan our trips across campus carefu...

Next month our church, Samuel United Church of Christ in Clayton, is doing something incredible. We are converting a large quantity of corned beef, lamb stew, sides and desserts into a portion of an affordable home for a low income family in St. Louis. That is right, we are hosting our annual St. Patrick's Day lunch and dinner at our church to help fund a home through Habitat for Humanity here in St. Louis. All the meat and sides are being donated by the Kern Meat Company who is also preparing the delicious feast. Beverages and scrumptious homemade desserts are being provided by the members and friends of Samuel UCC, as well as the labor to serve everybody. That means 100% of the proceeds are going to Habitat to provide funding for the future home of a needy St. Louis family. Our church is not earning a dime, and neither is Kern Meat Company. Better yet, any tickets purchased in advance before March 1 will be matched 100% by a donor to increase the funding to Habitat eve...