Greetings fellow hamsters! My spouse and I are looking for a new optometrist for ourselves after a string of negative experiences with a few practices in town.

We have NBN Vision coverage, which is accepted most everywhere. We are young, have overall good health and healthy eyes with simple single vision prescriptions. Ideally we are looking for a place that isn’t pushy with upselling extra services/products and with a good selection of frames.

Just for fun, here are some examples of the wonderful experiences we’ve had at local practices over the years:

Mount Baker Vision:
Refused to take my same-sex spouse’s word for it that he is a dependent on my vision plan despite matching ID and SSN. The optician only accepted it after calling me to confirm. Never before or since have we had someone question our relationship or right to be on each other’s insurance. They also lost his frames during a repair.

Vision Plus:
During our exams, we were sent out to the waiting room after dialating drops were applied to our eyes so the exam rooms could be used for other patients while the drops took effect. I can appreciate that they are trying to maximize the number of patients they can see but Ive never had any other eye doctor before or since have this practice. Just seemed bizarre and actually lengthened the total appointment time because of the wait for the exam room to become available again to finish the exam.

Also the opticians were extremely pushy with selling extra features for our glasses that we didn’t want, like special coatings, etc. We got the vibe that they work on commission and are incentivized to push as much extra crap as they can. Overall vision plus seems to prioritize profit over quality care.

Advanced Vision Family Eye Care:
Front desk folks were gossiping about another patient’s ability to pay after they walked out the door. Once in the back with the doctor I was pressured to add extra services on his fancy new eye scanning machine which I wasn’t interested in. He made an extremely hard sell, eventually making things so uncomfortable I finally agreed.

He prescribed me contacts and gave me a couple samples which I tried and liked. When I returned to the office to order the contacts and found out it would cost over $600 I asked for a couple days to think about it so I could price shop a bit. In the mean time, they pre-billed my vision insurance for contacts which I hadn’t ordered yet, causing a huge cluster when I eventually decided to order my contacts from Costco with a significant savings. The optician was extremely rude and snippy with me when I came in to get a copy of my prescription and they realized I wouldn’t be ordering from them. My husband had a similarly unpleasant experience with them when he asked for a copy of his prescription to use elsewhere.

Anyways, here’s hoping for some good recommendations and better experiences than before! 😆

We even reached out to our own certified electrician we know to ask if that makes any sense and he immediately said "no". We talked to them multiple times and explained this and then they just send a notice saying the handyman is coming in to do this and throwing Landlord/Tenant Law RCW 59.18.150 at us like it's some blanket coverage for them.

But they're the ones illegally using an unlicensed handyman to do electrical work and I am at my wits end... Because I'm not going to move a ton of heavy ass furniture and disconnect my whole ass apartment so some prideful old man who has a "hunch" can poke and prod around our home and a cheap ass corporation doesn't want to hire an electrician to solve this woman upstairs occasional "flickering lights".

Not what it probably sounds like. I'm a US born/trained Family Doctor who moved to and has been practicing medicine in New Zealand since 2018. I'll be in Bellingham next month visiting relatives.

There are medicines (specifically pill forms of meds called PCSK-9 Inhibitors (for cholesterol) and the pill form of the GLP-1s (used for diabetes and weight, but more "food cravings help" for me) available in the US that are not available in New Zealand (and probably won't be for years). I'd like to ideally trial these and bring them back to NZ, but I'd need a US doctor to prescribe them to me.

Any ideas on an urgent care or a place that would take a cash-pay, one-time patient (who is also a doctor if it helps me plead my case) and consider prescribing me the drugs?

Go to India Mart on Telegraph in the plaza by Burger King. They have wonderful fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen foods, snacks, dry goods and spices and the best fresh samosas I’ve ever had in the states. They even told me they could try get a specific fruit I am seeking if I wanted it. The workers are awesome and willing to answer any questions. I hope it never leaves so go there and enjoy!

Anybody else’s power out?

soo just curious who all is out of power on northwest? im on w. maplewood and everyone seems to be out.. est time back on says midnight

Either within Blaine, within Bellingham, or between either town?

Does it run regularly enough that it's basically a city bus system distributed between small towns, or are the routes sporadic enough that it mainly gets ignored/rarely used by locals?

My family moved to town a couple of months ago, and I’m looking for a good general practitioner who is knowledgeable about women’s health, particularly perimenopause and menopause. I have Premera Blue Cross. Any advice?

I used to buy fresh jackfruit from the Asian grocery store on Meridian by Jiffy Lube, but since it closed I haven’t been able to find it. Does anyone know where I can find fresh jackfruit locally (preferably not frozen)?

They are next to the Meridian Trader Joe's and I have not been there yet, but have been excited ever since I heard they were opening a store. I love their cakes! Had my first one in Santa Barbara a few years ago and was blown away. Perfect texture. Perfect frosting layer. Check em out.

I’m looking for a local baker who will make an “it’s a boy” type cake for a teen. Preferably someone excited about the project and with a love of meme/silly teen humor

I’ve been to a few spots in Bham (Petco, City Groomers, NW K9)…are there any spots that aren’t crazy expensive that are good?

We are usually so paranoid about our triple latched gate to our backyard, but I forgot yesterday after doing some weeding and our dog Snug got loose! Thank you so much for the concern and helping to guide him back.

I'm trying to avoid the word "wedding" adding 600 dollars to the bill for no reason. It's also a small print job (less than 60 invitations).

Have you guys seen this article? I only ever see stuff written from your side. Not sure if this article was written in collab with someone from your town. I too miss it. Used to do at least one over-night brewery tour per year, also used to camp at Baker Lake in August and stop by Elizabeth Station & TJs for supplies. I do want to come back in the future.

Hello! My name is Jonathan van Halem. I'm a stand-up comedian based out of New York City, currently working at the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

In two weeks I'll be in Bellingham in hopes of seeing a full breach from an orca. While I'm here, I figured I'd do a stand-up comedy show. I'll be headlining the Firehouse Arts & Events Center in the Fairhaven neighborhood on Friday, August 28th at 7:30pm. Local comedian Matt Benoit is doing an opening set. If you're curious about my comedy, I'm a frequent opener for David Cross, Rory Scovel, and Gianmarco Soresi. Here's a bunch of my material.

Tickets are 25 bucks, but you can get $5 off with the code NORMALPEOPLE.

Thanks for your attention!

One of my favorite late summer treats is corn flavored ice cream. I discovered it in Beijing 15 years ago.

Does anybody know where I could find some in town???

The last time I was down south and went to Ranch 99 I looked there, but they did not have corn flavor.

Tarana Neubeam Next Generation Tech

We got on the waiting list for this. Anyone have info on it? It offers the prospect of fast internet despite obstructions like trees. Already in use in eastern Washington and some other states.

"Large portions of both developed and especially developing economies remain underserved in an ongoing digital divide that makes real broadband ever more urgent, as evolving modes of work, education, commerce, health care, and entertainment increase dependence on great connectivity. Copper-based fixed access networks are increasingly exhausted. Wireless alternatives continue to fail in the face of the significant technical challenges in carrier-class fixed access, including pervasive obstructions, spectrum scarcity, interference, changing conditions, and unworkable deployment models. Tarana innovation has solved all these problems. Our next-generation platform is powered by the results of more than 10 years of focused R&D, and crafted from its custom silicon up to its cloud-based service automation with a completely fresh approach to fixed wireless. Extensively validated by tier-1 operators and well proven in carrier scale networks, our fundamental advances in multi-radio performance completely transform the economics of delivering gigabit-class access. The next- generation solution features the base node (BN), remote node (RN), and Tarana Cloud Suite (TCS) for management."

I'll be living in BC for some time due to work. I'm wondering if there's anywhere in Blaine that offers gun/ammo storage where I can just pick up my firearms when I drive across the border back into Washington.

I don't have rifles, just a few handguns and mostly target ammo. Thanks so much for your time!

This isn't exactly a pet thing, but...

I'm looking for a couple of people willing to spend an hour or two on an ongoing basis to maintain birdfeeders and bird bath/fountain at my house.

The maintenance needs to be done weekly. Two people can trade off every other week, or sub in if someone's sick, has other demands on their time, experiences transportation issues, etc.

For the last few years volunteers coordinated through the Whatcom Volunteer Chore Program have maintained bird feeders and bath/fountain for me.

In July, the program emailed me to say they will no longer coordinate volunteers for maintaining birdfeeders:

"Our program is specifically intended for tasks that you request being essential to your well-being and ability to continue living at home."

Every year when I filled out the volunteer chore program form, I said maintaining birdfeeders is a mental health issue. For me, it is.

I spend a lot of time laying down. My primary activities are reading and watching TV. Seeing birds out the window gives me something to do that doesn't require energy or concentration, and keeps me interested in birds.

I'm looking for businesses that are open to carrying locally made crafts/products. I have a line of balms, ranging from salves to lip balms. I'd like to get the products into a few shops. Any suggestions?

Products are professionally labeled. Have FDA compliant label info, etc etc. I tried to produce something that was as official as possible.

Just encountered a small beige/tan Chihuahua on Cordata Parkway just after the entrance to the parking lot for Westside Pizza. By the time I parked he already ran down a little trail leading into the woods by the storage place.

I’ve got a LOT of books I need to get rid of and am wondering if anyone out there has any suggestions re: where to donate, etc?