Danger - complaining follows

I have just a few minutes to write before I have to leave for lunch with long time friends. We do this every Friday. Whoever is available comes to lunch at a restaurant chosen the week before. It's a fun thing to do and a great way to stay in touch with friends who have moved out of the immediate area, but are still withing a reasonable drive.

Anyway in the short time I have, I want to complain about health insurance. I recently received this year's booklet from Blue Cross and Blue Shield (my secondary insurance company - Medicare is now my primary). The booklet, actually is more like a book at 134 pages long. I was trying to check up on dental benefits as well as what has changed. They seem to have eliminated an index in this year's book, so I had to flip through a lot of pages to find anything about dental. When I found it, I couldn't figure out what they were telling me! I would like to compare this year's benefits, which I know have been reduced, to last year's. However, last year they never sent me a book, so I checked online. Now, I'm not sure I can find out what last year's benefits were! If I want to compare plans from other companies, I'll have to go online anyway. It's very hard to tell what is being offered. Frankly, Blue Cross and Blue Shield is getting a real easy ride with me. They used to have to pay all my health care bills. Now, Medicare pays most of the bill and B&B just picks up the difference. But, did they reduce what I pay them for health insurance? Surely you jest! So I pay twice as much for health insurance (Medicare and B&B) and get just about the same benefits. Except, of course, they are reducing the benefits this year and raising the cost. Please, President-elect Obama - do something about health insurance!!

Today I got a quote on how much my new glasses will cost me. Ouch!! I will go to another place and see what their prices are, but probably won't see much difference. This is in addition to whatever the eye exam will cost. Hopefully, the health insurance will pay for part of that.

I'm very glad that I am basicallly healthy and don't have to deal with health care providers and insurers very often. I haven't the patience for it. I guess you could say that I am not a patient patient. Sorry, I couldn't resist the pun. Punning runs in my family. My brothers are even better (or worse) than I.

Next week, I will be complaining about the cost of car repairs, most likely. Car goes in on Wednesday for a scheduled maintenance. It'll probably cost about the same as the glasses.

Time for lunch now. Sorry for the ranting on this blog. Will try to find something nice to say next time.

This and that

Yesterday was Veterans' Day. It's a federal holiday, which used to mean I had the day off. Of course, being retired, every day is a holiday of sorts. However, the last few days haven't seemed that way. It's amazing how busy one can be and still not do anything much. Yesterday, I did three loads of wash, ran a couple of errands and went for a long walk with Patty. We found a new trail to walk and walked further than planned. When we had walked 2.2 miles to an old railroad bridge that Patty wanted to see, I realized that it was 2 PM and I had an appointment to get my eyes checked at 3! We walked really fast on the way back and I made it to the office with 5 minutes to spare.

I get new glasses every couple of years (have worn them since I was 10), so I know the procedure pretty well. This was a new doctor, however, and a couple of things were different. He actually took a photo of my eyes. He showed it to me and I could see the blood vessels - not a pretty sight. The other difference was that he dilated my pupils more than usual. When I left, about an hour and a half after the drops had gone in, I was still seeing starbursts around all the lights. Since it was 5 PM by then and getting dark, there were a lot of starbursts on the way home. Weird, but not a real problem. I drove very carefully.

Speaking of lights, one of the things I did yesterday was buy new bulbs for the flourescent light in my kitchen. I tried putting in just one new one. That used to work on some of my lights. This time, no such luck . I had to replace both of them. The bulbs are like none I had ever seen before. Instead of being a straight long bulb, they are u-shaped. As if someone took two straight bulbs and added a connecting curve. Very strange looking and rather expensive, but they seem to last a loooong time. I have lived here for over 7 years and those bulbs never had to be replaced, so I guess they are good ones.

Today I took Patty to an appointment for a MRI. Afterward, she took me out to lunch at TGI Fridays. I told her that anytime she needed a chaufeur, I'm available for just a lunch! Today was sunny and not too cold, so I when we got back, I decided to get a bit of yard work done. I tore the dead morning glory vines off the trellis in the front yard and clipped and pulled dead flowers from the bed. Also took off all the little watering cans and other decorative items hanging on the trellis. Have to make room for the Christmas decorations, which go up the weekend after Thanksgiving. I boxed up most of the birdhouses that have been decorating my deck railings. I think they will last longer if I bring them in for the winter. I only worked an hour or so, but it felt like much longer.

I don't know if Patty and I will go walking today or not. We agreed to decide at 4, when we would have both quit working in the yard for the day. I had quit by three! I doubt if we'll go, as I think we both are tired. If I didn't have her to walk with, I would hardly ever go walking. I'm not highly motivated to do it, but having someone else to walk with helps get me out there.

back home again

Safely returned from the trip to Pittsburgh. We drove through Western Maryland and West Virginia, up and down over the mountains. Very up and down! I had forgotten how hilly that route was. The alternative, however, involves using the PA turnpike which is a nightmare of big trucks going 70 mph and narrow lanes. We senior citizens don't do that kind of driving, if there is an alternative. The alternative is quite pretty in early fall. Unfortunately, this late, most trees in the mountains were bare. Still, it was a great visit. Saw our friends and their daughter and her fiance. Ate good food and had lots of time to chat. However, I am very glad to be back in Maryland, where the sun shines! It was overcast the whole weeknd in Pittsburgh. My friends tell me that this is typical for that area, especially in late fall and winter. I don't think I could be happy there. I need a dose of sunshine every few days.

In my last post I was muttering about the check engine light in my car. I did reach my mechanic and he said that there are about 40 different things that light could mean. A big help that was!! He said I could drive it as long as the light was steady, but if it started blinking, I should stop and call a tow truck. This is not exactly what I wanted to hear. Luckily I am not doing any long distance traveling until later this month. I have an appointment to have him work on the car next week. It's due for a servicing anyway. I will be car-less for a day, but I actually don't mind staying home, now that I have my studio set up and can play with clay all day. (I will include some photos of my clay things one of these days, but will probably wait until they have been glazed and fired. Right now, they are just brown shapes - not very exciting, except to those who work in clay.)

just a quick note

We're off to Pittsburgh in a few hours, so I just have time for a quick note. It looks like a gorgeous day for a drive through western Maryland and Pennsylvania. Trees here are in full fall color. The woods look as if King Midas has touched them - gold everywhere! This has been an outstanding fall for color.

I have a bunch of errands to do before we leave. One is to call my auto mechanic and see what the 'check engine' light on my dashboard means. This light has been on for several days now and the booklet that came with the car isn't very clear on the meaning. Could be one of about 5 different things - some serious, some not. Hopefully, it's not serious, because I've been driving around with it on all week!! I don't know when I'll have a day to take the car in - I have something going on every day next week.

Have to get a couple of things mailed, including a card and some little items for Kate's birthday. Nothing big, as I left a present with her when I was there in September. Amazingly, she chose to wait and open it on her birthday. She's much better at delayed gratification than I am!

Stores aren't open yet, so I have a bit of time to kill. I need to pack, but everything is laid out, so packing will take no time at all. As usual, I am taking far more than I need. I can never decide what to take, so I take everything I might possibly want. I suspect this is a symptom of having far too many clothes. I am trying not to buy any more and also trying to discard things I don't wear or that don't fit. Even so, there will still be several closets full of things that do fit and I do wear - at least once in a while. I keep things forever, I guess. Until a few years ago, I still had some blouses that were my mother's - she died in 1978!!

So, I'm off and running now. Will be back Sunday late afternoon.

It's finally over - and we won!

At last the election has come and gone! Thank you, Lord. Now perhaps my newspaper (The Washington Post) will have room for some news that isn't connected to any election or politician. I am, as you might guess, delighted with the results. I think this election will help the US with our image in the world - frankly that image badly needs improvement. Electing a Black man to be President doesn't mean we have overcome all our prejudices, but it sure shows a lot of progress. Now, no more politics on this blog, for a while at least. One of my brothers says he hasn't looked at my blog because he is sure I filled it with political stuff. (My brothers are both conservative Republicans.) I must send him an email later this week and tell him it's safe to read it now!

This is my morning to work at the church library, so I haven't time to write much. No photos uploaded today. This is going to be a busy week, with various tasks added to my usual schedule. It amuses me that I think I'm very busy when I have two tasks to do in one day. How spoiled I am in retirement! Anyway, nothing exciting is going on until Friday when a friend and I are driving to Pittsburgh (in her new car) to visit old friends (oh, sorry - not 'old' but long-time friends!). It'll be great to see them and good to get away, although the weather up there will be cooler than here and probably rainy. Who cares about the weather when one is with friends?

fall in Maryland

I'm going to be at home all day today, so I will have time to put some photos up on this blog. Because I take my photos at a high resolution, it takes a looong time to upload them and keeps my phone lines tied up. (Yes, I know I should get DSL or whatever, but I just hate to pay the extra money for it when I can usually manage with dial-up.) Actually, I don't mind having my phone tied up. Most of the daytime calls I get are people wanting me to give them money! Anyway, if this works, there will be below some photos taken around my neighborhood and on the trail by the river where I walked yesterday. Wish me luck!

Yes, success at last!
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The view from my deck. -------- Close up of first view. ------Trees in neighborhood.

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My front steps. -----------Looking down my street. ---------- We do get some red in the trees.

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The path we walk. ------------------Trees reflected in the river.

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The river thru the trees

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Well, I guess you could say that I was successful. Still having problems. I can't get the text to wrap around the photos, so there is this big blank space up there. Also, the photos seem to move closer together, when my back is turned! No kidding. This has happened several times. So, for some of them, I used dashes as spacers. The others I'm going to leave as is and see if they move again. Yep, they shifted when the draft was posted. I put the spacers back in. Hope this works

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In my waiting time, while I was uploading these photos, I stripped my bed, did three loads of laundry, including putting the clean laundry away, started some homemade chicken soup, finished reading the paper, clipped coupons from three booklets, and switched the contents of my waist purse from the old bag to a new one. Let's just say, it took quite a while. And that's all for today.

Boo to you!

Last night was not exactly warm, but some of us braved the cold and sat outside anyway, admiring the kids in costume and having a bit of a party of our own. We had a lot of trick or treaters. I had purchased two bags of candy from BJ's (discount store) which gave me about 400 pieces of candy. I had about 100 left when I closed up shop at 8:30. Now I just need to hide that candy so that I don't eat too much of it at a time! Here are some photos of my decorations and the kids next door in their costumes.

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A family down the street always does something very scary. They set up a tent in the yard and had a mad scientist/doctor inside. The daughter is the victim, tied up and begging not to be used for body parts and discarded. In one corner there was a pile of 'discarded body parts'. A son was dressed up as a zombie, just standing along the wall. The room was full of fog - very spooky. As the 'doctor' tells us to leave by the other door, the zombie leaps forward and grabs someone. I entered with three teen age girls. You should have heard their screams when one of them was grabbed. Of course, the kids in our neighborhood all knew the 'actors' so they weren't really scared. Still, it was pretty cool.

Today it was sunny and warm - truly Indian Summer. It was a gorgeous day and I tried to find reasons to be outside. I took down the Halloween decorations and puttered around in the yard. Patty and I went walking down by the river this afternoon. Took some photos of the trees and the water. I would put some of them here, but I'm having a terrible time getting photos onto this blog and positioned where I want them. Kate seems to do it with no trouble, but everything goes wrong for me. It takes a long time to upload them and then as I was moving them around, I lost two of them and had to reload. So no more photos tonight. I have run out of patience. Time to get off the computer and read a bit before bedtime.