November So Far

Here's my version of a raku pin-up girl, ca. 30,000 B.C.



No real reason for putting her up here, just that I never did before. (At least I don't think I did.) She's an ocarina, by the way, with a very sweet tone.

And what's going on this week you ask?

Well, the bills for the last month's medical garbage are rolling in. I'm not sure why we have insurance when I look at what we have to pay. I mean, yeah, we're on the hook for only 10% of the hospital visit (which, apparently itemized bills are a thing of the past; you just have to trust that the hospital is all above board when it comes to billing), but when it comes to the in-office doctor's visits? I am apparently paying $200 to $350 for roughly 15 minutes of time with an NP, PA, or doctor--and that's after the insurance sends their pennies in. Seriously. That means that care from an NP and PA is about $600 per hour and my doctor tops out at $1,050 per hour. So I guess it's a good thing that I only needed 15 minutes of their time.

First world problems--or almost first world problems, considering that in Japan, in the UK, in Canada, and so on and so on, those bills would probably be considerably--considerably--less. But that's fine.  So long as my money gets channeled into some poor CEO's pocket, I'm happy to still call myself an American.

So that's the main thing this week.

The other main thing is that we bought and are now using a folding "semi-recumbent" exercise bike. I'm starting slowly with 20 minutes a day (which is more exercise than I've gotten in years). But it's fine. (I'll start increasing it by 5-10 minutes a week as I get stronger.) So every afternoon I just put something on Netflix or an Amazon prime video and go. So far, I've been stuck on these 45-minute shows about various mafia types and on cooking shows with Jacques Pepin.

We've been in acquisition mode around here, somewhat. In addition to the exercise bike, we've also got a (drumroll please!) new toaster oven. There wasn't anything wrong with the old toaster oven, really, but every time we went to Costco recently, Dave would wander over to the toaster oven section and look sort of longingly at them while caressing the programmable convection Cuisinart one. So after a couple of visits, it accompanied us home. 

And let's see:

Dave is doing Movember this month. I'm trying to convince him to go with a John Waters-style 'stache when he does finally shave it (I even promised him an matching eyeliner pencil like the one John Waters uses), but I don't know that he's got whatever that takes. We'll see.

And that's really it, actually.