Theme and Word for the New Year in Everyday Ramblings
- Jan. 4, 2020, 1 p.m.
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- Public
This is from the hike on New Year’s Day. The light was low but you at least get the tone, the feel of the day here.
Mrs. Sherlock and I were going to hike today and I was looking forward to it but she hurt her back enough that she rightly needed not to put additional strain on it. She canceled about a half hour before we were planning on leaving this morning so I am in the process of reorienting my day.
I forgot to get milk yesterday I need for the Martha Stewart lemon cookies so I went back to the store for that and also got what I needed to make a sweet potato gratin in which I can use some left over orange zest from last week. I so admire cooks who can look at what they have and make yummy creative meals with that. I have heard it called “The Reverse Shopping List”, where you only use what you have.
Less waste is definitely on the agenda this year. Not that I am a super wasteful person but I am a single person and modern food packaging is all about encouraging one to buy more rather than less. My Imperfect Produce (they are called Imperfect Foods now) email yesterday told me that I ordered carrots 25 times last year. That made me laugh. I love roasted carrots and they are so easy to make.
I have taken myself to task since I retired to not do aspirational shopping anymore but shopping grounded in what I will actually eat. The hiking club is also a great place to offload extra cookies. :)
My theme for the 2020 year is Strong and Supple. The supple comes from the strength, just the right amount, not too much like a healthy animal in the wild.
My word for the year is COMMUNITY. This is going to be a huge challenge for me with my social anxiety but I am going to chip away at it. I will have a couple of opportunities to do that next week.
When I ordered my 5 meds a few days ago the calculation of how much they would cost, all generics, was $7.00 based on my (now previous) employer sponsored health plan. The mail order pharmacy shipped them this morning and they are going to cost me $47.00 on the supplemental plan. The reason I chose this plan was because I can use all the pharmacies that are attached to my doctors and when one is dealing with an illness or an emergency one doesn’t want to go out into the broader world to get prescriptions.
I knew they were going to be more; I did a cost analysis when I chose this plan. I will save enough in copays on doctor’s visits and tests on the other plans to make up for this but it is totally crazy.
I didn’t take two of my heart medicines for two months because I would have had to pay some stupid arbitrary full freight amount for them while I was waiting for the new plan to kick in. Just imagine what a person who has a number of health issues would have to deal with in the transition. Ughhh.
Could we please do something about this??? This for profit health care industry affects so many people’s lives negatively here in the United States. Obviously my activism in the years I have left will be focused on these sorts of issues.
One of the women in the hiking groups (she comes to both) is super fit. Mrs. Sherlock travels with her sometimes and told me she lifts weights regularly. We belong to the same gym chain and I have an all club membership so I can go to her gym. I asked her if she lifts on her own when I saw her Wednesday and it turns out she takes this “Body Pump” class three times a week. I looked into joining her but she goes to the 5:30AM class twice a week and without a car there is no way I can get over to her club safely on public transportation at that time.
I would need to go through the area that has the most people living rough downtown to get there and sadly it is a risky proposition at that time in the morning.
But they do have a 9AM class that I am going to try next Tuesday.
Yesterday I went to my gym and used the machines. It felt good, even though I clearly lost strength through the heart scare, end of work stress corridor last year I am thinking big cat suppleness to the best of my 65-year-old ability.
Now that my personal stuff is taken care of I am going to focus on my yoga teaching and writing goals for the year.
This will for sure keep me busy an out of trouble.
I wish I could say the same for my government. What were they thinking???
Last updated January 04, 2020
mcbee ⋅ January 04, 2020
I completely agree with you about the for profit health care in this country. I've never understood how we could be considered the greatest country in the world without health care being available to all citizens, rich and poor.
woman in the moon ⋅ January 04, 2020
During my mystery illness (the giant cell arteritis, that I think is over) and my sisterinlaw's first 6 months of chemo, I've been surprised at how inexpensive the drugs are. So cheap it doesn't make sense. The chemo isn't cheap but it's not as scary as a person would think. I find our medical system so scary because it is so unpredictable. I avoid medical care because I don't want to pay for it, and because of the uncertainty of its cost. My son has always had private, non-group insurance and he's maybe been to the dr, three times in 35 years. I doubt that's right either, you know?
I had a personal political call from a woman promoting Elizabeth Warren and M4A, which she said would be like what they have in England - which of course is falling apart very badly.
I just know.... that I don't know.
Marg ⋅ January 05, 2020
The system in your country has long since appalled me - we are so lucky with our National Health Service over here! Being ill is bad enough on its own without having to worry if you can afford to be! It’s madness - but we might very well be going the same way with Boris at the helm so I am very much appreciating what we have now :)
Jinn ⋅ January 07, 2020
I am a strong supporter of Medicare for all . There is no reason for health care to cost what it does here or for the cost of medications to be what they are . We know this when we see Mexico sell the same medication for a tenth of the price they cost here . We are being robbed. .
I avoid health care even though I have Medicare. Luckily I have been reasonably healthy except for my injuries and I have learned to cope without care for the most part. I do not recommend doing that , but if I had to have regular care , I would have bankrupted us . I realized that after I had a $23,000.00 bill for five hours in ER after the wreck , which my supposedly very “ good” medical insurance refused to pay because it was a car accident ( and the drunk driver had no car insurance). . That is when I realized 1. Medical costs are ridiculously inflated ( I received almost no care for $23,000). And 2. Insurance is a huge swindle . It took us forever to pay off $23,000.00 for a wreck that we were in no way responsible for and for which I got terrible care. I would have been just as well off to just go home after the wreck instead of going to the ER.
When I do absolutely have to go to a doctor I go to Urgent Care as I find that more convenient and just as effective as seeing what I used to think of as my “regular “ doctor. He was almost impossible to book appointments with and I did not find him particularly helpful. Usually I would book an appointment with him and go in to find his PA was seeing his patients anyway . If I wanted to see a PA I would have booked with them, although that seems to be the new trend here ; that physicians have their PA see their patients while charging you the same as if you saw them . SMH 🤦♀️. When you go to Urgent Care here you always only see a PA but I expect that . I take all their advice with a strong grain of salt because as a nurse I know how often both they and physicians make mistakes . I had a very bad experience a few years ago when I had a bad bug of some sort and had to go to Urgent care three times before they got the right antibiotic. :-( Depending on Urgent Care fails me in the area of pain meds however CBD just became legal here so I am going to try the edibles if I get desperate. I have a lot of daily chronic pain but I have learned to kind of survive with it . Some days are worse than others. :-(
I always forget about roasting carrots and I like them.
I need to try to exercise in some way more. I truly fail at this . I admire all your hikes and going to the gym.
noko Jinn ⋅ January 09, 2020
I just saw an ad on cable news at the gym with the actor Martin Sheen for a supplemental drug plan, and was on the website this morning for my own supplemental drug plan and I am wondering about all the money that is going into marketing and maintaining these plans because that money could be going to provide quality health care to folks like you and me.
Jinn noko ⋅ January 09, 2020
So true. It’s totally commercialized because it’s an industry that pulls in billions of dollars. It’s not about taking good care of people anymore, it’s about squeezing the most possible money out of their insurances or the people themselves. The way they bill would alert people. They have “ coders” that go over a doctor’s notes word by word to see if any key word can be an extra charge .If the doctor documents he spends over 15 minutes with the patient ; it becomes an “ intermediate” visit and then the visit costs more even if the reason it takes a minute longer is because of the doctor . So 16 minutes ; you are charged double . I tell them, I watch my watch ; here is what is wrong, here is what I need , and please stay under 15 minutes as there is no reason to go over . They get the message that I understand how it works. Even though I have Medicare, I do not want the extra charge .
Jinn noko ⋅ January 09, 2020
PAs don’t like me much :-(