6/23/2013

weekly update 6/23/2013

After spending a sleepless night battling a cockroach the size of Nebraska (Allen was really funny - when I told him about this, he wrote that he has large bugs where he lives, too, but only the size of Rhode Island), I dragged myself to the local Social Security Office Monday morning, where I had an appointment to talk to a representative about my Medicare coverage. Gotta love this crap! No private room with a face-to-face person, ho no! but a seat in the waiting room, where, after waiting for over 30 minutes although I'd made an appointment, I have to yell my questions through a window where the 600 other people who can't figure out what's happening to them can hear everything I ask. My first questions is: am I supposed to be paying both Medicare through my Social security earnings AND my health care through my NYS pension. “I don't know” - just the answer I was looking for! Social Security doesn't know, the city of Rochester says no, don't pay Medicare, and MVP (independent coverage) says, yes, I need to pay the Medicare premium. There - clear as mud. So, this just adds to my fear and distrust of all things medical. I don't trust doctors, I certainly don't trust the pharmaceutical companies (who, in my opinion run all medical care in this country and only view their bottom line), and now I can't trust that I have the correct coverage.

This week was craft week chez Wilma. I finished knitting the sweater-from-hell, finally. I can't tell you how many times I ripped it apart and started over again. It's the white one in the picture. But with that one fanillay finished, I was all ready to send some of my creations to the Stitches in Love program for hospitals in low income areas. I packed them up and mailed them off. I also decided that I needed more 4th of July clutter in the condo, so I made a pillow for the recliner. I'm not really very pleased with it, but I'll have it there until I store away all my flag-related décor next month.

On Saturday I felt like the most popular girl in high school. In the afternoon, I met Dave & Lisa at the Savannah Civic Center for the Asian Fest. I had been before, and I wanted to see the Matsuriza Taiko Drummers because I had been very impressed the last time. The are a professional group that performs at Epcot, but come to Savannah for the Asian fest each year. The precision and strength that the drummer show is amazing! There were also dancers from other Eastern countries - Samoa, Taiti, Hawaii, Thailand, New Zealand. And there was food from the same places, although I wasn't able to find any phat thai, which I was really looking forward to. After that, I went to my friend Sylvia's house to have pizza and watch a 1930's film noir, Miss Pinkerton. Sylvia & her husband Charles often spend Saturday evenings watching old movies, and had invited me to join them. It was very nice. When I returned to the condo after that, there was a message on my phone inviting me to come over to Anne & Andrew's condo to join some of their friends for a game of trivial pursuit. I'm not very good at that game, but I went anyway to have a glass of wine and try my best (I did know which city the NHL Red Wings play in). So, I was busy all day, doing interesting things with friends I've made here. I was exhausted.

 



The Matsuriza Japanese drummers.  Lisa, Dave and I are not pictured here

 

I've never been one to be interested in science, but since I've moved to Savannah, I've been fascinated with tides. This week there was a super moon, and I knew the tides would be especially high. I even got up at 7:30 Saturday morning in order to take some photos. It was difficult to get a photo of the moon itself, because the nights have been cloudy, and a super moon doesn't look that different from a regular full moon unless you're an astronomer. I did take some pictures of the marshes behind building #4 at the condo development where I live. The photo on the bottom was taken last night at high tide, and the one at the top was taken this afternoon just after low tide. It's an amazing difference.

 

I read some different and interesting books this week. I finished struggling though One Drop By Bliss Broyard, a memoir about her father's passing as white. I read the first in a new detective series, The Missing File by D.A. Mishani. And I'm now reading Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, which is imagined history of what might have happened to Jews in the Untied States if Charles Lindbergh had been elected as President in 1940. All this reading will be on hold next week, however, as Wimbledon begins Monday, and I'll be spending the next two weeks in front of the tv. Someday, I'm just going to HAVE to get some housework done again, but that's not nearly as interesting to me.