It’s going to get cold here. Soon. Obviously, this being New England, we knew it was going to get cold. We just hoped it would hold off a couple of weeks before it happened. Longer if possible. Skipping winter would be just fine for many of us. The charms of snow diminish enormously with each few years you add on your age.
60 might be the new 50, but 70 or 75 is not a new anything. Many of us don’t look our ages, but we can feel it. As the weather turns, our bones begin a dull, persistent ache that gets worse in tandem with the cold and damp. I’m hoping the new medication I’m on is going to make this a better winter. So far, it seems like it has made me much more mobile and far more comfortable. I don’t feel younger, but I feel better.
Tonight isn’t going to be the really cold one but in another 24 hours, it will be time to turn up the heat. I’m incredibly glad we got a new boiler that only sips at the oil rather than gulping it by the bucketful.
Today was the first day, with great trepidation, I bought medication without insurance. Today’s two medications cost me $7.25. That’s about $18 less than I was paying with insurance. What you ask? How can that be?
It turns out that the fee for medication exceeded the actual price of the meds three to one. Over all, the cost of the generic medications I take won’t be insane. Also, since I buy daily medications in bulk (at zero cost), I should have enough to last through the end of the year or close to it. I checked to make sure, but I don’t think I’ll need much.
Except for the inhalers. This is day number 2 of not using it and I’m still breathing. It’s post allergy season, so I may discover I’m okay as long as the pollen levels are low or gone. But I will probably need to I turn up the heat. It’s a week early but overall, it could be a lot worse.
It’s simply that I’m worried. The future is not looking bright. I think being fearful is reasonable. I frequently wonder if we have a future and if we do, what is it?
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Categories: #Birds, #Photography, #Squirrel, Anecdote, Blackstone Valley, Seasons, snow, Winter
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
“The charms of snow diminish enormously with each few years you add on your age.” Truer words were never spoken. I never understood people going south for the winter until I got to the age range of being cold a lot of the time, detesting gray days, and not being able to shovel the white stuff.
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Conversely, the good weather comes for us!
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Yes. And we are having GREAT weather right now, even though nights are quite chilly.
It was awfully hot this year. Hot and very dry. It was a contest whether we’d lose our well or it would rain. Thankfully, it rained. A lot. I’m hoping for a mild winter. I want a winter with one snow: a nice, fluffy 6-incher that starts around 2 in the afternoon on Christmas Eve and snows gently but determinedly overnight so Christmas day is the perfect snow day. Then, it warms up and by Boxing day the roads are clear, and that’s IT for snow. That’s my plan and all I need is for it to happen.
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The cold is coming too soon!
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Too soon and too fast and suddenly — just like the heat. That was too soon and too much too. I’m just hoping winter isn’t too bitter. My bones would prefer a nice, mild winter. One lovely Christmas Eve snow, then it melts and that’s it for snow. You think?
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That sounds like a good plan for a mild winter, Marilyn. You deserve it!
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Marilyn, I’m so glad to know you have medicine (at a better cost) and a new boiler. People called me crazy for dropping insurance with my “conditions”. It was cheaper to pay the “discounted” price then the thousands I spent on premiums AND deductibles. I feel extremely blessed the community held a benefit for me on Saturday. The funds will help me seek more treatments. My only hope is in a place that I have to keep believing is more beautiful than here. The cold hit us here in MO (22 this morning) and it’s a sign of early winter. 99 million impacted by these conditions so I immediately thought of you and Garry. Thank you for sharing the beauty around you even in the “boo’s” of our current climate.
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I wouldn’t want to do without the rest of the insurance, especially for doctors and surgeries and the hospital. Medication is a different issue and in theory they are fixing it. I’ll believe it when I see it. Mostly, my medication has not been too bad because almost all of it is generic. And when I had my heart surgery — which was a HUGE surgery that should have cost me the earth and moon? Blue Cross just paid the whole bill and I never had to pay anything — literally ZERO dollars. Not all insurers are the same. BCBS is absolutely the best of the bunch and oddly enough, NOT the most expensive.
It is chilly here — and it was very cold last night because the windows had frost on them. But it has warmed up considerably and is in the low 60s. Better than predicted. It was a hard frost last night, but we survived and I haven’t had to turn the boiler on yet. The later the better!
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That’s so wonderful that BCBS paid for your huge surgery! I had a plan named Ambetter (a nurse called it “Amworse”). I can’t complain after the support I received and how now, I qualify for more help. We are climbing here and will be in the 80’s by Saturday! I don’t know if anything can or will shock me anymore~weather included! Take care, Marilyn!
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What the heck? Our medical system is so screwy! Good news for my aching bones (at 61) is it rarely gets cold-cold in coastal SoCal. Bad news? It’s gonna be 90 today! 🥵🥵🥵
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Talking about our medical system is bizarre. We don’t have a system. We have a mess. I saw what a mess it was many years ago when no one else seemed to notice — but I’d had some major spine surgery and it had wiped us out. WITH insurance. It literally reduced us to zero and all the money we’d gotten as wedding presents was gone. I wondered if I didn’t pay, were they going to break my back again?
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Horrible 😢
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