Day 1047

Janet and I went over to the neighborhood health food store to get our blood tested this morning. The store has these cholesterol screening events four times a year and they are dirt cheap, especially compared to what your doctor would normally charge. The huge price differential for lab work sums up the whole health care delima for me. When my doctor does my blood work, Labcorp bills my insurance a minimum of $400. Hey, why not. They know that my insurance will pay. When essentially the same labs do these public events for seniors, the test costs $20. That's what they know people will be willing to pay using their own money. I'm sure the lab makes a profit in both cases. It's just insane. So why is medicine so expensive? Because the money is there. If everybody was paying for healthcare with their own money like they do when they take their dog to the vet, costs would be much, much lower. Yeah, I know. Some people don't take their dog to the vet, because they don't want to spend the money. Some people wouldn't go to the doctor for the same reason. In general, medical costs would be much lower without insurance though. The only fly in the ointment would be that more people would die.

I wonder why I hate health insurance so much? I'm perfectly fine with car insurance. Homeowners insurance isn't so bad either. Maybe car insurance just seems more fairly priced and health insurance seems like a rip off. All I know is that a simple blood test should never cost $400.

I opened the filter drawer of the new furnace today to measure the filter and discovered that the filter was already filthy. It needed to be changed. How did that happen so quickly?  When I went to look for a new filter, I discovered that my filter was a very odd size. It couldn't be 10x20 or 20x20 like most furnaces. That would be too easy. No, it had to be a special size. I finally found a filter that would fit, and as you might expect, it was more expensive than the other filters. Hopefully, this fancy new energy efficient furnace will save me enough in gas to pay for all the filters I'll need.

After our blood test, Janet and I went out for breakfast at the restaurant with good bacon. She couldn't believe that I'd already tried everything on the menu. Hey, aren't there 52 Friday's in a year?  That's a lot of breakfast choices. 

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 760

I got up early this morning to have my cholesterol tested at the neighborhood health food store. I used to have to stand in a long line for these low cost blood tests, because there are a lot of old people in the neighborhood who apparently get up at the crack of dawn to come to these events. I finally discovered a surefire way to be first in line every time. I come about ten minutes before the store opens and stand in front of the door. I'm never the first to arrive. I'm just the first to get out of my car. The rest of the people sit in their cars until the owner opens the door and turns on the "open" sign in the window. Sure enough, I was first in line again today. It's a simple plan, but it works every time.

We had reservations for the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the art museum at 1 PM, so wouldn't you know; just about when we were getting in the car to go downtown, the telephone repairman arrives to check on a buzz in the line. It never fails. I'd called the telephone company two weeks ago about this noisy line, but they never told me when they were going to come fix it. I opened up the back gate, so the guy could get to the box on the side of the house, and then we left. As you might expect, when we got home, the buzzing noise in the line was just as loud as it was before. I've lost all faith in repair people. Basically, we live in a throw away society and nobody can fix anything.

It was fun going to the exhibit. I haven't been downtown in several years. I used to have a lot of clients with downtown offices, but they all moved to the suburbs years ago. Downtown Dallas appears to be thriving though. There were lots of new buildings; especially in the arts district.

If you are even remotely interested in fashion, the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit is well worth seeing. Is it art? Definitely! I know it's just a bunch of dresses, but there was more creativity and imagination here than I saw hanging on the walls in the rest of the museum. All that being said, Jean Paul Gaultier is definitely an acquired taste. I couldn't imagine anyone actually wearing most of these androgynous, bondage inspired outfits. The show was spectacular though. The mannequins were eerie, with the lifelike moving eyes and mouth that was projected on each face. From a few feet away, the mannequins looked like they were alive.

Once we were back home again, I had difficulty telling whether the furnace was working or not. I know it's the middle of Winter, but it got so warm today we almost had to turn the air conditioner on.

Kasey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 662

Our neighborhood health food store was having another of their periodic cholesterol screenings this morning, so Janet and I decided to go early this time and beat the long lines of old people who are usually there ahead of us. When we got to the store, there wasn't a line at all, which surprised me. I opened the door and went inside and all of the sudden all these car doors opened in unison and a bunch of old people got out of their cars and started walking slowly toward the store. We weren't even close to being the first people to arrive, we were just the first people to open the door. I still don't know what everybody else was waiting for. The store was supposed to be open when we arrived. The lights weren't on yet though. Maybe that stopped them. If there is a lesson in all this, I guess it would be that when you come to a door, you should always try opening it. We did end up being the first in line for the blood tests.

After eating a big breakfast as soon as we finished the cholesterol test, we went up to the Velvet Snout to photograph another new Dalmatian Rescue dog. This dog's name is Madison and she is cute as a button. I went ahead and made her today's Dalmatian of the Day, because some of you might be getting tired of seeing dogs that found their forever homes years ago. We don't get as many dogs in the rescue program as we used to. That's a good thing too! Back when the Disney movies were popular, there were more abandoned Dalmatians than we could handle.

I spent the rest of the day getting groceries and doing the usual Saturday errands. Added to today's to-do list was a trip to Competitive Camera to pick up some gear I had ordered a long time ago. I love spending time in camera stores. I'd like to scoop up everything and take it home with me, which is probably why I have more equipment than I actually need. I noticed that more and more display screens on the back of digital cameras are touch screens now. Some will focus and take an exposure when you touch a specific area of the screen. Hmm. Where have I seen that before? It's weird when high end DSLR cameras are starting to copy features off the iPhone.

Halloween is right around the corner. Every store I went to today was full of pumpkins and other Halloween paraphernalia. We'll have to start thinking of costumes again for the annual dog training class Halloween party. Last year Dash won a prize. We put a baseball cap on him and called him a Texas Ranger. The Rangers happened to be playing in a World Series playoff game that evening and when they won, Dash got swept along to victory as well. We may have to try a little harder this year.

Madison is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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