Friday, November 02, 2018

A Sticker Shock Weekly Link Round-Up




I'm glad I had a question about the three eye drop prescriptions I need for my upcoming cataract surgery. I phoned the pharmacy and just as I was about to end the call, the pharmacist asked me, "Did you know one of the prescriptions cost $300?" I told her I was glad I'd called while sitting down in the comfort of my own home (which made her laugh). I remembered Erin at the ophthalmologist's office telling me there was a coupon for one of the prescriptions in my packet of forms and info, so I immediately grabbed it and found the coupon. I'd only have to pay $60. Well, that sounds peachy, I thought. Until I read the fine print. The $60 price is for those folks who are on Medicare. I don't qualify. Yet. Ah well. And before you think I don't have the money, I do. I just don't like spending it on tiny bottles of liquid gold. But I want my surgery and recovery to go perfectly, so I'll stump up the money and use all those drops. But in other news...



Denis and I couldn't go to the Desesrt Botanical Garden to see their Dia de los Muertos offrendas exhibit due to its vastly truncated hours. Boo! Hiss! So... I made my own. I had so much stuff that I had to make two offrendas. (I didn't want to leave anyone out.) The one you see above is in remembrance of my two-legged family, and everything on there has meaning for someone in the photographs-- yes, even Donald Duck in the race car. Now I'll show you the second offrenda I made...



This is in remembrance of my four-legged family, complete with candy bones. I had more photos I could have used, but I didn't want things falling off the dining room table. The table runner I knit for Dia de los Muertos is there but very difficult to see.

And now that I'm done decorating, I'll just mosey on out to the corral to check on those links. You know how feisty they can be. Head 'em up! Moooooooooove 'em out!



►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄
  • How the English failed to stamp out the Scots language.
  • When American jails were a mom-and-pop business.
  • Could offshore wind farms actually sap the rain from hurricanes?
  • How to be a good man: what Harvey Weinstein learned from a month reading the feminist classics
  • Hannibal Lector creator Thomas Harris has announced his first book in thirteen years (and it doesn't feature Hannibal).
  • Caitriona Lally is an author who also works as a janitor. She just won a prestigious literary prize from the university she cleans.
  • We need more problematic women in crime fiction.
  • The Weather Channel has set a premiere date for its first foray into true crime. I need to see if I can catch up with the episodes!


►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄


►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄
  • Moths love lamps... and sipping the salty tears of sleeping birds. Who knew?
  • A golden retriever named Asha comforted a lost baby koala and kept it warm.
  • This new cheetah mom earns high marks caring for her three new Smithsonian cubs.
  • Sloths don't just live in slow-mo, they can put their metabolism on pause. 
  • If birds are acting erratically in Minnesota, blame it on the alcohol.
  • This app is saving thousands of snakes (and humans) in India.
  • These are the finalists of the 2018 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, and they're hilarious.
  • Tracking small creatures is frustrating, delicate, fascinating work.


►The Happy Wanderer◄
  • Sultan the pit pony in Wales.
  • I love this colorful "forest" in Mexico City, Mexico that's made entirely from three tons of recycled plastic waste.
  • The Cărturești Carusel Bookstore in Bucharest, Romania.
  • A new law puts Shetland on the map... and outside of a box.
  • I hope you'll take a look at the short video on this one-- Satellite dishes have been converted into Native American art along Route 66 in Grants, New Mexico, and I think they're gorgeous!


►I ♥ Lists◄



That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

Have a great weekend, and read something fabulous!



14 comments:

  1. $300 for medication!? That is a lot, Cathy. I wouldn't want to pay it either. Still, if you need it... Anyway, your Dia de los Muertos memorial is beautiful. Now, I'm off to Lake Erie to check out that shipwreck.

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  2. Ah, yes, the dreaded 'sticker shock' on the meds. Well, at least you know that there will be some relief should you need this again after Medicare - or maybe. Who knows by then? Even though I'm not very many years away from it, I wonder if it will be around. Ha!

    OK, first of all, I'm still thinking about ancient proteins and unwashed dishes - I'm sorry, but ick. I don't like unwashed dishes. Those dishes in Grants are just 'wow'! I have a friend who grew up in Grants. Not sure if anyone in her family still lives there. I'll have to try to remember to ask her if she's seen them. Have a good weekend, Cathy!

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  3. What a drag to have to pay $300 for eye medication. Things aren't so great with Medicare. I have a Medicare Drug Plan for which I paly $91 a month. So far it's been OK on the monthly costs. But an asthma medication cost $245; it wasn't covered. So I got a less good version.

    Beautiful displays you made -- so much creativity on display and very respectful of your loved ones.

    Only got to a few links so far: love the one about needing more problematic women. My favorite detective is the most problematic woman: V.I. Warshawski. She's always In trouble, but holds her own and investigates, leaving no stone unturned and no arrogant person unchallenged.

    Then there is Antoinette Conway, police detective in Tana French's brilliant "The Trespasser."

    And Michael Connelly's newish character, Renee Ballard, also defies convention, lives on a beach with her dog and detects at night, circumventing rules and the brass. Great character.

    Wish you well on your upcoming procedures.

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    1. Thanks, Kathy. As far as problematic women go, I'm looking forward to reading Dark Sacred Night.

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  4. We've seen a couple of episodes of Storm of Suspition. Interesting series.

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    1. I've been watching that, too. A longer "Forensic Files" with some weather thrown in, and since I come from a long line of farmers, the weather bits are right up my alley.

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    2. Ugh. Sorry about the misspelling. Mom died yesterday morning, so I was pretty out of it.

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    3. Oh, honey-- who gives a hoot about some lousy spelling error?!? I'm so sorry to hear about your mom! *HUG*

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  5. Paretsky's "Shell Game" is good, goes into international issues, not usually my thing. But it's good here.

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  6. A Night in Shanghai by Nicole Mones is very good. It's about pre-war life in that cosmopolitan city.

    I learned a lot by reading this book and went surfing to find out more. There was a Chinese consul in Vienna who gave visas to Shanghai to fleeing Jewish people. So, many Jewish refugees ended up there.

    Mones explains that may African-American jazz musicians, who faced discrimination in the U.S., went to work in Shanghai pre-war. They were accepted, hired and lived well, except in the U.S. and British sectors where they faced bias.

    When Japan invaded, many of these musicians left to return to the U.S.

    Mones also explained the Battle of Shanghai, in which a quarter of a million Chinese people died, but only 8,000 Japanese troops died. Japan had superior air, naval and land power compared to poor, underdeveloped China.

    Mones says that Japan didn't torment the Jews in the way that Germany and Italy did.



    A book worth reading.

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