As of this writing (Monday, April 6), people are still flying into Phoenix with their clubs so they can play golf. When Denis told me that, my first thought was that the gene pool needed a good dose of chlorine. The airports are still open, people are still flying, and Denis has come to the conclusion that, if people are silly enough to travel and play golf during a pandemic, he's going to stay at his end of the bus, and they can deal with their own luggage. I heartily approve of his decision.
Speaking of golf bags, I received a pump and have it set up in the bedroom so I can keep on fighting the good fight against lymphedema. I told you in a previous round-up (and provided a photo) that this pump consists of the machine brain and two golf-bag-looking things that go on my legs and hook up to the brain. Compression then forces excess fluid up from my feet and on up my legs and further north eventually to be flushed out of my system. The therapists did make compression garments for my thighs, but I've found them impossible to wear. My name for them is "hellish instruments of torture" and the only way they could work is if I never moved a muscle. Ha!
Moving on, this may sound odd, but I'm glad I'm on Medicare now. Ever since Target decided its retirees didn't deserve medical benefits, I've been dealing with one insurance company after another that's made my blood boil. And there's an added indignity. Ever since I started filing income taxes, I've gotten refunds on both state and federal, but once I got kicked off Target's insurance plan, I've had to pay increasing amounts on our Federal income taxes. This time, it was beyond a joke. Around September, I received notification from my (then) insurance company to inform me that I'd been paying way too much, and the result was that I didn't have to pay premiums for the rest of the year and still had money owed me at the end of December. However, when I did our taxes for 2019, I was told that I'd paid way too little for my insurance, and now I have to pay the Feds over $6,000. How in the Sam Hill can one place tell me I paid too much and another tell me I paid too little for the same blessed thing?!? This is the first year I've dawdled in filing our income taxes. They can just bloody well wait for my money!
On a much brighter note, I've been having fun watching and listening to Elly Griffiths read The Crossing Place on Facebook and Instagram, and I've come up with a couple of ideas for recurring blog posts. You'll see what I mean next week.
Now it's time to mosey out to the link corral. Head 'em up! Moooove 'em out!
►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄
- Scientists have discovered a plastic-munching microbe in a waste site.
- Dolly Parton is reading children's books on a weekly Youtube series.
- The Texas Roadhouse CEO is giving up his salary and bonus to pay his workers during the coronavirus outbreak.
- Delirious paintings of anthropomorphized books.
- They were meant to be the season's big books. Then the virus struck.
- Coronavirus and the new words we added to the dictionary in March 2020.
- How to start a love affair with audiobooks.
- Sir Patrick Stewart reads one Shakespeare sonnet each day in order to keep the doctor away.
►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄
- A Maine shipwreck has been identified as a Colonial-Era cargo vessel.
- A Van Gogh masterpiece was stolen from a Dutch museum shuttered by COVID-19.
- Archaeologists in Leeds have unearthed 600 lead-spiked, 19th-century beer bottles.
- Who was the Man in the Iron Mask? A classic historical mystery explained.
- The fantastic underwater discovery of Heracleion, Egypt's "Atlantis."
- Community-researcher collaboration has revealed an ancient Maya capital in a rancher's backyard.
- Archaeologists unearth the remnants of a kitchen behind the oldest house still standing in Maui.
- Egypt deep cleans the site of pyramids that has been emptied of tourists.
►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄
- I tend to be rather ambivalent about spiders, but I think these little Australian peacock spiders are gorgeous.
- Nature is taking back the world's empty city streets.
- A zoo in Belgium shares adorable pictures of orangutans playing with their otter friends.
- A French theme park has been teaching birds to collect litter.
- When squirrels were one of America's most popular pets.
- A reporter reacting to an approaching bison herd has the internet in tears.
- Researchers warn that COVID-19 could threaten the great ape populations.
- The true origin story of Madagascar's forest cat.
►Fascinating Folk◄
- Meet the world's first known author: Sumerian high priestess Enheduanna.
- Charles Wilkes, the forgotten American explorer who discovered huge parts of Antarctica. (Read Nathaniel Philbrick's Sea of Glory!)
- Esther Pohl, the pioneering health officer who saved Portland from the plague.
►I ♥ Lists◄
- Strand Magazine's top ten female sleuths.
- Twenty hilarious ads for obsolete technology that used to be insanely expensive.
- Eight great novels where things disappear.
- Five books about women's choices and consequences.
- Eleven authors like Agatha Christie.
- Thirteen mind-bending psychological thrillers for C.J. Tudor fans.
- Ten novels and stories about shame.
- Ten refreshing books about new beginnings.
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.
Stay safe. Stay healthy. Curl up with some good books!
I couldn't possibly agree with you more about those who are still traveling, etc... at this time, Cathy. And I agree with Denis, too! People need to know just how dangerous this virus can be, and if they don't, well, I don't feel a lot of sympathy. There aren't many circumstances in which people MUST travel right now. Glad you're still making physical progress, but a noisome pox on all big insurance companies that mess with our lives like that!
ReplyDeleteNow, speaking of travel...I'm off to Heracleion. And then that Maine shipwreck.
I'll second that "noisome pox"!!!
DeleteDenis was telling me about his co-worker who told him, "I'm 43. I never get sick. Why should I stop doing whatever I want to?" Good thing I wasn't anywhere around when that fool said that!
My husband and I were discussing the heedlessness of some people during this time last night. After several days of almost silence from the nearby highway, the returning sound yesterday afternoon was especially noticeable.
ReplyDeleteDealing with bureaucracy gets more and more difficult, and I wonder how many people give up trying to find solutions.
I'd already seen the peacock spiders, and they are marvelous! Now, off to see a few more links. Keep up the good fight on lymphedema, Cathy!
Will do, Jenclair!
DeleteTG for universal health care! I hope the treatment has good results, and the insurance issues fall in your favour.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to the female sleuths, discovered two I’d never heard of.
I always enjoy finding lists like that, even though sometimes I grumble because they left some of my favorites out!
DeleteYes,and I think the stores seem too busy too. I hope it helps to have the machine at home. I have watched a couple of the sonnets already, very fun.
ReplyDeleteI like to see what people are coming up with to help people during this quarantine period.
DeleteOoh, that problem with health insurance and paying the government. What a disaster. Sympathy on all counts. Did you consult a tax lawyer about this? It sounds a bit suspicious to me. Outrageous really.
ReplyDeleteDuring this quarantine, I'm watching lots of news punditry, panel discussions, reading the latest statistics, trying to understand differences in countries. Finished a book, started Angela Savage's "Mother of Pearl." Reading other news about the unemployment and now food scarcity which is horrific.
My state has the notoriety of having more cases than any country!
Lots of good people out there helping others. I was out the other night looking for one of my three nearby 24/7 stores. None were open. I saw sanitation workers -- the only people I saw that day -- and thanked them for their work. They smiled.
That kept me going.
I'm having stores deliver food. And when looking forward to going shopping and seeing people is my hit of the day, I see deliveries with a mixed feeling -- relief I don't have to go out but disappointment that I can't get a break from this apartment and see some humans and dogs.
The links are good.
And hope that you and your spouse stay healthy.
So far, we're both staying healthy, even though consulting those-in-the-know didn't help the tax situation any. Oh well, they're filed, paid, and done until next year.
DeleteI've been working on a new blog post series about my TBR shelves. Didn't realize how reflective book covers are until I tried to get clear photographs of all the shelves. Will continue working on that.
And now it's time for me to go curl up with a book. The two books I'm reading now (Sandrone Dazieri's Kill the Father & William Shaw's Deadland) are both excellent so far and may both make my Best Reads list this year.
Deadland is very good. A wonderful writer in Derbyshire sent it to me and I scarfed it down. Shaw's series is terrific.
ReplyDeleteAnd now back to Angela Savage's "Mother of Pearl," a complex story about surrogacy in Thailand from three viewpoints. The author does not shy away from tackling the hard issues, including impoverishment in Thailand, the driving force of many fraught situations for woemn.
Yes, I love Shaw's series. He's got another one coming out in the near future, and I'll be ready for it!
Delete