I never intended to make this a weekly blog; just haven't had the inspiration to write very day. I promise I'll try to do better. The best thing this week was an afternoon with Charna. She'll be going off to Chicago to school next weekend. It was wonderful to spend time with her.

We went out for lunch, then a walk in Schenley Park where we found wonderful wooded areas we didn't know existed. When you drive through the park you see acres of rather boring, manicured lawns. I was told there were wooded areas like Frick Park, but had never seen them. We finally found Panther Hollow Valley, and really only explored a bit of it. I was afraid our parking meter would run out if we stayed more than an hour. And I hate to admit it, my legs were beginning to complain.

Not so happy was the arrival of a bill from Comcast for $116 after months of paying only $65 a month with virtually no TV. I've been using their service for phone, internet and TV for about three years. I began with a deal: the three services were $69/month for one year. At the end of that year I renegotiated the contract for just slightly more money.

At the beginning of the week I called them (mistake) about the bill, had a long talk with someone who sold me a service package for $3 something a month and just as I agreed the phone went dead, I couldn't get back to him and I no longer had the internet. When I finally got back to a human after I spent about an hour on hold, she told me I didn't have internet service, only phone and TV. Finally, she got a supervisor and got the internet back for me.

None of these conversations included talk about money, so I was staggered by the bill. This time when I called they told me I had been getting the internet for free, but not to worry, they wouldn't try to collect. You bet, they won't. I sent a detailed email to their corporate offices and got a return call from a peon here in Pittsburgh, but no satisfaction. Verizon here I come.

Raja is having a show of her photographs in Kentucky. The opening is today. If the drive wasn't quite so long, I would have liked to go and surprise her. I'll miss the brownies and Oreo cookies. I spend a lot of time thinking about healthcare.

Robert Reich has a great post about it that I particularly liked because he lays the blame for most of the mess on the insurance companies and big pharma. For a fast recap of what he has to say watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/v/ZXFHXqrrJ6g&hl=en&fs=1&

Let your Congressmen and the President know how you feel about making profits from health, or lack of it. Let's make it
Medicare for All.