That prescription again

Posted on July 23, 2007 by ruthek

I should have it by now, right? Wrong! It took me two days to reach the doctor’s office; the first day I kept getting busy signals or no one answered. Weird. Then I heard nothing for three days. Last night I went over to the pharmacy. Yes, they had filled the prescription: 10 pills out of the 90 I was supposed to receive. They would get the remainder today, maybe. And they apologized for not notifying me. I left the ten pills and told them I would come back when they had the entire order. I don’t want to start taking this stuff and find out I can’t keep going. I hate to think how I would feel if this was urgent.

Walking in Frick Park

Posted on July 20, 2007 by ruthek

Two of my neighbors, Mary and Sonsee, go walking early most mornings. I try to join them but sometimes they go too early for me. I’m trying to get in a lot of walking so I’ll be prepared for my trips to New York and Japan. Today I went with Phyllis, who often joins us. It was a beautiful morning, very cool and sunny. Walking the trails in Frick Park, a roundtrip of about three miles, we had a surprise this morning: a large tree had fallen across one trail. This is Phyllis climbing over the tree.
We’ve had some nasty weather over the last few nights; that’s when it must have happened. It looks like the rain softened the ground and the tree was pulled up by its roots. This tree looks like it’s about to fall over.
We walked under it quickly, and I took the picture from the other side.

Random questions for a Wednesday

Posted on July 18, 2007 by ruthek

I got a phone call early this morning from the doctor’s office; my prescription was approved, provided I will accept a generic. That’s OK. But I had to give the dr’s office the phone number of my pharmacy. Never having called them before I didn’t have it and didn’t have time to look it up when they called. I tried to call them back when I got back from my classes. Of course, they were already gone. Why didn’t they keep the phone number when the pharmacy first called them after the prescription was denied? Am I being too rational?

I’ve been reading about Philip Pearlstein in a magazine called Art Press. Published in France it’s articles are in both French and English. I had no idea that Pearlstein is from Pittsburgh, even went to school at Carnegie Institute of Technology and was Andy Warhol’s friend. The two of them went to New York together. My question is: how come we have an Andy Warhol Museum, but no Philip Pearlstein Museum? I think he is a much more interesting artist than Warhol. Is it because Warhol was a better promoter? He was certainly a master. Or is it because Pearlstein paints nudes? Or what?

I am in school most of the day on Wednesday. At some point when I went to the ladies room I found this stuck to the door of the stall.
I know what’s worse than an abortion, but I can’t think of an easy answer about what is better. I presume this is some kind of anti-abortion statement, but it made me wonder what might be better, mostly things that most of the anti-abortion zealots never mention. Instead of picketing in front of Planned Parenthood, how about teaching young women about the responsibility involved in raising a child? How about giving women enough self-esteem to enable them to say no to unprotected sex? How about making men equally responsible for raising those children?

Still thinking about healthcare

Posted on July 17, 2007 by ruthek

It is now seven (7) full days since I brought in the prescription and I still haven’t heard from them. Just wanted to keep you updated.

More healthcare nonsense

Posted on July 16, 2007 by ruthek

Last week I went to the dermatologist for one of those full body scans for skin cancer. I was given a clean bill of health and a prescription for something to clear up a condition I’ve had for years but only bothers me occasionally. This also required a blood test that I took and passed. Wanting to be a good, knowledgeable patient I looked up the drug in the formulary my insurance company sent me and it said I needed pre-approval. I called them; they gave me an 800 number to give to the doctor to call. I called the Dr’s office this morning and was told I should go ahead and submit the prescription to the pharmacy where it would be denied, and then the doctor could go ahead and fight the insurance company. This could take two or three days and I should call the office again if I don’t hear from them in that time. I’m glad this isn’t an emergency, but what if it was?

This is the kind of thing that makes me wonder how our healthcare system functions, at all. My time making all those calls doesn’t count, after all, I’m retired. But what about the pharmacist, the doctor’s office, and the insurance company? Surely this cannot be cost effective. This is why doctors need such large support staffs. They aren’t there for you; they are there to deal with the nonsensical rules set up by the insurance companies.

This is a nasty game that puts your life in the control of an insurance clerk following rules set up by a high priced accountant.

I began working on this post on July 10, inspired by a post on Wintersong, written more beautifully and coherently than anything I produce. Today is July 16 and I haven’t heard from either the doctor or the pharmacy. I’m certainly glad my life doesn’t depend on this medication.

Critics of single-payer universal healthcare call it socialism and say it is not compatible with the capitalist system. I think the system we have in place now is a form of totalitarianism. I have no control over my healthcare, and worse yet, my doctor seems to have little or no control over my healthcare. Someone is certainly making money out of all of this, but I’m sure it’s not my doctor or any other health provider.

Great week

Posted on July 13, 2007 by ruthek

Raja and friend went home this morning, leaving the apartment very quiet. We had a wonderful couple of days, the only sad thing being they should have stayed longer. They didn’t arrive until late Tuesday. On Wednesday we drove around a gray Pittsburgh to admire some of the wonderful homes in Shadyside and Squirrel Hill. Also drove through Chatham, now University, another beautiful area. From there we viewed the Pitt-CMU campuses and had lunch at Orchids, my favorite Indian, vegetarian place on Centre Ave.

Moving over to the North side we looked at things around the Mattress Factory,

Raja wants to paint murals like this on her back porch.

then, barely beating the rain, ran into the Warhol where we spent several hours.

Raja and friend at the Warhol.

Thursday was Frick day. We began with a long walk in Frick Park, again one of my favorite places. Arriving back at the Art and Historical Center we decided we were very hungry. The nice people at the Cafe let us sit down early; we didn’t have to wait for our 1 pm reservation. After a great lunch we toured Clayton, the Frick family mansion.
Another idea for Raja’s back porch.

We finished our day at the movies: La Vie en Rose, and custard at Rita’s.

I am ready for you Raja!

Posted on July 8, 2007 by ruthek

The apartment is as clean as it will ever be. I made a reservation for lunch at Frick Cafe for Tuesday. It’s supposed to be very hot here; it’s hot already, but I’m sure you know about that. What time do you think you will get here?

Listening

Posted on July 6, 2007 by ruthek

I usually take the bus to class, but yesterday I drove because I had to go somewhere else first. I suppose I could have taken buses to both places but it seemed too tedious. My love of public transit only goes so far. Of course, if it was run more intelligently, I might feel differently. (That’s another subject.) Anyhow, I recently discovered Democratic, as in Democratic Party, talk radio here in Pittsburgh, so I listened as I drove home. I came to the conclusion that I shouldn’t listen to them. They are telling me what I want to hear; for instance, Cheney should be impeached, and then Bush, but I know it’s not going to happen and I don’t want to be so optimistic. Maybe that’s why Air America was not a resounding success: it’s too hard to come to terms with reality after you listen to someone telling you what you want to hear.

They also spoke about healthcare, my favorite subject. According to a CNN poll 64% of the people polled answered yes to this question: "Do you think the government should provide a national health
insurance program for all Americans, even if this would require higher taxes?

Have you heard this from anyone in the media, or politics? Rep. Dennis Kucinich is the only presidential wannabe who is willing to talk about this. Everyone else, Clinton, Obama, et al, treat it like it’s impossible that any red-blooded American would want to stop the insurance companies from bleeding us to death. Kucinich has no money and will never win because he’s the only one the insurance companies don’t own.

Travel Below

Posted on July 1, 2007 by ruthek

Not to Australia but up to Tarentum and down into a coal mine. As the tour began Linda and I had similar reactions: did we really want to do this?
But it turned out to be fascinating. The hard part was going down to the mine. Getting into the little train cars was not a great thing for us ladies of a certain age; getting out was worse. You don’t really feel like you’re going down, the grade isn’t very steep, but it was a long bumpy ride, and they say we went a half mile below ground. An old miner, older than us, explained the coal mining process and showed us how it changed over the years. What a terrible, dangerous job it was a hundred years ago. It’s hard to imagine that conditions in Eastern Europe were worse than working in a mine; that miner’s work was attractive to them.
There is also a museum with a broad collection of ephemera from the early 1900s. I found an etching of Pittsburgh in 1905 and saw, for the first time, a drawing of Grant’s Hill.It’s in there behind the downtown buildings.

A Hollywood stage set entry to the mine. It was all so old it had a kind of authenticity, even though it was only a facade.
This log cabin belonged to the mine owner’s father (?) and was moved to the site.

Housekeeping

Posted on June 29, 2007 by ruthek

Did I ever tell you I hate cleaning? I hate cleaning! I only do it when things get really bad. Today was the day. Things are bad and Raja is coming to visit in about ten days. I figured I better start now. She’s very clean. I did the kitchen and both bathrooms. I actually keep them moderately clean most of the time, but the floors really needed washing, not the lick and promise they usually get. I did it. Am I proud of myself? A little, but not the same as when I complete some creative project. During the next week I’ll finish the rest of the place and be ready for Raja.

100 Books Before I Die

Ruthe Karlin