Eanna

What a bummer. World Press Review has stopped publishing. The foundation that was keeping it afloat said with all the other competition from other media, they were losing too much money on it. This was, as far as I know, the only magazine where you could get articles from the foreign press, across a wide political spectrum, uncut and un-interpreted to make them more palatable for an American audience. I know that, with the internet, we have more immediate access to news around the world, but you have to know where to look. Not to mention that many instituions block access to (politically or patriotically) incorrect websites. I really feel that we've lost something significant with WPR's demise.
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Blood From a Turnip
A gripping tale of high suspense and bureaucracy

The story so far...
Episode 1: I call Blue Cross to get an international out-of-network claim form for my trip to the doctor in New Zealand. The forms that arrive are clearly not for an international claim, so I call customer service. "That's OK," she says, "Just fill out the top part and attach the receipt."

Episode 2: A month later, the claim is returned, with a form letter asking for the name/address of the provider. The clinic's name and address is on the attached receipt, so I call customer service again. A different person asks me to mail the returned claim directly to her, and she'll sort it out.

Episodes 3-6: They never received the form I returned. They have no record of ever receiving such a claim from me, no wait they did, but they destroyed the original receipt, so I need to call the clinic in New Zealand and get a new one, then send it to a different address using the real international claim form, it's in the mail we swear to god.

Episode 7: I finally receive the real international claim form, get a new receipt from the Greymouth Clinic (probably spending more money on the call than I'll get from Blue Cross), and mail them off to the real international claim address.

Episode 8: Remember the claim form I sent back to customer service in Episode 2? The one they never received? It arrives in my mailbox with a form letter identical to the first one, asking for the name and address of the provider.

To be continued . . . unfortunately...
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It was warm enough yesterday and again today for the swamp to kick on for about half an hour, although I've got it cranked up to 86. I think we may have broken 100 today; I haven't checked with the Weather channel yet.

Had a lousy practice yesterday, a good to excellent one tonight. There's some songs I just need to stay away from until my throat's fully recovered.
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I haven't said much, or anything, about my day job in this journal. I suppose it's because it's just not that interesting to write about. I've always liked to leave my work behind me when I log out for the day. Once, when I was struggling through the Master's program at ASU, a friend asked me if being an engineer would make me happy. I didn't know what to say; I'd only ever expected a job to make me money.
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Puttering around the house and the yard today. Weather's not too bad for it; not horribly warm yet, and we got rid of yesterday's high wind. I found a decent coffee placebo, teeccino, at Sprouts. It's basically a high-class Postum, with dried fruit, nuts, and flavorings thrown into the mix. The hazelnut is pretty good, although I just can't see drinking it all Sunday morning like I used to. But last night I did an hour's practice, nice and solid though it took longer to warm up than normal, so the diet must be doing some good.

Yesterday I read Sethra Lavode. I wasn't intending to read the whole book in one day, but it's such a ripping yarn that I kept saying "one more chapter", and next thing it was midnight.
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Tomatoes. I've learned something very useful about tomato plants. To wit, you can fix them with duct tape. I honestly thought I had killed the biggest, bushiest tomato in my patch when I got overenthusiastic with the trellis and snapped the main stem, all but a little strip on the side that remained attached. In desperation more than anything, I stuck the stem back together and wrapped it in duct tape. A week later, the plant's looking as good as ever.

The corn's topped out at 2-3 feet, and one of them's actually forming an ear. Since I didn't plant dwarf corn, my guess is either the weather or I really need to compost.
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Glur... not feeling particularly inspired right now, but I ought to put something in since I haven't posted since Wednesday. I started a new story this afternoon - well, story is stretching it a bit. I threw some characters together in a scene and just had some fun with it, seeing where they would lead me. I think I know where it's going now, but I don't want to get so married to the plot-as-I-want-it-to-be that the story becomes forced.

There seems to be a mating pair of black-chinned hummingbirds in my back yard. At least, they perch near one another without fighting much. They must have shorter beaks than the Anna's that I usually see, because one of them, while making short work of the penstemons, had a heck of a time with the aloes.

In conclusion, I would like to say that whipping the Easter Bunny is just plain wrong.

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You never realize how much feeling there is in your nose until after it's been numbed...

Got the verdict from the ear, nose, & throat Dr. today: it's Acid Reflux Disease that's been causing my hoarseness - probably aggravated by the bad habit I picked up in New Zealand of eating dinner right before bedtime. At least in NZ I had the excuse of dropping from exhaustion at day's end. In addition to pretty purple pills, I also have a list of forbidden foods and I can't drink anymore COFFEE! AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHH! whimper. Makes me glad I didn't hoard my Atiu Island Coffee for "later". Hopefully once we've got the acid under control I'll be able to drink coffee in moderation....

Never thought I'd have a trendy disease. Here's a link to more than you could possibly want to know about acid reflux and vocal disorders.
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How effective are political attack ads?

(1) X runs ads saying "Don't vote for Y".
(2) Y runs ads saying "Don't vote for X".
(3) Record numbers of people don't vote.
Q.E.D.
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