Confessions of a Grandma

It is no secret that I hate the very concept of insurance.  HATE it. Here is a sacrificial goat I am burning at the altar.  Please don't let bad things happen to me. Here is a big pile of sacrificial money, that may as well be burning at the altar because I will likely never see it again.  Please don't let bad things happen to me. A quote from Kristin Cashore, author of young adult fiction/fantasy:   “Q:  Why do you use swear words on your blog, but never the F word?   A: Because I'm saving the F word for the day when I write a blog post about the for-profit health insurance industry and the way its CEOs become wealthy by not only preying on, but exacerbating, other people's personal tragedies. When my daughter was little, she used to play a card game with my mother.  It was called, "Amy Wins."  So you can guess how that went. The insurance industry has become a gambling game of "You Lose."  But we can't guess how that is goi...

I just finished reading a book of short stories entitled A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You by Amy Bloom. I picked it up simply because I loved that title. And then there were the tidbits like: I sometimes think that my mother's true purpose in life, the thing that gives her days meaning and her heart ease, is her ability to torture me in a manner as ancient and genteelly elaborate as lace making. from "The Gates are Closing" Sometimes a writer's ability to turn a phrase just grabs me and I am filled with both admiration and envy. ******* On the subject of seeing: I received a denial of payment for my visit to the eye doctor a few weeks ago. I had an increase in the "floaters" drifting across my line of vision and then lightening-like flashes, which were new and worrisome. I called my eye doctor in Vermont and he advised seeing someone, "preferably a retinal specialist" right away. I was able to get an appointment and I thought I was doing th...