no, I haven't abandoned the blog

No, i haven't abandoned the blog. I have nothing to write about.

Today was going to be my big walk for the weekend. The sidewalks were icy. The rain was falling. It wasn't pretty. I stayed in.

Yesterday I walked in Fountain Hill. Pretty much the same route as I always take, lots of hills. Including the steep one into the woods at the Stanley Avenue Recreation area. (Aka Fountain Hill Playground.)

Friday I didn't walk. Pat had two doctors appointments and I had a trip to Lehighton.

Monday thru Thursday was the first week of school. I went out at lunchtime, but not far. Still trying to adjust my schedule.

My health insurance bill came. No cards. No instructions for a website. No book. It really is worthless. Maybe after the bill is paid?

Not much success on the healthy eating front either.  I am eating a lot less. I thought I was eating better. But the calorie app says otherwise. I'm eating all fat and carbs and not enough protein. All the protein I like is filled with fat. It's an endless cycle. I am doing much, much better not eating takeout.

I'm not even charting my food today. I ate potato chips and brownies. If I am eating this little and it 1500-2000 calories, I must have been eating 5000 before. Will start again tomorrow.

Tomorrow I am also back to three jobs. Let the merri-go-round begin.

goal 6 achieved!

Today it snowed all day. Walking in the snow was wonderful. You can tell it's January. The Liberty Tax Lady Liberty mascots were out. There were two. One saw me snap the pixfrom across the five points. "Hey, xxxx, she's taking ur picture!" I am very happy that I don't need to do that to make a living.

Have you gotten your W2s yet? I think it's a little early to be doing taxes.

Yesterday I took two small walks. I barely reached 7K steps. But I did get 25 floors.

Today I did walk. In the snow. Ultimately I went to Ahart's and CVS. I mostly stayed off the hills because of the snow, so I only reached 17 floors.

Doing well with goal 6. Made a doctors appointment. He will yell at me because of my weight.  I did not expect to get an appointment Friday. I wanted the other female doctor. She's booked till mid-March. The guy I got is old. May have to work my way thru the practice to find one I like.

Also bought healthcare. I am now officially poor. I apparently make 3K too much to get any assistance.  My policy is $400/month, with a $4K deductible and $60 doctor co-pays. Pretty much I'm going to be paying twice what I paid before. Unless something horrible happens, I will never make the deductible. And now I won't qualify for the cash price. I'm screwed. However, it will make goal 2 easier to follow. At least the spend less part. Will need to see where I can cut more corners.

Goal 3 is a lot harder. Especially for a "people pleaser" and "enabler". (I learned these terms in Al Anon meetings when my sister was in rehab.) This morning someone called hysterical and hyper-ventilating. The car was repo'd. I caved. However, now that $400/month is a reality, I have no more money to cave with. Maybe it will be easier.

day 6 of 18, radnor

I guess you noticed day 5 was missing. I never made for my little walk to the Wawa. I was grading for two schools and it was suddenly time to pick up Lydia. By the time I did that, my car errands, her errands and got home it was pitch black. Tomorrow winter starts. So it should start to get light again in the evening.

We have less than three weeks off from school. Can you believe it? We go back January 12. Getting walking in Mon-Thrs will be a challenge. Mon/Wed is a two job day. Tue/Thrs only one. I have hope for Tues/Thrs. How I am going to get the to-do list done by then I have no idea. One thing for certain, I must buy health care. No more disposable income for me. My kitchen money will probably also go to health care until my car is paid for. For more than 30 years, I supported universal health care. Hell, I even supported it when I thought that "affordable" meant affordable. Why? there is nothing about health care that is affordable.

Today I did a Volkssport walk in Radnor. I had to go to Collegeville to pick up the 2015 materials to switch out the boxes (yes, on that dreaded list) and cookies for our host hotels. So I told the president I would just come to the Radnor walk. Alone. It was a bit odd without the others.

This walk was a major supply drop off. Everyone was picking things up.

The Radnor walk is a big square—at least the 6K is. You leave the hotel and pass the high school, turn a corner and get on a trail. You stay on that for a good mile. Then you turn left, on Wayne Blvd and head into Wayne. Then you come back Lancaster Avenue, with a tiny  detour.

It's a nice walk. Not many Christmas decorations. But I found a few to take pixs of.

Lancaster Avenue is route 30, the old Lincoln Highway. Along the way there are mile markers that look like huge tombstones. There was one at the High School also and I thought it was odd. But when I saw the Mile Markers I put two and two together.

The original ones are very small. But they only had to compete with cows and corn. Not shopping malls and industrial parks.

It was a nice walk. And I got Delaware county in my book. Next week is Dowingtown in Chester County, and it is going away Dec. 31. I'm seriously consider going. Anyone want to come?

Next Saturday night I am planning the first ever (and probably last)  every two feet movie night to see Wild. I'll go alone if I have to. There will be lots of other hiking/walking nerds there. It is playing at the Banko. (Well the Carmike too, but the Banko is in the 'hood and owned by a non-profit and not a mega-corp.) I read the book in about two days. Generally I hate movie versions of books, but I hear they did really well on this one.






When I read the book I kept thinking, I would do something dumb like this. (Hike the PCT unprepared, not sex and heroin.). Good thing I hate being alone. The PCT is much different than the Appalachian. You don't get desert and snow on the Appalachian.

last car post. promise.

Yesterday Bonnie and I walked in Fountain Hill in the drizzle. Then I went car shopping. In a downpour.

I ended up buying a 2014 Ford Focus. Same car, different year. Between the accident and the new car my insurance bill shall skyrocket. Guess it's good I didn't buy healthcare. My budget will be on life support next year when that happens.

I still haven't heard from the insurance adjuster. I know they came and looked at the car. I found that out when I went for my plate at the tow truck garage. (My plate is the "save wildlife" original owl version. It's been retired. The new version is a river otter. Not nearly as cute.)

I had little time to research. I wanted to return the rental. It was sucking money out of my account. The storage fees for Aretha are also sucking out money. ($50/day!) I had found some 2014 used cars—my guess test drive cars with under 5k miles—but they were gone by the time I could get there. Daddy used to buy used cars and they were major headaches. Mama used to say "that you bought someone else's problems". So I went with new.

The new version has all kinds of screens, it even counts down your gas level.  It has built in hands free calling. The guy set it up before I left. I don't anticipate using it. I can't multi-task and drive. Even with full concentration, bozos run stop signs and I run into them.

Sorry camera is on it's way to Africa on vacation. My stuff is so well traveled.  I had to use my phone for the pix.

Today I'll be walking across campus for the benefits fair. More on that later. Lunchtime massage. Can't wait.

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Benefits Fair is next week. Oops. Went, nobody there.

un-affordable healthcare deadline

Today was the day I was going to buy healthcare. Three days before the deadline. But I didn't. Ironically, I've supported National Healthcare since the early 80s. It's come back to bite me.

First stop was the Highmark store. Online they had the cheapest plans....which were not cheap. At least not to me. I was there 2 minutes. They had several computers all set up to healthcare.com. I told them I did that research at home and I wanted to talk to a human. That wouldn't be possible until after April 1. Say what? The deadline is Monday. I was not happy and stormed out without even saying thank you. Chock one up for customer service.

Next stop, Capital Blue. The atmosphere was so different. The receptionist took some basic information, offered me a seat, and I waited. There's a restaurant, kids area, exercise area, and a health testing machine. I'm sure there are other things. No less than three people offered me water or coffee.  I waited less than 10 minutes for a sales rep.

First she told me it was already too late to get healthcare for April 1, even though the deadline is the 31st. Clearly they don't mention that on the commercials. I think this is what the Highmark person attempted to tell me, but very poorly.  Any coverage bought today would be valid May 1, and you'd pay the penalty for one month. Of course they offered short term policies for the gap. The experience was better, but the quotes were high. Really high.

While there I found out the difference between HMO and PPO. Remember I haven't had insurance in 15, maybe 16 years. HMOs were in their infancy. Heck, there was no employee contribution. Or a small one.

When I returned home, I decided to bite the bullet and log on to the AARP's healthcare site. Guess what? They no longer offer full healthcare policies for people under 60. Just supplemental ones.

I think I am in the doughnut hole. I make too much money for subsidies. But make too little money to pay the full rate. I need a job that has benefits. Or at least a group plan.

The bottom line. I won't be buying healthcare. I will pay the penalty. The most it will be is $500 for 2014. Then I have a year to figure out plan B before the penalty spikes. Hopefully they come up with a "Safe Auto" type policy for people like me. If they don't I'll have to bite the bullet and buy. To do this, I will need to stop being a ATM for people in financial trouble, stop racing and other crazy events, and pretty much use all my disposable income.

st. patricks day 5k

Today was the St. Patrick's Day 5K, before the parade. A week late. Why? I'm clueless.

Things were different. We usually meet at Memorial Hall. Today it was in the student union. Across campus. There was a volleyball meet in Memorial Hall.

Parking was more of a nightmare than normal. The volleyball game, a symposium, tours you name it. I ended up parking on Liberty, I think. But to do that I arrived about an hour early. I was alone. It was boring.

I took my iPod. That helped during the actual walk. But I was dead last for the whole thing. I think I was the only walker. There were a few run/walkers. The course was similar. Start at Memorial Hall, go down to 21st, then to Tilghman, back to 26th, and repeat. The second time you go to 19th. I guess that's the extra 10th mile to make it 3.1.

At the split I was at 22.38. I think that's pretty good. I finished in about 45 minutes.

No pictures. Sorry. I left my camera at work on Thursday night and can't do selfies with the iPod. I tried. They were horrible.

After the race I went to Cedar Crest Boulevard. I wanted to go to the Highmark store for "affordable" health care. That March 31 deadline is looming. Highmark comes up in my searches as the cheapest each time. And they are not cheap. The highest ones are $1K a month! I thought talking to a "real" person might help. But alas they were not open. So I walked to the other end of the shopping center and bought sugar-free frozen yogurt with fresh fruit.