"Poor wounded name!..."

This afternoon on the way to the "library," I picked up the first book I saw, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and read the first chapter. All my life I have put off reading this book. I've read The Mayor of Casterbridge and Jude the Obscure, and I once saw a beautiful movie based on Far From the Madding Crowd. I should have read Tess first, but for a while I was saving it for a future treat, and then after reading Jude, I decided I had had all the Thomas Hardy I could take.

Now I am so captivated by Tess, the book, that I can't do anything industrious. The next day or so will be spent among those pages. A map in the front of the old book shows me that "Wessex," the setting, is southwest in England, almost Cornwall, an area with which I made myself as well acquainted as possible in my short time there, in the year 1997. This cures my impression that "Wessex" was somewhere north near Scotland or Hadrian's Wall. I've always tended towards ignorance in geography. But I loved Bristol and the Channel, and Bath, Lynton, Tintagel, Barnstable. Stonehenge and Salisbury. Well, I didn't love Stonehenge, but I liked the old crooked-spired cathedral so much that I re-read Sarum.

If my sentences are somewhat scatterbrained, it's because I can't wait to get back to the book.

Blue Day

Not so good today. I went to the pharmacy this morning for refills on 2 prescriptions, and had to pay the full amount of the drug costs. The pharmacist said I'm in my "gap," and that I have to pay more than 3 thousand dollars, plus my deductible (which I've already paid) before Viva/Medicare kicks in again. These 2 Rx's cost more than I had left after paying my bills, so I only got a partial refill on the most expensive one. I called Viva/Medicare to verify this, and after putting me on hold for 20 minutes or so, the Viva lady reiterated what the pharmacist said, so there's no mistake. I asked when this went into effect, and she said ummmm in 2006, which couldn't be right. Well, I guess it could, since one of the meds I'm taking was added in September of 2006, so probably I was covered under the new deal for the remaining months of 2006. It's OK for now, because I can taper down on the meds I'm taking now (I'm calling the dr.'s office about this). But what if I took the epizeutics or something and had to go on really serious treatments?

My dad always said, "It's always something, my little Rose Ann Rose Anna Danna."

I hear Mr. Cheney is our president now. Maybe he'll fix everything, God bless his little fat head.

This is no fit subject for my beautiful blog. Let's have a pretty picture to liven things up.