beaner’s blog

Another one out of the house and far away: Rob is now in Denver working with AmeriCorps for 10 months, and may be doing anything from disaster relief to Habitat for Humanity houses.  It doesn't make me feel better that yesterday's news mentioned a huge snowfall in Denver.  With limited computer access, Rob's updates are brief and far between.
Can't help worrying a little, it's a mom thing.  I'm sure he's fine, but does he need warm socks sent?  Scarf?
The funniest thing about everyone clearing out is that only Christopher and the dog are left at home.  Christopher is not very socially adept, usually lives on his computer and video games (umm that's why he's been put on academic probation at college for the semester but that's another story...) and he is generally not very chatty.  The quiet is getting to him, though.  When I come home from work every night, he greets me with at least 20 minutes of conversation and follows me around as I make my tea and wind down.  This week he volunteered to carve pumpkins for Halloween...never happened before.  What a treasure it is to be able to know him all by himself.

    It's very quiet around the house.  After a rushed August getting Patrick and Libby re-set for school, this month is depressingly still.  Patrick went back to Lynchburg two weeks ago, and yesterday I watched Libby meander through security at Dulles to catch a plane to Japan.
    Of the two, Libby's leaving is the hardest.  Not only is she literally half the world away, she's my only girl, the one I roll eyes over the boys with, shopping partner, have-you-any-chocolate conspirator.  She'll be gone for a year and come back with experience and vision that will in some ways make her a stranger to me.  I want that adventure and growth for her, but I'll miss my girl.
    Military parents do this by the thousands everyday; send away that boy or girl who leaves a space in the heart.  Proud, worrying, waiting for the e-mail that says everything's fine.  I wondered how they did that.
    It occurred to me that I've spent the last seven years sending one child or another off into the rest of their lives.  Two have circled back for a little while; economics and uncertain academics causing a re-evaluation of what they're doing and how best to move on. They will, when they're ready, and I'll pack them up and say goodbye again.
   
   
   

Whoops, forgot one of Neal on the other post!

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Camping with the gang, Shenandoah National Park July 16-18 2009

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I love that phrase, swanning about, evocative of two Southern ladies clucking over teacups.  "Did you see her this morning?  Swanning about in her housecoat without a care who saw her!"

I have been stuck in health insurance hell for the last few weeks.  When my divorce became final and I was no longer going to be covered under the ex's insurance, I elected coverage under COBRA.  That meant I paid both the employer and employee's share, but although expensive it was still at a group rate.  I should have had the coverage until December 31st 2009.
Fast forward to this past April, when it became clear that the company was going belly-up.  The first week of June I received a letter that the board of directors of the now defunct LandAmerica terminated the health plan.  No company, no health plan, no more COBRA.  Through no fault of my own, I'm losing my health insurance.
I've been scrambling around trying to find private coverage.  Because COBRA is exhausted in my case, I'm eligible for HIPAA, the health insurance portablility and accountability act.  This is a "reform" that allows you to apply and be accepted by an insurer as long as you have had previous coverage within a certain time frame; there is no underwriting with HIPAA and for that priviledge all you have to do is pay the most expensive premium the carrier charges.
In my case, that's a little over $1,700.00 a month.  Who can pay that?
I've been turned down for a non-HIPAA plan that's only slightly more affordable; I can appeal, but truly my high blood pressure isn't going away and I'm going to have to stay on the Lipitor to keep the cholesterol in check, so I don't have any ammunition on which to base an appeal.
The President uses the word onerus quite a bit when he talks about the need for health care reform--I know what that means.

It's been a busy couple of months and this is really the first chance I've had to catch up with the blogs.
I've broken in the new car, and since the toilet paper holder epiphany of a few months ago I have been throwing something out everyday. Lately it has literally been material goods--fitted sheets that are worn through and have no elastic left on the corners, sun-faded curtains (navy blue once, now white in the middle), clothes that I'll never wear again even if I could fit into them.

Treated myself to a good camera, a Pentax D-SLR, and have been having fun learning how to use it.  If I ever figure out how to unload the pics, I'll get some on the blog.  Yesterday my neighbor and I went on an expedition (we were running away from home) to one of my favorite spots.  There was a swan involved, and a snake, and a couple of Cheerios-begging ducks.  You know, if a swan starts to growl at you, you shouldn't stick around to figure it out.  Or take just one more picture.

Otherwise, just working and sleeping.  Too uncomfortable to sit at the computer for long--lots of rainy weather-- so I've been reading, as ever.  Work is irritating me lately which is a sure sign that I need a break.  I've been on the same case for over 2 years; maybe I just need a change.  I'd really like to not work at all, but still not an option.

I'm going all Victory Garden in the front garden bed a la the 40's and tying into the White House grow your own theme.   I don't seriously think I'll get much out of it but maybe the row of corn will get tall enough to hide the porch that needs painting!  Son 2 has done a great job on the upstairs 1/2 bath, patching and painting, the next thing to tackle is the downstairs bathroom which needs some serious painting and a couple of new faucets, and a new toilet, which I picked up today at Lowe's.  It'll be fun watching the boys install that, I'm just going to hand them tools.
All of the kids are here, another reason I've been away from blogs was having to travel and pick 2 of them up from Lynchburg.  The house is full of boxes to sort through, especially important for my girl, who will be spending the next school year in Japan.  I don't want to think about that yet.

No other big news; waiting for the results of more bloodwork since the first batch came out a little off.  Which could explain the general malaise lately.  We'll see.

Hope all is well with you!

  There's a commercial running for a weight loss product, Slimquick (not to be confused with Slimfast) and I have seen it many times.  In case you haven't, there are two animated figures, a man and woman, and she says something to the effect of "I've been dieting for 3 months and this is how much weight I've lost", and her shape shrinks a dress size.  She goes on, "my husband has been dieting for the same amount of time and this is how much HE'S lost,"  and the guy loses so much weight his pants fall down.  Then the announcer goes on to extol the benefits of the product as commercials usually do.  Across the bottom of the screen scroll the usual disclaimers:  Results not typical and may vary among users, consult with a physician before starting any weight loss program, etc.
And this one:
Cartoons lose weight quickly.

Re: last post, and who else gets an F-18 escort (or is it F-22's now?), that would be MRS Obama, who was heading home to get the girls ready for school this week.  I hate to leave things up in the air, so to speak....

It's a plane, is that Air Force One?  Isn't the President still overseas?  Flying over my house yesterday morning was a very large plane, escorted by 4 fighter jets...low enough to be heading into Langley AFB.  Who else travels with that kind of escort, the Vice-Pres on Air Force Two?  It was very cool, I'd never seen that before and that's saying something because this area is surrounded by military bases of all types.

In other news, I'm having a panic attack because I bought a car yesterday.  A Hyundai Sante Fe, deep cherry red.  A little more than I had budgeted for, but really the monster van has lived past it's usefulness.  I don't know what all of the buttons do!