Busy Week Winds Down

Just as this photo of clematis seeds evolving from the white flowers of autumn, tonight we are evolving from early to mid winter. The wind is howling from the south, bringing a warm up to the 50s that will crash, forecasters say, tomorrow night and set us up for a dandy ice storm. We hope it won't be as serious as the storm of Nov. 30-Dec. 1, 2006 or the current one in New England.

We managed to do everything on our busy week to-do list but one, and we also added a few more. Tonight we decided not to fight the traffic for 15 miles or so to go to the chorale concert. We hope we'll catch them another time, closer to home. Ava is staying with us overnight while Barb is in Kansas City. She'll be home tomorrow sometime, ahead of the storm.

On Thursday morning I participated in a focus group discussion about prescription drugs for a marketing research firm. It was the first time I have done that, although I've heard of focus groups my whole adult life. Eleven people sat around a conference table for two hours answering questions about generic medications, their pharmacy plans, cost, concerns about safety, etc. A consensus emerged that seemed to mystify our leader (although he could have been pretending.) All of us said we trusted our doctors more than pharmacists, insurance companies or employers (in that order) to give us straight talk about effectiveness and also costs. I know I have anecdotal evidence about this: our internist told me at my last visit that I could probably get my generic prescriptions filled at a number of local chains for less than my pharmacy benefit company was charging me for a co-pay. He was right. I took my two generic prescriptions to one of them and paid only $25 for the 90-day supply for both, instead of the $53 my insurance would have charged me. It is a really wacky world out there. The experience was interesting because everyone was well informed and came from many situations. A self-employed family with three children at home. A man who had lost his job and whose individual risk pool policy had such a high deductible he couldn't afford drug benefits. A guy in a body brace who said he took 8 medications and only 4 of them had generic equivalents. A retired teacher whose two adult children, two grandchildren and an aunt had moved in with him and his wife because of the economy. In some ways it was like being on a jury, but it paid better. I left with a check for $90 for two hours of "work." And the research company, Focus Pointe Global, has already e-mailed me asking if I'd be interested in another upcoming group. Maybe I've found my retirement job?

Today we took Gracie the minivan to the shop because it has been making a mysterious growling whining noise for a couple of weeks. Sort of like a transmission whine but not quite. Of course, it failed to make the noise this morning. But the service writer suspected the power steering pump because his mother's 2005 Caravan had done the same thing. We left Gracie for a technician to check, and for an oil change. Later we got a call that the pump was indeed at fault. It will be Monday before they can get the part, get our extended warranty to confirm coverage, and fix it. That's OK. I think it will be covered, and that's a relief.