Well. . .

[rolanni]

. . .I started the laundry, and made a dent in the SRM bookkeeping. Sigh. The day-job imposes curious tolls in unlooked for places. I wonder if, taken all together, they add up to being worth having health insurance. Especially in light of the apparent belief on the part of HR that this year, the institution lost a little ground with the insurer, and next year they expect to have no negotiating position available, so the higher costs will be passed on the the employees.

Funny how everybody allows as how the insurance companies are out of control, and nobody expects them to get pulled over anytime soon.

Anyhow, another good swack at the bookkeeping tomorrow oughta settle its hash. Whereupon I can file all these pieces of paper and! Be ready to start writing on -- heck, maybe I'll take Thanksgiving Day entirely off -- Black Friday. That'll be fun.

The laundry, of course, is a never-ending story all its own.

For now, I need to get off this infernal machine, clean the cat boxes (hey! I forgot to put that on the to-do list!), and have a nice plate of spaghetti.

Hope everybody's having a productive and/or restful weekend, as suits you best.

Comments

Ghost Ship cover

[(Anonymous)]

I just dropped by David Mattingly's web site to visit the cover of GHOST SHIP while my copy is being framed and David has featured it (along with a very nice comment about your writing) as his latest painting. It's just as spectacular as it was the first time I saw it!

Anne in Virginia

Much the Same Experience

[claire774.livejournal.com]

I have to do dog laundry as well as my own laundry. It's now cold so my little ones all have to wear T shirts and little knitted coats. Exdept Gus who has a nice warm coat of his own. Also lots of blankets and little fleeces.

And my employer also raised or health insurance this year too. It went up around $10 per month for us. We're lucky though to be in UT where there is a model health insurance program from Intermountain Health care. Its a non profit. I think I've said that before. So we're not going to be too awfully impacted I think.

Perhaps in the future there will be some kind of private health insurance you can get. Unless the whole thing goes to hell with the new House. Don't know what your politics are like. I wish that someone besides old white people had voted in the mid terms. Only 42% of the electorate bothered to vote. Old white people tend to be very short sighted imo. As an Old White Person myself I try to be more open minded and modren.

Anyway I think that all your fans wish you could ditch the day job.

Am reading Carousel Tides. It's fantastic!

Gus sends his most polite barks to Hexapuma. He's a little upset that the dogs so far appearing in Carousel Tides are bad dogs. He'd like you to put some good dogs in your books sometimes. Like those nice Goldens you saw on the beach. There was, of course, a very good dog in Carpe Diem I think it was. Although you weren't quite sure he was a canis familiaris.

C. and Gus

[saruby.livejournal.com]

If you are wondering about the value of the health insurance, look at the bills for Steve's recent hospital stay. The total bill before insurance. Calculate from there.

Our insurance increase by about 25% this year and is a major bite, but I'm so glad we have it. The savings on our meds alone cover most of the premium. My sister has no insurance and necessary medications and regular check ups cost more than our premium. She has no choice, but I do and I'm glad.

Still, if the Health Plan survives the change in Congress, maybe you'll be able to get decent coverage without the day job. I hope so.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen Steve's hospital bills yet, though I'm looking forward to them with a certain anticipatory horror. I'm thinking we're going to need the advances for those three books we just sold.

Back in the day, we covered our own (catastrophic) health insurance, as freelancers. We had to pay for our meds out of pocket, and the insurance-company-negotiated rate for doctor's visits (which is not the same as the full rate -- is this a stupid system, or what?), but! it was possible, and we could pursue the life and the career we wished to pursue.

Now, it's not even possible. And I do sorta resent that. What I resent more, though, is the fact that the health insurance companies can and do raise their rates by 20/22/25/28% in this economy, and people just shrug and say, "Well! but we're lucky to have it."

It's another little homey terrorism that's being dropped on the heads of US citizens, for the fiscal benefit of a few.

. . .

The State of Maine just elected a yahoo Nice Man for governor, who has a hate on for the self-employed health plan made available by the state (which, to be Perfectly Fair, is. . .an inexplicable mess -- by which I mean, I could explain it to you, given time enough and pixels, but you wouldn't believe me.). Despite the fact that it is a self-funded program (i.e. no tax dollars support it), this fruitcake Well-Meaning First Citizen has Vowed To Destroy It! to save state money! and also! because it "limits the choices of small business*."

But, wait, there's more! It turns out that this guy got more than $750,000 in campaign funds (http://www.dirigoblue.com/) from the pharmaceutical industry, because, as governor, he will be in a position to kill a much more dangerous program for the pharm companies -- wherein the state of Maine is empowered to negotiate the best prices for prescription drugs for its citizens.

Phew.

Yeah, I'm in a good mood. Sorry for dumping all that on you.

______
*This despite there ARE NO "choices for small business" or anyone else in re health insurance in the State of Maine. Some years back -- about the time we moved here, I think -- the Maine Government made a Mighty Attempt to force the health insurance companies operating in-state to behave with a modicum of restraint. The result of that well-meaning but ill-advised move was that most of the health insurance companies moved out of Maine and no longer offer coverage here.

[saruby.livejournal.com]

Insurance can frustrate anyone. In fact, it mostly does. Not saying I'm lucky to have it, just that I'm happy I do as the alternative would bankrupt us. Insurance is a scam, but it's the only game in town. Which s*ks big time. Personally, I'm a strong supported of "ObamaCare". Health for everyone, not the few!

Your new governor sounds like a complete idiot! Fortunately, we didn't elect the idiot (who applauded "ignorant white people with guns" as a support for good government - no kidding this is a quote} this time around and also opted not to define "personhood" as beginning the moment a sperm rubs up against an egg, nor to completely prohibit state and local government from issuing bonds (talk about bankruptcy!)

[gilraen2.livejournal.com]

If it were up to me, and I were as wealthy as I would like to be, you and Steve would have (in addition to excellent health insurance) a housekeeper and cat groomer to handle your domestic comfort and an invisibly competent accountant/bookkeeper/computertech to handle your other issues - leaving you all day every day to plan and write magnificent fiction without worrying about silly things like laundry, publishing, or the day job. I believe the princes of the Italian Renaissance used this system and called it patronage. Would you mind being patronized (were I ever to win the lottery)?