At Home at Casa Corona

So tired of this debate. Why is it a debate at all? I truly have trouble wrapping my mind around the thought processes of people who are so angry at the thought that someone "undeserving" might be able to see a doctor when they're sick.

To be perfectly selfish about it, it is in my interest for every person in this country to have good health care. I do not live in isolation. I don't want to come into contact with untreated tuberculosis or MRSA infections. I don't want people with pneumonia walking around, coughing in my face, or leaving germs on the handrails and doorknobs that I'm going to touch. H1N1 flu? Do you know how much more controlled it'll be if everyone -- everyone -- can get a flu shot? And anti-virals if they get it?

How much more productive will the country be, if everyone is more healthy? How much better would the bottom line of every business in the nation be, if the cost of private healthcare insurance came off it? How many houses would not be foreclosed on?

The only adverse effect of universal single-payer health care would be on the profits of the private insurance companies. You know, those people who make billions of dollars by refusing to pay for treatment for their clients. I think they're the "undeserving" in this conversation. But actually, I know that they won't be driven out of business even if the unlikely happened and the US instituted a Canadian-style single-payer system. They'd just figure out new products to sell to the fearful, and continue making money by refusing to provide the service they have sold.

I'm heading out to 4th Street Fantasy Convention tomorrow, and will be there all weekend. I'll be catching email when I can, and will be available by phone if necessary. It's a work/fun weekend!

Alla youse who might have had my cell phone number: I'm porting my office phone number over to a cell phone. So for work purposes, delete the previous cell number and just use 520-749-0054 for all calls. I'll answer it or return calls during work hours, which of course includes all conventions.

Don't text me. Send email. kthxbye.

I'll be watching (and recording) today's Preakness. It is true that I have had nothing good to say about thoroughbred racing for a long time now, and nothing has changed my mind. But today's race is going to be something special.

Remember the Kentucky Derby, two weeks ago? How Mine That Bird blasted past the field like they were standing still? That was a fast field; they didn't all just quit running. MTB is a fast horse, being ridden by a good jockey, Calvin Borel.



But today, The Filly is running. Rachel Alexandra. Who won the Oaks in 20 lengths.



Calvin Borel was riding her, too. And he's riding her today.

Should be a great race.

Hold on to your heart!

Elise is having a sale this week. You can find the sale list here.

She's offering some beautiful earrings, lots of pendants, and a truly remarkable long necklace called "My Tidepool Beloved".

There are a lot of tektites, both made into pendants and loose. I love a tektite.

Go! Buy yourself a spring present!

For the last couple years, I've been extra-cranky about the Triple Crown races. I hate the whole idea of racing three year olds...some of whom aren't even three yet. They're babies. Asking them to perform at that level is cruel, and dangerous.

But I watched the Kentucky Derby today, and wow, am I glad I did. Mine That Bird is one of those not-yet-three-year-olds (he's only two months older than Cori!), but holy cow, what a race he ran! That is one fast horse -- he went past the field to win like the rest of them were just standing there. Very impressive run.

I don't even mind that he beat my pick, Pioneer of the Nile (he came in second). How often do you get to see a 50-1 horse win a race like that?

I guess I'll be watching the Preakness....

Just dropped. The car's thermostat failed because some of the wiring had been chewed by transient rodents. This happens in the desert. Car repair has fixed all the wiring, adding $200 to the price. Sigh. But it'll be all ready for us to pick up tomorrow morning.

Mechanic recommends keeping moth balls in an old stocking toe tied to the inside of the hood of the car. He claims that it repels the packrats and grounds squirrels who like to climb up in and chew on things. Mothballs now on the shopping list. I have an old stocking somewhere, I'm sure.

My car's radiator blew up while I was waiting in line for the vehicle emissions inspection this afternoon. Frightening, embarrassing, frustrating and no doubt expensive.

Thank god for AAA. For all that it was a horrible situation, everyone I dealt with was unfailingly helpful and sympathetic. Unfortunately, it is impossible to get that kind of repair done in Tucson before Monday. So poor little car is sitting at a closed auto repair shop till Monday morning, when someone will look at it, and then call me to tell me which limb I'm to saw off, and when they'll be done. The tow truck driver very kindly brought me home after dropping the car off. Not entirely altruistic, he'll get paid for it, plus the tow company is handling a ton of AAA emergency calls at the Fair Grounds this weekend, and that's quite close to where I live.

One of the kind people I talked to told me that I shouldn't be too upset about it -- that the Honda radiators have a life-span of about 10 years. Mine is now 11, so there's really nothing I could have done to avoid this. I'm lucky it didn't decide to blow up while I was on the interstate, really.

What I have learned: It is so worth it to pay for the AAA Plus coverage.

When we moved to this house six (!) years ago, I was thrilled. Yes, it's much less spectacular, but it's also smaller, easier to keep, and has four times as much land for the ponies to roam in. And it's out in the desert where you can see the stars at night.

But it came with a stove. And the person who bought our old place really wanted the appliances along with. But see, the stove it came with was a rock-bottom basic gas stove. And I was leaving behind a stove I'd bought because it had all kinds of great features, plus a self-cleaning oven. Grumble. And I felt stupid about grumbling about it. It worked. It was there. God knows we didn't have a lot of money to buy new appliances to replace the perfectly good working ones that were already there.

So for the past six years, I have been increasingly grumpy about my stove.

Last fall, it became clear that the inadequate stove's thermostat was getting wonky. And the broiler drawer was becoming eccentric in how you had to open it. I couldn't bring myself to call in the repair people, just to fix a stove I hated.

But today, at last, I have a New Stove. There was some unexpected money, and a really fantastic sale, and I held my breath till I turned blue. We bought a new stove. It is, essentially, the stove I left behind.

I am ridiculously happy about it. There will be baking and other cooking related activities.

Today was Spring Shots day for the horses. Everybody got their West Nile, their tetanus, their eastern and western encephalomyelitis, their rhino. Plus a physical. The vet has been thinking about Ylla and her metabolic issues. He wanted to know what I thought about putting her on a new daily medication, something to help with her insulin resistance issues. Something called "metformin".

I started laughing.

I've been taking metformin every day for the past ten years. When I explained why it was so funny, he started quizzing me on how much I take, how it works for me...and then I gave him an education on metabolic disorder in humans, and which drugs do what and how they work. He said it was exactly what the articles he'd been reading were saying.

So Ylla will get her very own metformin prescription, as soon as Dr. Mike figures out the right dosage for her. I wonder if I should buy her her own blood glucose meter, and check her every morning. She probably wouldn't like the lancet pricks. I wonder what normal bg is for a horse?

Then the farrier came, and fixed her shoes and trimmed everyone else. Except Cai. He's teaching me to trim the horses, so I did Cai under supervision. It was very educational, all about radial and medial balance of the hoof based on conformation and movement. And not only didn't he charge me for that, he gave me a box of used rasps. Which have plenty of use left in them for someone who's only doing one horse.

A good guy, my farrier. A good afternoon, really.