Midtown Ranch

Mom died in August. Have been waiting for house to go to market.

Feeling sad. Not that it’s for sale, but because in my opinion a lot of lipstick was put on a pig thus pricing it out of reach of a sweat equity family. My preference (and what I was assured was the plan) was do bare minimum required by law so it would be within reach of more families.

It must have taken hours and hours of attention and care to accomplish.

I’m shocked at the extensiveness of the remodel. It clearly required a lot of effort and money to effect such a significant transformation.
Without belittling the effort, I confess I deeply regret we didn’t allow a middle income family to benefit from sweat equity by leaving it a fixer upper. I fear we have successfully priced this out of the reach of families “like us”. This feels greedy. Back of the envelope calculations – $30/hour completely dedicated to mortgage vs $21/hr if we’d done little and listed at $480k.

It’s done. People worked hard with good intent. I know it was done with love. Not fighting it and don’t want an explanation or justification.

I hope it pans out and that a nice family can afford it and that it’s not a tear down for a rich couple.

The house went into escrow on 03/14/2020, then SHTF with WuFlu. As of 03/24/2020 Sonoma County and much of the country is in some form of quarantine. No word on how this affects the house sale. I assume the required inspections will be delayed / not done. It seems probable that the sale will fall through and we will be starting again. I really wish the house had been sold ‘as-is’ in 4th quarter 2019. I wish I’d argued more successfully or forcefully.

Nine months ago I made a bad decision.

Hey, it’s only midnight, let’s update Two Geeks.

Yeah, that went poorly. Anyway, it’s fixed now.

Waiting for the judges…

I am a nerd. A short nerd. I top out at 4’11”, Scott, I think, is 6′ 3″.

I graphed Elizabeth’s annual height measurements, then added a trendline.
Girls typically reach their full height around age 15 according to the ever reliable inter-tubes.

I do not think my trendline is particularly accurate but it is entertaining to think of E not outgrowing me until around 14.
The Mayo clinic predicts 5’10” based off mine and Scott’s height, or 5’2″ using a different formula.
My trendline predicts 5’2″.

It will be interesting to see where she tops out.

I’m hoping for something closer to 5’5″ so she can reach the top cupboards for me -laughing-.
—
Added 03/2020 As of age 8 she is on track to outgrow me about age 12, and reach her full height of 5’8″ at 15.

He is 14.
My heart will surely break when he leaves this planet.

But let’s not think of that.

Tonight I sink my fingers in his coat softened with age. I whisper stories into his ear about his herding prowess. His intelligence. His courage. I thank him for helping raise our human child. I tell him love stories of our years together.

He noses my thigh and licks my cheek and tells me not to worry. That he is my friend and my partner. To be.

And teaching me “to be” might be the best thing he has done.

I love my Bing so terribly much.

Wales Tails Roque’s Crooner BN RA HSAsM RATN CGC TKI ASCA STDs AHBA JHD

I was reviewing my claims under Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield for my recent medical emergency during my ‘help mom out’ visit to California.

My out of pockets for the six prescriptions was $36.71. I am very very grateful indeed for good medical coverage. The ambulance bill to be transported 13 miles in the dead of the night was $2,589 and change – I am waiting to hear what my portion of that will be. No word yet on the emergency room charges.

While I was reviewing the pharmacy stuff, it caught my eye that CVS  Pharmacy in Healdsburg CA (store # 1173) charged my insurance $223.93, the retail prce printed on the informational sheet was $57.99, and my out of pocket was $8.65. What? I looked deeper. 10 Ondansetron 4 mg tablets cost my insurance company $223.93. Over $20 per tablet charged by CVS to Blue Cross to grant me relief from nausea. I want to emphasize I was NOT responsible for the huge dollar amount, my cost was less than a buck a pill.

Still – The charge to my insurance company was completely outrageous. I wanted to know if an error had been made, or if they were being scalped.

So I called Premera. I spoke with John, who listened to my story and seemed to understand my concern was not that I’d be charged anything extra, but that this cost seemed out of line with what was provided, especially in view that the retail price was printed on the medication sheet as a still expensive $57.99.

John called Express Scripts (the branch that deals with pharmacy stuff for Blue Cross in Healdsburg). They confirmed the $223.93 was customary and correct.

Whoa.

When I encounter things like this I can’t help but wonder how long it takes for that $223.93 takes to get magnified and passed down to you and me as monthly premiums for our insurance, if we are so fortunate as to have insurance. Because somebody, somewhere, is eating that charge. And I have a very difficult time believing it costs $22 per tablet to manufacture Ondansetran (generic for Zofran) and still turn a healthy profit.

<added>

Ouch. I think our out of pocket for the mom-stress induced medical emergency is going to be in the neighborhood of $3,000. About 20% of the total bill which is nearing $15,000. I am indescribably grateful we have health insurance.