A small rant

I hope my several friends are having a great time at the Maryland Sheep Festival at our annual Run from the Roses getaway. My regret is not being there to watch the Kentucky Derby with them on TV this afternoon, wearing a silly hat and placing a friendly and uninformed bet. I went last year and the event I enjoyed most, after the derby, was the Parade of Breeds, where maybe 80 different types of sheep are displayed. Once was enough for me, though, and I doubt I'll attend again.

Here in Indiana, the allergens that make me ill are on the attack. Seriously. I have been sick, achy and asthmatic for the past week - worse that usual. Not to mention depressed and weepy from same. I have stayed inside, in the air-conditioning, and I have cleaned the dust from living room where I spend most of my time. I don't broom sweep but rather vacuum daily and still, I have been so sick. I have been sleeping 12 to 16 hours a day.

Rant: The one medication that really works for me is Singulair. It does something to my sinuses that allows me to smell and it eases the body aches. Under Sweetie's old insurance plan, it cost $40 for a month, which was not great but affordable. Under the new, not improved plan that took effect March 1, it costs twice that. My other medz, the Enthusiastimine, now is $65 a month. Preventafit and the regular anti-depressive are now $30 each. Then there are Sweetie's medz. All in all, about $250 a month.

Also, I broke my six-month-old glasses last week. The frames were bought "as is" with no guarantee, so that was my bad. However, the new frames and lenses, lightweight with no-line bifocals were over $450, out of my pocket. The insurance will not cover another eye exam or another pair of glasses for 18 more months. It doesn't seem that a little bit of metal and plastic should cost so much. We are not poor or destitute, (in which case said medz and glasses might not cost so much) but it is still a major chunk of change out of the purse, especially the medz which are a monthly expense.

We are frugal people, Sweetie and I. We don't buy new cars. I buy my clothes at Goodwill. We don't splurge on much - Netflix and Sirius are a combined $25 a month. We rarely eat out and I pack Sweetie's lunch. We don't have kids - not the two-legged kind, anyway.

Rant recant: But to be honest, I shouldn't complain. We have so much and I am grateful for everything. We own property outright and are considering buying another house just outside of town that is coming up for tax sale for a mere 35K. If we weren't so frugal, we would be in debt like most Americans. I don't have to work - how much is that worth?

I want to rant, hard and loud, but It's difficult when so much of the world has so very little. Wind has gone out of sails.

On a different note, I am now spinning for a new shawl.
It's always fun to begin a new project, isn't it? I'm experimenting with one colorway using a pattern from Interweave Knits, Fall '06, the Swallowtail Shawl.