After stopping by a sister’s house I came home to check my health insurance, which had notified me that I’d be automatically enrolled next year in what my insurer decided it could call “similar coverage” if I change nothing.

What it turns out they mean is that the costs of all plans are skyrocketing next year. This “similar coverage” would cost me over $100 more every month, AND I would have the privilege of a several-thousand-dollar deductible — WHICH I DON’T HAVE NOW. TWO YEARS AGO I MADE SURE NOT TO PICK A PLAN WITH A DEDUCTIBLE.

Sorry for the caps. They gave me the numbers already. I looked over cheaper plans, and they’re absolutely horrible. I get them all mixed up in my mind; and it’s impossible for me to choose knowledgeably because I do not know the raw costs of procedures and drugs ahead of time. And hospitals don’t seem to want to tell you. So we can’t calculate anything and be very accurate.

All I know is that I don’t want the plan where I have a $3,000-a-day copay if I end up in the hospital.

Oh, well. Last Saturday the rain stopped and the sun even came out, a miracle, so I went walking in Boyce Park, a few minutes from my house. They've got signs put up that I thought were nice -- a series of three signposts were up near the ponds in the middle of the park, for instance. Now I know just what those ponds are for. They're a complex system of getting the coal mine pollution out of the water before it can go on and reach a nearby waterway that we probably get drinking water from. I think they pump or drain water from one pond to the next, and each one is lined with different stone and has other properties that help get the heavy metals out.

And the front entrance to the park is, so it says, part of the original road created by the army including John Forbes and George Washington to get to Ft. Ligonier to fight during the French and Indian War.


I like taking pictures of the old drinking water pumps that sit here and there. Maybe other parks have these everywhere too, but I don't get around much.


It was a nice day.