This is my blogchalk:
United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

Subscribe to this blog in Radio:

Wednesday, May 28, 2003

Procedure   Most certainly non-food, this item is about scheduling an annual follow-up colonoscopy. The notice for it came in the mail while I was on vacation but it was loaded with caveats about HMO eligibility that made me cower. I left a message at my primary care asking if I needed a referral (“press 7 for referrals”) and later got back a voice mail basically instructing me to use my own judgment. What’s that? Either I co-pay or cover the whole thing, who really knows? I tried to call the insurance company but the number on my card turned out to be for my 401(k), which is happily up about 10% for the year. I called all the numbers on the card and never spoke to a human. I did learn to press 7 whenever you’re in doubt.   After some effort, I discovered the website for my health care plan. Google was useless, although I did connect for Canadian and Egyptian GBD websites. When I found the right place, more by accident than either skill or luck, I printed out a PDF and it said that I could go to secondary without a primary since I was self-managed. That’s why I pay the big bucks.   I called Internal Medicine and pressed 7. Home free! But they were on lunch until 1:15. Bummer. I called back at 2:30 and there was Lisa, who might have been real or, more likely, one of those crypto-cyber-characters they’ve invented so you can speak more openly about delicate subjects.   “I need to schedule another catastrophe, I mean colonoscopy, “ I blurted out suddenly. “I got this here letter that says I should have it done again.”   “Who performed your last colonoscopy?” she asked pleasantly. During the intervening silence, I noticed a breeze delicately tickle the branches of the bright green fern on my desk.   “I think it was Dr. Stevenson,” I say, reading the most prominently rubber-stamped signature on my form letter. “Wait a second…no...it might have been have been Dr. Elvis,” said more assuredly, as I squinted at the practiced hieroglyphics on the page.   “Dr. Aikens?” She asked almost teasingly. Bitch! You’re playing with me.   “Yeah, it was him.”   “How do you spell your name?”   I spelled it twice, more slowly and with practiced elocution the second time.   Then she said, “Yes! It was Dr. Aikens. We can schedule an appointment in July.”   As she entered the appointment on her computer, I thought to myself…”Okay, it’s Dr. Aikens, he was the one, I suppose. After all, all he did was have me drink a gallon of laxative and shit all night, make me strip naked, shoot me full of drugs, and ram a 6 foot metallic tube up my ass – it’s not as though we were intimate or anything. How the hell do you expect me to remember his name a whole year later?” 8:14:25 PM    comment []

Recently Scored Goodies   (1)     The spiceman will not be stumped again! Zatarain’s, I shoulda known! They have managed to saturate grocery shelves with inexpensive but not bad Cajun mixes, especially nearly instant beans and rice. I shoulda looked in the Zatarain section. File powder, I have learned, is made from sassafras leaves, picked by the light of the full moon they say – which sounds less romantic when you think is just practical, not too hot and you can see. These are ground up and sieved to get rid of the stems. They are primarily used as a thickening agent, so I doubt the andouille will miss them much. (2)     Couldn’t resist the cherry bread mix. This and the file came from A Southern Season which is a foodie paradise. Normally I shy away from mixes, but I have a whole lot of dried cherries that I intended to bake into something chocolate and this will make it easier. I read the instructions on the back of the package which suggested a bundt pan and that was the clincher. (3)     A friend of mine raves about Zabar’s. He went to New York last weekend and was the first in line when they opened Friday morning. He brought me two pounds of Zabar’s coffee and I’m mighty grateful (4)     The little black rectangle just above the bag of coffee is one of my new surround sound speakers. I still like them.   Other things: Today is the 9-month anniversary of Playing With My Food. I originally intended to focus on food sections of papers and seasonal produce for cooking and preservation. There’s a bit of that – such as last weekend’s foray into andouille (cheap pork), cherry jam, cherry coated duck, and dried cherries (seasonal fruit), but mainly it has become something different than my original concept. Lately, it has been something I approach with as much dread as I used to approach with anticipation. Occasionally, I get a good idea and the material just writes itself. When I read that stuff, it’s as though somebody else wrote it. Usually, I struggle and produce stuff that really sucks. That looks like stuff I would write. As I said, it becomes more and more a chore as the surprises run out and the novelty is long gone – but I’m not gonna quit, not just yet. Salon Blogs still feels like a community and the occasional comments, even harsh ones, make me feel like a part of it. Reading other blogs, some “here”, others “over there”, let me see viewpoints that are not available in mainstream (I almost said “mainline”) publications. Closest thing to it is an NPR call-in show, serious thoughts mixed with phone cracking, feedback and children caterwauling, and occasional uncommon insight. It’s a fun place and I’m right happy to be a little part of it. 4:57:03 PM    comment []

US finds evidence of WMD at last The good news for the Pentagon yesterday was that its investigators had finally unearthed evidence of weapons of mass destruction, including 100 vials of anthrax and other dangerous bacteria. The bad news was that the stash was found, not in Iraq, but fewer than 50 miles from Washington, near Fort Detrick in the Maryland countryside. Sarcasm in The Guardian? No...... 6:15:12 AM    comment []