Western toad painting by Carl Dennis Buell

Birding and other pleasures and aggravations, in Berkeley and beyond, by Ron Sullivan.

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June 5, 2009

Things That Have Happened Lately

Since I last blogorated:

Koko Taylor, my absolutely favorite blues singer ever, died. Damn. Then again, she was 80 and toured till a few days before she died.

The peregrines nesting on the PG&E building hatched out three eggs. The eyasses were given Miwok names; Hi, Liwa, Kiwel. Hi, the one tiercel, fledged first and a day later, harassed by local crows, flew into a plateglass window and died. Kiwel fledged next IIRC, then Liwa. Liwa made a bad landing and was picked up and taken to the vet; she had only broken a quill and got her elevator ride back to the rooftops the next day. She’s now at large in SF, and evidently hard to spot. Kiwel was picked up a couple days later with a broken clavicle and is now at (probably the same) vet’s. This is an injury that other falcons have survived and recovered from to live in the wild again. Fingers crossed. Hard year in the city.

Latest bulletin from Glenn Stewart on Kiwel:
Step one went well—there is a good expectation for healing without surgery in this 49 day old bird. Thirty days of quiet rest is needed. Fortunately, I am in a position to provide that for her at this time. Now, just so you know, this is a project that will take some time. We do not heal a bird like this and then take it outside and toss it into the air. We will discuss next steps when we get there.

My niece Erin graduated from highschool with honors, which got her a red grad gown. I sent her a check for college fripperies, which she will have found if she took my inscribed auntly advice to heart.

I’m on an unauthorized but duly reported taper-off of prednisone, which is resulting in serious depressive hours.

I’ve started with a New Drug, a long-acting inhaled bronchodiator called Foradil. Yes it sounds like a Tolkien character. Even has a surname: Foradil Aerolizer. Get this: I paid $115.38 for a three-month supply. (I couldn’t help OOFing out loud at the register.) The Usual and Customary Price (retail) on the tag is $617.89. How the fuck do people live with this shit???! (Yeah, they don’t.)

I tasted Korean acorn bread for the first time ever in a little hotdog joint in Martinez. One of the owners makes it herself, starting with acorns a friend gives her from a tree in um Concord? Walnut Creek? Thereabouts, east of here. Obviously other ingredients; it’s a lot like spicecake with walnuts and raisins. Joe and I each had once less-than-one-inch-thick slice, standard loafpan size, at 2 PM. I was still feeling quite full at 6 PM.

My sister Ellen finally got back online. HEY ELLEN! READ MY FUCKIN BLOG ALREADY OR I’LL PUBLISH THAT PHOTO OF YOU WITH RED EYEBALLS!!

I found and bought a little Pulitzer Prize dingledangle (keychain fob?) in an antique store for a buck. Damn, that’s sad.

The neighborhood crows have fledged three-four kids and they’re raising hell all day every day. Yeesh.

 

 

 

Responses

1 | By: jael on June 6, 2009 at 03:06 PM

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that’s a horrendously expensive drug.
OFFFFFuck indeed.
Also
You’re awesome, Ron.

2 | By: VS on June 7, 2009 at 10:19 AM

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As pissy as my insurance is about some things, like insisting that I try every other drug in its class before I can have the one PPI that actually works for me, I’m very grateful for how many things ARE paid for.  Every so often, I need a scrip that costs $600 - $1000.  They have paid for it, so far, without a quibble.

Tapering off prednisone… ah, yes, I remember it well.  [[[shudder]]]  If you don’t get the comedy channel, I strongly suggest checking some good stand-up out of the library.

3 | By: Kate G. on June 8, 2009 at 08:23 AM

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Tapering off prednisone…my heart goes out to you. That is one nasty fall from nirvana, but you got the crow kids to keep you company.

4 | By: kathy a on June 9, 2009 at 07:10 AM

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hope you’re feeling better and the new med is working well.

5 | By: Ron Sullivan on June 9, 2009 at 08:09 AM

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Thanks.

And if anyone’s wondering why I’m so unsocial lately, well, there it is.

I do have more energy than, oh, two weeks ago, but lately, if I’m not in direct sun, I’m out-glooming Joe most of the time. Obviously the better part of my brain iworks by photosynthesis.

6 | By: Sally Mack on June 10, 2009 at 12:28 PM

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Thanks for the update on the peregrines.  Life and death in the big city. . .

Glad you’re feeling better, even if nominally.  Keep it up.

7 | By: Pica on June 10, 2009 at 04:39 PM

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Thanks for the update and hope the new meds are doing what you hope for. Love and hugs.

8 | By: Narya on June 12, 2009 at 01:36 PM

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Tonight is (a) Koko Taylor’s funeral, and, appropriately enough, (b) the first night of Blues Fest here in the city. I don’t go, myself—the misanthrope in me objects, plus Game 7 of the NHL playoffs—but everyone who’s anyone will be around. Thanks to the residence here of her & Buddy Guy, we actually get quite a bit of it on my local rock station. (Of course, one of the DJs does a blues show . . .)

Also: I’ve been to the Checkerboard Lounge, although I was there when it was in a crap neighborhood. A genuine dive, as opposed to a faux dive, but fun.

9 | By: thepoliticalcat on June 14, 2009 at 10:31 PM

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Bejaysus, woman, I turn my back on you for one lousy year and it’s flirtin’ with death and destruction you are! I got my knee replaced, and the resulting pain and suffering has rendered me even more eremitic than normal (which is pretty bad). That said, my heart goes out to you on the drug question. Why are the drug companies even allowed to charge so much? OTOH, pain medication is pretty fantastic, and if you take enough of it you see pretty lights and colours!

10 | By: VS on June 15, 2009 at 08:06 AM

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My insurance company is back to being pissy my PPI.  Aciphex *works*, but they wanted me to try Nexium.  I tried it for five days, nauseated the entire time, and my doctor told me I could stop.  The insurance company now says I should have *doubled* the does instead of stopping.  What????

Grrrrr…

11 | By: Ron Sullivan on June 15, 2009 at 08:58 AM

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V, I had a rant about insurers malpracticing medicine without a license (choose one) and then hit something wrong and flushed it. have the fools shut up yet? What stick did your doc hit them with? Time for a tart letter with CCs up the corporate chain?

Narya, I’m where you are WRT crowds. Someone mentioned the Live Oak Park craft fair yesterday and I shuddered involuntarily.

TPC, lordsakes, there you are! So is the new knee at least getting to where the old one was, or are you hiring ‘copters to get in and out yer house? Or maybe a crew of husky young men in loincloths, plus a sedan chair. Yeah. I could see that. Two short, two tall, swap places at appropriate times? It’s practically a geometry problem.

Good to see you anyway. How’s the SD and the furrier members of the clan?

12 | By: VS on June 16, 2009 at 05:43 PM

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I have to see the doctor on Friday…  So, yet ANOTHER visit, mostly paid for by the insurance—it would be cheaper for them if they just paid for the medicine!  I fail to see how “double the dose” is an appropriate response to “this made me nauseated for five days”.

13 | By: Ron Sullivan on June 17, 2009 at 07:17 AM

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Indeed, and your doc might have an interesting response to the question: “What if I had just gone ahead and done that? Who would be responsible if there were a bad outcome?”

Pfah. I’m wondering who exactly was the source of the advice from your insurer? Do they have a sort of Prescribing Eliza program they could blame?

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