Time to Spring Forward? Why Do Doctor Bills Spring Up?

Yay spring is coming! Everywhere I look life is being renewed all over again. My doctor and my meds have kept me alive for another go ‘round so I guess I should be thankful.

But dang! The grass is growing and will soon need to be cut and the doctor bill I just received nearly sent me into cardiac arrest. The one bad thing about entering another year is the fact that getting older seems to require me to go see my doctor more often. And even with pretty good insurance, I saw him for about 20 minutes the other day and it cost me - out of pocket - $350! I don’t understand why health care costs so much.

But back to my walk with Sam, the sun was out and it was a pretty wonderful day. Birds were chirping away and the Robins were pulling worms out of the park lawns. The ducks and geese in the pond have mated and were awaiting the arrival of their little ones. The crocuses (croci?) are blooming and the daffodils are poking up through the ground. Trees are starting to leaf out and pretty soon they’ll be laden with fluffy pink flowers.

Best of all, daylight savings time is coming. While I’m not anxious to start mowing the lawn again and weeding and all that yard-worky stuff, I can hardly wait for more daylight. The other day when I mentioned it won’t be long before daylight savings time Kathleen said, as she does EVERY year, “I’ll still be going to work in the dark every day.” I don’t care how many times I point out to her that after about a month it also gets lighter earlier in the morning she refuses to believe it.

Of course it’s tax time too. We’ve been gathering receipts and pay stubs and whatever else we need to prove to the IRS that, yes, we really do deserve that many deductions. I’m the kind of person though, when the IRS notifies me that I miscalculated and owe them more money, my immediate response is, “Where do you want me to send it?” I never argue with the IRS or tilt at windmills.

Well, my teachers told me to make sure my essays - which this essentially is - always had a point. So, to reiterate and wrap things up, like I said at the beginning, life is renewing itself once again and I’m probably going to live another year. I just wish the cost of staying alive didn’t keep going up. My park-walking friend Mike and I were celebrating the fact this morning that we’re still here. Glory be! Mike and I both grew up in the 50’s and 60’s and never thought we’d survive “The Bomb”, drugs, rock ‘n roll and alcohol. But we did. Remember the old mantra, “Make love not war?” Yep, that was me and Mike.

Anyway, in spite of outrageous doctor bills it’s good to be alive to greet the new spring. Excuse me now while Sam and I go out to the garage to look for our Maypole.