A whole lotta nuthin
Jul. 15th, 2011 01:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tulokynSo I went to the doctor this morning, spurred by a sharply dwindling supply of my daily medications. The insurance plan we chose through Shamus' work has a fairly low incidence of doctors near Sunnyvale. The one I chose was one of the closest I found (though if I could have been arsed to pick up the phone, I bet I could have found someone closer) and she was still 3.3 miles away, according to googlemaps. Even so, that's only half the distance I traveled yesterday in search of cat little and specially ordered cat food for my babies.
The doctor actually ended up asking me about the medical practice in Canada, and she seemed baffled that the whole system worked at all. I told her that the look on her face is how I've been feeling for the last two months with the change to California.
Anyway, she was a nice doctor, and the assistant staff was very nice and friendly as well. The waiting room was downright luxurious, which really points out the idea that a medical practice is a business here, and the patients are customers. If your practice looks shabby, and the people answering the phone are unfriendly, you aren't going to make any money because people can just go somewhere else. There isn't a huge long line up of patients waiting to get in to see the doctor here, due to the cost of things. I only called for the appointment on Wednesday, and got in on Friday, and probably only that late because the doctor is off on Thursdays! I would have had to call much earlier in the month to get in by now in Canada.
Turns out my insurance plan has no co-pay for doctor's visits, so it felt very much like visiting a Canadian doctor (aside from the swanky waiting room). I asked about it, and they told me that if they needed anything from me, they would be in touch. Really, the whole business was rather painless, aside from the long, semi-uphill bike ride. The ride isn't twisty-turny though, so it's quite easy to navigate. It's basically two long roads, and then turn onto a little road to get to the office. Rather nice, compared to my very residential circuitous route for cat food.
Now, the whole thing about the cat litter stems back to the night we arrived here with two cats and no cat box/litter. We got our friend to stop in at a pet store, and were thrilled to find the same style of cat box that the cats were used to, so we grabbed that. Shamus also grabbed a small bag of cat litter without really looking at it, and away we went. When we got to the hotel room, I set up the box for the kitties, and noticed that Shamus had chosen a bag of corn-based litter, instead of the clay stuff we were used to. It actually smelled really nice going into the box, without that awful "fragranced" odour that comes with scented clay litters. Of course we didn't note down the brand or anything while we were in the hotel, so a month later when we got the babies from the boarding facility, we had no idea what to pick up.
Long story short, we've tried two brands of corn and wheat litter since, especially since I've discovered that clay litters are manufactured by strip mining (!), but we not especially pleased with either. The PetSmart was pretty far to go to, but not so far as to be impossible, so when I had to go to Santa Clara to get Smudge's food (I can't beleive I'm blogging about cat litter at length. This is my life in California. Cat litter is a huge deal.), I decided to swing by and see if I couldn't find the one we got that first night. Now I haven't done the litter since I got home with it, but I think I have the right stuff. I'm sure I'll report back to you on it.
In other, less awkward news, Shamus and I have started updating Ashayta again, much to our pleasure. I have certainly hit my groove again with drawing, so we're pretty pleased about that. We're working on ramping up to twice a week, and I've been fiddling around with some stuff in the background for extra content and the like.
Shamus and I have plans to go out for sushi this evening, as well as looking at some vacuums. I'm sure my Mom would be distraught at the idea of not vacuuming for 6 weeks, since we moved in, but buying a vacuum was pretty low on our budget priority list. It's about time to deal with it and get one though. Blessedly, we have such a small amount of stuff here that there's not been a lot of stuff to generate dirt, and since we live on the third floor, most of the dust on our shoes gets knocked off as we come up the stairs. I don't think mud exists here. There's no rain for it to be made with. But back to dinner; we were supposed to go out for lunch in Mountain View after my doctor's appointment, but when I got there, he was like "oh my god so busy oh my god" so I waited around in the lobby for about an hour, until he finally came downstairs and said he wasn't going to be able to leave, so he was just going to have some pizza and eat at his desk. The administrative assistant extended the offer for me to stay and have pasta or the chinese leftovers from the day before (pizza was offered, but makes me sick, so I was just going to come home and have some soup or something). So I ended up with a lovely plate of penne and an iced tea for my efforts, and then I didn't starve on the way home. Before lunch was offered, I asked Shamus if we could go up the Sakura Sushi on Murphy Avenue to make up for him making me wait for him, and then bailing on me. He just got paid, so I don't feel bad making him take me out. :D
Anyway, Sprite is giving me that murderous look that says "if you don't feed me, woman, I'm going to eat your arm off,: so I'd better get on with my "real" job around here, before I start working on comics again.
The doctor actually ended up asking me about the medical practice in Canada, and she seemed baffled that the whole system worked at all. I told her that the look on her face is how I've been feeling for the last two months with the change to California.
Anyway, she was a nice doctor, and the assistant staff was very nice and friendly as well. The waiting room was downright luxurious, which really points out the idea that a medical practice is a business here, and the patients are customers. If your practice looks shabby, and the people answering the phone are unfriendly, you aren't going to make any money because people can just go somewhere else. There isn't a huge long line up of patients waiting to get in to see the doctor here, due to the cost of things. I only called for the appointment on Wednesday, and got in on Friday, and probably only that late because the doctor is off on Thursdays! I would have had to call much earlier in the month to get in by now in Canada.
Turns out my insurance plan has no co-pay for doctor's visits, so it felt very much like visiting a Canadian doctor (aside from the swanky waiting room). I asked about it, and they told me that if they needed anything from me, they would be in touch. Really, the whole business was rather painless, aside from the long, semi-uphill bike ride. The ride isn't twisty-turny though, so it's quite easy to navigate. It's basically two long roads, and then turn onto a little road to get to the office. Rather nice, compared to my very residential circuitous route for cat food.
Now, the whole thing about the cat litter stems back to the night we arrived here with two cats and no cat box/litter. We got our friend to stop in at a pet store, and were thrilled to find the same style of cat box that the cats were used to, so we grabbed that. Shamus also grabbed a small bag of cat litter without really looking at it, and away we went. When we got to the hotel room, I set up the box for the kitties, and noticed that Shamus had chosen a bag of corn-based litter, instead of the clay stuff we were used to. It actually smelled really nice going into the box, without that awful "fragranced" odour that comes with scented clay litters. Of course we didn't note down the brand or anything while we were in the hotel, so a month later when we got the babies from the boarding facility, we had no idea what to pick up.
Long story short, we've tried two brands of corn and wheat litter since, especially since I've discovered that clay litters are manufactured by strip mining (!), but we not especially pleased with either. The PetSmart was pretty far to go to, but not so far as to be impossible, so when I had to go to Santa Clara to get Smudge's food (I can't beleive I'm blogging about cat litter at length. This is my life in California. Cat litter is a huge deal.), I decided to swing by and see if I couldn't find the one we got that first night. Now I haven't done the litter since I got home with it, but I think I have the right stuff. I'm sure I'll report back to you on it.
In other, less awkward news, Shamus and I have started updating Ashayta again, much to our pleasure. I have certainly hit my groove again with drawing, so we're pretty pleased about that. We're working on ramping up to twice a week, and I've been fiddling around with some stuff in the background for extra content and the like.
Shamus and I have plans to go out for sushi this evening, as well as looking at some vacuums. I'm sure my Mom would be distraught at the idea of not vacuuming for 6 weeks, since we moved in, but buying a vacuum was pretty low on our budget priority list. It's about time to deal with it and get one though. Blessedly, we have such a small amount of stuff here that there's not been a lot of stuff to generate dirt, and since we live on the third floor, most of the dust on our shoes gets knocked off as we come up the stairs. I don't think mud exists here. There's no rain for it to be made with. But back to dinner; we were supposed to go out for lunch in Mountain View after my doctor's appointment, but when I got there, he was like "oh my god so busy oh my god" so I waited around in the lobby for about an hour, until he finally came downstairs and said he wasn't going to be able to leave, so he was just going to have some pizza and eat at his desk. The administrative assistant extended the offer for me to stay and have pasta or the chinese leftovers from the day before (pizza was offered, but makes me sick, so I was just going to come home and have some soup or something). So I ended up with a lovely plate of penne and an iced tea for my efforts, and then I didn't starve on the way home. Before lunch was offered, I asked Shamus if we could go up the Sakura Sushi on Murphy Avenue to make up for him making me wait for him, and then bailing on me. He just got paid, so I don't feel bad making him take me out. :D
Anyway, Sprite is giving me that murderous look that says "if you don't feed me, woman, I'm going to eat your arm off,: so I'd better get on with my "real" job around here, before I start working on comics again.