The robins return to Paliville

The robins have returned to my winter-stricken version of Capistrano. They say it is bad luck if you see your first robin of the season on the ground; “A robin on the wing brings good luck through the spring”, or something like that. I saw perhaps half a dozen of them on the ground yesterday and still feel lucky. Spring is close at hand.

I hadn’t slept well for a few nights immediately before yesterday’s paracentesis. When I got home from the hospital yesterday, I did a few odd chores (including throwing an update out on my diary) and then went to bed. I slept for five hours, which was the longest unbroken length of time I’d spent asleep in a week. I roused myself enough to make myself a low sodium hotdog for dinner, watch about half of “Victor/Victoria”, and then was back in bed by 9:30. Sleep … it’s a wonderful thing. I feel almost human today.

My handicapped placard for my car finally arrived in the mail yesterday. To be honest, I feel too good today to use it, but that placard will be a life-saver on days when I use up the bulk of my energy getting dressed and out the door. It’s good for six months, but I can get it renewed if necessary. With any luck, it won’t be necessary.

My company is changing our health insurance, effective May 1, in an effort to keep costs down. There won’t be any big changes. We’re staying with the same insurer and most of the plans the employees can pick from are essentially the same. The biggest change for me is that my co-pay for a doctor’s visit will go from $10 to $20. This gives me incentive to get as many doctors appointments scheduled before May 1 as possible.

Insurance company representatives had an information booth set up in the lobby for employees who had questions about the change over. I stopped by to ask a few things having to do with my impending transplant operation. After I was done, the rep I was talking to had me put my name on a raffle entry. To my surprise, I found out this morning that I’d won a sweatshirt with the insurance company’s logo embroidered on the front. It will be nice to have a sweatshirt that actually fits again (I got it in extra-large), but I suppose that this virtually guarantees that the weather will be warming up soon and I won’t be able to use it. I just hope I haven’t used up all my luck on winning this sweatshirt when I really need to win the liver lottery.

OK, I’ve said it before but this is definitely the weekend I get my taxes taken care of. I’m well rested, and shouldn’t need to sleep until noon for a change. I can, with any luck, get up early and hit H&R Block and be back to the apartment before the Socialist even wakes up.