Wayward Landlubber

    On 2:53 AM, March 24, 2022, Pinky Conklin was relieved of the chronic pain that had bedeviled her most of her life. She was 79 years old. I was only with her a few short years, 3 of them where she was reasonably ambulatory, but we had some fun together. When we started our relationship she was living with one of her sons and his wife in Prineville, Oregon. She was 8 blocks from a senior center, but had no public transport to get her there and she walked unstably with a cane. I thought she could get better treatment in Portland, she was trying to get hip replacement, but I lived on my little 27' Bayliner cruiser. I was living the dream I had held in my mind for some four decades. I did not think she could handle the rigors of marina life, but my purchase of the boat, and the necessary costs of maintaining a boat were taxing my resources.       For a while she was able to live with a relative in Tigard. We joined the Tigard Senior Center and she had people to talk with outside of

     I'm a liberal. We get accused of wasting money on people who don't have much, and not wasting enough money on people who will never lose their wealth in 10,000 years.      My blood glucose testing strips ran out and I called my prescription renewal in two weeks from this penning. Without a prescription my Medicare won't cover them and I would pay $90 bucks out of pocket. The next business day after my call to the pharmacy was a Tuesday, Monday being a holiday. I had not heard the recorded call telling me that my prescription renewal was up, so I called to see where I was in the queue. They had not been called back yet by my physician, so I called the Doctor. A sudden snowstorm had closed the office. Finally on Tuesday, one week later, I recieved the recorded message. When I got to the pharmacy, they had filled my prescription with a whole new blood-testing kit: lancets, reader, and test strips. It goes without saying that the various parts are not compatible.      This