Onions
My knee replacement patient watches a movie.
Two fawns frolic in the yard with mama.
I just spent thirty minutes negotiating between Blue Cross and hospital about physical therapy bills. Someone is trying to charge us over $3,000 when we’ve already paid our $6,000 deductible. Shame on them!
We ate Brenda Hardie’s feta-cucumber-olive-lettuce-apple salad for lunch.
I worked this morning. The copier broke.
More onions
The patient is doing well. He is in pain sometimes. Sometimes he’s not. He’s not hurting now.
I am slowly pulling onions in the garden. Pull, snap stem, place in colander, wash with hose, wash in sink, dry on deck, store in basement.
On Wednesday my 200 word blogging challenge will end. Hurray! It has been alternatively fun and challenging. It’s sometimes so hard to express yourself in so few words. Other times, it is fascinating to realize how many redundant words hide in sentences.
LouAnn also challenged herself. You can read her assessment of the assignment here.
I now have to cut 25 words from this essay. (You’ll never know which ones got the axe.) The chopped words are weeping now.
Shadows and light
Lake Superior Spirit 
Aha, so that’s what’s going on. 200 words!! Soon you will qualify for Twitter, ROTFL!!
I think your blogs have been clear, consistent, on target. Sometimes less is more. I like my stone blogs best.
I’m so glad you are enjoying that salad! 🙂 Yes indeed, shame on them for wanting to charge you more money! Your onions look delicious! Homegrown food is always the best. Sending happy, peaceful energy to you and your dear patient 🙂 Pretty soon no words will be weeping, and instead they will be joyfully dancing all over this page! ♥
The chopped words must be weeping from all those onions! Dealing with insurance companies is the absolute WORST…..IF you can even get to a person. Good luck on that. Also still sending healing thoughts to Barry on the knee. ‘Wish I’d had deer to watch when I was recovering as I think it would have helped a lot. It sounds like a real Monday on your end! Better days to you!
Your onions look delicious! Gardening is hard work, but you get the best flavors at home. Best of luck with Blue Cross. I despise insurance spats.
The challenge sounds like a fun and, well—challenging, one. Consision is rarely easy, especially for those of us who have SOOOOO much to say–or so Sara says of me. Greeting to the patient. May you get some rest yourself. You deserve it, my friend!
Hugs,
Kathy
I’ve been following your challenge with great interest, thinking of doing the same (with comments as well as limiting the words in my posts) sometime in the future. You have so many great ideas. I sometimes feel like a copycat. Hmmm… I am a copycat. And learn a lot from taking up your challenges.
Speaking of challenge, big hugs to you. Caretaking, and dealing with the frustrations of medical insurance, can be challenging and tiring business. Hope you’re finding a few moments for yourself to recharge as your patient heals.
Add some potatoes to those onions, and fry ’em up good. Delicious!
Ah Kathy, I do so hope those insurance issues are soon sorted out. You should not be having to deal with issues like this, at times like this. Said with much emphasis 🙂
Brenda’s salad sounds like a healing treat in itself and now you’ve got me wondering, what those 25 words might have been.
Take good care of yourselves and many good wishes to Barry xxoo
I clicked. Up came your blog. For a few seconds I thought I was looking at CHICKS ! I’ve got to get out more !! Well done. You got me.
200 words blogging challenge is certainly a challenge for someone who has always felt misunderstood. Umm, that would be me. I’m always trying to explain myself with word after word, after word. And onions? They are the one vegetable I won’t go near. I never understood those things. I mean (pardon my bluntness) they smell like BO and they me us cry. Not to mention they make me sick. 🙂 Go Barry!
Your words said something very important to me!
You don’t like onions either? Hee, hee. I hope that whatever my words said to you, that it was of help. Blessings to you.
Poor chopped words. I hope they aren’t weeping like one does with onions!
My posts have become shorter since I began this new blog. I like it like this. 🙂
that was fun.
Love this (that’s what it came down to after I “chopped”) ….
$6,000 &%#% deductible ?!!! Holy Crap !
LOL I could tell when I started reading that you’ve had to chop some words 😉 Poor words…..you’ll have to promise to use them after your challenge is over.
I hope you got everything worked out with the hospital and insurance. It’s always such a pain to deal with them!!
Those onions look delicious!
I thought some of your sentences felt a little choppy in this post – now I know why, you were busy chopping ’em. 😉 Looking forward to seeing what August will bring to LSS.
I thought this was a poem at first. Then I remembered the 200 word part and it made much more sense! Good job sticking with it!
Glad to hear your hubby is recovering nicely. How exhausting for you. Fortunately, doesn’t last forever. Your weeping onions look like they have a lot potential.
It would definitely be a challenge for me to limit words when I wanted to say more. LOL I wondered why sometimes your posts sounded like a “flight of ideas”. haha
“The chopped words are weeping now.” I love that! : )
Need to catch up on your blog. Nice onions!
Don’t get me started about health insurance in this country…… ;(
I’m so glad that Barry is doing well! 🙂
Glad to hear that your patient is resting comfortably. So sorry about the BC/BS mess. I used to work in one of the billing offices at UM Hospital here in Ann Arbor and have gone many, many rounds with them on behalf of our patients. It was always a happy day when I got them to pay what they’d promised. Hopefully you’ll get it resolved in your favor quickly.
I imagine you’re just at the beginning of the health insurance billing nightmare, probably just getting bills from the FIRST knee! This could go on for years. Trust me.
How do you know how many words you have in the blog? Is there a word counter somewhere, or do you write it up in a word processing software first?
WordPress counts every word you write, Dawn. It even counts words you use in your photo captions. (I wouldn’t have bothered to count them myself or put them in a word processing program–too much work!) It was an interesting challenging.
Beautiful onions. I’ve made many drawings of them over the years. These are especially dear because you grew them yourself. They are such a wonder because of their multiple semi-transparent layers.
Since it’s August I can thank you all for pausing here and commenting. Appreciate all of you!
I appreciate onion lovers and onion haters both. Personally, I am a fan of onions, but I can understand that some of you feel otherwise. I am also a fan of Blue Cross, but can totally understand the challenges of dealing with insurance companies.
The medical system in this country is shameful. I can’t imagine any other country giving a family a $6,000 medical deductible. Good lord!
Shameful indeed, Rosie! I so agree with you.
Saying more with less is a great challenge! I once read an author describe it as “killing your darlings.” I think that author was Stephen King.
Oh and — in the top picture the onions look like little chicks if you squint your eyes and scroll the screen in the right way…
Thank you again, everyone. The onions are all sitting on newspaper drying in the basement now. Happy little onions preparing to become stews and sautes and omelettes and soups and burritos and more than they can even imagine.
What a blessing to have two fawns frolicking in the yard with mama…
Always love the frolicking fawns, so precious…
I hope you got everything sorted out with Blue Cross, Kathy. It can be frustrating to deal with “the machine”, but on the plus side, you expressed the situation so eloquently and concisely with your combination of 200 words and some onion photos here. 😉
Psst, Dana, are you there? Or are you back on the wharfs of Vancouver, selling wares, smiling your Dana-smile in blue jeans? Yes, YESTERDAY, finally, our Blue Cross nightmare was resolved. Good thing you’re behind in reading these posts. You didn’t have to fret during the ensuing weeks. Pssst, also, you don’t have to read all these “old” worn-out posts. Skip ahead until today and let the middle posts be forgotten! Thank you, a thousand thanks, for appreciating the 200 words and the onions.
It’s not a chore to read through the older posts, Kathy– truly! I like having the opportunity to check in with all my online friends, even if it’s super late. We have been SOOOOOO busy lately, but Labour Day is in sight now, so we are about 3 more weeks of insanity before it cools down to a “shoulder season” pace once more. Huzzah! 🙂