Royce's Random Thoughts

Health: Saw the sleep specialist yesterday, and after some confusion over which was the latest at home study he'd looked at, agreed that I have at least mild sleep apnea and should get fitted for a mask and a CPAP machine. It'll be be a couple of weeks before I can get back there for a fitting.

House: Heat pump still running. Which I'm grateful for since it'll be in the triple digits counting humidity this weekend. We're already on an Orange air alert in Baltimore today.

Writing: Still grinding slowly on The Red Vixen at Sea. I'm hoping to post and all new excerpt in a couple of days. Between the heat pump and other stresses my sleep has been shot to hell recently, and I've only just begun to recover my energy.

This is actually a reply I gave to siderea in a previous post, when she asked how the Foxen healthcare system actually. My reply was sufficiently long that I figured I may as well re-post it separately.

***

It follows the class system actually:

1. Nobles: Pay for their own healthcare. They have the money for it. In general they are the only ones with the monetary resources to pay for the expense of full cellular regeneration, though some very wealthy commoners can as well.

2. Military: Generally paid for by their work unit. Combat troops get it as part of their duty to the planetary government (obviously). Non-combat units like Librarians or Civil Protection get the equivalent of an employee health plan (usually part of the system in #3, but not always).

3. Commoners: Very wealthy commoners pay for their own healthcare. The vast majority of them however use what we'd recognize as a One Payer healthcare system. Their taxes support part of it, and the rest is directly paid for by the Noble of their district. How much the Noble in question is willing to provide is at their discretion. However, there are legal minimums, and Nobles who try to be parsimonious tend to attract the negative attention of both their peers and the Commoner press.

Generally they attempt to provide more than is legally expected as a matter of course. The teachings of the Mother Goddess are very strong on charity, and while worship of the Mother is usually conducted at the household level (the female head of the family being that family's priestess) Commoners are considered part of the Noble's familial responsibility, and skimping on proper healthcare for one's family is Just Not Done.

As a side note, this is also why you rarely see homeless Foxen on the streets of the homeworld or Foxen colonies. If a Noble starts letting their commoners fall through the safety net like that, they start getting lots of flak from all corners (including members of their own family who think they might be able to do a better job).

Gerwart uses another variation of the One Payer system, but supported exclusively through citizen taxes. Offworlder Foxen either use the local system in their area, or are supported by a slightly complicated system of vouchers provided by their noble to pay for local healthcare.

Just dealing with Stuff, including most of last week being eaten by Tom going through a very lengthy bout of stomach flu and having to do a lot of OT at work.

Sales have been better this month compared to April. if the end continues I'm hoping to be back to my usual 30 sales a month.

Muse is still being stubborn. I have a few ideas, but I'm just too tried or scatterbrained ot put them down. I need to set up a proper office area in the house so I can concentrate better, instead of trying to type on the laptop on a folding table. Did the first bit writing I've attempted for two weeks just this morning, trying to detail how Re-Education works in the FYS universe.

Oh, and a fellow who gave COtRV a nice review at Amazon also created a greatly expanded TV Tropes page for The Red Vixen Adventures.

Rascal was the second cat we acquired for our household, about a year after moonshadowed and I got married. Technically he was badasher's cat, adopted as a companion for his other cat, Max, who needed a distraction to keep from upsetting Tracy's cat, Sunny. In the end though he became ours mostly by default, and Steve left him with us when he moved out.

He was young when we got him, less than a year old and still a catten. He was also perceived by everybody as being a bit of a dim bulb. We blamed it on a fever he got a few months after we adopted him, but honestly I think it was just a case of him not being as smart as Max, who was the undisputed Alpha Cat of the household, and also being a bit mouthier than the others, which made him seem terminally confused and worried. Ex:

Rascal: Meow, meow, Meow, MEOW!

Royce: What's that, Rascal? You say Timmy fell down into the well?

He was a gentle soul though, running from, rather than attacking, our bird Sadie when she dive bombed him, and putting up with sometimes rough handling from the kids without clawing them.

Eventually Sunny passed away and we adopted Salem, and then a couple of years later we lost Max to failing kidneys. After Steve moved out Rascal and Salem lived in mutual ignorance of each other, not really interacting unless they had the bad luck to pass near each other in the hall.

When Salem began ailing, Rascal became a bit of tub, since he was consuming the dry cat food Salem didn't want to eat. After Salem had to be put to sleep in December though, he slimmed back down to his own weight, and became a great deal more cuddly, actually sitting beside of behind us on the couch when we used the laptop, instead of his usual perch on the far end on an arm.

Last week, around Wednesday, he disappeared. We found him hiding under our bed, after figuring out that he hadn't touched his food bowl at all that day. After dragging him out from under there, he seemed to be in pain, so Thursday evening I took him to the vet. He was diagnosed with a blocked urinary tract and wasn't able to pee. The poor guy's abdomen felt like he'd swallowed a baseball. One catheter treatment later he was drained out, and the vet warned me she'd seen a bit of blood in the urine, which might mean a kidney stone.

He drank water when he got home, but still wasn't eating. Friday morning I left out wet food and some fresh chicken breast to encourage him, but when we came home in the evening he still hadn't touched them, nor had he used the cat box.

By the time I brought him back to the vet Saturday morning, he hadn't eaten for almost four days and hadn't drank any water in 36 hours. The vet said it was almost certainly kidney stones, given he'd become blocked again immediately. To fix it would involve an operation that, ignoring the fact we couldn't really afford it, may have killed Rascal outright, and would have at minimum left him in a lot of pain. So I called Tracy at home and we agreed to let him go.

He stopped purring halfway through the injection.

He was a good kitty.

This week's poll has been called on account of Man Flu.

Has been called on account of a pair of child health crises (Georgia woke up at 2am with a bad nosebleed and wouldn't go back to sleep, and Thomas had massive meltdown after he stepped barefoot on a small sliver of glass we'd missed during a cleanup), and the usual errands and household chores.

I'm glad to know that they upheld the 1st Amendment right for people lie their asses off about personal accomplishments. [1]

Oh, as the other decision...

Dude, Roberts was the deciding swing vote and Kennedy sided with the minority opinion?! Dammit, I hate it when I fall into an alternate dimension and not notice!

[1] Even if guy who prompted Congress to draft the law in the first place was a damned jackass.

Amish Marathon Runners.

No, seriously. You work on a farm for twelve hours a day, six days a week, and see if you aren't in shape.

Georgia just woke up coughing and complaining her feet were itchy. They're covered in Chicken Pox bumps. Facepalm.

Off to the doctor's we go this morning.

Went to see her yesterday afternoon, after she'd gotten back from the hospital. She looked 200% better, propped on the couch then on an easy chair, and talking animatedly. She's still hurting a bit, and moving slowly, but she's able to get about. My sister will be staying with her through Monday to make sure she's all right, but she looks like she's getting over things rapidly.