Speaking of China, we had tickets to see the Peking Acrobats at Bucknell next month, but that show has been cancelled due to COVID. Those cancellations were such a shock in 2020, but two years later we've gotten very accustomed to rolling with that kind of punch. The hardest thing to grapple with right now related to COVID is that you can't walk into an aquarium or an art museum in many cities in the US without showing proof of vaccination. I really hope that isn't the case for a very long period of time as I certainly don't want to make a medical decision for that reason. Paul and I are still concerned about the lack of longitudinal data and do not feel it's worth the risk for our kids, especially given how many triple vaccinated individuals have still come down with COVID.
I got the bill in the mail today from when Oliver received three stitches. The charge was $632, which seems ridiculous for an appointment that literally lasted less than ten minutes, BUT the good news is that they applied a "self-pay discount" in the amount of $507, so we actually were charged $125 for the appointment. Ten ice skating lessons for three kids cost a total of $180, and then one fall on the ice cost $175, but that's nothing compared to my fall in September. Speaking of broken ankles, a dad broke his on the ice last night right before Ian and Nadia's lesson was supposed to begin. Their class was shortened as they waited for an ambulance to arrive. As far as my hospital bill, the insurance commission said that because we knew the policy was limited, there wasn't any violation even though the salesman (who recommended this particular plan) had said it was only limited in three ways (maternity, mental health, and substance abuse). At this point our only hope for seeing the $20K bill shrink is what the insurance calls a network appeal. It would be lovely if the discounts would amount to 80% off like they were for Oliver's stitches, but I'm not expecting that. We should find out in the next week what we will have to pay. If the bill comes down a lot, I want to see a physical therapist. I still experience pain if I do much in the way of walking or standing over the course of a day. I know we'll have to pay for the physical therapist bill, but I hope it would be worth the expense. However, with a $20K bill hanging over our heads, I'm trying to avoid incurring any additional medical bills if at all possible.
In my spare time I've been reading and working on learning Spanish. I read ten books (plus started some others) in January. I want to get back in gear with photography. I have barely taken any photos over the last 4 months. I snapped the picture in this post at Ian's request. He was working on programming that Lego robot and asked me to take a picture with my phone and send it to Pop Pop.
On Wednesday as we were driving to church, I asked the kids what age they thought was a good age to start dating. Ian said, "Never." Nadia said, "18," and Oliver agreed with Nadia's idea. Eighteen works for me! I was almost 25 years old when I started dating, but I certainly hadn't wanted to wait that long. We shall see if Ian changes his opinion at some point along the way.
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