...And Back Again

One advantage of not running your home's central air conditioning is that you get to connect with the big world right outside your house.  I heard the "scree-EEE" of the hawks and ran outside with the camera to squint teary eyed up into the bright sky to find these two spiraling upward on the day's first thermal updraft, probably from the pavement of our cul-de-sac.  I think hawks are my spirit animals - I keep having encounters like Blood On The Snow and Raptor Synchronicity.  But these two are the top of the food chain around here and are the terror of the neighborhood.  You can hear the bluejays squawking their alert all the time.  And I just realized that I haven't seen a lot of rabbits lately.  There has been a lot a varied air traffic lately - different helicopters, some circling an area repeatedly, small single-prop planes, and one weird one that looked like a combination hang glider, dragster, and space shuttle.

We babysat for grand-daughter Logan quite a bit this week.  I just love that baby!  8 Weeks old Friday.  Feast your eyes.

There is nothing like a cute baby to get everyone in a positive attitude.  At our last visit to Job & Family Services. I went in with Sarina to help get our various applications for assistance sorted out for all of us under one roof.  We met with a very good case worker (bless you, Ms. C) who was able to get things on the right track and she asked for Dylan to come to her office as well.  They worked on the application while I stood and did The Loving Grandpa role (what a stretch, eh?).  The mood seemed so positive that I thanked her profusely and asked if she could look at Marcy's case while we were there.

Back in April we had received a letter from J&FS that said she had been approved for Medicaid for the Aged, Blind, or Disabled, and to call and enroll with an insurance carrier.  I did that right away and then The System acted as if we had never gotten approval and never enrolled.  No call center agent or case worker would acknowledge that we had been ever approved or why we were now denied.  I would ask them to please explain the approval letter that I clutched in my paw and all they would tell me was the scripted response.  I began to suspect that they were trying to provoke me into losing my cool so they could close the case permanently.  I felt like a character in a Kafka novel one of those sci-fi movies with memory implant/erase like Total Recall.

She makes me laugh.

I must have somehow communicated my exasperation to one agent who stated that she was emailing the Section Chief and she is allowed by law to take up to 48 hours to contact us. She never called.  I gave them one more "courtesy" call and said I wanted to give them one more chance to do their jobs without the State policing everything.  Um, maybe not the most diplomatic thing to say but I said it politely, really in kind of a friendly "just between us folks" way.  Needless to say, I ended up calling the State to get a hearing scheduled.  But then...

The antidote to a toxic world!

...that's when I went with Sarina for her application just in case they needed info about our domestic situation.  Case Worker "C." looked at the records, verified that my unemployment had run out, and assured me that I was not crazy: Marcy really had been approved for Medicaid back in April.  And with the new domestic and financial status we were approved for everything. Everybody in the family, all 3 generations, will get medical coverage, food stamps, and cash assistance.  Marcy and I both worked non-stop since our teens paying for these kinds of services, now we need them and use them, gratefully.  Thank you!  But I'll probably wait until I get the insurance card in my hand before I cancel that State hearing...

I don't know the meaning of the word "No."

Grandpa let Logan taste a mashed up banana for the first time last night.  She seemed to like the taste but her mouth has to learn a non-nursing swallow.

Lips like Cupid

Love that chin...

You want some of these "guns" fool?

Grandpa's wearing me out teaching me how to roll over.

I sincerely believe in my Grandpa heart that molds of this beautiful child's face put on dolls would sell millions.

Last night Grandpa carried Logan outside and pointed up at a moving light in the sky and said, "Look baby, what's that light?  It's the Space Station!  There are people up there riding in it and looking down at us.  Wave hi!"  Then he said, "You gotta get used to grandpa - he might run you outside any old time, pointing at the sky or the ground and lecturing."  In the distance we could hear the marching band play at the Mt. Healthy football game  The International Space Station, with all solar panels and such extended, is about the size of a foot ball field.  We see them as a dot of light - do they see the lights of Mt. Healthy Stadium at all?