More than an Alanis Morisette title...

How's this for ironic? So I take Allegra 180 each day to keep my allergies at bay. I don't have horrible allergies, but enough of a reaction to certain things that if left to its own devices, and fed by the viruses my young kids bring home from school, will develop into a sinus infection, bronchitis and other delightful respiratory ailments. Between the Allegra and use of a Neti Pot( ancient Yoga nasal saline irrigation- I know, TMI) I have managed to avoid having anything serious enough to send me to the doctor in the past 9 months or so. My Allegra prescription ran out last month. I called the dr. this morning to get a new prescription and guess what? I can't get a new script because I haven't seen the doctor in over 6 months. Here's the irony: I haven't had to see the doctor because the medicine works and does what it should. I can't get more without seeing the doctor- for a regular appointment when I don't need one.

When George called in with this weird dizzy spells he was having last month, he couldn't get an appointment. Yet, the receptionist was ready to schedule me anytime for an appointment to say hello to my doctor. I mean, I'm sure the doctor has plenty of truly sick people to see- does he really need to take the 10 minutes out of his schedule (which will translate to a minimum of 30 minutes for me) to make sure I'm healthy? I get that there are drugs which need to be monitored- things that affect your liver, or possible addictive drugs, or ones that interact with other drugs or affect your blood pressure. I get it- its just that Allegra is not one of those. In fact, I suspect it will be over the counter in the next few months. Which is why I will just wait and muddle through and pray I don't get sick during springtime bloom out, just to avoid an unneccesary $150 doctor's appointment so I can get my $7 preventative prescription. An ounce of prevention is evidentally not as profitable for the doctor- he wants you to pay him for the pound of cure. Yippee.

From the paranoid conspiracy department

Every once in a while I exercise that part of my imagination that gets really excited by X-files. You know- alternate realties, sci-fi, star trekking type thoughts that massage the inner geek. Anyway, they often are accompanied by conspiratorial paranoias. Like this one, for example- what if, in a last desparate bid to fulfill the zero year curse of being shot or dying in office, George Bush gets taken out while touring the Middle East (I mean, he's had 7 years to reach out and do something, and he chooses NOW to go broker peace, what is that about?) And the resulting chaos means embassy after embassy is overrun and its a pretty big mess ( I mean the Iranian tour boat companies have already declared themselves ready for a fight). So, our buddy and now president Dick Cheney locks and loads, declares a state of emergency and keeps himself in power past the elections (or ala Pakistan, he simply suspends elections and nominates himself Lord Cheney). I'm reminded of the complicated but well written scene in Star Wars 2 or 3...Lord Palpatine takes over in the Senate and gains absolute powers to mount a war, and amidst the applause and cheers Queen Amidala is savvy enough to say "So this is how democracy dies, with thunderous applause?" I mean, I seriously doubt there would be a huge upswelling of resistance outside of California, as long as everyone got to keep their Wiis and still had chicken mcnuggets to eat.... Oh wait, that's the hopelessly cynical part of my brain coming out to play...it's really good friends with the aforementioned inner geek parts. Well, here's saying I told you so on the 1% chance that Nostradamus and I are proven right....and otherwise, well it would make a good plot line for Doonesbury.