August | 2016 | Steve Tilford

I ran into a friend, Garth Prosser, in Breckenridge a couple weeks ago and he told me that last year he was diagnosed with Colon cancer. I was surprised. I remembered seeing him at the Berryman Epic last fall, but didn’t hear anything about him racing on chemo.

Anyway, after talking with him for a bit, he got me thinking and I decided that I need to get a colonoscopy. It is way easier thinking you need one than actually getting one as it turns out.

I got on the computer and looked up all the places that do one in Topeka. I am pretty sure my insurance isn’t going to pay for it, so I was shopping around. The problem is that you can’t really shop around because no one really knows exactly how much it costs. The Internet says that a cheap price in Kansas is around $500, good price $750 and expensive $1300. I don’t know where they came up with those numbers, but the best/lowest price I could find after being on the phone for 3 hours was around $2000. And I’m not sure that is a hard number really.

My best source of information was the billing company for a local hospital. I told the women my situation and she seemed interested. She told me it would be between $1200-$1600 for the surgery center, then the same about for the doctor. But she said if I was self pay that they would reduce that amount by $600 each. So that took the total procedure down to between $1200 and $2000. Quite a spread there.

Then, at the end of the conversation, she told me she forgot the anesthetist charge, which would be another $600. She said her computer didn’t show a self pay charge, so I should just wait 3 or 4 months after I receive the bill, then call them and they would come up with a reduction. Wow.

I can’t think of another segment of our society that can’t quote you a price on something as important as this. It is so convoluted and confusing that even reasonable thinking people can’t understand it.

I was reading that under the affordable health care act (Obamacare), that this might be covered. So I called my health insurance agent and asked her if she might know. I’ve had the same health insurance for nearly 25 years. Trudi and I are the only health policies the agent does still. She told me it is so screwed up and takes so much time, it isn’t worth it to her.

So she called my insurance company and talked to them. After an hour, she called me back and said they couldn’t say if it would be covered and they needed some time to figure it out. That each state has its own rules and they would get back to her shortly. That was two days ago.

So I am still at square one. I want to get this done, but don’t want to just spin a roulette wheel for the final cost. I’m gonna get back at it today and see if I have some better luck. Our medical system is so jacked up that I’m nearly embarrassed to be participating. But, what choices do we have?

Tucker wants me to take him out for run I think.

It has been raining a ton the last couple years during the summer in Kansas. That isn’t usual. Normally, the grass goes dormant for a month or so, thus it turns brown-ish, then starts greening back up in September or so. That is unless you run automatic sprinklers, even when it is raining, all summer and your yard stays perty green.

This year is another big rain year. So, the grass has been growing throughout the summer. Hardly anyone in my neighborhood mows their own grass. One guy from North Topeka has a corner on that market. He is in the neighborhood from 8 am to sunset everyday, including holidays. He is a little automated, like he uses self-propelled Honda push mowers, but he isn’t riding around on a zero turn radius riding mower.

I’ve been mowing lawns since I was small. I probably started mowing when I was around 7 or so. This was mainly mowing our yard. As I got older, I used to mow a lot of the neighbors yards. I used to walk down to the gas station, which was 2 blocks away and buy 2 gallons of gas in the morning, then start out mowing. I think the most yards I mowed was around 10. I could do them all in one day if I was quick. But, the problem was, everyone didn’t always want their yards mowed on the same day, the day that was convenient for me.

When I’m gone, my brother mows. He does it on Sunday’s I think. But now since he is hurt, he isn’t going to be mowing for a while. I don’t like mowing as much as I used to. Mainly because of the dust and it seems like I am more allergic to the dry grass than I used to be when I was younger.

That being said, I still like mowing. I just don’t love it. There is a certain satisfaction mowing. You can watch as your work is progressing. It is sort of like shovelling snow or roof. You can actively see how much you’ve completed and how much you have left to do.

I used to mow artistically. I’d try to mow and make the yard look like a golf course. I’d mow diagonal in one direction and then the opposite. I don’t do that so much nowadays. That is mainly because most of the places I mow the grass is so pitiful that it doesn’t look that great.

But after you start mowing, you can get into nearly a zen-like state. After I start, it is like a craving, it is hard to stop. It is sort of like cycling, my mind wanders as I go through the motions.

I really should get a good mower. All the mowers we’ve had recently have been junky, garbage picked mowers. There is a certain advantage of a junky mower. Mainly, they are light, so it doesn’t take much to load them into the van over and over again. But, they are underpowered and generally shitty. The mower I’m using now is a brand new mower my brother got from Walmar,t I think. It had been used once and was broken. He paid $30 for it. It took him about 4 minutes to fix it. From my experience with mowers, a Honda mower is impossible to beat.

Anyway, I think more people should mow their own yards. I think it connects you to your property and exposes you to the neighborhood. When no one is doing any yard work anymore, it is really hard knowing where anyone lives. Garage door openers are the #1 reason that neighbors are strangers. #2 is not doing yard work.

Anyway, I have a bunch of mowing to do, but it is going to rain most of the day. I think I’m going to head out and start. There is way less dust when it is a tad wet. Too wet is a disaster, but just a little wet is good. I hope today doesn’t turn out to be a mowing bust.