AUTHOR: Mike Gaynes on 4/5/2026 FIRST: Doug C on 4/5 | RECENT: R Quinn on 4/13
Comments
I too live in a new development of about 340 homes, a fertile field indeed for salespeople, especially of rooftop solar arrays. One of my first purchases was a welcome mat for my lower front step that reads No, We Don't Want Solar. It cracks up visitors and I haven't had a knock from a solar salesman in years. A neighbor of mine copied the idea, a bit tastelessly, to ward off pest control sellers. His mat read I ALREADY HAVE PEST CONTROL with an image of a rifle underneath. He said it worked better than his No Soliciting sign. Our method is subtler. My sister-in-law goes to the door. She speaks only Chinese. She'll smile winningly at the sales guy until he realizes the message isn't getting through. Sometimes it takes a minute. My funniest one, however, was a guy selling leaf guards for gutters. Because this is a brand-new neighborhood, there isn't a tree for 400 yards in any direction tall enough to drop leaves in gutters. I looked around exaggeratedly, grinned at the guy and shook my head. No words were necessary.
Love this reflection, Mark. Every couple of weeks, when the weather is nice, I will take a seat on my top deck around 11pm with a small snifter of brandy for a session of wonder and gratitude. I look across the Sound at the lights of downtown Seattle and watch the distant airliners taking off from the airport, idly wondering where they're going at that late hour. It's a home and a view I never dreamed of affording when I was younger and broke and scrambling for underpaid jobs. Behind and below me sleeps a loving family I never expected that came to me rather late in life. Wife, Mama, sister-in-law are safe and comfortable because I can take care of them. I'm alive, remarkably, because of a medical breakthrough a decade ago that landed just when I needed it -- and for which I could afford to cover what insurance did not. I'm not wealthy by any means, but I never again have to worry about paying the bills, which is wealth in my book. And I truly don't know how it all happened. I can't figure out how I got this lucky. So with each sip of brandy I'm flooded with appreciation for being here to enjoy a simple life that is beyond what I ever aspired to have.
Medical expenses are listed as the primary cause of two-thirds of US household bankruptcies. Sources for that statistic are multiple. And the politicians enacting the cuts to Medicaid and the ACA and eliminating the HHS programs targeting infant and maternal mortality ((the Maternal and Child Health Bureau and the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System) all cited various versions of "America can't afford it" as the reason.
What do I want? I want America to be a country where nobody goes bankrupt or has to sell their home because of medical bills. I want America to be a country where everybody has access to basic health care, where you don't meet families whose 5-year-olds haven't had a medical checkup since they were born because they don't have insurance or there aren't any doctors around. I want America to be one of the safest countries in the world to give birth. Not ranked 54th in infant mortality behind places like Latvia and Serbia. Not three or five or ten times the maternal mortality rate of other developed nations. And I don't want anybody to tell me we can't afford it when we spend more on national defense than the next six countries in the world combined, while having no enemies on our borders.
Mark, I can tell you from direct personal experience that "a multi-lane parking lot on the edge of town" can be a perfectly memorable place to watch an eclipse. Nine years ago, Sarah and I drove about four hours to Salem, Oregon from our beach house to see a promised two minutes of totality. We overnighted in our camper van at a highway rest stop and at 6AM we headed to a big central park where thousands would be gathering. Good luck. The traffic was insane. So an hour before the eclipse we gave up and pulled into a supermarket parking lot with an open view. We took two folding chairs out of the van, I walked over to the store and bought a mocha, and we watched the eclipse. Trust me, once it begins you won't have any awareness of where you are. It's magical, all-consuming. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. And people still chuckle when I tell them I watched it from a Safeway car park. Just hire a local driver and go. He'll find you a place.
Mazel tov on your new home, Doc. I've changed domiciles about 15 times in my adult life, the last three being major household moves with my wife. I abhorred the idea of doing the packing ourselves, but she insisted on saving the extra money and suggested I hire her to do it. So I did. (She gave me a discount.) The first time she labeled all the boxes in Chinese so I had no idea where to find anything. She wised up on move #2. The arrangement worked perfectly because while I despise packing, I'm an unpacking whirlwind. I can't get to sleep until everything's out and the empty boxes are stacked in the garage. Good system. I enjoyed your account, although I do wish to point out that a truly "smart" toaster would have called out to you so you could find it.
Comments
I too live in a new development of about 340 homes, a fertile field indeed for salespeople, especially of rooftop solar arrays. One of my first purchases was a welcome mat for my lower front step that reads No, We Don't Want Solar. It cracks up visitors and I haven't had a knock from a solar salesman in years. A neighbor of mine copied the idea, a bit tastelessly, to ward off pest control sellers. His mat read I ALREADY HAVE PEST CONTROL with an image of a rifle underneath. He said it worked better than his No Soliciting sign. Our method is subtler. My sister-in-law goes to the door. She speaks only Chinese. She'll smile winningly at the sales guy until he realizes the message isn't getting through. Sometimes it takes a minute. My funniest one, however, was a guy selling leaf guards for gutters. Because this is a brand-new neighborhood, there isn't a tree for 400 yards in any direction tall enough to drop leaves in gutters. I looked around exaggeratedly, grinned at the guy and shook my head. No words were necessary.
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Link to comment from June 19, 2026
Mark, it must take extraordinary strength to carry such a memory with you every day. My condolences and highest respects.
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Link to comment from June 17, 2026
A truly powerful remembrance, Andrew. You have experienced a great deal of loss. Heartfelt condolences.
Post: What Addiction Couldn’t Take: My Sister’s Story
Link to comment from June 17, 2026
Me too, and I'm a poster boy for it.
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Link to comment from June 17, 2026
Love this reflection, Mark. Every couple of weeks, when the weather is nice, I will take a seat on my top deck around 11pm with a small snifter of brandy for a session of wonder and gratitude. I look across the Sound at the lights of downtown Seattle and watch the distant airliners taking off from the airport, idly wondering where they're going at that late hour. It's a home and a view I never dreamed of affording when I was younger and broke and scrambling for underpaid jobs. Behind and below me sleeps a loving family I never expected that came to me rather late in life. Wife, Mama, sister-in-law are safe and comfortable because I can take care of them. I'm alive, remarkably, because of a medical breakthrough a decade ago that landed just when I needed it -- and for which I could afford to cover what insurance did not. I'm not wealthy by any means, but I never again have to worry about paying the bills, which is wealth in my book. And I truly don't know how it all happened. I can't figure out how I got this lucky. So with each sip of brandy I'm flooded with appreciation for being here to enjoy a simple life that is beyond what I ever aspired to have.
Post: A Sunday Thought About Money
Link to comment from June 15, 2026
Medical expenses are listed as the primary cause of two-thirds of US household bankruptcies. Sources for that statistic are multiple. And the politicians enacting the cuts to Medicaid and the ACA and eliminating the HHS programs targeting infant and maternal mortality ((the Maternal and Child Health Bureau and the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System) all cited various versions of "America can't afford it" as the reason.
Post: What do we Americans want? We want “free” healthcare
Link to comment from June 12, 2026
What do I want? I want America to be a country where nobody goes bankrupt or has to sell their home because of medical bills. I want America to be a country where everybody has access to basic health care, where you don't meet families whose 5-year-olds haven't had a medical checkup since they were born because they don't have insurance or there aren't any doctors around. I want America to be one of the safest countries in the world to give birth. Not ranked 54th in infant mortality behind places like Latvia and Serbia. Not three or five or ten times the maternal mortality rate of other developed nations. And I don't want anybody to tell me we can't afford it when we spend more on national defense than the next six countries in the world combined, while having no enemies on our borders.
Post: What do we Americans want? We want “free” healthcare
Link to comment from June 12, 2026
We can always live in the camper van.
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Link to comment from June 9, 2026
Mark, I can tell you from direct personal experience that "a multi-lane parking lot on the edge of town" can be a perfectly memorable place to watch an eclipse. Nine years ago, Sarah and I drove about four hours to Salem, Oregon from our beach house to see a promised two minutes of totality. We overnighted in our camper van at a highway rest stop and at 6AM we headed to a big central park where thousands would be gathering. Good luck. The traffic was insane. So an hour before the eclipse we gave up and pulled into a supermarket parking lot with an open view. We took two folding chairs out of the van, I walked over to the store and bought a mocha, and we watched the eclipse. Trust me, once it begins you won't have any awareness of where you are. It's magical, all-consuming. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. And people still chuckle when I tell them I watched it from a Safeway car park. Just hire a local driver and go. He'll find you a place.
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Link to comment from June 2, 2026
Mazel tov on your new home, Doc. I've changed domiciles about 15 times in my adult life, the last three being major household moves with my wife. I abhorred the idea of doing the packing ourselves, but she insisted on saving the extra money and suggested I hire her to do it. So I did. (She gave me a discount.) The first time she labeled all the boxes in Chinese so I had no idea where to find anything. She wised up on move #2. The arrangement worked perfectly because while I despise packing, I'm an unpacking whirlwind. I can't get to sleep until everything's out and the empty boxes are stacked in the garage. Good system. I enjoyed your account, although I do wish to point out that a truly "smart" toaster would have called out to you so you could find it.
Post: Moving is Expensive!
Link to comment from May 31, 2026