Medi-Cal is state funded healthcare coverage for the poor and old. It has been wonderful to me. However the criteria for qualification have changed. If you have more than $130,000 in the bank you no longer qualify.
As I have a lot more than $130,000 in the bank, I am no longer one of the chosen.
It’s a fair cop.
I am not bitter about this development. It always seemed wrong that someone as fabulously wealthy as myself should benefit from a program designed to help the poor and needy.
Just a huge thank you to Medi-Cal folks and the State of California for the outstanding free treatment that I have had over the last couple of years. “An’ forward tho’ I canna see, I guess an’ fear!”
See what I mean.Magnolias in bloom everywhere.Monument to President McKinley at the end of the Panhandle. His parents came from Kintyre, you know. Spot now very rare homeless person. “Sagt mir wo die homeless sind.”
I devote myself wholeheartedly to recovery from pneumonia. This is very pleasant as it gives me the opportunity to do very little without the usual guilt.
Red Masked Parakeet looking through my window.
I go for a CT scan. It reveals that my lungs are drying out nicely but also that I have 2 fractured ribs. I fell when I was at the Teddy Bears’ Picnic in November. https://thequietripple.com/2025/10/23/bear-minimum/
I thought my ribs were bruised and just waited for the pain to go away, which it eventually did. Not bruised but broken.
Hayes St is just behind the house. Lovely old Edwardian houses, excellent coffee shops and restaurants.
Prunus blossom on HayesExcellent. Mexican place just 10 minutes stagger from the house. https://manitascafe.com/menuPlato Tipico.Just across the road from Manitas. It is run by a hilarious Chinese couple who have been there for 37 years. They make excellent Lox Bagels.Watching birdies is highly recommended by my PT – physical therapy – specialist. Chesnut Backed Chickadee.
I visit James in the Botanical Garden. Spring is here and Camelias and Magnolias are happy.
James built this path. The area was previously over-run.Clever James!Under the spreading Magnolia tree.Camelias.Beautiful place.James’ Toro!
I get a call from Zuckerberg General Hospital, where I used to spend my time, they want me to be in a movie about the hospital. Big Money!
When did you last see your Father?These people are a lot of fun! Hang out with nurses.
Thanks for inviting me, I had a great time. The cheque will be in the post, I imagine.
Shrine to Bob Weir on Haight. RIP
I burst out of the confines of my recovery bed and drive, all by myself, to:
The rest of this is just birds. You have been warned.
PintailSnow Geese – there are tens of thousands!ShovelerEarly morning Bald Eagle.So manyDawn Snow GeeseWestern MeadowlarkGet out of my way!Not really in controlGreater White Fronted Goose.Juvenile Bald Eagle – I think.Turkey VultureGreat White EgretI love big breakfast after early morning birding.More of this please!
My lungs seem to have coped with the excitement, so more adventures in store!
2025, what a terrible year! 2026 has to be better – fingers crossed.
Because I have been a good patient, Nurse James takes me on a New Year’s Day excursion to Point Reyes. Always a winner. I am able to stagger around reasonably well and the fresh Pacific Ocean air is invigorating.
Thank you Nurse James!Rare one antlered Elk.A little lie downMore turkey!More stuffing!Go away!Mule Deer. Hmmmm, maybe Mrs Elks
I return from hospital and do as I am told. I lie on my greasy, foetid, sleeping mat, take antibiotics and take it easy. I fully expect to be fighting fit in a couple of days. It does not work out like that at all!
I get more severe pains in my chest and after a day of ‘I’m not a poofter’, I ask Nurse James to take me back to the glorious Zuckerberg SF General Hospital.
Nae awa tae bide awa.
I am immediately put back into Emergency and the next day have an operation to suck fluids out of my lungs.
Black bits are healthy lung whereas grey bits bottom left and right are awash.This might be clearer. It depicts my lungs not testes.
I am transferred to an amazing room with a great view over The Mission.
Shout out for free Californian healthcare.Click a couple of times on this image to expand it. Search the left skyline and you will see the top of the Golden Gate Bridge.I have tubes coming out of both sides of my chest to suck out pus.Pus bucket. They finally extract nearly 3 litres, for which I get a gold star!
After the operation, I experience quite a lot of pain. I demand morphine but they are strangely reluctant to give me any. However, a nice nurse comes around with a bong.
Take a hit, brother.
So, I stay in hospital day after day waiting for my lungs to drain. It is a wonderful way pass the time.
A stream of wonderfully amusing, friendly nurses and doctors come visit. The diversity of nationalities is huge. Eritrean, Nigerian, Irish, Palestinian Phillipino, Chinese, Lebanese, Japanese, Lancashire, German, Vietnamese, Indian, Puerto Rican and many more. Very happiness making. My favourite is a young nurse from Ghana. His hobby is to watch football matches in the great stadiums of the world.
“What is the best match you have seen?”
“Rangers/Celtic at Ibrox Park by a million miles! Everyone was hopelessly drunk and fighting. It was not like being on Earth!” Yay Scotland! Radge!
I am pretty feeble.Cosy back at home under a very cool Mohave saddle blanket that Nurse James gave me for Xmas. I love it!
I hope all Jewish buddies had a wonderful Hanukkah, likewise Christian brothers and sisters for Xmas. Everyone, please accept my very best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2026.
I cannot thank the staff at Zuckerberg SF General enough. They are all stars!
I think I forgot to mention in the write ups of my European excursion that throughout I had an explosive chest cough. The cough was activated if someone stood in front of me and tried to engage me in conversation. I coughed explosively into their faces. Very European.
Once in San Francisco, I swallowed handfuls of Ibuprofen and Amazon cough syrup and the cough abated somewhat.
You order it on Amazon in the morning and is is there in the afternoon.
However this progress was counterbalanced by extreme, deep chest pain. Fearing heart attack, I contact my Provider, which means doctor in Californian, and set up an appointment for the next day.
I have loads of doctor-like checks after which the Provider says, ” You must go to hospital.”
“When?”
“Now!
“How?”
“The ambulance is already here.”
A huge San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) truck and beautiful ambulance are disgorging paramedics into the parking lot.
Earth has not anything to show more fairWe don”t fuck around
I am strapped to a gurney and loaded into the ambulance. I express surprise at the rapidity and vigour of the response. “73 year old guy with chest pains; we don’t fuck about.”
Is there anything cooler than blasting through the sunny streets of San Francisco in a siren-howling, bright-red, SFFD ambulance? Well, maybe the same without being sick I suppose.
I spend 3 days in San Francisco General Hospital.
Iraicksa! Such fun!
All kinds of checks and scans.
Monitor above my bed into which I am permanently plugged.
Anyway, it turns out I have advanced pneumonia, but no immediate risk of heart attack. Hooray!
BreakfastLunch
I prefer Japanese hospital food.
Thanks to SFFD guys and all the staff at Mark Zuckerberg General Hospital, the facilities and treatment are outstanding. Everything is free – thanks MediCal; apparently 71 million folks have Medicare in the U.S.
I bump into one of my SFFD buddies as I leave. “What should I do when I get home?”
“Go to bed and fucking stay there!”
That is the sort of muscular medical treatment I like.
Zandra and Guy pick me up at the end of the Symposium and we go to listen to John Intrator play blue grass in a bar in Carouge. On the way there, we wander through the nighttime streets of the vielle ville de Geneva. So medieval, so far from Okinawa or San Francisco.
I played Irish music with John 30 years ago! Have’t seen him for 25 years.
I wake up in the Chateau de Sothonod.
The frontThe side.
The weather is very bad. We are forced to snuggle by wood burning stoves, eating and drinking.
Fish stewSt Arthaud, who was born in the chateauSkull of feral goat that we found on Cara https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cara_Island sometime in the 90’s, threatening a Barn Owl.Zandra makes lots of delicious jam.
We go to buy masses of wine and stumble over this.
Cascade de Cerveyrieu!Wine tasting! All local vins de Bugey. Glug, glugZandra is a ceramicist.I buy a bear. You buy other stuff https://zandrascreations.comBear
Assiete de charcuterieSalade Magret de CanardSalade Carpaccio de ThonPoulet aux deux chouxTravers de porcRis de Veau a la creme aux morilles. At least 2 kilos of morilles in this dish. Delicious!Very good ChigninWe have so much fun.Guy is a wonderful er guy.
One of the compensations of old age is old friends. I have met loads on this short euro adventure.
I love them all.
Thank you, Zandra and Guy for great kindness at the chateau.
I am asked to talk at the 4th International Symposium on the History of Particle Physics at CERN. What fun! Anyone who is anyone in global particle physics in the 1980s and 1990s, the period covered by the Symposium, is there. 4 days of nostalgia.
Chris, who is chairing the symposium, and I arrange to have dinner on the night before the kick off. The restaurant is pretty much closed by the time we get there and we dine on tiny sandwiches, a plum and yoghourt!
Not impressed!John!Ugo, Kostas, Sudeshna and James!Albrecht!My neighbour in San Francisco!Robert!Martine, Fabiola!Helga, Luciano!Robert,Walter!I’ve got a bird that whistles, I’ve got a bird that sings!I get into a fist fight with String Theorists – they are a bad bunch. CERN fireman apply first aid.Stephanie and Wendy!Helen and Hirotaka!BreakfastChris, Monica!John, Siobhan and Roger!Jeremy, Vivienne!
What a fantastic event – many thanks to the organizers. How lucky am I to be part of such things?!
I go up to Clement to get an octopus and some dim sum.
Octopus shopDim Sum shop
I leave my iPhone in the Waymo on my Waymo back home – Senile Neil. On the ‘find my Mac’ app I see the phone is on Tolland St. I contact Waymo. They are wonderful, ” Tolland is our depot. Lemme look over the car Sir. I found your phone brother. Just come down and pick it up.” I am so lucky!
Thanks Waymo!
To celebrate phone ‘I once was lost but now I’m found’ scenario, Bebo and I have lunch.
Bebo is a Southern Belle and eats oyster po boysI get Fried Catfish plateRare Downy Woodpecker at the feeder.
Jame4s, a mushroom expert, harvests Chicken in the woods.Beautiful coloursFirst CampRiver by camp.We eat octopus and potatoes. awn unusual camp meal.James finds huge boletsCold in the morning.Abandoned settlement way back in the woods.Second camp. Could not tell you where it is.
The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond 