I took this photo of one of the curve-billed thrasher parents sitting in the nest today. Damsel peeked in the nest earlier and saw that the three eggs still had not hatched. The cholla where the bird is sitting is about 20 feet in front of the courtyard where I captured the image. Click to enlarge.
I received the following information from a longtime friend and former colleague. His source was an administrator in the Blue Cross Health System. I did some double checking and made corrections based on previous and current medicare premiums.
Although this information is to the best of my knowledge, it may not be completely accurate. However, it reflects an over 250 percent increase from the 2010 to 2014 rate. The jump in the 2013 to 2014 rate alone is over 205 percent:
MEDICARE
For those of you who are on Medicare, read the following. It’s short, but important and you probably haven’t heard about it in the Mainstream News:
The per person Medicare Insurance Premium will increase from the 2010 Monthly Fee of $96.40, rising to:
$99.90 in 2012
$120.20 in 2013
And
$247.00 in 2014.
These are provisions incorporated in the Obamacare Legislation, purposely delayed so as not to confuse the 2012 Re-Election Campaigns. Seniors should know who’s throwing them under the bus.
It figures that the administration would stick it to seniors, a weak demographic for them. If you are like me, having paid into this Ponzi scheme, just like social security, over all the years, you will be outraged.
This bunch of “Voodoo” roses, consisting of orange and yellow hues, is in the vase today after we finished our trip to the supermarket. I don’t know how they got the “Voodoo” name, but they sure are pretty with the baby’s breath accent flowers. Click on the image to enlarge.
Much to our surprise, there are three new eggs in the nest where we watched the curve billed thrashers fledge two chicks this spring. I was out in the front of the house taking pictures when I peeked in the nest in our cholla cactus and saw the eggs. In the photo, note the white strands of dental floss; we recycle our floss in the outdoors just for the reason that birds will build nests using string, floss and anything else they can find.
I’m not sure if thrashers raise multiple sets of chicks in a year; the bird book and Wikipedia were silent on that issue. We will be watching to see if these hatch in the next couple of weeks and get more pictures of thrasher chicks if we can. Click on the image to enlarge.
Ramirez offers this juxtaposition between a former oval office liar and the current one . . .
The timing for travel to the California house was just perfect for us to enjoy the blooming of the white epiphyllum flower in the planter on the side of the house. I went out of the gate near the flowerbed and took this image of the flower this afternoon. By tomorrow, the flower will have wilted and the plant it grows on will go dormant until about the same time next June.
Image: White epiphyllum flower. Click on the image to enlarge.
We went the Botanic Garden a couple of years ago to a showing of epiphyllum flowering plants and were astounded by the many, many varieties and hybrids. There are virtually all colors of the rainbow. There were hundreds of flowers at the show and all quite beautiful.
This poppy was growing out of a crack in the patio sidewalk of the California house. No kidding! Just before we left here in April, Bob sprayed Roundup® all over the backyard to kill the weeds that grow out there. Somehow, the poppy seeds managed to find the cracks in the sidewalk where this pretty flower is growing today. There are several places where poppies are growing, literally, like weeds, out of the cracks. Click on the image to enlarge.