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It Isn’t All About Money. But…

I have a bit of a quandary.

I really like my dogs’ veterinarian. One of the reasons I started using this particular vet is because he helps American Brittany Rescue (ABR) by discounting services significantly. Which is huge. Quite a few ABR dogs have been helped by this particular vet.

I’ve known for some time their drug prices are higher than prices on the Internet. But they match prices, so it never really mattered that much. Besides, I’d rather the extra money go to this vet who helps ABR all the time than some other vet.

That changed today when I realized just how much said vet is marking-up the prices of some drugs.

Drugs like Frontline and Heartgard are usually a bit cheaper on-line than at the vet. But these are popular drugs, so the vet has to be competitive. It is the cost of the lesser-known drugs that are the real issue.

C, our oldest dog (she’s 12 1/2), has been suffering with chronic diarrhea for some time. We can’t figure out what is wrong. After quite a few expensive diagnostic procedures and several different drugs (yes, we tried different food, too) we’re at a loss. So we’ve decided to try a long-term course of an antibiotic known generically as metronidazole (brand-name Flagyl).

We decided this during our last visit. It is a drug that requires a prescription, which the office filled. For 20 pills, it cost $23 or $1.15/pill.

It seems to be working so I called in for a 100-pill refill today. Not until after I checked Internet prices, of course. I was amazed to learn that prices for this pill ranged from $0.10/pill to $0.26/pill. My feelings went quickly from amazement, to confusion, to pissed off.

I called the vet’s office thinking no way they’d match that price. They did, no questions asked. I just had to show them a printout.

The matching is nice and all, but I feel robbed. What if I’d bought 100 pills last week instead of only 20?

So, do I stay pissed off at the vet? Maybe change vets? That was my first inclination. Until I thought about it some more. I’d be willing to bet the practice is pretty common. Prices are not usually determined by considering cost alone. Prices are established based on what people will pay, or what the market will bear. And the vet is running a business.

I think I just learn to adjust. I’ll have the vet write an actual prescription, not sell me some pills. Maybe that will work. Time will tell I guess.

In the meantime, if you have pets and buy your drugs from the vet, do yourself a favor and check Internet prices. This is not the only drug I have saved significantly on.

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The Candidate for a Real Change

I usually try to avoid discussing politics with people I know. I mean, I’ve got this nice, pleasant, laid-back persona to uphold, right? I’m not argumentative by nature. I’m not the jump-on-a-bandwagon type either.

Of course, there was this post, but it wasn’t about politics really. It was just a cute kid in a t-shirt.

But times are changing. That means I need to change. We all need to change. We need to be honest, smart.

You REALLY need to think about who you want in office. Democrats? Republicans? Or an independent candidate like this one? (UPDATE: this link should take you to a page where a video, which is a joke by the way, loads quickly. It currently is not working. I suspect this thing got way more traffic than expected and the server admin probably disabled it. I have a feeling it was posted on said server without the admin’s permission anyway. Sorry you missed it. It was funny! Or so I thought.)

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Approaching Normalcy

Things are slowly but surely getting back to normal for me. That was quite a road trip I took!

Know how I can tell things are almost normal? I don’t have anything specific or special to write about. So I’ll just share a couple of things…

Our Youngest Grandson…

Joey, age 15 months, got to spend the night with us on Saturday. He’s cute as a button and sure kept us laughing.

In this picture, Joey and I were out in our backyard. Hubby, aka Pop, was in the house. Joey was waving to Pop.

My Most Frivolous Purchase

I didn’t spend much time shopping while I was in Maine. I did hit the grocery store a couple of times for snacks, which is where I discovered Wicked Whoopies. Whoopie pies, which I always thought were a Pennsylvania Dutch thing, are desserts consisting of some sweet, creamy icing sandwiched between two small, round, chocolate cakes. They’re usually 3 1/2 to 4 inches across.

Wicked Whoopies are slightly larger. They come in a bunch of different flavors, too. But what’s best, and what I found totally hysterical, is that they come in a jumbo size.


Here I am with my jumbo Wicked Whoopie. You can’t really appreciate the size while it is wrapped.


You can sort of appreciate the size of it in the above picture. But I think the close-up below gives you the best appreciation as to the size of this monster.

According to the label, it was 72 ounces. It was quite tasty, too. So tasty, in fact, I’m going to go have a hunk right now.

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Freeport, Maine to Home

I made it home safely last night after a drive that seemed like it would never end.

Remember I said I wouldn’t take I-95 to get home? That I would take the scenic route? Well, I changed my mind.

The map software I used said the scenic route would be just over 12 hours. It would be picturesque, sure. But 12 hours is a long time. The drive through Connecticut, New York and New Jersey was only supposed to take about 9. Yeah, it would be harrowing, but I’d get home faster.

I was wrong. My timing sucked. I didn’t leave Freeport until 10:30 AM. I had waited for the outlet stores to open which was a TOTAL waste of time. The LL Bean Outlet is tiny. The LL Bean retail stores are huge, but there were no deals to be had there. And the one thing I was supposed to buy — a robe for Gaige, my 5-year-old grandson — they didn’t have. (I did buy some Wicked Whoopies though; more on that later…)

I hit New York City at rush hour. Traffic was at an almost complete standstill from the New York state line until I crossed the George Washington Bridge. When it finally broke loose, it was moving at 80+ MPH. Then it was at a standstill again through Newark, which, by the way, is where those 14 lanes of traffic are that I mentioned previously. Traffic got moving again at 80+ MPH. But there were still quite a few cars zipping in and out of traffic like we were barely moving. It was dark by then, too.

Anyway… I arrived home safely around 10:00 PM. That’s 11 1/2 hours after I left Freeport. Yeah I hit traffic, but the software underestimated the drive time. Had I taken the scenic route, I probably would’ve had to stop for the night somewhere.

It was a great trip, despite the I-95 experiences, but it is good to be home. After I sort through the bezillion pictures I shot, I’ll share some more with you.

I hope you enjoyed your virtual journey!

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Bar Harbor to Freeport, Maine

Thursday dawned wet and gray in Bar Harbor. But that was okay. I’d been blessed with fabulous weather ’til then. And I’d already made the decision to pull out early. There was a lighthouse I’d missed on the way up and another point along the coast that I knew I just had to see.

Bar Harbor was far too overrun by tourists anyway. As nice as the town is, I couldn’t wait to escape the slow-moving, sidewalk blocking cruise ship passengers.

Unfortunately, I had to do a bit of shopping downtown before I left. It was awful. But I survived.

While there, I couldn’t pass-up this photo op. I usually make Hubby capture these classic moments. But he wasn’t there. So I asked some old guy who agreed despite giving me a look that said, “Uh, you want to get your picture taken with that thing? How weird.”

My trip just wouldn’t be complete without a lovely image like that to share.

In the picture above, you can see a couple packs of the cruisers I keep whining about.

My first stop was a town named Stonington on the island of Deer Isle, which is south of Acadia. The drive was stunning. Not only are the trees colorful, even the plants in the fields are putting on a show.

To get from the mainland to Deer Isle, you have to cross Eggemoggin Reach using this narrow suspension bridge, which was built in 1939 using a design very similar to that ill-fated bridge in Washington state that blew apart in a windstorm. (Chances are you’ve seen the classic video of that bridge waving wildly as a man runs for his life.) It was a little creepy. But Deer Isle was worth it.

I finally ate a lobster roll while in Stonington. It was gross. It is basically cold chunks of lobster in mayo with little seasoning and not much taste. Hubby described lobster well by comparing it to tough shrimp. An awful lot of people love lobster, but I am not one of them. I knew that before I tried the sandwich, but I had to do it.

My next stop was the Pemaquid Point lighthouse, several hours down the mainland coast from Deer Isle. Again, the drive was spectacular. And weird.

The weird part was this other crazy bridge I had to cross. The Penobscot Narrows Suspension Bridge is one of only two bridges of its type in the country. It may not look crazy in the above picture, but look at the image below and you’ll see what I mean. There was only one support with a traffic lane suspended on each side.

I survived the crossing. After a brief stop in Camden, Maine (yet another very picturesque Maine coastal town)…


I made it to Pemaquid Point with just minutes of daylight to spare. That’s why you can see the moon in what I think is a pretty cool shot of the lighthouse.

Friday, I’ll be driving home. Wonder what interesting stuff I’ll encounter along the way…

Oh yeah, you can see the rest of Thursday’s pictures on my Flickr page.

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Acadia on Schoodic and MDI

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the majority of Acadia National Park is on Mount Desert Island (MDI). But there are other parcels nearby, too. Much if not all of the land that makes up the park is actually the result of personal land grants. That’s why bits of it are scattered.

The Schoodic Peninsula is about an hour’s drive north of the island. It’s not really convenient, but in this case that’s a good thing. Because the hordes of leaf-peepers that have been swarming the Bar Harbor area (the main village on MDI) don’t usually go to Schoodic.

It felt like I had the place to myself. There were other people there, but not a lot. And those that were there were traveling in small groups, not mobs. It was quite tranquil.

If you were sitting here with me instead of just enjoying the photo, you would have heard waves gently lapping the shore, seagulls and other birds making noise. That’s it.

Here’s a bit of geology for you. Most of the large boulders in and around Acadia are granite. Much of the granite is somewhat pink. The picture above, taken along the shore on Schoodic, is an example of that granite beside some black, volcanic rock which is the result of magma forcing its way to the surface through the granite. That magma push happened a long time ago, of course.

After taking lots of cool rocky coast shots, like the one above, I headed back to MDI. I stopped and bought a cold cut sub for lunch, which I took with me for the drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain.

Cadillac, as it is known on MDI, at 1,530 feet is the highest point of elevation on North America’s eastern seaboard. As you’ll see in the next photo, the view was a good one.

The cluster of buildings you see is Bar Harbor. A close-up of the village from the Cadillac summit is in the next picture.

I plopped myself on a giant, pink granite boulder and enjoyed my lunch and the view at the same time. The rocks were rather interesting looking.

When I was done on Cadillac, I headed east on the Park Loop Road. It was getting close to sundown and the light was just right for leaf photos. I stopped quite a few times along the way and got some very nice pictures as a result. I posted my favorite below. You can see the others on my Flickr page.