Greek medical care, gardens and saying good bye to beaches

June 26th, 2012

First a comment about Greek medical care. M needed some sort of drug for his knee pain and I needed antibiotics for this wretched eye infection, (I look like a red eyed monster from hell) and you just walk into a pharmacy and buy what you need for 3-4 Euros. The drugs he got were some wicked anti-inflammatory which he had to be careful with. And the eye drops proved to not be enough, so I went back.

I was still lousy with whatever crazy infection was making loopy and falling over and not able to go out in sunlight. And here’s where Greek medical care gets tricky. I researched on the internet and self prescribed Augmentin. I had no idea there were so many kinds of antiobioitics. I wanted Cippro which is my antibiotic drug of choice, but it didn’t seem right, so I went in and asked for Augmentin. The pharmacist said I should see a doctor, I paid my 4 Euros and bought the medicine and lo and behold, I seem to be on the road to recovery. With any luck, I can swim tomorrow.

Try that in the States even if you have insurance. At home, this would take half a day and we have medical care. Well, we have Kaiser. Don’t get me started.

Leaving soon to go back to Los Angeles home of freeways, traffic snarls and our own house. We never planned to stay in our neighborhood, but real estate shifts made us decide to hang in and fix the place up. Besides, I don’t think we’re quite sure where we would move.

We like Pasadena where the press is and especially Altadena which is a little more laid back, but one never knows. We have friends in the Valley, in Santa Monica and in Pasadena. But, in LA, everyone’s friends have to drive an hour to see you. M wishes we could live somewhere cooler. Like maybe the Bay Area or Portland, but I don’t want to have to start my life/the press over in a new city. Make all new friends.

But it’s hot, no doubt where we live. It’s supposed to be 90 all week there. Everywhere is cooler than the San Fernando Valley. Well, except the Mojave Desert or even the Antelope Valley. The Gobi Desert ranges from 95 degrees F to -53 degrees F. That is out of control. So, where we live isn’t that bad.

Our house has a lot of space and light; it’s your basic sprawling house to which everybody who ever owned it added a room or two. It was big enough when we had four children living at home and we can certainly make guests comfortable when they want to stay over. M wouldn’t mind living in a smaller house, and maybe eventually when the market improves we’ll move.

In the meantime, we are thinking about working on the house but mostly just improving the garden. I want to see how the tomatoes and peppers are doing. And of course how the chicks are growing up. And how many of them look like roosters. You start to be able to tell long before they make those silly crowing noises that the males of the species make, you can tell by their little top hats and their extra feathers and the way they like to stomp around.

This is supposed to be the easy time with kids, but getting them through college and on their way is a process. Some people skip this stage and just send their kids on their way. We believe in education and in making sure your kids get one. Hoping that’s what happens.

We have a lot of friends with kids under the age of ten, and I do remember that part and it’s a lot of work. Driving them back and forth to school and all their little lessons and to see their friends for the endless play dates. The driving alone kills you.

We have a few more days in Greece. We have a couple more days swimming at Lambi. My favorite Greek foods: Greek salad, eggplant salad (similar to baba ganoush which I also love,) baked feta, flaming feta, I like feta, marithes—they are fried tiny fish that you can get as an appetizer. Picarel or smelts. I love them. I like all the fish I have had here. Oh, and the stuffed zucchini flowers. I might be able to make them at home. I better get the zucchinis planted first. It looks pretty easy. But I don’t think our grocery store carries fresh smelt for making the marithes, so we may just need to come back to Greece. So here’s to a few more days and then home sweet home where I can’t wait to see the new Ridley Scott film, Prometheus.