The Walterland Blog

As expected, we were going to get some medical bills from the ordeal when Natalie got the nickel stuck in her throat. We had received, I believe, two bills before tonight that were hospital related and were basically notifications that they were submitting them to our insurance company (and we may have to pick up the remainder). No surprise there...

The surprise did come tonight. I don't want it to sound like a complete surprise as it was also an expected bill, but hopefully someone (Chuck?) can help me understand the figure.

Now, I don't want it to sound like I'm complaining as I am not at all... The fire department and ambulance showed up almost instantly (as I discovered a few days later that they are about 1/8 of a mile away). As you could read from my prior post, they listened to her breathing, watched her throw up, and watched my fish swim in their tank as well as watched my TV. The bill for that memory was $525.

Why so much...? I'm guessing there's a flat "call fee" for probably both the fire dept. as well as the ambulance (which we didn't use). Does that figure sound accurate? Now, for the HR savvy people out there... can I use my flex spending account to cover the cost?

Again, I want to reiterate... I am not complaining about the bill or the service rendered. If it weren't for the one fireman we may not have taken her to the hospital as we were all but convinced by the person giving the exam that she would most likely pass it (since he wasn't able to hear anything in his scope while listening to her breathe).

As we have had the Explorer for quite some time now and it has been through quite a few paces we decided not too long ago it was time to retire her from the Walterland fleet. She was upgraded to a Land Rover Discovery. Since we didn't want two car payments we bought this one used.

As with any used car there are minor repair issues that creep up along the course of ownership... this one is no different. On Friday it developed a crack in the coolant expansion tank, which is common and had been redesigned because of this issue, but in order to get the replacement we had to acquire it from the dealer.

This past weekend we drove down to the dealer to fetch the replacement part (FYI... Land Rover parts are WAY expensive). In Scottsdale, where the dealership is located, they have a stretch of road aptly named the "Motor Mile." They have dealerships down filled with cars I wasn't expecting to see... For example, they had the following:

- Lexus
- Jaguar
- Ferrari
- Lamborghini
- Maserati
- Bentley
- Hummer
- Infiniti
- Land Rover (of course)

I'm not sure what it takes job wise to be able to shop down at the Motor Mile, but I now have a new 5 year goal. And by the way... if you know anyone in the market for a used Ford Explorer let me know...

This week marked the 10 Year Anniversary for my company. To celebrate... they are paying for all of our families to attend the Diamondback's game tomorrow night (against St. Louis). To end the festivities... a Smashmouth concert... Should be a good time.