(Final Jepordy question Monday involved my homeland. Screen shot from an alert reader in Ann Arbor.)

What a day yesterday! It was filled with the remarkable, and the absurd- a perfect April Fools Day.

Here is how nuts it was: I met someone who had a good experience with the Affordable Care Act! Stranger things have happened, but rarely at the Willow Bar. My associate is between paying gigs- it’s that economy thing- and was confronted with the options of continuing the old company health plan under a thing called “COBRA.” It sounds ominous- the name is derived from the “Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act health benefit provisions passed by Congress in 1986.

It essentially allows former employees to continue the health care they had when working, only absent the company contribution. The tab is sort of breathtaking, when you realize what the plans actually cost, in terms of the benefit. In this case COBRA was $750 a month, which is sort of steep when unemployed, and the ACA not-quite-bottom-of-the-barrel plan came in at $128 a month, a significant savings. The web-site worked, and the plan actually provided a co-pay on a prescription only a week after enrollment, so I can honestly say that I met someone who thinks it worked.

I did ask about the deductible, which turns out to be $4,000, or $330 bucks a month, which I think means that you are actually paying $461 a month for nothing, but I held off exploring that. My associate is 30-something, and healthy, and not planning on using much in the way of benefits, and certainly not $5500 a year ($4,000 deductible plus monthly premiums) but whatever.

Like I said, a happy consumer. I am nervous that someone will attempt to force me into that good deal. As it is, I pay about $50 a month for coverage as a military retiree, and someone told me if I liked that, I could keep it, so I think I will.

The larger topic was the departure of Tinkerbell, our favorite vivacious bartender from the Crescent City. We have been with her, keeping tabs on her courtship, marriage, pregnancy, and the antics of her lovely daughter Nola. (New Orleans, Louisiana, get it?) and so the rending of our little ersatz bar family was a time of sadness.

(Tinkerbell and The Last Check. Photo Socotra).

Jon-without began to ruminate about the nice folks who wore the black shirts of the bar tending staff: Peter and Tex and Liz-s and a dozen more. And now Tinkerbell. We looked nervously at Jasper, and then Lovely Jamie announced that she was moving to Richmond, to occupy her grandfather’s house.

“They are breaking up that old gang of mine,” I said, tempted to burst into song.

“Don’t do it. You will scare the Fish & Wildlife Service, who had occupied the Cocktail Nook in force. They are leaving, too. Some study said the government could save some money by moving the headquarters of the Service out of the leased space across the street and into some other leased space in a place where there is no Metro or parking. And, of course, no Willow.

F&W is one of those Government agencies with a decent mission and good people who tend to like the outdoors, and whose career paths take them to remote places more in tune with the natural world than the loopy lunacy of Arlington. Of course, their mission has been politicized, but like our own beloved (if debased) Navy, there is a reason that they exist, and basically honest people trying to accomplish the mission.

Jasper the bartender likes them a lot. He takes special pain to keep them happy and well served on their multiple happy hours each week, and there was a plan on the part of the F&W folks to take up a collection to help him open his own place over near the new HQ. If he goes, that will be a clean sweep.

Jon-without looked disconcerted, as Jamie described the purging she is doing to move out of town. I am likely to be the beneficiary of a couple decorative flower pots for the patio at Big Pink, I am starting to look at the exits here myself.

For not being busy I was swept away in the events of April Fools Day, and could not tell half the time whether I was being bamboozled or not. It was a non-stop cavalcade of the amazing. A new potato recipe. The earthquakes on the West Coast, with the 8.0 shock recorded in Chile. There have been dozens of minor disturbances all up and down the west coast of North and South America. Does it presage the Big One for California?

What about the threats from Russia against plucky Finland? April Fool’s Day madness, or just the ordinary stupidity?

And what about the UAVs and 500 rounds of artillery lobbed at the ROK?

A field review of the Remington R-51 semi-auto pistol by a pal took up some more time, and reports are good, though a disassembly and cleaning was strongly recommended to get the gunk out of the inner workings prior to test firing, and then a search for the YouTube instructional video to do so without marring the finish on the new gun. You will be gratified to know that the positive grip safety, trigger pull and rounded edges make it a delight to fire, with tight groups reported and minimal feeding problems on the 9mm ammunition. Then there was a search for a suitable holster, which provided additional distraction.

(Jasper’s sketch book, with happy hour White. Photo Socotra).

Maybe it is the time of year- the sap rising making us all a little antsy and ready to get on with things. To avoid the melancholy that goes along with the thought of missing all these familiar faces, we looked at Jasper’s sketches for graffiti tags and new tattoos.

The only thing that really meant anything might have been the potato recipe:

Copyright 2014 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303