Thisa And Thata

As noted, slept better than I have in weeks, got my Starbucks overpriced brew, then began to feel a bit more human. At about 10:30, I hopped a bus to the mall/transit center, walked the half mile or so to Mimi's, and signed in for the hearing aid info thing. Noreen got there shortly after and we chatted while waiting for it to start.
This was in a sunny side room, with about 25 people at a long table. We were served with water, iced tea, or lemonade before the program, which was presented by a young man named Matt from the corporate office in Utah.  I pegged him as LDS--I can spot them a mile off--and he filled us in with visuals and a few jokes. The other guy, Barrett (who would name their kid Barrett is beyond me) owns the hearing aid place, and has offices in Ventura, Ojai, and other places. It was actually informative and pretty interesting. However, when someone asked about cost, Barrett said they start--start--at about two thou and go up.  He also said most insurances don't cover, which surprised me;  I'm pretty sure Medicare doesn't either.
Afterward, the staff, including an assistant named Megan, went around to each person asking to make an appointment to have an audiology test; I said I'll call if interested, and I may be.  We then finally got lunch. Incredibly, there was only one waitress for almost 30 people. The women across from us were finished both soup and salad before we got served. The person next to Noreen had to leave and didn't get hers at all. Poor planning.
However, it was pretty good--I had corn chowder, a Mandarin salad, and on my own tab, of course, a Stella Artios beer. We left about 2:30 and Noreen dropped me off at the library in town. Ran in to young Ben (the one who played my granddaughter's husband in the show) again and we chatted. I then looked for a new coffee maker, found one, bought, and lugged it home on the bus. Left it to deal with later, then jumped in the car to cash a check at the bank,* buy some containers at Michael's, stop at Sprouts, and finally, go to CVS for my two prescriptions. I had accidentally ordered them from CVS a block away, instead of CVS Caremark, which sends them. I was taken aback to find CVS was charging me $7.50 each--fifteen bucks!--whereas I get them free from Caremark via my insurance. I told them to keep the damn things and went home and ordered them from Caremark.
And so it goes.... Or went.
* This was from Ipsos, a survey outfit for which I signed up and it was for filling out a "getting to know you" piece on-line. I'm not even quite clear on how this works, but since I've participated in these things gratis, thought as well get paid for it.