Chilly and Chilled

Welcome, relaxed reader. This week we've done various fairly typical Californian bits and pieces, with somewhat surprising outcomes.

First up, last weekend we went to the beach. One of the famous local beach spots is a place called Half Moon Bay, up the peninsula from here, and obviously on the other side of the mountains. We went up there last week, packing our portable chairs and a full day's food and entertainment, just like proper Californians. Imagine our surprise when, having arrived, the weather was overcast and somewhat blustery; more Cumberland than California!

Helen, dressed appropriately for the weather

I of course insisted on wearing my swanky new sunglasses, despite the distinct lack of the usual incandescent light here. But anyway, the beach was nice, the sea the usual calming presence, and we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon there.

On Monday I had my annual medical... well at least I assume it's supposed to be annual. We've been here two years now and my relationship with the medical system has been complex, but to cut a long story short, I now have a Primary Care Provider (the US term for GP), and met her for the first time on Monday.

The US medical system really loves to share data with you. This differs significantly from the UK, where you're really only given data when there's something wrong and they want to scare you; here I've got a series of measurements and data points which I frankly have no idea of the meaning of. Perhaps most surprisingly, my blood pressure and pulse rate appear to qualify me for the next Olympics:

I will admit I've cut my caffeine consumption right down, and I've changed my diet so it includes more than just bacon, and maybe that's had some impact. Anyway, always good to get some confirmation that I'm not dead just yet. Maybe I was so chilled as a result of that relaxing afternoon at the beach.

Obviously as I hadn't had a tetanus jab in living memory, they stuck that in me. In my future will be screenings for all manner of things that I'm pretty sure I haven't got, but such is the way of medicine here. The insurance company's paying, so might as well have it.

It's also notable that everything's surprisingly quick. Not long after the appointment, the data shows up in my health provider's app on my phone, which is linked to Apple Health, so I've got a record of these things; this would never happen in the UK. This clash of cultures is evident when I tell the folks here I had an MMR vaccination in 2017, and they tell me I'll have to provide those records. My response is to look back at them quizzically... records? What records?

This week marks the August Bank Holiday back in the UK, which means next week it'll be Labo(u)r Day here, the traditional marker of the end of summer. We've been fortunate not to see too much smoke from the wildfires yet, but it looks like our luck may be about to run out there. Onwards!