As I recall, Blanche Dubois always depended on the kindness of strangers. While I can't say I have always depended upon it, I have always been quietly delighted when it occurs and reinforces a sometimes fragile faith in the decency of human beings. As any of you who has ever traveled with me in the last 8 years knows, I suffer from sleep apnea and have a bipap machine which forces me to breathe properly while I sleep and, in doing so, allows me to sleep through the night peacefully without being starved for oxygen and waking up every 90 minutes or so. I have been using this device (which Jonathan Boynton rather uncharitably refers to as the Darth Vader Unit) for about the last 8 years and about two months ago was concerned over some odd whirring noises it was producing.

I called the local outpost of the company that sold it to me and serviced it in Sacramento, and they were very nice but of very little help. They said I would have to get all kinds of information from my doctor (much of which I would not be able to produce since I don't even know where the doc who put me on this thing in the first place has hidden himself) rather than their simply getting it from their Sacramento counterpart. I had noticed, though, that there is a home medical supply place next door to the frame shop I use here and just popped in on them hoping they could help.

They were quite helpful and told me that they would lend me a brand new machine (at $60/month) to use while mine was sent off to the manufacturer for repair and would call me within 3 days with a quote for the cost of repair. This transaction took place a little more than a week before I left for my Mexico trip last month. I had hoped to hear from them before I left but, alas, it was not to be. I took the rented bipap with me and came back a week later, and now a full 16 days after having dropped off my machine for the repair estimate, and still there was no message from them.

The Monday after my return, I called to see what they had found out, and they still didn't have a price to quote me, but by now, half of my first month with the rented unit had elapsed. I expressed my concern about the delay and Denise, the respiratory therapist with whom I was working, assured me she would get right on it. By that Thursday, I had a quote for $260 to repair the machine and I authorized them to go ahead. At that point, the company said that they would repair it and have it back within about 5 or 6 days. Another two weeks passed and I hadn't heard anything from Denise saying my trusty bipap was back so I dropped in one afternoon last week to inquire. Much to my surprise, they had my machine, but had neglected to call and tell me it was back. Considering I was, by then, into my second month with the rented unit, I was prepared to have a little chat about this delay, but things were so discombobulated there that they couldn't find my paperwork and besides, I would have to bring back the rental later anyway, so we put off settling up.

I used my machine the first night and realized the settings were all wrong when it came back and I felt like there was a windstorm blowing up my nose and I couldn't exhale very easily either. I called Denise back and told her what had happened but hit a snag in that she had not written down the settings the machine had been on. It now became my task to obtain them from Apria Healthcare in Sacramento. Having been told earlier by the Apria people here that they had tried to get info from their Sacramento office and couldn't even get a phone call returned, I wasn't optimistic, but I called just the same and got my first kindness from a stranger (I knew you were all wondering if I would get back to that). The woman there spent about 20 minutes digging through files to find a prescription from 5 years ago that had the settings on it and she dictated them to me over the phone.

She was curious about why I hadn't had Apria in Asheville take care of the repair and associated hassle, and I related the story I had gotten from them. She then said that my insurance probably would pay to have me get all my parts and service done by Apria in Sacto if I had problems here. The difficulty there is that in order to get insurance at all in North Carolina, I ended up with a policy that excludes pre-existing conditions. The three called out specifically were Allergies, Sleep Apnea, and my back problems that came from my auto accident three years ago. Consequently, all costs related to the bipap are my responsibility.

At this point she started whispering. "Don't tell anyone I told you this" she said, "but there is a website called cpapman.com that will sell all this stuff to you directly at a substantial savings. You don't need us at all. We are just an expensive middle man paid for by health insurers". I was stunned. Not only had this woman spent a long time digging through files to find what I needed but she then offered me advice on how to avoid dealing with her company or any other.

So I called Denise, and she said that armed with the pressure settings, I could bring the machine back in and she could reset it. No problem. Abner and I had errands to run that afternoon (Friday of last week) so I dropped off the machine as well as the rental and said I'd be back before they close at 5:00.

We ran all our errands and went for a nice hike at the Arboretum and when I returned to pick up my machine, things were disorganized, as usual. Denise, though, is always cheery and helpful and eventually found my machine. At this point I asked her if she had found the paperwork yet for our transaction and she said no but not to worry about it. They would just take care of the whole thing. I was stunned. Two months of rental and a $260 repair, that I think actually ended up costing considerably more than that, were all dismissed because she felt bad that they had dropped the ball on so many things.

So twice in one day, I was treated to remarkable kindness and generosity from people I didn't know. Amazing.

Tulips have completely exploded at Biltmore. Spring seems to have come at least a month earlier this year than last. I have been trying to notice things like this so I can advise potential visitors of good times to come to see whatever specific foliage they want to see, but it is becoming increasingly clearer that in this neck of the woods, consistancy is missing. Last year there were barely any azaleas open by mid May and this year quite a few are already blooming. The butterfly invasion of the forests has returned as well. On Sunday, I took Abner for a hike of almost 3 hours in the National Forest and we saw the return of the butterfles that so fascinated me last spring. They are just a hell of a lot earlier.

At a point on this hike where we were in fairly deep woods and hadn't seen any humans (lots of rabbits though) in awhile, one of the yellow and black butterflies that look like Monarchs only smaller, landed on Abner's back and stayed there for almost 10 minutes. It never occurred to me that other animals would be hitchhikers, but it sure looked like that was what this beautiful butterfly did.

I am going to attempt to post a few more pictures of the emergence of spring here. I am having fun with my mini-digital camera. It is so easy to carry with me regardless of what the activity is, that I have started shooting a lot more. I still don't know what I'm doing with it, but it's fun just the same.

I hope Sacramento dries out pretty soon. I almost feel guilty that it continues to be so gorgeous here and my old friends in CA are still sopping wet. Oh well. At least you can still go skiing.