“Your insurance company has not approved this MRI yet. We can still go ahead with it, but we’ll need you to sign this waiver that holds you liable for the cost if they don’t approve.”

“Er, how much will it be?”

“…”

“Nobody asks that?”

“I’ve seen some for as low as $2,000, and some as high as $11,000.”

deep breath from the British person on the other side

“How about we reschedule until next week and see if they approve it?”

Meanwhile, back in Britain:

“Here for your MRI? This way!”¹

You can infer from this that I did not have my MRI this week, and thus I still don’t know what’s wrong with it, and I’m also laid up in bed after hurting it again last night and then having to drive four hours back from South Carolina on top of that. Still, a fun trip down to SC where I discovered the useful effects of trampoline parks on children (they’re so tired afterwards!), was given a geometric painting as a birthday present (yay triangles!), and practiced my Sichuan Wonton construction skills. Oh, and I saw all of Flash Gordon for the first time. Richard O’Brien was better in Jubilee, I think. As for the rest of it, my goodness, there were some awful films produced in the wake of Star Wars.

And finally, I got promoted! I’m now a Lead Consultant at Mammoth Data. I now consult in a leading way on all the Big Data things! Perhaps.