I have caught a blankety-blank cold. Bloody hell. In 10 days, we are supposed to set out on a three-week road trip with Merlefest (Wilkesboro NC) at the front end and Indian Neck (Falls Village, CT) at the back end, and right now I have a snuffly nose, a sore throat and a thundering headache. The normal course of a cold for me is a segue to full-blown bronchitis within 48 hours of the peak of the wet and sneezly stage, which I forecast for the mddle of next week.

Well, it's wonderful what modern drugs will do for a girl -- or even for an old bat like me. Fortunately, my doctor knows my crappy pulmonary function well and is not stingy with the antibiotics.

I just learned that I am a candidate for a radical new treatment for asthma, which is the reason for my frquent bouts of bronchitis. The new thing is a drug called Xolair that targets a specific immunoglobulin implicated in severe asthma. The down side -- of course there's a down side -- is the cost, which is so extremely high that the second question at each level of the screening process (after "Do you have asthma?") is "Do you have extra health insurance that covers drugs?"

Having quit my government job, I no longer have such coverage, and the insurer responsible for military dependants is taking its sweet time in processing my husband's application for coverage for me. The dependant medical benefit pays only 80 percent of the cost of prescription drugs, and Xolair is so expensive that even 20 percent of the cost is thousands per year. On the other hand, uninsured medical expenses are tax-deductible, so I will never pay income tax again. Unless, of course, I win the lottery.

Meanwhile, I'm lying low, drinking tea with the cat, and doing my best not to get sicker.