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So after work I resigned myself to go to the pharmacy and pay what I thought would be more than twice what the medical coverage charges for an inhaler... because the last time I bought one for cash it was nearly 350 pesos.

But then, I didn't have a prescription when I paid that much and they discount as an incentive to get you to go to the doctor. You can buy anything except "sicofarmacos" without a prescription - the "sicofarmacos" being valium, xanax and that ilk.

I went to a pharmacy that I'd been to before and knew was relatively cheaper than others. A friend that was with me wanted to go to San Roque right on 18 de Julio - yeah its a pharmacy but its like going to Neiman Marcus when you really need Wal-Mart.

(Strangely, we see Wal-Mart ads here on DirecTV on the Argentine-originated cable channels but I digress... very weird watching the little spanish speaking smiley face rolling back prices. I shudder to think what they pay their employees in Argentina, and wonder who they smuggle in to work illegally to clean the stores )

But anyway I was all set to pay like 350 pesos (more than USD$10) for the damned inhaler and instead it came to 142.

I was elated, because my health coverage would have charged me like one hundredsixtysomething. Little things... Lesson learned... go to that particular pharmacy, first, everytime, before you go visit the noquis at CASMU.

What are noquis? In American English its written as the Italians write it "gnocchi." In Uruguayan Spanish a "noqui" is a government employee. It's not a very nice thing to say. CASMU ain't the government but its organized (if you can call it that) similarly.

Ah well, enough droning on about me and my asthma. Need to put another layer of clothing on because its cold in here! Going to be six degrees tonight or less. (No, celsius. And you're on the damn internet so open another browser window and find a converter if you're curious what that is in F)

Chau.