There are many positive things about living in a small New Hampshire town. Rural life is enjoyable. The changing seasons add variety to life. Stress is the tension on a rope. People know you.

ON the downside, people know you. There a smaller choices. This is particularly true when it comes to shopping. Sometimes you have to drive tens of miles to find a store. In my town there is one pharmacy. It is a Rite-Aid. It used to be a Brooks, but I guess they got bought out.

As I have gotten older, but not wiser, I have started taking drugs. Hypertension, Type II diabetes have taken their toll. So my has me popping pills a couple of times a day. Rite-Aid fills them out.

About a month ago, I got a package from Rite-Aid. It was all about my diabetes and the products and services they were offering. All neatly packages with a variety of strategic relationships. Glucose monitors, new drugs and all sorts of stuff being hawked to me.

What?

I thought my information was private. Why are drug companies pitching me? I went down to the plaza and confronted them. How dare they sell my information without my permission? The counter people said it wasn't them it was corporate. I called corporate. After a relatively small amount of time, I reached a VP who apologized, but said they were trying to help me. Yeah, right. he said I could opt-out. I replied I never opted-in and what they did was wrong.

But I was stuck. If I wanted to change pharmacies, I would have to go to the next town over. OK. I bitched. End of story.

Abut two weeks later, I received three phone calls on my answering machine from Rite-Aid. Now what? I called back, they were making a courtesy call. One of my prescriptions was due for a refill. Oy. Not again. First, a courtesy call is not a courtesy call. It is a call asking you to spend money. Secondly, the prescription in question had expired. Once again, I told the people at Rite-Aid, I do not like these invasions of privacy and stop it.

Last weekend I did need to refill a prescription. The dilemma, should I continue to use Rite-Aid or move? I was pressed for time, so I called it into them. I figured it would be easier than making the ten miles drive to a new place. Mistake.

When I went to pick up my pills, they wanted to charge me $22.00. I said there must be a mistake. I paid $4.00 last time. The pleasant young woman asked to see my insurance card. I gave it to her. 15 minutes later she came back and said, it'll be $11.00. I said, last time I paid $4.00 when you matched the Wal-Mart price, something I mentioned earlier. Sorry.
She grabbed a manager and the two of them took another 25 minutes figuring out how to match the price. Of course, there is a big sign at the counter saying, "We'll match our competitors prices." I guess that means as long as you're willing to complain about the price and then wait on their incompetence.

After 45 minutes, I got my pills. I got my price and I got a headache. I thought I would buy some ibuprofen on the way out, but thought better of it.