Month: September 2009

  • What if…

    …everyone honored their mother and father.

    …nobody ever committed murder.

    …nobody ever stole from anyone.

    …marraige vows were honored and nobody ever committed adultry.

    …nobody ever lied about another person.

    …we were all happy and content with whatever we had, without wishing we had more or being jealous of others.

    …we all loved our neighbors as we love ourselves.

  • Saying goodbye to the family pet

    number1dog.jpg This is Harpo.  He was born in June of 1993. He was given to me about 2 months later. Thursday I took him to the vet and they put him to sleep. That was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

    He was a standard dachshund, and lived up to the breed reputation. He got into lots of trouble as a puppy, listened only when it suited him and could dig out of any fenced in yard. He had such a deep bark, he sounded much bigger than he was. And we spoiled him rotten! We named him after Harpo Marx, because his favorite thing when he was little was to walk around with a squeeky toy in his mouth.

    He slept in the bed with my husband and I for the past 16 years. When he was smaller, he liked to snuggle up against me. As he got older and bigger, he stretched out to try to touch us both at the same time. Eventually he was just a bed hog! We have a king size bed and there were mornings I woke up so close to the edge it’s amazing I didn’t fall off!

    He never did have any real back problems, but his neck bothered him off and on. Mostly he was a pretty healthy and happy dog. He loved our cats and sometimes I think he wasn’t real sure if he was a dog or a cat.

    In the last year or two we could really see the effects of aging on him. He wasn’t walking as well, or playing as much. He eventually couldn’t manage the front step into the door, so I would pick him up and put him inside. Greg built a ramp for the back door and we were talking about having one built for the front. Sometimes his back legs would just give way and he would suddenly be sitting instead of standing. And then he started whining a lot. Finally he wasn’t eating well without a lot of encouragement, so it was time.

    I chose to stay with Harpo while the procedure was done. I hadn’t planned to do it, but in the end it just seemed like the right thing to do. The vet was very gentle and kind. Once he had his shot, the vet and tech left the room and I stayed with him until I couldn’t feel his heart beating anymore. I hope that gave him some comfort….I know it seemed to make it a little easier for me.

    I miss the guy a lot. Fortunately we have 2 other dogs, both almost 2, that keep me busy. I think they miss Harpo, too, but they don’t sulk about it. I guess life just goes on for them. I think they have a lot to teach me about things like that!

  • I may have gotten someone fired

    As I said in a previous post, my 88 year old aunt lives in a nursing home. She’s been there about 7 years now. She can’t walk, but has been in pretty good shape mentally.

    About a month and 1/2 ago she developed a rash. It was pretty much ignored until I insisted something be done about it. So they tried the usual barrier cream, which didn’t work. After a couple of weeks of me complaining about it, the day nurse finally decided to try an antifungal. It actually started clearing up, until the weekend. It’s a completely different staff on the weekends and they didn’t know anything about this new medication, so by Monday morning the rash was awful again. Even worse after the 3 day holiday.

    Finally this past weekend I got really angry and ended up talking to both the med nurse and the in-charge nurse. Between what I told them and looking at all the records, it was determined that the original day nurse was using another resident’s antifungal cream and had never discussed this treatment with anyone else, including the dr. who is there every week day. So it wasn’t being used on weekends OR at night! And now they have to go to the dr. and explain why a nurse was treating this (without a prescription) with someone else’s medication.

    It did get all straightened out on Sunday and she is now being properly treated, but I went to the administrator on Monday anyway. On the one hand, this nurse was the only one who even tried to fix the problem (there are 2 other nursing shifts in a 24 hour period), but by not doing it the right way, she just prolonged the agony for my aunt. And trust me, it did hurt. I watched her cry about it several times.

    After not seeing the nurse for the past 3 days (she was off on Monday), I asked my aunt’s CNA about her today. She told me that the nurse is no longer employed there.

    Now I kind of feel bad. I assume she was fired….if not, what a coincidence! But I hope there were other reasons besides my complaint. What she did was pretty serious, but overall she seemed to be a nice woman and I know she has a family to support.

    I guess what’s important is that my aunt is starting to heal now and she is much happier.

  • I can’t see you!!

    The sky is dark, everything is gray and gloomy. Rain is pouring from the sky. Do people really think that I can see their car as it races down the road with lights off?

     

  • The Pit Bull Controversy

    This past week there was an incident in a nearby community where one man’s pit bulls (2 of them) got out of his fence and attacked and killed a neighbor’s dog. The neighbor’s dog was behind a fence. There was speculation that the dog had dug a hole under the fence and the pits took advantage of that. Anyway, the owner of the dead dog saw it happening and took his shotgun and killed both of the pits on the spot.

    Things have gotten really ugly over all this and the comments in the paper have gone from reminding people that dogs are only as good as their owners have trained them to be, to saying that all pit bulls must be immediately killed.

    Personally I have known some really sweet pit bulls. I also used to have a dog that was a mix between a chow & english setter who was attacked by a neighbor’s pit. My dog had really thick fur from her chow daddy, so the pit really didn’t have a chance. My dog drew blood, the pit got a mouthful of fur every time she tried to bite back. After a few minutes they stopped, I got my dog in the house and a leash on the pit and called the pound. The pit never acted aggressive toward me at all. It was just between the 2 dogs.

    So, should we really get rid of all aggressive dogs (and I would include chihuahuas in that category!) or make training mandetory for people who choose to adopt that type of dog?

  • Respect your elders!

     How many times did I hear that growing up? My parents taught me that anyone older than me deserved respect. I know I didn’t completely buy into that until I was well into adulthood. I went through many years of the thought that nobody just deserves respect….they must earn it.

    But the fact remains that the older you are, the more experiences you have, and hopefully, the more you have learned about life in general. The younger people may not choose to learn from our mistakes, as my parents so often tried in vain to teach me, but if they did there might just be a lot less chaos in the world today.

    Our parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles have raised us, supported us and maybe in some ways made the world a better place to live. They can tell us stories about times past and humanize history in ways the textbooks can never do. They love us unconditionally, correct us when needed and in general make our world a better place to live.

    Ok, not everyone has great experiences with their elders. I come from a family (on my dad’s side) of raging alcoholics. Some of the stories I could tell….

    But the point of this whole thing is my outrage at the way we treat the elderly. Meet my Aunt Margie.

    Photo008She is 88 years old and lives in a nursing home. She was a military wife and a stay at home mom. About 9 years ago she had a stroke, and then about a year later a fall resulted in major damage to one of her legs. She could no longer walk and her only child couldn’t care for her at home, so the nursing home was the only option.

    The food is awful, the staff often disrespectful and neglectful and her dignity went out the window a long time ago. She can’t choose her own doctor and the one the nursing home provides probably couldn’t make it on his own in general practice.

     Why? Because she isn’t worth any money to our government. They haven’t found a way to make a profit off of her, so why spend money and resources to make her comfortable in her declining years.

    And what’s even worse? One day we may all be where she is now. Unless we get lucky and die early, we are all going to get old. Some of us will be fortunate enough to have families that can afford to care for us at home.The rest of us might very well end up in a nursing home. Hopefully that will include those making the decisions to cut to the bone any programs that could make their lives comfortable,

    Some of those folks are “lucky”…they have alzheimers or dementia and aren’t really aware of their surroundings. Aunt Margie is fully aware of her situation. I’ve tried to get her to come live with me, but she refuses. She doesn’t want to be a burden. So I visit every day and take her food and snacks often. I try to stay on top of the CNAs that aren’t doing their jobs and I go to meetings with Social Services every now and then in the hopes that somebody, somewhere will start caring and treating their charges with the love and respect they deserve.

    Is there any way to fix this? I sure hope so. I don’t want to think that her life is my future.

     

  • Good Speech, Mr President!

    I really listened to my president’s speech last night as this time the whole subject seems much more personal to me than most of the other issues out there. Here are some of the things he said:

    Our collective failure to meet this challenge(for health care reform)– year after year, decade after decade — has led us to the breaking point. Everyone understands the extraordinary hardships that are placed on the uninsured, who live every day just one accident or illness away from bankruptcy. These are not primarily people on welfare. These are middle-class Americans. Some can’t get insurance on the job. Others are self-employed, and can’t afford it, since buying insurance on your own costs you three times as much as the coverage you get from your employer. Many other Americans who are willing and able to pay are still denied insurance due to previous illnesses or conditions that insurance companies decide are too risky or too expensive to cover.

    We are the only democracy — the only advanced democracy on Earth — the only wealthy nation — that allows such hardship for millions of its people. There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage. In just a two-year period, one in every three Americans goes without health care coverage at some point. And every day, 14,000 Americans lose their coverage. In other words, it can happen to anyone.

    Amen, to that! And another part that made me want to give him a standing ovation in my living room was:

    What this plan will do is make the insurance you have work better for you. Under this plan, it will be against the law for insurance companies to deny you coverage because of a preexisting condition. (Applause.) As soon as I sign this bill, it will be against the law for insurance companies to drop your coverage when you get sick or water it down when you need it the most. (Applause.) They will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or in a lifetime. (Applause.) We will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses, because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they get sick. (Applause.) And insurance companies will be required to cover, with no extra charge, routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies — (applause) — because there’s no reason we shouldn’t be catching diseases like breast cancer and colon cancer before they get worse. That makes sense, it saves money, and it saves lives. (Applause.)

    Text of the whole speech can be found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/09/obama-health-care-speech_n_281265.html among other places.

    He said it will take 4 years to implement all of it and I hope with all my heart that this actually happens. I think 4 years is too much time….a lot can change in that amount of time. But I’m going to try to stay positive and hope it works. We really need this!

  • Our “children”

    sassy3.bmp This was Sassy Marie. She was smart and sweet and beautiful. The little ball in the picture is a cat toy, but she loved those things. Wouldn’t go anywhere without them. She made up games and rules about those balls that were really kind of complicated. She died a couple of years ago. It just broke our hearts to lose her.

    Then we got Prissy Bear bear 002 and

    Shadow BEARnOBI 004  twosome.jpg

    We’ve had such fun watching them play and grow into beautiful dogs. 

    He’s a lot bigger than she is but she doesn’t let him get away with anything.

    We also have an old dachshund….number1dog.jpg  Harpo. He’s 16 years old.

    Just wanted to share!  : )

  • Health care reform…my opinion

    Most people who know me are aware that I don’t really follow politics very closely. I honestly don’t believe that any level of government cares what I think or how I vote and it’s been proven to be true more times than I like to even think about. So my attitude is that the less I know, the less angry and helpless I feel, so the happier I am. Naive maybe, but it works for me. Besides, I have a brilliant husband who will let me know if there is something that I really need to pay attention to.

    Now comes all the talk about health care reform and the possibility of our great nation joining in with the rest of the civilized world and getting national health care. Oh my….the things people are saying and the fears they are expressing are just about mind numbing. They are selfishly declaring things like “I pay for my own health care and you can pay for yours” and “If you can’t afford health care, you are a deadbeat”. I hope I don’t find out that I actually know any of those selfish and self-centered people.

    What so many don’t realize is that there are real live people out there that can’t get or can’t afford coverage. And even if you can get it through your job, what’s going to happen when you don’t have that job anymore? Not an unrealistic question these days. And we won’t even talk about the elderly or disabled trying to live on a limited income with outrageous medication bills.

    So here’s my story…..my husband and I had pretty good health care that we got on our own. His company doesn’t offer insurance, but will pay part of the premium we get on our own.

    About 7 years ago I got a job working for a company that offered group rates and pretty decent insurance for less than we were paying. Greg wasn’t so sure about it (one day I’ll learn to listen to him!), but finally agreed that it would be cheaper for us to go with the group insurance. And all was well for a long time.

    Until the day I went the the urologist and they discovered a problem. From there I ended up with a Nephrologist (a kidney specialist) and through a biopsy they discovered that I had a kidney disease! Well, as kidney diseases go, at least I got one that isn’t reputed to cause many problems for women. I have to see the doc once a year and take blood pressure meds, but hopefully this is all the trouble this thing will cause me, right? No big deal.

    Except, now I no longer have that job. I am on COBRA (really expensive insurance you get for 18 months after leaving a job, and there is a $5000.00 deductible), there are no jobs in sight and I now have a major pre-existing condition. Can’t even get insurance on my own. I’ve been turned down by several companies. I can’t even get life insurance without lying about it! (I sure hope I don’t die of this disease, because then hubby will be screwed!)

    And there’s my friend, Carol. An RN, working hard until she was assigned to a “sick building”. She now has severe lung disease, is disabled, divorced and living with her sister. She has to take a butt load of meds every month, which keeps her pretty much broke, but she doesn’t qualify for any assistance because she isn’t poor enough. (She should have sued her employer, but she didn’t.)

    Or my friend Nancy, who I took today to apply for food stamps. She is 72 years old and because of her medication costs, is facing some hard choices. Medicare just isn’t enough these days.

    There are probably millions of stories like these.

    National health care is something that would be a life saver. But some people are so afraid of change (and anything our black president is in favor of) that they can’t even see all the need around them.

    So let’s just stop all the bs and be kinder and more considerate of each other. The world would be a better place for us all.

  • Obama’s speech

    This is a copy of the speech President Obama is making to the schools tomorrow. I don’t know what everyone is so afraid of. Can someone tell me what is offensive here?

    Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
    Back to School Event

    Arlington, Virginia
    September 8, 2009
     

    The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today. 
    I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.
    I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.   
    Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”
    So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year. 
    Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.
    I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn. 
    I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox. 
    I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve. 
    But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. 
    And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself. 
    Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide. 
    Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
    And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.
    And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future. 
    You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy. 
    We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country. 
    Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
    I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in. 
    So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse. 
    But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.
    Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right. 
    But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying. 
    Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future. 
    That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America. 
    Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.
    I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall. 
    And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
    Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same. 
    That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
    Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it. 
    I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things. 
    But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
    That’s OK.  Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” 
    These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying. 
    No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in. 
    Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals. 
    And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
    The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best. 
    It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
    So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?  
    Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.
    Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.