Let Them Eat Quiche

Your basic Quiche Lorraine.  A hearty delicious breakfast to calm our nerves from last night.

We had our carbon monoxide alarm go off, twice, and called the fire department which sent out a full-on fire truck to come and investigate.  The crew wandered around, scratched their heads, asked questions.

They had no device with which to read the levels of this ordorless gas which kills.  They suggested we change out all of our 9 volt back up batteries on the 7 hard-wired alarms we have.  Not even a year old for crying out loud.  So, after 9 pm, Dad and I are climbing ladders and unscrewing alarms and removing batteries -- just when we were settling down and getting ready to sleep.  Grand.

My nephew brought over a carbon monoxide monitor that my sis had purchased at Costco.  It didn't go off during the night, and we are still alive and are suffering no headaches, dizziness or vomiting so I guess we'll live.

I hate our alarm system - it has been a pain in the ass from day 1, March 2012.  Goes off when toast is being made.  When grilling on the stove top, all windows must be open, ceiling fans going full bore, and stove hood fans cranked up high.  It happens to the other new houses on our block, too.  I feel like taking a sledgehammer to the damned things.  We will put in another call to the alarm company, and no doubt they will tell us the same thing as before: there are no adjustments to be done.

Let them eat quiche.  And so we will.

Sandusky

So, the bastard is going to be sentenced tomorrow.  I couldn't even bear to post his photo here.

My first response to the article linked above was, "Good.  Karma sucks.  I hope he is raped in prison."

Real enlightened, empathetic, huh?  No: primitive rage is more like it.

In the final analysis, I must state that nobody, nobody, deserves to be raped.  I can't believe what this man did to so many boys entrusted to his care.  I can't believe all the collaborators who never acted on their suspicious or even their eye-witness experiences.  I'd like to see a few of them in jail as well.

I hope his going to prison will help heal his victims.  I hope he never gets out.  We shall see, tomorrow, won't we?

It concerns me that such monsters can get away with crimes for so very long without being stopped.  Did his wife suspect anything?  Certainly people who worked around him must have.  But I don't know...I've been in a situation where someone I knew (thought I knew) committed some big crimes and I never suspected.   So, maybe his nearest and dearest didn't know or suspect.  People show you what they want you to see. 

PS 30 to 60 years and the Bastard is still standing there in court professing his innocence and blaming his victims.

The Cost of Care

I was in the hospital four times at the end of May and beginning of June.  Two visits were ER only, 2 visits were ER, then ICU, then Cardiac Care, then General floor.  Never got a diagnosis.  Nope.  Had to be taken in by ambulance twice.  Scared the crap out of my family and friends.

So, the inevitable bills have begun to arrive.  If you've ever been in the hospital you know what's coming:  $116,000 for two of those visits which required being admitted.  Granted, it's better than the alternative, which was I was gonna die.  My insurance company is also picking up the bulk of this.  I'm liable for a total of $600.

But still.

I'm just a lay person, so what do I know?  But the cost of being on the cardiac floor for 24 hours was $10k.  IV fluids for 7 bags of fluid was $7k.  Laboratory costs, nuclear medicine, pharmacy, repository services, radiology, one MRT scan alone was $5k.  It sounds crazy.  Is it all about covering the costs of R & D, manufacturing, or indigent patients?  Is it possible to fix a system so broke, to pry corporations' hands off the for-profit medical business?  It's the gravy train, seems to me.  Everyone is making big bucks off of my unfortunate circumstances.  Then they pass it off to the insurance company which pays it.  And the insurance company is making a profit.

If I didn't have insurance, I could negotiate some of these charges and work out a payment plan.  But then I'd go broke.  If I owned a house, I would lose it.  Many people do.  After the trauma of disease, people lose everything to pay for their care.  What an insult.  What an outrage.

When are insurance and health care reforms going to kick in and avert this disaster we call the health care system in our country?  2014 seems like a long time to wait.

And the food mostly sucked.  This was one of the better meals.

Tuesday Rant

smiling all the while

I'm losing weight.   I'm not intending to lose this weight (I know, dieters, hate me).  Those of you who know my history know that I had lap-band surgery about 4 years ago.  I lost a good 70 lbs. and my health improved dramatically.  Then I plateaued.  For years.  I worked at food portions and exercise to no avail.  Now, apparently, the stress of divorce and moving to a new town is doing the trick.

My dad has been losing weight as well, and unintended to boot.  He is 79, and very fit.  I think we are both 'benefitting' from stress.  In his case, he does not benefit by losing any weight.  We have been soldiering along for two months now, since mom fell and broke her hip.  We did hospital.  We did home-health care (ourselves).  We packed a house and moved 700 miles north. I went back to my 'marital home' and packed my belongings and returned to my new home with the folks. We are tired.

Adding to our stress is the process of changing our coverage area for our respective health insurance companies and finding new physicians.  It ain't easy.  Many phone calls and fruitless searches on our insurance web pages and we're still not done.  I need to see a doctor soon: I have chronic health 'issues,' as they say.  My mother does, too.  We are trying to navigate the system and it is just causing us to want to pull our hair out.  We are intelligent, fairly well-organized people.  My question: why do they make it so difficult?!  I just want to register my new address, get a new provider (or two).  My web account keeps locking me out.  The people on the phone are condescending and difficult for me to understand.

My soon to be ex is spewing hate - I guess years of bottled up anger is finally finding its outlet.  Couldn't have we discussed this stuff in therapy?  For three months these issues did not come up in a weekly conversation with a professional?  Really?  This is not the extra-added stress I need or want.  Help me.

I feel as if I am drowning in details.

I'd like to get away for just a few hours to visit friends, but my schedule does not allow.  Grrrr.

Where is my all-expense-paid trip to some tropical isle?  Where is my pink drink with an umbrella?  Where is my personal masseuse?

If you know where any of this stuff is, gimme a holler.

February

I threw your keys in the water, I looked back
They'd frozen halfway down in the ice
They froze up so quickly, the keys and their owners
Even after the anger, it all turned silent and
The everyday turned solitary
So we came to February

First we forgot where we planted those bulbs last year
Then we forgot that we'd planted at all
Then we forgot what plants are altogether
And I blamed you for my freezing and forgetting and
The nights were long and cold and scary
Can we live through February ?

You know I think Christmas was a long red glare
Shot up like a warning, we gave presents without cards
And then the snow
And then the snow came, we were always out shovelling
And we'd drop to sleep exhausted
And we'd wake up and it's snowing

And February was so long that it lasted into March
And found us walking a path alone together
You stopped and pointed and you said "that's a crocus"
And I said "what's a crocus ?" and you said "it's a flower"
I tried to remember but I said "what's a flower ?"
You said "I still love you"

The leaves were turning as we drove to the hardware store
My new lover made me keys to the house
And when we got home, well we just started chopping wood
Because you never know how next year will be
And we'll gather all our arms can carry
I have lost to February

Dar Williams