Scribblings

Since When Can't You Just Pay Your Doctor?

Apparently if you are covered by some insurance company your doctor doesn't take...especially one associated with Medicaid!

Linda is really sick. Her insurance is from Medicaid now and the primary assigned to her no longer takes that insurance! Well, that figures--outdated information and misinformation is one of the many things wrong with any provider. There is no doctor locally who takes that insurance and when Linda called the provider, they told her to go to the emergency room! Yey, way to drive up everyone's medical expenses, thanks for nothing!

Linda called the doctor she'd been seeing for the last several years, explained what happened and offerd to pay cash for seeing the doctor. The person she talked to said okay and so she went all the way out there to see the doctor only to learn from the office manager that they weren't "legally allowed" to see Linda because of her insurance.

What! Since when has having any insurance at all made a difference if you could pay in cash? I swear, the whole health system is totally fercockt! So Linda is now at the emergency room.

I have a memory that goes back to January 1965. We'd just moved to Maryland from New York and my brother (he was 10 at the time) got really sick on the way to school one morning. As it turned out, his appendix ruptured and my parents took him to the nearest hospital. The admitting person asked my father about his health insurance and my dad lied and said we had it. In truth, it hadn't kicked in yet. My parents were afraid if they told the truth my brother would be turned away and sent to a hospital that treated the insured further away and in a bad part of the city. When the officials found out my father wasn't insured after all, they were totally furious but it was too late. By then my brother had had his surgery. My dad just shrugged and said sorry, I misunderstood the question, deaf and dumb, you know?

My how times change.

Rachel Carson: Why We Have Earth Day

Silent Spring was one of the most powerfully frightening books I've ever read--it's all true. Rachel Carson warned us about using pesticides and what it would do to our environment and although she was labelled a crackpot she was fortunate enough to have found a supporter in President John Kennedy. I remember reading that anyone born after 1954 will have DDT in their livers, that's how long the poison stays in the environment. I also remember she warned about mutations in species because of pollutions and that's why we have 2 headed fish and frogs. That's why we have no life in lakes and streams poisoned by acid rain. I'm sure this is why our weather is whacked out. It's not DDT now, no--except in poor countries around the world. Now what we have is "the solution to pollution is dilution." I think Rachel Carson's book is a classic--read it if you dare.

The Legacy Of "Silent Spring"

NEW YORK, April 22, 2007
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(CBS) In her groundbreaking book "Silent Spring," Rachel Carson jolted a prosperous post-war America — a country confident that science and technology were leading the way to a future in which disease and hunger could be overcome, in no small part thanks to a new generation of powerful pesticides.

But in "Silent Spring," Carson warned that progress had a price.

"These sprays, dusts and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests and homes — non-selective chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the good and the bad, to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish in streams, to coat the leaves with a deadly film and to linger on in soil," she said in a 1962 documentary for CBS News. "All this, though the intended target may be only a few weeds or insects."

At the midpoint of the 20th century, spraying was a familiar sight to many young baby boomers including Robert Kennedy, son of the late New York senator, Robert Kennedy.

"We had sprayers coming — coming down our street, big fogging trucks, you know … to spray for DDT," he told CBS News correspondent Thalia Assuras. "And my brothers and I would go out and play combat in the fog, you know, running in and out of this fog, breathing this stuff."

Kennedy is now an environmental lawyer, and says Rachel Carson was a pioneer who inspired a generation of activists.

"She was the first one to quietly, you know, kind of nudge the American people and say, 'Well, wait a second. There's a cost here that you're not being told about,'" he said.

Carson, an unassuming scientist and writer, was an unlikely activist for sure, but the seeds were planted early in her childhood. She grew up in a modest house just outside of Pittsburgh.

"She enjoyed wandering around in the fields," said Patricia DeMarco, the executive director of the Rachel Carson Homestead. "It was her playground. She just was very fascinated with living things and growing things. From an early age she wanted to be a writer and her mother was teaching her at home a lot."

After earning a college science degree, Carson took a job at the Federal Bureau of Fisheries, which later became the Fish and Wildlife Service.

"While she was put out in the field as an aquatic biologist, soon she was editing other scientists' reports," said Linda Lear, author of a biography on Carson who also contributed to a new book of essays about her legacy.

In her free time, Carson wrote three increasingly successful books about the mysteries of the sea. The books sold so well that she turned to writing full-time. She hoped that her writing would help educate the public about the wonders of nature.

"Always to instill her science writing with an ethic, if you will, of how beautiful nature is," Lear said, "how intricate it is and how everything in nature is related to everything else.

So when Carson saw evidence that pesticides — DDT in particular — were killing birds and other wildlife, she decided that would be the subject of her next book.

It took her four years to write "Silent Spring," based on research from a network of scientists around the country. Finishing the book became a matter of will; she was fighting breast cancer.

Roger Christie, Carson's great-nephew, said he could tell how ill she was and perhaps at some level he knew she was dying. Carson adopted him when he was five and she was just shy of 50.

"I think subconsciously, I knew she was dying," he said.

Through sheer determination, Carson participated in an hour-long CBS News documentary on pesticides, which aired not long after "Silent Spring" became a national best seller.

"Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the Earth without making it unfit for all life?" she said in the documentary.

While Carson didn't contend that chemical insecticides must never be used, she faced harsh opposition.

"Well, the one guy, the chief critic was — as they say, he would have made a great villain in a Bela Lugosi movie," Christie said.

His name was Dr. Robert White-Stevens, a spokesman for the chemical industry.

"The major claims in Miss Rachel Carson's book, 'Silent Spring,' are gross distortions of the actual facts, completely unsupported by scientific experimental evidence, and general practical experience in the field," he told CBS more than four decades ago. "If Man were to faithfully follow the teachings of Miss Carson, we would return to the Dark Ages, and the insects and diseases and vermin would once again inherit the Earth."

"He was way over the top," Christie said. "'If Miss Carson has her way, the — hundreds of thousands of people would be starving in the streets tomorrow!'"

When CBS turned to government experts, the questions were many, but the answers few. Dr. Page Nicholson, water pollution expert, Public Health Service, wasn't able to answer how long pesticides persist in water once they enter or the extent to which pesticides contaminated groundwater supplies.

Even still, Christie said he knew his aunt was having an impact when President John F. Kennedy mentioned the book at a press conference.

"And my Uncle Jack, John F. Kennedy, read her book, and said, 'I'm gonna appoint an independent commission to investigate whether it's true or not," Robert Kennedy said. "That commission met for almost a year. And then at the end of that time period, [they] came out and said that essentially everything in Rachel Carson's book was true."

Rachel Carson died in 1964, just 18 months after "Silent Spring" was published. She would never know that her crusade against pesticides forever changed the way Americans view their environment.

DDT was banned in this country in 1972. Carson's work also led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, and without her pioneering efforts, we might not be marking Earth Day.

"Silent Spring" foreshadowed the debate over global warming, clean energy and organic food.

But to best understand Carson's legacy, there's no better place to look than Catalina Island, just off the coast of southern California — home again to the bald eagle.

The eagles had all but disappeared after DDT was dumped into local waters, which led egg shells to become so thin that chicks couldn't survive. But just this month, for the first time in decades, eggs left in nests in the wild hatched on their own.

Ann Muscat, president of the Catalina Island conservancy, believes the eagles owe it all to Rachel Carson.

"So I think that wherever she is right now, she must be looking down on Catalina and thinking, 'This is really a wonderful occasion,'" Muscat said.

Rain, rain, go away...

I know we need April showers to bring May flowers but this is ridiculous!

These houses being battered are on the south shore of Long Island, not terribly far from where I used to live. That's the Great South Bay knocking at the door, folks!

I don't have any pictures of what the storm is doing here but I can report that we're having lots and lots of rain. I don't hear much wind out there but I've been seeing and hearing the rain. This storm is supposed to hang in the rest of today and tomorrow, too, I guess.

I haven't been outside at all. Today was a great day to just hibernate like a great old bear. Kennan, Linda and Tomas are somewhere out in it--I think they went to the Children's Museum. Rainy days are not for small children. And Heidi's driving home in it from work--yes, she's got her license! It's a mixed blessing.

Here is what CNN has to say about the storm:

Hundreds of flights canceled as storm nears

Story Highlights•

NEW: Storm floods people out of their homes in West Virginia
• Nor'easter could bring worst flooding in 14 years
• New York governor deploys 3,200 National Guard members
• Storm blamed for three deaths in Kansas, two in Texas

NEW YORK (AP) -- Airlines canceled 300 flights Sunday as a hard-blowing nor'easter gathered strength along the East Coast and threatened to deliver some of the worst shore flooding in 14 years.

The storm, already blamed for five deaths on the Plains, also flooded people out of their homes in the middle of the night in West Virginia.

The steady rain has caused the cancellation of more than 400 flights at the New York City region's three major airports. Travelers should check with their airline carrier before heading to Kennedy, LaGuardia or Newark Liberty airports.

Tree limbs are down and power is out for 15-hundred Long Island households as the powerful storm swept up the coast, threatening widespread coastal flooding.

Meteorologists expected sustained wind of 40 mph and a storm surge of 3 to 5 feet, a combination that could cause as much coastal damage to Long Island as a winter storm which wreaked havoc there in late 1992, Gov. Eliot Spitzer said. (Gallery: Storm moves across the U.S.)

New York City opened nine emergency storm shelters in flood-prone locations, and ferry service to Fire Island was canceled due to the storm.

More than 2 inches of rain fell in the New York region by 2 o'clock Sunday afternoon, and forecasters predict a total of 4 to 6 inches by the storm's end this evening.

The National Weather Service says there were sustained winds of 30 to 35 miles per hour and gusts of up to 48 miles per hour at Kennedy Airport.

Sunday night's high tide is likely to bring coastal flooding on Long Island and in parts of New York City.

"This is going to be bad," Shaun Rheinheimer said as he moved furniture to higher spots at his house on New Jersey's low-lying Cedar Bonnet Island. Streets were beginning to flood by late morning and waves splashed over bulkheads into backyards.

Heavy rain and thunderstorms extended from Florida up the coast to southern New England on Sunday and the National Weather Service said Washington's Reagan National Airport had measured 1.43 inches of rain.

Warnings, watches all along the coast
The weather service posted storm warnings and watches all along the East Coast, with flood warnings extending from Virginia north to the New York area. Winter storm warnings were in effect for parts of New England and eastern New York state. (Northeast flood, storm warnings)

The storm also caused flooding in the mountains of southern West Virginia, where emergency services personnel rescued nearly two dozen people from homes and cars in Logan and Boone counties early Sunday. Two people were unaccounted for.

"It's about as bad as it can get," said Logan, West Virginia, Fire Chief Scott Beckett. "This thing came down at 2 or 3 in the morning, when people were sleeping in their beds. They just didn't know what was happening."

Who's That Knocking At My Door?

It wasn't Barnacle Bill the sailor, that's for sure!

There were two older, well dressed women there and I knew right away they were going around knocking on doors. I didn't know if they were LDS (Latter Day Saints) or Jehovah's Witnesses or Baptists or what but they were certainly very friendly and very nice. They were not pushy. They just wanted to leave one of those little booklets after reading a promise from the Bible--that God would end wars everywhere on earth.

As they turned to go, I asked, "Where are you from?" I have felt a pull back toward church. I am Presbyterian but have been to Methodist and Lutheran churches and so I know the messages are basically the same...usually. I have had good friends (in MD) who were Mormons.

But this lady said, "We're from the Kingdom Hall" and I knew there was no way no how I'd go to their place nor would I want to learn more about being Jehovah's Witness.

In the 1980s, I was an interpreter for a school district in Maryland. One of my interpreter friends was a young single mother, Tammy, who had a very engaging spirit. She was fun to be with and had a dry wit. We never talked about religion. I knew she'd had breast cancer and had already had a double mastectomy by the tender age of 29. She had two little boys and loved their father but never married him because he was like a child himself.

Before the end of that school year, Tammy's cancer came back. She was going through all sorts of painful treatments. She did not lose her smile even though her eyes were clouded with pain and she walked with first one and then two canes. There were only two times I saw her let her guard down. Once, she was angry because her HMO wouldn't approve a new treatment for cancer--they said it was "experimental". The other time, she was afraid for her sons...what would happen to them when she was gone? Their father loved them but would not be able to support them. It was heartbreaking.

Tammy died about six months later. A group of us interpreters wanted to go to the service and we were very surprised to learn that she was a Jehovah's Witness. Usually they are always trying to convert you but Tammy never said a word about her faith. Well, it's no wonder because one of the first things the minister (or whoever he was) said at the service was that Tammy died because she didn't believe hard enough. And there were her two little boys in the front seat! When he went on to say we'd never see her again, her body is mouldering in the grave, I was about ready to get up and walk out. I was sickened.

Now, I realize that the "culture" of a church in the same religion can be completely different from others in the community. Maybe the Kingdom Hall Tammy belonged to was just one of those flukey places. But it sure left a very bad taste in my mouth. I get the impression that they are like other fundamental Christian faiths and that is just not for me.

Knock at someone else's door.

"The Solution to Pollution is Dilution"

When I first heard this phrase, my hackles stood up. For all the years I've been aware of the harmful effects of pollution on all of us and on our earth, I've also known that the polluters have been callously indifferent. Smokestacks belch foul stuff into the air, chemicals and poisons are poured into the waterways and goodness knows what goes into the air from the vents of research laboratories. I guess these people actually feel justified because oh, well, the air and the water will "take care of it"--diluting out the poisons.

Except it's not happening anymore. We're running out of clean air and water. If someone has to go on top of one of the polluters' buildings, they have to follow certain safety precautions. Sometimes they have to dress up in full astonaut-like suits, just like the doctors did in the movie ET. So what about the people living in the area of these places? They don't get to wear masks and respirators and full suits.

Not far from here, there is a community where people have a high rate of cancer. Of course, no one wants to admit that there is a cluster or that there is anything out of the ordinary going on--and no, there's nothing "wrong" in that creek that runs through town. Well, what about Love Canal? And why is the breast cancer rate among women so high on Long Island? And why is the rate of autism in children highest in New Jersey? It can't be anything in the air or water, can it? Nooooo.... yeah, right.

Do a google on that phrase "the solution to pollution is dilution" and see what you come up with. There was one article that really hit home with me:

Solutions and Dilutions

6 June 2005

A favorite phrase of Civil and Environmental Engineers -- the type who work with sewage and waste product disposal -- is:

"The solution to pollution is dilution."

Clever, no? Those engineers do have a way with words (even if they often can't spell them).

Nevertheless, this phrase -- even a mantra -- was popular long before the first Earth Day. It seems to encapsulate so much, and makes the basic answer to all pollution really rather simple. If there are noxious gases fuming from a smokestack, no problem. Just blend the gases with enough air and pretty soon you will hardly be able to tell there is anything amiss. Of course, if there are enough smokestacks spewing out enough noxious gases -- of every nuance and variety -- then the needed amount of clean air to dilute the process might not be enough for the local area. Then it's called acid rain or smog, or pea soup atmospherics, or some such. In this case, one has to depend upon the bigger picture -- or just move to a place where clean air is a greater percentage of the mix, and is still considerable to be breathable.

The same, of course, applies to water -- and the sewage, noxious elements, stockyard animal wastes, industrial filth, and so forth and so on -- and the watery attempts to dilute down the yukky stuff so that it's... hardly... noticeable. Of course, we might have to resort to using an ocean (or a couple of oceans) in order to obtain enough water. The worldly advice therefore is just don't live down wind or down stream from the source(s) of unhealthy gases, fluids, mushy solidified stuff, etceteras. And don't dwell on faults, either.

However...

[In the time honored tradition of Halexanria, there is inevitably a "however"!]

Consider the phenomenon of Homeopathy. Here one takes a solution which, for example, kills unwanted bacteria, dilutes the solution with pure water down to the point where there is a negligible probability of their being a single atom of the original solution in the diluted version, and then discovering that the diluted version is still capable of killing the unwanted bacteria (and probably without any other side effects).

This sounds like a really cool idea. Unless, of course, the unwanted bacteria is technically referred to as Homo sapiens sapiens.

The good news is that in order to obtain functional Homeopathic remedies, the diluting process must typically be very carefully controlled. Haphazard diluting of solutions does not work. Usually. For the most part. In most cases.

Okay, so there's always a low-probability exception to the rule. At least from a homopathic viewpoint.

The greater problem, however, is that some noxious byproducts of our industrial age are of sufficient potency that there just may not be enough air or water on the planet earth to dilute the little buggers enough to make them safe. The solution to such pollution is still dilution. It's just that there's not enough diluting capability of the Earth to make the solution a terrestrial solution.

Many viruses, bacteria, and other plague-causing ingredients often have extremely high potencies such that a very little bit can do a lot of damage. For this reason their transmission is usually the main concern of health officials, while the idea of diluting their potency is typically never considered. After all, the fact that one might want to dilute a plague by confining it to New York City and using all of the people therein... has certain political overtones that even Sir Rudy Gulianni might fail to appreciate.

Radioactive wastes, on the other hand, have a notorious resistance to simple dilution if only because of their high potency and their ability for very little solution to cause a whole lot of problems. This has been demonstrated rather conclusively by the pattern of deformed infant birth statistics being on the increase during times of nuclear bomb testing periods, and then slacking off during test ban treaties being in force.

Unfortunately, the percentages of the number of deformed births to all births is again on the rise, and in this case, almost certainly do (at least in part) to the use of Depleted Uranium in the Persian Gulf and other recent wars. What it all comes down to is that a careless use of such efficient weapons of mass destruction (i.e. any weapon using radioactive materials) by the United States, England, or anyone else has the potential to have very serious consequences for the entire planet. In effect when it comes to those advocating the use of such weapons, and the rest of us, there's not enough room on the planet for both of us.

Dilution may sound like a good solution to pollution, but the human race has now reached the point of creating more pollution than there is available dilution. We might want to do something about that.

Yeah, I'll say!

It seems like California is trying to do something, even though it involves financial incentives. But that only makes sense, doesn't it? Why does it have to be more expensive to eat healthy and why should it be more expensive to try and save the environment?

New Jersey and all the other states need to get into the act here.

And I have nothing but praise for Toyota, which plans to make an entire fleet of hybrid cars.

Some people do care after all.

Just when I thought it was safe in this neighborhood...

...my neighbor comes across the street to tell me about a violent break-in catty-corner from us. The neighbors across the street back to the lake and police believe that's where the thieves came from. They kicked in the back patio door to this unknown neighbor's house and took what? We're not sure. I don't know the names of the people who had their house broken into because I so tend to keep to myself. My neighbor from across the street says it's like "Little Harlem" down two nearby streets. I had no idea. I guess I better open up my eyes. Now before anyone jumps at me about "Little Harlem" my neighbor is herself an African American and she's the one that used the term.

As for me, I knew there'd been another gang related shooting not far from the home of one of Kristin's friends. In this case, two young men were arrested for firing into the house and attempting to kill the fellow inside. In the township, in a very troubled neighborhood in town, another young man was shot and killed. This, too, was gang related. I have been seeing police everywhere lately.

It angers me as much as it worries me. Kristin's only a freshman at the high school. I think it's just going to get worse before it gets better. I worry about her safety and the quality of education in that building. I'm angry because of the increasing violence--why are they coming to my town? There's nothing here!

I believe that is probably exactly the problem. There are too many poor people to exploit and tempt into selling drugs and whatever. There are too many bored teenagers with nothing to do. Why is there no teen center here? Why are there no PAL leagues? I guess I should stop complaining here and go down to the township and find out if anything can be done. I know the teen center is supposed to open ... sometime.

Also meanwhile, as my neighbor across the street said, we have to watch out for one another. I better pay more attention to what is going on.

A Tsunami of Aging Boomers

Well, this article isn't too encouraging! What, America is not ready for all us aging boomers? Tsk, tsk ... I think if government doesn't start talking about this, all us boomers will definitely be like a tsunami and totally decimate the economy! The fact is, there just weren't enough kids born after us (not even in the baby boomlet) to support Social Security. Those who are not skating the edge of disaster have tried to do our part by setting up retirement funds but, hey, we're still looking for that social security income! The first wave of us has just turned 60 with 5-7 years to retirement. There's a huge number of us approaching 60. I guess the youngest of us is maybe 46-47? Watch out, America, here we come, ready or not!

And market researchers and other demographers, take note: that treasured 18-49 category is going to be much smaller and so you guys ought to make sure you are polling enough of the 50+ folk. Our voices will be heard!

America not ready for aging boomers MICHAEL STOTHARD, UPI Correspondent WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Fewer than half of American communities are ready to provide health and lifestyle services for the aging population, according to a national study released Wednesday.

The study, "The Maturing of America -- Getting Communities on Track for an Aging Population," surveyed 10,000 local U.S. governments to determine their "aging readiness." The report also provided recommendations for communities on how best to provide for an elderly population.

The baby boom generation -- born between 1946 and 1964 -- is reaching retirement age. The demographic event has been dubbed the "silver tsunami" by some commentators.

In 2000 there were 35 million Americans over the age of 65. By 2030 it is predicted that this figure will have doubled. One in five Americans will be senior citizens.

"Given that the first of the baby boomers turned 60 this year, now is really the time for the nation and its communities to ensure that they are age-ready," said Sibyl Jacobson, president and chief executive officer of MetLife Foundation, at a news conference Wednesday.

Some communities are well-prepared, such as Fairfax County, Va. But the report found the majority are not ready.

In general, local governments are prepared to offer basic health and nutritional programs for an increasingly elderly population. However, communities fell short in their ability to implement policies to promote a better quality of life for elder adults, such as transportation options for the elderly who are no longer able to drive, and re-training for older adults who want to -- or need to -- remain in the workforce.

Only 6 percent of local governments reported that they provide job-retraining programs for the elderly.

Some of the recommendations to promote a better quality of life for seniors are as simple as making road signs bigger and easier to read and increasing the allocated crossing time on roads for pedestrians.

Other recommendations were providing wheelchair-friendly housing, tax assistance and better healthcare in terms of access and availability.

Representatives from the five organizations that shaped the report emphasized their recommendations were designed to assist entire communities, not just the elderly.

For example, more time to cross roads could help mothers with small children as well. And since healthcare access is a universal issue, improving it would help the whole community.

"Local government leaders see that strategies good for society as a whole are particularly important for the aging population," said Elizabeth Kellar, deputy executive director of the International City/County Management Association.

Sandy Markwood, CEO of the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, told United Press International the main barrier to the widespread implementation of "The Maturing America" policies were often financial. However, preparing for the aging boom does not need to be expensive.

Some of the policy recommendations are no cost, some of them are low cost, and some of them can be implemented as part of a community's regular maintenance of their roads, sidewalks and parks, Markwood said.

"So not having a new pot of resources shouldn't be a stumbling block, and we're hoping that communities won't see it that way," she said.

The panel stressed they're trying to learn from past mistakes.

For instance, local governments weren't ready when the baby boom hit the school systems in the late 50s early 60s. The panel said they were trying to avoid repeating that when it comes to the same demographic hitting senior status.

Heh. I hope so. I remember that whole disaster of a new school being built every year. Between 1960 and 1963, I went to three different elementary schools in close distance to each other. It was hard enough to adjust then, I'm not going to be a happy senior being shuttled from one retirement community to another.

Yeesh...I still need to get my mind around that. My mind is not ready to be a senior, it thinks I am still 35!

So now it's cold and I want spring back

Now that Christmas is over, I am so done with winter!

I think the cold weather has killed off a lot of the nasty germs lurking in our house. We seem not to be hacking and sneezing and coughing round the clock. But we don't like a vacuum do we? And so with the cold weather comes aching joints and sore muscles. I'm not sure which is worse.

It's been a long time since I updated, mostly because of illness and being busy with the little guy. I have a lot of updating to do and a lot of email to catch up on!

For my dear friends who read my blog, I'm sorry I haven't answered you yet...but I'm getting there! Meantime, have a great weekend!

We are on our way to pick up Kristin from a weekend at Princeton--more on that as soon as I get a chance. What a great experience she's had!

Is This Weather Crazy Or What?

Now I know I've gotta read An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore. We've been having some really crazy weather years but this has got to be the screwiest! It was seventy degrees here in NJ...who has this kind of weather in January? Florida! I wonder how warm it is there? I think this is more than El Nino and more than a warming trend. I think we are definitely having global warming and I don't care what Michael Crichton writes!

If that wasn't enough, poor Denver and other parts of Colorado are suffering with too much snow! They are getting what the rest of us in the East and mid-Atlantic should be getting! It's not really funny as I've just read that there's been an avalanche, 100 feet wide and 15 feet deep, that has swept cars off the road! Seven people have been hospitalized, more are missing, and rescuers have to use heavy equipment to get through all the heavy snow!

Read the whole article here.

Oh, the weather outside is stupid...

For crying out loud, here it is December 23 and I am wearing a summer tee-shirt, sweating bullets, and all the windows in my house are open! No, I don't live in Florida or in a part of the country where the temperature is supposed to be in the 60s. It's supposed to be winter here! It's supposed to be cold! It's supposed to snow!

The very last time it snowed was on Christmas day, 2002. I remember that it was the first Christmas TB and I and the blending family spent together and it was so magical having the snow come down the way it did...like good fortune and good tidings being sprinkled over us. Before that, there wasn't a white Christmas since 1998.

Are TB and I the only ones who remember when White Christmas weren't as rare as blue moons? It seems to me that when I was a little kid, we had snow on Christmas every single year. Things have changed in the last 20-30 years. What is it? Global warming? Has pollution caused Mother Nature to become totally wacko?

I know how the poor General felt in the movie White Christmas. I sure would love some snow but all we'll probably get is rain.

But the tree is now decorated!!!!

Why is the tree naked?

Our tree went up as always over Thanksgiving weekend while Billy was here. We meant to put on all the holiday trimmings but then this happened:

Isn't that gross? It's part of the ceiling--it caved in from around the fan.

How did such a thing happen? Well, over a year ago we had trouble with a leaky roof and so we called a local contractor, John Sorrentino Roofing...worst mistake we ever made. The roof has never been right since. At first the contractor said it was because we needed new skylights and so we had him replace them. The next time it rained, the roof leaked worse than ever.

Since October, we've tried and tried to get the man out to fix the roof. We have a year warranty on it and although I had really bad feelings about trusting the guy, TB wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Well, this guy doesn't call you back and he says he'll come such and such a day at such and such time and he never does show up. This has been ongoing since we first hired the guy.

When the ceiling came down, I called the township because I was worried about the mold I saw. An inspector came out and told me it would be okay, it's not the bad mold. I hope he's right, we've all been sick all month. Anyway, he also laughed when we told him who the contractor was. Apparently the DA is investigating the man--oh great!

We hired a new contractor and are going to have to sue the first one to get our money back and the cost of redoing the roof.

But that's not the only reason the tree didn't get done. Kristin wanted to wait until Billy got home from school after the fall semester and so that's what we did.

Aches & Pains

Linda just went to the emergency room. She's had a bad tooth for quite a while now and it's been giving her so much pain she tried taking 8 ibuprofens at once--and they didn't help. She's feeling sick from all the pain medication and so the last resort is the ER. Why not the dentist? She doesn't have insurance yet! Her new coverage doesn't start until November 1.

It didn't occur to me until just now but I thought she should have been covered under her old insurance for at least a year under the COBRA plan. I also know that companies pay by the quarter or the half-year and so she might have been covered but didn't realize it. If she hadn't left already I would have told her about it and said for her to try to use the old insurance.

This is one of the biggest gripes I have about the underinsured and uninsured. When they need medical treatment, they can't afford it and so they put off going to the doctor until it becomes really serious. For instance, if Linda has an infection, it can easily spread to her heart valves. If that happens, the complications can be deadly! That happens to so many people in this country it's pitiful.

Tomas and I seem to have a stomach virus now. He's been a healthy little guy up to now but was off his feed today, very grumpy and kind of lethargic. I started having cramps and other viral symptoms just a couple of hours ago and he seems to have the same ones. :P On top of that there's more than the usual fibromyalgic and arthritic pains lately. Guess the weather's going to change soon.

Monday Madness

1. How do you eat an oreo cookie? (from tricia)I dip them a half at a time into milk just long enough to become really soft and then I pop 'em in my mouth before they fall into the glass!
2. How long does it take you to eat lunch?20 minutes average
3. Caffeine or decaf?Got to be high test
4. Chicken or beef?Buck-awk
5. Pen or pencil?Pen
6. Autumn or spring?Autumn--love the fall colors!
7. Baseball or basketball?Basketball
8. 'Survivor' or 'The Amazing Race?'Hard choice! Eeny meey...Survivor
9. Come up with one question I can ask our Monday Madness participants in the weeks to come.dramas or comedies?

Student Debt Forever

I just finished up editing my kids' FAFSAs. I don't really know what the EFC means exactly -- is it the amount of money we're expected to contribute to each kid? The number is 13000 something and I know we just don't have that kind of money lying around, particularly now that TB's been laid off. My next mission is to write a letter to the financial aid department at Billy's school and then one to Heidi's to get them a little more aid. I'm fairly confident that Heidi will be okay because it doesn't cost terribly much to go to community college.

Billy, on the other hand, will have to take out more loans--like a lot of other young people who are not rich. I sort of think that unless a poor kid got a fully paid scholarship it would be very difficult to go to a school like Billy's. I remember when we were struggling years ago. Even going full time to a community college would have been expensive for us.

College loans follow you to the grave ... I know. I am paying one off for the years I went in the evening. I didn't finish my degree but that doesn't matter. I have to pay it back and so does any kid who takes out a loan. I saw this article online:

Student Debts, Stunted Lives

The Nation) This column was written by Nicholas von Hoffman. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Democratic Party did not find her. The Hollywood liberals did not find her. The reactionaries are not looking for her. But the Chicago Tribune did find Margo Albert and did understand how significant her plight is.

The paper wrote, "Margo Alpert is on the 30-year plan. Every month between $500 and $600 is automatically deducted from her salary to pay off college loans. By the time the 29-year-old Chicago public-interest lawyer is in her mid-50s and thinking seriously about retirement, she will finally be free of college debt."

The newspaper also found Carrie Gevirtz, a 28-year-old social worker with a degree from the University of Chicago, a $55,000 school debt and an annual salary of $33,000. She is quoted as saying, "I can't afford my lifestyle. I'm not in a position to buy a place. I can't buy a condo and don't know when I would, unless my income changed dramatically.... I was not prepared for this.... It really freaked me out." To make ends meet after deducting her $250 monthly payment on her student loan, Gevirtz has a second job at a health club and does baby-sitting.

Starting July 1 the interest on student loans taken out by students will rise to just less than 7 percent. Loans taken out by parents for students will shoot up to 8.5 percent. The theory the Republican Congress works on is that increases in fees and interest payments from the white-collar masses are not the same as tax increases, some of which might have to be paid by our protected class of billionaire kleptocrats from whom, we are told, all blessings, especially our jobs, flow.

Whenever the subject of the high and ever-mounting cost of tuitions and the student loans needed to pay for them comes up, the focus falls on individual financial hardship. We're invited to pity or empathize with Margo Alpert, and she certainly deserves it, but our attention is not drawn to the consequences of these arrangements. Nor is the discussion ever couched in terms of the social control implicit in high tuition and high student-loan interest rates.

The most important consequence of the financial hole the Margo Alperts are in, thanks to their education, is that many of them are going to be childless. Many others will have one child at most. How can a young couple, each with $40,000 or $50,000 of debt, think of having three or four kids? They will have to wait until they are in their late 30s to have a family and by then, when they think of college costs, they will feel compelled to limit themselves to one child.

There's a policy for you! While our legislators are up nights working on new tax gimmicks to further "capital flows," as they like to call their money-grabbing, they are also burning the midnight oil to throw up financial barriers that will keep the middle class from having children. Forget the cant about family values. Make that childless couple values.

There is social control in loading young people up with financial obligations. Burdened with debt and desperate to have and keep a job, there is no way they can take a wild year off — and certainly no time for protesting, organizing or causing the kind of social and political trouble young people cause from time to time. Would there have been a civil rights movement? Would there have been an antiwar movement if those collegians had been saddled with the debts our present-day young people carry?

How many young people turn away from low-paying but vital professions because they can't earn enough to pay back their loans? How many potential social workers, pro bono lawyers, journalists, environmentalists, teachers, artists, secondary medical professionals and community workers are we losing?

The two things that make most of us cringe are the thought of "1984" and "The Stepford Wives." In fiction both of those nightmares achieved reality through drugs or chemicals and voodooish alchemy. In actuality America can become a Stepford nation merely by adjusting the price of education and a few interest rates.

Will somebody get angry and start yelling?

Well, I think there are a lot of us yelling but no one is listening, least of all the politicians. We just don't have the financial clout (lobbyists) to make them listen to us.

Booking Through Thursday

Today's questions were suggested by Christine.

1. How do you decide to read a book by an author you haven't read before? Sometimes i'll go by someone else's recommendations. Otherwise, I look at the cover and read the synopsis to find out if the story is appealling to me. I'll read a couple of pages to see if it "clicks".


2. What sort of recommendations count most highly in making that decision? Book reviews count a lot for me too. I read the reviews in magazines and at amazon.com. The opinions of other readers makes a difference to me.