One of my old friends from back in the kid raising days was here and gone before anybody knew it but she made a point to visit for delivery of a box of books on CD for my mom. Her mother is blind as well and she thought of us when she was getting some for her. With a husband in the publishing business, she has pretty easy access to the deals ;) We couldn't stop talking, trying to catch up on who's been doing what for the past 12 or so years. The trip from upstate New York is quite long, and they drove non-stop to get here for a funeral. She has kids scattered across the country and so does her hub, but I think they'll retire back here in TN. I found out things about her I didn't know, but it was still just like she'd never left. As I watched the colors melt over pristine white cotton fields with shadows making art and fluffy white clouds above, I realize that not only was THAT a gift from Big Ernie, but so many other things that I must force myself to stop and notice.
I guess the 47% of us who are not real keen on R*R will tune in to see what words of wisdom he will impart on us this evening. As you know, we depend on the government for everything and refuse to take responsibility for our own lives. Especially those of stuck in the freakin' basement level middle class. Like me, for instance. When I look at the kind of money that is floating around this election, I die a little bit each time I think about how many kids go hungry and old people get neglected. Not to mention that us baby boomers are stretched to the breaking point. If things continue to go in the direction of Obamacare, there is a great opportunity (as Romney implemented in his own state) to cut abuse by both providers and patients. His stupid remark about using ERs is just beyond comprehension. I bet every board member of everything healthcare organization will vote for him too because Wall street types stick together. The Obama plan suggests exchanges which (if kept honest and accountable) will monitor wellness as well as refer new and existing issues to a much smaller network, if you will, based on location and income. The original idea was presented during the 80's with rural health clinics. I worked in one, and it was a money making fool...for awhile. The truth is that any doctor's office that thinks they can MAKE money off of diagnostics done in house is fooling him or herself. Regulation is so intense that licensed personnel are required onsite and they don't come for ten bucks an hours.
We were discussing the hospice concept today, a philosophy that remains dear to my heart even as I watch opportunities slip away every day for people to receive the benefits. I'll never forget BG and me doing "our" senior term care on the subject. My interest in it at the time was probably a factor in her career choice though most of the jobs have been either geriatrics or kids with profit at the center of the whole thing. Hospice care is particularly well suited for rural areas as demonstrated in Montana by Dr. Ira Byock and his team in Missoula. Once a patient enters "the system" it becomes a revolving door for re-admissions to treat chronic illness on Medicare money. Many of them are non-compliant with health issues like diabetes, weight and smoking yet they continue to run like hamsters on the treadmill generating profit all around. We are blessed to be a close neighbor to what is probably the poorest county in West Tennessee and that is precisely where BG is at the moment looking at job ops. Go figure. Her whole thing started there with her first client as a sitter.
Ya'll be careful out there. I was driving through town the other day and noticed this figure draped in white sheets and wearing a sandwich board painted in red circling the county courthouse. The only word big enough for me to see well was GENTILES but I assumed she or he was protesting something like Christianity. We never see anything like that around here so I was quite taken aback but had forgotten about it until somebody else mentioned the figure at breakfast, seen on the other side of town. If there's a suicide bomb up in there I hope it goes off on a gravel field road.
Keep smiling. Keep shining. Remember who you are.
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