Tuesday Lunch

We went to Independence at 10:30 where I had my board meeting. Bob went to see Ivan during that time but Ivan was "out of it". It sounded like they had him overmedicated but they said they had not given him anything. Bob simply could not rouse him. So Bob went to visit Bill instead.

At noon, they came to get me and we went to the small Mexican restaurant for lunch. It was good but we brought half of it home. They serve way too much food.

I have read all afternoon and posted on various web boards. Not a lot going on.

Slinky is off his food. For one thing he is constipated. He hasn't had a bowel movement for two days. So he isn't eating. I don't know what to do. I guess I could go over to Wal Mart and see if they have anything for dogs but how to get it down him if they did would be the next dilemma. I checked the internet and I can add a couple of teaspoons of bran to his food. Well, he won't eat so I gave him some of the meatloaf with the bran mixed in. He won't eat that either.

If it isn't one old dog, it's another. :)

Housecleaning Monday

As usual this is housecleaning day. I scrubbed the kitchen floor with my new steamer this morning. Then I steam cleaned the carpet in the office. I cleaned both bathrooms and Bob vacuumed for me after he watched his "doctor's show". The cleaning took all morning.
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Now we have had a bite of lunch (Slinky helped me with my grilled cheese sandwich). Bob will take his nap.

This afternoon we will read. We're going to take Leslie to lunch tomorrow. I have my board meeting in Independence tomorrow at 11:00. Leslie is going to bring us some tomatoes. Ours are hardly doing anything. I went out there yesterday and trimmed off all the extraneous leaves, hoping to make the tomatoes larger that way. That's what Gay told me to do. I should grind up my eggshells too and put them in the tomatoes. I read that that adds calcium.

Let's face it...we just don't very good luck with tomatoes. Thank goodness John and Leslie do.

Usual Sunday

Today will be a usual Sunday. My routine did not change this morning. I fed the dog and the cat, fed the birds, watered and had coffee on the patio with Bob. We will leave for church about 9:00.

After church we plan to eat out with John and Leslie and they also have Sage. Jeromy, their son, picked her up for his once a month weekend visit and was on call. They called him in to work so they got Sage last night. She doesn't know when they'll make the change over to him.

This evening we will go to our usual "Living the Questions" group meeting. Bob is getting tired of these meetings but I enjoy them. He is not going to stay home as long as I want to attend however. I enjoy the fellowship. Sometimes the discussions are stimulating too.

Nice Saturday

It's lovely today...about 85 degrees. We mowed and trimmed this morning after we got home from garage saling. We stopped in South Coffeyville, Oklahoma and bought gas for $1.99.9 a gallon. That's less then it's been in years.

The yard looks nice. We bought one paper backed book for Bob at a garage sale and that was all. I saw some Fostoria I would like to have bought but have no place to put it.

I am presently reading "Peter, Paul and Mary Magdalene" by Bart Ehrman. It is very interesting.

This evening Bob and I are going to eat dinner at Sirloin Stockade. There he can have a salad bar. We may watch the rest of our Bill Moyers DVD afterward this evening. It is "The Power of Myth" with Joseph Campbell. It's an old DVD but still very interesting. When there is nothing of worth on TV (and there seldom is) we watch an episode.

Health Care Options

I watched the Bill Moyers show last week and was appalled by the information that was shared with him by Wendell Potter, a former health insurance executive who left the industry to become an advocate for health care reform. Potter discussed the industry’s history of denying care to members and its extensive efforts to prevent the federal government from creating a “public option” for health insurance to compete with private plans. Potter said:

"The industry has always tried to make Americans think that government run systems are the worst thing that could happen to them, that if you even consider that you're heading down the slippery slope towards socialism... I think that people who are strong advocates of our health care system remaining as it is, very much a free market health care system, fail to realize that we're really talking about human beings here, and it doesn't work as well as they would like it to... They are trying to make you worry and fear a government bureaucrat being between you and your doctor. What you have now is a corporate bureaucrat between you and your doctor... The public plan would do a lot to keep health insurance companies honest, because it would have to offer a standard benefit plan. It would have to operate more efficiently, as does the Medicare program. It would be structured, I’m certain, on a level playing field so that it wouldn’t have an unfair advantage over the private insurance companies. Because it could be administered more efficiently, the private insurers would have to operate more efficiently.”

What congress doesn't want to think about is that Medicare is already a public option system. Yes, premiums go up from time to time but nothing like the premiums of my supplemental insurance. When I turned 65, the premium was $87. Each year that premium increases even though I seldom use the insurance. Now that I am 73, it is $161.99. An 87 year old friend of mine who is living on her social security has a premium of $199.00. That's what private insurers do. They raise rates to drive people who use the insurance out of the system. They are more concerned about the bottom line then about their insured. They have to answer to Wall Street and from time to time they delay treatment so long that the insured dies waiting for permission for the treatment. That is not unusual at all.

We need a public option to keep the insurance industry honest. Between the medical profession, big Pharma and and the insurance companies, health care costs have risen out of control.

Busy Thursday

I worked on laundry again this morning and read blogs in between. We went to Independence this noon and took our son-in-law and daughter to lunch at Big Cheese. They have a terrific salad bar. they are both looking for different jobs. John retired from teaching last may and Leslie had a good job so that was going to work out fine. Then she lost her job and that put them in a pickle. The new job pays just half as much as the one she did have. Now he is applying for an eighth grade science teacher position that is open in Independence. She is applying for a new job too. They both hope they get the new jobs.

We got home in time for Bob's nap and then he started working on the house trim on the patio. It seems the patio has settled a little and there was a gap where he didn't want a gap. It was only 86 today so he tried to get everything done this afternoon.

I fixed a new dish from his diabetic cookbook. It was pork sirloin, tomoates and lima beans. It was pretty good but I wouldn't want a steady diet of it.

Slinky stayed in the kitchen this afternoon without his barrier up. I don't know how long that would have lasted if he had been left completely alone in there.

Missy has disappeared into our bedroom and I haven't seen her all afternoon. She loves to cuddle up under our spread. Yep! There a large lump on the bed. She's been there all afternoon

We got a lovely e-mail from Scott this morning. He couldn't sleep and was thinking about all that his dad and I have done over the years to help him and wanted to express his thankfulness. That was sweet. He and Taresa are doing well. They are going to Branson this weekend. She got a job right away. She's a travel nurse.

We are planning to go to Chanute tomorrow for lunch with Gay and Tony. They have their little grandson so it may be an interesting experience.

Hot, Hot Day

This was a scorcher. It was 102 today. I had Slinky in nearly all day. Even Missy stayed in the house. I read a lot and did some steaming of some clothing. I used the computer and posted here and there but didn't do a lot outside. It was a scorcher all right.

It finally cooled down a bit by 8:00 and Slinky went outside to lay on his chaise lounge. Missy is lying on the footrest of my recliner right now.

Bob went to bed about 9:00.

Tomorrow I will go to Independence and have my hair done and meet Juanita for breakfast. It's been a month since we've met for breakfast.

I hope it rains tomorrow night to cool it down.