Another rant alert..too much on my plate
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
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Airlines miles and my blood pressure (my rant-of-the-week)
Comments (12)Every US airline except SouthWest is on the brink of collapse - South West has been incredibly smart about its fuel buying policies, hedging against future increases etc. But the others don't have the liquidity to do that. So they're scrimping on everything: wonder where the blankets went? They save on laundry costs, plus every ounce of weight saved reduces their fuel consumption. They're designing lighter carts so that they can save fuel. And, as a person who was an avid FF mile collector and user, to ease the pain of the cost of going to the UK every year to see the family, I can tell you now - there are no more free tickets available, unless you book them about 12 months in advance. We used to use our miles to get upgrades on an economy ticket to business class: 1. no more available seats anyway, and 2. there's now a charge of $350 each way to get that upgrade, in addition to the miles: make that two round trip journeys, and we might as well buy a third economy seat and get more space that way, at that price (which we won't be doing: I have better uses for my money!) The airlines are in so much pain that staff morale is rock bottom. If someone from an airline is pleasant to you, they must be saintly. We can complain all we like - and it DOES stink that this is where we've ended up - but it's only going to get worse. Himself's nephew is a pilot, and has been laid off, and is struggling to make ends meet, with a baby on the way too. Sara, who still has to fly transatlantic, much as she'd rather stay home. (Oh, and we're cancelling our miles-earning credit card too, since it's now useless to us)....See MoreAnother Appliance Rant
Comments (16)Rather than repair my 10+ year old washer I opted for new. I hated the new one so much I replaced it with one I hated just as much only to discover the replacement worked just exactly the same. Since California is a dry state, I can only have half a tub of water and the rinse cycle only sprays water over the clothes as it spins. It then commences to agitate when there is so little water in the tub that the fins make wear spots where they rub. This isn't just on a single washer. I'm now on my 3rd one in an attempt to find one that uses some water to rinse. And the kicker? I live in Iowa. No water shortage here. So I set my kitchen timer, raise the lid on the washer during rinse cycle until it's at least 2/3 full of water, then lower the lid and let it rinse. PITA for sure. In hind sight I wish I would have repaired the original old washer. It washed. I could choose the cycle I wanted, water level I wanted, wash and rinse temperature, and any combination of those. I had to do some creative plumbing to bypass the all cold wash/rinse on this fancy new one in order to have warm water. I hate it. On my list is auction washer. It has to be old enough to have all the choices on the dials I want. This one will go on craigslist....See MoreMy rant - why is the government now prescribing for doctors?
Comments (34)This is an issue that I struggle with on a daily basis. I have a disease that causes me great amounts of pain. In addition, I suffer with fibromyalgia and I need a knee replacement-my knee is bone on bone and has been that way for a few years. I also fractured my spine 5 years ago so I have bad, chronic pain from that. I cannot walk unassisted-I need a cane now, and will be transitioning to a walker in a year or so. I cannot climb stairs without assistance and I cannot bend my left knee. My disease exaserbates my knee problem because my ankles don't bend so my gait is off-throwing off my hips and back too. About 8 years ago I was prescribed 60 325/5mg Norco-the lowest dose available, and it was to take one to two a day as needed for severe pain. For 5 years I seldom refilled except ever few months. Then I developed the fibro and my knee got worse. Coupled with my physically demanding job, I was having to take the two pills a day. Then the pain just kept getting worse-which is very typical with the disease I have. So since I only had a prescription for 2 pills a day, I'd only take them when I could not longer bear the pain-I'd be at about a level 5 all day and I'd take the pills when it got to a 7. As a long term chronic pain sufferer you learn to live with pain! My doctor told me that I was in a very, very small group of his pain management patients who really did need the pain pills. I never called in for early refills, my urine tests always came back clean, etc. But then he retired and I got a new doctor. My new doctor doesn't believe me that I now need a higher dose of the Norco. A nurse told me that the dose I've been prescribed (for 8 years) is virtually the equivalent of a Tylenol 3-used to help someone get over a sprained back and not for a long term-chronic pain sufferer. My doc prescribed Tramadol-which helped somewhat with my fibro pain but didn't do anything at all for the other pain-the pain that would make me white out at times, feel like I was going to vomit from pain, and keep me up all night, in tears. I kept refilling it because it did help me get through the day at work when just wearing clothing hurt and my HAIR hurt-but I'd save the Norco till bed time so I could take two just so I might be able to sleep without crying. FInally I went in to see him, literally in tears because I hurt so bad, to ask to get my prescription increased. He's had me take xrays which show severe arthritis and bone spurs in my left knee. Arthritis in my ankles, my right knee, my back and my neck. (I was told 15 years ago I had the neck of an 80 year old, it's so damaged from car accidents). So he has proof that I'm in agony but he told me that since I already take Tramadol, he won't increase the Norco, because it will just stop working and I'll need higher and higher doses. He blames the extra weight I've put on because I CANNOT WALK ANY MORE to the Norco stopping my metabolism. His solution to my crying in agony was for me to call the bariatric unit to get into the gastric bypass program so I will lose weight so they'll fix my knee. In a very best case scenario that would be at least 18 months out, and it won't help the lymphedema or the arthritis in the rest of my body. My friend has fentanyl patches, takes Lyrica, and gets regular injections for her various pains. I do not want to move on to Oxycodone or fentanyl! I just want my Norco increased to 1-2 every 4 hours as needed-which is the TYPICAL low dose. I won't even take them if I don't need them! I can't take ibuprofen-it causes stomach bleeding in me. I try cannabis, I try massage, accupuncture, stretching, water exercises, heat/cold you name it. I have said to my doctor that I've considered having my legs amputated if it would mean that pain would stop-of course I wouldn't do that but when you have such bad pain that you'd sacrifice your legs to make it stop-THAT is real pain. I really do live in fear of what will happen if the pain meds are further restricted....See MoreA rant of grief for my late mother . . .
Comments (44)Such things as telling off a mentally ill person do no good. They create negative karma and don't impact the negative person in any way other than to reflect back at them the negative energy they are giving out, which is how their life is going anyway, most of the time. I have already tried that strategy to the max and long-ago abandoned it. There are two issues for me. One is handling an aging parent with mental difficulties. The key is compassionate detachment. It would be the same if you had a younger relative who refused help for something like addiction, etc. Some people can't handle it and completely cut off all contact with the sick person. I have seen that play out in many families. Others get completely caught up in their family's dysfunction. I am treading a middle path, and I think I do that quite well . . . most of the time. My father's sickness frustrates and saddens me, but that is not the source of grief for my mother. It is occasionally painfully ironic, but that is just the tip of the iceberg with him. Mentally ill people do not learn from their mistakes or learn from advice given by other people. If they did, they would not be sick. Sometimes there is no fix, just accept and detach. You know, the old "let go and let god" of AA. I think I was not clear that I am already pretty much in that space as far as self-care goes. That isn't really the source of my grief. It's not just when I'm with my father that this grief for my mother hits me, so I probably shouldn't even have brought up his presence at the dinner. It is just that I so often do or see things I could have done with my mother so easily which would have made her happy, and it pains me to try and still do them, and find it difficult to find anyone ELSE who actually enjoys them the way my mother would. My husband does not, my father does not, and I have few relatives to share old memories with. I do tea parties for work also, and other things for work my mother would have enjoyed. Not the same thing. No one else in my social circle is knocking themselves out to carry on family niceties that include me. So yes, I can do it and I do, but I don't really have a partner in crime and my energy is limited. There are only so many tea parties I can plan. BTW, my whole wedding reception last summer was a tea party in honor of my mother. My cousins helped me do that. Then my cousin died six weeks later. But I still have a lot in common with her daughter and we do whatever we can when we can, but she lives quite far away. It's rare when I can get a friend or family member to visit, most are tied up with kids or grandkids. As a side note, the last time I saw my mother I came over for Sunday dinner, helped her cook and serve and cleaned up from it and left her with a batch of muffins for that next week's tea or breakfast. So I did what I could when she was alive. She never got to finish the muffins, she died from a fall while unloading groceries later that week, she had gotten home at tea time but didn't get that last tea break which would have come after the groceries had been put away. It pained me so to go to a church function at Christmas, one I had attended as a child, and see zero home-made food at the reception, and all paper plates even though the church had a full set of nice dishes--no one volunteering to wash them in the full kitchen that goes unused most of the time now. In their defense, the older ladies who were there were working hard to pull it off, the same group that I see almost everywhere and the ranks are thinning. So it's not just an issue of my mother passing on, that whole genteel way of life is fading away. I belong to some of the social and charity groups my mother belonged to, the ranks get thinner and thinner and older and older, with no young (we're talking 40's or early 50's) people to take their place. Not to mention the professional and community clubs that have just left town already, like AAUW, for example. I can't hardly get a friend to have the time to come over for a nice dinner, even if I could pull one off, most are sandwiching just like us....See More- 8 years ago
8 years agoonce again, total misunderstanding on my part. I thought, someone put to much food on your plate...
Well, I think, Jeff needs to use his other thumb, or some fingers, and order his self some take out at least once every third day!
I understand your leaf dilemma. But, I would just buy some lawn bags, like hers, and hand her new ones... and pile up hers in a corner.Why?
Well, last week I asked the Asplundh people were one street over. I went, and asked, if they could please dump a load on my driveway. Gave them a slip of paper, with the address, my name, and even my phone number.. and they made it sound, like they would.WELL, they did NOT.
This week, I am painting my living room ceiling and walls, and the same in the hallway.
Yesterday a different crew from Asplundh was next door, and I asked that crew. Nice fellas.. dumped a GREAT BIG LOAD in my driveway.
I have already spent 3 hours moving the chipped wood stuff to my back yard. At this rate, it will take me about 3 more days to get this done. Meanwhile, my car is in the garage... and I can't get out. YIKES!But I have free wood-chips for my yard/garden for this summer.... guess, we can't have it all.
MoniPKponder TX Z7B thanked OklaMoni- 8 years ago
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8 years ago
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