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You Are A Lily



You are a nurturer and all around natural therapist.

People see you as their rock. And they are able to depend on you.

You are a soothing influence. You can make people feel better with a few words.

Your caring has more of an impact than even you realize.

Your Life Path Number is 9



Your purpose in life is to make the world better



You are very socially conscious and a total idealist.

You think there are many things wrong with the world, and you want to fix them.

You have a big idea of how to world could be, and you'll sacrifice almost anything to work towards this dream.



In love, you can easily see the beauty in someone else. And you never cling too tightly.

Belated Earth Day greetings to all. Mother Earth has brought forth great joy in this area. With two days of mid 70 temperatures and two days of rain, more to come today, the grass is green and leaves are starting to form on the trees.

If you are an environmentally conscientious person, copy and paste this link into your address bar to find out what the pollution level is in your county.

http://www.scorecard.org/

You can also see a comparision of how your county ranks among other counties in your state.

BloomingMoon

The Declaration of Independence...

As you know, John Hancock was the first signer of the Declaration of Independece, signing his name boldly in large letters and reportedly saying "I guess Old Johnny Bull can read that!" as he signed. "Johnny Bull" was the nickname given to England at that time.

What you might not know is that John Hancock also instigated and financed the Boston Tea Party and a few other similar acts of defiance and rebellion against the tyanny of Great Britian.

An even more obscure fact is that John (Torry) Hancock is my uncle four generations removed and the person for whom I am named. I have tried to live up to the tradition.

BloomingMoon

Note from the Home Health Aide:

Just wanted to tell you that earlier this week, i was talking to Heather,
and she said if your showers arent done weekly, then the services have to be
stopped. So I dont know how to handle this, Im assuming that we could
stretch the truth for this week and put down that we did the shower thing,
and try and keep them up on a weekly basis.


My Response to the Note from the Home Health Aide:

They are at it again! Now I think it is time to go up to the State level.

First of all, Heather is the office manager and she has nothing to do with my treatment plan. I am the one who requested assistance with bathing so where is she getting off telling me when to bath?

Secondly, Heather has no MD after her name, has never met me and has no idea about my limitations. On top of that she is getting pretty high and mighty after sending me an HHA who showed up once or twice a month when she was supposed to be here weekly, always came late and came on days she wasn't scheduled. The next HHA didn't show up at all. The one after that brought her partner with her and the last time she was here she brought her partner and her two-year-old grandson.

The new HHA started last week, was here once, then was sick, then too tired from starting a new full-time job, came for three hours, then had a rash on her leg and was too sick to come and goes to her boyfriend's on the weekends so can't come then.

She is currently being trained in this month on her other job so is working days and planned to come here at 6:30 PM. That worked out pretty well but I can't see the hours working when she goes on nights. She has to drive 30 miles to work so will have to leave here 30 minutes before she is scheduled to work which I assume is 3:30 PM to 10:30 PM. That makes it 11:00 PM before she gets back here.

She could come a couple hours before work but I don't get up until 1::00 PM so that doesn't give much time unless she comes for three hours twice a week. Since she lives just one block from me, that could be a possibility.

The nurse is supposed to be here once a month and hasn't been here this month. She hasn't scheduled a visit and it is now June 29 so I'm doubting I will see her. Unless of course, I've become senile as well as incontinent (according to the service providers) and she has been here and I've forgotten. I would ask Chore Man but he can't remember where all his body parts are most of the time. Maybe if I just don't bathe until one of mine falls off these people will get it that I don't have complete control over my limitations. And can't and won't jump when they say jump.

Ok, so I'm on a rampage. I asked Chore Man, who had his buddy, Limps Alot, a Chore Man clone, with him yesterday to get everything off the floor in the guest room. They acted like they understood me. I should have known better. After they left I checked the guest room. They left the heavy stuff for me, the computer monitor and the microwave and all the cat carriers, all six of them.

Then Chore Man dumped my cigarettes ashes in the dining room waste basket which isn't a waste basket at all. It's an umbrella holder which I had just washed out from the last time he dumped my ashes in there after I asked him not to. I'm just evil enough right now to go dump the cigarette butts and ashes on his front lawn. In fact, I think I will do just that very thing. If you don't hear from me for a while you can send bail money.

Oh, I have a different computer hooked up. I've been spending the last three weeks deleting all the junk put on it by Windows and Hewitt Packard and trying to get rid of an error message that kept knocking me off the internet and wouldn't let my downloads finish and install. I couldn't get the anti-virus blocker downloaded so didn't want to correspond with anyone until I got that on my computer.

Just when I thought I had all the Windows and Hewitt Packard junk deleted, here they both come with automatic updates. It's a conspiracy. Anyway, I had to do a bunch of downloads from both Windows and Hewitt Packard to get rid of the error problem and now I'm sailing along very nicely. In the process, I've discovered how to disable much of the garbage and feel some what in control. That, I'm sure is short lived!

Shhhhh. I think I hear some updates being downloaded.



BloomingMoon

Ok, here's the scoop.

In April I had my semi-annual visit from the social worker and the public health nurse. This is a new social worker that I requested because the old one didn't do shit.

First, when the two of them came in they didn't want to sit on my dining room chairs. (I was at the computer and wasn't about to move and there is only one chair in the living room that the cats haven't wet on......long story there) so they brought chairs in from the kitchen.

The first topic on the agenda was my request to switch from meals from the nutrition center to ones from the hospital. The nurse thought there would be an issue with liability if volunteers who delivered the meals had to put them in the frig because I'm not awake when they arrive. What is the difference between putting them on the table or putting them in the frig? I had this service in the past and that is exactly what the volunteers did, put the meals in the frig.

I kept repeating this but the social worker and the nurse didn't hear me and kept arguing the point.

I suggested that the social worker talk to the hospital administrator about her concerns and her response was, get this, "That won't be my first choice for a contact. He has more important things to do." I used restraint. By now, I'm getting really pissed and said I did't care about liability. That was the hospital's responsibility and besides I'm paying for the meals. To this the social worker responded, "No, I'm paying for them." I gritted my teeth and bit my tongue in the process as I said, "No, you are wrong. Elderly Waivered Services is a federally subsidized program and I have paid for these services through my taxes for many years." Inside I was gleeful, telling myself, "Gotcha!" That shut that cow up but it was too late. She had DONE IT!

The final straw...as they were leaving the nurse asked if I wanted them to return the chairs to the kitchen. Can you believe that?! How rude! Jesus Christ, didn't you read my diagnoses?

Now my mind is racing. What evil thing can I do? Ah ha! An idea is forming.

I wrote Miss Know It All an email asking her to look into the Fare Share program to supplement my meager food benefits and some other meaningless dribble and signed the email with all my licenses which include the highest obtainable social work license in this state, the highest obtainable chemical dependency license and one I'm sure she won't recongnize, the Minnesota Society of Clinical Hypnosis license. "Let her chew on that", I said to myself as I hit SEND! Never mind that the licenses are no longer current.

So now it is three months later and I have not received even an acknowledgement from Miss K I A that she got my email much less any information about the Fare Share program which it took me four minutes to find on the internet today.

And to top that off, my toilet is plugged and the landlord has moved and disconnected the phone with no new number and he has his cell phone turned off. Ok, time for some more evil thoughts and deeds.

Yesterday I had to have my precious Isis euthanized. She did her very best to make it easier for me, letting me know a couple months ago that life was changing for her.

It was then that she started crawling up in my arms at night, nozzeling her nose in my neck and reaching across me to put her arm around my neck, some times poking me in the lips, nose or eye with her whiskers while telling me, "It will be alright. It is time for me to go." It isn't difficult to hear what the animals as saying if you listen.

A few days ago the other cats said their goodbyes to Isis sending her off with a kiss by licking her head, a process I've experienced with other cats about to die.

The night was difficult for me. I had no furry paw wrapped around my neck. This morning was hard too. There was no Isis flipping all my hair over my face to get me up to get her a cup of ice water and no Isis scolding me because I took too long as she escorted me to the kitchen to supervise.

These will be fond memories of this Being who graced my life with her presence for 15 years but for now they are painful loses.

It has taken all the energy I have this week to cope. Hopefully, I will be back to a more normal state of mind soon and be able to leave comments and messages for all my friends here on Boomer.

BloomingMoon

In January, my social security check was increased by $28.00. The same month the landlord increased the rent by $25.00. I called him a slum lord, told him to kiss my rubber duckie and put it down yonder. He increased the rent any way.

This month I got a letter from Human Services, I use the term loosely, telling me my EBT, previously known as food stamps, had been cut by $12.00 and now is down to a whopping $44.00 a month.

Let's see what that gets me:

1 gallon of milk per week @ $3.89 x 4 = $15.56

1 loaf of bread per week @ $1.09 x 4 = $4.36

1 dozen eggs @ $1.35 = $1.35

2 packages of cotto salami @ $1.87 = $3.74

1 pound of hamburger @ $1.89 per lb = $1.89

1 box of Velveeta @ $3.99 per box = $3.99

1 package of pork hocks = $3.89

1 bag of beans for soup = $2.89

1 box of oatmeal = $2.15

1 can of coffee = $9.97

TOTAL SO FAR $45.96

Opps. Guess something will have to go. Do you notice a dietary deficiency here?

In the mean time, Bush has asked Congress for 2.7 TRILLION dollars for the war effort in Iraq.

Mr. Bush and slumlords every where, wet your lips, pucker up, and kiss my rubber duckie and stick it where the sun don't shine.

Sincerely,

A Disgruntled Citizen

Dear Kay,

The social worker and public health nurse were here this week for my semi-annual reassessment required to maintain services. That is always a joyful experience. The social worker is slower than molasses in January and the public health nurse is new. I don't know if she is new to the job but she is new to me. She doesn't take things as seriously as the previous one, which in my case, is a good thing but she did obsess about the fleas and her recommended treatment.

She suggested I get shots for the cats which last a life time????? at $30.00 a head. That comes to $240.00 even though I told her the cats are strictly indoor cats and I have ordered the flea treatment and gotten the spray for the house. I felt like she wasn't hearing me when I told her how impoverished I am. (My EBT went up $3.00 per month. I now get $56.00 a month for groceries)

Most of my focus was on Chore Man and his lack of responsibility. It just happened that I had asked him to go to the store just an hour before the service providers got here at 1:40 PM and hadn't returned by the time they left at 4:00 PM. The social worker tried to get Chore Man off the hook by saying, "Something must have happened". I told him this was typical Chore Man behavior.

Well, back to the service providers. We did our usual back and forth dance, they making suggestions and me rejecting them. One such suggestions was to get on a more stable sleep schedule. My response to that was, "And that is going to benefit me how?" These people come with their own agenda but they forget to read my diagnosis. I HAVE SLEEP APNEA you jerks! I never get down into delta sleep which is the restorative level of sleep. And what difference does it make when I sleep. Do I have a job? Do I have any time commitments? I fail to see the point! Any way, that was my entertainment on Monday.

Thursday brought more free entertainment. I heard this CLANG, CLANG, outside the house, then shudder, shudder in the basement, just as I was going to sleep. So I threw off the covers and flat footed it to the kitchen from whence the nose came, mumbling explicatives as I walked, looked outside and saw only a backhoe digging up the alley. Fine. They can sell the alley to Japan if they want. It is a lousy alley anyway. In the spring there are ruts big enough to misplace an infant elephant. More CLANG, GLANG, shudder, shudder.

So I climbed down the three steps to the landing, opened the back door and stepped out on the cement stoop in my jammers and bare feet in 34 degree temperatures to see a left leg and a left arm at the corner of the house.

"Hey, what are you doing?", I asked the leg and the arm. "I'm working on the gas meter", replied the leg and the arm. "Yes" I said, "but what are you doing?" A head joined the leg and the arm from around the corner of the house and said, "I'm replacing parts". The head vanished around the corner of the house again. "Oh," I replied. "I didn't know it was broken." "It's not", said the leg and the arm, "Then what are you doing" I asked again. "I'm working on the gas meter," replied the leg and the arm.

At this point I was freezing. I turned, closed the door, climbed the three steps back up from the landing to the kitchen vowing never to ask a service provider a direct question again, flat footed my way back to bed, pulled up the covers, promising myself to call the gas company to find out how much replacing parts on my gas meter that weren't broken is going to increase my gas bill this year.

Well, gotta go. Time for a nap, which is what we retired peopel do.

Your friend,

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