to be continued......

I have started four different pages today. I just can't get my mind to concentrate on one particular event or topic. I need COKE!!!!!!!!! First I would like to thank Lori for listing me as one of her picks for the Marie Antoinette Award. I do read lots of blogs but don't always leave comments. There are many that are quite interesting to read and I will be listing just a small sample of interesting blogs to visit on my next entry.

This week has been hectic to say the least. Lisa is struggling to maintain her sanity and get through this years battle of bad health. I hope this is not a prelude to what is coming after 40. Having just gone through cervical spine surgery she has also been newly diagnosed as having diabetes type two. Well at least its a good thing that it is type two and not type one, however the hard part is that she is in between the stages of controlling it by medication or diet. The diet part is not so hard, but what most people do not know about diabetics is that their glucose levels can really fluctuate with stress and illness. Well last week she sustained a back injury at work and her glucose levels skyrocketed which meant a trip to the hospital, a few days stay, and new medication regiment. What a double whammy!

So on my trips back and forth to the hospital I pass the wanna be German Sheppard breeder kennel that I wrote about earlier. The owner has found it suitable now to at least put wooden pallets in the kennels for the dogs to lay on instead of just gravel. How nice! I have also discovered that I may get pictures without being noticed at a certain time of day. I feel really bad for these dogs and now have more time to spend on this project to get someone to notice the cruelty and inhumane living conditions.

We had snow yesterday and it was really frigid. The kids were outside today sled ridding and our dogs were loving it. It is just a reminder of Christmas right around the corner. I stopped at our local post office and it was late in the evening with only a handful of people left to service. A man in line asked a most unusual question that just seemed to captivate every ones attention. "Do you get letters that are addressed to Santa and if so what do you do with them?" You could have heard a pin drop, everyone wanted to know the answer to this question. Well here Santa letters are picked up by the local VFW and Lions Club and get answered via them. I thought that was the coolest thing to keep the spirit of Santa alive in all of those young minds. So a big hooray for those two organizations.

This week I am going to pick apart the health insurance companies. I quit smoking about 14 years ago. I used the cold turkey method. Of course you may have to attempt this several times, but never give up. I was a bitch for about two weeks, I ate more candy than willy wonka could make, I gained about 5 pounds, and I thought I had lockjaw from chewing so much gum. But I made it. Lisa still smokes and has thought about quitting several times. So she contacts her insurance company about their publicized smoking cessation program and takes a 10 minute survey via phone. Two weeks later her package comes in the mail. You have got to be kidding me! A big envelop stuffed with reading material, a rubber ball, and a magnet. Well the reading material is in the trash, the dogs have the ball, and the magnet is holding up our grocery list. So this is the program. I told her she should have sent it back and told them to stick it up their @#$!

The smoke and mirrors companies use to make themselves look worthy and competent is unbelievable. How much of our premiums are spent on this kind of stuff. It's a good thing Lisa doesn't take advantage of the invitro program. I get horrid thoughts of Rosemary's Baby running through my head.

Last I have two friends that are struggling with addiction in their families. This is a horrible plague for families in the United States. I have dealt with this up close and personal and it just destroys people. I had some work to do for a friend this week who was struggling with some medical issues of her own and I could tell something was really wrong. She was very hesitant but once comfortable spewed her overwhelming burden due to her 43 year old son being addicted to pain meds. and alcohol. I have known her for a long time and she has had a rough road to travel. Recently in the past year she lost her mother to cancer and her other son of 41 died of an overdose a month after her mom had passed. Now she is struggling to maintain her sanity and hold onto her last remaining close relative. She herself was a stay at home mom that drank very little and probably never even tried a joint. She never saw it coming and got blindsided by America's biggest affliction.

She is truly lost without a clue of what to do. She almost seems like she is afraid of her son but yet has a codependency of him. For all that think most drugs come on a street corner where your addict is born you could are so wrong. A whole new waive of addicts have been created in the 90's due to the over prescribing of opiates. To be continued.......