I am Michelle D. Carter

For some reason I feel like being philosophical today. This particular story from my past keeps creeping up in my mind so I thought I’d share it with you. Those of you who think health care doesn’t need to be reformed have NEVER gone through a life changing experience.

I met a lady once who had elected the hospice benefit for her father. She was going to bring him home from a nursing home but wanted (NEEDED) the care that hospice could provide. However, when you go on hospice, it is up to the hospice to pay for the medications and treatments that were once covered under Medicare and/or insurance. This gentleman was on dialysis. Dialysis is very expensive. The hospice said they weren’t going to pay for it. This lady decided to revoke hospice and go back on insurance so her father could get his much needed dialysis. Due to the expensive treatment, the insurance company would not take him back. I remember her crying because she was about to bring her Dad home without help and without dialysis. If you are on dialysis and don’t get your treatment, you will die. She felt like she was killing her father. In essence, she was. We were able to find a hospice company that would take him AND allow him to get dialysis. He died within a few days anyway, but you could imagine her relief knowing that she did not kill her father.

As I stand on top my soap box and shout: Who in the hell gets to decide to make a profit instead of saving a life? When you are little you are taught to give a thief your valuables because your life isn’t worth it. How is this any different from the insurance company? The insurance company dictates to the doctors what to prescribe and what procedures to do. Does that mean all insurance employees have medical degrees? NOT! For years you pay into a health plan and you expect it to be there when you need it only to find out that they won’t cover the expense. What?!!

In comparison with other countries, we work ourselves to death. Some countries encourage naps to rejuvenate themselves. We have little pills to rejuvenate ourselves. Other countries give their employees much more time off than you typically receive from an American corporation and are encouraged to use all their holiday (they call it holiday, we call it vacation). While I was pregnant with my daughter, I had the privilege of working with a lady from the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, you took the month before your due date off just to get ready for the baby. After the baby was born, you received three months time off – ALL OF THIS WAS PAID LEAVE. Fathers received one month PAID LEAVE to help care for the baby. When you are laid-off from a position, the government kicks in to get you training so you can find a job. If I were to go to school during my period of unemployment, my unemployment check would decrease, not to mention the fact that I don’t have money to pay for additional education.

I digress. But the fact remains, we are a nation that wants to exceed at all costs. However, the cost is our own lives.

The ballots have been cast. The votes counted. The winner announced. It’s going to be interesting. Change is coming. Change is needed. Change was inevitable regardless of the winner. However, this isn’t going to be my topic for today. Today’s topic is about my girl and the election.

We are not a very political family. We talk about things going on in the world and its effects but rarely is this done in front of our children. Not because we feel the need to shelter them. Simply because we just don’t talk much about it. Our lives are filled with the day-to-day trials and tribulations of family life.

Alyssa has been studying the local, state and federal government in school. Obviously with the election, it was a good time to learn about government.

Last week, Alyssa came to me and said she wanted to go to the polls with us to see it all. What?!! An eight-year-old interested in voting?!! I responded with the typical we’ll see answer fully expecting that I wouldn’t hear about it again.

Monday evening I get, “Well, Mom, can I go?”

“Go where?”

“To vote with you.”

“Well, sweetie, I don’t think that’s going to work. It’s going to be a busy crazy time.”

Tim joins the conversation, “What’s going on?”

I explain and he decides that if she wants to go, it’s fine but she’ll have to get up early to do it. Surprisingly she agreed. They woke up at 6:00 in the morning and were at the polls by 6:30. An hour and a half later they were home, just in time to get on the bus for school.

Last night she asked if she could stay up late and watch the results. I wasn’t even going to stay up let alone let her when she had been up so early.

The first words out of her this morning were, “Who won?”

I’m proud of her for taking an interest in the way our government works at such a young age. She is responsible for her future and understanding the government is a great start. This is a change from me. It’s only recently that I’ve become aware of the government, most of what I learned from watching the West Wing.

Yes, change is coming. Change is needed. Change is inevitable.

I received this from Dorsey last week. I’m finally getting around to acting on it. The rules are:

• Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules in your post.

• Share seven random/weird facts about yourself.

• Tag seven random people and link to their blogs.

• Let each person know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment in their blog.

Seven random facts about me:

1. I loathe self-righteous people. You know who you are. You are the one criticizing and pushing your beliefs onto other people when you have some major skeletons in YOUR closet.
2. My favorite color is red.
3. Yesterday I was diagnosed with an over-active bladder. I could pee every 15 minutes and still feel like I need to go again. The doctor is placing me on medication in hopes that will help fix my problem. However, down the road, I may have to have surgery.
4. I love to have my toes painted.
5. I’ve had liposuction and was not happy with the results.
6. I am left-handed.
7. I MUST have coffee every morning.

Seven random people:

1. Pam at It’s Time for More Coffee
2. Debbie at Three Weddings
3. Kandace at One Crazy Chick
4. Mir at Woulda Coulda Shoulda
5. Dawn at Because I Said So
6. Latte Mommy
7. Michelle at Mommy Confessions

We are in the process of re-siding our home. Not because we have nothing better to do, but because the siding that is on the house is rotten. Our house is only 13 years old but it has the siding on it that was part of the lawsuit a few years back. I can’t begin to tell you how much it pisses me off that instead of slapping on a couple coats of paint and being done with the outside of the house; we, well, mostly Tim, spends just about every free moment working on the house.

Instead of leaving the rotten siding on and putting more siding on top, Tim is removing the rotten portions of the old siding, only to find that the old siding has nothing solid behind it. We have siding, 2×4s, and then sheet rock. What the hell?!!! Who in their right mind builds a house like that?!! Of course, this only pisses me off more. When you move up, you think you are getting a better quality house. DEFINITELY NOT HERE!!

After he’s removed the rotten pieces of siding, he replaces it with plywood, and then adds insulation and FINALLY the new cement siding. This should have a dramatic impact in our heating and cooling bills.

This is a HUGE project!! Tim took the week before last off to work on it. My Dad came down and helped for a couple days. It is definitely a work in process and will take time to get it done correctly.

Anyway, Tim had been really good about getting the siding measured and cut. I would then paint it in the garage before he put it up. It was nice because when he put it up, it was painted and no one would have to go up and down a ladder to paint.

Well, this last go around didn’t work quiet so smoothly. My Dad and Tim put the siding up; however, I didn’t have time to paint it BEFORE it went on the house. In order to do my part and help, I decided I’d paint where I could reach. Tim knows I’m not fond of heights. Feeling a little guilty, I told Tim that if he moved the ladders around for me, I’d try to conquer my fear and paint all of the siding.

I was SO FREAKIN’ SCARED!! I did get the painting done but I DID NOT conquer any fears. I’m still terrified to go up on the ladder. I would hold my breath as I climbed. Once at the top, I’d clutch the rung so hard my knuckles were white. I made Tim carry the paint bucket up for me so I could hold on with both hands while climbing. One time he simply climbed up behind me with the paint, I thought he was intentionally shaking the ladder. He started to go back down and I told him to wait until I got the bucket attached to the ladder so I could hold on with BOTH hands as if that would somehow make me safer.

I went to bed last night with the heating pad. Every muscle in my body was tensed up with fear that I need the heat to help relax. I’m also swollen and bruised right above my knees. That’s from the rung on the ladder that I forcibly leaned against thinking that would also make me safer. I also thought I would be brave and climb on the roof over the breakfast nook to paint above that. Yeah right, Tim had to rescue me off and paint it himself.

I think I’ll be spending some time in the garage the next couple of days. I’m going back to painting the siding with my feet planted firmly on the ground. Tim can then cut it or whatever he needs to do. I don’t think my mind or body can handle the ladder again.