Truth is Stranger than Fiction

I know somebody that is on SSI and medical expenses are paid with medical coupons. She has an infected tooth that never grew out of the gum. Teeth around it have been removed and now this one is lying on its side and needs to be removed because it is infected, and the game goes like this.
Go to the clinic for people with medical coupons.
Get sent home because it is not an emergency.
It gets bad and swollen and extremely painful so goes back to the clinic because it must now be an emergency.
It is an emergency, but they cannot pull a tooth that is full of infection. Gets sent home again.
Now it is determined that the tooth is in such bad shape. It has nerves around it and if they pull it they could cut one of the nerves and cause her face to be permanently numb, at least for a few months, so now it will take a special oral surgeon. There is not one in this town that will take medical coupons, is told to call one in another city several miles away.
This Dentist is called, and is told they can evaluate the tooth and it will be almost another week before the appointment.
The appointment day finally arrives and she drives the 60 miles, and is told she will need to be hospitalized for the procedure and it will take at least another 2 to 4 weeks before they can do it. Then she drives the 60 miles back home.
In the meantime her blood pressure is sky high because of all the infection, pain and frustration.

This sounds like something I made up, but it is the truth.

Tagged

I have been tagged by Cora from Little Miss Whats her Name.
Here are the rules:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open to page 56.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 2 to 5 sentences, along with these rules.
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual book.
Pick the nearest book!
6. Tag five other people to do the same

The following is from “Stillwater, Where Oklahoma Began” by Robert E Cunningham
I have had the book in my possession since 1969 and just got it out yesterday to read again.
Page 56 Line 5
I cut up old readers, pasting simple words on cardboard, each word on a strip, piled at random in a box. Each child was handed a small pile of these stripes, then I printed a word on a crude blackboard and they were to find that word on their strips. In this way they were taught both reading and spelling.

Lucky People I have chosen to tag.

2Grandma2

Robyn's Randoms

Jens Jingle

The View from my Broom

My Journey through Life

The Piggy Banker

Friday I received an E-bill from one of my Visa cards. I noticed it said my next payment would be $45.00. That is ridiculous because it has been about $17 a month.
So that was a red flag that I decided to look into. I called the Card Company and was told my payment was received 8 days late. I couldn't argue very efficiently because I didn’t have my records in front of me. They had charged me $39.00 for a late payment.
While I was talking about it to him he said as a courtesy he would reduce the charge to $19.00. So I hung up and was upset with myself because I must have overlooked a payment. When I dug out my records, I had not neglected a payment. They keep changing their payment due day. Sometimes it’s the end of the month and sometimes it is after the first of the next month. I had forgotten that I made my payment early so it would be sure to be there in case they wanted to change the due date again. By now it is too late to call back and straighten them out so I had to stew and fret about it all weekend. I am the queen of "stew and fret" if there is something to stew and fret about. I called the first thing this morning. I talked to a different person this time and I told him that payment was not 8 days late, it was for the next month. He said the payment came in before the statement had been generated, and therefore it was applied to the last month’s account.
I still wonder why the man I talked to Friday only reduced the charge to $19.00. He was looking at the record and must have known what really happened. He just let me think I had paid 8 days late. Cheats me out of $19.00 and makes me think he is doing me a favor.
If they had real people instead of automated machines doing everything, it probably would have been applied to the next month’s account. He is crediting my account the $39.00. I told him I would like to charge the bank $39.00 because they made a mistake on my account. If they can charge us $39.00 for making a mistake, why can’t we charge them for making a mistake. He informed me that the bank did not make a mistake. It was not applied properly so I call that a mistake. Well, I gave in and decided I would not charge them. hehehe
I had a former job that required me to deal with irate customers, so I just love being on the other end of it for a change. The first thing Monday morning, how perfect was that?

Flood Control

It goes from arctic weather to Hawaiian weather overnight. First it’s freezing temperatures and then the snow comes and keeps coming. Suddenly it turns to rain and warm temperatures and melts all the snow in a few hours. The weather station is now the most exciting channel on TV. My brother lives in Snoqualmie Washington. I talked to him today and they just barely escaped having their house flooded. It came within 8 inches of getting into their house. When he had the house built several years ago he said they were just ready to start building when the Inspector of such things did their inspection and told him it didn’t meet with the flood control specs. He would be required to put enough fill dirt in to raise it another two feet. He was pretty upset about that news at the time because of the extra expense and delay. They have had about five or six floods over the years and this last one is the worse one yet, but it didn’t get into their house. He told me, and these are his words, not mine. “You know, if I ever run into that old boy that made me haul all that fill dirt in here, I’ll be tempted to kiss his ass, if it doesn't draw too big of a crowd.” I guess that is true gratitude.

Snow Snow Snow

We are only in the beginning of January and already have enough snow to last until next January. The sun is shining today, but don’t let that fool you. It waits until we go to bed and then sneaks up on us. I like watching it fall out of the sky, and than it can go away. It’s already on the ground by the time I get up. We can’t even enjoy watching it snow. I guess it isn’t so bad here, Spokane is getting most of it. I’m glad I don’t live there. What I hate the most is the slipping and sliding when I go to the mailbox. I put my boots on and tramp through foot deep snow to avoid the skating ring, commonly known as the driveway. One day I drove my car to the mailbox. I must have looked like a goofball. I felt like one so I haven’t done it since, but I tell everyone in the world. How smart is that. That wasn’t a real question so you do not need to answer it.
I’m just rambling here, hence the name of my blog.

Land of Plenty

I have to write about things in my past because nothing much is happening in my present life. I’m hibernating until the spring thaw.

Life wasn’t easy, living in Oklahoma during the 30’s and early 40’s. Between the sandstorms and droughts, if you were living on a farm, you better prepare yourself to starve to death or get out of Dodge. So we did, we sold it all, and went to the land of Plenty. We moved to Colorado. But we soon hightailed it back to Oklahoma. The fortune we were seeking couldn’t be found in Colorado either. We had come this far so we tried to make the best of it. We ended up setting up camp on the bank of the Rio Grand River in the San Louie valley. It was a nice place to set up housekeeping or I guess the term should be tent-keeping. We had hauled some belongings around with us in a small four-wheeled trailer that followed us everywhere. We fished from the river and ate fried trout, fried spuds (we called them potatoes in Oklahoma, but in Colorado they were called spuds) and pork and beans. We saved the cans from the Pork and Beans to drink our Kool-Aid from. There was an Ice-house near by and we could pick up all the discarded ice we wanted. So we had our, Kool-Aid over ice, out of a tin can. We were living pretty high on the hog. Rent free, and the world was our playground. One day I heard the head of the Tenthold make an announcement. He said, "We need to find a house to live in, so we can get these children in school". Daddy always referred to us as children. I once heard somebody ask him why he called us children instead of kids. His answer was, "Because my children are not goats, a kid is a goat". I thought that was funny so I started calling my brothers, the goats. That didn’t go over too big with the goats, so I had to stop.
We moved into a white two-story house, which was haunted by a ghost. The ghost never really hurt anybody, but he sure scared the bejeebers out of us. He lived upstairs and we lived downstairs. I respected his space and never went upstairs all the time we lived there. He made strange noise at night. Everybody respected his space, nobody went up there after that first day.
Life goes on forever and this is just a small segment of it. I was seven years old during the tent living episode and this is the way I remember it.

Weekends Suck

I am glad the weekend is almost over. I hate weekends. Don't throw your shoes at me, I can't help it. I started to say I was born this way, but that isn't true. I am recalling in yon distant pass, when I worked, I loved weekends. I don't have much to talk about because it's the weekend. I have nothing to talk about on the weekends. However I had some wonderful visitors yesterday. Jim and Cora came to see me.

Tomorrow I get to call a bank and yell at them. That's why I can't wait unil Monday.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Laura

Laura is my number six granddaughter. She is one of those completely organized people, so much so, that she was even born on the first day of the year before daybreak. She starts at the beginning. Here she is on her way to school. No longer a student, but as a teacher. Laura, I am very proud of you and I wish you a very happy birthday.