Life Sucks

It really, really does. Mom's about to lose it, i'm getting ready to join her, and Dad is convinced that the remote for the stereo also controls the pump for the washbasin (?!).

I need a rewind button

Just had a horrible conversation with mom - Hubby thinks that we're spending too many nights over there, and now mom thinks she's imposing on us and that we don't really want to help... It's not that we don't want to help, it's that we want to see the inside of our apartment once in awhile! Ugh.

Health Care

I'm lucky. Even though I'm uninsured, I managed to get into a sliding fee program at a local clinic - and the clinic has an amazing discount pharmacy. Admittedly, I see an LPN more than I see a doctor, but my particular LPN/doc combo rock like crazy and I love them. They've both been extremely supportive and caring in a difficult time.

The thing is, not everyone is so lucky. There are millions, if not hundreds of millions, of people in this country who go without even basic care because it's TOO fracking EXPENSIVE! How, exactly, can we claim the US is an enlightened country when people die every day because they can't afford their medication or their insurance company denied a necessary procedure? The system is broken.

Figuring out how to fix it is a little bit above my pay grade, but I've been hearing good things about the program in Massachusetts, where everyone is required to carry health insurance, either through work or through the state, with heavy subsidies for the poor. We have to at least try to get this fixed. If nothing else, so we can look at our collective reflection in the mirror every morning.

Further Observations

• I'm pretty sure I have an ear infection. Yech.
• People are assholes. See the jackass who killed Doctor Tiller, and that nutbar who opened fire at the Holocaust museum. Seriously, misanthropy is working for me right now.
  

Random Observations

• A woodchuck, sunning itself on the deck, looks remarkably like a corpse.
• Swearing very loudly at the thought of having to clean up a dead woodchuck will cause it to wake up.
  
• Said woodchuck, being awakened from its nap, does an amazing, "Dude, you're blocking my sun!" expression.
• Our UPS guy wears brown socks with the company logo on them. Is this part of the uniform?
• Hospice nurses are both perky and touchy-feely. Both of dad's nurses are GREAT, don't get me wrong, but we're not exactly a demonstrative family. The expression on dads face when one of them hugged him was something to behold.
• The Red Wings can't get their personnel where they're supposed to be. They should have hoisted the Cup in Pittsburgh.