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December 27, 2007
It's My Turn for a Rant!
I don't have a whole lot to rant about. Just (like most people) annoying things about everyday life that affects them personally. How about the dysfunctional state of U.S. healthcare, the economy, and the difficulty I have finding clothing that fits.
Okay. First off, the U.S. health care system is broken. We need a new one.
Problem #1: Almost everybody's health insurance is tied to their job. Lose your job for any reason, and you no longer have health insurance.
Let's say your husband is retired and has a great pension and health plan through his former employer, and it covers you as a spouse. Guess what happens when Gramps suddenly passes away? Grandma is left without health insurance (except Medicaid if you're 65 or older, which covers the bare minumum of necessary threatment, and Medicaid gets to decide what "necessary" means.)
Or you have health insurance through your job, and you are suddenly laid off. You lose your insurance, and so does your whole family. Any illness or injury could now cause bankruptcy.
But wait, there's more: if you are diagnosed with any sort of medical problem, and have to change insurance providers for any reason, the new insurance provider will have a "pre-existing condition" clause that means they don't have to cover the cost of anything that they decide is caused by said pre-existing condition.
This means that if your pre-existing condition is diabetes (for example) they might decide that your heart attack or blood clot or head cold was caused by said diabetes and is thus not a covered benefit. And then they will refuse to pay for it, causing you to declare bankruptcy even though you have insurance (supposedly.)
According to one article I read, the cost of health insurance has increased by a whopping 78% since 2001. That's outrageous.
I won't even go on about the economy. Sigh. But enough about that, I want to talk about shoes!
I can never find shoes that fit me in stores. Shoes are made to fit skinny people with narrow, skinny feet. I have short, WIDE feet. They became even shorter and wider when I was pregnant. Now, my shoe woes are even worse. My sister-in-law Amy bought me some lovely shoes for Christmas, but alas, they are for skinny feet. Even though they are labeled WIDE. I guess their idea of wide and my feet's idea of wide are two different concepts.
Posted by Jessica at 04:37 PM | Comments (1)
December 16, 2007
The Big Snow!
Derek was able to go sledding because so much snow fell last night!
We had a slow drive back home from Derek's cousin's birthday party and when we went to sleep it was still coming down and blowing around. Well, it covered pretty much everything and is about a foot deep it seems. It took Brian two hours to dig the cars out and shovel the sidewalk!
Posted by Jessica at 02:54 PM | Comments (0)
December 04, 2007
Kai's Third Trail Ride
About a week and a half ago, Kai and I went on another "trail" ride. It was great fun!
I had been feeling sad about the last trail ride and was out at the barn a week from last Sunday. All of a sudden, Linda (who owns Buddy, the TWH) showed up. "I'm going riding, do you want to come?" she asked.
"Sure!" I said, but I told her about how Kai's feet had seemed to bother him the last couple of times I'd ridden him outside the arena.
"No problem!" she said, "I have a spare pair of hoof boots Kai can wear."
She explained that she sometimes used them on Buddy's feet if she planned to ride on rocky terrain. She showed me how to put them on Kai's front feet.
To my amazement, Kai did not seem at all bothered by the boots, even though he had never worn them before.
So we started off, this time we were going down the road almost the entire time. We made a small detour through the school grounds and then ended up on a seldom-used road heading north. This was great, as Kai was still not used to traffic (although he behaved like a champ whenever it went by.)
Linda is an artist, so she spent a lot of the time allowing Buddy to randomly roam the entire width of the road while she stared straight up at the sky searching for inspiration in clouds and tree branches!
I remember that every time Buddy moved from one side of the road to the other, I thought to myself "Should I follow Buddy so that we are both on the same side of the road?" Horseback riders being on two different sides of the road isn't compatible with traffic!
But there was little traffic to be seen, so eventually I just would stay put on the one side while Linda wandered.
We were staying on the road due to the fact that it was the middle of hunting season. Linda had on an orange vest, unfortunately I hadn't planned on riding outside the arena so I was wearing a deer-colored suede jacket!
We stopped to chat with a homeowner down the road. Kai got a bit antsy here, as he could see that there were horses on the property. New horse smells always agitate him, but he soon settles down. He kindly left a deposit of fertilizer on their driveway before we continued on!
By the time we got back to the barn, Kai was pretty tired. He was a really good sport. I plan to get him some of the boots, they really seemed to help his feet.
Posted by Jessica at 02:24 PM | Comments (0)