I am really worried about this “single payer system” that our current administration is trying to push through.

I don’t mind taking care of our country’s indigent (I’m not a complete right-wing conservative – in fact, being liberterian, I’m smack in the middle economically, while on the legislative axis, I’m for much less government.)  But for those of us who are happy with our health care – everything from doctors, to hospitals to drugstores to insurance companies – it just looks like the government is jumping inside our personal lives trying to gain total control. (I was going to say jumping into our underwear and shoving a thermometer where the sun don’t shine but decided against it since I’m making this a public post.)

My sister (in Michigan) just dealt with what it will be like if the “state” takes over our healthcare.

Because she works ~30 hours a week at $8 an hour, she doesn’t qualify for medicaid (she’s not low enough on the poverty scale, evidently) but she did qualify for some type of “state” aid, where the “state” will pay for 75% of her treatment.  But she has to go where they tell her to go.

She had excruciating pain in her side.  She wanted to go to the emergency room, but last time she did that, she ended up working for months for practically nothing because her part-time $8/hour wages were garnished (she couldn’t pay her hospital bill and still keep a roof over her head.  Damn good thing she had a big sister who came to her rescue).  So she called a number in Michigan that was supposed to be a source of help for those low-income people who didn’t have health insurance.  It was a month before she got in to see a doctor.  The doctor wrote a prescription for some tests.  It took her 13 days to get in for the test.  It took her another 15 days to get another appointment with the doctor so she could get her test results (they wouldn’t call her with the results and when she tried to call for them, they told her they couldn’t give them to her over the phone.)

Her doctor told her she had pancreatitis and they found “a spot on her lung” and ordered another test, for which she had to wait another 10 days.  That was July 31.  They STILL don’t have her results available for her – 11 freaking days later! (My own doctor always has my results available within a week and SHE calls ME with the results.)  All of this started two months ago.  When my father was diagnosed with cancer, he was gone 6 weeks later.  The amount of delay that my sister went through could have had catastrophic effects had she been in a more serious stage of her illness.

I don’t want that kind of health care. I don’t mind my some of my taxes going into Medical care for those who can’t afford health insurance.  But for those of us who can, or whose employers provide us with low cost options, I think we should still have that choice.  But with this new plan, eventually private insurance is going to be edged out and I will have no choice but let the government decide my health care.

Next, we’re going to have single payer life insurance, single payer homeowners insurance, single payer auto insurance.  Eventually a single-payer employer.  Pretty soon I will be working to support my less fortunate neighbor who has four kids to put through college (while I remain childless).  Won’t matter that he has no ambition and still works for a low wage and his wife works for minimum wage.  Won’t matter that I worked my ass off and put myself through college so that I could earn a decent, comfortable living (which, BTW, is what has allowed me to help out my less-fortunate siblings.)

Back to my sister.  She also has osteoporosis and had a complete hysterectomy when she was 30.  Eventually, she will no longer contribute to society.  Will the government decide then that she is no longer eligible for health care?  Will they tell her to “take two aspirin and call me in the… never”?  What about all the years she DID contribute to society?

And what about ME?  I’m diabetic.  What if I live complication free well into my 80s and then have a mild stroke or something else?  Or what if my kidneys fail?  Will it be determined that because I’m diabetic and 80-something that the “state” doesn’t think it’s worth the money to allow me to have dialysis?  My mom was a diabetic and had total kidney failure.  Without dialysis she would have died much sooner than she did.

We’re ALL going to die someday.  Should the government decide when? Will an otherwise healthy 40-year-old be given treatment because he still works and pays taxes, while an otherwise healthy 80-year-old be denied treatment because he no longer works and no longer pays taxes?

I think our current administration wants to have complete, absolute power over our lives.

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
– John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902).

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. “
– Karl Marx (German political Philosopher and revolutionary, 1818-1883)

Do you believe in reincarnation?  Was Karl Marx reincarnated on August 4, 1961?

And isn’t there a web site somewhere that you can report people who disparage anything the government is doing?  Will I get reported?

I have not been very faithful to my goal of writing every day in July.  I even submitted this goal to NaBloPoMo.

I have something I need to write about, but not here (in the open for the whole world to see).

If you are on my protected list here, I’ll have a new protected entry up soon (or maybe now, depending on when you read this LOL)

If you are not on the list and want to be, drop me a line (you can message either account.)

This Month’s first Featured Grownups entry is to write about some lesson we learned in our lifetime.  I’ll warn you now this is going to be a long entry – but I’ll try to make it as short as I can without skimping on important details.

First, let me say that the lesson I learned was not to let greed lead me, because even if the immediate payoff is great, there may be long-term consequences.

Of all the things I’ve done in my lifetime, there is only one time period that I have any regrets.

I went to work for a music store while living in Florida. We sold Lowrey organs.

When I got there, I was paid minimum wage plus a 2% commission on my sales. I sold a few “doorbusters” – organs that weren’t really much good, had an actual cash value of $1 but that we sold for anywhere from $299 – $999 depending on the size and features.  Eventually, I got out of my probationary period and earned a 25% commission of the amount over cost.

Sales is a cut-throat business. Especially commissioned sales. If you turn your back on a customer for one second, another sales person will swoop down and grab them away from you.

One day, a woman came in and talked to me about her neighbor. She said Jim had sold him a “doorbuster” and written him off as “no money”. She said “He needs a better organ and he could buy any organ in this store.” So I called him. He came in and I did a demonstration for him. He was enchanted and signed on the dotted line.

On the delivery day, I went along for the ride because he decided to make the purchase C.O.D. When we got there, he was getting cold feet, but I played a little for him, showed him a couple of new songs, and he was a happy camper again. He handed me his checkbook and asked me if I would write the check because he didn’t think he could. So I wrote a check for $20,000 and he signed it. I made a $2500 commission on that sale (25% of the profit).

This is where it should have ended.  But no….

A month later, we were going to have a special “luncheon” for our upper tier customers (those who had made purchases of over $15,000). I invited him with the intention of selling him one of our top-of-the-line organs. I remember it was called “The Heritage” – it had a beautiful sound and was so easy to play – just one step down from the MX2 which was Lowrey’s top of the line organ (retail value $40,000). (These were organs you would have in your house, not church organs, whose prices started at around $100,000).

I high pressured him into making the purchase, setting up the following Monday for delivery. I had never used so much high-pressure on a client before, although I had seen it done so many times. I have no idea what got into me, but all I could see was dollar signs and making it into the top ten in sales in the company (I was currently at 11 out of over 300 sales people).

On delivery day I was scheduled to work from 1pm until 9pm. At 10:00am my boss called me and told me my client had called and cancelled his order. He said “If you want to keep your job you’d better meet the delivery truck over there and make sure delivery is taken!”

So I drove to his house and used every trick I knew of to pressure him into this sale. Fake tears, fake telephone conversation, everything I could think of. Finally, I nearly coerced him into handing me his checkbook, I wrote the check and asked him to sign it. He did. I left.

On the way back to the store, I was waffling between extreme guilt and the prospect of a $1250 commission. Eventually the commission (greed) won.

However, my performance went downhill after that. I could no longer sell. I felt horrible – I felt like I had sold my soul for $1250.

I went from 11th in sales down to 200th by the end of the month. The district manager came to talk to me and asked what was going on. I told him about that sale. He said “Do you think we should give him a refund?” I said I didn’t know what we should do, but that I just wasn’t cut out for this. I left the company that day.

To this day I feel so cheap when I think of that incident. I wish I could give that man back his money (of course, I can’t, I don’t HAVE that kind of money!)

There have been things I’ve done that *could* have hurt other people if they knew but this was one time where it wasn’t a victimless crime. And I don’t think any amount of sorrow or regret is going to make me forget the helpless look on that man’s face when I reached for his checkbook.

And because of what all I went through in the two years or so that I worked for this company, I will never trust a salesperson, I will negotiate every deal and I will walk out if they don’t meet my needs. Before that, I paid the asking price for everything (including cars).

I’ve had people tell me that there were honest sales people. But when I see someone say “I have to go ask my boss” or “I have to go make a phone call” or go do anything out of my earshot, I figure they are going to waste some time, let me stew and then come back and tell me how hard they worked to get me a great deal, even if it’s a little more than I wanted to pay.

I even had one guy come back and say to me “You are lucky I was working today so I could get you this deal” when he went to get my final offer “approved”. All I could think of was “No, you’re lucky that I came by so you could get another sale.”

After that incident at the music store in Florida, I’ve made it my life mission to make up for that by helping people who are less fortunate than me out anywhere I could, wherever I went. And although I get a good feeling when I help these people, it hasn’t come close to making me feel atoned in any way. Because no matter how much I give to others, I am not giving back to that man what I took from him.

My lesson learned from this was to never let greed take over my conscience.

I am going to sign up for NaBloPoMo for June.  I find that I am here more, read more, write more and comment more when I have a goal of a post a day.

If anyone else is interested, the website to sign up is www.nablopomo.com

The second topic from Featured Grownups is to write about a time we received something we didn’t deserve.

I kept trying to thing of good things I had received, that I didn’t deserve, and couldn’t think of any.  But I do remember something I received once that I felt I didn’t deserve.  You can decide if it was good or bad.

 I have blogged about this before, but I don’t feel like going back to look for it, so I’m going to write from what I remember LOL

A pink slip.

No, not the kind pictured to the left.  More like the one pictured on the right.

Let me start from the beginning, and I’ll try to make it short.

I hired in with a trade association in 1996 as a computer specialist.  In three years I was promoted to Information Systems Manager.  Two years later, my title was changed to Information Technology Manager.  My salary nearly doubled in those five years.

My reviews were always “Exceeds Expectations” and the CEO thought I walked on water when it came to technology.  My own boss could not convince the CEO that we should be replacing our computers every three to four years after the auditors suggested it.  So he brought me into the meeting.  The CEO asked me what I thought.  I said I thought they should be replaced no less often than every 4 years, and preferably every three years.  He asked me how often I replaced my home computer.  “Three years.”  “Okay,” he said, “every three years it is.”

He planned his retirement and a search was commenced to find his replacement.  One of the caveats given for the replacement was that he was not to “turn over staff” with his own people.  They selected Jake Dunghole (you have no idea how close that is to his real name lol) to replace the CEO.  The new and old CEOs worked together for several months and finally the old CEO retired.

Three months later our Director of Administration and HR suddenly decided to retire – no notice.  A quick reorganization was done and a new Vice President of Operations was brought in to replace her.  From the new CEO’s old company.  Imagine that.  (We all pretty much assumed the two of them were having an affair.)

A week after new VP started, she was to interview everyone who would report to her.  I was no longer reporting to the comptroller when she was hired, I was to report to her.  We interviewed.  She mentioned a report she would like and I went right back to my desk and created it for her.  As I approached her office, I overheard her say “I think he would be perfect for the position.”  As soon as she saw me she said “gotta go!” and hung up.  Is there a more sure evidence of guilt???  LOL  This was my first inkling that my days were numbered, because I was sure she was talking about one of their friends to be my replacement (Jake had mentioned this guy before – in an abstract way.)

Over the next few weeks, they tried to find things that I was doing wrong.  They could find nothing.  At all.  I was clean as a whistle.  But during that time, I went to CEO’s old company and looked to see who their tech guy was. Some guy named Chase N. Rubenesque (that is amazingly close to his real name, too.)

About a month later, the I.T. department was called together to announce we were getting a new Director of I.T. and his name was – yep – Chase N. Rubenesque.  No freaking experience managing people – three years as a system administrator and NO OTHER TECH EXPERIENCE.  I knew then that my days were numbered.  We didn’t need a director AND a manager to manage a department of six.

So over the course of the next six weeks, I trained Chase.  He was asked to create a position description for his position, so he took mine, deleted “Manager of Information Technology” and replaced it with “Director of Information Technology” and saved a copy.

Then they hired a consultant to look over their operations and see where they could save money.  Guess what?  There were two people in Tech doing the same job.  One should be eliminated.  That was  -  you guessed it – me.  After 8 years (almost to the day) of loyal service to the organization.

But the day before I got the pink slip, my old boss was told to write my review – he again gave me an ‘exceeds expectations’ review.

I did not deserve to be let go.  But in the end, it all worked out well.  I realized after getting no hits on my resume after a year that I needed to finish college, so I got my degree in business (at age 50 – with honors!) and immediately landed the very lucrative position I now have.

I don’t believe in Karma, but if I did, I think it ended up happening here. Jake Dunghole ended up getting fired a year later for mismanagement (he nearly ran the company into bankruptsy and went from 80 productive staff to 26 overworked staff with very low morale.)  His chickie VP replaced him – Oh, I forgot to mention, he eventually promoted her to Executive Vice President and the Board knew she was doing all the work trying to run the org while all he did was take business trips and spend money.  Eventually Chickie VP left and went to another org.  Chase is still there, last I heard.  Probably making $20,000 a year less than I make.  From what people in my industry have told me (including vendors) he’s still a bumbling idiot.

And though it seemed like a bad thing at the time, and definitely something I didn’t deserve, it all turned out well.

I saw this featured question and gave it some thought.  I have several answers, but they finally lead to one.  All ages would require that I know what I know now.

1. 17  I was a pretty girl at 17 with a great figure.  I had no idea.  I thought I was ugly.  I was too shy to date.  OMG if I knew then what I know now….

2. 30 I was still young and pretty, and still had my figure.  I would be more active, though, knowing what I know now.

3. 40 I was in the midst of my career, becoming successful and embarking on a fast upward mobility.  I had not been diagnosed with diabetes yet.  If I knew then what I know now, I would have become more active.

4. Whatever age I am at whatever age I am.  I would not be who I am if I had to stop at one age.  I wish I wasn’t diabetic.  I wish I was more active.  I wish I still had my girlish figure.  But I am happy.  I have a wonderful husband, and a wonderful life.  If I died tomorrow, it would be without regrets, knowing I lived life to the very fullest.

I just answered this Featured Question; you can answer it too!

I should have kept participating in NaBloPoMo – it kept me writing every day.  I guess I’ll join back up in June.

Exciting news (for me, anyway) is that I found the camera I lost at Thanksgiving.  Both Mac and I searched both laptop cases thoroughly. (Or so we thought)  A couple weeks ago I was looking for my wireless mouse and happened to find it in an obscure pocket in my laptop case, right next to my digital camera!  So I have another window open with Photoshop shrinking or cropping the images to see what I can post here.

In the meantime – if you go to Starbucks, pick up the Bob Marley CD they are selling (it’s an old CD repackaged).  It is an EXCELLENT CD.  You don’t even have to like Reggae to like it (but it would help!)  Or maybe you do, I don’t know, but it has some great rhythms and singing.  As soon as I am done here I’m going to be adding it to my iPod.

I wrote before that we rescued a kitten right before Christmas.  We named him Nico (reference to St. Nicholas) and took him to the vet.  He was so sick that we likely saved his life by taking him in – if the elements hadn’t gotten him, all the parasites would have.

We worried about Ping, because she’s been an “only child” for 12 years.  And at first, she howled and hissed every time she saw Nico (we kept them apart for a couple weeks, til Nico was well.)  Then she just howled.  After we let him loose, she would hiss and growl at him, but he was so playful and persistent that eventually she became used to him.  I doubt there is any “affection” there, but she does tolerate him well.  Or did.

Nico needs to be neutered.  Yesterday I saw him trying to mount Ping and she was hissing and growling.  We had Ping spayed as soon as she was old enough, so she had no idea what Nico was trying to do, she just knew she didn’t like it.  (Mac is going to call to make an appointment – hopefully for tomorrow).

So here are some pictures of my babies.

First, a picture of Ping – always so regal – she’s very affectionate, docile, good natured.

Now Nico – agressive, playful, somewhat affectionate (but he’s only 7 months old so we’ll see how he turns out.)
 

And fortunately, they get along pretty well   (And their eyes don’t like flash LOL)

Ping has green eyes and Nico has brown eyes.

And as long as I’m posting pictures, I planted the hydrangea that my stepdaughter gave me for my birthday (about a week after I brought it home).

It has since lost the blooms and the leaves wilted.  I hope it didn’t die.  I guess I’ll find out next year. 

Well, this featured questions just SCREAMED at me to answer it.  Of course I’d rather be extremely intelligent and average looking.  Because that is who I am!  LOL

I just answered this Featured Question; you can answer it too!

I went in to the dentist’s office a few days ago for some dental work.  While I was sitting in the chair, the assistant felt the need to chatter –

“How’s the weather out there?  Getting warmer?”
“How was traffic?”
“Has anything exciting happened since the last time you were here?”
“How is work going?”

And sometimes they start talking about personal stuff.

“You live in _____?  My husband is a truck driver and used to work there.”
(and then more stuff about her husband.)
(and then stuff about her kids.)

The hygienist is even worse.  She’s poking and prodding around in your mouth, talking a mile a minute and throwing in a question every once in a while.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I can’t talk when someone is poking around in my mouth with a hook.  (In fact, my husband and I have begun calling our hygienist “Helga the Hook”)

Seriously, dear hygienist, just do your job.  When you talk, and then stop doing what you’re doing to use your hands to make a point, you’re making my dental cleaning take longer than necessary.  I come to see you every six months so that I don’t HAVE to have long cleaning visits.  If you must talk, stick to talking about what you are doing in my mouth.

Maybe they are trained to do that. Maybe it’s to help patients relax.

I’d rather put on some headphones and listen to my iPod.