Earlier in the week I said to another blogger that I was going to do a tribute to guys. That turned out to be a very difficult task because much of the research I did turned up very little except male bashing jokes and cartoons. I was pretty disappointed until I saw a quote somewhere that men think women have no brains because we don't have a place to put them. HAH!!!! I knew it! Men think with that thing. In case you haven't figured it out by now guys, that thing may have a few pleasurable uses, but thinking isn't any of them. In case you don't believe me, here's some proof.



men are like....placemats
they only show up when there's food on the table.

.....mascara
they usually run at the first sign of emotion.

.....bike helmets
they're good in emergencies but usually just look silly.

.....government bonds
they take so long to mature.



.....copiers
you need them in reproduction but that's about it.

.....bank accounts
without a lot of money they don't generate a lot of interest.

.....high heels
they're easy to walk on once you get the hang of it.

.....curling irons
they're always hot and always in your hair.

.....mini skirts
if your not careful they'll creep up your legs.

.....handguns
keep one around long enough and your gonna want to shoot it.



Be grateful that women love placemats, mascara, bike helmets, government bonds, copiers, bank accounts, high heels, curling irons and miniskirts. Some of us even love handguns. Some of us even love MEN.

I saw a commercial yesterday that bothers me. Governor Spitzers budget makes some serious cuts in healthcare which will close some hospitals and nursing homes, and consolidate others. These cuts are in line with recommendations made by the Berger Commission on Healthcare which passed through the NY state Congress last year. I shouldn't say passed, because it wasn't actually voted on. At the time it was presented elections were in full swing and no one saw the importance of it so the time frame that law required for action on the report passed without the State Legislature acting on it. Without Governor Spitzers co-operation these recommendations will go into effect, and I don't think these people will be able to count on his interference because his budget makes deep cuts in Healthcare.

The report isn't popular anywhere in New York State. It calls for consolidation of 2 hospitals in Syracuse. One of those hospitals is University Hospital, which is a teaching hospital. The recommendations call for University to absorb one of the other hospitals and restructure. Another change is to make the hospital in Fulton, NY an outpatient clinic with inpatient hospital services to be transferred to Oswego's hospital which is 10 minutes away.
Most of the union commercials against these healthcare cuts feature administrators of these facilities saying clearly why this will overburden the facilities that are to increase by the closing of the other facility. Some of the commercials show the nurses questioning why Governor Spitzer is against them keeping their jobs.

The commercial that bothers me is that of an elderly resident of one of the nursing homes that is to be closed. She will be moved to an unidentified nursing home which will take her farther away from her family and friends. She's visibly depressed, speaks in a monotone and states that all she does is cry. She worries about what will happen to her, where she will go, and whether anyone will come to see her anymore. She states that she's afraid of losing her spirit, her will to live. The end of the commercial comes with a slightly side view of her head and face accompanied by her last statement that wherever they put her, she will just go, she's ready to leave. I am watching someones mother or grandmother preparing to will herself to death. She doesn't want to leave her home, she is content to be where she is.

I don't entirely understand why this all was necessary. I live in an area where nursing homes have a waiting list. There are two nursing homes that keep a number of beds open so that they will increase their residency through rehab patients. What this does is totally remove from anyone needing a nursing home following a debilitating illness, the right to choose where they wish to go. In some cases, if you get lucky enough to be in a home of your choice, should you become ill again during the first 30 days you either have to pay for your bed during the hospital stay or trust that one will be available upon your release. The reason for this is NY State, who largely pays for your stay, sees the number of beds available in the area and will not pay the nursing home to hold your bed. Once you have met the 30 day residency requirement they will. The cost of a nursing home when Mom was in one is $205 a day. We had to come up with $820 to hold her bed. She was dying, we all knew it, and I wanted her somewhere where she would be happy. She paid, and I paid the balance owed when she died.

Since I am aware of this refusal to pay, what happens when they close these nursing homes, move the residents to other nursing homes that have these available beds? Won't they be using beds held for rehab needs? What happens to the elderly and infirm people who need temporary rehab then? I've tried to find information that allows me to know how many nursing homes are actually being closed. I've tried to get the number of available beds in NY state and all of this information is not out there due to HIPPA regulations. I could file a freedom of information request but that would take months, and there is no guarantee that the information will be released.

My other concern is if NY State is counting on it's Home Care Industry to take up the slack, how is it going to pay for it? In Oneida County, both the Visiting Nurses Association, and most of the home care providers are shorthanded. There is no way someone who requires nursing home services can be cared for in their home without burdening the system and their families. As far as I can see if these people go to other nursing homes they will be increasing the population in each home, and I can guarantee there will be no new hires to their respective staffs. This, of course will decrease the number of jobs available in a state where we should be creating new jobs and new opportunities. The closings also mean that these residents could be transported to homes hundreds of miles away because the criteria will then be who has the bed available. Not where have they lived all their lives. Not where have they worked, nor where have they contributed to society. They have earned the right to better treatment than this, and unless our legislators get on the ball and do something, they aren't going to get it. NY State became a Blue State during the last election. We remembered in November of last year, and we have made life miserable and not worth living for far too many of our elderly population.

I received this from another blogger just a few seconds ago in my mail. This is regarding the Berger report and adds the other side of the story to my post. Personally I think we should read it and weep.

A state-appointed panel in New York issued a report proposing that nine hospitals and seven nursing homes be closed, eliminating 4,200 hospital beds, or about 7 percent of the statewide total, along with 3,000 nursing home beds. An additional 48 hospitals and 14 nursing homes would be merged into other institutions or downsized, in what one hospital official called the “biggest restructuring of health care ever in the United States.” About 6,400 workers are employed at the hospitals and nursing homes.

The 18-member group was set up by the state legislature over a year ago, with the high-flown name of the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century. Its purpose was clearly to provide some political cover for elected officials of the Democratic and Republican parties, who could claim that they had not drawn up the list of health care facilities to be closed and jobs to be eliminated.

Under the legislation that created the Commission, its proposals will automatically become law on January 1, 2007, unless the governor or the state legislature acts to block the entire package, which cannot be amended in any way but must be either accepted or rejected as a whole. The federal government has said that it would provide up to $1.5 billion in funds to meet the short-term closing costs. The entire process is supposed to be completed within 18 months.

Five hospitals in New York City, including Cabrini and St. Vincent’s Midtown in Manhattan, Westchester Square Medical Center in the Bronx, Victory Memorial in Brooklyn, and Parkway in Queens, are among those slated for closure. Two facilities in the Buffalo area in western New York State, Millard Fillmore Hospital and St. Joseph Hospital of Cheektowaga, are also to be shut down. According to the authorities, the 6,400 employees of the affected institutions should have no problem finding jobs at other hospitals, but even if that is the case, they will lose seniority and may h! ave to t ravel long distances for work.

Within a few days of the November 28 release of the commission report, the political establishment and big business spokesmen had lined up in its support. Outgoing Governor George Pataki, a Republican, was joined by incoming Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer in hailing the results. “The commissioners did an outstanding job,” said Pataki. Spitzer added that while he might disagree with some of the closings, “If the Legislature allows these recommendations to become law, as I believe they must, my administration will have the responsibility for implementing them.”

New York’s largest union of health care workers, Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), waited a week and then issued a joint statement with the Greater New York Hospital Association making it clear that it would do nothing to block the closings. The statement, while carefully written to neither openly endorse nor oppose the proposals, said the union and hospital management were “ready and willing...to ensure that we make a smooth transition to a better, higher quality, efficient health care system.”

New York’s billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg added his approval. “You will always find somebody to put on television who says they’re not happy with it,” said Bloomberg, arrogantly dismissing outrage from workers and patients at the hospitals scheduled to close. “But we have to address the issue that if we want good, quality medical care and we don’t want to go bankrupt paying for it, we’re going to have to have the resources that we need in the places we need them and not continue to have resources that we don’t need, where they’re not used.”

Hubby received a bird feeder from his daughter for Christmas this past year. It's hand made, looks like a log cabin style ranch house with a front porch. It has a stone chimney which makes it too heavy to hang on a shepherds hook, so he mounted it on the side of the house. It's high enough to keep the cats from being able to molest any birds that feed at it, the front porch dining section is small enough that crows and starlings will not be able to feed, and it should be rather difficult for squirrels to get at it. So, why are no birds feeding there?

We hung it in December before the snow arrived here in NY state. We filled it with the recommended winter mix for small birds and we waited, and waited, and waited. We are still waiting. Nary a bird has come to feast on our newly acquired bird feeder at all. Not one. They stop on the roof above the feeder, they stop on the steps to my door. They sit on the roof of my storage shed, and even on the porch railing out front, but not one has tried to eat from the bird feeder.



I am late with my posting today because I went out and cleaned the seed out of it, cleaned the feeder and have now refilled it in the hopes of possibly having a bird or two come to dine. I even checked the bag of birdseed to insure that we have the correct type. My feeder should be teeming with Goldfinch, Blue Jays, Cardinals, Grackles, Finches and Sparrows. While I was cleaning the feeder, a Blue Jay lit on the roof above my head and watched the process, but he didn't stay long enough to eat when I was finished. Must be he wasn't hungry.



When we received the feeder, I had visions of being surrounded on all sides by birds all year long. I was planning on hanging fuschia plants out for the Hummingbirds along with their feeder. I had it in my head that my yard this year would be filled with songbirds, which I feel will be a delightful addition to my flowers. Those will begin their blooming sometime in the next two months. I had hoped that birds would add much needed late winter color to my environment. Something other than the dirty melting snow and mud we are accustomed to at this time of year. All ready I am in Spring, according to the calendar, and not one single bird will feed at my feeder.

The bag does say that I must be patient, which I admit is a virtue that I don't have in abundance, so maybe I will have the pleasure of watching the birds visit the feeder some time before I get too much older. I would have thought, with this winter's snowfall as harsh as it's been, that someplace safe to eat would have been a necessity. Possibly there are other feeders in the neighborhood that have existed longer than ours has. So, it may be that an additional food source wasn't necessary. I shall have to wait and see what Spring brings. I suppose I have enough patience left to last that long.

Yesterday I made a trip to the dentists office for a regular cleaning appointment. When I arrived I found the waiting room had been rearranged and new carpeting had been installed. It's a rather expensive carpet designed for high traffic areas. The building that houses the office is an older style building that he purchased and renovated in ways that are close to it's original appearance. Woodwork is not painted over, and while there are no tin ceilings, there are plaster medalions and plaster ceiling moldings that give it a nice touch. Necessary office partitions are designed to be as unintrusive as possible. The decor colors are in keeping with the time frame of the buildings origin. Walls are a cream color with blue and dark red accents. Waiting room chairs are high backed rockers, accent tables are of dark woods. There is a bench style settee along one wall, and an old fashioned hall tree to hang ones coat on.

There are no false ceilings, so the distance from floor to ceiling is 10 feet, and the windows are quite long. They aren't double sashed, they open outwards by pushing the bottom of the window out. Even the entry doors are old. He's done a fine job of preserving the integrity of the original architecture at what must be a great expense. He takes a great deal of pride in his accomplishment, and does not quibble over the expense. Something worth having is worth paying for in his estimation, and he will pay uncomplainingly as long as it's a job well done. Unfortunately the installation of this carpet is not a job well done. He was meeting with the installer in the hallway when I arrived, and because he was not happy, and didn't want to embarrass the installer I waited longer for my appointment with the hygenist than I normally do. I don't mind, it's an attractive waiting room.

The meeting was not as successful as he'd hoped. The installer seems to feel that he did his job very well. That the gaping seams in this new installation and the areas that have bubbled because insufficient space was left along the walls for the carpet to settle, are expected. "It's supposed to look like that," he said. No, I don't believe so, I think. Needless to say, Dr. H is not happy with the installers response, and I can't say I blame him. As far as I can see this man, the installer, seems to feel that he's such a likeable fellow he doesn't have to do much else besides smile. He doesn't need to do the job right, he just needs to be his adorable self and you will go on your merry way content with having spent your money for poor workmanship.

Dr. H, like most people unfamiliar with the ins and outs of carpet installation, had a vision. The end result of this installation does not in any way match any part of his vision. He believed that "seamless" installation would be...well...seamless. I don't believe that gaps in the hallway carpet where one portion meets another should be wide enough to see the padding underneath. The installer plans on fixing that with the installation of those metal strips one finds in doorways where one type of flooring meets another non matching flooring. This is a nonmatching flooring because one section was laid with the pile in a different direction than it's neighbor. So much for "seamless" installation. So much for pride in workmanship.

We have become a society where pride in who we are is no longer based on what we accomplish. I don't need to give my employer a good days work because he doesn't pay me what I'm worth. I'm special, I was born that way. I don't need to tolerate co-workers who don't recognise my special efforts, I can urinate in the coffeepot. Now that's special isn't it? I can sit my naked behind on the copier and waste paper, toner and ink replicating my special behind. I can use my employers internet service to surf pornographic websites, or make purchases on E-bay. I can use the company credit card to do that. I can borrow office supplies from my place of employment to use at home. I can come to work when I feel like it, and do as little as I feel like doing because my co-workers will do it for me, I'm special. I can engage in careless, reckless and dangerous behavior when driving because I'm special. If you get hurt in the process, it's because you didn't recognise my superior worth. I'm just so special that I can treat you any way I want and you are stuck with it. That's what special is all about.

In the meantime, Dr. H. has spent a great deal of his money on a substandard installation. A man who takes pride in his own workmanship and in the surroundings in which he does his work, is left with something far less than he paid for. The carpet will be trimmed along the walls where it has buckled, hopefully the trim will not create a gap because too much carpet has been removed. The metal strip will be installed, and he will not be satisfied with his purchase. Should he continue to find fault with the installation he will eventually be deemed a "difficult" customer and will be ignored. After all, he's not special. That's just the way it is these days. You have to be special.