Election is over

Thank heavens it is over. While I am not a fan of Obama, his opponent was worse. Obama's hands are still tied because of the make up of both congress and senate. So he will continue to not be able to move forward and we will stagnate as a nation. I just hope that in 4 years there will be 2 candidates who care more about the people than themselves.

Obamacare

Obamacare is not as bad as "the talking heads" would have you believe. The bills real name is Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Has anybody really sat and read the thing. I bet not. I have made attempts to read it but so much legal jargon gave me a headache.
Back in 1953 Harry Truman attempted to get universal health care for Americans. This was the period after WW2 and the our country had just ended the worst war ever and barely survived the great depression. United Kingdom enacted the NHS at about this time because they wanted to take care of it's citizens and give them basic health care. Truman's proposal sat in committee and lie dormant till 1965 when it was changed to read healthcare for all to over 65. In 1974 it was changed to included disabled. So once upon a time we could have had healthcare for all but it got shot down.
Keep in mind the NHS doesn't pay for everything. Elective surgeries are not done unless they are medically necessary.So unless that boob job, hip replacement, or tummy tuck is medically necessary you won't get it. However they do have private doctors and private insurance in the UK so if you got the bucks you can get your tucks, (Ha Ha sorry)
So PPACA or Obamacare (this is actually a derisive name) has several really good main points.
1) Guaranteed issue. Everybody pays the same premium regardless of geographic location, age, gender or preexisting condition. You might say really we have to do that. But yes we do. Some insurance companies keep statistics on places where people are more likely to get ill and they charge more. Women of childbearing age pay more because they might get pregnant.
2) Individual mandate. This requires that everybody acquires insurance.
3) Insurance exchanges. This is where individuals and groups can find and compare different insurance.
4)Subsidizes low income or poverty level persons so they can receive insurance
5) Expands Medicaid and simplifies chip.
6) Establish minimum standards and lifts lifetime caps.
7) Mandates the employers with more 50 employees must subsidize insurance
8) Eliminates some copayment and deductibles. Things considered preventive like birth control pills, vaccines. Yes there are insurances out there that won't pay for a vaccine.
9) Change medicare from a fee for service to bundled service
10) allows dependents to remain on parents insurance till 26. This is okay if the child offers to pay for it most won't.
Keep in mind this is just the tip of the iceberg. Seems to be not so bad a bill there are lot of other components that I have not touched on here.
So why do the Republicans, Congress and just everybody hate this bill and bad mouth it? Because January 1 2014 Congress will be required to obtain their insurance from the same sources as their constituents.

Caramel fudge

I tend to create my own recipes or modify existing ones. Sometimes I come up with something really good or a huge mess that gets tossed out or fed to the dog.
This recipes is one I came up with on my own and I got it right the first time. I have a horrendous sweet tooth so am constantly to come up with new things to fix that. This recipe came about because of a Pinterest picture of a fudge name pecan pie fudge. I searched the internet for the recipe only to discover there wasn't one I could order the fudge but not the recipe.
While this doesn't taste like pecan pie it is a melt in your mouth carmel fudge.

1 cup granulated sugar
2 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 and 1/2 sticks butter
1 tablespoon any corn syrup*
Melt in heavy sauce pan and cook to 250 F, beat in 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1 1/2 cups of marshmallow fluff, place in 13 x 9 greased pan and refrigerate till solid. Store in container with lid or plastic bag.
Yum Oh! melts in your mouth.
(sorry no pictures my camera makes awful pics)


* fun fact corn syrup will decrease the chances your candy will crystalize

Monday morning

It cooled off outside. It was 59 this morning and that means I can go outside and breathe. Of course I can't breathe because the ragweed count is so high. I have been sneezing and have red watery eyes for the last couple of weeks. There is a mall walking program at the local mall they open at 8:00 am it is a mile and 1/8 if you go through around all the little side halls. Anyone want to join me?
I have been dragging the dog around when it is cool enough but he doesn't always do well and he has to stop and pee on everything. Sometimes he pees and nothing comes out. For some reason we get 4 houses down and he has to poop. Even poops on the side walk. I will not clean it up it is little poop and disappears when it rains.
I need a haircut. Starting to look like a shaggy dog. Hum I look like my dog. Not a good visual on that one he has no teeth, cataracts and is deaf.
My son's friend's dad married some ETOH addicted woman. He knew when he married her she was a drunk. She has wrecked their life, alienated friends and family and in so many ways is a liability. She gets in the car and drives. For some reason he is not tossing her out on her ear but keeps letting return over and over again. His own son is ready to give it up. Wake up ! unless she really wants to quit it will not happen.
So I need to go do the dishes and see if I can find that spare shelf for my cup display case it is getting kind of jammed up. I also need to finish painting the common rooms here but have been putting it off. Any one wanna help?

Mollen

What ever you do do not work for this place.
Once it might have been a really good place to work but not any more.
Mollen is the company that administers the flu vaccines in Walmart and Sam's club. They also do several public schools and have some corporate accounts.
The Walmart and Sam's club would have a national contract with Mollen to provide nurses and the supplies to run the flu clinics. This year it turned into something different. Mollen or Walmart decided to include vaccines that most insurance will not cover and have to be stored in a freezer that maintains a temperature below -5 degrees F. Pharmacy staff were to count and record the temperatures daily and provide that information to the nurse doing the clinic. That didn't happen. Nurses were not allowed to go into the pharmacy and do it themselves.
Some of the pharmacy tech did not know how to read a thermometer. A lot of vaccines were lost to the tune of $10,000 if not more. Some vaccines were frozen when they should not have been and others were left out to get warm. Since it was the pharmacy staff who were responsible for the vaccines it is hoped that they will have to reimburse Mollen for those.
Then there is the netbook. Mollen bought over a thousand Samsung netbooks with verizon 3g they put an unfinished untested program on the netbook and sent them to the clinics. Most never got plugged in when got to Walmart so when the nurse showed up she had a dead laptop. Verizon doesn't have a good 3g and there were a lot of places it didn't work. The clinics where it didn't work had to use paper but Mollen didn't provide the paper or give accurate instructions to the nurse.
The support staff in Phoenix must have all been new because none knew what to tell you or knew what they were doing. Some of the support staff where hateful and rude. When they didn't know the answer they would switch you from phone to phone with hold times up to 30 min long.
After only 2 full weeks of clinics nurses started running out of vaccine, alcohol wipes, syringes, and most of all vaccine.
Many nurses are without jobs and were hoping that working for Mollen would help them financially and professionally as some needed the experience to place their resume. Some used the job as easy money with no pride in doing a good job. Since Mollen hired anyone with a nursing license it did cause a lot of problems for the nurse who followed the unprofessional uncaring nurse.
Some who had Mollen as a 2nd job would drop shifts the night before in order to accept a higher paying shift. This left unfilled shifts and instigated a knee jerk reaction for imposing a 24 hr time limit for canceling shifts. However the company did not feel that the same guidelines belong to them and just cancelled at 1:30 a shift that was to start at 9:15 in the morning. Double standards do not float well with some of us. In less than a heart beat some when from 40 hrs a week to 8.
I have no loyalty to someone who does this to employees.
So it is time to not get your flu shot at Walmart or Sam's club. make sure you tell them why and go to CVS, Rite-Aid or Walgreens and get your flu vaccine. Time to let them know how wrong they are. You will also want to go there anyway since god only knows if your vaccine has been compromised or not.

Ruminations #?

I have not been here. I didn't feel like it. Seems I have lost my best friend we had conversed back and forth in email and she just stopped. I have tried several times finally just gave up.
I am doing a seasonal job of giving flu shots at a large retail chain. It sucks royally. The company I work for sucks they have no idea how hard they have made it just to clock in and out. Sitting for 10 hours watching the dregs of society parade past the table makes me nauseated. Half dressed, clothing too tight, no bras with nipples hanging at the waist makes me want to poke my eyes out. Screaming children running about like wild animals makes my glad mine are grown. We are supposed to stand in front of our table and hawk shots. No way. If you want it here it is come and get it, wait that is a song.
So while I was bored to tears I wrote some things down.
1) People on motorized carts do not watch were they are going. I have been backed into and hit by people on carts way too many times. One old lady had a kid about 6 doing the driving for her. I have seen these people fight over the carts, not a pretty sight. Some of these folks do not need a cart they can walk just fine.
2) No one is willing to wait in a check out line longer than 5 minutes. I have seen them go up and down the line looking for the shortest line. If it takes too long they get out of line and search some more only to come to the same line they left that now has 5 more people in it.
3) If you have a client at the flu table and are talking to them it is a given someone else will walk up and want immediate attention to the point of interrupting and butting in.
4) There are multiple express check outs no one will use them because they are self check outs. Heard one woman yelling "You need to open more check outs" she was truly ugly and deserved the nasty looks she got.
5) Not all babies are cute. Some are dog ugly so do not wave your kid in my face. My snot monsters are lucky they lived to teen years. The only reason I let them live is because they were cute.
6) Loud personal conversation on cell phones is even louder when it is a foreign language except for French. French is sexy all the time.
7) If fifty people come into the store at staggered times of 30 minutes apart they will all want to check out at the same time.
8) Observations. Fat people have cases of high calorie soda, chips, cheetos, and crap in the cart. Skinny people have paper towels and beer. Old people have dog food and toilet paper. I am still trying to figure out the correlation.
So that's the way it is.

Split pea soup

I love pea soup. So thought I would make my own. Looked up a recipe and there were requirements I did not have. So leaving out carrots, celery and a ham hock I have made a primo batch of soup.
In a large pot place tablespoon of vegetable oil brown 4 to 5 slices of bacon cut into small pieces. Chop 1 large onion and toss in pot and cover.
Add 1 16 oz box of chicken stock to pot when onions are translucent
Rinse 1 pound bag of split peas add to pot
peel and dice 2 large russet potatoes and add to pot
Bring to boil
add 2 cloves of garlic minced or about 1 tsp of the powder
salt and pepper to taste
You may need to add water to the pot if it get to thick.
Cook till all veges are soft
I ate mine with a slice of garlic toast for supper since I will only be kissing toads later.
I will freeze half of this and eat the rest over the next few days.
Now where my toad?