Ramblings-n-Writings

Archive for December, 2007

All of us have favorite books – ones we wish everyone could read. Now you can share your favorite books with others and follow your book’s trail across the country or even around the world. Read this very informative article in the New York Times on how to share your books …. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/fashion/20Cyber.html?ex=1355979600&en=cfc13b3cd8afd111&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
A quick visit to bookcrossings.com will show you available books in your area!

What products do you use to clean your home with? I’m interested in things like dusting, kitchen counters, bathroom etc. Have you tried “natural” cleaners – those that don’t have chemicals?

Besides eating semi-organically, I’ve started paying attention to what I use in my home. In recent years, my allergies have made a turn for the worse, compliments of my thyroid, and one thing that I noticed gave me a stuffy nose on a regular basis was a lot of my cleaners and air fresheners. I began doing some online reading and decided to not replace my usual cleaners once they ran out.

For centuries, women did not use store-bought cleaners or those that contained harsh chemicals. (By the way, have you ever read the warning label on some cleaners? Makes you wonder if you need a haz-mat suit while using it!) Yet, I imagine that homes for the last few centuries weren’t exactly filthy.

Here’s what I have started using last month and absolutely love…

For daily cleaning of my kitchen counters, I use 1 part vinegar and 3 parts water. Vinegar appears to dissolve within seconds just about anything that gets stuck on the counter. The vinegar solution is also great in the bathroom for dissolving soap scum or cleaning the faucets. Plus it can be used on certain kinds of floors.

Every couple of days I also use a bleach and water solution on the kitchen counters. I’m not sure of the ratio, but it’s probably close to the same as vinegar. This might be a little strong on the bleach for some. This solution is my main cleaner in the bathroom.

My oven was looking quite disastrous as well as smelling like burnt food, so I decided to tackle that since the oven isn’t self-cleaning. A little water and baking soda worked wonders! In fact, I think it’s the cleanest I’ve seen the oven in 3 years. Baking soda makes a great scrubber for other things and can be mixed with vinegar for extra power.

For those concerned about the odors, the vinegar smell dissipates as soon as it dries. Bleach lasts a little longer, but to me it smells clean and fresh.

The only product I allowed myself to buy was something to clean our bathtub with. We have a horrible problem with water deposits and none of the above worked.

Some extra benefits I found with these natural cleaners is that the bleach solution is excellent for killing various cat viruses and the vinegar solution seems to deter our younger cats from getting on the counters. While we can’t smell the vinegar after it dries, I have to wonder if they can. Our little cats are still in training about counters, so this has been a wonderful help!

Does anyone have a suggestion for a natural dusting mixture? I’ve read about various ones, but am curious to know if anyone has had any success.

Earlier tonight, I accidentally stumbled on a blog focusing on politics. Normally, I don’t participate in political arenas and don’t feel highly educated in that area. However, something about this blog made me want to voice my opinion about the topics.

My purpose for this post is not to discuss politics, but to encourage you to know your facts before expressing an opinion. My motto is ‘read. research. write/edit.’ To write without research will only show carelessness, lack of knowledge and an uneducated opinion. Sounds kind of harsh but is very often true. In fact, I go so far as to not even comment / express a strong opinion in a conversation about something I don’t fully understand. I drive my husband nuts sometimes because I won’t say anything initially, but give me a few hours or days, and well, in his words I become ‘stubborn.’ Once I do my research, know the facts and can apply those facts, it takes a miracle to get me to change my opinion. Anyway, back to the politic blog and the need I feel to comment some more on it.

What amazed me about the two blog posts that I commented on was the lack of …. well, now I can’t think of the word. The first post was about the endorsement of a candidate by a dean at Bob Jones University. Amongst other things, my response was ‘who cares?’ Who a dean at BJU chooses to endorse has no bearing on my vote. Perhaps I will look into the candidate a little more, but I haven’t been overly impressed with the candidate anyway! The blogger felt led to launch into the ‘black spots’ of BJU’s past, i.e. inter-racial dating. Somehow he connected that with Romney being a Mormon and the Jones family’s attack on Mormonism in years gone by. What was wrong with the post? First, some of his basic facts were wrong. Second, his evidence (quotes from articles) was a minimum of 7 years old. Third, he was holding the univeristy as a whole responsible for decisions made years ago (do we hold Harvard or Yale accountable for refusing to allow female students? What about the state of Alabama whose constitution still states that schools can be segregated?). Fourth, the university’s stance on inter-racial dating has absolutely nothing to do with the dean’s support of a candidate. Basically, the post amounted to nothing more than a rant against the ‘wackos’ that attend(ed) BJU. As a former ‘wacko,’ I don’t believe I came away scarred for life as he implies. I also have to add that I was very proud to see other BJU attendees stand up and voice their opinion – particularly one lady who was inter-racially married, pregnant and attending BJU. Her post pretty much burst the blogger’s bubble.

The second post was about Bush’s veto on the re-authorization of the S-CHIP bill. Yes, many families will be hurt by the failure of S-CHIP to be re-authorized. But, again, if you do your homework (something our blogger did not do), you will realize that S-CHIP is costing far more than it is saving and it is at the expense of the poorest families. S-CHIP was created to help families who were ‘too rich’ to qualify for Medicaid, but who still did not have health insurance. The government spends twice the amount, dollar-for-dollar, on S-CHIP than it does on Medicaid. Having spent the last 3-1/2 years of my life living in one of the 100 poorest counties in the nation, I feel I have more of a right to speak on the matter than some person who probably makes more than entire income of our county combined (slight exaggeration, but you get the point). Many families around here benefit greatly from S-CHIP; however, some take advantage of it. They have the income to afford health insurance. They just choose to not have it. Then it becomes the government’s responsibility to support them. The income qualification for S-CHIP is 200% of the federal poverty level. For a family of 4, that is a little over $40,000. Private health insurance is affordable on that income….IF you don’t have new vehicles and a large mortgage payment and the nicest toys and…. In the meantime, while the S-CHIP class is enjoying their toys, those who are truly in need are being hurt with not enough funding available for Medicaid recipients (many who have physical impairments that prevent them from doing the work to earn more money and advance themselves in life). To raise the income caps for S-CHIP will not only cost the government more, but also take away from Medicaid. Is that wise? My solution is to mandate that doctors can’t charge $75 (or other large ridiculous amounts) for an office visit! Is my 15-minute visit with my doctor really worth $75? Did s/he truly impart $75 worth of care and knowledge to me? More than likely not. A very workable solution is to base doctor visit cost on income levels. Our healthcare facility does that here and I find it very beneficial. A general office visit for low income is $10, lab tests are 90% off, child wellness visits are free. Is that inconceivable? Not really! If it can be done here, why not elsewhere?

So anyway, all of that to say, express your opinions but be educated about your topics.

I know many of you were praying for us on Tuesday, the day of the worker’s compensation mediation. Some things were accomplished. Some were not.

The mediator had an extremely busy schedule so was not able to effectively ‘mediate’ the case. The bone scan that we’ve been waiting for since April was authorized – that’s the only thing that happened in 53 minutes. We’re still arguing over whether some gas mileage reimbursement is due us. And comp is protesting about a visit to another orthopedist.

The protest over the orthopedist has everyone (attorneys included) puzzled. The current two treating physicians and the physical therapist have said that another ortho visit is necessary especially after the MRI results. And none of those three will continue or recommend treatment until an ortho expresses his opinion/diagnosis again. The previous two orthopedists have said they can no longer help; the injury is out of their realm of expertise. In July comp approved a third orthopedist based on a referral. However, after the approval, the orthopedist decided to not accept an out-of-state claim. We asked for approval for a different orthopedist (once we found one that would accept the claim). Now, comp is saying that it would be a change of doctor blah blah blah. So, why approve it in July but not now?

Our current status is now waiting for a final hearing. The issue of permanent disability will go before a judge within the next 90 days. More than likely, we will need to be present in the courtroom for the hearing. A possibility also exists that we will need to travel to FL before the hearing to have a deposition done. Both trips will be at our expense, so thankfully our attorney is objecting to our traveling for the deposition. (Since one deposition was done locally, it doesn’t seem reasonable that we would need to travel all the way to FL for another one.)

We continue to covet your prayers as we potentially wind down our case. We also would like to ask you to pray with us that the orthopedist visit will be authorized and completed before the final hearing. (To me, it would make sense that they allow him to see an ortho before the final hearing because he has not been evaluated by one in over 2 years. But, since when does comp make sense?)

No, I haven’t dropped off the planet. Life has been crazy with the holidays and the usual stuff. I apologize for missing some of my promised posts – Editor’s Words of Advice being the most important. One of these days I will learn to set a schedule and stick to it.

Of course, this week my schedule would have been completely destroyed anyway! Our 4-wheeler decided to fall apart, meaning the back section detached from the front. We spent a couple of days investigating the possibility of purchasing a new one since this one is 8 years old. For the time being we decided to purchase the parts to fix it. The parts store, which is actually considered local, is approximately 35 miles away. In good faith, I assumed my husband knew exactly which parts he needed. And, yes, he promised that he did….until we got home with the parts. So, three days (one day to investigate new bikes and two days for parts) were spent with a minimum 2-hour trip to the store. Of course, I can’t complain since our car ride gave us some quality, no interruption, time together!

As of right now, I’m promising to stay more current on my blogging.