Well now I have seen it all.

My husband Mike has been working from home over the holidays, since his job is short handed this week, so he has been checking his e-mail every hour or so, so we can't really go anywhere. Anyway, he decided yesterday to go up in the attic to check the measurements for something. My son left the house with the door banging as he went out and then I heard a loud crash coming from the kitchen. All of a sudden my husband starts screaming for help. My son says he heard the noise, looked into the kitchen window and saw Mike's feet dangling from the ceiling!

Thank God for my son, he was able to run up the stairs in the attic, hook on to Mike's belt and with both hands pull Mike out of the hole! If it weren't for Mike's one foot having a brace on it, he probably would have gone through the hole into the kitchen and suffered a lot of damage to his body. But, the brace stopped him from going through the ceiling, and his legs hurt today, but they aren't even purple. (Afterwards my husband said that he was sitting with a joist between his legs! Yuck!)

But, I think it was Mike putting his foot in ICE WATER that amazed me! Yesterday it was 20 degrees when Mike got hurt, my son went to the store and bought a 5 lb bag of ice while Mike kept his foot in as cold of water as we could get it. He then put his foot in ICE! He says that because of his injuries, we had to freeze the broken blood vessels so that they could not bleed and cause his leg to swell or discolor and it must of worked, because today there is very little swelling or discoloration.

But, Mike is now not able to go back up in the attic, one reason being because his legs hurt, but also my sons had to put a temporary covering on the rather large hole and Mike doesn't want them to worry about it being damaged by him again! They just have to worry about themselves, but hey, they're younger than Mike and lets hope a bit wiser now. We think Mike's foot hit an electrical line that then caused him to loose his balance and fall on the floor that was just insulated only, away from the partical flooring that is in the attic!

After cleaning up the insulation in the kitchen and all the cans that the insulation had fallen on, I was finally glad to just have to deal with Mike. Long day to say the least.

Anyway, thats what I was doing yesterday, how about you?

Healh Care Reform Part 3

Well I guess there must be more people than just me that feel that Dr Howard Dean should convince others to scrap it and let someone else start over again, someone with experience in HEALTH CARE! I just got an e-mail saying a lot of what I am feeling. I know that we can do better than what we have done, how can I get my message out to DC? Call them, who? Any suggestions?

What's up?

When something is bothering you wouldn't it be nice if when someone said ,'what's up' you could REALLY tell them 'what's up?' Would they look at you differently, feel differently about you if you told them what REALLY was up? Do we all say it just to SAY IT or do we really mean it?

When I say 'what's up' I REALLY mean it, I want to know how your family is doing, how your job is, how your life has been since the last time we spoke. I wonder if there are others out there who care just like I do, or do they just say 'what's up' because it's the in thing to do. I hope not, I hope more people care about others than what the world seems to say.

Promise me today, if someone says 'what's up' just tell them a little about yourself. Or better yet, when on the phone ask the other person 'what's up' and tell them that you REALLY want to know about their day, after all isn't that why you called in the first place?

I ask each one of you 'what's up' and hope that you get the chance to tell me, someday!

Best Friends for Ever

When I was a teenager I had some close friends, the type that I could tell anything and they would DIE before they told ANYONE else! Then I got married, but I still kept my friends, they were the people that I could call (locally only) and talk for hours. They were there when I had each of my children, there when my ex-husband cheated on me, there when I went back to him, there for just about ANYTHING. But somehow, maybe because of moving 3000 miles away, I lost contact with each and every one of them. I got new friends, but they just weren't THERE, I suffered a lot alone, medically, physically and emotionally, but the bond had been broken because of the distances separating us.

When I moved back to the eastern coast I tried to pick up where we left off, but time had changed everyone, and with family now, somehow my friends weren't all that important anymore. But now sometimes I miss being able to just sit down and call and talk to a friend who falls into the same category as my friends of old, my BFFE who would never tell ANYONE ANYTHING.

I wonder if Congressmen or Senators have a BFFE that they can talk to today? It seems that no one does anymore, that EVERYONE has to be afraid of telling someone something that may turn around someday and stab them in the back. I wonder if this has always been the case, or is this something new?

I miss my BFFE, how 'bout you?

Healh Care Reform Part 2

Have you looked at what the Senator's have passed in regards to health care now? Let see, Senator Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat has put in that Nebraska will get 100% of a reimbursement for Medicaid if the bill is signed as is by the President. Then there is Senator Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who wants a $100 million dollars to go to a children's hospital. This was the bill which was to ONLY be about ways to give EVERYONE health insurance, right?

It's not that I don't want a children's hospital, I think everyone does, but..and I may sound mean, until we get federal funding for MY disease which 1 out of 5,000 people have (or about 70,000 in the USA only) nothing more should pass till we get some federal funding! We have NEVER gotten federal funding, however Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia which affects 4,600 people has received to date $22 MILLION! Or Tuberous Sclerosis which has 25,000 - 50,000 people, they have $13.5 MILLION to date.

With my disease, 600 have it in CT alone, and it has cost us $68.3 MILLION in PREVENTABLE Health care just in our state. And that does not include long term disability health costs. So, you can see why I WANT health care for EVERYONE with NOTHING attached, just that...to start off with.

Because the Senator's have attached so much, the House will have no idea of what they are looking at now. If they don't pass it, will they have hell to pay? If they do, will they have hell to pay too? As I said before, scrap the health plan and let doctors who know what they need, like Dr. Howard Dean or Dr. John Barrasso, Republican from Wyoming.

Maybe I'm being wrong about this bill, but I don't think so.

Ohio St Ext.

A neighborhood recovers after blast levels house; 24 homes without heat">

I was devastated to learn about the fire, but so relieved to learn that the family is ok. Believe it or not, I got the word from the Deputy Director of Emergency Management for our city. Since my husband and I are certified volunteers to be used in case of an emergency (like a fire, a tornado, a hurrican, the flu .. just to name a few) we will be called for duty, someday. And since we are on the notification list, we both got notified about the same time today.

The Red Cross always comes through for people in need, but with today's economy, will the Red Cross some day NOT be able to help? That thought kinda scares me.

Oil Man's problem is..

Yesterday we had to leave at 6 am for an appointment at 8 am, so when we left and the house felt cold, I though it was because of the time. After the appointment, which turned out to have a good outcome, we went shopping and didn't get home till almost noon. As we walk in we notice that the house was COLD! I looked on the thermometer and it was 58 degrees! We listened and the furnace wasn't running. I turned up the heat and the furnace never turned on! So, I called the oil man and he showed up in about an hour. He worked for two hours, put in a new filter, as somehow we never had a filter and when he left everything was fine, hot water again, as the furnace also heats the water.

We went to bed as usual but when I woke up at night I was a bit worried as it felt COLD AGAIN. But I went back to sleep and slept till 7:30 pm. As I went by the thermometer to check the temperature it was 58 degrees again! And it was now 8 am! I called the fuel company and they promised to send the repair man again in the am, but he never got here till noon time.
When he got here he said that it must be a ghost in the pipes as everything was ok! A GHOST!

He spent the next two hours trying to find out what was wrong and he finally replaced something on the furnace, but since it is a brand new furnace, only 6 years old, I'm kinda worried that it might just be a ghost! But why would a ghost bother MY furnace? Anyone have any idea what it could be?