|
American Hi-Fi - "The Art of Losing" (2003 - Island Records) My Photographs You like photos? I love taking them. Click here, if you wanna see some of my work
Is a photo missing on an older entry? Click here to find it at Photogra!  The Other Links Favorites and Rings are now here!
The life you save might be mine!
|
Friday, Feb. 28, 2003 - 5:44 p.m. I had to run to the local Super-sized Home Improvement store in town today. The retractable trouble (mechanic�s) light in the shop had burned out. It takes a goofy little, two-tube fluorescent light bulb. Since this oddball isn�t on any of our yearly contracts, I have to buy them out when they die. I quickly found this type of bulb, and brought two of them up to the commercial sales checkout line. Since I once worked with the woman behind the counter, we shot the breeze while she looked up our charge account. We were both in our teens when we put in time at a local grocery store, and were both stuck working the weekends (low person in seniority). She rang up the total ($7.45), and then asked for my purchase order number. After she typed all of this information into her terminal (and I had almost finished filling out the P.O.), her register made a �ding� sound. On the screen (in bright red letters) was the following: This account is over 60 days in arrears! No more purchases can be made to this account until the balance has been paid in full! This would have been embarrassing, if it would have been MY charge card. Since it was just the government of my State refusing to pay their obligations in a timely manner, I just laughed it off. She said she was sorry, but there wasn�t anything she could do. Since I still needed these bulbs, I drove over to the local True Value hardware store. They also had the bulbs, but at a higher cost. I purchased the two bulbs there for $9.95 (after our customary 10% discount!). This little transaction set the State back an extra $2.50. I try to save the taxpayers money, and see what happens? Sloth in London (or somewhere else up the ladder) causes me to loose one of my discount sources. We lost the ability to buy at Wallyworld last year (statewide) for the same reasons. Hard to save money if the bean counters don�t pay the bills�.. I wouldn�t have been laughing if my employer had decided to hold OUR paychecks today. That would have been very ugly�.. One last example of twisted reasoning from our boss: Last spring, the State made every employee to take a unpaid furrow day. This was (supposedly) to help balance the budget. 5.1 billion dollars in debt later, the folks in London decided to call in all of our non-union hourlies (snowbirds) for their third non-snow callout this week! These are called �training days� All of these lower-paid employees have worked at least 100 hours of overtime this winter. If they don�t know how to plow snow now, they never will. The State started this practice a few years ago. It was done then because we had went thru several mild winters, and we were loosing our experienced drivers due to lack of work. The folks at headquarters thought if we threw them a few bones (easy paid days), we would keep the best employees. It hasn�t worked out that way. We have 4 snowbirds that have worked with us for 5 or more years. The rest? They have come in the program in the last 2 years. There are around 30 of them. Next winter, half or so of these won�t come back. That means another 15 newbies to train all over again. Have I mentioned before that most of our accidents, and much of our truck damage comes from these inexperienced drivers? Welcome to government work. Logic must be checked at the gate��.. My Dad was finally released from the hospital/concentration camp this afternoon (thanks again for all of the positive vides and thoughts sent his way). When I called him this morning, he was fuming again over comments his �doctor� made to him during his morning visit. He sent my Dad down for another test this morning (E.E.G.?) that he couldn�t take . Why? Because he has had allergic reactions to the die used in the procedure before. My Dad tried to tell the �doctor� this before he left, but the �doctor� assured him this was a different test. When the technician who administers the test read my Dad�s charts, he saw the notation about the reaction. He told my dad he was sorry, but they had just wasted his time getting him ready for this procedure! The wheeled him back up to his room, and the doctor�s office called in another test (MRI). He survived that one, and after checking out o.k., they gave him his parole. He has decided to report this �doctor�s� actions when he fills out his Medicaid forms for his hospital stay. He thinks he was kept in the hospital for extra tests, just because the government would pay for them. Meanwhile, his out-of-pocket expenses for the three days will be quite high. Some doctors end up in hot water for overcharging Medicaid, or for ordering unnecessary tests to increase their bill. This �doctor� sounds like the type who would pull something like that to me���
 powered by SignMyGuestbook.com
Have You Read These?
A hot day for a wedding...9:26 p.m. - Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 So bad - but so funny, too.10:33 p.m. - Saturday, Jun. 13, 2009 Evil Black Walnut Tree from Hell!- times up!6:41 a.m. - Thursday, Apr. 23, 2009 My next door neighbor was on the Today Show?8:57 p.m. - Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 This qualifies as a "oh crap!" moment:9:55 p.m. - Monday, Mar. 30, 2009 Back to top
|
