Ordinary Day

It has been a while since I published on my blog, shows me how totally exciting my life really isn't. The house is very empty now, the only real noise is the constant barking from my dear companion and friend, Libby (I know you were thinking I was going to say my husband, right?, wrong.) It is almost as if now that the hustle and bustle of our children is gone Libby feels she must make up for the "missing" noises, so bark she does and a lot!
Actually as I sit here in my quiet (well kinda) house, I am finding humor at the 2 wall pictures I hung in our bedroom that I recently purchased at Salvation Army. On TV they are commenting that Michelle Obama hired a decorator to redecorate the living quarters of the White House at a mere budget of $100,000 provided by the Congress. I almost find it humorous at how willy nilly the Congress seems to spend the American people's money. A trillion here a trillion there oh and why not a simple 100 grand over there?
It seems everyone has to live on a budget except the Federal government. Save this company save that company (or at least save the CEO's bonuses and company jets). No problem it is just the American people's money. Does anyone ever consider how many people could still be employed with just one CEO's bonus for a year? Think how much smaller our unemployment rate would be if we used those multi-million dollar bonuses to save jobs instead of line the greedy pockets of non-producing arrogant managers.
I heard an interesting comment on TV the other day by Kelly Ripa (actually one of few that she makes that I agree with). Kelly stated (I am not quoting here, only paraphrasing) that since the American people have given all this money to all these companies, and these companies like CITI decide they are going to buy a corporate jet (but they aren't using the money from the government TARP - yeah right, then why do they need the money to begin with if they have that much to spend anyway?) then technically that corporate jet belongs to the American people, and as such we should all be able to use it, hey works for me. Let me think, I really need to fly to timbucktoo for who knows what but it is important, I think I will just order up that new jet to fly me there.
And so it goes, oh bother.....

Only in America

Only in America does anyone no matter race, beliefs, or unrealistic promises have the opportunity to run and be elected to the highest office in the land, President.
I will admit, I did not vote for Obama, not as many might think because he was black, frankly I wouldn't care if he was blue and had six eyes. I didn't vote for him based on my understanding of his philosophy and lack of concrete ideas for "changing" the course of America in these challenging times.
You see I don't vote on the party line or with my heart. I vote with my brain for the individual that I feel is the BEST person for the job. I truly question whether or not the majority of the voters that voted for Obama can honestly say the same thing.
I would have even less of a problem with this whole election process had I not seen with my very own eyes last night how very skewed the election process really is. At exactly 8pm straight up without even 1 single vote having been reported, EVERY single national television station declared Obama the President Elect. Not 1 vote. How does that really say that my vote counts? This is not a vote by the people.
I will accept our new President Elect, because I am an American, because I believe in our country and because I believe that whether the individual I voted for wins or loses this still is the best country in the world and because believe it or not just because I did not vote for the African American candidate I am not a "racist".

I Should Get Paid the Big Bucks

I am like most Americans right now with my nose plastered on CNN and the Dow. I was so impressed (NOT) the other day when I was listening to Charles Gibson on ABC interview Senator John McCain. He asked the senator a simple question, "Is it fair to those that have struggled along to pay their mortgages for the government to come along and take over the mortgages of those that have defaulted or are in jeopardy of foreclosure?" basically the senators response was "No, but that is just the way it is right now with our economy". Now I am not implying that Obama's responses have been any better. Quite frankly I am doing a write in ballot for president and I am writing in "Woopie Goldberg" for president and "Snoopy" for vice president. (I know I am joking about a very serious matter here but honestly this whole election this year leaves a lot to be desired).

Now my personal opinion is that all those people that are in jeopardy of foreclosure or defaulting on their mortgage should have their mortgages re-assessed. Why not take their monthly payments and say ok you can't pay $1000/month so how about $600. Take the balance owed on their mortgage, decrease the interest rate in such a way that monthly payments are only $600 and add on extra years to the end of the loan to balance it out until the loan is paid in full. Therefore instead of a 30 year mortgage with monthly payments of $1000 it becomes a 35 year mortgage with monthly payments of $600. That way the owner is still paying for their own mortgage, the lender is still getting paid the full amount, and we the tax payers are not having to bail out every one's stupidity.

Honestly, all those "highly" educated and very "highly" paid people in Washington couldn't think of this themselves? Why should we all have to pay off the stupidity of greedy home buyers and lenders?

Health Insurance - Can't Afford It; Can't Live Without It

Why is it that insurance companies always seem to think they know what is better for the patient than the patient's personal physician?

I appreciate the need to keep medical costs down, what I don't appreciate is having to fight with an insurance company when my doctor writes a prescription for a medication and the insurance company won't approve the filling without the doctor completing a prior approval application. And of course you never know you need one until you are standing at the pharmacy to pick up your medication and the pharmacist says the insurance company denied the script.
WHAT? What do you mean they denied it? My doctor wrote the prescription.

Well turns out the medication is one of hundreds that requires prior authorization, which means faxing a form to the doctor to fill out, the doctor faxes the form back to the insurance company and then the insurance company takes another 48 hours to process the approval. Meanwhile, me, the patient, has no medication. And if you turn in the prescription late Thursday or on Friday, forget it, now you also have the weekend and doctors don't fill out forms on weekends and insurance companies don't process special authorizations on weekends so now 24-48 hours has turned into 96-120 hours. Well by this time I can either be gravely ill somewhere or dead.

But hey, my insurance company got my premiums on time, they just don't have to process my authorizations in any type of expeditious fashion.
Gotta love it, oh bother.....

Dizzy

For the past week I have tried to write an update to my blog. I start writing and then listen to the financial news, my head starts to spin and I start all over again. My head has been spinning so fast this past week that honestly I like many of my fellow Americans didn't know which way was up.

Well I think I am finally right side up, realizing that like many retirement is no longer in our vocabulary. We knew it would be at least another 20 years but now I think we realize we will be in our motorized wheelchairs long before retirement is ever even on our radar.

I like many am stupefied by the latest stock market upheaval. I often question the concept that what is good for the rich is not always equal for the poor. Poor obviously being me. I am required to keep my family on a budget, pay our bills on time, smile as I write another tax check, and laugh as the cost of living climbs well out of our reach for living. All the while the government continues to overspend on their budget ("just tax the poor schmucks more, we are the government our budget is only on paper no one expects us to really live by a budget").

Can you imagine if a collection agency actually went and knocked on the door of the White House? HA!!

I know, supposedly in a democratic society, we the people are actually the government. So then why is everyone else making decisions for me on how to spend my money. And why if I want to tighten "my" budget does someone keep spending "my" money and increasing "my" taxes.

Well you can now see why my head has been spinning and I am so dizzy, yes besides the fact that I am a blond...hahaha

When someone figures out how to stop all this spinning please share the solution with me.

Oh Bother.......