A little WABAC trip, courtesy of the Kazoo Weblog Entries Archive and the number 112

09/21/2005: “my day”

 
Okay, this is from 2 September 2005 when Ephraim was a week old, but it still captures the way I’m spending the majority of my time =)

Richard offered some “me time” tonight and ushered me out the door completely childfree.

I’m grateful for a husband who cares deeply about me and our children.

That little guy sweetly sleeping on my chest there spent most of the night curling up around my feet.  It hasn’t been nearly-all-cuddle, nearly-all-the-time for a long while here, but he’s still our snugglebug.

Today, he rounds the corner on three and starts running to four.

Godspeed, little Eph, Godspeed.

If you can’t identify with these lyrics, boy howdy, are you at the wrong blog! Hit your back button and skedaddle on outta here…
 

well it’s a strange old game - you learn it slow
one step forward and it’s back to go
you’re standing on the throttle
you’re standing on the brakes
in the groove ’til you make a mistake

sometimes you’re the windshield
sometimes you’re the bug…
sometimes you’re the Louisville slugger
sometimes you’re the ball
sometimes it all comes together baby
sometimes you’re going to lose it all

you gotta know happy - you gotta know glad
because you’re gonna know lonely
and you’re gonna know bad
when you’re rippin’ and a ridin’
and you’re coming on strong
you start slippin’ and slidin’
and it all goes wrong because

sometimes you’re the windshield
sometimes you’re the bug…
sometimes you’re the Louisville slugger
sometimes you’re the ball
sometimes it all comes together baby
sometimes you’re going to lose it all

©1991 Mark Knopfler  

Those moments when your reasonably-laden horse is avalanched by enough feathers to fill John Denver’s Grandma’s bed…

Those moments that put a Kodak commercial to shame… 

Those moments when all is right with the world…

Those moments when you’re waiting for the shoe to drop…

Those moments when it does… 

Knowing that life ebbs and flows in a grand natural cycle doesn’t mean I should be cowering under an umbrella trying to avoid future falling footwear. Nor is such wisdom an assurance that my back won’t break or that I won’t be coughing up feathers for weeks. I’ve found rose-colored glasses simply make it more difficult for me to see through that glass, darkly.

There’s a space between the full brightness of hope and the black hole of despair, a rather large one. I like to live on the up side of that spectrum, but I know I will stray from the lines I carve for myself.

It’s only natural, right?

Biden?  He’s so 1988…

Good ol’ Henry David would attribute it to an excess of luxury, I’m sure.  Then again, his reliance upon others wasn’t accurately related in that tale, either, so I can take some comfort in knowing that he was sustained through some exhaustion of others back in the day.

My kingdom for a good night’s sleep. Followed by another, and another, and another… I’m not greedy, though. Four a week would be a dream come true.

*Yawn* Time to make the donuts. I mean, take people to scouts.

In a random order, no less…

Everyday I take pills in an attempt to maintain good health, from head to toe. Vitamins, supplements, prescription medications–all designed to give me the physical springboard I need to mount the balance beam of my life. If I do a balance check, stumble, or even fall after that, I can know it’s all me at that point. (yes, we’ve been watching Olympics; no, I haven’t performed since I was 12)

The OTC costs are fairly reasonable. The pharmacy ones, not so much.

I’m fortunate to have insurance that will cover a good portion of my medical costs. Another stroke of luck is that my prescriptions have slowly come down in cost, cut almost in half. All those tablets I swallow? Their total cost is now less than $5 a day. It’s great, but it feels like getting excited about seeing gas sell for less than $3.60 per gallon this week; no matter how you slice it, it’s still overpriced.

The candidates for President of the United States each have their own plans & suggestions for reforming health care:

Barack Obama’s Health Care webpage is long and divided into different sub-categories. Of particular interest to me (and dealing with the specificities of this post):

• ~Quality, Affordable and Portable Coverage for All found at the top of his plan. Pre-existing condition clauses are likely to make me uninsurable when we leave our current insurance plan. At one point, I was cautioned to not get an official diagnosis to avoid having that follow me the rest of my life.
• ~Lowering Costs by Increasing Competition in the Insurance and Drug Markets found about 2/3 down the page. The disparity of drug prices in other first world countires vs. the United States is just sad. Also frustrating is the way generic medicines hit (or don’t hit) the market. The manufacturer of my costliest medication made a deal with another company–they pay the other company millions of dollars now to have them NOT produce a generic now with the promise they can be the exclusive generic producer in 10 years.
• ~Improve Mental Health Care, about 3/4 down the page. It would make my life much easier to jump through fewer hoops to get basic coverage.

John McCain’s Straight Talk on Health Care Reform also covers many facets of the candidate’s proposals and support for current/past measures.  Looking again at applicable sections:

• ~Making Insurance More Portable. 1/4 down the page. I like that this combines the pre-existing portion, job flexibilty (including coverage for workers taking time to be stay-at-home parents) and steps to remove the state to state variables. When Anya had a medical emergency on our vacation last year it was a pain dealing with our insurance of company of Idaho, our insurance company of Utah and our ‘home’ insurance of Arizona. None of them worked together whatsoever–so I had to call every one several times to coordinate benefits, like the tri-state oxygen rental. Ugh.
• ~Cheaper Drugs: Lowering Drug Prices 1/2 way down. Again, he refers to overseas “safe” re-importation (probably a way of avoiding concerns over south of the border meds) and faster generics.
• ~Combating Autism in America at the bottom of the page. John McCain doesn’t specifically mention mental health but this is a pleasant surprise. It links to a stand alone page about his involvement and support for Autism research, treatment and pushing for general awareness of the disorder.

Dr. Ron Paul has an entire library of statements and speeches regarding his thoughts on health care and health care reform. It makes for interesting reading, to contrast his desire for less government involvement in health care with the other candidates. His experience as a medical doctor gives him more credibility than others with more libertarian leanings, in my opinion.

So there you go. Each one wants reform–we’ll see whether campaign desires/promises can be realized come 2009. How cooperative will Congresspersons and health care lobbyists be? Enough to help me and millions of others keep feelin’ good, I hope.

I found Stephen Colbert’s Formidable Opponent: Offshore Drilling* segment enlightening and hillarious.

(Sorry, my embedding plug-in isn’t working yet!)

*Rated PG for an English usage of cojonesiest

I’ve been doing a bit of that today, for various reasons. MomR noted my recent uptick in blogging; why have I been writing more in the past month? Two things stand out in the late July timeline: #1, Richard came home and I have my laptop again. I don’t know what I got ’til it’s gone, as Joni Mitchell might say sing. #2, I received an official calling at church.

Now, at first glance, the latter seems unrelated–after all, I didn’t get a call to blog (though that would be kind of cool). But the absence thereof has undermined my confidence for months. Not that I’ve ever been the most self-assured person out there, but I have seriously doubted my abilities, my standing with God, and ultimately my purpose here on earth. Writing anything worth reading seemed unlikely. It sounds so [I can’t express myself without swearing] asinine as I’m typing this that I’m sure you, gentle reader, figured it out some time ago (at least a sentence or two before I did).

I’m not oozing aplomb but I’m not a sieve; I’m not Wonder Woman* but I’m doing what I can; ideals like confident humility may yet transform from sticks to stars.

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Another factor is using more online resources this year for home school. If they’re on the computer more, so am I, and I’m taking time to ‘play’ on my personal blog, group blog & friends’ blogs. I might even wander the ‘nacle inbetween blue moons =)

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Some of the navel gazing stems from counsel to pray & meditate about my life in a recent priesthood blessing; which areas demand the most intense focus right now? I could rattle off any number of my life’s fixer-upper projects, so whittling it down may take some time.

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I’ve also reconnected with a friend from way way way way back in day (whom I have not yet asked permission to identify) and trying to parse the important, the interesting, the same, the different aspects of the past 20 years is daunting. Expressing that concisely, even moreso.

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I’ve had some new visitors to the blog in the past little while (those who know me as a local yokel) and I want to take a bit to explain why I have initially moderated comments. The greymatter version of the Kazoo blog had horrible horrible horrible spam attacks. I eventually closed the comment form and switched platforms. Wordpress has this lovely feature:

Akismet has caught 3,748 spam for you since you first installed it.

You have no spam currently in the queue. Must be your lucky day. :)

The first time a reader makes a comment, I receive a moderation e-mail. I haven’t met a legitimate commenter that I haven’t approved. After that, as long as you enter the same username and e-mail address, your comment should appear within normal server time. Any problems, please contact me at kazooblog via gmail. (I’d say you could leave a comment, but that’s like when my internet service is down and while on the phone to my provider, a recording invites me to go to their website for faster service)

Welcome, welcome, one and all!!!

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*Oh, to have those boots! And those bracelets! She can fly without a plane now, too. But she’d have to switch to Batgirl’s Hawkgirl’s hair–a black ‘do washes me out.

Set the WABAC for June 21, Sherman

It was a Narnian affair all around.

A viewing of Prince Caspian in the morning.

A royal feast of popcorn & fruit punch

Eventually it was time to shower gifts upon our queen.

Royal outfits galore, crown, belt, shoes, pouch, elixir vial…

(the dagger proved elusive)

 Cloak-wearing isn’t as easy as it looks in the movies!

I wanted to be a fly in the Bird’s Nest when I saw President Bush lean across the seats to speak with Russian PM Putin on Friday night. It looked like Sarkozy (President of France & currently taking his turn as EU President) was in the same row, definitely uncomfortable. I wonder if Pres. Bush saw something different this time when he looked into Putin’s eyes.

Reports from Russia conflict with the news out of Georgia; how do you sift through the misinformation, propaganda, facts, opinions, unsubstantiated rumors? I can see why some people dismiss the news as filled with the three kinds of falsehoods: lies, damned lies and statistics.

The United Nations isn’t going to get anything passed by the Security Council, thanks to Russia’s veto power. Of course, when has an UN resolution really accomplished anything? G-7 (note that they are meeting without Russia the eighth in the new G-8) diplomats are urging an immediate cease-fire. Russian envoys are calling for the removal of the democratic government in Georgia. Putin criticizes our army for helping Georgian soldiers withdraw from Iraq, and pretty much calling us hypocrites for seeking to protect Georgian leaders after we set precedent for hanging dictators like Saddam Hussein.

*Sigh*

It’s a mess. War always is, I guess. Here’s to South Ossetia, the new Kashmir. May you have some sort of stability inbetween clashes and ready access to refugee aid centers.