The ’Not So’ Free Market

The 'Not So' Free Market

            "I'm a strong believer in free enterprise, so my natural instinct is to oppose government intervention… these are not normal circumstances. The market is not functioning properly. There has been a widespread loss of confidence."

-George W. Bush 

The headlines say that Wall Street is collapsing.  Why is this happening?  The short answer is that the sub-prime mortgage meltdown is wreaking havoc with the market.  The free market.  What is this 'free market'?  We hear and read about it all the time, but what exactly is a 'free market'?  How did it come to be, and why is it in crisis now?

In the last eight years, and for all the time in the last thirty-forty years that a republican has held office, one of the main thrusts has been to deregulate.  In the early late 1800's and early 1900's many regulations were put in place by the government to protect the public.  These regulations range from quality standards on meat to preventing the formation of monopolies to overseeing utilities, communication, and transportation for the public well fare. 

The Neo-Conservative movement, that started in the 1960's as a counter to the sixty's counter-culture movement, has always pushed for the repeal of many of these regulations because they hinder the profitability of corporations.  It is about what they refer to as 'less government', they say that 'the government' is not competent.  They tell you that you don't want 'the government' running public works like education, health care, water, energy, etc.

The neo-cons believe that the private sector, i.e. business, can handle these things better than the government.  This seems illogical because the goal of any business is profit.  The bottom line.  They do not answer to 'the people' as our government is supposed to, but rather to corporate shareholders. 

Government is defined as: The person or persons authorized to administer the laws.¹  The Government as an institution is either trustworthy or not depending on who the people that administer it's functions are.  In the United States that means our elected officials.  We aspire to have representative democracy, which means that we elect people to represent us in administering the laws.  The neo cons say you can't trust 'the government' while simultaneously being those that are elected to power.  It's a conundrum.

The movement to deregulate focuses primarily on repealing laws that have governed large businesses and corporations.  It's a theory that supposedly states that government regulation isn't needed because 'the market' polices itself.  Consumers will use their buying power to hold corporations in check by boycotting their products if those corporations are doing something unethical.  This for one thing implies an all-knowing, extremely well informed consumer base.  It also assumes that companies will be completely honest about their business practices.

In actuality what deregulation has done is create anarchy in the business sector of this country.  You and I still have to obey the laws, but there are now little to no laws that protect the workers or the general public from underhanded business practices.  The sub-prime mortgage crisis is happening because there were no laws to stop bankers from creating bad loans and then selling them to other institutions, and what regulations did still exist, they skirted. 

How did we get here?  People are good, right?  They aren't going to take advantage of the complete anarchy are they?  Does anyone remember what happened in the riots in L.A.?  What happens when anarchy reigns?

Without laws, the roughly four percent of people without any conscience at all (a statistic that I understand is generally accepted in the psychiatric field) would begin to find ways of bullying people.  Having a lot of money would help with this, as this person would be able to hire thugs to help him. Since there would be no laws against this, he/they would have no punishment to fear.  Are there very bad people in the world and among us in this country?  We all know that the answer to this is yes. 

As I understand it, the percentage of people without a conscience is higher in two areas of our population: in prison and among CEOs of large corporations.  So if you are not all that bright, you may be more likely to end up in prison.  If you have no conscience and you are intelligent enough, you may well stab yourself to the top of a multinational corporation. The lesser sociopaths would probably end up working for the greater.

If this sounds like the mob, that's because it is the mob.  The mob would become the de-facto Government, since they would hold the reigns of power.  Their thugs would be the de-facto police force, and would execute their duties just as one would expect from those with no conscience, including the torture. 

As I said the neo-conservative movement's theory is that all we have to do is free business from regulation and the resulting 'free market' will control itself. 

Let's just assume for the moment that the founders of this movement to de-regulate are business owners and CEO's.  Let us also assume they thought the best way for them to make more money would be for there to be no limit on their actions, for there to be anarchy.  They are basically aspiring anarchists and they need to convince the public that anarchy would be a good thing for everyone.

I'm not an Anarchist.  An Anarchist believes that the world would be better without laws, or Government. Anarchy, in my opinion, leads to tyranny.  In other words, if laws and government are removed, a tyrant will always emerge and anarchy will have a very short life.  Power never disappears, it only changes hands.  That's why a government 'of the people' is such a good idea; it dilutes the power among the greatest number. 

If I were an aspiring anarchist, and I wanted to convince people that anarchy was a good idea, I think I'd start by conjuring up a pleasing and nostalgic image… an image that would make anarchy seem folksy…something like, say A NEIGHBORHOOD! 

Everyone is comfortable already with this picture so it would be perfect.  I'd just propagate the idea that we don't need any laws or Government because that would take away our freedom… our freedom to take care of ourselves.  If someone is committing murder or stealing from us, the neighborhood can take care of it… each neighborhood can take care of the problem in its own local way.  If someone is committing murder, we'll gather in the town square and then go hunt the bastard down!  A neighborhood that can take care of its own problems is a free neighborhood, not depending on the Government for help.  

It kind of sounds like a fifties suburban sit com, doesn't it?  The 'Beaver' won't let us down.  Lassie will help us if someone's trapped in the well, who needs anything other than Sherriff Andy to keep order?  Have you ever seen the Twilight Zone that was set in one of these neighborhoods?  It quickly turns ugly.

Anyway, I'd sell my free neighborhood as the height of honesty and moral values.   That's how I'd sell it, but I'd know that the lawlessness that would result would allow me to seize power.  Anarchy never lasts long, because someone strong comes along and takes power. 

The free neighborhood I've created doesn't really exist, but if people believe in it, that doesn't matter.  The neighborhood is just a euphemism standing in the place of whatever people do - and we already know what the worst people would do in order to have power and keep it.

Let's say instead that I'm a businessman and I want more power, more profits, more money, but there are all these regulations in my way.  There are these unions (made toothless in the eighties by Reagan), there's all these regulations like a minimum wage, safety codes, health inspections, child labor laws, etc.  I need to get them out of my way. 

I'd probably start with laws that most people don't pay attention to, like laws that are financial in nature, laws that govern the banking industry or the stock market… for example how much interest you can charge someone on a loan.  Someone who charges excess interest is called a loan-shark, but what if we eliminate the laws against this?  The same guy would then go from being a thug, to being considered simply a business man.  It could all seem so respectable.

Once again I'd have to come up with a folksy image to attach to my ideal of financial anarchy:  Oo, I know; A MARKET!  Everyone loves a market: the hustle and bustle, the foods and other products.  The Market doesn't NEED any laws or government; it will all be so simple: supply and demand; if something costs too much nobody will buy it.  High demand will fetch a higher price.  

In the picture I would draw any laws or 'government interference' would be an unneeded intrusion.  Those who could buy and sell without such intrusion would be FREE! A FREE MARKET! Yea!!

            The problem with this is that, once again, it doesn't really exist.  THERE IS NO FREE MARKET… IT'S IMAGINARY.   

What would really happen is just the same as what happens in all other systems of lawlessness: it wouldn't last long.  Those with the most money would have a clear advantage and would use that advantage to systematically increase their powers, by swallowing up the competition (mergers and acquisitions).  They would pay off as many decision-makers (congress) as possible to make things to go their way.  They would hire lobbyists (thousands of them) to pressure our representatives to see things their way.  They would grease them up with campaign contributions (bribes).

            And as we look around, that is exactly what has happened and is continuing to happen.  It all came tumbling down, because it doesn't really work.  That's why congress just passed legislation to give $700 billion to banks to stop them from going under.  It's why lawmakers held out for less responsibility for the banks and executives.  

            This is also why at first Republican's didn't want the bail out bill, it's government intrusion into their free market, these are the republicans that do not know that there is no free market, they really believe in it's power to 'self correct'.  It's why you commentators and pundits say recently things like, 'I'm a free market guy, but….'

            This Corporate lawlessness was such a hard sell that the corporate anarchists have employed (purchased) entire media empires to help sell it to the common man. In reality the common man is not be haggling with his neighbor, the farmer, over the price of turnips in the marketplace. Instead, he is negotiating with no less than a multi-national oil company, or pharmaceutical company, that has just about ALL of the negotiating power, since the laws are now designed with them in mind.

            The common man will not be negotiating at all in this world of cartels and price fixing and monopoly.  The big Corporations are now the de-facto government.  As soon as it can buy some laws to silence your objections, it will be the permanent government.  It doesn't have to actually shut you up… not all of the time, and not right away.  It has purchased enough of the media to make sure that your voice is _{very very quiet}, and thereby marginalized.

            It has hired radio and television personalities who are chosen for their ability to appeal to exactly the people who will benefit from its plans the least.  

Since voices with alternate ideas have been effectively marginalized, all you need is to have these media personalities repeat your slogan(s) over and over and over: FREE MARKET!  FREE MARKET!  FREE MARKET!!! The FREE MARKET IS FREEDOM!!

            Now my anarchy is nearly complete. I have convinced enough people of the existence of the 'free market' which is my new definition of freedom, now my cause becomes much easier to propagate, because now the cause of corporate anarchy has become

A RELIGION. 

            My minions believe in the Free Market, even though it does not exist.  They even acknowledge this when they say that it governs by 'the invisible hand'.  How convenient that it is invisible.  The invisibility of a god has never been a problem in any religion.   

¹ Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

Currently listening : Music from Big Pink By The Band Release date: 2000-08-29

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Silly sentences and Updates
Current mood: embarrassed

Silly Sentence 1:
The hurricane hunter cooked a lovely meal from his tank during recess because his dog died.

Update 1:

Just under a week ago Jen and I stopped by the mail box and found two copies of the October issue of Aquarium Fish magaz
ine.

Inside is her article, "Homemade Food for Fish", about how she came up with inventive ways to feed her new Porcupine Puffer fish a few years ago. Aquarium Fish has had her article for a couple years and we had begun to wonder if it would ever see the light of day, but now it is here complete with illustrations (and a photo of the author by moi).
.
I am very proud

of her and excited about this. Jen has been writing a lot and has sold some work online, which in this age really aught to be just as exciting. There's just something about seeing it in print in an internationally published periodical. It's just more real somehow, which probably shows
my age.

Go out to your local periodical provider (even if it's a big chain book store) and pick up the October issue of Aquar
ium Fish. If you don't buy at least take a glance at the article!!

Silly Sentence 2:
A turkish immigrant made eyecontact on the playground during the summer solstice to try to get food from Jen.

Update 2:
Monday night (Tuesday mornign) Jen, Cyrille, and I drove out to Grand Haven laid out a blanket on the beach and watch shooting stars and were very silly. It was a lot of fun. One of us would see a shooting star and say, "Wow." and the other two would say, "What?" as if we didn't have a clue what it could be.

There were a lot of little lines across the sky and a few bigger ones. Then there was this one that was really defined and lasted a long ways and then kind of sparked and sputtered. We nearly expected to hear a splash in the lake and hear stories of mutated fish in the morning news.

We also saw lots of stars, the moon, and Venus. We saw the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia. We got very sandy.

Silly Sentence 3:
Carl Sagan kicked a puppy to New Jersey at ngiht because he was obsessed with finding life on other planets.

Update 3:
Yesterday the roomies and I saw the new X-Files movie. It was good. Not great, but definitely a nice visit with the characters. I hope they get to do one more, so that they can concentrate on Mulder and Scully working together rather than each convincing the other to work and the other complaining that they don't want to.

After the movie a police officer got behind us and I had a bad feeling. He pulled us over and informed me that my break lights weren't working. I told him Ihad just replaced a bulb. He then tried to tell me that my licence plate was not up to date. He kept telling us that it was 2009, when it's clearly 2008. He said there was no computer record of my registration in June, but I went to the Secretary of State the week of my birthday with Jen and paid for it.

We looked and the sticker was not there on the licence plate and the paper work was not in my glove box. As of yet I cannot find it. This is really vexing. I know I paid for this, but with out evidence I'm screwed.

Silly Sentence 4:
Porky kissed Charlie in the Atlantic eight years ago because she's his girlfriend.

Update 5:
Monday after work I met my co-workers Becca and Lynsey and Lynsey's friend Angie at Appleby's. Lynsey is going off to get her masters in Texas, so we wanted to say good-bye. It was a very pleasent time, and I got a little tipsy on my favorite alcoholic mixed drink.

I felt like I was talking a lot at the end. I hope I wasn't overbearing. I only got to know Lynsey briefly, but I had a lot of fun talking music theory and cloud formations with her between customers at work.

Silly Sentence 5:
James danced at Ithica University yesterday because he hates squirrels.

Note:
The silly sentences are from my birthday party. They were a game that Lynsey introduced us to. It was a lot of fun. My birthday party was small but it consisted of Jen, Amy, Lynsey, and I playing games. Then Cyrille returned from work and we played Apples to Apples. I'm sorry to say I didn't blog about it or post pictures. Oops.

That's it for now.

Peace,
Rich

Currently listening : Whatever and Ever Amen By Ben Folds Five Release date: 1997-03-18

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Funny moments in tiredness 1
Current mood: cheerful

I was sleepy and trying to make fun of the Victoria Secret ad and said, "We sell lingerie to...people."

Then Jen said, "What? As opposed to what, llamas?"

So I said, "We don't sell lingerie to llamas. Never."

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Grievances
Current mood: distressed

I need help. I do not know what to do. If you read my blog: Bad Doctors, then you know that Jen's health has been an ongoing problem for her over the years. She has continually been treated inhumanly by those in our culture that are charged with being the most humane.

Here's a short list of grievances:

1. A hospital in California put her out on the street with out adequate physical or mental therapy. She had suffered a severe head injury and required a walker to get around. (1989)

2. For six years she begged to be tested for thyroid disease and was refused. (1998-2004)

3. When subsequently her head started to fill with fluid blocking her hearing, she was told that the symptoms were psychosomatic. Now she has no hearing in her left ear. (2004 [I think])

4. An ER visit failed to notice that her brain was bruised and to her she was fine. (2007)

5. Dr. Hasaan prescribed medicine that made her thyroid disease worse and could have killed her. (2007)

6. Dr. Birmingham told her that once again that she was experiencing psychosomatic symptoms. He said that her only problem is that she is overweight and needs to exercise. She can not even handle a day out to a restaurant with out becoming woozy or at the least extremely tired. (2007)

7. She often has symptoms such as mouth ulcers and a facial blemish, both indicators of Lupus, but Dr. Birmingham will not acknowledge these because she has not exhibited them in his presence. (2007)

8. At the ER they seemed only concerned with giving her pain relievers rather than finding the cause of and treating her abdominal pain. (2007)

9. Then after she fainted and we had to re-enter the ER they lowered the prescription of pain medicine, as if the fainting was some kind of drug seeking behavior. (2007)

10. Dr. Belsito refused to do anything to help discover the cause of the same pain that brought her to the ER, and instead insisted we go back there. (2007)

11. Back at the ER once again, they only gave her a different pain medicine and would not admit her to the hospital so that tests could be run to discover the cause of the pain. (2007)

12. Now Jen's insurance is gone. She has started the process of jumping through the hoops in order to get aid. This required having Dr. Steven's office fill out some paper work from the Department of Human Services. The office has refused to do so. Supposedly they asked Dr. Stevens and he himself said he could not do so. They did tell her that for $500 they could administer a test to determine if she were capable of working. (2008)

The last is very distressing. The only doctor that has been on her side this past year has been Dr. Stevens. He believes she has something, and seems dedicated to discovering what it is. Now she can't even go back to him, even if she gets aid or insurance.

These doctors need to pay. They need to learn to respect life. All life, not just the life of the wealthy.

Meanwhile. Jen has intence joint and muscle pain. She is so fatigued that sometimes she can hardly stay awake through a day. She has occaisional several abdominal pain that only Vicodin can put a dent in. There are also occaisional headaches that are just as dibilitating as the abdominal pain. There are the facial blemishes and mouth ulcers. She is occaisionally dizzy and on rare occaisions she will faint.

We are trying to do what we can to treat her for Lupus, bypassing the doctors, but it would be better if we could just get someone willing to all the tests that need to be done in a timely matter, so that she can resume a normal life. All she wants is an end to the pain and to be able to go back to work. Is that too much to ask?

Sigh.

What are our options? Can someone be sued? Should we call News 8 to expose them? She we get in the car and drive to Canada? Why is everything so difficult?

Currently watching : Law & Order - The Fourteenth Season (2003-04 Season) Release date: 14 September, 2004

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The view out our window.
Current mood: cold
Category: Life

The bleak mid-winter.

Ugh.

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New Years Eves
Current mood: curious

As photo happy as I am, I have very few New Years Eve photos.

Here is how I rang in 1983:


This is how 1991 began for me:


1996 started by playing pool with a few new friends:


The new Millennium started at Phil's house:


I didn't have a camera with a timer at the start of 2005, so there are two pics:



Finally, this past year started with Apples to Apples all night long:


What does the future hold?

Have a Happy New Year Everyone! I may try to write some New Year's memories later.

Peace,
Rich

Currently listening : Sounds of Silence By Simon & Garfunkel Release date: 21 August, 2001

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Healthy CareUSA 2007 Poem
Current mood: anxious

Doctor, Doctor
Think you're a god,
But Hippocratic is now hypocrite
Why should I pay you
If for me you don't give a shit

Doctor, Doctor
I've called you too often
Now you refuse to give me news
Say I'm a crazy hypochondriac
Blind to my symptoms and my views

Doctor, Doctor
Bow to the HMO
Treat the pain and Ignore illness
Don't care about healing
Just bend over for big business

Doctor, Doctor
I think I'm dying
But I can't set an appointment
Play through past my grave
A hole in one in the firmament

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Sicko - Adventures in modern health care
Current mood: cynical
Category: Friends

Jen has had a recurring pain in her side for a while now. Last week I when I realized how long it'd been going on, I'd asked her to see her doctor about it. Over the weekend it started again and wouldn't go away. Tuesday she said she was going to make an appointment as soon as possible.

Tuesday night I accidently leaned on the sore spot and it really flaired up and wouldn't quit. I suggested that we go to the ER, but Jen was sure it would die down and that she could make an appointment during her lunch break. She had just started her new job last Friday and was determined not to miss a day.

Unfortunately the pain persisted through the night and in the morning she threw up. She agreed that we had to do something and she called her boss. Med-Centers and her doctor's office weren't open yet, so we went to the ne Metro Health Center's ER.

There was no wait, which was pleasent. It wasn't too surprising. the people that need urgent care the most live much closer to Metro's old location. I suggested that Spectrum and St.Mary's ER's were now busier.

Things seemed good. Much like Jen had supposed, the doctor seemed to think it was her gall bladder. They gave her an odd pain medicine that they told her would feel funny, but work quickly. They said they'd do an ultra-sound.

After much waiting they performed the ultra-sound and after more waiting the doctor told us that they found no gallstones or other blockage and that there was a test that she should go see her general practitioner for. By this time the pain had returned, but we had a prescription for Vicadin. We set out to leave planning to call Dr. Stevens, Jen's regular doctor.

She said she was okay to walk. So we set out and she fainted in the hall way. Nurses came to help and I got a wheel chair. They took her blood pressure, which they said was fine. She paid and we started to leave. I pulled the car up.

Jen fainted again in the lobby but didn't fall out of the chair, so I roused her and wheeled her to the car. Where she fainted again, the security guard helped me get her back in the chair and I took her back in. Jen was concerned about paying a second time.

We got Dr. Hearld (the doctor who had seen her earlier) and he told the nurse to give her another I.V. of fluid. He said that fainting sometimes occured with the pain reliever they had given her, and said he couldn't give her anything else for pain because of her reaction to the other stuff (Dilaudid).

I asked to use the phone to call Dr. Stevens, so that we could get that other test done, but the nurse said to wait because they might find something new that they'd want to relay to her doctor. Little did she know that the doctor wasn't interested in trying to find anything else, he just wanted to let her rest more before pushing us out the door.

We did find out that they had eliminated the original discharge so this was a continuation of the same visit thankfully.

When the doctor said it there was nothing more they could do and that we should go he gave Jen a new prescription for Vicadin at a lower dose. Apparently he though the only reason we were there was for drugs. We tried to argue that if she was still dizzy and fainting that she wouldn't be able to get upstairs to her apartment. But he suggested that I walk behind her and catch her if she started to fall.

We just wanted to know what was wrong. But it didn't help that Jen was now in more pain that when we'd got there and now dizzy as well. She fainted again she got in the car, so I knew we couldn't go home.

Discouraged we called Dr.Steven's office. He wasn't in that day so we made an appointment with another doctor in her office. I didn't catch the name, but I hoped it wasn't Dr. Balsito, who I had recently seen. He didn't seem the listening sort.

We got food and put money in the bank and went to the appointment. It was Dr. Belsito, and he was perplexed as to why we would come in the same day as having been to the ER. He had no clue what the test was that Jen needed to have done, and it wasn't on the paperwork from the ER.

There was nothing in the tests that showed anything wrong. But he suggested that the best thing to do was to go back to the ER where they could do more tests than he could do in the office. We pleaded with him, but much like Dr. Hearld he walked away dismissing us.

We went up to the counter and were confused. We complained a bit and they disagreed and there was a bit of back and forth and Jen fainted again falling out of the chair. I got hysterical and asked why no one would listen to the fact that something was seriously wrong with her. Some one said to get Dr. Belsito, and I exclaimed that he hadn't listened to us.

Five people asked if she had tried to stand, but luckily the lady behind the counter backed me up when I said she had not. Everyone we talked to knew that when we mentioned that Dr. Hearld had said that the medicine he'd given her may have caused the fainting that the medicine was likely Dilaudid.

Belsito called for an ambulance to take Jen to the ER. We got back to Metro and Jen was pissed. She didn't want to pay for a second visit, when they should not have let her leave the first time. I pleaded with her to get looked at because I'm no doctor and I couldn't do anything. Both the nurses and I told her she could simply not pay. And I said that she could get a lawyer later.

She tried to call her ex-husband (who does IT for layers) but the cell phone was not working in the hospital (no surprise). Finally she agreed to be treated. In retrospect, maybe we should have left.

They did try to see if Belsito would just admit her to the hospital (skipping the ER), but he wouldn't because he wasn't Dr. Stevens (a much nicer guy, by the way).

So they did an EKG, and hooked her to monitors and after a long while gave her a different pain medicine, I don't remember what it was, but they gave it with benadryl, which kind of made sence when her nose became swollen and stuffed up.

They did no futher testing in the gall bladder area. They merely got her to where she felt less pain, and then let us go again. They did however give us the name of the test that she needed. I now feel we should have just gotten the name of the test and left. since they were to stupid to administer said test and figure out what the fuck was wrong with her.

But at that time Jen was happy to finally not feel pain and I was tired and weary, so we didn't argue. We simply left.

Something is deeply wrong with Health Care in this country. And I believe that it is because capitalism and keeping people healthy does not mix. With capitalism running the health care, all that matters is the bottom line. It causes shallow people to enter the field out of greed for a big paycheck, rather than because they care about people.

Jen had an appointment on Wednesday for a HIDA scan which will check her liver and gall bladder for problems. Meanwhile she has to either be in pain or take Vicadin and be woozy and loopy. Why couldn't they have schedule that or done it while we were there, I don't know. The point of the ER should be to find out what is wrong with someone, not fill them with pain meds and shoot them out the door.

Grrr.

Later,
Rich

Currently listening : Countdown To Ecstasy By Steely Dan Release date: 17 November, 1998

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The news from Richland...

Last weekend I went to visit my friends John and Rhiannon in Terre Haute, Indiana. I've posted a few pics from the trip in a folder called "Indaina Trip".

It was great to see John & Rhi, the infamous Bubba's again. It had been nearly 2 years since I last was there when I delivered some of Rhi's cats to her.

Most of the time was spent catching up and hanging out. Though we did visit a co-worker of John's, Kathy, and her husband, Dave. They were very happy to have us over. They grilled some food and showed off there house. John road their four-wheel off road vehicle, and John scared Rhi when he gave her a ride on it.

Later we all shot at clay pidgeons with Dave's rifle. It's no surprise I can't shoot worth a damn, but I don't really care. It was neat to try. We also tried to record a video for John to send to Kylie, and I'm still going to edit something, but I don't think it was quite what John had in mind. We'll see.

It was a great time, and I hope we don't wait so long to get together again.

*****

Well, tonight I'm going to help shoot John Coin's new movie. I have no idea what it's about or what I'm getting myself into, but it will be fun to do some film stuff outside of work.

I'm hoping to shoot a short myself next month. Cross your fingers for me.

Tomorrow I go to Mark Rehl's to continue work on my song Tumbling. Yay. My new 'solo' CD should be done soon (I hope). And the band Mandy and I are forming is comign along as well. Our fist practice with the drummer went well. All four of us play together for the first time this Tuesday. I think it's going to rock.

****

Jen seems to be doing well, despite a cold. I will know more on the 31st when she sees her neurologist about the MRI and the EEG she had this week. Plus the regular doctor gave her a battery of blood tests, to hopefully get her thyroid back on track.

And YAY, Val the evil manager at the floral shop that gave Jen such a hard time about being ill has resigned. The owner hopes that Jen will be able to come back to work part time soon, and he's keeping her in his prayers.

Peace,
Rich

Currently reading : The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, Book 3) By Philip Pullman Release date: 27 May, 2003

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Privacy
Current mood: uncomfortable

Do you feel violated when someone reads your private chats?

I do.

So, if you read private chats I've had and you are peeking at my blog, then open your ears and listen.

The Spock quote is not for you.

"You don't own me..."

And not anyone else, in actuality.

Peace,
Rich

Currently listening : Anthology By Bread Release date: 25 October, 1990

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