Friday, June 26, 2009

It is not PC, but I don't care...

I just finished reading an aritcle in CNN about how airlines are about to start charging people who are too fat to fit into one seat. There was this disenting comment:



Still, some larger passengers who need more than one seat believe being charged extra is discriminatory and the airlines are not accommodating the growing American waistline.
"The airlines need to be making bigger seats," said Peggy Howell, a spokeswoman for the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, a group based in San Francisco, California. "It's not safe to be cramming us into two seats."




Really...there is an association to promote accepting fatness??? Where is the society for acceptance for hypertension? Or to accept congestive heart failure??



If you are fat, deal with the fact you are fat, pay for the extra seat or whatever and decide to do something about it. Join weight watchers, count calories, something, but accepting your lack of health is not an option. Educate yourself on nutition, do something proactive before you develop diabetes and your extremities start to rot off.



The fact that America has just decided to accept being fat...well, I cannot abide by that. Obesity is so detrimental to one's health and well being. Not to mention it does not kill you out right, but slowly, at great expense and at great pain; to you and your family.



How can we have a National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance???



It is time to throw polically correct out the damn window and face up to realities. If you take more than one seat on an airpane you are are too large and it is no one else's problem but your own. Get your MD on board, get a plan and work your plan for weight managment. It won't be easy but the benefits are limitless.



to hell with PC!!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Humans need animals

This is a hear-warming story of puppies in prison. There isn't enough space to go into all the things that I think are wrong with our prison system, but this is something that is very right.
Puppies in Prison

Please take a moment to read. It brings up something important....unconditional love. I think in order to be well balanced, whole people, we all need to know what it is to be loved unconditionally. I think few people really understand what that truly means.

The Path of Alzheimers

As Alzheimer's progresses, you find yourself asking awful, bizarre questions:
  1. At what point is it best to have professionals assit/perform the care of your family member?
  2. When is the quality of life compromised to the point of not having quality?
  3. Would your family member want to live like this?
  4. How the hell will the average person afford any kind of dementia care?
  5. Can someone please euthanize me in the event I get to the point of not knowing anything and not being able to care for myself....?
Our health care system is in no way, shape, form or fashion set up to deal with the coming onslaught of dementia care that is going to be needed. People will suffer, and families will suffer simply because no one knows what the hell to do.

Example: Right now my mother is at a lovely assisted living facility that I would recommend to anyone, Apple Tree Court in Richardson, Tx. The cost for the services there are about $2700-$3000 per month. Needless to say, my siblings and I pick up some of that tab. However, as she declines, as she is showing signs of doing, she may necessitate leaving there and being in a memory facility. These are a minimum of $5000-$8000 per month. A tab we cannot afford. Most people cannot afford this unless they have planned very well for their future.

I wonder, at what point would my mom not want to participate in life. Depression is a major problem because of the lack of mobility (can't drive) and because your life does not have fluid memories any more. We are no more than a collection of our memories....

I am thankful Mom can still do all the things she needs to do; bathing, grooming, feeding herself. What a blessing. But what is next? And worse....I feel 'next' is going to be less than good...

How are we to live out our days?
Where are we to do that?
So many questions and no answers, or at least, very poor answers.

Monday, June 08, 2009

Update!

It has been too long since I have blogged!

I am back to the grind of day-to-day, but am loving it none the less. I have only the back splash to do in the kitchen and it will be complete...OK, a little touch up paint here and there, but done otherwise!

Next?

Probably the guest bath. It needs caulking and texture/paint. So much to do!

I picked up my bike today, I am very excited to start mountain biking. With 20lbs to lose, I need all the exercise I can get!
When the kitchen is officially finished, I will post more pics!