Taking the "Nurse" out of Nursing Home

I have had enough experience now with nursing homes--as the daughter of someone who has been living in one for more than five years--to know that very little nursing takes place in these facilities, and they are NOTHING like home. In my mother's nursing home, the nurses on duty are LPNs. We're very lucky if the LPN in charge knows much of anything, and they aren't always good people managers. The understaffed staff is overworked. They're clearly not well-screened, as they have been robbing residents blind all these years, my mother included. Her wedding ring was stolen a few months back, and before that just about anything attractive or of any value would just disappear. And that was the case even after I put up a sign saying, "Thou Shalt Not Steal."

Of course there are some real sweethearts--people who don't complain about doing the work and who actually DO it, and who care about their charges--but there are always those who will lie to you to make life more convenient for them, or those who have emotional and personality disorders or problems so severe they agitate family members, or at best act as if we have no say in the matter.

Now we're trying to find a way to get our dying mother into a Catholic nursing home where she will feel, we hope, a sense of spiritual peace....or at least some support of that nature. But the nursing home we visited apparently decided we didn't look or act rich enough: we are "Medicaid" people, not the wealthy middle-class types they prefer to associate with. We're fat, not 100 percent healthy, and we look it. And it's easy even for these "Catholics" to find themselves so superior to us because of the way we look and because of the state of our finances. But we have education, skills, training, talents, that might very well overshadow these self-righteous people, and that includes our mother too!! We are just as Middle Class as they, except for our pocketbooks, and yet we are looked down upon; thought to be just a little lower than scum, I guess. This does not sound very Catholic to me; certainly not Christian at all....but how to get the point across when the snubbing is veiled in lies and excuses?

I really think our public schools need to reinstate not just civics courses but ethics courses (and I mean personal as well as corporate ethics) and courses in moral and personal development. Obviously parents aren't doing a decent job of teaching people these days!!! Somebody's got to do it, or our most vulnerable citizens will continue to succumb to the worst of human nature.

From a Nissan Altima back to a Honda Civic

I'm marveling at the difference between the Nissan Altima C. and I rented for our trip to Missouri and my usual (and, of course, beloved) car--a Honda Civic. Shocks, reduced cabin noise, engine power, all make a big difference in how I feel, at least, when I finish a long road trip. And I absolutely love the auxiliary plug that gives you the option of plugging in your iPod!!! Well, I'm thinking deep thoughts today but have little time to write them down.

Perhaps I can use this blog as my MDiv blog from now on.....

Holiday Hazards

Well, my honey is over there on her bed in the Holiday Inn Express in Warrenton, MO., blogging away, so I thought I'd give it a try too. We delayed our trip to Missouri to see my sister and mother (mother is in hospice care now) so that we didn't have to travel on ice-covered roads. The forecast said Monday would be clear of precipitation and Tuesday would be warm enough for just rain, but we hadn't anticipated the possibility that the forecast would be off by a few degrees AND that the ground, which had gotten very cold with sub-freezing temperatures a day or so earlier, was still cold enough to make the rain turn to ice on the ground.

We took our time setting off this morning and perhaps that was a good thing. Patches of ice a few miles ahead of us caused as 12-car pile-up and one fatality. If we had not picked up some of that wonderful Ed's White Front BBQ sauce from Ed before heading west on I-70, we might very well have been involved in that accident, so we are grateful while experiencing the frustration of more delay in making it to Kansas City for Christmas. But our frustration is nothing compared to the loss one family is experiencing tonight, and the shock, injury, damage, and property loss others are experiencing--some of them also stranded in this hotel tonight.

Tomorrow is not an ideal weather day, either, so we'll do what we can to be as safe as possible on this trip. Not a pleasant prospect, but I think the salting and the weather in general will cooperate at least most of the way to Kasnas City, if not all the way. Whether we can make it up the hill to Blue River Care Center, though, is a serious question.

It's as bad as racism.

I've been trying without success so far, to log into Obama's change.gov site to post replies to people who are saying idiotic things about the outrage over Obama's choice of Rick Warren as the inauguration's co-intercessor for the nation.

One fellow said we should just "get over it."

I know some African Americans absolutely do not like the comparison of LGBTQ civil rights with African American civil rights. I think there is a real connection here.

So here's what I would have written back to the guy: Would you be telling African Americans to "get over it" if a white president elect selected an outspoken racist or KKK member to represent the highest ideals of his administration and, indeed, of our nation, at the inauguration? This is not enlightened "peacemaking" and tolerance it is assent to intolerance and an affront to human dignity in general and and to our Constitution. This is not change for ANYONE!

Shoe "bomber"

I was thrilled to see an angry Iraqui taking aim at Bush with a shoe!  It's the perfect ending for a shameful presidency in which more than one nation was ravaged by greed, stupidity, and selfishness.  I think shoe-throwing might work here in America, and maybe even pass as relatively peaceful protest. But the shoe should be as rotten and stinky and worn-out as possible: something no one would even want to wear.  That's the kind of send-off this administration deserves.

I wasn't ready to choose this blog name

...but blogger really liked it and moved me forward so that I could finally start a new blog!