Free Tuition? What do you think?

I read a recent post that said "democratic presidential hopeful and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders just introduced a bill to make public 4-year colleges tuition free in the U.S., modeled after the way many European nations handle the costs of college by using tax money to invest in their youth rather than treating them as profit centers."  

I was intrigued by the idea so I re-posted on Facebook and boy did I get some backlash.  I guess I didn't realize how many people resent paying taxes.  Of course I don't necessary love them but I'd much rather pay taxes that would be invested in our future and the best way to do that is by educating young people.  If we continue on our current course higher education will only be available to a few leading us to an elitist society.  Bye Bye middle class..............

The bill plans to cover these costs by initiating a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street. A .5% speculation fee will be charged on investment houses, hedge funds, and other stock trades. Additionally, a .1% fee will be charged on bonds, and a .005% fee will be charged on derivatives.

Several years ago when I was in school I wrote a paper on mandatory military service.  I no longer support that idea but I would support some type of mandatory civil service in exchange for tuition.  Many of the Indian tribes, including my own, provide college tuition and living expenses in exchange for one year of service to the tribe per each year of school provided.  Say you become a dentist and it took 7 years to get your degree.  You would work in a tribal clinic for 7 years, while getting paid of course, to repay your debt.  It's a win/win situation in my opinion.  Why couldn't the government have such a program?

It just seems to me that people just want to argue and point fingers but nobody wants to work together to solve problems.  I'm so tired of the hateful rhetoric that I've decided to unplug from facebook.  It's just a platform for extremists to vent their negativity.

Busy weekend

First the Affordable Care Act survives and then marriage equality for all.  I thought some of my conservative friends heads were going to implode.  Some of the responses on the internet ranged from sarcastic to flat threatening bodily harm to all liberals.  It was quite a range of hate filled warnings threatening the end of time and the world as we know it.  WOW  how do they do it?  How do they mange to keep people so worked up?  With a 70% divorce rate I think we have done enough to discredit the sanctity of marriage don't you?  Let the gay community give it a go and see if they do better than the rest of us.

Last night Ron and I were called in to action to help my daughter find her 15 year old deaf & blind dog.  Sophie had somehow gotten out of their fenced yard and wandered off.  My daughter was hysterical...that dog is her child.  My other daughter and son-in-law came to help as well and just shortly after dark Ron called and said to meet him in the driveway...he had found her.  She had actually gotten quite a ways from home and Ron found her behind someone's house where she had become disoriented by a brick wall.  It's just a miracle he found her.  But all's well that ended well and Ron is the hero once more.

Saturday I was so full of energy I got up and cleaned out kitchen cabinets.  Then I moved on to cleaning closets.  By mid-afternoon I wanted to mow the yard so I headed out to do that.  While I was mowing our neighbor came over and Ron told her he was afraid to see what I would start cleaning after dark.  I can see he is getting nervous about retirement.  He said he may have to find a job just to get him out of the house.  I'm just so happy to be able to move and do things again that I can't stop.  It's great to be pain free.......

 

The ACA is here to stay & Rapid Ramen Noodle Cooker

Hooray Supreme Court for doing the right thing.  The Affordable Healthcare Act survived yet one more attack.  Call me stupid but I still don't understand why anyone would be against it in the first place.  Shouldn't we want all the citizens of this country to have access to affordable health care?  I realize that their are those whose rates increased.  Mine was one of them but I like to blame our governor for refusing to create our own network and also refusing the Medicaid expansion.  But that's another story.

If I am being honest I hope this is just the first step to a single payer system.  I don't believe it will happen in my life time but for future generations I hope it becomes a reality.  Healthcare should not bankrupt anyone.  It should be available for everyone including mental health services.  

Now, if we could just get some traction on gun control.

Mike asked me to fix him his special spaghetti so I had him come over for dinner.  A while back I purchased the Rapid Ramen Cooker thinking it might be something Mike could use.  Once I learned how awful Ramen Noodles are for your health and the fact that they have MSG I knew they were out.  But I decided to see if I could cook other noodles in it.........it worked perfectly!  

So, I had Mike fill the cooker with water to the fill line.  I then had him put the egg noodles in the cooker and microwave for 6 minutes.  Perfect noodles!  So now I'm going to make a bunch of spaghetti sauce for him and put it in pre-measured containers and freeze them.  I can stock his freezer with sauce and he can cook his own noodles anytime he wants spaghetti.  (I haven't figured out how to cook spaghetti pasta yet but he seems to like the noodles even better).   This will be great for him when Ron and I take our trip to N. Carolina.  It's a great little noodle cooker for one person.
 

Clearing the Cobwebs

Now that we have all of our personal business taken care of for the retirement process I am now trying to get everything completed at work.  I want to get all my filing done (which I hate) and everything worked on my desk so I can leave in good order for my predecessor.  I've already started taking personal items home so I don't have a big moving job on the last day.  I've never been a pack rat and I really didn't do much "nesting" in my office so there hasn't been a ton of stuff to take home.

When we first moved into our new hospital Ron bought me a painting I had coveted for a long time to hang above my desk.  It is fairly large so I'll take it home the last day.  And finally the beautiful Lilly I received from the staff when my mother died.  I have it sitting on a plant stand in the corner. That will be the final step.  All the other little personal pictures have already gone and my office is beginning to look quite sterile.  It's really weird to think the last 28 years of my working life were condensed into two boxes.

I really didn't want to have a retirement party because I get very uncomfortable with good-byes and being the center of attention.  For one thing I know I will cry and it will probably be an ugly cry to boot.  Unfortunately I'm not being allowed to just turn in my keys and slip out the door.  I saw the list of people (former employees, my family, former bosses, etc. who are being invited.)  Mike will love being invited but I'm very concerned about him getting emotional especially if he sees me cry so I'll just have to keep it together.  Fortunately Ron will be there to help Mike.

So, only 37 days left!

One ringy dingy

Now I realize that in today’s technological world we have the ability to avoid solicitous phone calls that were unavoidable in my youth.   When I was a kid you had no idea who awaited you on the other end of the line.  Now we just watch the TV screen and when the phone rings we automatically weed out all calls that say “caller unknown”.  I understand and it’s a great way to avoid talking to salesmen or anyone soliciting donations.  But at the same time………I miss the excitement of surprise.

I remember once when I was a kid the phone rang and my father answered.  “Simpson’s residence” my father stated when the phone rang followed by a short pause. 

“No thank you” my father said.

“No thanks, they’re just too ugly” my father responded matter- of- factly.

By now he had our full attention.  Who’s too ugly?

“No, we are all just too damn ugly, came my father’s reply once more followed by but we thank you for calling.”

By then we were all anxious to hear who he had been talking to. 

Finally our mother looked at our dad and asked, “Who in the heck were you talking to?”

My dad nonchalantly replied, “Olan Mills, they wanted to know if we wanted to have a family portrait taken.”

Best Friends

Recently through the power of Facebook I reconnected with my childhood best friend.  Last night we talked on the phone for the first time.  It was so wonderful to hear her voice and it took me back to being 8 years old again.  We had lost touch for the past 40 years but I'll never let that happen again.

She and her husband live in Arizona and you can imagine where I want to go asap.  First we have to go to N. Carolina to see Ron's daughter and then the next trip will be Arizona for sure.

We usually only have a few people who become life long friends even if we never see them.  They are just in our hearts forever and that is how I feel about Karma.  She was the best thing about my childhood!

Father's Day

For Father's Day my daughter wrote a beautiful post to her step-father on Facebook.  It read "Happy Father's Day to Ron Phillips!  My biological father chose to not be in our lives and was never a father.  Ron has been there for us through surgeries and helping put together our classrooms each year.  He has helped us move from house to house.  He takes care of our mother and spoils her rotten.  He is the most patient, caring, and sweetest human being and has been a true dad to us both.  Thank you Taylor Bender for sharing your dad with us!"

Needless to say it brought a little tear to Ron's eye.  

The girls came over and we all had a cookout in Ron's honor.  My wonderful son-in-law braved the heat and manned the grill.  The girls made the fix-ins and Mike thought the whole thing was another birthday party for him.

Mike's cognitive skills are taking another set back.  He is now unable to count money.  He tried to count his money 6 -7 times on Saturday and came out with a different amount each time. He was up or down by as much as 50 dollars.  It really made me feel sad and so sorry for him.  Fortunately he seems to be relatively unaware of his declining skills.  I'm glad because I don't want him to feel afraid.

Only 6 weeks remain until retirement!  We have signed up for Medicare part B and have picked our supplemental insurance.  I think we have all our ducks in a row but we'll be double checking ourselves several times I'm sure.

If I had any doubts about retirement they were satisfied this weekend.  I learned of the death of a friend's younger brother, he was only 59 years old.  Then another friend 58 was killed in a motorcycle accident on Saturday and another friend our age retired last month but died on Sunday.  That's enough for me..........this is the right time and we need to enjoy each other and savor every day we have left together!