CLICK HERE FOR THOUSANDS OF FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES »

Friday, November 28, 2008

Calling all cat people!

How in the hell do you have Christmas trees?! Oh my god. I'm going to be an alcoholic by the time Epiphany gets here. No, no. I'll just construct a 7 foot x 3 foot chicken wire fence to surround the tree. I would have to have a tree full of cardinals, wouldn't I? Sigh.

Well, we missed Thanksgiving for the first time ever. I was all prepared to get up and drive to my sister's in Indianapolis yesterday morning, but I decided at the last minute that Noelle was in no shape for the trip. She cried and cried. But I couldn't even pry her off the couch to take a shower. So we stayed home and rested, and it was the right decision, because today she is much better. She's eaten more today than she has in the past week.

A friend came over to work on my computer (which was hit by a virus and will probably have to be rebuilt from scratch), and he noted that Noelle's symptoms are the same ones he had when he had an ulcer. I did some research, and I have to say, everything does match up. I took her off the anti-nausea meds the hospital gave us, which only made her sleep and did nothing for her stomach. Instead, I started giving her mylanta, and right after that she turned a corner. She's now eating bananas, bread, potatoes, and tapioca with no pain or nausea. So keep your fingers crossed that we might be on the road to recovery!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. :)

Monday, November 24, 2008

A trip to the ER

Noelle spent Saturday in the emergency room of Children’s Hospital. She has had a recurring bout of stomach pain and nausea for the past 3 weeks. I thought she had the flu in the beginning, but she bounced back quickly and jumped right back into things. A week later, she came home with a fever, stomach cramping, and nausea. Again she bounced back. Then Saturday morning she woke up one very sick girl. I will spare you all the gross details.

I rushed her to the doctor, and he sent us straight to the hospital. Noelle has lost 10 pounds since her annual check up back in August, but I suspect it’s really been in the last 3 weeks. She is noticeably thinner and paler. Her symptoms Saturday morning were just like the symptoms I had when I suffered from an intestinal blockage a few years ago. Of course, mine was the result of a doctor stitching my intestine shut after giving me a hysterectomy…. :/ Noelle obviously didn’t have a hysterectomy, but she could have had a blockage of some other sort. So off to the ER we went.

The hospital ran every test imaginable on her, including a rectal exam, pelvic exam, x-rays, etc. and they didn’t find anything. Her white blood cells were good, no signs of an infection, no internal blockage… They hooked her up to an IV to rehydrate her and give her anti-nausea medicine. She felt really good after that, and managed to keep a popsicle down. Then when we got home, she ate about 5 spoonfuls of chicken noodle soup and felt nauseous again. I gave her the medicine they sent home with us and she slept about 11 hours.

The ER doctor said she could just have a really bad flu bug, but I don’t think that’s likely. For one thing, I haven’t gotten it (knock on wood). But also, it doesn’t seem to me that the flu would just sporadically come and go like that for 3 weeks. If you have the flu that bad, you’d be in bed every day, right? It could also be gastroenteritis, or it could be Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I will need to keep her on a very simple diet for the foreseeable future and see how she responds…. And yes, Thanksgiving is in 3 days. :(

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Tough love for GM

Hello, virtual friends! Sorry I’ve been out of touch. I have been trapped in what seems like the Twilight Zone for the last two weeks, where the only law inforce appears to be Murphy’s.

Coming up for air momentarily, I wanted to write some thoughts about the impending GM crisis. As I predicted (I think we all did), GM is demanding a bailout from the taxpayers. It’s tough, living in a city that has literally lived on GM for over 50 years, faced with the closing of our last plant 2 days before Christmas. CNN has a cover story on Dayton up right now, if you’re interested.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/19/ohio.plant.closing/index.html

Everything Mr. Murphy is quoted as saying is true. These closings do not just affect the GM employees, but the thousands who supply GM with their parts. I feel for those like Murphy who are finding themselves in these dire straits through no fault of their own. They don’t have high powered unions to pay off senators to fight for them. They don’t make $70 an hour to put nuts on bolts and get to retire at the age of 50 with full insurance benefits guaranteed for the rest of their lives. Nor do they get the benefit of an unemployment package that pays 95% of their salary with benefits for 2 years. And they stand little chance of finding work in Dayton because the job they have been trained to do, and which they have done for 30 years or more, is a job that won’t exist anywhere, at any factory, once GM is gone.

And yet, despite being surrounded by the stench of death in Dayton day after day, I do not support a taxpayer funded bailout of any American automaker. They signed their own death warrants. It would be different if the manufacturers’ CEOs went to Congress with their tails between their legs, taking accountability for the hole they have dug, willing to acquiesce to whatever concessions were deemed appropriate in order to stave off the hearse rounding the bend.

But they are not. Instead, they are acting the spoiled children they are, demanding that daddy buy them a new remote controlled Hummer to replace the one they just broke by throwing it against the wall. Therefore, Congress should act like a responsible parent and exert some tough love. Yes, it’s going to hurt – not only for GM but for the rest of us as well. The hurt is necessary, I believe, in order to move forward once and for all to restore the quality and confidence of American manufacturing and to put in place the energy practices that have been talked about for 30 years. If I was in charge, I’d tell GM this:

1. File bankruptcy.

2. Tell the UAW to take a hike. There was a time in this country when unions served a purpose. That time is over. To that end: Tell the employees they either take a pay cut or join the unemployment rolls. Pay them what they’re worth – a 20 year old with a GED who puts nuts on bolts should make minimum wage, just like his counterparts at McDonalds do. Retirees can live on whatever they’ve managed to store away in their retirement plans, just like the rest of us do.

3. Completely scrap your product line and start from scratch, making only a handful of stream-lined, energy efficient cars. You’re producing way too much product, all of subpar quality, the majority of which uses too much gas. It’s not rocket science, people. Effective immediately, no car should be produced that gets less than 30 mpg. Yes, it is perfectly doable. Within 5 years, all cars must be powered by some form of alternative energy, be it hydrogen cell or biomass ethanol (derived from non-food sources such as dung). Yes, it is perfectly doable. Don’t tell me you can’t produce these cars at a price people can afford to buy. If you start paying your employees what they’re worth, you can. Stuff your excuses where the sun don’t shine. You’ve had 30 years. Now you’ve got 5.

Of course, I’m not in charge. And not holding my breath.