The #1 Thing I Need…

I have an awesome aunt that likes to send me random stuff in the mail. Lots of times it is just notes, maybe a few articles, sometimes stickers, but whatever it is, its always fun to get ‘real’ mail. Anyways, one of the last envelopes she sent had a bunch of pictures and articles cut out about how to decorate for Halloween and more ideas of what to do with pumpkins instead of just carve them. Loved this.

Amongst the various pictures and such I happened to look at the back of one of the little cutouts and lo and behold, there was the answer to all my problems in life!! According to Woman’s Day magazine they had figured out the three things no woman can live without, perfect! Anyone want to guess what #1 was? That’s right, a husband! Well, not just a husband, but “A very wise husband who always knows the perfect moment to say ‘you’re right honey’”.

Seriously?!?!

Not even taking into account that it is a ‘husband’ we need, and not a partner or wife, but that the most important thing is that the husband knows when to tell us that we’re right?! Obviously implying that the aforementioned husband may not actually think, nor need to think, that I am right, but knows when to say it so as not to induce a fight or discussion? Meaning I have to be humored?

Perhaps if the statement had been ‘A very wise partner who knows just when you need their extra support and comfort, and when you need to scream your head off to get it out of your system, and will stand patiently by in either situation’ I could support it. But this probably wouldn’t jive with Woman’s Day’s target audience. And it wouldn’t have fit in the type space either.

- suse

P.S. I didn’t write down #2 and #3 and I recycled the page already, sorry.

Say What?!?!

I don’t even know what to say about this. Whatever your views are if you are a nurse or physician or medical assistant or whatever, if you practice in the medical field and see patients you CAN NOT insert your beliefs and will onto the individuals who come to see you!!!! Patients expect to get the full breadth of medical options when they see a doctor, not the delineated personal view of that specific doctor.

Key paragraph:
This story seems a good, although frightening, reminder that the “provider conscience” rule went into effect on Tuesday (January 20th) and isn’t affected by Obama’s immediate order to halt Bush’s pending federal regulations. Until the rule is reversed by the Obama administration, religiously or morally guided medical professionals — like nurse Olona, assuming the allegations are true — will find it much easier to get away with denying women the medical treatment they want and need.

- suse

Get Out of Here America

So Good Morning America is doing a whistle stop tour where they’re visiting all 50 states and commenting on the state of the nation or whatever. Anyway, they stopped in the upstate NY town where my parents grew up and where I still have family – Rome, NY. Here is part of the video (uh, I guess wordpress doesn’t let you post videos from abcnews. ugh):

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5812243

Anyway, even though I think everything they said is true (it is kind of a shithole, in all honesty), residents are understandably kind of pissed because it showed them in such a negative and white-trash-ish light.  My mom emailed me a letter that the Chairman of the Board of the Rome Chamber of Commerce (whom my grandmother taught when he was in kindergarten, fyi!) wrote to the show:

Oh Oprah (sigh)

Living where I do it is quite often that we get articles about good ol’ Oprah Winfrey. This past week we were treated to another oh-Oprah-you-really-aren’t-doing-good-and-you-needed-someone-else-to-point-it-out-to-you story. Oprah has a 42 acre parcel out in Montecito that she christened ‘Promised Land’, no joke. Turns out since she bought the property in 2001 the water consumption of the property has more than doubled. So let’s do a little math! If Oprah is using 10.6 million gallons of water per year and an average family of four uses 146,000 to 511,000 gallons per year (depending on where they live and on which source of info you use) how many families could live at the Promised Land?

I get the west wing!

That’s right! 72 to 20 families could live with Oprah!

So yeah, Oprah is using enough water on her estate out in Montecito for 80 to 284 people to live off of. Keep in mind that using 511,000 gallons of water a year is the Palm Springs estimate, where they are using more water than they really need to be. So even 20 families living in excess could do just fine out at the Promised Land. Now even better (sorry, more math), Oprah has been out there since 2001, so that’s almost seven years of consumption now. Meaning a total usage of about 74 million gallons of water. That’s 37 million gallons that were available for others before she moved in.  Fantastic job Oprah!

But it gets better. Turns out that the area where Oprah’s estate is continuously uses more water than the district can provide. Meaning that in the last two years the district has bought additional state water. The cost this year of the extra water? $816,000! That’s right folks, this area of super and ridiculously wealthy people is not only consuming precious water willy-nilly, they are having the taxpayers of the area pay for their excess water use! Now granted, they are supplied by the Montecito Water District, but this covers Montecito AND Summerland. Median income for a family in Summerland: $64,700. Median income for a family in Montecito: $151,937. So while Summerland peeps aren’t super hurting for cash, they’re not exactly making the level of Montecitans. And it is the Montecitans who are using more water.  Good job well off people!

The Montecito water district has done a number of audits in their area, usually decreasing water consumption by 10-30% at each property. Big surprise, there doesn’t seem to be any damage to the plants! Apparently reps have continuously tried to get a hold of Oprah on this issue. They never got to talk to her or any of her representatives, but they think possibly their message got through, Promised Land’s water usage fell by 40% compared to last July’s usage. Maybe she’ll do a show on saving energy/water/money now that she’s gone through the experience and we can all give her a big pat on the back for being such a great citizen.

- suse