Good news

I just got some good news. My kidney transplant evaluation has been moved up to this coming Wednesday. My husband and I will spend the entire day at the Univ. of Arkansas Medical Center meeting with the surgeons, nurses, social workers, financial people, parking attendants, janitorial staff, weird guy who hangs out in the hospital lobby. Should be interesting.

My top 5 downloads

1. Anderson Cooper 360. Okay, he is one of my secret TV boyfriends but this is a good show. And really...could he be more handsome?
   
2. This American Life
3. Talk of the Nation
4. The Onion Daily News
5. The Moth

How things are going...

I applied for SSI disability (you know, all the money I paid into FICA for all those years) and I've been turned down twice. I hired an attny and filed for an appeal about 18 months ago. So finally I get a hearing but it is in Dallas and I am too ill to travel. I informed the local SSI office in Little Rock 8 months ago that I was now living in Arkansas but apparently that information got filed in the ether somewhere. I was going to try to go to Dallas but I just can not do it. Prayers for a quick resolution and move to Little Rock would be appreciated.

My friend Els came today and cleaned my floors for me. That is just a wonderful gift and I am so grateful. I am hoping that my nephrologist will get me set up with some home help service this week. DH is working two jobs and I am just too weak to do what needs to be done around the house. I've always been a helper but now I'm the one who needs help. Very frustrating.

I got a new toy!

DH won an iPod Nano and now it is mine! =)
How cute is this? I love it!

Els, snakes and +Gene

My friend Els sent me this story:

I was out camping with my family and our friends from Maui .

Greer’s Ferry Lake has been way above normal water levels since early spring, which caused many of the parks to close and an influx of campers in the furthest Northern park where we have camped for now 30 years. My quiet park was packed! One afternoon, while sitting around with the 2 year old son of my god-daughter Mikel, I heard this scream: Snake!!!. All around us there was this yelling and before I knew what was happening, right in front of our camping spot were numerous men, women and their children with axes and shovels, all ready to attack a very small, very colorful snake which totally ignorant of the excitement it was causing, was slithering across the road on its way to enter the ground and trees behind my tent.

I asked the leader, the one up front with the biggest ax if the snake was harmful. What exactly had the snake done to provoke all this?

The guy looked at me as if I was the nut. Should we not kill all snakes? All were ignorant in even identifying a poisonous from non-poisonous, still the mob lynch mentality had totally taken over and there was an excitement in the air for killing something which had an equal or maybe bigger right in being there.

Poisonous or not.

The leader of the pack finally shrugged and told me since it was heading to my tent it was no longer his problem.

I watched the snake for a while comforting 2 year old Nainoa Mountain Love, my god daughter’s son who with a name like that you know is raised in a peaceful world (Nikki told us upon hearing his name that it reeked of tree-huggers). Nainoa did not fear the snake but was scared by the unexplainable anger and close death of something that caused no harm to the earth, instead only added color.

I think of this and wonder if what is done to Bishop Gene Robinson does not come from the same ignorance our world lives in.

Mob mentality based on something our bible scared us from with only a simple word.

Monkeys are EVIL

I hate monkeys. They are evil, filthy spawns of Satan. This woman should get an assistance dog or go to therapy or get anti-anxiety meds. Her "I gotta have my monkey everywhere with me" story is idiocy.

Suit alleges monkey discrimination
Woman contends she needs animal to stop her social anxiety disorder.

Tired of her monkey being sent scampering from area businesses, a Springfield woman filed suit last week against the health department, a local Wal-Mart and Cox Health Systems. In a lawsuit filed Friday, Debby Rose alleges the three entities discriminated against her and a 10-year old bonnet macaque named Richard.

All of the defendants, who Rose sued for unspecified damages, declined to comment on the litigation, noting they hadn't yet seen the suit.

Rose says Richard helps curb her debilitating social anxiety disorder -- which can cause her to have panic attacks in public.

Because of the animal's therapeutic effect, Rose says, he is no different than a seeing eye dog. When I ask, was the last time a seeing eye dog threw feces at anyone?????????

Her lawsuit contends the Springfield-Greene County Health Department had no authority to decide that Richard is not a service animal under the Americans With Disabilities Act and, therefore, is not allowed in food establishments.

That decision was made in 2006, when health department officials sent out letters to restaurants and grocery stores, telling them not to let Rose in with the monkey.

I am so annoyed

I'm having one of those days where everyone and everything and my 4-leggeds are annoying me. So...I'm retiring to the couch to read. Sometimes you just have to start the day over.