Oral surgery

99.999999999999% of the time I can't stand the thought of going to the dentist.  Well, actually I guess it IS 100% but this time I'm (not but am) looking forward to my Thursday's oral surgery where they remove what's left of these dilapidated pieces of bone or whatever they are from my mouth and stick in the uppers of my new dentures.

IMMEDIATELY?!?!?!!?  Yup - right off the bat - right over the top of those holes and cut gums (guessing there's going to be at least 1 cut gum because my tooth that is broken there has nothing to grab a hold of) and stitches.  YEOWITCH!  BUT on the plus side, all the illnesses and yucky feelings I've had will soon be gone once we get these infection ridden teeth gone.

I hope Andy can handle me not having teeth and will be ok with kissing me with my teeth out - otherwise, bye-bye morning kisses before work.  But I don't think it'll be a problem (I hope).  He's glad it's finally getting done as well.  I'm glad he's going with me.

Must admit, tho, I am still scared to death and excited at the same time.  My anxiety level is through the roof just knowing this week is THE week.  So the part of me that wants these teeth gone the way they should have been gone decades ago is excited, but the little kid in me that was traumatized by the dentist when I was really young is scared right to death.  Glad I got anti-anxiety meds!  Thank God for my therapist and psychiatrist's understanding!

Lord what a boring post.  Why couldn't I remember to post here when stuff was happening??  Ah well - it is what it is.

Well, guess I've lived up to my blog title!

To be honest, I forgot I had this.  It was kind of neat going back and reading the few things I had posted and saw what all was going on when I first started this.

And I can't really tell you how I found myself again.  I was just checking another fellow's blog and saw mine, I think, and clicked on it and here I am again.

Maybe I'll start writing again.  I've been "venting" on facebook and although I don't have many followers here, I can post and if I feel like an idiot when I'm done, I can just delete it (I know, I can do the same thing on FB but sometimes I don't feel like an idiot until some time later and someone has already read it so it's too late to pretend I didn't write it. LOL)

So, until next time (which may be years again).........

Good Union Article

Received this in an email - I get a lot of guff sometimes about unions because they only see "shop" unions where they have to fight tooth and nail to get proper pay and benefits.  But they also see the "shop" unions where they take advantage of the fact they are union to slack off - knowing that they can't be fired because of the unions.

But this - this article gives a great perspective on how unions really DO work when they are working properly with management as they should.

I hope it helps change some negative preconceived notions of unions.

Jodi
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Subject: Good Union article

A while back, someone asked me how Southwest Airlines (founded in 1971 as Air Southwest) had been able to remain non-union all this time, given that the airline industry is one of the most heavily unionized sectors of the economy. I had to break the news to him that Southwest is not only unionized, but is, arguably, the most unionized (87 per cent) of any of the national carriers. Surprise, surprise.

What made this fellow believe Southwest was non-union was the fact that he'd never heard of Southwest going out on strike and because "the employees always seemed so nice." While the implication that union workers were "less nice" than non-union workers was mildly insulting, I explained to him that Southwest Airlines was renowned for its exemplary labor relations (including a generous profit-sharing plan).

In a 2008 in-house article, Joe Harris, a labor lawyer for Southwest, explained that the company's harmonious employee relations were no accident. "At Southwest, our employees come first; our customers come second; and our stockholders come third," he said. "The rationale is pretty simple. If we treat our employees right, they're going to treat our customers right. If our customers are treated right, they will come back and our stockholders will benefit."

Given Southwest's successful track record (as of 2009, it was the largest airline in the world, based on number of passengers carried per year), it makes you wonder why more companies haven't adopted a similar philosophy.

As for the issue of "niceness" or "attitude," that's one of many weird myths that continue to plague unions. I can't count how many people, over the years, have complained to me that union jobs encourage workers to behave rudely "because they know they can't be fired" (another myth). But politeness-or the lack of it-has nothing to do with union membership.

Next time you encounter an impolite Walmart employee, convenience store clerk, tow-truck driver, waiter, ticket-taker, fast food worker, auto mechanic, taxi driver, house painter, parking attendant, roofer, bank teller, carpet-cleaner, etc., just remember that these people don't belong to a union. They're simply people who are impolite.

Unfortunately, labor unions tend to be misunderstood. People fail to recognize that a workers' collective is really nothing more than a hands-on lobbying group, drawing its strength from common interests and common goals. Without organized labor, working people would be in free-fall, totally at the mercy of their employers. Most bosses simply can't abide paying their workers one nickel more than they think they deserve..and, alas, what they think they deserve is usually driven by self-interest.

It's human nature.

What would a Bill Gates or Warren Buffet do if he were strolling in a public park, and happened upon a $5 bill lying in his path? Would he pick it up and pocket it, or would he look at the crumpled-up bill and think, "Hey, I'm a multi-billionaire. What's another five bucks going to mean to me?" Answer: He picks it up. Money is money, and no one wants to part with it or pass up an opportunity to get more. It's human nature. Labor unions are simply the barrier by which working people avoid getting steamrolled.

Consider the minimum wage. It is presently $7. 25 per hour. At that rate, if you work 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, and never miss a single day, your annual pre-tax salary is $15,080-not exactly what one would call a "livable" income. But without the minimum wage, meager as it is, employers would be playing off one desperate worker against another. Without the minimum wage, the economy would become an unrestricted buyer's market.

Indeed, it would resemble a reverse auction. Who's willing to work for $6.85 per hour? Who will do it for $6.50? Who will do it for $6.00? Do I hear $5.75? Do I hear $5.50? If you don't believe it, just look at how restaurant owners treat Mexican immigrants. Many of them don't even pay them minimum wage. Why? Because they know these people will work for less and they see it as an irresistible opportunity to save money.

Regrettably, over the years organized labor has allowed itself to become demonized and caricatured. Instead of decent wages and benefits being celebrated as a boon to the economy and testimony to an enlightened society, corporations have managed to turn the tables. Like sleight-of-hand artists, they have diverted our attention elsewhere.

Instead of us being furious at the manipulators of the economy-those who grow increasingly wealthy while the middle-class continues to be chipped away-they've tricked us into being angry at working people. They've gotten us to resent the wage-earner who makes $45,000 a year. If you didn't know better, you'd think the world had been turned upside down.

David Macaray, a Los Angeles playwright, is the author of "It's Never Been Easy: Essays on Modern Labor". He served 9 terms as president of AWPPW Local 672. He can be reached at dmacaray@earthlink. net

 Doug Williams

My Son and his family and Make-A-Wish in Disney World

Day One - Steve, Jen, Clay, Gabe, and Katyra hop on a plane from Pittsburgh to fly to Florida to visit Disney World

Plane flight was relatively uneventful.  Katyra (who this trip is for specifically by the Make-A-Wish Foundation) had a little problem with her ears going up and down but otherwise did fine.  They get picked up at the Florida airport and shuttled to their hotel (I think).  They are also provided a car during this time.  At 7pm they were given an orientation meeting and a schedule of activities.  I am not sure if they have to follow that or if it's just an idea of what to do.

One of the nice things about this being through MAW is they get in the "express" lane and get to go to the head of the line - no standing for hours waiting for a ride. They have priority over EVERYTHING - if they want a pizza, they call and order and they'll deliver - FREE - if they want to go to a restaurant there, they order and eat and walk out, FREE. Such a great thing, Make-A-Wish. Edit - that is what I thought last night.  That is true but only in their hotel.  If they get a meal in any of the parks, they have to pay for it.  But MAW did give them $3k spending money so it's not too big a deal  - back to yesterday.

Poor Clayton - Steve called me at about 9-9:30ish and said I needed to get one of the grandkids settled. I figured it was Clay and I needed to tell him to stop being so rambunctious so he wouldn't get into trouble. Nope - he was bawling - missing his gammie. Feeling homesick I guess. I got him settled somewhat - told him he'd feel lots better tomorrow (today) when they actually started doing things and he could call me whenever he wanted to to tell me about what he was doing/had done and Steve is going to let each one of them talk to us about their day every night.

Poor Katyra got bit by a fire ant first thing after they got there so by now they should be "fire ant ready". Feel bad for her - Steve called so she could tell me that she got bit and she's crying and I tell her to tell daddy to get an ice cube for it and the tears stopped instantly so she could tell her daddy and then they started again LOL So it must have hurt when it happened (I know it did - I've been bit and so has Steve - I still have a scar from one!) but had eased up by the time I talked to her. She just wanted a little more sympathy, so she shed more tears. 

Only one I didn't hear from was Gabe :) That little bugger is a tough kid. Can't wait to hear from them and see how their first day went.

The bummer of it is, they don't have internet service! Can you believe that? In this day and age? I guess he can get wi-fi for 3 days so he's going to wait until towards the end of the week after they've had time to do things before he starts the wi-fi. We'll just talk on the phone (I hate the phone, I have such a hard time hearing!!) until then.

Day Two



Well, got the phone call a bit ago. They went to Sea World first. Rode the Atlantis roller coaster ride (all of them) and I guess there is a straight down shot right after you get the pee scared out of you by a huge Medusa and that almost made Gabe pee (his words LOL).

Clayton went on a "big boy" roller coaster and screamed bloody murder the whole time on the ride. BUT, he didn't puke. THAT'S MY BOY!!! Steve's going to take him on another "big boy" roller coaster that won't be as bad as the first one to help him learn to enjoy them. I think he'll want to go again.

They also got to feed the dolphins and pet them, and got to pet stingrays. The whales were all off limits due to the death a little while ago. They did their tricks and stuff but no feeding the whales and none of the trainers were riding them. Clayton got pictures of them feeding and/or petting the dolphins. I guess he took about 297 pictures!! Again - THAT'S MY BOY!!!! And Steve's been getting some good video too.

Tomorrow they are planning (subject to change) to hit Universal Studios so they can do the Back to the Future ride and possibly Jurassic Park. I know Clay would love that but I'm afraid it may scare him too so I don't know if Steve will let him go or not. I'm hoping Steve goes so he can at least describe the experience.

Tomorrow they are also going to one of those medieval dinner things and they get to go down into the arena and get their pictures with the knights and Katyra is the Princess :) She is totally GEEKED about that part.

More updates tomorrow night.


Day Three


Another fantastic day - they highly enjoyed the medieval dinner - Katyra was one of the "princesses" who got flowers thrown at her so she was geeked.  They were on the green side and the green side lost but it was still exciting for them.  Got their faces painted in tribal style so it was good.  They did try to go fishing but they only had fake worm things so they caught nothing.


Tomorrow is Katyra's Afternoon - She's going to be dressed up as a princess with her hair done and makeup, etc. and will have a special time just for her (the kids will be there too but she's the focus of attention as she should be).  


More tomorrow night.


Tomorrow night, as you have probably noticed, never came - they got so busy they didn't have much "speak" time afterward because they were exhausted.  But they had a fantastic trip, one I wish I could have enjoyed with them.

Gideons, Auxiliary Members, Physical and Mental Health All Rolled Into One

This is in response to a comment/question posted by a friend on FB and since I ended up running off at the mouth as I am wont to do, I decided to blog it as well.  So here we go (took my meds so I hope I don't wander too far off - just took 'em so I should be safe :) )

My Status on Facebook was this when I left the house :

Jodi Swanson Cornelius Just chillin' - waiting for tonite - Gideons are giving a Pastor Appreciation Banquet tonite so I gotta be on my best behavior and in the new clothes that I bought for it :)

Spare Ribs
do you go round sneaking Bibles into hotel rooms? No offence Jodi! sorry gotta be said (my daughter's friend is a Jehova's witness - she's lovely too) best behaviour is hard for me x

My MULTIPLE responses - I don't think she knew what she was getting into when she posted that LOL
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Jodi Swanson Cornelius

Ain' no thang - and no, I don't go sneaking Bibles into hotel rooms - that's the Gideons (the men) - I belong to the Auxiliary and we sneak Bibles into the hands of domestic violence victims, and women prisoners, and nurses, and various other places :) We don't do anything but place Bibles - we aren't like the Jehovah Witnesses - we will share ourtestimony but we don't go door to door forcing Bibles in hands - in fact, we don't "hand" out Bibles - we place them on top of our palms and you are welcome to take one or not. Sometimes when we have what we call PWT (Personal Worker's Testament) in our pockets we will offer them to service people, waitresses, waiters, gas pumpers, grocery clerks, etc. We don't push 'em - if the person says no thanks we say no problem, just thought we'd offer and if they say yes we show them where there are helps in the front and the plan of salvation in the back and that's the extent of it UNLESS they ask. Some people will take our Bibles and throw them in the garbage - that's ok too - we have many testimonies of people who were down on their luck and came across one in the garbage. We are simply an extension of the churches in America - ALL Bibles and Personal Testaments are paid for by monies donated by churches. Every single penny that a church gives or an individual gives in memory of someone or as a Thank You or whatever goes to the making and sending of Bibles - not one single penny goes for postage, administrative fees - we as Gideons and Auxiliary members pay for that out of our own pockets. The PWTs are paid for our of our own pockets. Every single penny goes to what the person is "paying" for - a Bible. And just to let someone know - if you want to "steal" a Bible placed by a Gideon in a hotel/motel room? TAKE IT!!! They are placed there for people to read but also if someone wants to take it, that's fine as well. The housekeeping staff let us know when they notice some missing but we also make it a point to visit all the hotels/motels once a year to make sure all the Bibles are in good condition and there. If not, we replace the damaged or missing with a new one. And even the Bible is damaged - they aren't destroyed. Prisons don't allow hard covered books into the cells so we take those damaged books, remove the hard cover and replace it with a paper cover that we are careful to glue just right so the guards can tell there's nothing hiding in the binder. So no $$ spent on Bibles go to waste.

Bet you didn't expect THAT long a reaction didja?? LOL That'll learn ya. :) But seriously, I'm not offended - the Bibles in the hotels and motels are there when someone wants something to read - no one is forced to read it. And if it helps someone, more power to them and Praise God!!

Jodi Swanson Cornelius 

To be honest, *I* didn't expect myself to ramble on like that LOL

Jodi Swanson Cornelius

oh and nothing ever offends me that is aimed at me - I might get offended if someone starts talking trash about Jesus and God in a nasty way but as I keep telling people who have a number of problems like we do, God doesn't care if you yell at Him - He has big shoulders. He MADE you so He understands you. Usually, before too long, you come around and understand the whys. I take me as an example. I got more things wrong with me mentally and physically than Carter's got liver pills (dating myself) and I used to yell at God - WHY? WHY ME??? Why do my loved ones all die of cancer? ALL OF THEM!!!!!!!!!! Why do I have to suffer with pain every day 24/7?? Why do I have so many mental issues that I have to take tons of medicine to keep me from killing people?? Why do I have to live with the sword of cancer over my head in my esophagus (I have Barrett's really bad) and all the family members both dead and alive who died or survived their cancer? Why do I have a granddaughter who, at the ripe old age of 15 months was discovered to have bilateral retinoblastoma - cancer in BOTH eyes. Within 3 days of finding out she had cancer, she lost her right eye. Why did she have to go thru that. But you know what the answer is? The answer is now God has built up MY strength in HIM to not be ashamed of my mental issues - I understand people and can relate to them when it comes to people who are ashamed that they have mental problems - I can show them that hey - just cuz your mental doesn't mean you have to be mental. Embrace your being different. Once you accept that this is the way it is then it ceases being a problem for you. And if someone outside of you has a problem with you having issues, then buddy, they'd better look to themselves because there is no reason for anyone to have issues with someone who has mental problems.

So I said all that to say this - with all the problems both physical and mental, all the meds I have to take for the rest of my life (I'll be 48 in April so, Lord Willing, I have quite a ways to go yet) all the pain that has to be maintained by meds that will be part of who I am from now on has simply made me a stronger person both physically AND mentally in a non-physical/mental way - if that makes sense LOL Plus with the almost (it seems) daily addition of new problems (now I'm having major problems sleeping on my back - I quit breathing) if I didn't have the mentality that God has given me, I'd be dead or one of the most miserable people on this planet spreading my misery everywhere. But I'm not because GOD has given me the grace (about the only way I have grace because I sure as heck didn't get "grace"ful at all!! :) to be accepting of my problems, find the humor in all of it - EVERY SINGLE BIT OF IT including the TOS, the fused neck, the damaged nerves, the many numbers of mental issues, yada yada yada. And if you ask any of my friends here on FB they will all tell you the same thing - I am nuts - but, while they know of my physical problems I don't make life miserable around people by grousing about it (just on the Status Forum on the TOS site :) and they would tell you I'm basically a very happy, insane person.

And now you see why I try not to go off on tangents on the TOS boards LOL Ok - I'm gonna shut up - American Idol is done and I'm gonna go watch the recording I made of it while still awake.

Hope I didn't irritate you with all this babbling caused by an innocent remark. Course if I did, you probably aren't reading this part where I'm telling you it wasn't meant to be irritating :) But I think I've purged - and probably would be a good thing to copy and put on my blog as well.  Which, as you can see, I did :)

Hope you have a fantastic night

Stupid Time Change

Why can't the whole world just pick a time and stay with it - I mean, cut the dang hour in half and add it to either end or whatever they want and just leave the time zones alone.  Other places in the US refuse to change their time zones so obviously it's not that big a deal.  And then to top it all off, they stop it a week later and begin it a week early (I think - heck I am on my meds - I'm not even sure I'm really typing this!!)

LEAVE OUR TIME ZONES ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ginger - Again

Ginger is getting most annoyed with us - she can't stand the drops but Andy keeps trying anyway - don't know how much they are working - hoping that even the little bit that can soak in before she licks it off will help. On the plus side, it's not getting bigger and MAY be getting smaller - MAY be......praying so anyway.

And if it doesn't go away and they decide to remove it (right now it doesn't bother her - maybe it's not that Mast Cell tumor they said - but regardless - I'm trying to decide if I want to take the time to do a needle biopsy on it or just take the danged thing and get it over with.  Another thing - stitches in that part of her body (lip) I don't know how well that works  I mean dogs don't "smile" like we do and they have lots of mouth - if she eats will it tend to try to pop the stitches?  I've never had a dog that has had to have stitches in it's mouth.  

But, on the pessimistic side, I told Andy tonite that if something happens and we lose her, I'm getting another one as soon as there's another litter listed.  I can't sit home alone when I can't get out because I'm hurting -- I'll go crazy(er)!!  Even when she's not sleeping on me and is over on the couch or by my feet or outside playing with babe and we're not interacting, she's still "here".

There's no reason that this should turn ugly - it should turn into one of those "Do you remember when Ginger....." stories.  So I'm hoping God, who gave me this dog who attached to me IMMEDIATELY when I picked her up - Clay had his hands in the carrier as well and she jumped over into my hands and then burrowed herself inside my coat - won't take her away from me after so short a time.  And she's been MY baby since.  Oh, as I've said before, she loves Andy too - she may get up to see which way he's going (if she even bothers doing that) but if *I* get up it is to go see what I'm doing - she'll follow me in the bathroom in the hopes that she gets an empty toilet paper core - man she loves to take those into the living room and just chew and tear that sucker up into bitty pieces.  She very seldom eats one of the pieces - just likes to make the mess.

Oh, and to top it off, when it gets close to her visit on the 31st I have to start watching for her to go to the bathroom so I can go grab up her "goodies" for her yearly fecal test and she's also due for one of her shots so depending on what Brad does to her, he'll definitely have the feces to test but she may not get her shot until later on.  We'll see.

You know - this is the stuff I should be writing on my blog instead of FB!! LOL  Maybe I'll copy all this and do that :) Which, as you can see - I did :)