POLITICS:
Well, it very much looks like it's come down to an Obama vs. Clinton race on the Democratic side. Republicans - well, it's still a wide open picture, but it seems to have devolved down to three possible contenders: Huckabee, McCain or Romney. Super-Duper Tuesday is coming up in early February, largely rendering moot the Ohio primary in March, as the nominations will be mostly locked up by the end of the day on Super-Duper Tuesday, when 22 states will cast primary ballots for President. Still, the pundits are always saying that nobody gets to the White House without Ohio, so.....it may remain to be seen who wins Ohio. Hillary is the fave among Ohio Dems, and although I am a Kucinich supporter and will vote for him in March, if it comes down to it and Kucinich has withdrawn by then, I'm either going to vote for Edwards or Obama, because I can't stand Hillary. As much as I staunchly desire a female to finally break the glass ceiling in Washington, I'd prefer anybody but Hillary. Too much baggage and the Republicans are hoping to feast on her like hungry sharks in fish infested waters. I suspect that a lot of Republican leaning independents in New Hampshire voted for her in hopes that she'll lock up the Democratic nomination and that they can eat her for lunch come November. The Clintons have a lot of hard core enemies who'd like nothing more than to utterly destroy their political careers once and for all and send them skulking back to Arkansas and obscurity.
HEALTH CARE:
Well, here it is, a new year, and my $1000 medical deductible is back in force, meaning that I have to spend a whopping grand on medical bills before my insurance kicks in. The only reason I succussfully met my deductible in 2007 was due to an MRI on my left knee, which I will be paying off for the next year. I also had blood work and two shoe lifts done by a supposed insurance approved provider that weren't paid for by insurance and stuck me with the bills. My automobile deductible, on the other hand, is a mere $250. Go figure. Why my medical insurance deductible is so high is largely the result of working at a place whose median age is 45 years old, and whose workforce is largely overweight and unhealthy. It frustrates me to see people noshing on bags of chips and rinsing them down with cans of pop at work when that is the last thing that overweight people should be doing, and it costs me - and them - more in medical insurance to pay for their health woes brought about largely by unhealthy lifestyles. Most of my co-workers are on multiple medications and see multiple specialists for expensive health problems that could largely be alleviated by better lifestyle choices, but.....that takes the desire to do so. I've begun trying to eat better and I've been working out with a trainer who is, very fortunately, also my physical therapist, who can advise me on what I should and should not be doing given my recent orthopaedic injuries that are largely healed but still a bit weaker than I'd like. I've managed to drop 20 pounds and get my blood pressure at a good and healthy level. I'm 50 now and can't take aging for granted anymore. I can either go into middle age in good shape or riddled with numerous health problems like so many other people I know. I choose the former way.
TELEVISION:
It may seem ridiculous, but I'm a real fan of the show "The Biggest Loser". I've never really been a fan of this new "reality TV" trend, because most of it is so utterly lame, but this show inspires me to see truly fat people being whipped into shape by merciless trainers. I look at them and think, well, hell, if they can do it in the shape that they're in, then I have no reasons to complain when I am working out with my trainer. It also makes me think a lot more about what I eat and how I eat. They focus not only on a pretty brutal exercise regimen, but on nutritional guidance. It appalls me to hear what and how these folks ate before they came on the show. America is so overgorged on super-sizing everything, from cars to homes to food, that people have a hard time adjusting to downsizing just about every aspect of their lives. Yes, I will admit to loving good food that's rich and bad for me, but I eat stuff like that in moderation. Pizza, burritos, anything like that is to be saved for the occasional reward for when I feel like I need it.
And still more on TV: I've been a lifelong fan of PBS. I've watched public television for many long years, primarily since High School, when I became a fan of Masterpiece Theatre and the excellent series "Upstairs, Downstairs". My High School friends and I had an "Upstairs, Downstairs" Fan Club, a sort of "unofficial" thing, wherein we met the day after each episode, usually in the library or the lunchroom, to discuss the episode we just saw on TV and the exploits of the characters, the Bellamy's upstairs, and the servants downstairs, like the maid Rose, Mrs. Bridges, who always seemed to be cooking some scrumptious looking dishes, Ruby the scullery maid, Mr. Hudson, the oh, so proper butler, Daisy, one of the maids and other characters on the show. I absolutely loved this show and probably could watch it again and have as much enjoyment out of it now as I did back in High School.
I also loved, and still love, Masterpiece Theatre. They do such excellent productions. They just finished a really great adaptation of "Jane Eyre" and are about to do the complete Jane Austen novels. I saw half of "Daniel Deronda" and ought to go back and try to see the whole thing on VHS or DVD. They did an incomparable series on Henry VIII and Elizabeth I back when I was in High School that changed my life and made me fall totally in love with Tudor England and everything about it. I'm going to try to catch this upcoming Jane Austen series, if I don't fall asleep by that time in the evening. Anymore, it gets to be around 9 p.m. and I start yawning and getting sleepy in this darker season of the year. I just hope that I can stay awake long enough to watch this next excellent Masterpiece Theatre series.
Well, it very much looks like it's come down to an Obama vs. Clinton race on the Democratic side. Republicans - well, it's still a wide open picture, but it seems to have devolved down to three possible contenders: Huckabee, McCain or Romney. Super-Duper Tuesday is coming up in early February, largely rendering moot the Ohio primary in March, as the nominations will be mostly locked up by the end of the day on Super-Duper Tuesday, when 22 states will cast primary ballots for President. Still, the pundits are always saying that nobody gets to the White House without Ohio, so.....it may remain to be seen who wins Ohio. Hillary is the fave among Ohio Dems, and although I am a Kucinich supporter and will vote for him in March, if it comes down to it and Kucinich has withdrawn by then, I'm either going to vote for Edwards or Obama, because I can't stand Hillary. As much as I staunchly desire a female to finally break the glass ceiling in Washington, I'd prefer anybody but Hillary. Too much baggage and the Republicans are hoping to feast on her like hungry sharks in fish infested waters. I suspect that a lot of Republican leaning independents in New Hampshire voted for her in hopes that she'll lock up the Democratic nomination and that they can eat her for lunch come November. The Clintons have a lot of hard core enemies who'd like nothing more than to utterly destroy their political careers once and for all and send them skulking back to Arkansas and obscurity.
HEALTH CARE:Well, here it is, a new year, and my $1000 medical deductible is back in force, meaning that I have to spend a whopping grand on medical bills before my insurance kicks in. The only reason I succussfully met my deductible in 2007 was due to an MRI on my left knee, which I will be paying off for the next year. I also had blood work and two shoe lifts done by a supposed insurance approved provider that weren't paid for by insurance and stuck me with the bills. My automobile deductible, on the other hand, is a mere $250. Go figure. Why my medical insurance deductible is so high is largely the result of working at a place whose median age is 45 years old, and whose workforce is largely overweight and unhealthy. It frustrates me to see people noshing on bags of chips and rinsing them down with cans of pop at work when that is the last thing that overweight people should be doing, and it costs me - and them - more in medical insurance to pay for their health woes brought about largely by unhealthy lifestyles. Most of my co-workers are on multiple medications and see multiple specialists for expensive health problems that could largely be alleviated by better lifestyle choices, but.....that takes the desire to do so. I've begun trying to eat better and I've been working out with a trainer who is, very fortunately, also my physical therapist, who can advise me on what I should and should not be doing given my recent orthopaedic injuries that are largely healed but still a bit weaker than I'd like. I've managed to drop 20 pounds and get my blood pressure at a good and healthy level. I'm 50 now and can't take aging for granted anymore. I can either go into middle age in good shape or riddled with numerous health problems like so many other people I know. I choose the former way.
TELEVISION:
It may seem ridiculous, but I'm a real fan of the show "The Biggest Loser". I've never really been a fan of this new "reality TV" trend, because most of it is so utterly lame, but this show inspires me to see truly fat people being whipped into shape by merciless trainers. I look at them and think, well, hell, if they can do it in the shape that they're in, then I have no reasons to complain when I am working out with my trainer. It also makes me think a lot more about what I eat and how I eat. They focus not only on a pretty brutal exercise regimen, but on nutritional guidance. It appalls me to hear what and how these folks ate before they came on the show. America is so overgorged on super-sizing everything, from cars to homes to food, that people have a hard time adjusting to downsizing just about every aspect of their lives. Yes, I will admit to loving good food that's rich and bad for me, but I eat stuff like that in moderation. Pizza, burritos, anything like that is to be saved for the occasional reward for when I feel like I need it.
And still more on TV: I've been a lifelong fan of PBS. I've watched public television for many long years, primarily since High School, when I became a fan of Masterpiece Theatre and the excellent series "Upstairs, Downstairs". My High School friends and I had an "Upstairs, Downstairs" Fan Club, a sort of "unofficial" thing, wherein we met the day after each episode, usually in the library or the lunchroom, to discuss the episode we just saw on TV and the exploits of the characters, the Bellamy's upstairs, and the servants downstairs, like the maid Rose, Mrs. Bridges, who always seemed to be cooking some scrumptious looking dishes, Ruby the scullery maid, Mr. Hudson, the oh, so proper butler, Daisy, one of the maids and other characters on the show. I absolutely loved this show and probably could watch it again and have as much enjoyment out of it now as I did back in High School.I also loved, and still love, Masterpiece Theatre. They do such excellent productions. They just finished a really great adaptation of "Jane Eyre" and are about to do the complete Jane Austen novels. I saw half of "Daniel Deronda" and ought to go back and try to see the whole thing on VHS or DVD. They did an incomparable series on Henry VIII and Elizabeth I back when I was in High School that changed my life and made me fall totally in love with Tudor England and everything about it. I'm going to try to catch this upcoming Jane Austen series, if I don't fall asleep by that time in the evening. Anymore, it gets to be around 9 p.m. and I start yawning and getting sleepy in this darker season of the year. I just hope that I can stay awake long enough to watch this next excellent Masterpiece Theatre series.
1 comment:
We joined Netflix a while back and spent much of the past year watching "Upstairs, Downstairs" from start to finish. We'd seen bits and pieces of it over the years it was on, but never the entirety. We were so glad to see all of it.
nancy, near philadelphia
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