Living Well in a Down Economy

Going to the dentist is a pain to some, but I like going for it gives me a chance to talk with people.

Our regular hygienist has two girls  and a husband that has been between jobs a bit. Her husband has a temp job now but its 90 miles away. Rather than commuting daily, he has an apartment.

This situation is a scenario J and I have discussed. You do what you have to do, and sometimes situations makes sense to change your mindset.

Just being open-minded doesn't mean an opportunity will present itself.

Just have to stay positive and think about the things that we have control over.

In the grand scheme of things, happiness is obtainable if you want to be happy. Worrying gives rise to preparation, but worrying for the sake of worrying is senseless. If Plan A doesn't work then go with Plan B. As long as contingency plans are based on reality and are goal oriented towards the same general result then progress will happen regardless of the small episodes of failure along the way through the process of elimination.

Is there a fate worse than death? Worrying about such things surely ranks up there, which makes me wonder why there are atheists in the world. I puzzle about a number of things, but I don't worry about them enough to desire reasons based on whimsy. Regardless of the causality, things happen for a reason, and I try to go in the direction I am meant to go. Situations present themselves and circumstances dictate which path I follow. Dumb luck happens, but preparation helps nudge one to be in the right place at the right time. It's easy to regret decisions in hindsight, but regret is wasted energy unless a lesson is learned.

What's the point of college football?

The whole Paterno matter at Penn State begs the question, why is college football so sacred?

Covering up CHILD RAPE is accessory to CHILD RAPE, as far as I'm concerned.

Jerry Sandusky is a monster, just based on the accounts that we know occurred, but I would be shocked if there weren't more victims we will never hear mentioned now that the scum is set to rot in prison.

Joe Paterno surely knew something about Jerry Sandusky being a creap back in 1998, as was indicated earlier today. An argument could be made that JoePa didn't think that those relationships were "rape-rape," but only a Penn Stater would make such claim, right?

"Penn State" sounded like a prison moniker to me when I was a kid. Sounded fake. I didn't know what a "nittany lion" was until I googled it moments ago. Sounds fake.

Anyways, the point of all of the covering up of Jerry Sandusky by the legendary College Football Coach was to protect the good name of the program?

It is a state school. What did the cover-up teach us?

It taught us that football is more important than children to some very sick individuals.

Shame on you! They were children, and football is just a game.*

*Games don't matter, for they are merely to pass time without having to deal with the mundane of daily life.

I like football, but I don't say "we" with reference to the teams I follow. My college roommate used to say "we" all the time with regards to John Cooper's Buckeyes. I know about football being sacred for said roommate was the "Crazy Bearded Guy" that added an extra quarter before graduating to be able to get another season of student tickets.

I haven't talked to that roommate since 12/27/03 when we were at the reception of another roommate's wedding here in Dayton. He could be dead, I've not seen him on Facebook or Twitter, hence I mention him here, for the person he knew me as is no more.

Rethinking Target Pharmacy

Disclaimer: I worked at Target at one point in my life.

For whatever reason, I have been to Target to pick up medications twice in the past week only to have to wait though they were called/faxed in hours before my coming to pick up.

I have a regular script I have refilled every 90 days, that I called in on Friday morning last week.
Supposedly, it would have been ready for pickup at 2pm that day, but I didn't get over there until Saturday.
They changed their hours since the remodeling for a produce section, so the pharmacy closed before I came to pick up.
Sorry, but 5 o'clock is early, even on a Saturday.
I made sure that I got there before 5 on Sunday, but my script wasn't ready. I had to wait a few moments for it to be filled.
A couple days ago, K had a visit to a specialist regarding issues he's had since December. Nothing seemed evident upon the doctor visit so blood work was ordered in addition to another test. Doctor sent a script for K that would help his current matters, but we were told to wait until the tests were ruled upon.
Got a call this morning at 9:15 about the blood work which showed nothing out of norm, but the second matter's results weren't in, yet. Those results were relayed at 2pm, and they were positive, so a different script was called in at our Target Pharmacy.
I was going to go to Target before J got home, but I changed my mind upon considering the last time I had K and B at Target. B wanted a toy and was not nice about leaving the toy aisle. I didn't want to relive the episode with it being a day fresh, so I waited until we had eaten dinner to go alone.
I head over there after 6, and they only had the original script ready. I said the other was called in around 2, and I was told they didn't have it in the system. The technician needed to check their voice mail.
It came via fax, and I had to wait a half hour for it to be filled.
Only half of the script was available so I didn't have to pay for it until I got the second half. I paid upfront, for I had a coupon for a $10 gift card since I was filling a new script there. The coupon expired before I needed to fill the second half of the script, and I could use $10 to off set the cost.

I like Target. I like our pharmacists at Target. I just don't care for the waiting and early closing hours.

One thing I do like, we were able to refill a script while we were in Florida without having the medication with us.

I'll stay with Target Rx for now, but there are a ton of pharmacies around that could do just as well if not better.

Waiting for number 3

Last week, the A/C stopped working. A/C was dead and needed replaced. A/C came with the house, and looked old. Dreaded it going out, but expected it all the same.

Today, our Sebring wouldn't start. Cars is 10 years old. Had a new battery 5 years ago, which made me think the battery was the culprit again. I still have the receipt from when AAA came and replaced it when we had stopped at Bob Evans as K and I were going to a Metro Park with my folks. Didn't have AAA at the time, but folks did. Got AAA membership within a month of the incident.

Luckily today, the car was at the house and it is our third car. I debated if I wanted to have the car's battery replaced or not, but I knew I wasn't going to replace the things seeing that it's in the front wheel basin. Called AAA, and they sent a battery van over. After running the computer and testing the vitals of all the starting components, a verdict was made. Battery was not quite dead, but could use a bit of charging. I opted to have it replaced.

Car batteries are not expensive in the grand scheme of things. A set of tires costs a bit more. A water pump costs a lot more. Struts cost more.

Perhaps it is wrong of me to want to keep a third car as a back up, but I just don't see getting something equal in value if we were to sell it outright. Kelley Blue Book values the car differently than I do.