Eight Feet Deep

Is global warming turning the continent purple, green, red and yellow?

Actually, the colors on the map above do not accurately indicate what is going on here although I am sure you are astute enough to know that. They merely are infrared images layered upon a weather satellite photo from a couple of hours ago. NOAA — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — says these colors mean something but I am not entirely sure what. What is important to know is that a cold front has just swept on top of us here in Southeast Texas for our first taste of cool fall weather this year.

The Weather Bug doodad on my computer said the temperature is 59.9 degrees at St. Anne’s Catholic School, about a mile or so away. In the meantime it is 62 degrees with heavy rain/fog/mist at the Jefferson County Airport some 15 miles south of town. What does it all mean? Well, perhaps it means that like an aging troubadour, weather creeps along leaving behind its chilly tunes. Huh. So that’s what it means?

It is actually nice having the temperatures cool a bit even though this hasn’t been anywhere near a hot summer of the kind we sometimes have here. But taking the good with the bad there surely will be some colder days ahead before spring sneaks into the kitchen for a midnight glass of milk and some chocolate chip cookies, all of which for this area will probably occur in late January.

Fall has fallen. It’s time to button up, cover up, zip up, snap up, or whatever up you might have on hand. Now is the time to wait for the trees to turn colors for the two weeks before winter begins. The Gulf Coast: It is an acquired taste.

The Dallas Morning News‘ Doug Swanson wrote in January 2005:

The Dallas veterans hospital is so dirty, dangerous and poorly managed, federal investigators have found, that it ranks as the worst such medical center in the country.

It has been almost a year since I had to visit that so-called “hospital” so I have no idea how dirty it is. But I can almost bet that it remains dangerous and can attest to the fact that it is poorly managed. I have used five different VA hospitals since receiving veterans health care over the past 20 or so years and Dallas clearly is the worst of the five. It wouldn’t surprise me if it still remains the worst in the country. It’s certainly the worst in my eyes.

How long should it take someone to get information about a billing matter at a hospital? One day? Two? Three? Four and counting? It’s like a box of chocolates at the Dallas VA.

How long should you have to wait to talk to someone or even have your call answered at a hospital? One minute? Two? Ten and counting?

With our country putting our young men and women through the needless sausage grinder in Iraq, they are soon disposed of by the military and thus face “care” by the Department of Veterans of Affairs. It is a system that already was bulging at the seams and operated with the typical cheapness of this Republican administration. Oh the top VA officials and Bush administration will tell you they have funded the VA more than adequately. But they speak with forked tongues and cooked books.

On top of the system itself failing, you have components of the system that are drowning in a never-ending sea of incompetence. The top administrators of these hospitals don’t talk to the patients, at least not those in the large hospitals. People who answer the phone at these facilities actually sound scared when you tell them you want to speak to the head man. I mean, how can some — oh my God — patient — dare to speak to the director of a major VA hospital?

My latest rant comes about because the Dallas VA caused the U.S Department of Treasury to steal $110 from me that I didn’t owe. They had no reason whatsoever for taking it. I am exempt from debt at that facility. And so since they took it, it’s incumbent upon me to get it back. When will I get it back? One week? Two weeks? Three? Six?

Perhaps I am just angry over nothing. I mean, pretend you’re me. Okay, that’s a little harsh. But pretend some company or government entity took $110 from your bank account for absolutely no reason. Also pretend, if you can, that you have maybe $10 total to make it five days until payday. Then pretend you have to fight like hell to get the money that was taken, back, if you can even get it back, and if you get it back it might take six weeks. Pretend that and tell me you’re not mad after such pretense.

So, yes, I am a little pissed off. Maybe I’m overreacting. I’ve been known to do that. But this time, I don’t think so.

“When they told me I was going to see the Dalai Lama,

I just

thought

they meant …

This morning I made it only an hour at work before having to tell my boss that I just didn’t feel well enough to make it the rest of the day. Over night I traveled in bed through alternating waves of chills, fever and being bathed in sweat. I slept most of the morning after getting back from work. I feel somewhat better at the moment.

Looking back, I feel I must have been sick yesterday to not rant about my latest skirmish in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ personal war against me. Going through a particularly rough financial spot — even more than normal — lately I had expected yesterday a mileage reimbursement check to appear in my account electronically. That happened but the amount was slightly less than half the amount I had anticipated.

It didn’t take long to determine that the scum-sucking VA hospital in Dallas had — without any warning whatsoever — my federal reimbursement offset (a euphemism for garnished). Other than this being quite disturbing it became even more infuriating because I knew the VA hospital in Dallas and I had reached an agreement over the money I had owed them for co-payments that I should not have been paid for to begin with. After a short time I had talked with VA people from both Dallas and their outsource billing office in Kansas. Both had no idea why I had money stolen from me by the VA.

After all these years of realizing that life isn’t fair, it still rankles me that the VA can all of a sudden without warning and no reason take my money. But I just bet when they straighten all of this out, it will take them much, much longer to give me my money back.

I still don’t know what I will do. I mean, I know I will be eventually repaid by the VA but something needs to be done to stop the VA from continuing to steal money from veterans who need to live. And I am not the kind just to sit back and put up with such stupidity.

If my scribbling sounds a little less coherent than usual, I would have to point at fever as being one of the problems. I woke up this morning with a slight chill. The same thing happened one day last week. Both times I popped a couple of Tylenol and I was soon sweating like a chihuahua locked in the same room as a pit bull. Okay, maybe that’s not the best analogy. Needless to say, my fever broke but unlike last week I felt crappy all day long today and had to take sick hours from work. Also unlike last week, I took my temperature this morning and this afternoon and got a reading of 99.9 and 100 F respectively.

I don’t get sick very often and so I probably am annoyed more about it than many. Nonetheless, I will see what happens over the course of the next few days. I had used mosquito repellent on a fairly constant basis before I go for walks down here — most times in shorts most of the year — in the mosquito lands of Southeast Texas. But I have backslid as of late so if I get through this without it being West Nile or something mosquito-borne, I think I will make dousing myself with DEET my normal regimen again.