Just a Rantin'..Rantin'

All of journalism is a shrinking art. So much of it is hype. The O.J. Simpson story is a landmark in the decline of journalism.~Dick Schaap

OK so I have been off the radar for a month and I am coming back with a rant.  Shameful I know but I have got to let it out or explode.

Our local tv station is part of ABC so as soon as the local news goes off GMA comes on.  So what is my one rant about? (yeah I have more than one today!!)  HYPE!!!  defined as “Excessive publicity and the ensuing commotion” Let’s first start with the hype on “Nemo”.  No not the little Disney clown fish but the catastrophic, ferocious, epic, brutal, snowmagedan, and just why the hell dowe have to now name them, storm.  

“People are sheep. TV is the shepherd.” ― Jess C. Scott, Literary Heroin (Gluttony): A Twilight Parody

 The hype was so big that most school districts closed for the day regardless of the fact that they have no snow days left and will have to make the day up later in the year.  They didn’t even let them go in for half a day to get credit for it knowing that “NEMO” was not going to start till after noon.  So the kids sat home, several snow flurries fell, 3:35 came (the time they get home from school) and we did not even have a dusting.  The weather channel continued their dire warnings, projected snow totals were raised to 10-14 inches and we awoke this morning to a mere 5 inches. 

“No matter how big the lie; repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as the truth.”
― John F. Kennedy

GMA hypes evvvvvverrrrrrrything.  Listen to the first three minutes of the show and the drama level of whatever that day’s topic skyrockets  followed by Entertainment Tonight bullsh*t.  Instead of real news it is pop culture crap and you tube video’s.  Which kind of leads into rant two…where the hell is the news?  GMA ads say  “we bring you the morning's big news and expert analysis”  or that GMAis a place to “get breaking news stories and in-depth coverage”.  When they do happen to have news it is nothing close to “hard hitting.”  When I expected to hear about Hillary testifying about Bengazi I got Beyonce lip-syncing.  When expecting to hear about fixing the economy and paying off the debt you get the housing market is doing fantastic, now is the time to buy, the stock market is hitting record highs….hello the economy sucks people. Things are not getting better around here and yet nobody is talking about it.  

It’s like “Let’s just paint this picture of perfection and soon they will all see it.” Well I don’t consider Hollywood and their antics more important than getting people back to work, cutting spending and paying off some debt instead of making my grandchildren foot our bills. I could continue but your eyes would glaze over if they haven’t already.

So rant number three…ACCOUNTABILITY  Defined as, in ethics and governance, accountability is answerability, blameworthiness, liability, and the expectation of account-giving.  Nobody takes responsibility any more. I could continue with the whole economy rant and people being accountable there but we dropped that an inch or so above.  So we will move on with a little story…

#2 daughter has a borderline thyroid problem.  Every so often they do a blood test to check things out.  In December the blood work came back with some abnormalities and her primary scheduled an appointment with a specialist.  When we go to her primary physician they take her in, do the exam and then call me back to discuss whatever needs discussing so when the specialist called her into the back I thought it would be the same.  WRONG.  She turned 18 so all of a sudden she is an adult and quite capable of handling all medical transactions.  So she comes out with a fist full of papers and tells me that she has PCOS and celiac disease.  #2 daughter said they are scheduling an appointment with the Gastroenterology department, they will call with the date and that we can leave.  I asked if I had to talk to the doctor and she said we had to read the paperwork, not change her diet until after the appointment with the gastroenterologist.  I said what did they say and she told me she didn’t understand most of it. So I read the paperwork, scheduled her an OB/Gyn appointment to see about  the PCOS and took a call for the gastroenterologist appointment to be on January 31.

While waiting to go the gastroenterologists I start to read up on celiac disease.  I start freaking out when I read site after site that I have to have a set of gluten free cookware just for her meals, separate utensils to cook her meals, separate plates and cups, separate basin/dishcloth/towel to do her pots/pans and dishes with, gluten free deodorant, soap and shampoo, making the top shelves the gluten free zone so nothing with gluten falls down on the gluten free stuff, how to eat out while being a celiac etc.  I compile lists to take shopping of foods that are gluten free, lists of foods with hidden gluten, I buy 10 pounds of rice to make rice flour, I purchase tapioca starch, potato starch, and xantham gum to mix with the rice flour so I have a flour substitute for her.  I buy boxes of gluten free bisquick to use during the transition.  I start compiling a recipe collection of gluten free foods and substitutes for her favorite meals to make the switch as easy as possible for her.  Because I cook almost everything from scratch it wouldn’t be that hard.  The hard part would be keeping everything totally and completely separate.

January 31 arrives and we go to the appointment.  I don’t even wait or ask if I can but immediately get up when they call her name since I want to know what is going on.  We sit down and when the doctor comes in he asks what symptoms she had.  We tell him none.  He asks why did they test you for celiac then.  We explain the blood work for thyroid.  He asks if we have the lab work.  I tell him the primary faxed all labs over to this center when they made the first appointment.  He says then all #2’s info should have been scanned into the computer.  He pulls out the keyboard , brings up her info and gets a puzzled look.  He said that #2 does not have celiac and that the paperwork stating she does belongs to a 14 year old girl named Rachel.  He says the primary must have faxed over Rachel’s results along with #2’s and the first specialist didn’t check the names before issuing his readings!!!!  SAY WHAT?!!! He sends her downstairs to have more blood work done to confirm that she does not have it and tells us to contact the primary physician for their paperwork screwup.

So the next day I am on the phone leaving a message for her primary to call me because I want to know why this happened  Primary’s nurse calls to tell me they never said she had celiac (which they didn’t, they just said abnormalities)  I said what about Rachel?  She said Rachel has been diagnosed and is a patient of the specialist also.  She said when all the paperwork for all referred patients was faxed to the specialists that day they must have scanned it all in wrong.

So needless to say nobody wants to take credit for this mistake.  The old blame game. Forget about Hipaa regulations, forget that my daughter was wrongly diagnosed because of the paperwork screw up which could have been fixed if the specialist would have checked the names on the top of the paperwork himself.  How many other times has this happened?  I really don’t want to know because it disgusts me the lack of accountability but also the lack of humanity.  We are all just a number on a machine and we are not seen as a living being that can be damaged by their negligence.

And finally the last rant…GOSSIP.  We live in a small town and as Kenny Chensey would say….

Where everyone knows everyone
There ain't no secrets around here
Sonny you love me
You hang me for everything I am
Either I hold your heart
Or I hold you down
I'm a small town

Right after Sandyhook our school like many others had a shooting scare and lockdown . So my son was texting with this girl, discussing the lockdown and the Sandyhook shootings and she said she would never be able to shoot someone.  My son is joining the Army and said in a you or me situation that you are going down.  So this girl’s mother gets on and says that is a terroristic threat and she is going to go to the school etc.  Son comes downstairs shaking and shows the texts to me, the man and some friends that were here.  He is scared of the police listing him and afraid he won’t be able to join the Army.  We tell him there was nothing wrong with the statement, in combat you don’t stand there and let someone shoot you but he should  go to the school office first thing in the morning and let them read the entire text.  Vice Principal says there is nothing wrong with what he texted and that he is over reacting to be worried about it.  She told him if the mother does call the school everything will be taken care of but she didn’t think the mother would call.  End of story?  Nope

A couple of weeks later my sister in law is getting her hair done and she is asked if she still lets her kids near my son.  My SIL is shocked and says “yeah why wouldn’t I?”  The mouth says “after what he did”.  So my SIL says “oh pray do tell” and mouth goes on to say that #2 son was involved in the shooting threats at the school that caused the lockdown.  My SIL says “oh really I think Judy would have told me”  The mouth tells her that I was probably too embarrassed.  SIL says no she would have told me and where did you hear this.  The mouth tells her that a teacher from our school told her all about it.

So SIL comes home and calls me up to tell me people in the salon were talking about #2 son but doesn’t tell me she knows who it is.  I tell her I am going to call the school. 

So I am furious that someone is accusing my son of being able to carry out such a disgusting act so I call the school.  I get the VP and explain the situation.  She says their teachers would never do that!!! Ha ha ha ha OK!  I ask if there is anything they questioned him on that I may not be privy too and she assured me that he is a great student, no disciplinary problems and we discussed the texting episode.  She said if I found out a definite teachers name than action would be a taken.  So still mad I call the salon and tell them if they wish to discuss my son please let me know and I would be happy to be present for the next discussion.  She tells me it was a customer that brought it up.  I didn’t ask for the name because I knew she wouldn’t give me it but told her to give my number to the customer so we could discuss how much this customer knows about my son. 

SIL calls later to hear what the school said and finally divulges who started the conversation.  Now I know this beast aka BB.  I went to school with her son.  I can’t say I like her but I didn’t dislike her either but now I do. 

So I call up BB.  She was either not home or had the good sense not to answer her phone when my number showed up on caller id, but she did have an answering machine.  So I felt duty bound to leave her a message.  The gist of which was that as his mother you would think that the school and state police would have enlightened me to his supposable behavior but since they didn’t that it must not be true.  That as his mother I would be the first one to kick him in his a$$ if he did something wrong but nobody else had that right, especially some loud mouth who did not even know what he looked like.  And that if her and the teacher would like to have any further conversations about my son, to feel free to come on over to my house instead of talking about him in a salon.  He of course will be there to defend himself against the likes of them.  I left my number if she wished to discuss anything further

Well that was the gist.  There may have been a few choice, not for virgin ears words mixed and mingled in there. Oddly enough she has not called me back. 

 A little Jason Aldean  Dirt Road Anthem everybody?

And all this small town he said, she said
Ain't it funny how rumors spread?
Like I know somethin' y'all don't know,
man that talk is gettin' old
you better mind your business man,
watch your mouth
Before I have to knock that loud mouth out

I once read that if you heard something that you should think…is it true, helpful, inspiring, necessary, kind if not don’t repeat it.  I cannot fathom a life so boring that one needs to run their jaw about things and people they don’t even know. Be part of the solution not the problem.  Living in a small town BB and I are bound to see each other soon.  After my message she may not be looking forward to it but I am!

It has just bugged me all the people not doing their jobs properly and not being accountable(politician, news reporters , doctors etc) while millions would love to have a job.  And the bubble  in which they operate that their actions have no harmful effects on others lives.  It is mind boggling.

And that about concludes our rant for the day and I will be returning to my regularly drama free life style soon which includes fiber!  I have been working on my knitting!  I have a cowl, a shawl, a hat and an afghan on the needles.  I started the afghan but found crocheting hurts my arm if done too often. So I started knitting the shawl but needed more yarn so I ordered another skein.  While waiting on the yarn I started knitting a hat but needed more yarn so I ordered another skein.  While waiting on the yarn to arrive I started knitting a cowl with some homespun .  The cowl will be off the needles tonight and the one yarn has come in so I will go back to work on the shawl.

I mindlessly started these projects without checking yardage…or was I hoping to stimulate the economy skein by skein and save the postal service at the same time.  The world may never know.