May chitchat thread

[agate]

I am so very glad that happened, Virginia. My experience with UTIs has been that waiting around can make a person increasingly miserable.

[Virginia]

I got "magnificent" on wordle this morning. Just had to crow a little.

[agate]

Congratulations on the Wordle! It took me 5 tries and so I'm just "great." A couple of times I've been really stumped by Wordle.

[Ikoiko]

Walgreens closed on the weekend? What is the world coming to? Reminds of a Starbucks near Boston that now closes at noon! And a McDonald's that only has lobby hours on the weekends! Where are the workers?

[Earth Mother 2 Angels]

((((((Hugs to All)))))) ~

Virginia ~

It is quite unusual for a pharmacy to shut down on weekends. Walgreens is surely large enough to be able to shuffle around their pharmacy employees, so that all of their pharmacies are open. I am thankful for you that the other Walgreens was able to fill your prescriptions.

When I saw the Nurse Practitioner last month, I gave a urine sample, which initially indicated that I had a UTI. The NP hesitated prescribing an antibiotic and wanted further testing. The lab testing returned a false positive, meaning that somehow the sample was contaminated.

After your UTI when you had pneumonia, it is probably best to err on the side of caution.

Does your cardiologist know that your sodium levels are low? I ask because hydrochlorothiazide can cause low sodium levels:

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My Google searches haven't resulted in confirming whether low sodium levels/electrolyte imbalance can cause a UTI. But, it does seem plausible to me.

Perhaps these are questions to ask your cardiologist and your PCP.

Your neighborhood seems to lose power often, or am I imagining that? I hope that you have no further outages.

Failure to Breach the Classroom Door at Robb Elementary

Initially, the first officers to arrive on the scene were local officers assigned to the school district. They didn't have the tactical skills and experience of the Texas Rangers and the Border Patrol. The commander among the 6 officers told them to stand down, claiming that the shooter was a "barricaded" subject. We've now learned that they didn't attempt to stop the shooter by distracting him through the windows outside or the window on the door. The statement has been made that they "didn't want to get shot."

When back up arrived, that is when they breached the door, thanks to the janitor's keys.

That's another flaw in the process: The commander of the school officers is supposed to have a master key for all of the schools they serve. But, no, a janitor had to be called.

Why couldn't they kick down the door? Because Texas expended money on "hardening the schools." Impenetrable doors, locked from the inside. Tragically, the door was unlocked, which allowed the shooter entrance to the classroom. Tragically, the shooter locked the door, so that the officers couldn't get in.

There was also a side door entrance to the school, which was propped open for some reason. That door should have been closed and locked. That is how the shooter entered the school.

Locking the doors would have made the shooter's entry more difficult, but he could have just shot them through the outside windows to gain entrance. When the shooter locked the door once he was inside the classroom, the officers couldn't get in to save the children.

"Hardening the schools" makes my blood boil. School is a place for learning, growing, maturing, understanding the world, understanding ourselves. Teachers strive to make their classrooms vibrant and interesting to the students. Teachers embrace their students with a desire to make them feel safe. School isn't prison. Children can't feel safe, when their teacher has a gun in a holster or an AR-15 propped up in a corner, just in case.

And all of this talk about Resource Officers at every campus is disgusting. Robb Elementary's school resource officers had to drive to the scene and did not even see the shooter hiding. And Resource Officers delayed helping the victims, because they didn't know what they were doing.

There was a resource officer at Parkland, who did nothing to stop the massacre. There was an armed officer in the Tops Market in Buffalo, who tried to stop the shooter and died in his efforts.

What is the common denominator in mass shootings? Automatic military style weapons.

An AR-15 has only one purpose: to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time.

The 18 year old teenager, who murdered 19 children and 2 teachers, acquired two AR-15s and over 1,000 magazines for ammunition. Reporters, who have spoken to his family members, state that the family members claim that they didn't know that he had any problems, mental or otherwise. Yet, he had an argument with his mother, and left her home to live with his grandmother, with whom he purportedly had an argument, and shot her in the face. Really? Nobody in the family saw this coming?

The average age for schizophrenia in males is late teens to early 20s. This is a time of tremendous hormonal changes.

The ages of school mass shooters from Columbine on are late teens to early 20s. Typically, these boys are "different" in some way, unpopular, bullied. Or they experienced trauma and had no one to turn to so that they could work through that problem.

When they reached the age to acquire weapons, they took their revenge on the world by destroying the lives of children and their parents and families forever.

I am appalled at the names some politicians use to describe this shooter, while also pretending that mental health is the issue instead of guns. He needed help, and no one was there to help him. He isn't a monster. He is also a child. He had just turned 18 a few days prior to buying his weapons.

We don't know what might have happened to him, if he wasn't allowed to buy his arsenal. But, we do know that 19 children and their two teachers wouldn't be dead now.

Who is collecting all of the data and history of these boys, who commit these horrific crimes? Looking for a pattern, so that parents can be alerted to signs that their sons have issues? And offering resources to help their sons?

Our system is broken. We must repair it.

Love & Light,

❤️❤️❤️❤️

Rose

[Virginia]

Rose, I was really upset when that Walgreens went to 5 days a week. They have a nice drive thru and it has been really good for me. The other Walgreens is very near, but located in a shopping strip. You have to park out in the parking lot and walk across a drive to get in. That would not bother many people, just those who have a problem walking or possibly standing after they get inside. Several years ago a close by Kmart went out of business and they just put up a sign that unless told otherwise all prescriptions were being transferred to that Walgreens. Many people have just left their prescriptions there, so they do a lot of business. I think that is why the Walgreens that has the drive thru might be the one that they are letting go. Walgreens bought up a lot of other drug stores and then started having financial problems. I think some of their stores might go out of business.

Like Ikoiko, my first reaction was what is this world coming to.

About the UTI, I told my Doctor there were two things she could do for me - one was to order a urine check when I felt I had a UTI and the other thing was to check my thyroid every six months. When I was going in person to the Neurologist they would order a thyroid check about that often. Now that I am no longer going in person, but just having phone visits, the only place I can get it checked is at my PCPs office. So when I was there I had felt for a couple of days that I had a UTI and she checked. This is very common in some persons with MS. I drink cranberry juice and do everything to try and not have one, but they start up every once in awhile.

A long time ago, before I knew I had MS, I was going to a urologist. He did everything he knew to do to find the cause. Finally he put me on a very low dose of an antibiotic every night for a long time. The only thing they found was that my bladder was not emptying fully. When I was diagnosed with MS there was no longer a need to see him. They just have to treat it when it crops up.

My neighborhood does not ordinarily have a lot of power outages. We have had a series of them recently due to a number of very bad thunderstorms in this area. Our weather is predicted to be very hot this week, but I just hope we don't get the bad storms with the lightning and wind and several times even hail.


PS: You mentioned some politicians talking about mental health issues in regards to guns. Many, many times it is not known by any officials that people who commit these shootings have mental health issues until after they commit them. Then they start checking their social media writings and things they have said to others. This is plainly not the answer when it comes to shootings.

[agate]

I agree about the mental health question. Mental health professionals are really very limited in what they can do. They can't work miracles. Some just aren't the right fit for some of their patients. Some can prescribe powerful drugs but those drugs aren't always well monitored--either through the patient's failure to comply or the prescribing professional's failure to follow up. Human behavior just can't be totally controlled, even by the most skillful mental health provider.

It makes far more sense to me to make it less easy for lethal damage to occur by removing the all-too-easy and all-too-dangerous firearms that are now part of our lives.

[Virginia]

Well said Agate! That is what I was trying to say.

[Virginia]

I had a Memorial Day surprise this morning. Yesterday a neighbor called and asked me if I had a bud vase that I was no longer using that I could let her have. She said she had a client who had opened up a new place of business and she wanted to deliver a flower to them today, but didn't have a vase that it would fit in.

I told her I had given away most of them but let me look in the bottom of my china cabinet to see if I still had one there. I called her back and told her I had a six inch cut glass one and a 9 inch one. I told her she could have either one that I needed to get rid of so much stuff. She came up, stayed awhile and said the 9 inch was perfect. She was very serious about going to take something for Memorial Day to this client. She wanted to pay me for the vase, and I told her to please take it, that would be one less thing for me to have to deal with.

This morning about 10 o'clock she called and said she had forgot but she had some mail that belonged to me could she come and drop it off. I told her yes, so here she comes with a friend carrying a vase with red, white and blue flowers. The vase was wrapped in red, white and blue paper and it had a slender pole sticking out the top with a little flag on it. She handed it to me and said here is your vase.

They were both so pleased that she had really carried that off without me having a clue what was going on. I told her after fooling me as much as she did I wasn't sure I could ever believe her again. We all had a good laugh and the flowers are sitting in my living room. I thought she was very clever to think of that.

[Earth Mother 2 Angels]

((((((Hugs to All)))))) ~

Virginia ~

How about having all of your prescriptions transferred to another drug store chain with drive thru access? I am so grateful for our drive-thru pharmacy, because it is located in a huge grocery store, and that is a long walk for me. Something to consider to make your life easier.

Thank you for explaining to me that MS can cause bladder issues. Jon had a similar problem, which is why he ended up with an indwelling catheter. I hope that you are tolerating the antibiotic well, and that it will kick in soon for you.

Revelations From the Robb Elementary Tragedy

In addition to the 19 children and 2 teachers, who were murdered in this attack, 17 other victims were treated for wounds. Some were treated and released, while others remain hospitalized. One victim, who is 66 years old, (possibly the shooter's grandmother) is in stable condition, and one 10 year old girl remains in serious condition.

The total number of victims with injuries and/or death is 38 people.

Add to that total, Joe Garcia, who died of a heart attack after placing flowers on his wife's tribute at the school.

If you add the shooter, an 18 year old boy, the total is 40 people.

Now, we must add the grieving families, the children, who survived the attack, and may feel guilty for the rest of their lives. The town of Uvalde, which has been invaded by press and dignitaries, is grieving and in shock.

And people, around the world, who cannot comprehend how this can happen in the United States, are grieving and in shock.

The Governor of Texas claims that mental health is the cause of these mass shootings. That Governor slashed $211 million from the state's Medicaid budget to address mental health in April 2022. Last month.

It is highly likely that the residents of Uvalde rely on Medicaid for their health care coverage.

In an interview today, Becky Pringle, President of the National Education Association, said that the mental health argument is a distraction from the real problem: access to automatic weapons. She also stated that teachers will be activists against gun violence and the suggestion that they become armed. There is already a teacher shortage, which would be exacerbated by the requirement to wear a gun while teaching.

These are "common sense" gun laws, which have been recommended for decades:

1. Ban assault weapons for civilians.
2. Raise the age to 21 to buy any kind of gun.
3. Background check before purchase.
4. At least a 3 day waiting period.
5. Red flag warnings (eg, buying too many weapons and ammunition).
6. Require a license to purchase a firearm.

Firearms are the Number One cause of death among children in the U.S.:

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Studies have shown that the public's tolerance of and anguish over mass shootings wanes within 4 days of the event. Apparently, we are so accustomed to them, that we just want to move on. Until the next one occurs, and then ... it could happen to someone we know or to us.

Love & Light,

❤️❤️❤️❤️

Rose

[Ikoiko]

Virginia, I have to know, is the entire Walgreens closed on weekends, or just the pharmacy?

[Howie]

1. Ban assault weapons for civilians.
2. Raise the age to 21 to buy any kind of gun.
3. Background check before purchase.
4. At least a 3 day waiting period.
5. Red flag warnings (eg, buying too many weapons and ammunition).
6. Require a license to purchase a firearm.
Rose

Rose, I am a pro-gun person, and I find your rules for gun ownership to be totally reasonable. And the assault style guns should require a special license to own just like machine guns. It is legal to own any military type machine gun in America, but the deadlier a gun is, the tighter the regulations are, and the longer it takes to legally buy or sell such guns. All assault style guns should fall in this category.

[Virginia]

Ikoiko, just the pharmacy is closed on the weekend, but the rest of the store is often not stocked well. I asked if they were going to close. I was told they hoped not but that they are taking their orders from Headquarters about hours etc.

[agate]

Walgreen's is and always has been primarily a pharmacy, hasn't it? It makes very little sense to close a Walgreen's pharmacy on weekends. That's exactly when people who work weekdays have time to do their errands, especially pharmacy errands that are often essential. I don't suppose it would help any to express your thoughts on this to someone in the Walgreen's management--someone at "Contact Us" or even someone above that level? Just to let your voice be heard. They may not have thought this thing through very carefully and need to know about people like you who depend on that particular store with its drive-through.

[SuzE-Q]

Maybe pharmacies don't earn enough solely on dispensing fees and cost markup without more traffic through their store? I'm also surprised they'd cut the pharmacy weekend hours. Seems odd.

I like Rose and Howie's ideas. Except why does anyone need to own any assault weapon? There are already limits on the 2nd Amendment, it was never intended to be absolute. I think assault style weapons should only be available for use at a range under strict controls, but should never be allowed outside those controlled premises. Why should anyone possess one? I honestly think this is much ado about nothing, a lot of protest without a lot of strength behind it except maybe the NRA trying to rile people up to earn its keep as a gun rights organization. There was a prior assault weapons ban. I doubt it would actually be a big deal. Why should anyone have the ability to mow down that many humans in such quick succession? I also agree with Chris Rock, maybe charge $5,000 per bullet, make people really have to think if it's worth it to shoot one. And since when have mental health professionals been so freely available and accessible to the general public that they should be the gatekeepers for weapons access? That does not seem feasible and far too subjective a discipline. I much prefer regulations and licensing and closing loopholes. This has just got to stop.

Congrats Virginia on your Wordle success. On that one, I think it took me 4. How lovely of your neighbor to surprise you like that, you must have been tickled by the thoughtful gesture. Glad you got your abx!