Tax Reform Needs Done NOW

Another day, another demand letter from a tax agency. It would be funny if it weren't so sad. I haven't been able to work in almost 2 years. I'm disabled and just waiting for the State to send the paperwork that shows they believe I'm disabled.

I went through the hearing. Their own expert, who is there to tell the judicial hearing judge that there is work that a person can do and go out of their way to keep people like me to get disability. After an hour, which my husband wasn't allowed to attend, their occupational specialist stated quite clearly that there is absolutely nothing I can do either full or part time to earn a wage. The judge looked stunned because the purpose of this is to keep people from getting the help they need. My doctor told me at least 6 years ago that I need to stop working because it was killing me. I didn't listen because I didn't want to be "one of those people." Not one of the kind they show on TV and demonize in magazines, TV shows and especially the news. A person who is just too lazy to work and expects the government to pay me to sit home on the couch, eat bon bons and watch Oprah.

Nothing could be further than the truth. I kept fighting until July of 2013. My last story was a murder preliminary hearing. The girl was my son's age. They went to school together and I was one of the mothers who would always volunteer to help out for anything the school needed. I've gone on field trips everywhere in the State. One morning, I was dropping my son off for a trip to a gifted competition. I pull up at the school and my son gets out. I tell him to call when they get back and I'd come pick him up. His teacher came running up to my car, asking if I was ready to go. What? I didn't know I was going, didn't know they even needed a chaperone. Luckily, I had my camera in the car ( I never go anywhere without a camera), so I parked the car and got in with the rest of the students and the teacher and we went to the trip. I had to call my husband to tell him where to find the car because we had other plans for the day.

That is the person I was. I covered court, meetings, local events, all things that you find in newspapers and magazines. At one time, I had 7 jobs. Yes, you read that right, 7 jobs. I wrote for two newspapers, a radio station and took meeting minutes for four different government bodies. It finally took it's toll on me and I spend more time in the hospital than at work. I had been hired as a full time staff reporter for a newspaper. It killed me to turn in the paper's camera. I called home and he told me to go wait at a  convenience store. He and my dad met me there and dad drove me home. I was crying too hard to drive. I took a year off until another newspaper called and asked if I could go to one event for them. My head was exploding and I couldn't drive, so my father drove to the event. I covered the event, wrote it up and sent it to the paper. That sucked me back into the reporter's life. I never missed an assignment. Even when I couldn't drive, one of my kids or husband would drive me. They'd go with if it was a meeting where there was food or they'd take a nap til I was done.

When I had to sit through that final preliminary hearing for the poor girl who was slaughtered by her ex~boyfriend, I knew it was too much. I had been dealing with the pain and even got the paper an exclusive  ~ an interview with the alleged murderer's best friend. The editor couldn't say enough about how wonderful  it was, but the next day tells me he wanted someone who wasn't as dedicated to their family. What a joke. I missed so many family events for my job. He just doesn't like women and wanted to hire a "man" It was for the best. It made me see that there is no loyalty and I was killing myself for nothing.

My doctor was pleased that I finally listened. He sent in at least six inches of paperwork on my health conditions and surgeries to Social Security. That was two years ago come July. Now I can focus on my health and not have to worry about being called out to some fire or wreck at 3 a.m. in the middle of a snowstorm.

Why does the government make it so hard for the truly ill? It seems that the frauds get approved immediately because they are depressed. Don't get me wrong, depression can be debilitating, but it's also easy to fake. I don't want to need help, but there is not choice. My son is in college and is transferring to a larger college this fall. My husband doesn't make enough on his own to keep us going.

Updates

I haven't written in a while, just hurts so bad and I've been trying physical therapy for my knee and neck injuries and surgery. Unfortunately, my insurance will only let me have three more visits this year and it's only mid-July. I don't know how I'll survive without it.

The EMG results came back as abnormal, naturally, when has anything done to me been normal? Always been the Abby normal person. (OK, so I might have seen Young Frankenstein a few too many times, but it fits, so why not borrow it?) I saw my regular doctor last Friday and he went over the EMG results with me and let me know I have another debilitating injury. While the knee surgeon was fixing a torn meniscus, my doctor feels that the surgeon cut the nerve in my leg that controls my calf and toes. Why Me? My doctor has been a physician for many decades and has treated hundreds of thousands of patients in his years, but I am the first one he's seen with this injury. It's that rare. Yeah, that's my life. He showed me the nerve and all it does in his medical book. He was stunned I hadn't been shown it and told what happens next. What can I say? I'm a medical marvel. :(

I go back to the neck surgeon at the end of the month and we'll see if there's anything else that can be done. No appointment with the knee surgeon until next month. He told me he can't do anything about the nerve damage in my lower leg except give me more pills. They don't help. He offered to double the dose. Woo Hoo! Double the dose of a medicine that doesn't work? Gee thanks! This is from a orthopedic surgeon. The man has 12 years of specialized schooling, plus several years of residency and that's all he can do about a mistake he made? How about admitting it and apologizing. I know he's afraid I'll sue and win. There's no other way the nerve could have been damaged. It was working before he did the knee surgery and now I have nerve damage?

I am no longer able to work. It killed me when I was told I was no longer able to work. I had been a newspaper/magazine reporter for 20 years. It was a huge part of my identity. When I was made a staff reporter for a large newspaper in my region of Northwestern PA, it was one of the best days of my life. I was a wife, mother of one daughter with a son on the way and had my dream job. I did my best to work daily and take my monthly turn on Saturday night. I wound up in the ER far too often after covering a lengthy court day or other long days working. The day after I used my last sick day, they called me into the editor's office and fired me. That was a massive blow and I cried the whole 45-minute drive home and well into the night. I was taking time off to try and heal when I got called by another newspaper I had worked as a stringer (write articles as they need) for them for another decade or more. I covered the beginning court case of a gruesome murder and even dug up the best friend of the accused murderer and had an exclusive interview with him. The editor was thrilled! The police hadn't even found him yet.

Will write more later about our local firemen's annual parade and carnival that was last week. Also about have my niece Taryn. Was so wonderful having her all to ourselves. She's 9 and such a sweet girl! We couldn't love her more if she were our blood niece.

More Surgery

Amazingly enough, this time it's not me having the surgery. My daughter, Arielle, received more than her stunning good looks from me, she also inherited the painful lipomas that grow all over my arms, legs and spine. Thankfully, hers aren't as large or as many as I get. She had a small one removed from the top of her left knee yesterday.

She goes back to the doctor tomorrow to make sure the wound is healing and then the doctor will decide when she's allowed to go back to work and when the stitches will be removed. She's not happy missing work for the 2 1/2 days. She's use to working all day sorting parts for several automobile companies. She has started paying for her own expenses (insurance and cellphone) and it makes her feel so good to be able to do that. The first day she gave her dad her month expense money, the smile on her face could literally light up the world. I'm so proud of her! She said she finally feels like an adult being able to pay for her expenses. She's 21 years old and this is the first time she's had a job that paid enough to do more than put gas in her car.

Rather than spending every penny she earns on junk, she's saving up for the trip to Mexico we're planning for at the end of August. It's the trip we've been hoping to take for several years since my son's girlfriend's parents live in Tijuana. I can't wait to meet them. Her mother and I write on Facebook and have talked on Skype before. It feels like I've known her forever.

I'll post a photo or two of the surgery when I figure out how to move them from my cellphone to my Surface 2. Night ll.

Finding Bigfoot in PA the Premiere Party

Animal Planet has a TV show called Finding Bigfoot. A group travels around the country looking for Bigfoot. Last night, the show was set in Pennsylvania. My newspaper sent me to the party to check it out and write about what I saw and heard. There were special Bigfoot drinks and burgers and other food. The drink was blue and tasted like candy. Very good! It even had a little gummy bear at the bottom as a treat to find. I tried the mini Bigfoot burger, but there was also a large Bigfoot burger. The mini was more than I could eat and had it for lunch today. So good! The Barrell is located in Lantz Corners and has very friendly waitresses. The people there were also very nice. Only one person refused to talk to me and wasn't very nice about it, but he was easy to ignore when so many others were nice. The article and photos will appear in tomorrow morning's newspaper. I would highly recommend any event held there and will have no problem going to any Bigfoot gathering. The people weren't scary freaks, but just normal folks. I would say the room was about evenly split between believers and skeptics, but even the skeptics were willing to listen and not one person laughed at others beliefs. Do I believe in Bigfoot? I'm open minded. I'm not arrogant enough to say I know everything. Just remember, it wasn't that long ago when everybody KNEW that the earth was flat, that giant squid didn't exist and there were no silver back gorillas.

Chainsaw Carving Rendezvous Day Four

Today is the fourth day of the 14th annual Ridgway Chainsaw Carving Rendezvous. The morning started out horrible with sleet and snow turning the town into a cold, slippery, miserable mess. Of course, the extreme artists couldn't be out working in those conditions. Schools in town were operating on a two-hour delay, hoping the roads would be clear and it would be safe to bring the students in. I had a County government meeting to cover at 10 a.m., so Arielle dropped me off there while she ran around town taking care of a few errands.

Following the meeting, we stopped at home to grab a backpack to carry my gear in and keep it out of the rain and dry as well as an umbrella to keep my camera safe, then walked down to the closest area set aside for the carvers. It's only about a two-minute walk from our front door. Sadly, only one artist was working, but there were plenty examples of the stunning creations at each tent.



After we photographed our favorite pieces, we came home to have lunch and catch up on one of the TV shows we enjoy watching on SyFy called Face Off. It's a contest for make-up artists that allows you to see behind the curtain and learn how the make-up and other special effects are created. There is a new episode on tonight, so we want to watch last week's show to see who was eliminated. We'll go uptown later this afternoon (hopefully, it will stop raining by then) and check out all the work there. We hope to find a little piece to bring home to help remind us of the incredible amount of talent in this world. We pick something up each year. My absolute favorite piece is a stunning walking stick created by a carver from Gettysburg. It goes with every year we visit.



The Rendezvous continues through Saturday, so I'll be posting many more photos by then. That day, I also have to photograph a business expo in a near-by town as well as my cousin's daughter's wedding. That will be a very busy day.

Ridgway Chainsaw Carving Rendezvous

Here's my article and a photo that will be posted in the morning's Bradford ERA.





RIDGWAY – The 14th annual Ridgway Chainsaw Carving Rendezvous begins today and runs through next Saturday, Feb. 23 with the most popular event in the region, the chainsaw carving auction. Carvers can be found throughout the town, including: South Broad, Center and Court Streets, Country Squirrel Outfitters, Keystone True Value and Ridgway Record Parking Lot. One of the new events will be a fireworks display being held Friday evening.

The event began with a small group of six carvers in 2000 and has grown each year to become the world's largest non-competitive event of its kind. Ridgway has been dubbed, “The Chainsaw Carving Capital of the World." Each year they challenge themselves to do better than the last. In previous years, an estimated 30,000 people visited the event. A similar number is expected for this year. “When old painters want to learn, they went to the masters in Europe. If you really want to learn chainsaw carving, you have to go to the masters here in Ridgway. This is where the Mecca is,” Dennis Heath of England said at a previous event. “It’s an emerging fine art form that really has its roots in the United States,” Liz Boni, co-creator of the rendezvous said.

Hundreds of chainsaw carvers from literally all over the world are given a chance to show off their art form, sell a sculpture, either large or small and help raise money for charity through the auction. Throughout the week-long event, visitors can watch the carvers create, attend various seminars and enjoy festival food and crafts for sale. Presentations and demonstrations on the art form, techniques, practices, practical issues, occupational health and business aspects of chainsaw art will be held. Beginning Monday morning through Thursday, a selection of professionals will present educational information and demonstrations to share with other artists and the public.

Some of the carvers who will attend this year's Rendezvous are coming from cities and towns throughout Pennsylvania, Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin; as well as Canada, Chile, Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The week of events will close with the auction. Each carver is asked to donate a piece to the auction, some will donate more. The auction is a rare chance for the public to own a piece of history. Each carving is individual and no two can ever be alike. With thousands of individuals registering to bid, arriving early is the only way to ensure a seat.

Schedule of Events:

Saturday – 16th 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Carver arrival and setup. Many will have carvings for sale.
Sponsor booths can be visited in the Masonic Temple.
Craft Vendors will set up at 253 Main Street store front.
8 p.m. – Bubba Bradley – NBC’S Last Comic Standing
Will be performing at Aiello’s Café. Tickets available at the door.

Sunday – 17th Noon – 5 p.m.
Carvers will entertain audiences and have carvings for sale at all locations.
Sponsor Booths – Masonic Temple.
Craft Vendors will set up at 253 Main Street store front.

Monday – Thursday (18th – 21st)
Carving Seminars 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. at the American Legion (Main Street).
Carving at all locations until 5 p.m.

Friday – 22nd
Carving from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Sponsor Booths – Masonic Temple.
1-3 p.m. Horse Drawn Carriage rides at the Ridgway Welcome Center (weather permitting – donation).
8:00 pm Pyro Technique Display – NEW THIS YEAR!!
In the field behind Lazy River Canoe – along the Clarion River.

Saturday – 23rd
Carving throughout the day.
AUCTION Starts at 12 p.m. until it’s done – located on Court Street.
10 a.m. -? Horse Drawn Carriage Rides at the Ridgway Welcome Center (weather permitting- donation).

The hits keep coming

I'm trying to figure out how to write on here using my cellphone since it's hard to use my laptop very long. For some reason, the screen sets off a massive migraine & I have far too many as it is. My newest fun symptom is dizziness. I have trouble standing or walking without falling or bumping into things. After a shower yesterday, I leaned over to turn off the water & bang! Hit the knobs. Just missed taking out my left eye. I have to keep my hair covering the left side of my face because it's all bruised & a lovely shade of black/blue/purple. Arielle came home from work last night, took one look at me & just started crying. I'm afraid to go to the ER because I think I did some real damage this time & they'll want to to a MRI. I'm terribly afraid of being trapped in that little tube. Last time, Randy had to sit in the room & hold me because I was shaking so bad. That was just a simple 5~minute scan to make sure there were no tumors. This scan Will have to be much longer & will need contrast I have trouble with that too. I'm allergic to the contrast material & guess what it does? YES! Another migraine! I have a regular appointment with the doctor on Tuesday afternoon, so maybe I'll just wait until then to let him decide what to do. October 19 I stratred writing this earlier and couldn't get my Stupid Droid to post it, so I'll just finish it here. I ended up in the ER on Sunday. I was getting ready to go to bed Saturday night and the next thing I remember, my daughter was screaming my name and crying. It was 6 a.m. I had somehow passed out and 8 hours went by. I made the mistake of going to the local hospital. They did the usual scans and tests, but found nothing. No broken bones, even though my left arm was so swollen, I couldn't bend it, my head was covered with bruised and lumps and I could barely walk without help. They wouldn't give me anything for the migraines, even though they have records of almost 20 years worth of migraines and calls from my neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic. I BEGGED for something for the pain. Gave me a shot of what might as well as water. Then the nurse patrictioner said they wanted to admit me for the night. Will they help my head? NO, sorry. Well, then no, sorry, I'm going home. A new malme nurse slams in, rips the IV out of my arm, then squeezes a piece of gauze so hard I cried. Then he bent my arm up HARD to find a piece of tape. I was crying by that time. He came back with the tape, I was holding my arm and told him he hurt me and not to touch me again. He shoved a clipboard at me to sign since I was going AMA and he left. Luckily, my mother was with me or I would have been crawling out of there naked. I could barely walk. I was given NO discharge papers, test results or the required wheelchair ride to the car. Mom walked me to the nursing center. I asked for the "nurse's" name since he hadn't bothered to tell me his name or if he was even a nurse. I called the hospital and made a formal complaint. The "nurse" lied and said I was the one causing problems. I couldn't barely move and couldn't think because my head was so badly injured. The hospital knew he was lying and said they with my results that day. I did get the call and was told there was nothing wrong with me. HUH? Being unconscious for 8 hours is normal? An arm swelled twice the size of a normal arm is fine? Not being able to converse like an adult is normal? Fine, go ahead and cover for your staff. The lies will come out. One of these days, they will push the wrong person and they will call me. Lying, cheating and more is wrong and hurting patients is sickening. What happened to, "Do No Harm?" I will see my regular doctor on Tuesday. After he finishes yelling for not going to his hospital, he'll take care of me and make sure he does his best to help me. He's the only doctor I truly trust. Please, feel free to tell any problems you have had with medical staff. Have you been treated like a piece of meat and then thrown away? It's time to make people accountable.

Back to real work - FINALLY!!!

I finally got to write a real hard-news article for the newspaper I freelance for the other day. I felt alive for the first time in an unreal time. Since I got so sick and had to give up on being a full-time staff reporter and went back to freelancing, I try to keep my work to firemen saving kittens from trees and lots of other fuzzy stories. I've written hard stories, sure, murder trials and many other legal stories, but this one beat the local paper. They were too afraid to even bother to write about it. I happened to walk in and hear one of the "top ladies" thanking him for not writing about it. PUKE! I Know, I Know, Gretchen, keep your mouth shut. Don't do it!!! Well, as we all know, those words don't mean a whole lot to me. I had to tell her, "When you hide things, then it just makes it look like you have done worse!" She glared at me and sat down. Refused to speak to me the rest of the meeting. Ah well, her loss. We've never been fans of each other. She's pushed me too far once before and her pet project no longer gets ANY coverage in my paper. :) Sad how these things happen! When her events are going on, I'm forced to be at other events and there is only one me. The story was our local sheriff walked off the job and it was being kept under the rug. The local paper refused to write about it, the other large paper wrote a tiny bit, but I got a HUGE front page story on it. Made my day! I actually cried when I saw my By line! Writing that story made me remember why I became a write to begin with. I felt good telling the truth and letting people know what was really happening. I had one lady comment on my article (she had no idea I was a reporter, let alone the one who wrote it) and was saying she was going to subscribe to this paper because you never hear the real news in the local rag. I almost died laughing!!! Thank you to the two brave souls who gave me the tip and to the paper who believed that I could still write hard news. It means the world to me that I'm still a real reporter!! :)

Drum and Bugle Corp. Competition

I'm just getting back from a Drum and Bugle Corp. Competition in Johnsonburg, PA. It was pouring down the rain and there were lightning strikes, so the start of the competition had to be delayed approximately a half hour. Because of the delay, I wasn't able to stay long enough to see all the band compete. Such a pity. The three I did see were very talented.

Here are a few photos from the event. If you see your child and want the photo removed, please let me know. If you have names, please send them and I'll add them right in.

Thanks!

G