80,000 veterans administration jobs to be cut. Why are we punishing our vets!

Today our caring and stellar geriatric doctor made a house call to give a shingles vaccine and review the health of my 93 year old veteran father-in-law, Bob. We have gotten to know him over the last 6 months since Bob moved into our home. Previously Bob was not in great shape. He lived alone in TN and had various doctors that he visited from time to time even though he had macular degeneration and was developing dementia. His general doctor told us he would not live out the year and basically to just throw in the towel and not bother treating his growing list of ailments (that was in 2023). 

Up until about 85 years of age, Bob was a go getter, with a career in construction work. Always on the move! Handmaking woodcrafts and growing vegetables to share with his neighbors. He was quite generous, even nearly losing everything from paying home health care workers to help him with his wife who was bed bound for 6 years. He never used the Veterans Administration as he really was a pretty healthy guy. He served in the Korean War loading bombs in planes and training others on the shooting range. His hearing has been bad for many many years. Possibly because there was no ear protection back in those days.

He had asked for nothing personally from the VA. After his funds were nearly wiped out, I stumbled upon the Veterans Administration in Tennessee and because he was adamant about staying independent, we started him in their home health care program which contracts through an agency up to 20 hours a week assistance with dressing, cleaning, bathing, and meal preparation. Eventually we had to bring him to Virginia to live with us. We transferred all medical to the VA clinic in Charlottesville which is run out of the Richmond office.

We have been so impressed with his care and just mentioned a few days ago how he has done a complete turn around. Previously hardly unable to get out of a chair and living a solitary existence basically just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Now he has a wonderful geriatric doctor that comes to our house and treats all his ailments. He even has gotten him in a local day care program! You might think home health care is frivolous but it makes sense! It takes another person with a body belt to assist walking Bob up and down the stairs and then we have to put him in a wheelchair. Because of his many ailments, it required nearly weekly office visits to the different specialists. He now primarily sees his geriatric doctor and it saves so much hassle. His doctor is amazing and an asset to our elderly service members. 

My father also served in the Korean War and he never received VA assistance. He died in a nursing home from Alzheimer's. If he had been enrolled with the VA it might have not been such a difficult ending and it absolutely would have helped my mother who cared for him day in and day out. I've experienced both private care (which was a total nightmare) and public VA care and I'll take the VA care any day! My experience has been quite positive and has improved his quality of life significantly.

I just read of the pending indiscriminate elimination of 80,000 employees from the Veterans Administration (30% of which are veterans themselves). Why is the richest country in the world targeting the VA? Why are we punishing our veterans and their families? How can we ask individuals to join the military and not promise them benefits or pull the plug on them? Why are we asking wonderful doctors to take a hike?

There are many elderly veterans that are going to be seriously disoriented by losing their health care services and/or provider. When we have no compassion and give no thought to harming those who we have asked to sacrifice their life to PROTECT OUR COUNTRY then we've lost our soul. To pull the rug out from veterans that have relied on the VA is gut wrenching and to see great doctors get kicked to the curb without any thought as to the service they provide is disturbing. There is no logical reason for doing this other than selfishness and shortsightedness with the intent to gleefully cause chaos. 

My father-in-law has our family to keep him safe but sadly some veterans are terminally or mentally ill and can't fend for themselves. Willy-nilly axing VA medical doctors and staff just because you think there is government waste is a total copout as to what your real plan is, to privatize our government and shrink it down so the wealthiest can benefit while leaving the less fortunate to figure it out. Please call TODAY your representatives and ask them to explain what they will do to protect the elderly, veterans, and our valued doctors from this planned extermination at the Veterans Administration.

~Rebecca

Abraham Lincoln In his Times by David S Reynolds book review. Honest Abe was truly an amazing man.

Several weeks ago I found some time to search for garden history books at our local library, specifically about Monet and Vita Sackville-West, neither of which were fruitful checkouts as both were missing. I had no intention of reading about Abe, especially a 1,000 page book. Coincidently, on my checkout list was a different David Reynolds book with stellar reviews, so this book about Lincoln caught my eye.

I will start by saying this is not really a review as I'm not going to be critical one way or the other but it is more of a description of my enlightenment. This book is very detailed and begins with the birth of Abe and ends with his death. It does not cover much about the ins and outs of the horrors of the Civil War but it highlights significant battles and Abe's involvement. The life of Abe has been thoroughly recorded in history and after reading the book I understand why. Our President Lincoln was indeed a significant historic personality who somehow managed to survive through the long war years.

After reading this book, my general impression of Abe was that he was honest and didn't waver on his commitments or beliefs having strict moral character and fortitude. Our government before Abe sounded disheveled, mismanaged, and full of rowdy behavior. It was said that only Honest Abe could have pulled off uniting the States while freeing the slaves. He was not an uppity man, he was the salt of the earth. Self educated and eventually becoming a good lawyer and ultimately a wise statesman. He is a good example of what is called the American Dream. His life experiences were varied and he had direct contact with a wide range of social classes. The people could relate to his speeches as they were mesmerizing, well thought out, and to the point. Photos of Abe in his later years of life show his increasingly worn appearance throughout the continuation of the Civil War (estimates of 520,000 soldiers died but records were not accurate especially concerning confederate soldiers and slave deaths. Some calculations put it closer to over 1 million and included death from diseases).

Being a life long Virginian, I have been to the Lincoln Memorial several times and the experience is like no other. Climbing the stairs one feels as if on hallowed ground, Lincoln bigger than life, his importance illustrated by his size. It indeed is a fitting structure in honor of this truly amazing man.

During the 4 years of Lincoln's presidency, 1961 - 1965 many other societal projects were occurring. We mainly think of Lincoln as bearing the weight of the war but the country was also experiencing rapid expansion. He believed strongly in infrastructure so he was promoting the railroad while directing distribution of tracts of land through the Homestead Act to hopeful poorer families (sadly greedy prospectors took advantage of the program). Shockingly, when he took office, there was no uniform banking system, money was being produced in different designs by the states. He signed a National Banking Act to have one currency. There was no oversight in agriculture and he created the USDA. A large group of mid-west and west coast states were still territories which gradually were being converted into States (adding more drama concerning States rights to own slaves or not). Of course his biggest accomplishments were ending the war, freeing the slaves while preserving the Union, and adding the 13th Amendment to the constitution.

My family, Tobacco pouch from Virginia factory after war

Also of interest in the book were his relationships with this wife, friends, business associates, and government officials. I gathered that he was at ease with meeting the unknown head on, eager for new experiences and a master at working through difficulties. It is striking to realize he was able to absorb himself in the greatest of responsibility during this chaotic time in history and not have a stroke or be assassinated. He never seemed to heed warnings of his likely demise from his many enemies, putting duty before all else. Self-sacrificing even though so many died on his watch. 

Even Lincoln was not perfect. The Indian crisis out West was not a priority and their lands continued to be distributed to white settlers. He replaced his generals frequently because they either didn't follow instructions or for losing battles which caused the war to drag on. Progressives and civil rights leaders were critical of his slowness to end slavery. Ultimately, he saved the union while freeing the slaves from the lawful designation of them being human prisoners for life as mere property.

My family, Confederate Vet and family after war

It took me about 4 weeks to finish the book and it inspired me to watch Abraham Lincoln 3 part series produced some time ago by the History channel and research my Virginia family history a bit more. 

~Rebecca

2024 Year in Review - Crazy year - Seniors - Cats - Estates - Hard Work

Who knew getting old was this much work! Now I know why people retire at 65, because one must take care of their aging parents and pets, file for social security, find new insurance, sell real estate and basically set up one's future so you can ease into it! I've yet to see the easing but the summation of this past year has been "one thing after another" but there is always a silver lining as so many people have come to my rescue this year!

The first few months of 2024 started pretty calmly and then snowballed into a complete nightmare. My husband was living in Tennessee caring for his 93 year old father and everything that could break at our house in Virginia did. We're big DYIers and rarely hire anyone because often it does not turn out like it should. In early Spring the power went out and I was hauling in wood for the stove. Things calmed down and were going along pretty well until the grass started growing. The belt on the lawn mower broke. I had someone tell me they were coming several times to replace it and never did so the grass kept growing - a lot! I had to find someone to mow the lawn which was a bit of a disaster. A kind gentleman showed up with a push mower for 2 acres. After 6 hours, 3 stop and start rains and the sun beginning to set, I let him go and there was still 1 acre left to mow! Retrospectively it seems like such an easy thing to work out but everyone already has mowing commitments and it was impossible to find someone urgently over Memorial Day weekend. 

During that time the water heater began to leak and the compressor on the Heat and Air broke. Next up was opening the pool which was totally not doable by myself. I don't even remember what else happened but I was bailing in a boat, sinking in a swamp -- totally losing it. Finally we decided enough was enough and it was time to either get divorced or move my father-in-law in with us. Of course he did not want to leave his home and that was another hurdle. We ended up proposing a 2 week vacation which at least got him willingly out of his house. It was frightening driving him 6 hours but we did make several stops (one being ice cream) and it went smoothly. After being at our house for 3 days, he told us he wanted to live with us and to sell his house. We all cried!

Bob is very little trouble and still gets around but can't be left alone. The biggest responsibility is that I have been managing his home located out of state. We discovered there was no insurance on the house! The first trip to check on this house was intense. I had a long list of tasks to accomplish to list his house with a realtor. The heat and air was not working when I arrived. A lot of time was wasted hiring a disreputable company that ripped me off straight away (my worst google review of 2024) but I did find a great company to fix it and also found a wonderful tree cutter who did an excellent job. My Aunt who lives nearby helped me and supplied FOOD so I ended up enjoying my time with her and the wonderful realtor that brought me coffee to seal the deal. Brittney Riddell has helped me in so many ways, letting people into the house to buy items and picking me up after selling Bob's car at Carmax. During the horrible rain that nearly wiped out Asheville several bridges were washed away near Bob's house. When the realtor finally could even get to the house she had to bail out the crawl space. A neighbor of Bob's has also helped me greatly, coming to my rescue many times! I am so thankful these angels dropped into my life.

To add more drama, when Bob found out that I was at his house he got angry that I did not take him with me and went on a hunger strike. After a week of preparing his house to sell; hiring an assortment of companies while cleaning, painting, selling items online, gardening, stuffing my car full and general craziness I was told Bob was at the ER. I was driving home and my husband called saying his Dad passed out from not eating. Luckily the home health care worker caught him. So I drove 6 hours to Virginia straight into the ER. Talk about exhausted. He remained in the hospital for observation for 3 days. 

After moving Bob to Virginia we had to transfer his Veterans healthcare which amounted to wiping the slate and starting all over. Setting up medical care, prescriptions, and home health care. The VA has some great benefits but the systems takes time and persistence to set up through the Richmond office. They have a wonderful VA Clinic in Charlottesville and after a few months we were assigned a geriatric doctor that comes straight to the house! He also hooked Bob up to a local day care program at JABA which he really enjoys. They have qualified caregivers, live music, meals, and programs to keep him active. He was even dancing the other day which we never thought we would see given the doctors said he would not make it through the year! Also through the VA we have home health care come several days a week to assist him.

The icing on the cake was my year end deadline to finalize my friend's estate that I've been working on since 2023. I really thought I could complete this process alone, but the complexity of her brokerage account financial statements got me in the end. No unsurmountable issues until the accounting struck. In the end I wanted to blow my brains out. I consulted with an accountant, watched tons of videos, and even attended an online Q and A session. I did everything imaginable but still could not balance the financials. How hard could it be? It's just MATH! I like math. It drove me to near insanity and finally with a week left in 2024 (after searching for a week), I found a CPA and handed my completed accounting over and ran screaming into the night. It was like giving up a child. I had invested so much time and energy into this. Apparently this last step is a beast and very few accountants will fool with it. I'm ending the year sweating as I've not heard that she has been successful. I hope she can find the error!

Another side project that I've been working on since the Summer is getting free solar panels installed. It is a pilot program through our local energy company and LEAP that ended in 2024 so the clock was ticking! They were turned on 12/23. It's a basic system and we'll only see 1/4 - 1/2 of our usage covered but I've been committed to solar for a very long time. It's a pretty exciting moment for me and a positive way to end a year of chaos and trauma. This is my annual environmental commitment that will last for 30 years! We'll be in our 90's when they pull the plug if we make it that long.

My mother has been living with us for 4 years now. She is still very independent and has her regular weekly drive route that she navigates safely. We volunteer for Friends of the Library and she mainly watches the chaos from afar. We upgraded her tablet at Christmas so she is amazingly tech savvy at 89. She also helps me package items for my online selling sites and it's a mystery how I continued to sell through thick and thin and had the best year ever.

In the Spring I discovered my long time vet had retired and had not been happy with the vet staff for some time so I switched my 3 aging cats to a new clinic. A frightening process but the staff is kind and the vet is excellent. Our cats have arthritis, 2 are on blood pressure meds, one has IBS, another is hyper-thyroid. $$$$. We have reminder alarms for pill management going off morning, noon, and night for people and cats!

Anthony ran into a technicality at the first of the year with his job working out of state and eventually had to retire a year earlier than planned. He finalized his Medicare and social security and will collect his first check January 2025. Because I'm not retirement age I had to search for private health and dental insurance. Adding another duty to the roster. We also have an insurance angel that helps our entire household. Thank goodness for Mr. Trout.

Being "the year of Bob", we ended it with getting him a Virginia license that allowed him to vote and get a fishing license. He really wants to get out this Spring by a Lake! 

Without the help of several key people, I don't believe I would be sitting here typing this. here were some kind souls that really bailed me out!

The happiest new year to all and keep the faith. Day by day, hour by hour, keep plugging. This too will pass, and it did, 2024 is toast!

~Rebecca