Before - old, broken cinder block planter
After - a little bit of dirt that we’ll power wash away

Before - West wall flower bed is full of thorny bushes
After - Ready for the rototiller(or whatever we can borrow)

If the weather is good, I’m going over tomorrow afternoon and do some pressure washing. After that, I’m going to schedule another work day. We still need help to get this project done before school starts in slightly over a month. We need to borrow tall, tall ladders and some type of rototiller. We need to get donated or find very low cost ant poison, paint, paint supplies and mulch. More than anything else, we need physical help. Today, we had two Boy Scouts helping and the three teens worked HARD.

See, I started right out with full disclosure like a good blogger should. While I’m disclosing, I have to admit that my feelings about this movie are not going to be the same as fully insured Americans. They think they are insulated and safe. I am uninsured. When Tommy turns 18 in a year, he will be uninsured and uninsurable. Since TennCare reforms have taken place, he will be ineligible for TennCare. I try to avoid getting medical care for myself, which means I become a hermit during flu season. I lost enamel when I was given the wrong antibiotics as a baby, grind my teeth at night and now my teeth are literally rotting out of my mouth. I had a tiny bit of dental work done and refused to return until Doug had worked off the bill. Yet, none of the work he did for the dentist made a dent in the bill. Apparently, he worked on their computers and network in exchange for being allowed to owe them money. It’s ugly, I don’t smile and I frequently put my hand over my mouth when I talk. It probably won’t kill me. In the past year, my hair started falling out. I hate looking in the mirror. Based on family history and having less energy than I did when I had a newborn keeping me up all night, I’m sure my thyroid is misbehaving. I can’t get medical care because I can’t risk having such a major preexisting condition, I can’t afford the lab tests and I absolutely can’t afford the medications. I expect poverty to be written as the cause of death on my death certificate. I have sat on the patient review board at Lakeshore. I have encouraged people to lie to get their children psychiatric care. So, all that personal blathering aside, I went to see Sicko.

I know this movie is not a documentary. I see it more as a form of protest. Instead of getting arrested in Oak Ridge, Michael Moore makes films to try and make changes. He is a good storyteller. You would have to be a cold hearted monster not to find humor and sadness in the stories that are told in this movie. Do I believe the stories? Yes I do. I have spent days upon days fighting with insurance companies to get medical care for Tommy over the years. Every year his deductable gets larger, coverage gets smaller and he is allowed less doctors and services. I recognize that there are a million success stories about people getting saved by good medical care. I have also spent hours and hours in the emergency room, trying to get a sick person admitted and many times, having them sent away until they are worse. I recognize that the presence of the camera and lots of careful editing is used to make the story. I know that all of the countries that are glamorously praised for their medical care have problems that were completely ignored. I don’t believe for a minute that the prisoners at Guantanamo are getting good medical care. However, my mother lived in Cuba for much of her childhood and she doesn’t describe anything as scary as our government describes. If this was a completely fictional movie, I would call it very entertaining, but it’s not a flight of fancy. It’s thought provoking and frustrating and I want Britain’s Tony Benn to be my senator instead of Bill Frist or Bob Corker. Do I think I’ll see health care improvements in my life? No.

Despite all the chaos on Doug’s blog earlier today, we took Sarah and Tommy. They liked it. We all drank the kool-aid and lived to tell the tale.

Doug took pictures of the evening. As always, people will have to identify themselves in the flickr comments, since some bloggers prefer a level of anonymity that our family doesn’t even attempt. Those of you unafraid to be recognized are welcome to use these pictures in your own reviews.

Did you watch the video above? I gave Doug a week to post the video and tell his version of the story, but he’s been hanging out with the conspiracy theorists all week, so I’ll try to explain the video. Last weekend, we went out to get started on the clearing of the flowerbeds in the special education courtyard at BMS. I had already declared that we were lacking enough equipment and strong arms and should call it a day. Well, I really wanted to keep going, but I had worked up a good blister on my thumb and I’m wimpy like that. At any rate, Doug knew that we really needed to make a bigger dent in the work and went to town with the machete. I pulled out the camera to capture his destruction of the shrubbery. I had just moved to a different angle when I heard a noise in the bushes. My train of thought went really quickly. Bunny? No. Birds? Nest! Turn off camera before blood appears on-screen! Doug’s reaction went something like - chop, chop, uh-oh, “Everybody to the car! Now! Time to go!” After he watched the video a few hundred times, trying to punish himself for not stopping sooner, he pointed out that a REAL photographer would have kept the camera rolling. I sent him back to the school the next day to make sure that the summer school children wouldn’t be traumatized by any dead birds. It wasn’t until he started to bury the birds that he realized they were still alive. We stayed away all week in the hope that the birds would mature enough to fly away. Unless it’s pouring rain, we’ll go back this Saturday from 12 until 2 to try and make some progress. Anyone in Knoxville who’s not leaving town for the holiday would be more than appreciated if they stopped by to do some demolition work. If you bring a chainsaw, sledgehammer or work crew, we’d love you forever.

Update: The nests were empty and we found no former residents.

If my children (and dog) could have just one toy in the summer, the water hose would be the winner. They will spend the entire day playing with the hose, taking breaks only to make sure they use every single towel in the house. Water rationing? Drought? I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Pretend you don’t notice my use of flickr pictures in lieu of actual posts today.

Amy went bananas when she saw this in the grocery store. As I already mentioned today, I’m the meanest mother in the world, so I didn’t buy them. I do have some cartoon character stickers in the basement that I’ll happily stick on every canned good in our kitchen.

I know it’s divisive, but this made me snicker.

(from my non-voting brother)

Sarah’s art summer school camp was in today’s Farragut paper, so I guess we’ll head out and grab a copy since I promised the children a trip to McKay’s anyway. Well, everyone except Tommy. He is unwilling to even consider trading any of his books, so he’s not getting any new (to him) books. Yes, I’m the meanest mother in the world. We’ll also run by the library and collect the children’s summer reading rewards.

An old story for everyone in Knoxville.

We have generously been given two tickets to see “Sicko” this Friday. Who should go?
A. Doug & I - Would require grandparents to babysit. Grandfather would disapprove of our outing, complain about the filmmaker and continue his efforts to Republicanize the children all night.
B. Doug & Tommy - Might help with our efforts to counter Grandfather’s effect on Tommy.
C. Sarah & I - Girls’ night out, but 14-y-o would refuse to acknowledge any pleasure in this particular movie.
D. Other

In my continuing effort to get lost in pointless tasks instead of doing any actual cleaning, I wasted a day taking an inventory of our movie collection. I justified it by acknowledging the many times we have had to ask “Do we have THAT movie” and the fact that I would put the right DVD in the right case during the inventory process. I only listed the movies that are actually at our house. There are a few on loan to other people. I am going to add ratings for each movie, as soon as I decide what method to use. What bugs me the most, is the two DVD cases that have no DVD inside. I know those movies are here somewhere, I just can’t figure out where. I know Doug wouldn’t use War Games as a coaster. That would be sacrilegious.

Update: Since we have five bloggers in our family, we have very magnanimously been allowed a loophole in the two tickets per family rule and now have four tickets. Two teenagers and two adults will be attending while the babysitting grandparents grumble about the evils of liberals and democrats. If Doug isn’t acting oxygen deprived, we might even go out for dessert afterwards. Now we just have to decide who gets to use the three Harry Potter tickets we have for July 10th at 11:59 p.m.?

The younger children laugh and the teens look embarrassed when I MST3K animals, inanimate objects and strangers beyond ears’ reach. Using that method to tell Doug that Evan is no longer sleeping in his crib (”Whatcha doin’ to Mom?”), mixed results.