Flintville's Fashionistas

Wild Dogs, Front and Center!

 
Subtitled: "A Hunting We Will Go?"
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These are important... somehow
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Good Afternoon Everyone;
Lest you think I have abandoned you, rest assured I am still alive. hehehe
There have been more than a few times in the past days here that I wished I wasn't.
Been wrestling a migraine since Saturday. It comes and goes at its leisure and not mine.


Even with respect to my head on Saturday, we found such fun (sprinkled with bellyaches from laughter).

Kelli called as I was going to put some pictures into this machine. She wanted to take the dogs for a walk... And had a few other things to do as well.
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Punk tries to be a lapdog...
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Kelli had also brought more wood for the campfires...
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We are restocked now! (Thank you Sweetie)!
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Since she was working hard all day- (they were cleaning out their garage), she had sweatpants on. This is acceptable clothing for such a day.
Had it been snowing, like a little kid, I would have had to bundle her up like a penguin in snow~pants and scarves and mittens etc.
Remember those days? One either had to go potty after getting dressed, or simply had to accept the fact that you couldn't walk in such attire. Thank God it was fun to fall over.

It is nice when they grow up and can dress themselves for whatever weather we have...
Like Casey does...
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Casey dressed for a nippy day in Minnesota.
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But now, in Wisconsin, there is Hunting Season.
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A proper and safe way to dress is called for, for everyone that ventures outside.

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Though she loves hunting, Casey will probably not be getting back there this year.
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But back to the above safety pins...    
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They are necessary when you have to dress the dogs for Hunting Season.



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A few pins, strategically placed, should keep their colors from sliding off.

Key word: "should".      hehehe
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Punk, unimpressed and impervious, watches as CocoBean gets "dressed"
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Mr. Miller had been the first to get dressed. He is after all the closest color to whitetail deer that we have in dogs.

He was not amused...
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And he'd hoped no one would see him...
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But the squirrel did!
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That squirrel kept looking and laughing;
using that irritating sound they make when they are amused
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The dogs made fun of each other too.
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When things became noisy, they were told to take it onto the grass.

They did. And had glorious fun, making fun of each other...
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Even Mr. Miller got in on that action.

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Know that Kelli and I had all we could do not to snort, we were laughing so hard.
Know too, we could not even speak at that point...

Again, Mr. Miller took it personally.

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He felt he had to at least try to hide...
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Checking the lawn, that squirrel was laughing even harder...
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But at least had the decency to turn his back to spare Mr. Millers feelings
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Kelli laughed so hard that the dogs went and pushed her over.
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Mr Miller to the rescue!
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Even the birds stopped eating when Kelli went down...
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(And I didn't even know chickadees could giggle)! hehehe
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Meanwhile, CocoBean and Punk were still arguing about whom was the cutest.
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Miller finally rescued Miss Kelli
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And it was time to head back to the woods.

Miller, not being able to stand it anymore, was first to leave the lawn
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Punk was grazing, (and CocoBean was apparently invisible).
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It had been a dark and froggy morning.
Still the orange would keep them safe.

And they were off!

As Kelli rounded the corner of the field, the previously invisible Miss CocoBean had come running out of the squash patch...

PICTURE THIS if you can...

By that time, I was near to the old pear tree with my camera.  A darn good thing too.
CocoBean had come tearing out of at field just as her 'sleeve' had come undone, as well as the top pin that earlier had kept her 'shirt' from hanging down and tripping her over.
Pins undone...
This caused the young dog to do a perfect somersault! How she managed to tuck her head in and under remains a mystery. Know that this somersault was Olympic quality.
Fortunately for me, I managed to hang onto the pear tree; as I was laughing too hard to remain standing.


Kelli stopped to refasten CocoBean's pins again...
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When they got back up to the house, Punk was hungry again.

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(That mix of wild peppermint and grass by the old stump must be really yummy)!
CocoBean still looking a little dizzy from her Doggie Olympics...
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I asked CocoBean what she thought of going ass over teakettles?

Though I am still not quite sure how she replied, I do know her face tells all...
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Poor Beans!

Are you laughing now?.
Such is the Fashion Industry in Wisconsin for the next week...

Hope everyone is having a "wunnaful" holiday week!
Love to all.

XOXO
Me

Key Provisions of the Senate Health Care Reform Bill

The "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,"
H.R. 3590
By Deborah White, About.com Guide

First of all, here is the bill which is now before your senators.
2074 pages, all are double spaced. Easy.

This article summarizes key provisions in the U.S. Senate health care bill, "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," H.R. 3590, which was unveiled by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on November 18, 2009 after the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that the bill:

    * would reduce the federal deficit by $130 billion over the 2010-2019 period;
    * would cover about 31 million Americans who are presently uninsured;
    * would raise the percentage of Americans with health care coverage from 83% to 94%;
    * would slow the annual growth rate of Medicare to 6% from its 8% growth rate since 1990.


The Senate's "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" is the companion legislation to the House health care reform bill, which was hotly debated and negotiated over many months, and passed on November 7, 2009 in a historic House 220 to 215 vote.

Health care coverage and reform measures under the Senate plan are similar to the House health care reform bill.

However, most fiscal aspects of the Senate health care reform plan differ considerably from the House plan, including in funding sources for reform legislation, decreased employer penalties for not offering health insurance to employees, and decreased taxpayer penalties for not obtaining mandated coverage.


Health Care Coverage
Like the House bill, a Medicare-like public plan will offer four levels of care to all U.S. citizens and legal residents to choose from, without regard to pre-existing medical conditions: basic, enhanced, premium and premium-plus. The four government plan levels are differentiated mainly by costs covered by the public plan, rather than the participant, and range from 60% to 90% of costs.

Under the Senate bill, states may opt-out of allowing the public plan to be provided to their residents. Illegal immigrants are not covered by either the Senate or House health care refrom bill.

The public plan will be offered along with a myriad of private plans via a state-based insurance exchange.
For the first few years, only small businesses, the uninsured, and self-employed persons may purchase policies from the exchange.

In contrast to the House bill, employers will be strongly encouraged, but not required, to provide health insurance coverage for employees. If coverage is not provided, businesses will be assessed a flat fee per employee who buys insurance via the exchange.

Like the House bill, the Senate bill reforms for-profit practices by mandating that private insurers:
    * are required to accept all applicants,
    * may not charge higher premiums because a person becomes ill,
    * prohibits the use of pre-existing conditions to limit or disallow coverage, and
    * children may remain on parents' insurance through age 26.
    * No lifetime caps on coverage expenditures.


Mandatory Insurance with Cost Subsidies
As is the case for car insurance in most states, all Americans will be required to obtain some form of health-care insurance coverage.

Subsidies to help pay for the costs of government plans will be given on a sliding scale to individuals and families with annual incomes between 133% to 400% of poverty level.
* Those earning less than 133% are eligible for Medicaid coverage.

Penalties of up to $750 per adult, under the Senate plan, would be assessed for failure to purchase insurance coverage. The House plan charges much higher penalties, as high as 2.5% of annual income.


Doctors and Hospitals
Under the Senate's public option plan, doctors, hospitals and other medical professionals will be reimbursed at individually or regionally negotiated rates.... a change forced by legislators who hail from largely rural areas, which often receive below-cost rates under standardized Medicare reimbursement procedures.

It's widely expected that all doctors and hospitals that currently provide Medicare services will also opt to provide "public option" healthcare plan services.


Paying for Government "Public Option" Plan
The goal for the Obama administration and Democratic leadership in Congress is for government "public option" health care to be budget-neutral, which means new government funds will be found (new revenues or cost-cutting measures) to pay for the new Medicare-like plan.

The Senate Democrats' "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" legislation plans to pay for these new initiatives through the following:
    * A 40% tax on employer-provided "cadillac plans," which are defined as having employer-paid annual premiums over $23,000 for families and $8,500 for individuals
    * Increased Medicare payroll tax, from 1.45% to 1.95%, on couples with adjusted gross incomes over $250,000 and individuals over $200,000
    * A 5% tax on elective cosmetic surgeries
    * Annual levies on health insurers, clinical laboratories, and pharmaceutical companies.
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So there you have it once again...
I imagine the rabble rousers will have their field days posting ignorant and false things pertaining to this...
Oh well.
Some people just refuse to educate themselves.
It will be their burden later on to explain their own culpability, (as they will, at some point), watch their loved ones die.

XOXO
Me

***  New "Flintville" update later today...

On a related note... From here: http://www.figtreenotes.com

What the American public still has not really understood is that the economic morass we are in is directly connected to our profligate military spending. While people bemoan a health care package costing $849 billion while cutting $1 trillion over a decade in projected health costs, they fail to acknowledge that we have spent about a trillion dollars on the Iraq War. And now we are on the brink of sending more troops to Afghanistan with the price tag of $1 million a year per soldier. The overall military budget could jump to $734 billion — 10 percent more than the $667 billion under the Bush administration.

In the Leonard Bernstein “Mass,” a street band and chorus do a rollicking riff on the Gloria: Half of the people are stoned and the other half are waiting for the next election. Half the people are drowned and the other half are swimming in the wrong direction. And they call it glorious living. Prophetic words from maestro Bernstein. Folks are already polling Obama’s popularity and the wing nuts on the right are ready to torpedo him as a failure if he doesn’t send troops overseas. They can’t wait for the next election.

Garry Wills, in the November 5 New Your Review of Books, still has high hopes for Obama’s promise to “change the way Washington works” and would like to see him enter a second term. “But I would rather see him a one term president,” says Wills, “than have him pass on another unwinnable war to the person who follows him.”

I like that, and I like his conclusion: “It is unlikely that we will soon have another president with the moral and rhetorical force to take us out of a foolish commitment that cannot be sustained without shame and defeat. If it costs him his presidency, what other achievement can match it?”

Well spoken, Garry