Hard Times for the Family
Talked to the family yesterday, life has apparently not been going so well for my siblings. Current shit economy has hit them pretty damn hard.
My sister's hours at the bakery have been cut in half, and her husband's hours at Starbucks have also been drastically cut. She tells me they are now pulling in about half the income they once were. And unfortunately Phil's sure fire job at the Lincoln Fire Department has fallen through since the city has enacted a hiring freeze there; they were really counting on that too. If it keeps up, one or the other of them will have to find another job, and hell it was hard enough finding the ones they got.
My brother is also hurting for hours, but worse he now has a lot of health problems. He has been without health insurance since he turned nineteen, his job at the grocery store is not providing him with benefits (and since they live in a small town and he is without a car, public transportation or any reliable everyday ride, he's pretty much stuck working around the house for the time being, and those options are very, very limited). He has asthma and a lot of allergies as it is, so this has not been a good situation; they did enact a law in Massachusetts a few years back that made it illegal to not have health insurance, I don't pretend to know exactly how the law works but I would imagine someone, the state at least, will have to take him when he puts his papers in (I do know that if he goes too much longer without insurance he's going to get slapped with a heavy fine, because apparently people who can't afford health insurance have money to throw away elsewhere *eye roll*).
Sometime last week, his coughing got real bad, coughing up blood on and off, and he couldn't hear anything out of one ear. So he went to the doctor (no free clinic either, don't have those where I used to live, back where there are no poor allowed you must be at least this rich to enter (family isn't rich obviously, we were just there before the rich assholes moved in and like cockroaches took over the place), which he'll have to pay for himself, and found out he has severe bronchitis, a severe ear infection and a cyst on his face.
With no health insurance yet (he has the papers filled out, he's got to mail them in, but then who knows how long they will have to wait), low pay and poor hours, with the doctor's visit to pay for already, he's only able to pay for one treatment right now, they chose the ear infection. Who knows when they'll be able to get the rest of it taken care of. Thankfully, the doctor gave him some free sample asthma medication (and he's been without anything for a while now; his asthma doctor tried to help out and wrote him a prescription for three months worth of medicine, but the pharmacy refused to fill it and gave him just the single inhaler), so hopefully that will help out at least a little for the time being.
I haven't heard that my mother's job is in any real danger (good thing, since she's already been laid off not long ago), but it is getting more stressful.
This makes me so grateful for my situation right now. A fixed income may not be much money, but it is at least a *fixed* income, I know that money is coming. If I had stayed at my old job, I would imagine I'd have been let go when the economy went to shit (I got the impression from conversations with the old boss that they could barely afford any sort of a staff as it was, I was the only general purpose worker there in the end that wasn't one of her children), or at the very least work would have become far slower than it already was. And I would have had one hell of a time finding another job, what with little formal education (and nobody really gives a shit if you're smart or not, they care if you have the papers that say you should be), sparse work history, sleep problems and a personality that turns most people off the instant that I meet them (and it doesn't matter how much I smile and act all friendly, those dark weirdo vibes shine through anyway and who wants to bring that into the work place, put it in front of customers?). Even beyond my vastly improved health and lowered stress level, I have this to be grateful for as well.
My wonderful girlfriend too, as one of the few people in her office qualified to do the things she does, probably couldn't get fired if she tried.
Thank Hermes for that, really. However much of a pain in the ass he can be, he does know how to take care of me. :-)
Some good thoughts for my family would be appreciated. They could really use a break about now.
My sister's hours at the bakery have been cut in half, and her husband's hours at Starbucks have also been drastically cut. She tells me they are now pulling in about half the income they once were. And unfortunately Phil's sure fire job at the Lincoln Fire Department has fallen through since the city has enacted a hiring freeze there; they were really counting on that too. If it keeps up, one or the other of them will have to find another job, and hell it was hard enough finding the ones they got.
My brother is also hurting for hours, but worse he now has a lot of health problems. He has been without health insurance since he turned nineteen, his job at the grocery store is not providing him with benefits (and since they live in a small town and he is without a car, public transportation or any reliable everyday ride, he's pretty much stuck working around the house for the time being, and those options are very, very limited). He has asthma and a lot of allergies as it is, so this has not been a good situation; they did enact a law in Massachusetts a few years back that made it illegal to not have health insurance, I don't pretend to know exactly how the law works but I would imagine someone, the state at least, will have to take him when he puts his papers in (I do know that if he goes too much longer without insurance he's going to get slapped with a heavy fine, because apparently people who can't afford health insurance have money to throw away elsewhere *eye roll*).
Sometime last week, his coughing got real bad, coughing up blood on and off, and he couldn't hear anything out of one ear. So he went to the doctor (no free clinic either, don't have those where I used to live, back where there are no poor allowed you must be at least this rich to enter (family isn't rich obviously, we were just there before the rich assholes moved in and like cockroaches took over the place), which he'll have to pay for himself, and found out he has severe bronchitis, a severe ear infection and a cyst on his face.
With no health insurance yet (he has the papers filled out, he's got to mail them in, but then who knows how long they will have to wait), low pay and poor hours, with the doctor's visit to pay for already, he's only able to pay for one treatment right now, they chose the ear infection. Who knows when they'll be able to get the rest of it taken care of. Thankfully, the doctor gave him some free sample asthma medication (and he's been without anything for a while now; his asthma doctor tried to help out and wrote him a prescription for three months worth of medicine, but the pharmacy refused to fill it and gave him just the single inhaler), so hopefully that will help out at least a little for the time being.
I haven't heard that my mother's job is in any real danger (good thing, since she's already been laid off not long ago), but it is getting more stressful.
This makes me so grateful for my situation right now. A fixed income may not be much money, but it is at least a *fixed* income, I know that money is coming. If I had stayed at my old job, I would imagine I'd have been let go when the economy went to shit (I got the impression from conversations with the old boss that they could barely afford any sort of a staff as it was, I was the only general purpose worker there in the end that wasn't one of her children), or at the very least work would have become far slower than it already was. And I would have had one hell of a time finding another job, what with little formal education (and nobody really gives a shit if you're smart or not, they care if you have the papers that say you should be), sparse work history, sleep problems and a personality that turns most people off the instant that I meet them (and it doesn't matter how much I smile and act all friendly, those dark weirdo vibes shine through anyway and who wants to bring that into the work place, put it in front of customers?). Even beyond my vastly improved health and lowered stress level, I have this to be grateful for as well.
My wonderful girlfriend too, as one of the few people in her office qualified to do the things she does, probably couldn't get fired if she tried.
Thank Hermes for that, really. However much of a pain in the ass he can be, he does know how to take care of me. :-)
Some good thoughts for my family would be appreciated. They could really use a break about now.