I read in today’s paper about a consumer group which is taking senior citizens across the border to buy prescription drugs. The group, The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, has organized what they call the Rx Express, offering twenty people a chartered trainride to Canada, where a Canadian doctor will examine them and prescribe appropriate drugs.

This is a token effort designed to get publicity, of course. But it publicizes an important issue that senior citizens deal with. Drug prices are spiraling out of control, sapping the meager savings of our older citizens, some of which are forced to do without other necessities in favor of refilling a presecription. It’s scary to think the life-saving medication I might need when I’m elderly could be priced prohibitively out of my reach.

The federal government bueracracy should not interfere with seniors’ right to purchase their medications from Canada. They’ve already banned internet buying (on the flimsiest of excuses). The train-rides to Canada are a great way to demonstrate that the problem has not gone away. Ride on!

The remnants of Hurricane Ivan moved through this afternoon. The temperature shot up from low 70’s to mid-90’s, and it was windy and muggy. It wasn’t until 3:30, though, before it actually began to rain here.

My rain gauge showed a rate of 4 inches per hour during the torrent! Overall, we got six tenths of an inch here. It seemed like much more, but the deluge moved quickly with the strong winds pushing it along.

I hope it stays moist for the next three weeks, so I don’t have to water my new lawn. And maybe next weekend, we can keep the wind and skip the rain, since that’s when we go to the lake again.

Panama City, my birthplace and the place my family vacationed just last month, got pummled by Hurricane Ivan. A tornado there killed two people, coming dangerously close to my grandmother’s home and destroying the office of a family friend (the man in the next office was killed).

Lots more damage pictures at the News-Herald website.

Arrrr! This year’s Talk Like A Pirate Day be occurin’ on Sunday. ‘Tis more fun to be pirate-talkin’ during the workday, aye. Then again, every day be fine for pirate-talkin’, laddies!

Arrrrrrrr!

Yayyyyyy! As I type this, the folks at EPM Lawn Care are slit-seeding my yard. I spent hours killing off the weeds that littered my lawn (weeds make up more than 90%) – and now its being seeded for some real fescue grass.

I’m doing the happy dance this morning. There’s nothing I love better than a sharp-looking yard!

Tommy Ramone is the only surviving member of the Ramones today as Johnny Ramone has succombed to cancer. Ramone, who had been fighting a five-year battle with prostate cancer, died in his sleep Wednesday afternoon at his Los Angeles home surrounded by friends and family, said the band’s longtime artistic director Arturo Vega.

True punk rockers die young, I suppose.

I called the N.C. ESC today and in five minutes had my problem solved. I spoke with three people there, and each one was polite, courteous, friendly, and helpful. They went out of their way to make sure I got what I needed. I could not have been more pleased.

It’s a great credit to our state to have such people serving in the state government. Count me as a satisfied customer!

The MT.Net gallery has new pics of the boy. Included are 3D pics of his face and other important parts.

Dig in!

Looks like Mobile, Alabama will be the first American city to experience Hurricane Ivan. All those people who will lose their homes. All thouse beautiful oak trees that will be ripped to shreds.

I think this country would do well to call it quits for hurricanes for the next five years or so. This stuff gets old.