Trapped with an open door, dead R, not as planned

Last night when I pulled up to the house the garage door was open and Cindy was inside of it holding a mop upright, an odd thing.  When I got out she said the reason for the mop was to try to coax a bird out that had flown in the garage when she opened it.  I didn’t expect to be involved in an animal project last night but of course I was obligated to.  This bird was of decent size, about the same as a mockingbird.  It apparently was not very bright.  Despite the garage door being fully open, offering a 20 foot wide escape route, when we would coax the bird from the back wall it would fly on top of the retracted door and hang out there.

After several unsuccessful attempts to get the bird to simply fly out the door we started using additional tools including a towel, an empty plastic box and finally my big fish net from the shed.  No matter what the tool the result was the same, every time I would try to snag the bird he would simply fly to another part of the garage.  We even put the door down for a period of time hoping it would make it easier to capture the bird, that plan failed as well.

I was getting worried for the bird.  You could tell he was very scared and getting tired.  He had his beak open all the time, something birds do when overheated.  I stuck with the fish net.  I couldn’t get the bird to fly into it but I held it in front of him in a non-menacing way.  A few times he would step onto the frame of it for a couple seconds before flying off.  Finally, after somewhere around 15-20 minutes of attempts I got him to perch on the frame of the fish net while I very slowly lowered it and walked outside.  Ironically after all of that effort, once I got him safely outside he didn’t want to fly off the fish net immediately, he just sat there looking at me, probably due to exhaustion.  Finally he took off for a near by tree.  Another animal rescue mission was complete.

Cindy told me when she saw the bird she tried to put up the windows of the SSR up so the bird couldn’t go in it.  However when she turned the key it appeared to be dead.  I hopped in the truck and verified it was dead as a doornail.  The battery was just replaced last year so the odds of it being bad were slim.  My initial guess is when Cindy drove us home from the running club picnic on Memorial Day she  inadvertently left the ignition switch in the accessory position.  When I swapped out the ignition switch on the truck awhile back an unintended side effect was if you weren’t careful you are able to pull the key out of the ignition with it still being in the accessory detente.   It was raining last night so I didn’t bother to address it but tonight the plan will be to push the SSR out of the garage, jump it, and hope the battery is able to be revived via the alternator.

My brother-in-law who basically NEVER posts on Facebook was motivated to do so yesterday because of his own personal blowback from the Affordable Care Act.  His story followed what unfortunately is becoming a common narrative.  Since the ACA changes, his company, which by all accounts is doing fantastic financially, has told employees they are raising their portion of healthcare premiums drastically.  His current contribution of around $300 per month for his family of 4 could skyrocket to 1000 bucks a month.

I don’t think anyone that supports the concept of universal health care would see this as acceptable collateral damage.  However there are many facets to this situation.  The first thing I would question is just how honest my BIL’s company is in their accounting of the need to 100% pass increased health care costs entirely onto the back of their employees.  Like I said, from what he has told me, his company makes dump trucks full of money for what they do.  An unwillingness to split that pain more evenly with employees seems pretty shitty to me.

For every story like this you can also find someone with the exact opposite experience where the ACA was a godsend and for the first time in their life allowed them medical coverage for a pre-existing condition that in the past insurance companies could slam the door in your face for.  Of course these stories get much less coverage than the people that are getting the shaft like my BIL, whom are normally going to be much more vocal in expressing their outrage. My BIL puts most of the blame on Obama and the “ignorant” people that voted for him for this situation.  He feels bitterness and anger that he is being asked to pay a ton more for his premiums so that “beggers” can get coverage that in many situations is government subsidized based on income level. Although I don’t agree with the sweeping generalizations he uses to describe people that benefit from ACA I can understand his frustration.

I find myself in an odd position with this.  Although I have always supported the idea that a universal health care system is a good thing overall in a modern society, I think what was passed into law here was far too much of a byproduct of insurance company lobbyists.  The ACA act is making insurance companies a TON of money.  When the plan was pitched, part of the logic was distributing the cost of insurance amongst more people should overall lower the cost of coverage since you have more wallets supporting the load.  Obviously that has not been the case per my brother in law’s and many more examples.  And of course who can forget the now infamous Obama quote “if you like your current insurance coverage, you can keep it”.

The other smoking gun in addition to insurance companies is the medical profession itself and it’s RIDICULOUS costs.  What we are charged for medical care/procedures is nothing short of rape, it’s insanity.  Last week at the running club picnic I was talking to a fellow board member that had to go to the emergency room after laying down his scooter on some loose gravel.  He had a bad cut on his leg that required stitches.  While he was there the doctors insisted on taking an MRI of his head and a second one of his body.  Dave is a handyman/contractor that has no health insurance.  His bill for a few hours in the ER, $13,000.  Yes that is not a misprint.  To say he was furious would be a massive understatement.

My point is the health care and insurance industry gets you from both ends, insurance companies charging higher rates, using the ACA  as a catch all reason (despite it making them a fortune), and the medical profession that can easily bankrupt the average individual if they spend more than a couple days in a hospital.  It’s a horrible, horrible mess. Add big pharm into this equation as well, they may be the most evil of the three after all.

Just like so many of our countries largest problems, the core reason behind all of this is corporate greed.  Having individual health care being infinite profit centers for big businesses means things will never really fundamentally change because the money doesn’t want it to.

We are f’d.