Michigan Legislature Responsible For Poisoning Flint

We hear a lot about how Gov Snyder is responsible for poisoning Flint, but I think the Legislature should share the blame. The Legislature is responsible for there being an "Emergency Manager" is place in the first place. In Nov 2012 there was a ballot measure about the emergency manager law and it was defeated by the voters. Before the end of the year the weasels in Lansing had passed a new bill authorizing emergency managers and Gov Snidely signed it. Hadn't been for that Flint would not have had an "Emergency Manager" to make the decision to switch to Flint river water!!

Squatlo claims Tennessee has the worst legislature in the country, but I countered with Tennessee's hadn't poisoned a city. He came back with Oak Ridge being a worse health disaster than Flint. But Oak Ridge is federal, the state had very little to do with it.

To get back to my point, the legislature and the governor went directly against the will of the people of the state to counteract what the people had voted on and that is why there was an "Emergency Manager" in place to rule on switching the water in Flint!! And I have yet to hear one word from anyone in the media mentioning the legislature being in any way responsible for the Flint water crisis!!

To top it off, after the Flint water crisis was in the national news, the FuckingRepublicans in the state senate refused to give any money to solve the problem in Flint!! I guess they figured the same as this graphic of Gov Snidley!!

 

Truck Mod

Back in December I bought an extended cab pickup. My old truck wouldn't start (still doesn't) and had been acting up for most of the Summer. But that's another story.

One of the things I've always thought was a good idea was that with the extra room behind the seats there would be a place to set stuff, like groceries, whatever. Problem is that with grocery bags these days if you set a plastic bag on the floor behind the seats, by the time you get home most of the stuff could be out of the bag and rolling around on the floor. In our car we have a laundry basket to put groceries or whatever in to keep the stuff contained. A laundry basket would fit behind the seats but if you need to put the rear seats down, what do you do with the basket?? I think I solved that problem.

The solution.

I built a couple of boxes to fit under the rear seats. The seats are still usable and the boxes will contain the stuff in grocery bags or any loose stuff. I also added a net to the front of it that can be used for miscellaneous small stuff. I bought the net at St. Vinnie's several years ago and now finally have a use for it. I put one like it in The Guppy, but haven't put anything in it yet.

The boxes don't interfere with the seats. They can be put down and there is still as much leg room (??) as before. Also, as The Old Lady pointed out after I showed her how it would look with the seats down, we could put stuff under the seat and with the seat down it would be hidden from view!!

My next project on the interior will be new seat covers for the front seats. Not sure if I will do the rear seats as I don't see them being used much. The front seats have some burn holes in them because the previous owner was a smoker. Plus with 230K miles on it the driver's seat is kinda frayed on the edge. 

More Guppy Repairs

On our last excursion we discovered that we had a water problem. When using the pump for water from the holding tank there would be a burst of water and then a trickle. Thought maybe the pump was wore out. Pulled the plywood off the bed to get at the pump. Saw that it was almost 29 years old, it was made in '97. Started looking online to get an idea how much new pumps cost and last week stopped in a RV dealer to price pumps. Decided before buying a new pump would check the screen between the tank and pump.

In line screen after I took it apart and cleaned it.

After pulling the screen and cleaning it, I looked at the tank and saw it had a couple of bathtub rings inside. So I pulled it out and started cleaning it. 

It's cleaner on the outside than inside.

Looks like it has a date on it, 10-18-88.

This is the original tank that has been in the RV since it was built in '89. So far I've filled it with soapy water and agitated it by using a blowgun with a piece of small tubing on it. I would stick it in thru the filler hole and move it around while blowing air. The tubing was soft enough that I was able to bend it and direct the air at most of the dark lines. 

Today when I drained the tank after I had it soaking for a couple days, I discovered that the water wasn't coming out of the line very fast, just a trickle. Took the line off the fitting on the tank and blew air in thru the fitting. The water came out at a good rate after that. Looks like the screen was plugged and the fitting on the tank may have had something restricting the flow.

The setup I used to test the pump.

Decided to test the pump, so I filled a bucket and ran the pump. At first I wondered why it kept running and the level in the bucket kept going down. Then I remembered I had drained the water heater. It took most of two buckets to fill the water heater. After that the pump shut down and I did my test, I opened a faucet to see what kind of water pressure there was and it gave a good stream after the pump kicked in. I don't think I need to replace the pump. It still won't give you a good shower (The Old Lady says it's like taking a shower in a phone booth even when hooked up to city water), but at least you won't have to wait a long time to fill the coffee pot!!

Right now I have the tank filled with water and some bleach to sanitize it. I'll let it sit for a couple days before draining and rinsing it out. I'm going to replace a couple hoses when I reinstall the tank. The hose for the drain is pretty black inside and so is the vent line. I'm also going to put in a new valve for the drain.

WTF CVS?????

Last February I got two new prescriptions filled at a local Target store. Target's pharmacy has been bought out by CVS. The people at the Target pharmacy were wearing name tags that said CVS. Anywho, the two generic drugs cost me $16. Based on the generic price of $10 for a 90 day supply and $4 for 30 days. One of my prescriptions is only 45 pills as I cut them in half and that gives me a 90 day supply. The one with 45 pills costs me $6. So the total is $16.

While we were down in Missouri my supply was running out and because they had built a new CVS drugstore in Farmington, Missouri last year, I went there to get refills. First it took them a long time to transfer the prescriptions, I dropped the old bottles off one day, went back the next and they claimed they got no answer when they called the previous evening. They said they would try again. I asked them to verify that they had my cellphone number so they could call me when the scripts were ready. Several hours later The Old Lady got tired of waiting and called. She was told the scripts were ready, they had just forgot to call.

We went back to CVS to pick up my drugs. When they told us what the price was, both of us dropped a shock. They wanted almost $75 for the two that cost me $16 originally. I said they should only be $16 as they are generic. I was told, "But these are a 90 day supply." To which I said, "Yeah, one should be $10 and the other $6." I asked for my old pill bottles back. (A 90 day supply for drugs cost $24 thru the VA, so the two of them would have been $48, still way cheaper than CVS!!)

I stretched out my pills by skipping some by only taking one a day instead of twice a day and every other day on the other drug. As soon as we got home we went to the same Target the next day. I asked what the prices were on the two drugs and was told $16. (The Target and CVS computer systems for drugs have not been combined yet, so that may explain the difference in price!!) I said they would have to transfer them back from CVS. The guy said it would be a little while (actually he said 20 minutes). We did some shopping in the area and had lunch and when we went back the prescriptions were ready.

If this is what the price is going to be when the CVS takeover of Target pharmacies is complete I guess I'll need to find somewhere else to get my drugs!! (The Old Lady used to get prescriptions filled at CVS when we lived in Hot-Lanta as it was just a couple blocks down the street. Each time she got the same script it was a different price, but because she was only paying a small co-pay it wasn't a big issue.)

As for the CVS in Farmington taking so long, maybe it's just typical Southern way of where they are nice and friendly, but not very swift. Like my nephew once said after living in Georgia for many years, "You'll never get hot french fries down here!!"