Well, that sufficiently ate up a couple hours of my morning. I'm really not just slacking at work, I'm the computer center chick. I sit in the computer room at the library and sign people in and out of the internet and word processing computers. It's quite boring, so I get to sit here and surf when no one needs on at the moment. And when no one is pulling up porn. Or forgetting the password they just set up an email account with two minutes ago. Or, as the case of the most infamous patron here, pulling up porn while whacking their weasel. Yup.

So really, I'm not just slacking!

The other part of my job that I don't think I'm going to be able to do much longer is delivering the books to the area nursing homes and homebound patrons. That's rough. I mean, when I'm walking down a hallway about ready to burst into tears, I'm thinking that maybe I'm not the right person for the job. I really don't think nursing homes are normal in any sense of the word. I don't think life was meant to end up that way. I mean, many of these people are perfectly coherent, seemingly able to take care of themselves, but for whatever reason get stuck in there like rats in cages. I don't believe in nursing homes, except for the really ill who cannot care for themselves and for whom family members cannot care sufficiently. I feel like too many people are just inconvenienced by their elderly relatives and would rather shut them away in order to "not think about it" and that totally sucks. I know for a fact that I would not, could not put a relative of mine in some of these places. Like I said, unless I totally cannot care for them at all, they don't need a nursing home.

The worst part is how different these places are. If you have the money or the health insurance to pay for it, you can get the finest of care and facilities. Heaven forbid if you don't; you get stuck in places like I go to. Places that smell like feces and people just roam the hallways in their wheelchairs. Where all the doors lock behind you and some won't open the other way again at all (yeah, I got lost yesterday!). Everyone deserves equal care, not just the well heeled. I mean, to reach your later years, to have lived a full life and gained wisdom and experience, only to be stuck in a hole like that? That is not normal! It's not how this is supposed to go down!

As you might guess, this is coming round to my support of Kerry and his broadened health insurance plans. I do think it's a good thing for the Medicaid eligibility to go up to 300% of the poverty level. My husband and I make too much to qualify for health coverage as it stands now, but neither of our employers offer it either. So we're both in that middle ground where we'd have to buy our own coverage. But at over $200.00 per month, we can't afford it. We're living paycheck to paycheck and though that $200.00 seems small, we just can't do it. So, sure, I'd love to see more health coverage for those who need it in this country. It's sad that so many people do without it, in one of the most advanced countries in the world. Yet another reason I'm pulling for Kerry.