Monica Kochelee

The economy worries me more than I’d like to admit.  According to the news programs that I watch and the Internet news sites that I read, the ever increasing gasoline prices, the increasing food prices, the floods in Iowa are going to result in HIGHER food prices, the price of milk will be going up to $6.00 gallon soon and the higher unemployment rates all spell bad times ahead.  We’re already in bad times; I hate to think of them getting much worse.  I hope that when the Presidential election is over and done with the economy will recover. 

One of my very first friends that I made when I moved from one town to another in eleventh grade, Mark, has kept in touch with me over the many years since we graduated and moved around the country.  He has moved from Virginia to Massachusetts, back to Virginia, back to Massachusetts, and finally to Atlanta Georgia where he settled down, married, and started to raise a family.  I like hearing from him and hearing about the things he has seen and done, he is much more adventurous than I ever will be.  He tells me that my construction based family inspired him to go into the profession that he is in, which is renovating old houses.  He tells me that he has been featured twice on the television program “This Old House” for working on some of the old Atlanta houses he has done!

Mark is self employed and tells me that he is looking for the best Georgia Health Insurance he can find for his family.  I told him that my brothers (who run their own small business) are very happy with Kaiser Permanente Insurance, and that I would expect that he would be well advised to look into the program that they offer in Georgia.  They are a well respected health insurance company that offers individual, family, small business and group insurance plans to fit any needs. 

I am getting tired of turning on the news and hearing about recalls!  Don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad that we have more people “on the ball” and catching these things before it gets out of hand and thousands of people get sick and die, but I do wonder if there is more unhealthy things out there now, or if the improvements in the information technology is simply making us more aware?  It is getting so that I’m a little bit worried about eating any kind of produce or meat!  I’m afraid I’m going to starve!  Salmonella and e-coli are in the news so often that it no longer surprises me.  

This morning I was driving to work and was listening to the morning show of my favorite radio station.  I was interested to hear the announcer tell us the interesting tidbit of the day; the smell of crayons lowers blood pressure.  Well, I had never heard that before!  And I’ve been married to a man with high blood pressure, so I was very intrigued to learn more.

I have spent about the last 20 minutes on the Internet, using different search engines, trying to find some reference to “proof” that the smell of crayons reduces blood pressure, and I’m sorry to say that I can’t find any.  So, if you know of “proof” on the Internet (not just some blog) please let me know!

I was so very saddened to hear about Ted Kennedy’s tumor.  That poor family has had so much grief in their history, it really is a shame.  Of all of the Kennedy brothers, I have to admit that he was not my favorite, but he has been a champion for the impoverished, which is a topic that is dear to me.  He has been such a positive political influence on our country that it is hard to imagine anyone else being able to champion the causes as well as he has been able to do.  I’ve heard that the doctors have given him only a year or less to live; I hope that they are mistaken and that they are able to treat this more successfully than that.  It never ceases to amaze me how much technology has advanced, yet so many people die from things like cancer and aids.  It seems to me that if we really focused on health issues like that instead of waging stupid wars, that would be a good thing!