Keeping warm, staying well & a craft project

It's been cold, cold, cold here in my neck of the woods. I've been wearing lots of layers, and drinking lots of hot beverages to warm me inside and out. We're expecting up to a foot of snow here in Virginia starting this afternoon. I love snow... I'll post a picture later. Meanwhile, I plan to keep the woodstove cranked up, since we no longer have central heat.

I finished a lovely craft project, inspired by a fun lady over on Life After Money. This gal motivates me quite a bit with her craft projects and through her personal outlook. My nice little tote is fully lined and reinforced at the bottom. I didn't use scrap and recycled fabric, as super-thrifty Ilona often does, because I fell in love with this sweet bird print... but I did get the fabric on a 50% off sale. All in all, it cost less than $5 to make. I fussed with inventing the right pattern, as to make a model for other bag projects, and the only thing I'd change is reinforcing the top band better... it's a little floppy. It turned out to be a nice simple pattern for a quick project.

On to the topic of staying well...

First a note~ I will not make my blog a place for ranting about hot topics like politics and religion, but I will occasionally have something to say. Sometimes I just need a place to get something out of my head and since I've found that having a conversation with most people about such things is nearly impossible to do, because oftentimes, they don't have the facts, are thinking by narrow definitions, or are just full of strong opinions. When it comes to religion, this is a topic I'll only bring up as it relates to politics because on a personal level, it's just that, personal.

So on to my head dump...

Healthcare in America is very expensive. It will cost us $10,000 a year no matter how sick or how well we are. This is what the insurance companies take just in case we get sick. We can be perfectly healthy, take care of ourselves, get plenty of exercise, yada, yada, yada... and we still have to cough up the 10 grand. And get this, if we happen to need medical intervention, we have to pay a myriad of deductibles, co-pays, and "uncovered" expenses.

I'm all for Universal Health Care. The way I look at it, it is no different than the public education system we already have. Citizens as a unit pay for kids to get educated regardless of how much money they make, how much special education their kids need or don't need, or even how little or how much they, as parents, have populated the country. It benefits society to have educated folks, doesn't it? Wouldn't it make sense that healthy people would be a benefit to society as well?

To argue this point with someone on the other side of the fence is futile for reasons previously mentioned. I came across a good article with a broad overview of benefits & problems with such healthcare. It would be worth a look for anyone, no matter with which camp you stand.

Aaah, an empty head feels better. Uh, wait a minute... that didn't sound right...

Happy, happy, day to you, folks!!