On Jul 5, 9:18=A0am, "CB" <C...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> "None4You" <None4...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>
> news:w6qdnRY_1Lwg8fLVnZ2dnUVZ_sPinZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
That's mostly because the all idiots using natural gas, from houses
to car makers,
where all told 50 years ago, long before any prices issues. That the
ONLY solution to natural gas prices,
ftom now until FOREVER is to use natural gas to make computers,
fiber optics,
lasers, holograms, PV Cells, plastics, hydrogen, robots, and A.I.
There is NO OTHER solution.
>
>
>
> > "CB" <C...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> >news:486f6b26$0$5936$9a6e19ea@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> >> "None4You" <None4...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> >>news:nN6dnSz-J-0Z-PLVnZ2dnUVZ_r7inZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> >>> "(David P.)" <imb...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>
>>>news:15cf3cae-403d-431a-91f5-70ba747aabca@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >>>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/05/us/05elderly.html
>
> >>> As Gas Prices Soar, Elderly Face Cuts in Aid
>
> >>> By JOHN LELAND
> >>> Published: July 5, 2008
>
> >>> SOUTH HAVEN, Mich. - Early last month,
> >>> Jeanne Fair, 62, got her first hot meals
> >>> delivered to her home in this lake town in the
> >>> sparsely populated southwestern part of the
> >>> state. Then after two deliveries the meals
> >>> stopped because gas prices had made the
> >>> delivery too expensive.
>
> >>> "They called and said I was outside of the
> >>> delivery area," said Mrs. Fair, who is home-
> >>> bound and has not been able to use her left
> >>> arm since a stroke in 1997.
>
> >>> Faced with soaring gasoline prices, agencies
> >>> around the country that provide services to
> >>> the elderly say they are having to cut back on
> >>> programs like Meals on Wheels, trans****tation
> >>> assistance and home care, especially in rural
> >>> areas that depend on volunteers who provide
> >>> their own gas. In a recent survey by the Nat'l
> >>> Assn of Area Agencies on Aging, more than
> >>> half said they had already cut back on
> >>> programs because of gas costs, and 90 %
> >>> said they expected to make cuts in the 2009
> >>> fiscal year.
>
> >>> "I've never seen the increase in need at this
> >>> level," said Robert McFalls, chief executive
> >>> of the Area Agency on Aging in Palm Beach,
> >>> Fla., whose office has a waiting list of 1,500
> >>> people. Volunteers who deliver meals or drive
> >>> the elderly to medical appointments have cut
> >>> back their miles, Mr. McFalls said.
>
> >>> Public agencies of all kinds are struggling
> >>> with the new math of higher gas prices, lower
> >>> property & sales tax revenues & increases in
> >>> the minimum wage. Some communities have
> >>> cut school bus routes, police patrols, traveling
> >>> libraries and lawn maintenance. The St. Paul
> >>> Police Department is encouraging officers
> >>> to use horses and bikes. A number of state
> >>> agencies, including those in Utah, are going
> >>> to four-day workweeks to save energy costs
> >>> and reduce commuting expenses for their
> >>> employees.
>
> >>> But older poor people and those who are
> >>> homebound are doubly squeezed by rising
> >>> gas and food prices, because they rely not
> >>> just on social service agencies, but also on
> >>> volunteers.
>
> >>> In the survey of agencies, more than 70 %
> >>> said it was more difficult to recruit and keep
> >>> volunteers.
>
> >>> Mrs. Fair, who has limited mobility because
> >>> of diabetes, lives on $642 per month in
> >>> Social Security widow's benefits, & relies
> >>> on care from her son, who often works odd
> >>> hours, especially during blueberry season.
> >>> "He says, 'You belong in a nursing home;
> >>> I can't take care of you,' " Mrs. Fair said.
>
> >>> The delivered meals allowed her to eat at
> >>> regular hours, which helped her control her
> >>> blood sugar levels, she said. Last year she
> >>> lost her balance during a change in blood
> >>> sugar and spent a month in a nursing home.
>
> >>> With no meal delivery in her area, Mrs. Fair
> >>> said her home aide, who comes 3 times
> >>> a week, must pick up frozen meals from a
> >>> center in the next town.
>
> >>> "If my aide can't get the meals, maybe I can
> >>> get my pastor to pick them up," Mrs. Fair
> >>> said. "I can't travel even to the drop-off center."
>
> >>> Val J. Halamandaris, president of the Nat'l
> >>> Assn for Home Care and Hospice, said that
> >>> rising fuel prices had become a significant
> >>> burden for the 7,000 agencies represented
> >>> by his group, with some forced to close and
> >>> others compelled to shrink their service
> >>> areas or reduce face-to-face visits with patients.
>
> >>> A recent survey by the group concluded that
> >>> home health and hospice workers drove
> >>> 4.8 billion miles in 2006 to serve 12 million
> >>> clients. "If we lose these agencies in rural
> >>> areas, we'll never get them back,"
> >>> Mr. Halamandaris said.
>
> >>> The agencies, which have suffered from
> >>> Medicare cuts in recent years, are lobbying
> >>> Congress to account for fuel inflation in
> >>> reimbursement rates and to reinstate
> >>> special increases for providers in rural
> >>> areas, a program that expired in 2006.
>
> >>> In Union, Mich., a town among flat corn
> >>> and soybean farms near the Indiana border,
> >>> Bill Harman, 77, relies on a home aide to
> >>> take care of his wife, Evelyn, who is 85
> >>> and has Alzheimer's disease. Mr. Harman
> >>> has had to use a wheelchair since 2000
> >>> because of hip problems.
>
> >>> But the aide, Katie Clark, 26, may have to
> >>> give up the job. She lives 25 miles away
> >>> and drives 700 miles a week to provide
> >>> twice-daily visits, helping Mrs. Harman
> >>> dress in the morning and get to bed at
> >>> night, feeding her, doing chores around
> >>> the house. "And putting up with a grumpy
> >>> old man," she said jokingly to Mr. Harman.
> >>> Her weekly income of $250 is being eaten
> >>> up by gas expenses, which come to
> >>> $100 a week.
>
> >>> "Some weeks I have to borrow money to
> >>> get here," said Ms. Clark, a single mother
> >>> of two, adding, "They're just like family to me."
>
> >>> Agencies say they are facing a shortage
> >>> of home aides, because the jobs have low
> >>> pay and often require long drives for a few
> >>> hours of work. "They can't make any money,"
> >>> said Laurence Schmidt, administrator for
> >>> the Oswego County Office for the Aging,
> >>> in rural northwest New York. "So they'll get
> >>> jobs in nursing homes, where they can
> >>> drive to one place and work a full ****ft.
> >>> That is a statewide problem."
>
> >>> Mr. Harman said he thought a previous
> >>> aide might have abused his wife, but that
> >>> Mrs. Harman was comfortable with Ms.
> >>> Clark. On a recent afternoon, Mrs.
> >>> Harman called Ms. Clark "honey"; Ms.
> >>> Clark, walking Mrs. Harman to the bath-
> >>> room, kissed her nose. Mrs. Harman
> >>> said she was going home. Ms. Clark
> >>> said, "You are home, silly."
>
> >>> For her work, Ms. Clark receives $9 an
> >>> hour. If she leaves, Mr. Harman said,
> >>> he could not care for his wife.
>
> >>> He said that when they married, she
> >>> raised his five children as if they were
> >>> her own. When Mrs. Harman started to
> >>> develop Alzheimer's 8 or 10 years ago,
> >>> he said, "I promised her, 'Don't worry,
> >>> I'll take care of you as long as I can.' "
>
> >>> Without an aide, he said, he'd have to
> >>> put his wife in a nursing home, and
> >>> probably need to live in one himself.
>
> >>> For many isolated older people, home
> >>> delivery of meals provides not just
> >>> nutrition but also regular contact with
> >>> the outside world, said Elaine Eubank,
> >>> president of CareLink, a nonprofit
> >>> agency that serves elderly people in
> >>> six counties in Arkansas, delivering
> >>> 480,181 meals to 18,000 people last
> >>> year. Because of gas prices, Ms. Eubank
> >>> said, one center in Monroe County had
> >>> closed its kitchen, and others were
> >>> delivering frozen meals two days a week.
>
> >>> Mary Margaret Cox, executive director
> >>> of Meals on Wheels in Greeley, Colo.,
> >>> which serves meals to 300 people a
> >>> day, said that her agency was trying to
> >>> avoid ****fting to frozen meals, but that
> >>> it was getting hard to recruit students and
> >>> teachers who volunteer during the summer.
>
> >>> "Most don't have anyone else checking
> >>> up on them daily," Mrs. Cox said of her
> >>> clients. "If we do more frozen meals,
> >>> they'll lose that daily contact."
>
> >>> Many agencies said their revenues -
> >>> which come from state, federal & private
> >>> sources - weren't keeping up with their
> >>> increased expenses. "We've had one
> >>> increase from Medicaid in 11 years," Ms.
> >>> Eubank said. "But home care and Meals
> >>> on Wheels keep people at home for a
> >>> fraction of the cost of a nursing home.
> >>> The state pays for care once they're in
> >>> a nursing home. So our cuts may cost
> >>> more than they save."
>
> >>> Sandra Prediger, 70, who still drives
> >>> a car, said higher gas prices hit her
> >>> every time she needed to go to the
> >>> doctor. From her senior apartment in
> >>> South Haven, she was barely able to
> >>> pay her bills before gas prices rose.
>
> >>> "I try to help some of the ladies around
> >>> here, driving them to doctors or to the
> >>> store," Miss Prediger said, but a round
> >>> trip to her doctor or the beauty shop
> >>> now costs $26 in gas. She has had to
> >>> ask her friends to pay half. "I hate to ask,''
> >>> she said, "because they have less than me."
>
> >>> Her Social Security check arrives on
> >>> the third of the month. For the few days
> >>> before, her local gas station lets her
> >>> write a postdated check to fill up.
>
> >>> On July 2, Miss Prediger had no money
> >>> and owed money to the gas station. "In
> >>> a few minutes," she said, "my friend
> >>> ****rley will probably call and say, 'Can
> >>> you take me to Wal-Mart to get needles
> >>> for my diabetes?' What else can I do?"
>
> >>> Barbara Blumka, 67, of Buchanan, Mich.,
> >>> said she would continue delivering 15 or
> >>> 16 meals a week though she could not
> >>> afford it. She is driving a Dodge Caravan,
> >>> a "gas guzzler," she said.
>
> >>> "I see these people's faces," said Ms.
> >>> Blumka, who gets her meals at a senior
> >>> center. "They're so appreciative. I think
> >>> of all the people who took care of my
> >>> mother in the nursing home. This is my
> >>> way of giving thanks."
>
> >>> Christine Vanlandingham, development
> >>> officer for the three-county Area Agency
> >>> on Aging, said that in three to six months,
> >>> the agency would have to start cutting
> >>> meal deliveries to clients who
>
> ...
>
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