Stupid People Abound…

 

*Urgent: Please visit Blade’s Life by clicking the tab at the top. I promised to keep this blog Sarah Palin related so my personal news is there. I will say that hubby and I got a bad shock.*

**Just after I wrote this post we got more bad news. We need help urgently. Please read Blade’s Life.**

 

We all know that Sarah Palin is not fit to hold political office but there seems to be growing interest in her as a potential GOP candidate for 2016.

The author of this article thinks that Palin influenced Congressional races.

http://www.redstate.com/kfobbs/2012/11/29/sarah-palin-in-2016-presidential-race-is-no-laughing-matter/

My thoughts are that those whom she backed won election in spite of her endorsement not because of it.

The real question is are there enough low information voters who just might vote for her if she were to run? I wish I could say no way with confidence but I just can’t be sure.

If babygate were to blow wide open, I am sure that would end her political chances once and for all but it seems like that scandal is fading into oblivion. Many of the blogs that were once invested in finding proof that the general public would have to accept are now defunct.

There are still so many questions about Trig and Tripp. I remain unconvinced that Tripp isn’t older than stated. Like Trig, I have seen pictures of Tripp that don’t seem to be all of the same child.

I want to gather as many pictures that are supposedly Trig and Tripp as I can find, especially ones where their ages and appearances seem suspect.

I would appreciate links to any pictures of Trig and Tripp. If you could email them to me or leave them in the comments section on Blade’s Life, which can be accessed by using the tab at the top of the page, it would be a big help. I am having issues with Disqus and may try to revert to using the blogger comment system but as for now I am only able to moderate this blog by email.

Thanks for any pictures or other interesting babygate related links.

bladecatz@mail.com

Blade

Does Charlotte Allen Have A Clue About Who Sarah Palin Really Is And Has She Seen A Recent Picture Of The Woman She Believes Has It All Over Hillary In The Looks Department?

*  I have added a tab for easy access to my new blog, Blade's Life. The tab is located just beneath the header. Blade's Life is where I discuss personal matters. The link to the site where we sell Hubby's ink pens is also there. Please visit if you have a few minutes. Thanks!*

Well, the election is over and we dodged the bullet this time but time flies and 2016 is just around the bend.
While perusing some of my favorite progressive websites, I was floored when I clicked a link that took me to this piece.
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/18/opinion/la-oe-allen-palin-for-president-20121118
Charlotte Allen thinks that Sarah Palin is good looking, consistent and will appeal to the masses. Has she taken a good look at recent pictures of Caribou Barbie?


This picture of Palin taken in October 2012, shows an aging diva dressed like a slutty teenager. She looks far from presidential, in my opinion.
Allen heaps much praise on Sarah such as she’s ready for the talk show circuit, consistent (yes, you read that right) on the issues and patriotic.
She refers to Palin as someone who doesn’t shop at Neiman Marcus. Who here doesn’t think that La Palin would gladly shop at Neiman Marcus if she could just persuade someone else to pick up the tab?
Hasn’t this Sarah Palin is the new Ronald Reagan shtick been tried before with poor results?
I don’t know whether to laugh at the possibility of Palin running in 2016 or be afraid but I don’t think letting our guard down as far as Sarah Palin is concerned is a good idea.
With so many whack jobs in the GOP these days plus their desperation to find a candidate who appeals to the Evangelical base, I think we need to keep getting the word out that Sarah Palin is a fraud and not fit for any political office much less POTUS.
bladecatz@mail.com
Blade

FYI: About Hubby’s Handcrafted Ink Pens and Me

 

Recently some readers (or perhaps just one reader) have started leaving comments about the pens that my husband makes by hand which we have for sale online at:

http://www.hubbyshandcraftedinkpens.yolasite.com/product-catalog.php

There have also been some personal remarks about me.

I have decided to address these statements in this manner because I am unable to reply to comments except by email.

Below are the comments to which I am referring:

“Your husband's pens are the same ones the 7th graders at my school make for much less money to support school programs. I can buy the same of any of the ones on your website to support our yearbook or to support our student government for $2-$4 each - and that means 50% profit. Your husband charges $30 - $55!”

“Did you and i touch base in Greece a few years back? I recall the need for funds.”

“Several years ago, an individual who frequently blogged on a similar site, fleeced a bunch of good people out of hard earned money claiming he/she had needed money to pay part of a hotel bill in Athens. Caring bloggers, who had developed an online relationship with individual over time were out hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Turned out it was a scam. The urgent need for money was the same as is frequently on this site. I thought about this when reading this site. And agree, the pens are the same as kids make in tech ed.” 

First, I have never been to Greece. I have never been out of the U.S.A. So, to the person who wrote about being fleeced, please take your hostility elsewhere.

Now, about the pens my husband makes. The reader states that they can purchase the pens for “$2-$4 each - and that means 50% profit.”

I can’t say if that statement is true or false but I can say that the materials my husband uses to make each pen costs a lot more than $4. My son, who makes pens professionally, supplies some of the materials. My husband gets wood and corian from contractors who have left overs from jobs. As a reference, here is a link to one of the sites where my son purchases pen making supplies.

http://www.pennstateind.com/

If you search for pen kits, the lowest priced complete pen kit available is $1.95. These kits only include the guts of the pen and metal clip, tip and center band. The material for the body of the pen is not included.

Then the person says “Your husband's pens are the same ones the 7th graders at my school make for much less money to support school programs. I can buy the same of any of the ones on your website”

My husband designs the pens he makes himself. There is no template to go by so I highly doubt the person can buy the same pen. They might be similar but any handcrafted ink pen is going to be one of a kind unless a duplicating machine is used. My husband doesn’t duplicate any of his pens although he does make some that are similar to others.

If the school the person refers to can make pens of the quality that hubby’s are, sell them for that price and make a 50% profit then they must be using all donated materials.

I don’t begrudge the school fundraising but why attack us? I am fairly sure we aren’t competing with them for sales. Hubby puts hours of work into every pen he makes. He is an artist, if you will and his time and effort are worth something.

I think these remarks are made vindictively and with the motive of trying to make hubby’s pens seem so overpriced that no one will buy them but why?

Lee, school mum or whoever you are, if you have something personal to take up with me, my email address is included in every post. Please email me instead of leaving remarks to make my husband’s pens look like overpriced junk.

My husband and I are both disabled. We both have multiple medical problems which require visits to specialists. Hubby’s pension doesn’t cover all the medical expenses we have. We live in an area that is very rural. Healthcare, other than the basics requires travel. We need to sell those pens to get to appointments which one or the other of us has nearly every week.

I am not begging for people to give us money. We are selling a product to try to raise the money we need.

I hope this post doesn’t offend anyone. Most of the people who come here are great and have been so helpful. Hubby and I are sincerely grateful to all of you.

Hubby was diagnosed with skin cancer on his nose yesterday and it just seems like the bad times will never end.

This will be the last post where I ask people to please purchase pens or at least share our site with others. I can’t deal with the negativity anymore.

When I have time, I will still put up Palin related posts.

Here is the link to the pen site one more time:

http://www.hubbyshandcraftedinkpens.yolasite.com/product-catalog.php

If anyone has information or comments for me that they would like me to reply to please send them via email.

bladecatz@mail.com

PS: To a reader called NYAH: I have noticed that your comments for some reason do not appear on the website. They arrived in my email and I replied to them by email but I don’t know where they went. I just want to let you know that I do appreciate the information you have given me and I apologize because I know from your last comments that you think I have ignored you. If you have anymore suggestions for me, please send them to the email address above.

Thanks to all my readers!

Blade

I Hate Doing This…

 

I hate doing this again and I know I will probably get flamed but I have run out of options.

I have an appointment Thursday morning with my oncologist. I want to cancel it because we don’t have any money and the trip is 220 miles round trip. I saw my primary care doctor yesterday for my monthly check-up. She reminded me about my oncology appointment and I told her that I was going to cancel it. She said I really need to keep the appointment if there was any way possible. I have lost over 60 pounds since May and she is really worried about that. My blood pressure was low yesterday and she lowered the dosage of my blood pressure medicine and took me off my diuretic. I kind of know what she is worried about but I just don’t want to think about it.

Hubby also has an appointment out of town next week. I worry about him getting to his appointment more than I do about getting to mine and he worries more about me getting to mine. He has been having trouble keeping his blood sugar levels under control. They swing high to low so he needs to see his endocrinologist.

The mess we are in with our bank has put us in a hole or we would have had enough money to get to our appointments. (see previous post for details).

I have tried every place I can think of to ask for help with our travel cost but none of them have any funds available because they have been sending everything they get to help storm victims.

If anyone can help by purchasing a pen, I would be very grateful. Also, if someone could post this at politicalgates, that would be a big help. For some reason, I can’t access their site anymore but Kathleen left a comment here saying that I could ask for help there if I needed to.

I have been having trouble with my computer. I guess a setting is messed up because I can’t even comment here. When I try I get an error message that says my browser is out of date but I am using IE 9. I have to reply to comments by email.

I know I have asked for help a lot lately and I apologize but I just don’t know what else to do. Selling pens is the only way we have to make money and our luck has been awful lately. Hubby was all set to sell pens at a carnival on October 27 but Sandy was supposed to be hitting us with tropical storm force winds so it was canceled. Thankfully, Sandy was a no show here other than a good stiff breeze.

Here is the link for the pen site:

http://www.hubbyshandcraftedinkpens.yolasite.com/product-catalog.php

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help. To those who will leave rude replies, my husband and I are going through some rough times. I hope you never have to deal with several problems at once that just wipe you out financially.

bladecatz@mail.com

Blade

I Am In Big Trouble and Need Help UPDATE # 2

 

I contacted the business where I used the gift certificate this morning. The overdraft did go through but they agreed to return the money. The bank won't waive the overdraft fee, though. I just hope the business completes the return soon because the money has to be refunded to paypal and then I have to transfer it back to our bank account. If the money isn't back in our bank account before Friday when hubby's pension is deposited the bank will take what they are due which will cause more overdrafts. I hate greedy banks but there is only one bank in town so we didn't have a choice. Any purchases will be greatly appreciated and please keep sharing the pen site and our facebook page. Big thanks to everyone who has purchased or donated in the past.

http://www.hubbyshandcraftedinkpens.yolasite.com/product-catalog.php

https://www.facebook.com/Hubbyshandcraftedinkpensyolasitecom?ref=hl

 

*******************************************

I will be on the phone in the morning trying to straighten this mess out. Please pray that I will get the money needed or can get the businesses involved to work with me to resolve the issue. If the problem can’t be corrected, it will be a disaster for us.

Visit our new facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/Hubbyshandcraftedinkpensyolasitecom?ref=hl

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I am in big trouble and need to raise $500.00 very quickly. If you or anyone you know is looking to buy unique gifts for Christmas or other occasions, please consider our pens.

ctehttp://www.hubbyshandcraftedinkpens.yolasite.com/product-catalog.php

I think I am either a bad luck magnet or someone has put a hex on me(only half-joking).

The problem began when I was using a gift certificate on a woodworking equipment website. My husband's birthday is a week from today and our son emailed a gift certificate to me to use to buy hubby new penmaking equipment.

Our son is a penmaker, too, but on a much larger scale than hubby. His pens are sold in stores. He places so many orders for penmaking stuff that he earns rewards and he had accumulated reward points worth over $500.00. He used his points to order a $500 gift certificate and emailed it to me so I could order a new lathe for hubby.

I started the order but when the shipping charge was added the total was $504.89. I thought I was going to have to cancel but then I remembered that I had $5.00 in my paypal account that I could use to pay the difference. I placed the order using my paypal debit card to pay the $4.89 but there was a glitch and I got an error code. I tried again and experienced the glitch again. I tried a third time and still got the error code. By this time, I figured that the order wasn't going to be accepted and I looked for an email address so I could notify the website about the problem.

I found a report a problem form and began filling in the information. There was a place to enter error code received but I couldn't remember the code so I hit the back arrow to look for it. When I hit "back" I was returned to the place your order page. I had been getting the error code when I hit the submit order button so I hit it again. This time the order went through and I thought everything was okay. Then I noticed the whole order had been charged to my paypal debit card.

My paypal debit card is linked to our bank account which has a balance of less than a dollar. I called paypal and told them about the problem but the order is pending until Monday and I can't dispute the charge until the order is complete. The problem is since I only have $5.00 in my paypal account, paypal will try to pull almost $500.00 from our bank account. This will cause an automatic overdraft on our bank account and we will owe the bank the amount of the overdraft plus an overdraft fee.

Hubby's pension is direct deposited to our bank account so the bank will pull the money they are owed when the next deposit is received. We have our household bills on autopay so when our bank account doesn't have enough money to pay the bills overdraft will kick in again. I don't know how we'll ever get out of this vicious cycle if it starts. The only way to avoid this is to get the $500 in paypal before Monday morning so paypal doesn't try to take funds from our bank account.

I called the bank's 800 number and spoke with a rep but she said the process is automated and there's no way to cancel it now. I tried to call the woodworking site that I placed the order with to see if I can cancel but they are closed till 9 am central time Monday and by then it will be too late. I haven't told hubby about this yet because he will worry himself sick.

I don't like begging but selling pens is the only way I know to get out of this mess. Our son would give us the money but he has been in financial trouble due to being defrauded by a stock transfer agent and he had to hire a lawyer to try to get back the stock the agents say they can't find. Please buy a pen if you can or suggest our pens to others. Thanks again...

bladecatz@mail.com

Blade

Car Will Be Repaired Tomorrow…

 

We finally raised enough money to get the part we needed and our neighbor will be fixing the car tomorrow.

Hubby and I want to thank everyone for the donations, pen orders, suggestions and support.

Being able to use our car again will be a huge relief.

We still need funds to pay for the trips back and forth to doctor appointments so please keep our pens in mind when you are shopping for gifts and share the link with others.

http://www.hubbyshandcraftedinkpens.yolasite.com/product-catalog.php

Hubby has been working on some new pens while we’ve been homebound. I still have to add them to the catalog so keep checking because they are truly beautiful.

I am also working on a facebook page to advertise the pens and tell people about our situation. I will post here when it’s ready. Please share it.

Thanks again for all the help!

bladecatz@mail.com

Blade

Any Suggestions? We Are Really Desperate

 

I posted the following yesterday while I was on hold, waiting to speak with a counselor at a local agency about getting help to have our car repaired and I accidentally posted it as an update to a previous post instead of new. I am going to repost as new because we really need any suggestions that might help us out. The counselor I spoke with was very nice but their organization just doesn’t have the funds.

I can’t understand why the person who hit our car didn’t leave a note. Hubby and I both thought that our insurance would cover the damage. We have been with the  company that has the vanishing deductible for over 10 years and haven’t had any accidents which we are at fault. We thought our $500.00 deductible would have disappeared by the way the ads on television describe the feature but it turns out that feature is optional and it didn’t exist when we took out our policy so we still have the $500.00 deductible and can only file a claim for the difference if the repairs cost over $500.00. Of course, we don’t have the $500.00 so we can’t have the car fixed.

I am ashamed at having to post requests for advice and help but I just don’t know where else to turn. We have no relatives nearby. Our son and his family live in Texas and would help us in a heartbeat if they could but they are in financial trouble, too, at this time.Our neighbors are great but have no extra money and they work during the week so they can’t help with transportation to our appointments. The neighbor who is a mechanic would be doing the work for us free to save us the labor cost.

Here is what I posted  low. The one organization that helps with car repairs refused us as I explain below.

I have been trying all week to find an organization that will help us get our car back  on the road. Our neighbor will do the work but we have to get the part which cost $312.00 new. We have raised $45.00. Our mechanic neighbor tried to find us the part through a network of salvage yards. He was only able to find one. It is in California. The price of the used part is $225.00 but we have to pay shipping. The part is over-sized because it's a body part that wraps all the way around the front end of the car. The shipping cost is $70.00 making the total price 295.00. Our neighbor said that since we would only be saving $17.00 if we bought the used part  it wouldn't be wise because the part is sold as is and if there is anything wrong with it, we wouldn't be able to get our money back if we are able to come up with enough money to buy it.

What really irks me is that our car runs fine but we can't drive it because the likelihood of the part falling off in the road is dangerous. Our safety inspection is due and it won't pass until this is fixed.

I thought I had found an organization to help with repairs but then we found out they only help with mechanical repairs, not body damage. They consider such damage to be cosmetic but in our case it's a safety issue. I asked if they could make an exception but they refused.

I hate to keep hawking hubby's pens but selling them is the only way we have to raise extra money. We have nothing left each month after we pay our bills.

Hubby and I both have medical appointments almost every week until the end of the month. Next Wednesday hubby and I both have an appt. with our primary doctors. I can't miss my appt. because since I am on Coumadin I have to have my INR checked monthly. Thursday, hubby has an appt. with another ophthalmologist  Hubby's vision has improved but is still not as good as it should be so his local ophthalmologist set up an appointment with a specialist in Fayetteville, about 35 miles from our house. There is a new medicine that sometimes helps the type of problem hubby has and this Dr. wants to to examine hubby to see if he is a candidate for the drug.
The week after next I have to see my kidney doctor. I went in July and I usually go every 6 months but my blood tests were way off in July so I have to go for a recheck. Hubby has an appointment with a podiatric surgeon who is treating him for da foot ulcer.

These aren't appointments we can postpone but we have no way to get to them. The neighbors have to work. We don't even a taxi service in our little town and for some reason, the taxi company in the nearest larger town about 13 miles away in the next county will not serve our area.

Then, November 8th, I have an appointment with my oncologist. That's 240 miles round trip. My primary doctor asked my oncologist to have me come in earlier than usual because I have been losing a lot of weight. I have lost over 50 pounds since May and my primary doctor is worried about that.

I hate to write about this stuff but everything is hitting us at once. Please consider buying a pen, recommending them to others or just make suggestions as to how we might be able to get assistance. Any kind of help at all is truly appreciated.

http://www.hubbyshandcraftedinkpens.yolasite.com/product-catalog.php

We have more pens than shown so if there is a special color or style that you would like, just email me or post it here. We might have what you need.

bladecatz@mail.com

Thanks,

Blade