My dog howls whenever she hears Piano Man by Billy Joel. That’s the only song she’s ever reacted to, and she does it every time. Her ears perk up as soon as she hears the piano in the intro, and she starts howling when the harmonica starts. She doesn’t stop until the song ends. I have no idea why she does this, and when I told her vet about it, the vet just shrugged and said, “I’ve always liked Billy Joel, too.”

I donated a kidney to a friend earlier this year. The reason his kidneys failed wasn’t anything he was at fault for, but even if it had been because of poor decisions he’d made in the past, I still would have given him one of mine. Because people deserve second chances. I can understand not wanting to give a recovering alcoholic a deceased donor’s liver, when someone else could receive that liver, instead. But this woman’s partner was a match and was willing to donate to her. What’s the harm in that? That isn’t a liver that could have gone to someone else who needed it. It’s a donation that would have either gone to her or no one else. No one could have lost out of the donation had been carried out. This was just cruelty, and now someone is dead. And for what? Because there’s a 15% chance (according to studies the article mentioned) that she might have started drinking again???

To make things even harder, a lot of people don’t really have much of a choice which insurance provider to use because of cost. I can’t afford insurance outside of what my employer offers.

I love Robert Browning. Love Among the Ruins has always been my favorite, although I’m not sure why. I honestly don’t think it’s his best work.

I’m sorry for your loss. My dog is getting older and I don’t know what my family will do without her when she passes away.

I emailed my representative here in KY about this and his response was, “I don’t get lunch most days during Session.” JFC How about writing a bill to ensure representatives are allowed to take a lunch break, instead of supporting one that takes away everyone else’s right to one? What an asshole. By the way, his name is Daniel Fister, in case any other people stuck in this hellhole state want to look up his email address and let him know how you feel about how much of a twat he is.

Sometimes people will say something negative about themselves because they’re hoping you will say something positive, instead. I used to do the same thing. Whenever I was feeling insecure about my looks or weight, I would say something negative about myself, because my husband would tell me it wasn’t true and would give me compliments that would boost my self-confidence. I don’t do that anymore, because it’s not a very healthy way to be confident in yourself, but it certainly was effective. Do you think maybe your girlfriend is just feeling insecure about herself? I would talk to her about that to see if maybe it’s something she’d like to work on in herself. You can also try to give her honest compliments on a regular basis. It’s hard for a girl (or guy!) to feel unattractive if her loved one is telling her twice a day that her shirt looks good on her, or he loves her laugh, or he thinks she’s pretty.

The state I live in has Medicaid waivers that pay (with tax dollars) for people who have developmental disabilities to get home-based help. So basically we send a Direct Support Professional (DSP) to the person’s home for a set number of hours each week, and they work on goals with that person. Goals can be things like learning to cook for themselves, working on their social skills, going out in the community to find hobbies, enrolling in classes, etc, etc, etc. We pay the DSP by the hour, and then Medicaid reimburses our company. So it’s free for the person/family who needs our services. I’m pretty sure that most states in the US have waivers like this set up. It’s called the Community Living Supports Waiver in my state. If you live in the US, you can just look up Medicaid waivers in your state, and it should pull up companies like the one I work for. Unfortunately, I’ve found that not a lot of people know about the waivers, including families and individuals who could really use them.

I work for a company that helps people with developmental disabilities (autism, fetal alcohol syndrome, etc) become more independent in their daily lives. Recently, one of our clients successfully earned her vet tech certification. She wants to help sick animals, especially cats. This is a girl who could barely write her own name when we started working with her. Now, she’s going places. Makes all the hard work worth it.

Steve Yzerman