Tuesday, August 12, 2008

House for Sale

For those looking to buy a home, there is a house for sale in Rio Rancho, NM. It is a nice 2 bedroom, 1 bath, with a big addition that could be used as a family room, master bedroom, den, or office. If interested leave a comment with an email and I will get back to you.

Lazy, Dirty People

I have been helping a friend clean one of her rental houses. I have helped before and know the situation. The renters don't want to pay as much as the owner wants, which isn't enough to make a profit after the mortgage on the house is paid each month, plus, the insurance, and taxes. The renters are all so nice and friendly and act like they will be more than glad to keep the place clean, both inside and out. But when they have been there for a few months the owner starts seeing signs of not cleaning and little bits of destruction to the property. This gets worse and worse as well as non-payment of rent until the renters have to be asked to leave. Sometimes they do, sometimes a simple eviction notice is enough, other times it takes a court order and the police to get them out.
My friend though buying a few properites and renting them would be an easy way to make some money. Not so. Every renter is required to pay a large damage deposit and asked to give 30 days notice before they move out. She has never had a renter give notice they were moving. They might call and say their gone, or come give her the keys and say they are out, or as in this case just be gone when she went to collect the rent. The renters cell phone isn't working any more, and she has left her job. None of the renters have ever made an effert to clean when they move out and most make sure to leave lots of holes in the walls, dirt on the floors, carpets, cabinets, and filty bathrooms. They never make any effert to clean the yards at all. I have heard of the city complaining about the weeds in the yards, and the owner having to request renters leave because they won't keep the weeds down, let alone think about keeping a lawn mowed, although it was stated that they would in their contract, and they agreed to it.
It makes me realize just how lazy and dirty the average person is.
Let me say right now that I know there are lots of people who rent and live up to the requirements of their contract. I know I usually left a rental house in better shape that it was when I moved in when I was having to rent. And I agree that a lot of people do the same. But around here it seems to be the normal thing to try to destroy as much of the house as you can or at the very least make it dirty and lots of work for the owner to clean up.
With this house the owner is going to have to have the house repainted again, new carpet put in, new tile in the kitchen and bathroom, one new door that was broken, a new door frame for the front door and around the area where the washer and dryer went. There is a large drawing/picture on the door going into the garage that looks like gang sign. If it can't be painted over the door will have to be replaced and it is one of the heavy metal safety doors. For safety the locks on the door will have to be changed. At least this time there is no sign of drugs yet, just lots of beer cans, and cigerate butts in the back yard. These renters couldn't even put their trash in the trashcan and put it at the curb on trashday even though the home owner paid the garabe bill. We figure there is about $5000 to have the house made livable for someone else again. We will do as much as we can so that other workers don't have to be called in. And this time the house is to be sold. My friend is getting out of the rental business. Everyone that we know that owns rental houses or apartments is doing the same. Where do these kinds of irresponsable people think they are going to live when their credit is shot because they were to lazy and liked living in filt, and all the rental owners get out of the business?

Falling Stars

I love to sit out side after dark and watch for falling stars or meteor. There is supposed to be more than usual this week. The most were to be seen early on the morning of the 12th but I didn't hear about it until today. Should still be more than normal again tonight if you want to watch for them. more information at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/22jul_perseiddawn.htm

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Sunflowers


Adopt PMU Foals

For those that want to help the PMU foals there are several sites that offer information on adopting PMU foals. I can't recommend one over another as I have had no direct connection with any as I can't afford another horse. But it is a good way to get a horse that is in desperate need of a home. You can google adopt PMU foal where there is a lot of sites.

Warning about PMU Websites

A warning to those of you that deside to research the PMU mares and horse slaughterhouse websites. They can be very graphic and very destressful. I can't go back to them anymore.

PMU Mares

Do YOU want to take a medicine made from Mare's Urine?
I went to the doctor the other day for a checkup and to get my prescriptions renewed. The doctor seemed very distracted and didn’t seem to be listening to me, and the same with the rest of his staff. For starters I was trying to make them understand that I don’t have medical insurance anymore. When my husband retired, my medical insurance that had been almost free became $400 dollars a month, plus co-pays. There was no way we could afford that. Neither can we afford any other good insurance on the market right now. (He still has full coverage for free.) As I don’t have anything that doctors seem to be able to take care of I just haven’t bothered to get any. The doctor agreed to renew my prescription for my high blood pressure medicine and the pain meds I need to keep my legs, back, and feet from hurting so much. Then I talked to him about my night sweats and hot flashes and mood swings. Yes I am in menopause. It seems that menopause is still a taboo subject even with doctors. Most women and men don’t want to talk about it, or even think about it. My doctor agreed to put me on an estrogen. Now let me say that I have been on estrogen before for several years, and when the scare came out that they might not be good for you I went off and haven’t taken any for about 2 years now. But my hot flashes and night sweats are getting worse and worse. I may be smiling and happy one minute and crying for no reason the next. It becomes a quality of life situation. And I knew that the kind of estrogen I had taken before was one of the $4 dollar meds at Wal-Mart as is my high blood pressure med. So I told the doctor what I had taken before. He mumbled something about giving me something else. I was dumb for not pushing the situation. At the pharmacy I was told the prescription was for Premarin, (or they thought it was, as it took 3 of them to figure out his handwriting), and would cost me about $130 a month. I nearly came unglued at that. Then I thought to ask if it was the stuff that had mare’s urine in it. The answer was yes. I thanked them nicely, said I couldn’t afford it. They gave me a list of what was on the $4 list of estrogen meds. I called the doctors office the next day and asked for something different. Again I explained to the doctor’s nurse why I didn’t want the Premarin. She said she would talk to the doctor. Finally 2 days later she called back and said he didn’t want me to have the other stuff and since I had insurance I wouldn’t be paying anything but the copay. I almost screamed at her, and explained again (for about the tenth time) why I didn’t have insurance and that I wouldn’t take Premarin even if I did have insurance. She will talk to the doctor again.

For those of you that don’t know let me explain. For Premarin mare’s (a female horse) urine is collected and made into the medicine. To collect it a pregnant mare is made to stand in a tiny 8 foot long by 3-foot wide stall for 6 months and never allowed to lay down or move more than a few steps. They have a machine attached to them to collect the urine in that is never completely removed. Mind you they are pregnant and kept overweight, never allowed to exercise for those 6 months and not allowed enough water so that their urine is higher in the estrogen. They are feed well and kept overweight so that when their usefulness is over they can be sent to a slaughterhouse to be killed and eaten as a meat delicacy in other countries. (Japan, France, Belgium) As soon as she gives birth the mare is allowed out in the pasture for a few months to raise her foal that is usually sent to slaughter, also. (about 40,000 PMU foals are born each year) The mare is breed again on her first heat cycle after foaling so the whole cruel process can start again.

Do you want to be taking a medicine that has mare’s urine in it from a mare that is enduring such a cruel, painful life when there are other medicines on the market that don’t have mare’s urine that are just as good and a lot cheaper.

If you think I am making this up as I was once told by a co-worker, please go to a couple of the websites that are trying to get this stopped. I had heard about it a long time ago and though it was on the decrease, but find that the PMU farms are still going and creeping into the United States. Most are in Canada. Canada, on the whole is a good country to visit and see but they don’t advertise about their PMU mares and horse slaughterhouse. Neither does Mexico. Nether does the United States. At least the US did shut down the slaughterhouses but have not stopped the auction buyers from buying horses from auction and sending them across the borders to Canada and Mexico.
Here are some of the websites. You can access others by googlleing PNM mares.
http://www.premarin.com/ http://www.prempro.com/ and this is one of the companies that makes medicines from mare’s urine. www.StopWyeth.org
I found this one very informative.
http://friendsofanimals.org/programs/domestic-feral/horses/pmu.html
And this one is on You Tube and dated for Jan. 2008 I couldn't watch all of it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I-IWYOIx7Ug