Double Nothing Still Equals Nothing

New Jersey's Governor Christopher Christie stated he would double the Homestead Rebates IF someone could get the state employees to contribute 30% to their medical costs. That is not even funny.


The rebates for 2009 which were not rebated still have not been credited to the property taxes as promised. So the people of New Jersey are in for double zero, as it now stands. And they are not the ones responsible for setting the benefits or lack thereof for state workers. Guess who is? Apparently, the Republicans seemed to imply it was formerly Governor Corzine and alluded that a relationship with Karla Katz, who at the  time headed that union, prevented this very thing. Now it's the General Public's job? I don't see how.

And cutting back Medicaid is a sadistic, cruel, and not grounded in reality very, very, very bad joke. Medicaid for year has failed to pay doctors, pharmacies, labs and hospitals. They are the biggest tax loss those entities can claim. Especially so if a person has both Medicare and Medicaid. In those instances, Medicare is the primary payor. Medicaid is the secondary, responsible for the copays of 20% or less which Medicare doesn't cover. They don't pay it. Many docotrs refuse to accept patients with Medicaid insurance because they don't get paid. Other providers carry the patient with a "non-paying secondary" notation. People in need of medical care, unable to keep gainful employment due to illness, are periodically kicked off the Medicaid rolls anyway, for any excuse their flim-flam artists can conceive.

A balanced budget is a fine aspiration for us all. But who has achieved it? Now that Mr. Christie has the people paying his bills, his aversion thereto has carried over into the government. I know where the money ia that should be going to the Constitutionally demanded "general welfare of the public". It's going into private pockets. Consultants who glory in how much more they can get on a government consulting job than the public sector pays, especially in computer applications. A lot of it is going into the pockets of slackers and incompetents and the flim-flam scam artists who get paid a pretty penny for figuring and applying unrealistic mathematical equations which have nothing to do with reality or actual cost of living. And in sending ou the same notices month after month which have nothing to do with the actual person to whom they are sent. Meanwhile, benefits are coming out late, but the people who are being "kicked off" food stamps and Medicaid have no such delay or period of grace to provide documents.

Unlike other political people who use town hall meetings to adress real constituent concerns, mr. Christie glories in the spotlight which the news channels are all too happy to provide. Apparently it is meant to absolve them of having to researcg actuality and reality; to get off their butts and actually meet with real people.

All this bruhaha about the t.v. shore "Jersey Shore"? I watched it once and never a second time. How immature and ungrounded can people supposedly over the age of 21 be? Why on earh would anybody want to watch a whole bunch of nothings become celebrities because some network said they are? Change the channel, people. Or are you all too brainwashed to change the channel? You must be. You're all too brainwashed to stand up against incompetent government. You just allow and whine. You can recall him out of office by petition, you know. Or are you planning on leaving the state?

My parens bought their New Jersey home in 1959. After 52 years, the entire family will be leaving New Jersey by year's end. That consists of 5 households. Maybe New Jersey would be best off becoming a ghost town. They certainly don't deserve the citizens who live here, have lived here for years, have built this state and are primarily up in years. They can't afford this economy and they certainly can't afford a Governent who does nothing but demand and take. I'm not sure of the averge age of those who have some kind of government job, but their actions seems to fall into the "gimmee" generation. You know, the latchkey kids whose parents threw money instead of time and guidance at them and now they think "the law of supply and demand" means they demand money and we fork it over? In that atttitude, in this Capitalist economy where nothing is controlled except the poverty-that's enforced-there is no way to balance a budget unless we all want to go thru starving again. And I think we did too much of that when we were young. And for it we got osteoporosis, heart problems, hypertension, strokes, various cancers because we breathed in a life-long of non-cigarette pollution.

The time to leave is long  past. We had for a few years some hope of a good life after retirement. Forget about it. You'll lose your investments, your houses, everything you worked for just to pay for your old age care. Does the Government help pay for that? NOPE. So before you lose it all or get too star struck with Governor-Now_i-Can't-Eat-What_i-Want, so you can't have what you need, start planning your exodus to someplace that either gives a damn or doesn't suck you off for every last cent you've got. If you find that in the USA, I'll be stunned.

Good luck. And please pardon my typos. I've never been competent at typing. But that never stopped anyone from hiring me to do it. I used to wonder where I'd be if I ever had actually had a job doing something I was really good at. I found out.  My pay doubled first job out.
It involved Math. Something else I really hate. I wonder where I'd be if they ever hired me for my abilities rather than what suited their payroll needs. I know why the US is so far behind other developed countries. But I'm tired of giving them the answers they don't have the brains to come up with to be told that I can't even get a ride to a doctor while my car is broken when I bear that expense 99% of the time on an income of $932. a month due to what other people did to me. It makes me emotionally sick. All of it. There is no justice. But forget me entering politics. I have no patience for trying to teach grown ups who don't have the sense to get all the real information by themselves and receive no worthy compensation for it. I volunteered for a while. But it's useless. People here continuously resort to stupid. Like every time there's an election.
Prinzessin Hohenzoller

One Day, Jehova's Witnesses Came

That of itself was at a former address not an unusual occurrence. What was unusual was that my door bell doesn't work. But this time it did-I thought it was maintenance, telling me they'd repaired it.

The converstion wasn't long, but what was said left me stunned.

They asked me who ruled the world. I told them that it should be God, but it seems that money does. They told me no, the devil does. I had to agree. So it would seem, else money wouldn't rule everything.

The Bible warns that the devil will not come in an ugly form. He will try to be as attractive as possible, so as not to turn men's eyes away. I think one of them runs New York City. Poking and jabbing at the little people every time he's criticized for a remiss in duty. Now claiming someone smoking is causing the air to be befouled in NYC, of all places.

Well, maybe the man's eyes don't see as humans do, but can't anyone else see the grey surrounding you, trapped between massive buildings and in the below ground stations? The only way to clear the air there would be to close all the bridges and tunnels to all vehicles exuding emissions and allow only horse and buggies to run the streets. Yeah, well, the, road applaes can be avoided. The pollution can't. At least in those days, people could have the civility of a smoke if they chose.

My Dad worked there for years. He wasn't smoking, but he's got COPD. I haven't been to the place in years. Only to go to my embassy. I didn't stay long enough to catch cancer or pass out from lack of air. I just wanted to get out of there. There simply isn't any air. It's befouled by the stench of the vehicles and the people, their perfumes included. Most a stench I can do without. And the worst always overdouse.

But back to the original theme-about the devil ruling things. Start with the six-ring circus called "Bloomberg Television". Yeah, the devil can multitask. And how he keeps that visage so taut and perfect. How many trips to the dermatologist or Titan laser test trials did that take? And who's paying for it if it wasn't free? His NYC health insurance? Just like the majority of Republicans. I want, I've got and you can go rot.

Oh yeah, Mr. Devil Man. Keep sticking pins in the humans you use as your voodoo dolls. I've seen what you are for a long time now. I'm just waiting for the t.v. camera to see you metamorphose into the ugly thing you really are. Pretending you give hoot about the public good. You don't. You're full of excuses when it comes to your remisses. And one day someone's going to have the guts to hold you to the standards you pretend you've got.

You're not the only person who lost a parent to something. But you know what I think the truth is? Not her death, but her life that bugged you. You weren't about to be told to give her a break from your obviously constant need for attention when she wanted a cigarette. And that's what's bugging you. That's what your little vendetta is all about. The rest of us lost people too but we aren't as emotionally needy or whiny as you. And the rest of you whiners, I have no patience for you. Always got to have something to pick on, whether or not it concerns you. Dig your own graves and keep your daggers out of me. How much more useless can you make yourselves than to cover up your faults by bullying individuals? Cause that is what it is. The devil bullying people who can't do a thing about it because you don't have the guts to fix what's really wrong. And speaking of that, the ones whose noses seem most offended by cigarette smoke are the ones who burned their nostrils out doing coke. There. I've said it. It's been years since that's been stuck in my throat. I'd like to see some research done on that one.

I'm glad I don't have to watch NYC news. As much as I don't like his politics, I don't find Governor Christie half so ugly to look at. Misguided he may be, but he isn't evil. Not yet, at least. Whereas the other party mentioned always has been.

And that's what I see thru eyes that were born in clear blue skies. I lost my entire country along with my entire family and I'd give up all but two things here to get that back. But I can't. So you lost your mother before she died. Gee, what makes you so different? I doubt you even shed a tear, just were pissed off that she left you for something else again. You people need psychiatric care. People smoke. Get over yourselves. God knows I have to live with enough of your cra and to much of your yap and I can't get away from that.. I don't want you in my life, or in my choices. Don't like me smoking? Then stay away. It's part of why I light up anyway. To make you stay your distance. Because you don't. You run all over people like they don't even have a physical form. Sure, I can understand limiting smoking in confined spaces. But apparently, the air doesn't belong to all the people anymore. It belongs to the devil himself and his name is Mike Bloomberg.

Prinzessin Hohenzoller
Don't like me? Then send me home.

Not Far From Fenario

In every face I looked for you
And these days am growing old
My "mother" has been buried-o
Almost now ten years ago.
But I ask of you today
Since you cannot find the way
To the Bridges they call Old
Can your guineas play in absentio?
My Saturn needs an engine-o
Parked at Paul's, it's down the road.
They have to build on order-o
And payment in advance of course.
I have no peso to my name
The last I gave for your escape
Because I told you "yes", not "no",
Because I too much loved you-o
They jailed me and they locked me in
Til I no longer knew my brain.
Though mists confused and lost my thoughts
I'd welcome you with open arms.
I'm not home in Bavario
I'm stuck here in New Jersey-o
Sad and lonely all alone
Waiting for a ghost to come.

In all the years you've vanished oh
I've known of brave men only two
One my brother, buried, oh
In April Nineteen nine nine my woe
The other's in Bund republiko.

I am not my own self-o
Who you left so long ago
My body's broken by Americo
Corporate and idio
I give up all hope of rescue
I remain here-
P.o.W.

Somebody Robbed the Northfield Bank

My Dad's account, to be exact.

What did they call it when a gold shipment was held or diverted by unauthorized persons? So also is this.

There was an account link set up to direct deposit funds from my Dad's sale of investments held by Charles Schwab. The money did not arrive as it should have by the first of the month. Nor had it come by the tenth.

On the tenth, the call was placed by my Dad and me to Schwab to discern the reason for this. The reply was that the cash held by Schwab for the disbursement was insufficient to meet the electronic transfer amount. They were told to sell a 20,000 shares of a certain stock and immediately disburse the amount set up in the preset account link. The person on the phone stated the sale was successful and the determined amount of cash would be directly transferred to the account on the 13th of the month. There was a question posed as to whether this was to be donelectronically or by paper check. The reply was that it was to be done electronically because the need for funds was already putting my Dad's accounts in arrears. My Dad is 76 years old; this is HIS IRA account. Additionally, the amount of time Schwab delays the issuance of such checks added to the fact that the bank refuses to clear checks for Schwab for a period of ten buisness days were also cited. The money was never transferred by Schwab. Returned check fees were charged by the bank as well as the recipient of the "insufficient funds" check.

Came 31 January 2011. Rather than risk another such I outrage, I checked the bank statement and phoned the bank. The money had not been transferred.

I called Scwhab. Despite having been sent via a former "Financial Advisor" several Powers of Attorneys, the, like the IRS, despite having these items for conduct of business on prior occassions, now claim they had no such thing. At 7:45 A.M. I phoned my Dad's home and woke him and his personal aide. We got on the phone with Schwab in a three way conversation.

No funds had been sent as they had been directed to do. They were not planning on sending funds until the 3rd of February, and they were no planning to send the funds due for January. The first excuse was that the computer said there were insufficient funds. $18,000.+ is insufficient funds for a $3,500.
disbursement?

The second excuse was that the account link had been de-linked. It was made clear on the conversation of January 10, 2011 that the account link was to remain intatc and the funds be transferred on the 13th of january when the stock sale "settled".

My Dad and I decided that rather than rely further on people failing to perform as directed, the entire amount of cash which Schwab was holding was to be transferred as one body to the bank. Then we were put on hold. Upon return to the phone, all assurances were made that the funds were to be transferred to the bank that day, Feb1, 2011. A call to the bank at 3:47 P.M. indicated that no such transfer had yet occurred.


By February 2, 2011, from the stress of this matter and the sudden demise of my car's engine due to an incompetent individual demanding to help jumped into my idling car to "get me out" of snow I wasn't stuck in, jamming down on the accelerator with the emergency brake on and in the process shifting the internal workings and blowing a ring. So now, requiring a new engine which will cost around $4,000., cash deposit required, no doubt.

I make few promises and even less threats. But I did tell the first Schwab employee in Texas that I am of a mind to have my Dad sell the balance of holdings with Schwab and merely placing them in a bank IRA. I have in the interim given the  matter more thought and advised my Dad we switch brokerage firms. That is a guarantee. The moment my car is on the road again, "Goodbye, Chuck. Give my regrets to your father, Charlie, whose trustworthiness established your domain. And if my parents left anything in trust with your firm, I am now going to pursue it vigorously."

They've no right to float their financial empire on the backs of what Nixon termed "the little man". It's not the first time they've done this, but the 5th at least by my count. Every January for the past 5 years, without fail, despite obviously ignorant cover letters advising my Dad he has to take a disbursement. We've been trying.

Hello, Government? Get your nose out of Egypt and clean up your domestic mess. Cuz it's brewing, and it's going to crash...when the little man can't pay the big or little guys because someone else has seized their money for the furtherance of their own empire? Somebody wake up these lollygagging in-their-comfort-zone beaurocrats whose job it is to make sure we don't get robbed. Who they are, I have no clue-but if you know who they are, get on it or get off the job.

Prinzessin Regine 'Pegi' Hohenzoller
Daughter of Nikolaus
3rd February 2011, USA

Already Worked Myself Blind

I've heard the expression rearely in my life, but I did do that tonight. I worked on my projects so long, I could no longer see to find the things I had completed or the things I needed to complete what I was working on. I dropped a piece of rhodochrosite, not a small piece, 20 x 14 mm. Wherever it landed, it will stay til tomorrow.

I turned to my "soother" these days, jtv. It's has only beauty (except some prices and too many diamonds) and is not anout war, or murder, or hate. It's about love and giving and knowledge and they don't ask a fortune for some very lovely things. I've often fallen asleep to them talking. Sleep is a thing which often has eluded me. Mostly because people who impact my life were unstable, and there I find myself again

I worked myself blind because it seems when the former "Financial Advisors" chose to resign, it seems the main culprit did so when he could cause me the most damage, the day before Thanksgiving,  when there was no way to contact the Shwab team to assure the account link money transfer wouldn't be broken. I checked the balance at the ATM this evening. It seems the money was not transferred in. I'll check with the bank this p.m., transfer from savings and get Schwab on the line. And an attorney. There has to be a law against financial sabotage, which is exactly what this was and has been for most of the past year. It won't be the first time I filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That "Financial Advisers"their warning last time I needed to get the FTC. There will be a lawsuit this time, not because of one instance, but because of their failure to perform for an entire year. So I am sitting here, unable to pay my Dad's bills because one S.o.B. decided he was in charge of my Dad's finances, and me, his Attorney in Fact and Executor, was not about to have him do as I said. I don't know what the guy's problem is, or his prejudice, but he will get to pay for it. The consternation he has caused, the pain in my spine when I am hyperstressed; the his failure to deliver per agreed to terms. If he thinks he's out of the woods with the FTC, he will be hearing from consumer affairs. I don't waste my life jerking people around and I don't appreciate it when people little obsessions do so to me. I worked myself blind to forget for tonight.

I needed to link up my blog to my other sites. Speaking of people with obsessions. Why can't Microsoft/Dell stay the hell out of my computer? I logged in to find a not from Google on my e-mail that a setting had been changed. I wondered why my usual site didn't come up. So now they're all blocked from Internet Explorer compatibility view. I wonder what mess that's going to make. Definitely not more crap I needed to deal with. I just wanted to do what I had to do without all the coprporate interference from a corporate I want nothing to do with.

And they still haven't cleared up the charge they were told not to put on my vredit card and if they did so, remove it. Is there any end to these s.o.b.'s? I wish the terrorists would quit targeting "Americans" as a whole. We are victims too and things would change far better and faster if all allied lawfully to prosecute those people who make our lives miserable. The domino theory will work their too. If you stop them in the country you're in and share how you caught them, we could make them stop the unacceptable unethical behaviour too. But when we have to keep wasting tome to stop people who want to vicitimize the victims, we can't move forward for the common good, we can't stop them from hurting others because we have our esources tied up trying to stop some misguided people who lump us all in as being corporate crooks. We are not. We are their victims too. Help me. Help us. Help your world. Don't destroy what you don't know. In other words, hone your knowledge, know your target, and get the law behind you. It does sometimes work. But it works best when we're all in together on it. 

Now, to go to waht my objective was before the stupids wasted my time and got me sidetracked. As if we don't have nough reality to deal with. Some ocd computer nut has to get our attention. We don't want you to have it. OK? As soon as I get my Dad squared away, this thing is getting replaced by a Hewlett Packard or and Apple. Never again Microsoft/Dell. They even activate my AIO when it's shut off. That's alot of damn nerve. I'm sick of it.

America, be union. Like the Budesrepunlik Deutchland or France. Are you going to sit and whine about them trying to save money by making you work til you're 69 to retire? Or are you going to call them out on it? Between the age of 67 and 69, you don't have time to do anything to prepare for retirement. You have time to prepare for your funeral and that's it. If you're dead you don't cost them anything. When will you wake up Amerika?

Regine Pegi, Prinzessin of Hohenzollern

Heartstrings and Diamond Rings

After having saved the fool's life, shepherded his children thru an entire summer which found his mother in hospital and rehab center and having survived the tensions of conflict and breakups engineered to free him to rejoin his "buddies" for drug and alcohol parties on every holiday, he wanted to solidify his intention of marrying me.

That was August, a year after we met. He'd been making some noises about not to expect an engagement ring for the foregone Christmas, which wasn't in my thoughts or plans-he hadn't even asked me if I wanted to spend my life for his intentions-I agreed. I wanted a very specific styling, so we set out to find it.

Shopping around-I look at everything before I decide on anything-I found the right semi-mounts, four brilliant cut diamonds on each side, step set. My connections found the diamond, a nearly flawless oval Kimberlite diamond of nearly three carats. The merchant was stunned. Nobody puts an oval diamond in a setting of brilliant cuts. I asked him "But can you modify the setting to accept it?" He said yes. I asked for overnight to make the final decision. All agreed.

"Jackass" and I returned to finalize matters the next day. The man knew his stuff. He took the stone from it's solitaire mounting and expertly fit the setting to it. I was surprised he used glue in addition. "Not going to take any chances with this." was his reply. I was pleased. After a short set time, the piece was finished. My affianced couldn't turn over the cash fast enough. The jeweler came out with "Have you asked her if she'll marry you yet?" He hadn't. So that was done and agreed on the spot. The diamond was registered to me and the merchant told my prospective husband that the ring belonged to me, no matter what, and made it clear that was to be understood. I do have family in Europe, after all, though out of direct contact, there are some who know will see that things are right for me.We left hand in hand quite happy.

Not so happy were my friends and family stateside. Not one had anything good to say. My friends said something didn't feel right. One said a person I barely knew (why would she care about me?) said he was setting me up to get mugged. I decided I was among the wrong people. My family was very iffy about all of it. None of which detracted from the beauty of the ring. Other friends who became engaged copied my stylings, not only that one, but from the other ring or two which were my constants.

I was concerned and as in a normal relationship needed to speak to my soon-to-be closest person on Earth about it. My brother Harry had passed away two years before. He would have known exactly. What came  out of the conversation started mee thinking "Where will I go, what will I do?"(a la "Gone with the Wind". Final analysis was he didn't give a _ _ _ _ really. My friends were right. He wanted someone to watch his kids and see what he could get (or get away with.)

In the overnight before the final diamond purchase decision was made, the jackass had gone to a local gold & silver trader and had the nerve to ask if she would pay the full appraisal price for my diamond in the event things didn't work out. And he kept saying "All that money." several times over. It seems from right after dinner on the day of engagement, the shennanigans began big time. There are some things I won't put up with. He stopped calling as he normally would have. He started showing up whenever he felt like it. He started planning absences concocted by his buddies. I wasn't sure which one of us they didn't like, seeing the main man in that had been abandoned by my prospective while his buddy had a seizure during Marine training. I'm surprised he wasn't court-martialed. Then he did the same thing to me one noight when my spine went out and I couldn't get out of bed. I'd asked him to get me a hot pack; he just walked out the door instead.

His parents had decided the only way to get out of the parental duties imposed by him was to buy another house and move out, leaving him at the residence with his kids and me. We were going to stay there most of the time, and I had begun to move my things in. The night his youngest wanted to go where ever I was going instead of home with him was the breaking point. Apparently he decided to put the kids under house arrest and force me to come to him. After a few hours of string-along, it was clear he wasn't going to budge or help me. I packed up what belongings of his were in my apartment, took off the ring, boxed up mine and the ring it came from, loaded my car and went to his place. I put his things on the curb and knocked on the door. He looked stunned. I handed him the key, the rings and his shoe polish box and said "I need my thing brought out to my car and yours are at the curb." He said "Oh, thank you." I'm not sure he knew what just happened. He was standing next to my car seemingly not knowing what to do next. I wasn't about to tell him. I said goodbye and drove away. My blood pressure had gone up so much I had to pull off the road because I couldn't see to drive. I called my doctor the next day. My blood pressure was 192/114. Stroke aversion time. I was issued medication and to return next day or hospital if no improvement and scheduled for follow-up in two days. The medicine worked.

I was stabilizing when the idiot called ten days later asling if he could come see me, could we talk. I said "I don't know what you want to talk about now, but o.k." He showed up as I later said "with the wrong thing in his hand." He'd brought his overnight bag, and proceeded as though none of the other things had transpired. He asked if I'd made the reservations for the wedding. Of course he claimed he was tired and wanted to go to bed. I told him go ahead. For the first time since we'd begun to stay together, I didn't go with him. Asked if I was coming, I answered not yet. I was going to wait til he was good and asleep and I was done seething at his arrogant arrival. If there was to be a "we", that night would have been the time to bring flowers and ring and apologies and remorse in hand. Not what happened. I kicked him out of bed to go to work the next day, needing the bed to myself as with the multiple injuries in my spine, any stress sends it into excruciating immobility. I was still then trying to delay any use of the major pain medication I actually needed. I heard from him a few days later.

I answered the phone with "What?" He said "Are we o.k.?" My reply was "I don't know. I'm fine, I don't know about you and there is no we.? O.K.?" This was three weeks post break up. He mumbled some things about what he'd been doing and feeling miserable and other contrivances and added "I was waiting for you to cool down." He really didn't get it. I had to tell him "There is no we. There is no cool down. This is over. You had asked me if there was anything that might make me take that ring off my hand. I said "Only one thing. And that one thing has happened. It is over. Now do you understand?"

That afternnon his father called. He said "Don't worry, we'll have him crawling back to you in no time." We both were crying. The family and I had formed a very close bond of respect and love and aprreciation for each other, something which had escaped him. All he had felt was jealousy and begrudingness. There is no place for that when all else that had transpired was forged from love. His father and I consoled and apologized. He said "We know our son. We don't hold you accountable for anything, and don't blame you for not wanting him back. We don't expect anyone to put up with him. We had hope waht you had done for him would last. He has never been as good as in this past year with you." I could only tell him I was sorry to hear that. My heart and head were in a spin of overwhelming sympathy for all of them. I asked if they were going to be o.k. He said they'd gotten used to him over the years. We went on to discuss some other things which would impact lives in the future and were in agreement on all. We had all lost a lot, and the left the avenue open in the event of the kids or the jackassess' parents needing me for anything. His father said "He's our responsibility. We'll try not to burden you." That was where I said ,"No, you're wrong. He is his own responsibility. I think that in being as good parents as you have been to him, he's made himself and his kids your responsibility when they are all his. At least he keeps on about the kids being his. Time he acted like it." His father's reply was "You know you're absolutley right. I never looked at it like that. Thank you. Thank you so much." Huh. Their priest should have told them that years back. Not from the time I left the home of my ersatz parents would I have ever dreamed up that ploy; making them responsible for me, not even when I couldn't get out of bed because of injuries or deathly ill in the hospital. It seems my "generation", those frowned-upon "flower children", were all too willing to stand up and stand on our own feet even if our feet wouldn't hold us up anymore. We would have made great soldiers were we not so anti-killing, anti-war, especially that one and of that nature.

The Bible (and the Dylan song) say "There is a time.....for every purpose under heaven." My purpose has always been to better the lives of all humankind. "Better" is not the same in all nations. There are many things here which people call "Better lives." But in my experience, no, it isn't better, it's economically efficient. It was the fact that jackass had made "alternative economic arrangements" with regards to my engagement ring that made me decide that he and Iwere a gross mis-match. I could and maybe should have kept the ring, it was by all documents, mine. My friends all said I should have kept it. I told them I didn't because as long as I had that ring, he would have a connection to me and I did not want to him to think he had any means of recourse or claim to me or my life. He finally go the message, but not without months of questions to my "kleinbruder" and comments to my physician. I finally had to tell her that if it was grave enough to end it, it was grave enough to not go back. And did he ask for his own sake or mine? My "Kleinbruder" being ga-ordered on matters relating to me and my doctor "Hmm." on the situation, I heard nothing further until the jackass had a crisis. That he isn't in jail and retains parental rights is stunning. He had been getting drugs in the mail from the V.A., prescriptions from my physician and what he could get on the street. The street dried up and what happens to people in that situation apparently did. That he somehow has a dirver's license again is also another mystery.

But now when I tell people who want to get close to me that if they're into alcohol or drugs, stay away from me, they finally listen. Of course there were one or two attempts to trangress my rights on the matter, but they ended very quickly. Sure, I miss my diamond, but then again, I have given away two diamond rings I owned anyway. It's not the stone, it's what it comes with. I never understood all the commotion about diamonds, but it seems to me, they are a girl's best friend in the clarity that they bring. They seem to really bring out the meaning of a relationship. I don't want a placemarker instead of man to hold me. And the diamonds will tell it by what's present and absent around it. The people have to equal the diamonds, not the other way.

Only love and committment should place an engagement diamond on one's hand. And love and committment should be what keeps it there.

Prinzessin Regine "Pegi" Hohenzoller, 8 years after

Talkin' Dirty

I'm not referring to adult sexual interactions. I'm talking nasty habits people have, when they don't care who they hurt, as long as they get theirs.

I have learned to hate. People taught me, by the things they do, the way they rob a man when he's too sick to know, when they almost kill him in their greed.

My American Dad (not my father, Nikolaus)became deathly ill in September 2007. He had begun apparently to have problems as early as January of that year; he didn't want to tell us, so behaved as though he was still, at the age of 72, holding down a high paying job. To cover up, he began to withdraw massive amounts of money from his IRA. His so-called financial advisers just kept handing it over; no question why a man purportedly bringing in nearly $100,000.-- would need $80,000.-- in cash. When they demanded to come to the nursing home (apparently I was lieing to them invoking my Power of Attorney and Executorship of his Estate). They got the papers signed by a man who had no clue who they were or why they were there brinign him cake (he's diabetic). They released $10,000.--, ignoring my "make sure you take out enough to cover the taxes" part of what my position demanded.

My Dad got out of that place for a week; he had a  "change in mental status"...caused not by him being insane, but his heart rate from having been overdosed on insulin in the nursing home plus being given a drug for a psychiatric condition he did not have plus 22 other medicines landed him in the hospital with a heart rate of 32 beats per minute. God bless the docotrs for figuring it out. He didn't want to stay in hospital, so we got yet another home health aide. Dad was home for a week and needed to be back in the hospital. I couldn't even get this lazy cow to take his vitals. "I took that at lunch yesterday" she tells me. And of course demands to get paid, be chauffered to her specialty food place expecting me to pay for it. And she stays. for 8 weeks, lollygagging around the house, demanding $900.-- a week for her presence. I couldn't get my Dad's son to send her off, he was afraid there might not be anyone there if he came home. He came home, within a week, back in the hospital again. The woman was let go. Someone else came in but was so nervous (she was from Newark NJ) she jumped out of her skin at every sound whe heard and wanted us to board up the windows because she was afraid someone might come in. I let her go and I stepped in. I recruited my friend Li and my Dad made wonder progress. Enter Carolyn.

Not only did she make Li quit-my best friend, not speaking to me since then (I had planned on firing Carolyn imminently), now I was stuck with her. Being disabled, I can't do it all. She took my $500.-- a month budget and by forcing everyone else to leave, convinced my Dad and his son that she should be paid that per week to do part time work and demand grocery money on top. She took the money, bought food for her family and brought my Dad the left overs. He was in and out of the hospital constantly after her lies and thievery and refusal to leave had me fleeing the situation. I have a strong connection to my Dad-I could feel it when something was wrong. I showed up to check on him to find hime in severe distress on several occasions requiring immediate emergency care from paramedics to stabilize him for transport. Still they fought me on the Carolyn issue.

Another instance, after a fall which Carolyn diagnosed as a broken femur, he had actually sustained a severe head injury and another stroke, brought on by her no doubt. The hospital played the shell game, she had no access to him. Only they and I knew where he was. Even her claiming to be my sister in law didn't get over on them. I had let the doctor know what was going on-not that he wasn't suspicious with the multiple hospitalizations, but apparently in NJ, unlike the legal mandate that Medical Personnel must contact law enforcement if abuse is suspected involving minors, they have no such avenue. But I do. And I did. My Dad not in his right mind, he told them he didn't need any help. Of course not. He failed to mention who was doing what and when. He was released from hospital for the stroke and head injuries and I brought him home. He phoned me that night to say he was alright.

I was shopping the next day, and tired, so based on his call the night before, almost didn't stop to check on him. I found him in bed with a 102 fever having severe seizures and another stroke. Off to the hospital again. He'd had a reaction to his medicine which Little Miss "I'm a Medical Professional" Carolyn failed to see. That was just her major lie to keep her job and continue to pilfer prized meaningful objects from the home and demand to get paid. My Dad pulled through that too.

Then came my deceased brother's birthday. I went to see my Dad at his house and had the worst feeling of my life- I knew the smell. The smell said he was dieing. But he was on his feet. It made no sense, so I didn't leave. It took three hours before he finally gave in to the trust he used to have for me pre-Carolyn. He not only had a friction wound on his ankle and heels becasue Carolyn had bought cheap, rough sheets which abraded him down to the bone, but she had not seen to his personal hygiene and the failure to change his "pull-ups"(adult incontinence underwear instead of diapers)had left him in a state which had caused necrotic tissue to accumulate across 70% of his derriere. I'm not sure if my head, my heart, or my stomach were the most sick at that moment. I began to clean him up. Debriding the tissue over the next week was a slow process; it was painful for him and I did not want to cause him any pain. Of course, the other wounds were dressed and the doctor was called. He told me to carry on, I was doing a good job. Until my Dad's son and Carolyn decided when he was supposed to fire her that they were going to tell my Dad that if I kept taking care of him they were going to cut off his feet. Joking with my Dad about "Are they also going to cut off your butt? I think not." didn't make much difference. The man was terrified. And then the hireling decides because the doctor abided by the privacy laws that she was in charge and called in a doctor who had no clue about my Dad's condition. He prescribed a drug to which he had a severe allergic reaction. Again I found him with a serious fever. I contacted my allies and verified. We stopped the drugs but unknown to me at that moment, Carolyn had decided the thing to do to counteract Bactrim fever was to give him an additional antibiotic.

We made it to the Wound Care Center at St, Peter's Medical Center in New Brunswick and my Dad was barely able to move. He couldn't walk; I got a wheelchair. We thought between the fever and the terror of thinking I was taking him to get his feet cut off it was enough to bring that on. He did not want to go to the Emergency Room. I put him to bed with strict instructions not to get out of bed til I came back. I had found all the contraband medication and confiscated it. Carolyn arrived back at his house before I did. She was livid and demanded he get out of bed. He fell. She forced him to try to walk to the kitchen table for breakfast. From the condition of his knees in the hospital, I don't knoe how many times he fell. She finally called an ambulance. Nobody called me. I arrived to an empty house, calling police and rescue squads and his doctor. Police called back to say there had been a call earlier for ambulance. His doctor told me where to find him.  On my way, I dropped in at the local P.D. to be met with an attitude because I had been there the week before requesting a restraining order to keep Carolyn from interfering with my Dad's medical care. I met the attitude of that particular officer with the same. I started having an asthma attack on the way to see my Dad. I talked myself through it.

The nurses were happy I had gotten there. My Dad was refusing medicine, refusing food, refusing to talk to anyone. They gowned and gloved me. Dad  was semi-conscious. I put my head on his chest and started crying. He started to come around. I got a lot of tubs of Jello as well as medicine into him. After 5 hours, I went home. The scenario repeated for 3 days, adding Graham Crackers in with the Jello. On the fourth day, he didn't want them. He wanted a sandwich. It was a slow go, but he was back.

The following day I got a hysterical phone call from one of the physicians at the hospital. "WHAT HAPPENED TO(my Dad)?!?!" I had to ask him when did he mean, and gave him the most recent applicable history. Why, I asked. He had gone unresponsive, I was told. Was Carolyn there? Someone was, I was told. Response was, "That could do it." My Dad was O.K. now though, I was told. I wrote a detailed Social Woprker's report and left it for the doctors at the hospital with who to contact at Adult Protective Services. Apparently, they did their job. Carolyn appeared no more, not then. My Dad was moved to the nursing home. I got a call from his local police, could I come and speak to Detective J.? Of course. I went with every note I'd written and the photo documents I took of my Dad's condition and daily progress from the time I found him in the condition which resulted in this. Carolyn had gone to the Police and pretended she was concerned for my Dad's feet. The detective didn't need me to show him anything and I didn't have to tell him much. He had already been to see my Dad at the nursing home where I had made sure Carolyn was barred. My Dad had had told the det. the truth. As well the detective and I simultaneously said that my Dad cannot be left alone.

I found a great Home Health Aide. It took us three days post-nursing home to get my Dad's body temeperature up to near normal. The nursing home had him sleeping on a "Medicare approved" air mattress meant to prevent bed sores. Only a thin sheet below and a thin sheet on top. Air mattresses do not get warm. And again he was on improper medication,  an Alzheimer's drug when he doesn't have Alzheimer's. Aricept. That went first. The Plavix went next. Omega 3-6-9 was doing just fine and had reversed most of the stroke damage from before these episodes. He was not able to get around. We had to call an invalid transport service to take him for medical appointments. He could not get from his wheelchair to his bed or up from the bed by his own self. He's big; we changed and washed him by helping him roll onto his side. Finally, a month later, he was able to get up and about. He still didn't know what day it was, we spent last Thanksgiving eating sandwiches. I'd given our HHA the time off to see her family. He was making steady improvement; by Christmas we had him out shopping having a great time escaping from us in the electric cart at the Loew's Hardware. And in the snow. Then there came a problem-the State refused to renew her Certification unless she works for an agency. It was putting her through agpny. She was distressed and arguing with me although I had written everyone and every agency about how distorted that rule is. It wasn't even supposed to apply to her because she had been certified to a prior date which exempted her from that "agency" rule. But some government clerks are not worth their weight in pay. I hope they're the ones who'll be gone come year's end.

And right then, the IRS decides it wants money,so first freezes the JOINT account I hold with my Dad and then actually go in and steal the money based on their incompetence and flimsy excuses and lies. I had filed his return. I had filed six Powers of Attorney with them. Nobody there knew anything. Not even when they heard from my Congressman with full proof of everything. Only after they stole the money did they acknowledge him and the fact that they were now "in receipt of the Power of Attorney". I had filed six altogether since my Dad became ill. I guess they got mad because I found errors on two previous returns and they had to in one instance settle for less, in another issue a refund, and in another do nothing at all. They simply were mad that I had the proof and the facts and they didn't want to hear it again.

So we began the year $2,000.--down due to the "DropDeadGap" in the Medicine Coverage(which my Congressman was instrumental in changing once Congress got it that when people don't get their meds, the hospitals cost way more much more often.Plus the $1600.-- the IRS stole on top of that, plus the additional HHA costs, plus another $1,000.-- a month in bandages, dressings, ambulatory, incontinence and wound care products Medicare doesn't pay for (and that's wholesale); New Jersey's Blindfolded Bull in a China Shop decides he's going to keep the Homestead rebates as a credit toward next year's real estate taxes instead of giving them back to the people who need them now and another round of Drop dead gap; after allowing the aquandering of $80,000.--by my Dad, $30,000.--on unneeded Carolyn, the "Financial Advisers" stonewall me from October 2009 to June 2010. The promise was a certain amount with differential to offset taxes and additional to offset dealy, I get an e-mail that "we" decided not to sen the $3,600,--check, "we" were going to hold it. And the hit the Prinzess in me.

I e-mailed them very diplomatically and got a bunch of gobblydy-gook. 3 times. And more of the same belligerence. And then I pulled the legal cards. I told them they do not have Power of Attorney over my Dad's affairs, I wanted an explanation as to why they were keeping a stock which has been only losing over the last three years as a "hedge against inflation" in the account of a man who didn't have enough money to pay his bills and had to rely on my credit several times because of their remiss. I guess they didn't want to answer that in any sense of honesty. I get an e-mail of "we tried". Ja. (They didn't say and screwed up miserably.) They allowed an account which stood at $200,000.-- three years ago to go down to only $30,000.-- while my Dad's debts equal $44,000.-- and mounting. Now they tell me "Well, you have full Power of Attorney over your Father's account at Schwab(which "Father? _____ or Nikolaus?)So now I'm going to be dealing with "The Shwab Alliance Team". I couldn't be happier and I can't wait to meet with them. At least the investments won't be restricted to the minute circle which was theirs. They were dropping people anyway because all they wanted to do was play with gold anyway. I asked them when we got that letter two years ago if that meant I would have to find someone else ot handle my Dad's things. A simple yes could have saved a lot of heartache. So, Schwab people...I'm looking forward to it and don't forget--my heart, my soul, my mind, and I are 150% GERMAN.

 So, I am thankful for something. The freedom to put the investments where they can actually start to gain something. And that my Newphews, Dad's son and wife and HHA had a really nice dinner with him and nobody was going to leave God's grace out of it. That was who my nephew thanked before anybody else. And our current HHA and me for preparing the food. So it was good.

I don't participate in acts of mass insanity, so be safe if you're shopping this weekend. No thing is worth it.

Prinzess Pegi Hohenzoller