Toy and donation drive whoas.

Today ends our school Civic Drive.  The Civic Drive was for collecting "new or lightly used toys for children in need."  Allow me to inform all of you that most of what was donated, which was very little, was used.  We're talking extremely used.  There is a Doodle Bear, all doodled, not laundered and without the doodly pens.  The doodles?  Not so artful or purposeful.  Scribbles, really.  There is a stuffed Mickey Mouse that has met his fate with some type of cream colored latex house paint on several areas of his body.  There is a little bitty oven with stickers on it.  Barbie accessories with marker on them and missing parts.  We received all of three new things, at least in the batch that I saw.  (Not all have been collected yet, as I know what K- donated hadn't made it to the PTA room yet.)

Let me decode for the reading public-- "lightly used" doesn't mean whipped to no end.  "Lightly used" is the polite way for saying, "Basically new and out of the box."  Please consider who will be receiving this toy.  K- and I had a discussion about it.  I told her that the toys that are donated may very well be the only item that the child receives for Christmas and I certainly would hate to think that if we were in the same situation, my child's only Christmas gift would be something that Goodwill wouldn't consider selling. 

She gasped.  As well she should.

I have to consider the other side, too.  Perhaps all of you recall the story of K- and the used Christmas exchange book.  Maybe the kids were donating just something of theirs so that their name could be put in the drawing to win a skate ticket pack.  Perhaps the parents had nothing to do with it.  So often, parents know very little about what their children are doing at school.  (I have teachers who would back me up on that statement.) 

We're looking towards doing our annual canned food drive in March.  Last year, we had to toss nearly 80 expired items.  One item dated back to 1999.  On the collection notice that we send, we will be specifying that any expired items will not be counted toward the class total and we will be discarding them. 

Who would seriously want to eat a boxed meal item dating back 11 years?  Well, it could have been longer.  The expiration was back in 1999.  Goodness knows when the item was actually purchased!

Again, I think of the recipients.  For about a year, Hubs and I volunteered at the local homeless shelter.  We directly saw who received items/meals and interacted with them on a regular basis.  In fact, I ate with the ladies every Monday night.  (To earn their trust, I learned that declining a meal that I thought I shouldn't take from them was them viewing me as looking down upon them and thinking that they were icky, as opposed to my trying to conserve food for others.)  I've worked at the church food pantry.  I've picked up from the church food pantry for my brother on numerous occasions.  I've been in the thick of who receives such donations.  I couldn't ever hand potentially inedible items off to them-- ever.  Not to anyone. 

I hate that times that drives come up, people feel the need to donate the unwanted.  Isn't it when donating to church, it is to be the first fruits that you set aside for God?  Well, let's look at donations to the public in the same way.  Let us give them our first fruits and not the leftover table scraps that have been in the fridge for a week.

Giant Eagle Pharmacy-- You are fired.

I'm done.  I e-mailed them tonight on their 2000 character max customer contact page.  I'll follow-up with their response. 

I'm officially firing your pharmacy. In the last month and a half, I've either received partial rx that I've had to come back for remaining or tonight, a long term rx that I've been on and have only filled through you was switched to generic w/a higher co-pay. Rx #62----9 was a partial fill with 10 pills, having me come back in 2 days for the remainder. Less than a month later, my daughter's antibiotic (rx 62----8) was confirmed to be filled 3x by rx tech by phone. "We just need to mix it when you get here." When I arrived, we found that the rx was only 1/2 filled, requiring me to come back the day after Thanksgiving for the remainder. When I was irritated and I admit that while I didn't scream or yell, the staff did completely get that I was irritated, I was told by the young man behind the counter, "Well, Ma'am, it IS flu season." Yes it is. You need to be more prepared and order more. A little more kindness would have been appreciated, but I admit that I was ticked, so I wasn't the happiest either. I also admit that the tech was shocked by my suggestion to give 1/2 copay for 1/2 meds. Of course, that doesn't happen. Fast forward to today. I re-filled my monthly rx (rx 62----3), went to pick it up to find that what had always been name brand had been switched (company policy perhaps) to generic and the co-pay was actually $20. and not $10. as it was with name brand. Since I had a Lipitor copay voucher, the tech said, "Well, it is filled generic, if you want, I can have it filled name brand but it'll be 10 minutes." Why would the filling of a 2 1/2 year old + rx be now switched to generic when last month it was name brand, as every other month? I chose to wait the 10 additional minutes for the rx that I should have had.

With this, I'm transferring my rx to a different pharmacy and officially fire you. Perhaps when you put customers out and require add'l trips, you could accommodate them for inability to deliver goods. That would be good customer service.

They've irritated me for the very last time.  I shouldn't have to continue to go back and forth for remainder of meds undelivered.  I should also have my rx filled as it was filled and if it is to change to generic, I should be given the option, not just be something chosen for me. 

Thoughts?  Pharmacy irritations?  Are you a pharmacist or a tech that would love to chew me out?  Go for it.  Be polite, though.

Tales from the Trenches: How does that stuff get in there?

My computer is flashing that I have some root kit with possible malware and RRRR!  I just spent the last hour and a half running a boot time scan and deleting the win32:julkpoly bit from my computer's interiors.  Avast!, you suck right now.

I'm so tired.

 I had the Ladies Christmas Tea today.  I would show you photos, but I forgot to take them.  I do know plenty of others did, so that'll probably make up for it.  I just got too wrapped up in hosting the shin dig to take photos of the shin dig.  Final word is that everyone liked it better at our house vs. the church and they would like an invite for next year. 

We finished painting in the kitchen.  We have a border, chair rail and photos to hang, but I'm not to highly pressed to do that right at this very second.  We'll do the back splash in the new year.  I also want to paint the table legs and bits of the chairs that are green and need to be chocolate cherry.  Rome wasn't built in a day or year and a half, you know.

Hubs and K- kicked in major on helping with the tea party prep.  They even freed the refrigerator from the confines of years of memories.  We have a freezer door of magnets, K-'s Honor Roll and report card bits are on the side of the fridge, but it is otherwise empty. 

Amazing.

I scrubbed and cleaned parts of the bathroom that needed some extra tending.  I wiped upper parts of walls and gave a good spring cleaning on an otherwise wintry date.

Speaking of, I have some windows open and it is December 4.  It's 8:54 PM.  It says that it is 48 F out, but seriously our home is nice and toasty.  Fresh air, fresh air!

I have to comment that in the midst of writing this, I got distracted, then watched some TV and fell asleep sitting up on the bed at 7:45 PM.  I had been up until about 1:30 AM doing things, probably until about 2 AM because I just didn't fall right to sleep and was back up at 6:15 AM with K- snuggling in on the end of the couch, wanting to turn the TV on.  (Not 'til 7 AM, thankyouverymuch.) 

I end this post by being thankful to Hubs and K- for digging in and working all together as a family on hauling, painting, organizing, doing and preparing our home for a month of festivities.  My sister was the people hauler, bringing Aunt Donna in tow.  It was a particularly important day for Aunt Donna, as today was the one year anniversary of my Grandmother's death.  She really needed not to be hanging at home on her own.  The ladies all brought desserts to share, loved the chicken corn chowder, rolls and salad bar that I provided.  LeAnne got in there and was a food flinger with me. 

All went well.  Now if you'll pardon me, I need to have a date with my pillow.

Smiles in my weekend:
-  The kitchen.  I'm not embarrassed of it anymore!  The ladies loved the colors, too. 
-  I think that I've decided that our bathroom will be a nice sea aqua slightly greenish color.  Now, to find the right chip.
-  When Hubs ran clear away from today's tea party, he went to a music resale store and found me another copy of Ben Folds and WASO Live in Perth.  I loaned my copy to a friend's husband.  They are separated now, she knows nothing about the DVD, he never returned it and I loved it.  I will never loan him anything ever again.

Have a great day!