Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Remember those kudos I handed out to the VA...

they are officially revoked, and marked null and void.  I had two appointments there this morning.  To undergo a test at 8:00 a.m. and to see the allergist at 9:00 to go over the results of that test.  I arrived at 7:45, the test was done by 8:30 and I stopped by the pharmacy to get a refill.  After waiting until 9:05, and not getting helped, I decided to come back and went to the allergy clinic.

Where I sat until after 10:00 a.m. before they even checked me in and took my vital signs.  I wasn't seen by the doctor until 10:45 and he kept me for 30 minutes.  Then I had to go back to the pharmacy, stand in line, wait and finally talk to a pharmacist about the refill and the prescription the allergist gave me.  I also now had to go get blood drawn.

There was a 40 minute or so wait to get the blood taken so I went and ate.  Then I still sat for a good 30 minutes waiting to have my blood drawn.  Finally, I walked out of there at 1:20, 5 hours and 35 minutes after arriving.

Worse yet, I had to deal with a moron in the waiting room.  He was insisting that someone who makes $30,000 a year is paying 30% or more in taxes and that top 10% of income earners don't really pay 70% of the total income taxes paid.  I showed him the IRS statistics and he didn't believe it.  I calculated the tax burden of a single person earning $30,000 and explained the methodology and he didn't believe it.  "Numbers lie" he said.  Oh, and I overheard him telling someone else that I have an attitude problem because I won't just accept what he was telling me as being true because he knows he heard it on the news.

"Numbers lie".  Another person who did not pay attention in math class.  You can spin data to support certain conclusions, but the income tax owed on a specific income for a person with a specific filing status can't be spun that way.

Now that I've vented a little about this and I'm a little calmer, I have to go deal with my next stressful item on today's calendar, the Resident's Council Meeting and election discussions.  I'm half-tempted to just withdraw and play on-line poker, but I'm not a quitter.  So off I go.