Post your Gripe

[dibbles]

@earlene I can't believe this. I would call anyone and everyone until I got results. And hopefully they - whoever they are - will be looking into this chain to ensure that all the residents are able to vote if that is what they want.

 

[Catscankim]

That is infuriating!! What gives them the right! Can you get her an absentee ballot?

Start sending out letters...congress, senators, house of representatives. Heck, send one to the white house. Go to the media. Post it on facebook.
Threaten to take her out of there. Nothing speaks louder than the almighty dollar.

What is the name of this nursing home? I am mad beyond words. They have no right. They are taking the law into their own hands. Hire a lawyer stat. You might be able to get one free for something like this.

 

[earlene]

That is infuriating!! What gives them the right! Can you get her an absentee ballot?

Start sending out letters...congress, senators, house of representatives. Heck, send one to the white house. Go to the media. Post it on facebook.
Threaten to take her out of there. Nothing speaks louder than the almighty dollar.

What is the name of this nursing home? I am mad beyond words. They have no right. They are taking the law into their own hands. Hire a lawyer stat. You might be able to get one free for something like this.

Emails to Senator and Representative done. Our Congresswoman is always very responsive so I expect to hear back from her soon. I have posted it on FB.
Also contacted: League of Women Voters, ACLU, Illinois state Governor

I think that's a good start. I also contacted the Corporate office of the nursing home chain. Maybe that gives them a heads-up, but maybe it will stop them if it is just one facility gone rogue. Or if it's nationwide, maybe it will make them stop if they know someone is going after them and that's good, too. Whatever works. I am a dedicated champion of voter rights.

 

[linne1gi]

My gripe....

Back in December I got pulled over on the Turnpike. I was on my way to my best friends funeral. Trying to convince a cop that you are on your way to a funeral and are already late when they pull you over is futile. Anyway, I have a super clean driving record. One little word I heard was "warning", so I threw the paper in the glove box and forgot about it...assuming it was a warning. I was really distressed at the time over going to the funeral, which was almost an hour drive.

Well it wasn't a warning. I got pulled over on the Turnpike on Wednesday last week, and apparently what I thought was a warning, was a $113 ticket that I never paid. My license is suspended. I never knew. A handful of tickets later, he let me drive to work with a "driving under suspension, without knowledge"...which the last part makes a big difference according to the law lol.

Soooo, I leave work that night and went home and tried to pay the ticket and associated fines. Which now...since apparently it has been suspended since February (which I didn't know), the court will no longer accept your payment online. Next morning I had to call a 3rd party, I guess sort of a collection type agency. Ticket is paid. She said that they will update the court and DMV.

I keep checking the websites (dmv and courthouse), finally the courthouse reflects that it has been paid. It hasn't mattered, I needed to go to work. So yes, I have been driving, VERY carefully. And I work an hour away from my house.

Last night I am leaving work and I get pulled over by a Sheriff who happened to be sitting behind me at a redlight who apparently has nothing better to do at a red light than to run a tag. He let me go with a warning because I work at the hospital, let me park my car back at work and told me that if I get caught driving he would arrest me!! Because now it is driving under suspension WITH knowledge.

The only thing I could do was drive back, wait a half hour in the parking lot and drive home pooping my pants the whole way.

I had to call my boss today. Well, I texted her the whole story and waited for her to get over being mad and waited for her to call me LOL. I can't go to work until this is all cleared up.

In speaking with the person at the DMV today, I have to wait 3-5 business days for the courthouse to update my dmv records. Because of Covid, I have to make an appointment with the DMV to get my driving privilege restored. Appointments are almost a week out, so I went ahead and made an appointment for Tuesday...the first available, in hopes that this is cleared by then.

Yikes! I just have to say that I always put my car on cruise control when driving on 95 or the Turnpike, because I definitely have a heavy foot and am speeding even without trying. Sorry you have been having such a problem. The one thing I used to tell my kids when they were younger - always be respectful when speaking to a police officer - just that along will often get you out of a ticket. My daughter got a speeding ticket (years ago in Maryland), she was driving down a steep hill and didn't realize that she was speeding. So when she got pulled over, she said, "I'm sorry officer, I didn't intend to speed, the hill caught me unaware" - she had nothing on her record - so he only gave her a verbal warning, not even a written one. Sometimes it's only your tone of voice that gets you out of trouble. Good luck getting back to work.

 

[Catscankim]

I was never disrespectful to the officer. And my tone was very apologetic. Please dont think i was disrespectful in any way. I back the blue.

Funny side note...we have local police stationed at my hospital. I kinda know them all and am very comfortable around cops. Every once in a while i will see a cop at like the gas station etc. HERE which is 50 miles from my hospital. Anyway, i will be like “Hey! Whats up?” And they will look at me like i lost my mind cause they dont know me lol.

A girl i used to work with is married to a martin county cop. Shes like ...they are nuts!! Martin pulls over St lucie county cops and vice versa lol. Good ol small town feel lol. Nothing to do with my original post, but since we morphed into police here is the story lol

 

[linne1gi]

I was never disrespectful to the officer. And my tone was very apologetic. Please dont think i was disrespectful in any way. I back the blue.

Funny side note...we have local police stationed at my hospital. I kinda know them all and am very comfortable around cops. Every once in a while i will see a cop at like the gas station etc. HERE which is 50 miles from my hospital. Anyway, i will be like “Hey! Whats up?” And they will look at me like i lost my mind cause they dont know me lol.

A girl i used to work with is married to a martin county cop. Shes like ...they are nuts!! Martin pulls over St lucie county cops and vice versa lol. Good ol small town feel lol. Nothing to do with my original post, but since we morphed into police here is the story lol

I never meant to suggest that you were not respectful, so please don’t take it that way. It was only a story I was telling and trying to impart my “wisdom” on my children. My last boss is married to a cop (I worked for her for 17 years) and my current boss is married to a cop (I’ve been working here for 14 years), so I wonder what that says about me! Anyway I socialize with my boss & her hubby fairly frequently (or did before the pandemic) and he’s the one who suggested I set my car on cruise control.

 

[Loran]

Wow a two year thread that is great! I find this entertaining, and am sorry for all of your woes everyone

 

[earlene]

Hubby spoke with MIL today at length to get a take on what the Activities Director told him on the phone about her mental ability to vote, and she was as alert and oriented and sharp witted as ever. He asked her is she wanted to vote in the election and her response was a resounding, 'Hell, yes, I want to vote! I watched that debate for 90 minutes! Of course I want to vote!'

To make the whole situation even worse, Hubby's aunt emailed him to relay a conversation she had with her sister (my MIL) before the last election a few months back: Auntie asked, 'Are you going to vote?' MIL replied, 'I will when they bring my my ballot.' Which is contradictory to what the staff told my husband in the conversation the other day, which was that MIL had not been 'interested' in voting in the last election (I guess as background - or he had asked if she had requested the absentee ballot last time (CoVid hadn't put the Kabosh on visits or mail and so forth back then, so he had no reason to suspect there was an issue back then. - And why would he?) So he is now quite suspicious of this whole deal.

AND to make it even worse, his cousin's wife, who is a Social Worker who has worked in nursing homes in a different county in Illinois, said that she has been aware of this kind of thing happening in nursing homes and that it is a problem. This is 3rd or 4th-hand information, so the wording is really unknown to me at this point, but it is very alarming.

I am thinking of contacting the state's attorney's office now that I know of at least 2 different counties in the state where this has happened in nursing homes, although I cannot attest to the time frame of the other one, and really don't have first-hand knowledge of it either.

Hubby's brother is ready to call an attorney, but Hubby wants to talk to someone else besides the person who told him this. So Hubby plans to contact the facility Administrator tomorrow and if she is not available, he will speak with the Social Worker, both of whom he has been in contact with a few times over the course of the new company taking over this SNF. It's only been about a year since they changed ownership, and this issue is brand new to us, so we are really suspicious of the new ownership now.

Yesterday I posted some reviews on a couple of nursing home tracking sites. Apparently this kind of complaint (denial of or not facilitating the resident's right to vote) gets filed against nursing homes in various places (not just in Illinois), but isn't taken particularly seriously by state & federal inspectors because it 'doesn't cause harm' like a fall or medication errors cause harm.

 

[lenarenee]

Hubby spoke with MIL today at length to get a take on what the Activities Director told him on the phone about her mental ability to vote, and she was as alert and oriented and sharp witted as ever. He asked her is she wanted to vote in the election and her response was a resounding, 'Hell, yes, I want to vote! I watched that debate for 90 minutes! Of course I want to vote!'

To make the whole situation even worse, Hubby's aunt emailed him to relay a conversation she had with her sister (my MIL) before the last election a few months back: Auntie asked, 'Are you going to vote?' MIL replied, 'I will when they bring my my ballot.' Which is contradictory to what the staff told my husband in the conversation the other day, which was that MIL had not been 'interested' in voting in the last election (I guess as background - or he had asked if she had requested the absentee ballot last time (CoVid hadn't put the Kabosh on visits or mail and so forth back then, so he had no reason to suspect there was an issue back then. - And why would he?) So he is now quite suspicious of this whole deal.

AND to make it even worse, his cousin's wife, who is a Social Worker who has worked in nursing homes in a different county in Illinois, said that she has been aware of this kind of thing happening in nursing homes and that it is a problem. This is 3rd or 4th-hand information, so the wording is really unknown to me at this point, but it is very alarming.

I am thinking of contacting the state's attorney's office now that I know of at least 2 different counties in the state where this has happened in nursing homes, although I cannot attest to the time frame of the other one, and really don't have first-hand knowledge of it either.

Hubby's brother is ready to call an attorney, but Hubby wants to talk to someone else besides the person who told him this. So Hubby plans to contact the facility Administrator tomorrow and if she is not available, he will speak with the Social Worker, both of whom he has been in contact with a few times over the course of the new company taking over this SNF. It's only been about a year since they changed ownership, and this issue is brand new to us, so we are really suspicious of the new ownership now.

Yesterday I posted some reviews on a couple of nursing home tracking sites. Apparently this kind of complaint (denial of or not facilitating the resident's right to vote) gets filed against nursing homes in various places (not just in Illinois), but isn't taken particularly seriously by state & federal inspectors because it 'doesn't cause harm' like a fall or medication errors cause harm.

Ok, assuming it's possible this is happening in other states, what can be done to get the word out to people to check with relative? Or, contact our state govt or......?

 

[earlene]

Ok, assuming it's possible this is happening in other states, what can be done to get the word out to people to check with relative? Or, contact our state govt or......?

Lenarenee, perhaps talking to family & friends who talk to other family & other friends is one way to get the word out. It's what we are doing. With wide circles of family & friends spreading the word can become exponential. But without substantiation of particular cases in particular jurisdictions, it seems futile to contact government offices regarding a what really amounts to 'hearsay' (my post on a soapmaking forum is probably hearsay or something like that). So I do hope family & friends will check with their loved ones in nursing homes because disenfranchising the isolated elderly is not a good thing at all.

From our end, we will continue to pursue this as far as possible. Hubby plans to speak personally to our state congresswoman this week as he comes into contact with her periodically in his job. Will that advance it to federal level of government? Maybe, maybe not. State legislators are another level to contact. I did send an email to our governor, but I truly don't know what to expect in terms of response as we don't have a prior relationship. I don't have much confidence in the our state representatives for our district, which is why I went straight to the governor. I really should at least give them the courtesy of informing them of the issue, though. After all it is their job, even if we have different points of view on some matters. Once we have a little more information & have consulted with others, we may have a better idea if or how to go forward in regards to the larger corporation.

 

[Catscankim]

Update on my DMV problem. Omg what a nightmare. It was so stinking crowded. And so many old ppl in line that waited so long only to find out that they needed an appt and turned away. If my visit wasnt urgent i would have given the lady in front of me my appt.

All the id i had was my cut up DL. The girl proceeds to tell me that due to the “Real ID” law that went into effect October 1st, that i needed my birth certificate. She says that i need to make another appt. I am like noooo....I am here to pay my $60 reinstatement fee and get my registration renewed. Finally she let me in....to wait in another line. And hello!! This is florida. No AC?? I thought i was going to pass out. I am used to a mask...all day long. This was crazy. I kept turning to the wall to lower my mask and guppy breathe to get relief.

I got my DL reinstated and my registration renewed for two years. At this point i didnt care about the physical card.

When i got home i went to the DMV website. The LAW she said that was enacted, isnt until October 1st NEXT year. I ordered a new card no problem. And you got to download a temporary pass that lets you drive without the card.

They were literally looking for reasons to turn ppl away. How many went home today because they didnt have documentation for the Real ID law that isnt “real” until next year.

Finally, i get to go back to work today.

 

[earlene]

Yes, that law was postponed another year because of the problems we are having with CoVid, which made it so difficult for people to comply (in person at their DMV's or whatever each state's equivalent agency is called).

If someone won't be accessing Federal facilities, entering nuclear power plants, and, boarding federally regulated commercial aircraft, they don't really need a REAL ID. But still, I really don't know what took the states so reluctant to comply with this law to do so. It was enacted by Congress in 2005, 15 years ago! I truly don't understand why any state would drag their feet at ensuring safety of nuclear power plants, and the flying public and our federal buildings.

 

[lenarenee]

SMH.
That Oct 1 struck as really odd. But then I thought, well...Florida has taken a different path than CA so maybe FL didn’t get the extension for some reason.

How frustrating. Glad it’s over !

 

[Catscankim]

Someone needs to tell the DMV people lol. Especially when I had to wait a week for an appt. now its almost a month out to make an appt since i made mine, which i found out today, standing in line. I was not leaving there today without taking care of business. Glad i didnt....cause she was flat out turning me away at first.

When i made my appointment, the only thing it said i needed was proof of residency in my county, because they were only accepting current residents. I brought utility bills with me just in case they didnt accept the cut up DL.

 

[AliOop]

Yes, that law was postponed another year because of the problems we are having with CoVid, which made it so difficult for people to comply (in person at their DMV's or whatever each state's equivalent agency is called).

If someone won't be accessing Federal facilities, entering nuclear power plants, and, boarding federally regulated commercial aircraft, they don't really need a REAL ID. But still, I really don't know what took the states so reluctant to comply with this law to do so. It was enacted by Congress in 2005, 15 years ago! I truly don't understand why any state would drag their feet at ensuring safety of nuclear power plants, and the flying public and our federal buildings.

The original law came out of the events of 9/11. The long time period allowed for implementation had to do with all the changes needed to public and private computer systems to deal with the changes. Which is silly, bc we all know that bureaucracy will never change until the deadline looms and is strictly enforced. Besides COVID, the subsequent lack of implementation has a lot to do with the political brouhaha over voting rights, and the ID requirements associated therewith. Not making a political statement here- just explaining why things are stalled.

 

[earlene]

The original law came out of the events of 9/11. The long time period allowed for implementation had to do with all the changes needed to public and private computer systems to deal with the changes. Which is silly, bc we all know that bureaucracy will never change until the deadline looms and is strictly enforced. Besides COVID, the subsequent lack of implementation has a lot to do with the political brouhaha over voting rights, and the ID requirements associated therewith. Not making a political statement here- just explaining why things are stalled.

Yeah, I know. And it's a sad thing that last minute action is the only action some will take (as if I'm one to talk; I do sometimes put things off too long). And it's a sad thing that some will fight 'it' (whatever 'it' might be) tooth and nail out of stubbornness (IMO).

 

[Guspuppy]

my gripe is minor:
I used to soap exclsuively in ounces. But then my scale quit working even with new batteries, so I went to Target and got a new one. Which said it measured in lb, oz, grams. BUT: I discovered it won't measure in strictly ounces. If you go over 16 oz it switches to lbs and fractions thereof, not lbs+oz. (IE, 1.25 lb, instead of 1 lb 4 oz). I don't want to do math, so now if I'm soaping a lb of oils or less I use oz, but if more then grams. Which is a pain, especially since I no longer have a printer to print out the nice sheet from soap calc, and have to hand write everything.

 

[earlene]

Update on MIL's voting situation: the Ombudsman has responded via email asking for our phone number, which I guess I forgot to include in my message.

Hubby finally spoke with the Hospital Administrator yesterday. He left a message on Monday & she did not call back until he left another message on Wednesday. When visiting is re-instituted (hopefully in the next few days), he will be allowed to hand MIL the absentee ballot request form & she will be allowed to sign it and return it to him, then he will hand-deliver it to the County Election Office. I asked what she said about the 'test' for mental ability to vote, he said they didn't talk about it. I don't know why he didn't talk to her about this alleged test the Activities Director claims MIL failed, but he does say he is going to talk to the Ombudsman and also to our State Congresswoman.

If it were me, I would definitely have addressed the issue with the Administrator head-on. I've done it before when my mother was in an SNF for a few days for respite care, until she was triple dosed with nitropaste and she fell. I took her out of there and back home. A few days respite care is a good idea in theory, but it didn't turn out being restful for any of us.

I have no qualms addressing issues like this with Administrators, Directors of Nursing, or whomever is the appropriate person in charge. They don't always acknowledge a problem, but at least they learn that I or we know about the problem and they will address it later after I've left, even if they might not admit responsibility. Usually, however, that outright denial doesn't happen.

 

[beckster51]

Earlene, thanks for the update. You and I are alike in that I would have told the administrator that what she and her staff were doing was illegal, but I think some people are less confrontive than me - LOL. I think my husband would have handled it much as yours did. I hope things work out as they should.

 

[Daisy]

Earlene, thanks for the update. You and I are alike in that I would have told the administrator that what she and her staff were doing was illegal, but I think some people are less confrontive than me - LOL. I think my husband would have handled it much as yours did. I hope things work out as they should.

Opposites attract and the world gets it's balance