This is the bridge that is to be painted. 2100 feet long, 48 feet wide and carries about 26,000 vehicles a day across it. We cross it at least twice a day ourselves.
Things are quite different here in Maine. For example, to get a blood test or urine
test, one has to go to the Emergency Room at the hospital. They do not have a free standing testing
center like they do in Arizona. I can’t
even find how to get to the hospital and the thought of incurring an emergency
room fee for a simple test just causes me to balk.
We are in need of getting a booster shot for the Hepatitis
series. We just cannot go into a clinic
and get it because 1) they don’t carry the vaccine 2) you have to have a doctor’s
appointment to even get into the clinic and they are booked up and 3) we have
been sent to this office and to that office and finally we gave up. Our insurance only will let us get this kind
of shot at a Walmart Pharmacy, but the pharmacists at Walmart only give
shingles and flu shots. In Maine no
pharmacist can give any other shots than these.
The same goes for New Hampshire.
In Vermont they can give such shots as the hepatitis A and B but the
Walmart there will not give the shots even though our insurance through Humana
is a Walmart provider. I think we will
just wait till we get back to Arizona.
The pharmacists there can give these kinds of shots. It is
like living in a third world country.
We tried to make an appointment to see a dental hygienist. We last saw one before we came on our
mission. We have called every dentist in
town and they are either booked up 6months or more ahead or they insist on a
full set of xrays and exam by the dentist before we can see the hygienist and they
would not accept our xrays from Arizona.
I guess it has to do with “being from away”. So, I guess we will also have to wait on that
till we get back to Arizona or our teeth fall out – whichever comes first.
The newspaper here is an interesting vehicle that conveys
the news. The recent problem with the
Secret Service and call girls in Colombia has been reported on, and it looks
like the head of the Secret Service may just be on the chopping block as
well. The same thing happened in Penn
State over the Sandusky episode – the knee jerk reaction caused Joe Paterno to
lose his job all the way up to the President of the School and some of the
governing board. Someone has to pay for
the slipups but I really do not understand why someone so far removed from the flashpoint
has to lose his job. He was not there,
he did not participate yet he may just lose his job – so the paper reported. It is sort of like Yertle the Turtle story…………the
little guy on the bottom of the stack burped, and they all fell down as a
result. I guess that is how you topple a
dynasty……one person on the bottom of the stack steps out of line and the ripple
effect goes all the way to the top.
Perhaps I am missing something here in the hierarchy of the American way
of doing things.
The city fathers are reported in the paper to be paying for
the painting of the memorial Bridge. It
is to be painted Government Green (did not know that was a real color name till
the paper printed it) and it is to cost seven million dollars. Bill and I were discussing this seemingly
outrageous cost and we decided that the main reason is that they have to use
artists paint brushes to get into the small cracks and crevices and so the cost
is so high. I read the paper article on
it and apparently the paint they used the last time they painted the bridge has
lead in it and so the contractor has to remove the lead paint first with steel pellets
fired at the surface to remove old paint and rust and there has to be a tarpaulin
or something to catch the removed paint etc. and prevent it from falling into
the Kennebec River.
In my imagination I can visualize the scenario: Hey Joe, shoot some of those pellets over
here I found a dime sized piece of rust and paint…………..a little more to the
left Joe, Now you went too far and you
removed more than the contract will allow.
Ok Joe, back to the right and get that piece over there. Ow! Joe, you shot me in the foot with that
thing and I don’t have rust on me…………Ow! Ow! Ow! Now I have to go to the emergency room to
have those little steel balls removed from my foot. I hope they don’t ask me for my
identification – they may not let someone from away get treated there. Supervisor:
Hey you guys down there, I saw two pieces of rust and paint fall into
the river. Be careful where you have
that tarpaulin placed………….Oh now look what you have done – you’ve shot some of
the steel balls in the wrong direction and they are now in the river. We will have to have the EPA here to retrieve
them.
Cannot imagine what laws and rules they have to obey to get
the bridge painted and heaven forbid that a worker fall off the bridge and into
the river – the EPA will not like that at all, No sir, not one bit. No swimming allowed in the Kennebec.
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