Praise God!

An addendum to the last post:

The senate passed the fiscal year 2009 (which runs from Sept 08 to Aug 09) Omnibus bill which in layman's terms means it passed the budget that funds my clinic!! YEAH!!! The bill was identical to the one passed by the House so therefore it is now in the President's hands to sign into law. Next the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) can issue a Notice of Grant Award (NOGA) (don't ya just love acronyms??) to the county. HRSA has 45 days to issue the NOGAs. Then the county will allow us to file a request which then goes to the Commissioners Court who will then vote on our funding. The requests normally has a 2 week deadline and the Court meets twice a month.

Sooooooooo.....

So today is March 10th, ...say the President signs it by Friday (the 13th...yikes!). The HRSA issues the NOGA 45 days later...hmmm...around April 29th (ok, I guess it could be sooner but HRSA is an arm of the government...45 days). Then the county sets a deadline for May 15th (they always set it for a Friday...even though they don't work on Fridays...go figure). So it will go to Court around the last week of May. And we will see our funds by the first week of June.

And that, my friends, is our efficient government at work.

STRESSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What does it mean to be stressed? According to Dictionary.com:

stress /strɛs/
–noun
1. importance or significance attached to a thing; emphasis: to lay stress upon good manners.
2. Phonetics. emphasis in the form of prominent relative loudness of a syllable or a word as a result of special effort in utterance.
3. Prosody. accent or emphasis on syllables in a metrical pattern; beat.
4. emphasis in melody, rhythm, etc.; beat.
5. the physical pressure, pull, or other force exerted on one thing by another; strain.
6. Mechanics.
a. the action on a body of any system of balanced forces whereby strain or deformation results.
b. the amount of stress, usually measured in pounds per square inch or in pascals.
c. a load, force, or system of forces producing a strain.
d. the internal resistance or reaction of an elastic body to the external forces applied to it.
e. the ratio of force to area.
7. Physiology. a specific response by the body to a stimulus, as fear or pain, that disturbs or interferes with the normal physiological equilibrium of an organism.
8. physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension: Worry over his job and his wife's health put him under a great stress.
9. a situation, occurrence, or factor causing this: The stress of being trapped in the elevator gave him a pounding headache.
10. Archaic. strong or straining exertion.
–verb (used with object)
11. to lay stress on; emphasize.
12. Phonetics. to pronounce (a syllable or a word) with prominent loudness: Stress the first syllable of “runner.” Stress the second word in “put up with.” Compare accent (def. 18).
13. to subject to stress or strain.
14. Mechanics. to subject to stress.
Origin: 1275–1325; (n.) ME stresse, aph. var. of distresse distress; (v.) deriv. of the n.Related forms:
stressless, adjective
stress⋅less⋅ness, noun
Synonyms:8. anxiety, burden, pressure, worry.
Dictionary.com Unabridged

So many definitions for stress. But none of them truly express what it means to be stressed out. At least not for me. But I guess the definition is not important. It is the response to it; the unwinding of the stress; the letting go of it. And how do you do that? Prayer, of course. But why is that the hardest thing to do when I'm stressed to the max? ...guess that is the question of the day. Since I don't have the answer, I think I'll take another xanax and hit the sack.......

To be continued.....

Ok...yawn...now that I've had some sleep and some great worship time and some great community with my church group, I'm ready to complete this blog.

Here is something to think about: Congress and President Obama have been busy, busy, busy with the stimulus package, revamping health care, the stimulus package, the stimulus package, the stimulus package, and oh, did I mention, the stimulus package? But do you know what is not happening? Passing of a federal budget. This budget is for the federal fiscal year which is September 2008 to August 2009. We are now over 6 months into the fiscal year and congress still hasn't done one of its primary jobs. First, congress wouldn't pass anything until after the election. Now it is too busy to do it. Gee, in most well run corporations, a budget is developed and approved before the fiscal year begins. But I guess expectations of the government being smart is a pretty sorry assumption.

And how does that affect us? That means that those of us who work for entities that are funded by the federal government are starting to run out of funds. And unless the feds get their butts in gear, this is going to affect a lot of people. For example, if government funded medical clinics start closing their doors, then lots of folks will have no option for every day health care except for the emergency room. Have you been in one of those lately (an ER)? The last thing ERs need is even more inundation of non-emergent cases. Do you want to be ambulanced to an ER that is extremely busy handling people with the flu so your treatment is delayed? And if you don't have insurance or the money to pay cash for your services, then you too need to be worried about the federal budget...or lack of one, since clinics will be closing. And you too can share in my stress.