I have a huge playlist of soundtracks. I leave them running for my cats when I'm at work. I've purchased some from Steam, got some free from GOG, and purchased some on Amazon's digital music store because I couldn't find them anywhere else. All were DRM free and can be played on any compatible music player.
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Forgive the long comment, and this is very US centered and doesn't apply to every area in the US. EMS systems vary broadly between states and even municipalities within states...
To put some of that in perspective:
- A new ambulance costs about $250-$400k depending on the type.
- The heart monitors we use are somewhere in the area of $10k-$25k a piece. That's ONE piece of the equipment that we use, and they need maintenance and replacement every so often.
- There's all the other equipment, and restock of medical items. Even if something doesn't get used it has to be on the truck and has to be replaced when it's outdated.
- Fuel is expensive. The last agency I worked for spent about $400k - $500k a year just on fuel.
- There's insurance - auto insurance, liability insurance, workman's comp, etc.
- Keeping an EMS certification active requires ongoing continuing education credits. We take classes constantly to stay current and to be able to renew our cert, which in some states costs money just to renew. I've spent hundreds just to be able to work, both in con ed classes and certs. Some agencies will help pay for this cost, and many provide free con ed classes for their providers. This costs money.
- There's building costs, rent, electric, etc.
- Ongoing vehicle maintenance (ambulances break a LOT)
- administrative costs, and so many more I haven't listed
And that's all before you get into paying anyone for their work. You aren't paying thousands of dollars for YOUR ambulance ride. You're paying for the fact that the ambulance existed to respond to your emergency in the first place. Many agencies don't get taxpayer money, and if they do, it's minimal. My last agency had townships paying them $2k a year to provide 24-7 ambulance service with paid providers. That doesn't even cover fuel, let alone anything else.
Is it absolutely bullshit that people should have to be bankrupted to pay for an ambulance bill? 100% No one should have to worry about money when they're having an emergency.
If you don't like it, advocate for a municipal tax. If every household paid something like $75-$100 a year you could have the best EMS service with well trained, well paid providers using the best, most up to date equipment available and you would never have to worry about an ambulance bill. The places that implement those taxes generally either don't bill at all or bill insurance and only take what insurance pays them, there's no balance billing of the patient.
But no one wants extra taxes, even if it could save them thousands of dollars, and for some reason people come out and support funding for the fire departments and the police departments and no one wants to advocate for support and funding for EMS, so instead you get this mess where EMS is somehow expected to hold itself together and be a profitable enough business to self sustain. You end up with a system where providers are underpaid, have to work 70+ hour weeks to survive (and thus are incredibly burnt out and exhausted - you really want a provider who has worked 70 hours in 5 days on 10 hours of total sleep making life or death decisions?), the good providers head to places where they can get better pay, the equipment and ambulances are old and being held together by sheer will of the providers, and patients still have insane bills.
Patients should not fund EMS. Government should fund EMS. It's a service, not a business, but under the current system in most places, it has to be a business if you want to be able to call 911 and have someone there to respond.
I work in EMS. My advice to students and brand new EMTs is always the same: don't freak out when your patient is in cardiac arrest. Those are the easy calls. I have to keep people alive and if someone is crashing in front of me I have to figure out why and what I can try to do to stop it so they don't die. The ones that are already in cardiac arrest aren't getting any more dead, and the only outcomes are that we improve on that or we don't. We can't make them worse. Dead is the most stable condition.
Edit: That said, one of my favorite things about working in EMS is that I don't have to care about "medically necessary" or insurance companies. If I think my patient needs a treatment and it's in my protocol to give it, I give it. I don't have to ask for an insurance company's approval or get a payment method from my patients, I just get to help people.
I had a tattoo I wanted for years. I was like well it's going to be really expensive and I shouldn't spend the money on it while I have these expenses coming up. A few years and a divorce later, well, I really want this tattoo, but I have student loans and a car loan and it would be really irresponsible of me to pay for a tattoo instead of putting extra money towards those. Yes I could work a bunch of OT to pay for it, but if I work a bunch of OT then I should take that money and put it towards becoming debt free. Maybe when I pay them off I'll get it. Then it hit me that I won't have my loans paid off until I'm in my 40s, even at the rate I'm going (making double payments every month).
Tattoo was finished yesterday. I could have paid off one of my loans with what it cost, but fuck it's absolutely beautiful. The artist is a painter who tattoos and it legit looks like a painting on my skin.
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I had a TENs machine. I also have endometriosis (after suffering for over 20 years found a surgeon willing to do surgery, gods bless her for giving me a chance to live). When I was still with my ex I used it as a simulator to try to show him what my pain felt like. He was on the floor screaming and couldn't straighten his legs or stand up because of the pain and I was just standing there chilling and hadn't even hit the lowest threshold of my normal everyday pain limit, let alone the pain I felt when I had my period. I was like now do you understand why I'm exhausted and depressed all the time and hate my life?
I'm a really fast reader and I had a slowish day at work yesterday. I read The Colour of Magic start to finish yesterday morning and really enjoyed it. I'm almost finished with The Light Fantastic now.
I think I've got about 5 reads in ;) I tend to find books I like and reread them way too many times. I've got about 9 or 10 reads of The Witcher novels and am trying to resist pulling them out again.
Yes, I'm not sure why they deleted their comment, it was still a good suggestion and I appreciate it.
I forgot I read this series! I absolutely loved the first half, by the last half I just felt like I was only finishing it because I had invested too much time in it. I hated the way the women characters developed at the end, it felt very "men writing women". It was so gross. I also hated how dialogue heavy the last few books were, the plotline dragged hard.
I have read the Hobbit! I was so excited for the movies and when the first one came out I almost cried in the theater. I made myself watch the second one but never did watch the third one. The book is good enough.
Depends. I've realized that people aren't really looking for an answer beyond being acknowledged, so "hey", "hey, how are you?" or a simple return of the greeting lets them know that you hear them and are completing the social contract. If they follow up or if it's asked in a context where I think they want an answer sometimes I just say "here" or "breathing" and that gets the point across.
Hey you, you're finally awake...
Yeah that's my answer. Life is just so empty when no one loves you and you have no one to love. I'm incredibly grateful that I have a decent job and a roof over my head and food in my fridge and my life is better than it was a few years ago but except for my 2 amazing cats I have absolutely no one to love or love me and that hurts. I just want a hug and someone to tell me about their day while we eat dinner.
Yeah, part of me is like "the government can't have my fingerprints" but I work a job that requires criminal background checks so I've been fingerprinted and run through police and FBI databases more times than I can honestly remember... They've got my fingerprints. They all have my fingerprints. It's a little late to start worrying about it.
Unfortunately it's time just came. I'd already opened it up and fixed it once before. There were buttons that were barely working, the battery connectors stopped working and it only worked with the power cable (the atomic feature wouldn't sync from my bedroom and when I tried to move it to resync with the time change it wouldn't hold the settings, even with new batteries), the screen was starting to get weird and I decided that it wasn't worth it for a $20 clock that was over 20 years old when I have other clocks.
Damned climate change.
I bought a small tabletop atomic clock/thermometer at Radio Shack for $20 when I was 13. I'm in my mid-30s now, and it just died a few weeks ago. I actually mourned it a little, that thing was on my nightstand everywhere I've lived all these years.
I was listening to a podcast recently and they were talking about how having the ability to talk to animals sounds so cool, but if you think about it your pets would probably just be constantly going "FOOD, FOOD, FOOD, FOOD, FOOD" and you'd walk outside and instead of beautiful birdsong you'd just hear "Fuck me!" "Fuck me!" "FUCK ME!"
Having a happier, less stressful environment. It's hard having to pay bills and keep a roof over my head, but no one is screaming at me about stupid shit and I feel safe in my home now. I'd rather work OT every week forever than live with my parents again.
Being able to exist on my own schedule and not having to worry about other people. Being able to set my own rules and standards for my home. I can eat when I want, shower when I want, and come and go as I please without having to answer to my parents or work around my family's schedule. I'm a very clean person and hate messes, but my mom is a neat freak, and I can decide to leave dishes for tomorrow or throw clothing on the floor without someone screaming at me. I can also decide to eat dinner in my living room. The first year after I moved out I ate meals sitting in bed so much simply because it was the first time in my life I was allowed to have food in my bedroom. Now I don't ever eat in bed because I don't care, but I can if I want. There's no rule saying I can't.
I'm an American. I'd never criticize the NHS.
The UK healthcare system has problems. We have problems.
The UK has free healthcare. We have problems.
Telling my therapist that my birthday is coming up and I just wish there was one person besides my dad who would wish me a happy birthday or want to go hiking or something with me on my birthday but I don't have any friends or anyone in my life who would even know I have a birthday.