The Vespa Brigade

You see them all over around here. Men driving around on motor bikes. It's not something I expected when I came here. I would expect to see them in urban areas, after all, they appear to be a convenient way to get around in congested areas, especially when the distances are relatively short. I never expected to see them cruising down state highways in rural Kentucky. Personally, I find them highly annoying. When the speed limit is 55, it's annoying to come upon someone cruising down middle of the road at 25. Honestly, I don't know why they aren't hit by the other traffic on the road on a regular basis.

The reason for the plethora of motorbikes was explained to me by the locals. They don't require an operator's license, so when someone gets their license pulled for excessive DUIs, they can get around by Vespa. It's better than the alternative, I suppose. I still think they're annoying.

Safe Water?

I went to do some washing up the other day, and noticed that the tap water smelled like a swimming pool. The reason for this was that the chlorine levels were close to 5ppm. That's the upper end of what you'd find in a heavily used public pool. Of course it's not always this bad, and I'm sure the average level meets federal guidelines, but I can see why no one here drinks the water.

To be fair to the water company, the source they have to work with is bad. For some reason Kentucky allows the dumping of septic tank contents from boats, which does wonders for the local water source. On top of this, no one enforces laws regarding septic tanks, which helps even more. I've been involved in water testing here, and if I remember correctly, this place is number 1 in the south central region for E. Coli count. Yay! We're # 1!

You can't really blame the water company for chlorinating to the max in that environment, but the water's still undrinkable.

Corrupt Hissy Fit Judge

I feel like an idiot. Of course, I have an excuse, I don't really know how the political structure of Kentucky counties is set up. I really should have found out long ago. Unfortunately, no one will tell you. You have to search around for the right people to ask, otherwise you just get lied to. It's exhausting.

It appears that I need to take back my bad thoughts about the jailer. I always thought that my idiot jailer deputy neighbor, who lets his dog do what he pleases and discharges firearms irresponsibly was hired by him, and using his political connections to do as he pleases. It turns out he was hired by Lyle Huff, the county judge executive, and using his political connections. I guess that explains why Lyle Huff told animal control to stand down after I reported that his dog had acted in a threatening manner toward my kids in my yard on numerous occasions. Of course jailer deputy neighbor did put up a beware of owner sign, but I saw that as more of a threat than a solution to the problem. Yeah, I really feel like I can trust county government.

The bright spot is the reports I received about Huff's behavior after he lost the election (I guess I wasn't the only one who didn't like him). Apparently, he went to his office the day after the election, took all his stuff out, and left for an extended period of time to pout. Teenage McDonald's workers usually show more class than that. I love it when bully politicians show their true colors. Apparently, karma has been working overtime lately.

Educational Standards

A week of dealing with woefully underprepared students has once again left me wondering how the high schools here manage to maintain their accreditation. When a student doesn't know what 8 divided by 2 is, or 6 times 5, or the square root of 9, they probably have too much catching up to do to be successful in a college algebra course. The sad part is when you ask these students what classes they took in high school, a lot of them answer with pre-calculus. What the teacher was doing in said pre-calculus course other than handing out grades is open to question.

Of course the Bluegrass has the solution to this problem. Crack down on truancy, force the students to attend, and allow the local schools to conduct the standardized testing like they always have. Apparently, I'm the only one who sees a problem with this.

Karma?

I have 3 neighbors who don't know the etiquette of keeping dogs. In short, they just let them run loose to do as they please because they have "rahts". I've really come to hate that word since moving to Appalachia. Today 2 sets of them descended on my trash when I put it out for pickup and started to scatter it all over my yard and in the street. Needless to say, I stopped them. Then I went to work. It's one of those things people expect me to do. One of the dogs, being more intelligent than his owner,  apparently decided that since I didn't want the trash in my yard, he'd take it to his, which he proceeded to do. I guess it's karma. The owner will figure it out when he comes over Friday (yes, I said Friday, today being Monday) to feed his dog (maybe) and mow his grass. Until then, I guess it's just an amusing sight.

The Gift of Car Mats

The other night, I was woken up around 1 in the morning by car doors slamming and general banging. Nothing unusual with that. I usually get woken up every night by slamming car doors, yelling, pimp mobiles, four wheelers, and what have you. Hill folk are noisy. After listening for awhile and determining that the sounds didn't seem to indicate danger, I went back to sleep. Imagine, being woken up at night, and thinking, is this sound dangerous enough to grab a 12 gauge or can I go back to sleep. Well, I do call this place "The Ghetto with Trees", but I digress...

The next morning, I found the reason for the car doors. Four car floor mats were sitting on the road in front of my driveway. Did someone stop in front of my driveway, throw all their floor mats in the street and drive off at 1 in the morning? What the Hell people?

Peaceful Southern Nights

Once more, the hills of Kentucky reverberated with the sound of gunfire in the middle of the night. Well, 11pm to be precise. It leaves one wondering whether or not they should be concerned or not. Is it someone shooting nuisance dogs, coon hunters, or someone taking care of their ex. One never knows. Last night wasn't too bad, just 2 shots in quick succession, it's the nights where someone empties the magazine from a high capacity firearm as quickly as they can work the trigger that make you think.

Of course calling the cops is kind of useless in this case. You can't really tell where the gunfire is from. When you're in your house, with the windows shut and the air conditioning on, the best you can do is say something like; "this many shots, about a quarter to half a mile, that general direction, sounded like this type of weapon". That's really not going to help anyone.

No Healthcare for Rural Kentuckians

I went to visit my doctor awhile ago and was expecting the usual copay. I got the usual copay, but also another bill for over $500 from the local hospital. Surprise.

I live in an area with very few services. If I want to see a specialist, I need to drive 1 1/2 to 3 hours each way. Knowing this, many doctors elect to have clinics at the local hospitals so they can reach a larger client base. Apparently, now I get charged for seeing my doctor and also as an outpatient at the hospital, even though my doctor brings his own technicians with him. If I drive to my doctor's clinic, the insurance covers the bill, except for the copay. If I go to the clinic he runs at the local hospital, I pay his copay, plus outpatient fees at the hospital. If my insurance company had told me about the change beforehand, I would have made the drive, but to surprise me like that? The only words that come to mind are, "Fuck Humana".

Since Humana is the insurance company you have if you work for the state of Kentucky in any capacity, I can only wonder who in Frankfort received a kickback from that one. For a state that keeps whining about the need to develop the rural areas,  to allow double billing of medical services for people who don't elect to drive to one of the state's population centers just seems stupid. Now, what used to be a doctor's visit I would fit into a lunch hour, will now be a paid sick day. Way to boost productivity and worker contentment Bluegrass State.