Friday, September 10, 2010

Parental Medical Consent Form

I remember when I was growing up, I fell and hit my nose.  My nose started bleeding and nothing my grandmother did seemed to stop the bleeding.  It continued to bleed.  She rushed me to the emergency room and there we had to sit and wait for my mother to arrive.  Although, my grandmother was related to me, she did not legally have authorization to ok any medical services administered to me.  

I  recently was talking with a co-worker, who had her grand kids for a few days and one of the kids had a boo boo, which resulted in her taking him to the emergency room and him receiving a few stitches.  Luckily, she had a Parental Medical Consent Form, which authorized her to make medical decisions for them while in her care.

The form is used to authorize an adult to make medical and dental care decisions for your child(ren) when the parents are away.  I have previously given my parents authorization when I've gone on vacation without my son (rare) or when I've had to go on business travel.  I also, leave his medical card with them.

Without authorization, your child more than likely will face delays in receiving medical attention.  Also, if your child participates in any sports activity, sponsored by a school or community organization and you are not provided a medical authorization form to fill out, please request one and or fill out one and provide it to them.

The form does not need to be notarized, but it's more quickly accepted.  Here is one you can use.

Monday, September 6, 2010

You Can Phone Home From Gmail

I really like this feature.  It is so convenient.  Most say this is nothing new, but it is to me. 
After downloading the plug-in, I gave it a whirl.  I called my house phone and surprisingly it was very clear.  The next day, I needed to make a long-distance phone call and since, I was on my computer, I decided to use the new feature.  I dialed the number, it rings, I'm place a queue as according to the recording my "call will be answered in approximately 5mins".  When the rep answered, I said, "hello" and proceeded to explain my dilemma.  In the middle of my explanation, I hear "hello, how may I help you!"  Argh!  She couldn't hear me.  What a disappointment.  I decided to search online to see if others were having the same problem...and they were.

I decided to update my drivers, reboot and try again.  I tried calling a friend locally.  The keyboard stated, it was dialing, but I couldn't hear it. Ugh!  I then re-installed the initial plug-in, reboot and retried.  This time I called my mom, who is local.  I can hear the dial tone (yay!). 
Mother: "Hello"
Me: "Hi"
Mother: "Where are you? "Whose number is this?"
Me "You can hear me!" *smiling*
Mother: "Yes, I can. Stop yelling!"
Me: " It works!" *smiling*
Mother:  "What are you up to now?"
Me: "I'm calling you from my laptop, through my gmail account."
Mother:  "You and these gadgets"

Give it a try if you have a gmail account and if you don't sign up for one.  Remember to update your drivers (sound) and then install the plug-in for the feature from Google.  Long distance calls are free now; not sure for how long.  International calls have a small fee.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

My First Auction

I woke up today not feeling the best.  My allergies seemed to have gotten the best of me.  After dropping my son off at school, my intention was to call out of work, take my allergy medicine and take a nap.  After calling out and taking my allergy medicine, I started reading the paper.  I came across the legal notice section and saw some scheduled foreclosure home auctions.  I have been to tax sales, but never the foreclosure home auctions.  I had a hour before the start of a particular auction that happen to be a property in my neighborhood.  I didn't know the person, but I decided I would go and witness the sale.

I went to the court house and literally there were seven people sitting on the steps of the court house with their list, pen and pad and cell phones.  I walked up, with my pen and pad (I had wrote down some info on the homes I was interested in) as I was curious as to how much each would sell for. 

Each auction was announced, "this is the 1:23pm auction for [insert address]" and he would read the legal mojo.  He would then ask someone on his cell phone what is the opening bid.  He would then share that with the group and then he would begin he auctioneer song..."225, 225 do I hear 226, 226, 227...anybody want it for 227".  Those bidding were on their cell phones discussing with partners, I assume on how high they should bid.  It was obvious that these investors come to these auctions often as their was a small group who greeted each other, even the auctioneer, when they arrived.  In bidding, one lady made a comment to me, "she's only bidding on it because she knows I want it".  Then, the other lady said, "Sue, do you really want this property?"  The lady who made the comment to me didn't reply.  She ["Sue"] ended up winning the property at a higher cost than she anticipated.  I overheard "Sue" tell someone that the other lady ran the price up so she wouldn't be able to bid high on a property that everyone else seem to want [it was in a very nice community].  Alot of the auctions had no bidders, at least not at the court house and the auctioneer would make a statement, "sold to note holder" or "back to the bank".

Prior to going to the auction, I researched some of the properties online and there value and some were really nice looking homes and some deals were definitely available.  The only problem is alot of times you don't know what the inside presents.  Also, as one of the ladies commented, she likes to bid on the vacant properties because she doesn't like going through the eviction process.  It definitely was interesting and I'm glad I attended.  BTW, the property in my neighborhood was cancelled, seems they got the money prior to the sell...happy for them.  Some were not so fortunate.