Yep, I agree 100%. I live in such a rural area, though, that my neighbors, the natives, think I'm

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Of course you can buy a big house for 130,000 in a smaller town and the same amount won't buy you a pot to pee in, in a place like San Diego or the D.C. area.  It's all relative.

those so-called normal people next door are being arrested for drugs and molestation, and other crimes. This ideology of people thinking that low-life scum only living in trailer parks and the like probably have an everyday-average-looking person right next door that they should probably pay more attention to. Won't THEY be surprised when Mr. Smith who waves at them and visits over the fence with them now and again is one of these perpetrators. Think about it people. It has happened and will happen. And it doesn't ONLY HAPPEN to people in trailer parks. JMO. 

and Clearwire is also not available.  I have the satellite service. It is expensive - you have to purchase the equipment and pay for the installation ($600 and up). The service is expensive too ($65).  The speed is not quite as fast as DSL, but I download and upload jobs with no problem.  Some MTSOs won't allow satellite service, citing security issues, which is dumb.  It's like any other wireless service - you have to make sure your signal is secure, which you do through your computer (not the service itself).  Even this is ridiculous in remote areas for 2 reasons: 1) I really don't think anyone is going to bother camping out on my land or drive down my mile-long driveway with their laptop just to see if they can pick up a signal and 2) even if they did, they can only gain access to the internet itself - they can't see what you are doing online.  So this security issue thing is baloney!  Also, in 2004 when we were hit by Hurricanes Charlie, Frances and Jeanne, there was no phone or cable service for nearly a month, but I was still able to work by just using our generator for my computer until the electric came back on - those that had dialup, DSL or cable were outta luck.

I may possibly be moving there.  What can you tell me about it?  The school systems do not matter as we no longer have children at home.  What areas are nice to live in?  I read that when it snows it usually melts the same day....is that true?

Any information from someone who lives there or has lived there would be much appreciated.

TIA

Right now, everything is rockin along ok, but he may turn quite ugly because he isn't getting his way and you need to protect yourself and your children.  Have you changed the locks on your house? Are there other ways he can get into the house and if so, you should take care of that immediately.  Have you had the locks changed on your vehicle.  If not, you need to also do that immediately.  Does the school have the papers so that he can't walk in and take your children out of school or pick them up after school? 

Believe me, I am glad you made the decision that you did, but I want you to know that I see on TV all too often, disgruntled husbands that come back and get revenge.  I don't mean to scare you, rather to let you know that because I went through a similar situation, you cannot take this lightheartedly.  If you can move away, far away from him and be close to your family, do it. 

What would it take for you to be able to move back where you family lives?

Broken down once, never again.

in the Independence, MO area.  The city governments have passed laws banning pit bulls and last week something like 100+ pitbulls were picked up by animal control or dropped off at the city pound and all were destroyed.

Personally, I think the owners of these animals should be held just as accountable as the dog.  Well, I guess maybe putting the owner to sleep is a bit extreme.

I'm so sorry about your lab.

at the store.  I could see myself with my 6 y.o. and my elderly mother in the middle of that mayhem and people diving for laptops one on top of the other...no thanks!  Got everything last year via mail in time for Xmas and never set foot in a store.

3 dogs in their yard. Dogs stay out all night and barking is never ending. One is a hound dog (who never stops howling) rest are bull dogs and pit bull mix. The fleas in the summer are never ending. They bring their dogs across the street to play in the field daily w/o leashes. They had 4 dogs but last month one dog ran across the street, got hit by a car and died. They blamed the driver of the car and said since she was elderly, they wanted her to get retested for her license since she could have stopped in time. Had nothing to do with the dog being unrestrained or running out in front of the car. I've taken to calling animal control now every time I see them in the field unleashed because they charge anything and everything that is not their owners. They usually take them there to play right when school lets out so it could be a danger to them. Luckily for us we have leash laws here in our city.

File a complaint! Just in case something happens again there is proof that it is a dangerous animal.

yap, yap, yap, yap all day long.  Enough to drive anyone nuts.  My kids have nicknamed him "Yappy."  A woman I work for also has one and hers yaps all day long too. 

So if you don't mind the constant yapping, go for it  They're still awful cute even with their little jaw flapping. :)

We even had a patient in the waiting room one day that brought in a paper bag with baby chickens in it as it was too hot to leave them in the car.  Nobody in the waiting room gave it a second thought.

It was great fun to work there.  They called it a "medical center" but it was in an old house with less than state of the art equipment.  The country folk swore by "Doc" and "Doc" didn't think twice about going out at 3:00 a.m. to make a house call.

He never would have dreamed of asking for a co-pay up front and even let one farmer's wife pay with fresh baked pies.

They sure don't make them like they used to.

P.S.  We still had typewriters back in 1994.  :)

It is very frustrating to feel so limited in your job choice b/c of something like that.  I have never really had any major problems with my dial-up and have been told by two different techs. that I have excellent connection speed considering it is dial-up.  Frustrating though....

I hate going to the doctors office.  My daughter has had a sore throat for a week and went in to see doctor this morning, sat there for three hours.  We have gone through six different pediatricians/primary doctors in 11 years.  How are they suppose to know if there is something really wrong.   Doctor looked at her (daughter, 17)  throat and asked why she had not had her tonsils out.  Did not ask her history.  She has not had a throat infection in over 10 years.  As a toddler she had frequent throat infections and naturally large tonsils and doctors never once stated they should come out.  Now, she is worried.  She is a vocalist and does not want to that to effect her singing.  Anyway, I'm getting off the subject here.  We went in to see the doctor in clinic to find out he quit Friday and there is an interim doctor (who we've seen in ER and who has filled in for other M.D. in the past and like a lot better than current M.D.  Too bad he is not staying).  Is it that inconvenient for doctors to locate a practice in a rural area? Our area might not have much but we are only 30 minutes away from one medium city and 45 minutes away from a moderate one.  Our little town is now down to one doctor when at one time it had 4-5 family practices.  We have a hospital, but no doctors.  LOL.   

Thanks for letting me vent, but this is really getting riduculous.  The doctor today did inform me that he was trying to recruit either some doctors finishing their residency or maybe some middle aged doctor from the N.O. area that would like to start over.  We have great facilities, just no doctors.

Changes were gradual.  First, we were allowed to start working at home at 12 cpl, instead of the hourly wage.  We still were employees and had the same benefits.  This saved the hospital money in overhead and we were all happy.  Then they started using outsourcing services for holidays and weekends.  Gradually, the whole MT dept was phased out and we had the option of going with the service handling the hospital transcription or finding another job.  The service kept us at this rate of pay for a short time and then gradually started implementing "incentive bonuses" and lowering the line rate of pay.  It evolved over the years to what it is today.  Starting line rates were lower and incentive bonuses done away with.  Health insurance is contingent on production, but their platforms crash regularly (as do many, many others) and we either have to work extra to make up the loss or just eat the financial loss altogether.  The services overhire to make sure that their TAT is met, which means unstable availability of work, which in turn affects production, in turn affecting benefits. 

The logic today behind all the changes is the "lack of experienced MTs in the U.S.", thus the need to hire people outside the country, who have even LESS experience with the English language and slang medical terms, at half the price of hiring American MTs.  The MT field in general has to be able to compete and so must lower their rates to keep clients from going offshore at half price.  And now with the advent of VR, the MTSOs using it try to justify the cut in line rate to the fact that we're no longer "typing", we're "just editing."  It's been a gradual evolution, but not in a positive direction.

And in all of this, AAMT has not come to the aid of the transcriptionist.  It has furthered the promotion of offshoring and has developed ways to enhance the MTs adjustment to VR instead of enhancing the MTs value and amount of worked involved in VR.  When the AAMT doesn't step up for the very ones it says it represents, why would the ones using the services respect, understand, or value the MT either?