Tony Brewer

My sister just stopped working at a local pharmacy.  She was unhappy there for a variety of reasons and is now looking for work at a different pharmacy.  She was telling me some horror stories about working there that freaked me out and I wanted to share two with you.  She told me that she had never told anyone about these concerns of hers because she did not want to lose her job while she was there, but now that she isn’t working there anymore that isn’t a concern anymore.

OK – here is the first one: 

She was telling me that the technicians are measured on “productivity.”  That means that they are tracked on how fast they fill prescriptions.  She said that the technicians are supposed to fill a prescription in thirty seconds or less.  That means from the time she receives the order in her hand she is supposed to find the bottle of pills on the shelf, take it to the counting station, count out the correct number of pills and put them in a pill bottle, print out a label and attach the label to the bottle and then turn the prescription over to the pharmacist to check.  In thirty seconds.  She said that she was frequently told to “count faster” when she was counting prescriptions that had 180 or 240 pills in it.  She was counting slower than normal to ensure that the patient was getting the correct number of pills, but she was told to “count faster.”  Just how accurate do you think the counting can be if they have to do all of that in thirty seconds?  I suggest you count your pills before you leave the store – you might find yourself short a few pills!

Now here is the second one: 

She was telling me that when the pharmacist (or technician) is counting out pills, if some fall on the counter or on the floor, the procedure was to simply pick them up and put them right into the pill bottle that the patient was going to be buying.  She said she was concerned the first time she saw that happen, and she asked the pharmacist what the procedure was for disposing of pills that fell on the floor and the pharmacist said “just put them in the bottle.”

She says that she knows that everyone who works in the pharmacy has dogs at home, and that they just wear their regular street shoes in the pharmacy, so you KNOW there has got to be traces of canine fecal matter (along with whatever bacteria is on the parking lot and store floors) on the pharmacy carpet that is being transferred to the pills that are being sent home with the patients.  She also said that although the carpet was vacuumed once a week, that it was filthy – when she looked under the anti-fatigue mats that are scattered around the pharmacy she could see that the carpet USED to be a golden color, whereas now it is a dark brown where the anti-fatigue mats do not cover.  So you KNOW that carpet is filthy.

Along that same note, the pharmacists bring their purses and lunch boxes into the pharmacy and put them on the counters that the pills are being counted on.  You KNOW that purses and lunch boxes spend a lot of time on floors, right?  She told me that she never once saw the counters being cleaned with anything at all – ever.  So any pills that got accidentally spilled/dropped onto the counters was also being exposed to whatever germs were transferred to the counter from the lunch boxes and purses.

Now this news really freaked me out, and I have made plans to transfer all of my prescriptions away from that store.  I think it is highly irresponsible to have this situation going on.  I think that it is irresponsible because they are supposed to be highly concerned about the health and safety of their customers.  Many of these customers could have compromised immune systems and could get sick from some of the bacteria that comes from the pills that hit the floor.  They could get worms from the fecal matter for crying out loud!

Give me a break!  I don’t know if that’s illegal – if not it SHOULD be, but it is at least immoral and irresponsible and that company should be ashamed of itself for allowing this to happen!

So I really do not think that pharmacy gives a rat’s ass about our health – it is all about profit and the bottom line.  Can’t throw away a contaminated pill, that would cost a penny or two!  Sell it to the sick people anyway.  Make the technicians fill the prescriptions at breakneck speed so the patient might not get the right number of pills to get better!

Do they REALLY care about our health?  I say NO, apparently they do NOT.

Everyone that I know loves a fireplace.  Growing up, every home I ever visited seemed to have a fireplace in the living room.  In our own house we had a fireplace in our living room, too. 

At some point in time my parents decided to finish off the basement; turning it into a family room and put in an electric fireplace.  I can remember the many hours that my siblings and our friends would socialize in that room with the fireplace turned on.  We marveled at how great the fireplace was, how real the Electric Fires looked, and that we could even turn the heat on to warm the room if we wanted to, or turn the heat off if we didn’t need the heat.

My very first house that I owned had a fireplace in it.  I used it every cool day that came along.  I loved the ambiance of the flickering flames; I could sit in the armchair by the fire for hours just gazing at the hypnotic effect of the fire.  I loved warming my feet on the hearth.  Sometimes I’d even lie on the floor in front of the fireplace and fall asleep.

My current house has a fireplace in it too, but this one is a propane fireplace.  I like the convenience of just turning it on and enjoying the Gas Fires instead of having to haul in wood and cleaning the chimney and cleaning out ashes.  It still has that same great ambiance and I enjoy it every chance I get.

The hotprice.co.uk website has an extensive selection of fireplaces for sale. They strive to sell the UK´s largest online selection of leading brand fires & fireplaces. They have a price match guarantee that they will meet or beat their competitor’s prices and they deliver the product to your door.

I was looking at their website a short while ago, and was impressed with the beautiful selection of Hole in the Wall Fires, electric fireplaces, and gas fireplaces.  I also noticed that they sell wood stoves and solid fuel stoves too.  I loved their page they call “Jargon Buster” where they explain what different terms mean in relation to fireplaces. 

The company has been featured on two popular ITV television shows; the “Carol Vorderman´s Better Homes” and “60 Minute Makeover.”

Well our two year contract with Verizon cell phone service ended a couple of weeks ago, and I finally had the time to sit down at the computer and find coverage maps to find out what cell phone provider would work the best at our house.  When we moved here all of our neighbors insisted that Verizon was the best cell phone coverage around our place, so we just jumped right in and signed up for two years with them.  Much to our dismay, our house and apparently the fifteen mile radius around our house was sketchy reception at best.  The most we could hope for was two bars, and inside our house was at best one bar.  We were very unhappy with the poor reception.

So today I signed up for AT&T because their coverage map indicates a better service for our area.  They claim an average of three bars with no dead spots, whereas the Verizon coverage map only claims an average of two bars and dozens of dead spots.  Supposedly I can cancel the contract within thirty days if we are not happy with the service, and we got new phones out of the deal, and $10 less a month to boot.  So I’m pretty happy with the deal, and am hoping that the coverage is better than Verizon was.

While I was on the time.com website reading about OJ Simpson’s well deserved consequences, I noticed an article immediately following his about a Milan fashion show, featuring the so-called top 10 looks for spring.  Out of mild curiosity as to what these crazy designers have in mind for our women folk, and a natural male desire to look at photos of pretty women, I decided to take a look at what the fashion designers have in store for us. 

I swear that fashion designers must hate women!  I have never seen so many ugly clothes in all of my life!  These new styles are simply pathetic.  I hope that the women who even THINK about buying clothes like that go seek professional psychiatric help!  I think I’m going to have nightmares now!

I was so happy today to read on the Time.com website that OJ Simpson has been convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery!  I heard that his conviction was based on videotape evidence (which I had not heard about before) and I was just so thrilled!  I think that OJ has been the kind of person that has done a lot of bad things in his life and always gotten away with them.  Apparently he could face the rest of his life in jail now for this conviction, and I am really pleased about that.  I’ve always felt that his acquittal thirteen years ago for the double murders of his ex-wife and her friend was a mistake, and was very disappointed when he was acquitted.  So you can imagine how happy I am now that he will go to prison – even if it is for a different crime.  He’s a criminal, and he belongs behind bars.