Got a Match?

Since I will be dressed in camo this week and hopefully concealed from the deer and maybe even politics, here is a reprint of one of my old favorites that if you have not seen, I hope you will enjoy. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

What ever happened to strike anywhere matches? I happened upon this little clandestine plot and I am not sure who is responsible but I think it could be the commies or maybe even terrorist, or at the very least those forces within our government that think we are too stupid to make our own decisions. Who ever is responsible I would like to take them to task.

As a young child I remember my great uncle, who kinda served as my grandfather in my formative years, always striking a match on the seat of his pants. If you are old enough to remember black and white TV then you remember the pose, you hike your leg and reach around and strike that wooden kitchen match on the seat of your britches. They are called friction matches, they have the little white sulfur tip and you can strike them anywhere. You didn’t have to have the box or anything like that. A pill bottle full of these little wonders could be kept in the tool box or by the burn barrel or just about anywhere. Who out there doesn’t remember the little tin box on the wall in Granny’s kitchen? It held a whole box of these little wooden wonders and it was gravity fed. They just fell to the bottom in the little tray, always at the ready to light the stove or the pilot light on the floor furnace and I don’t remember anybody’s Granny being in any kind of jeopardy because of this ignition source. High cholesterol from all that fried chicken was more of an issue but I don’t ever remember an obituary where a kitchen match was the culprit. Kitchen matches were so common and so simple, but I challenge you to try to find them and I think you will see what I mean. I think that you will be surprised how scarce they have become. I know you are probably thinking," My goodness Don, get a life" but here’s how I got to this point.

The conversation occurred quite by chance as a bunch of guys were gathered at a friends house watching Texas Tech beat the stuffin’ out of our beloved O-State Cowboys. As the score became more lopsided the conversation veered towards what it should be this time of year, deer camp. This same group used to make an annual pilgrimage to Southeast Oklahoma during deer season and sometimes we even hunted. But the camp and the camaraderie were what we really enjoyed. My friend Rod Smith asked "has anybody seen any strike anywhere matches lately?" and we all said "well sure, you can get them anywhere" and he said "No, no you can’t. I’ve looked at the dollar stores, Wal-Mart and even the grocery store; I think they have been taken off the market." Well friends and neighbors, in the twenty-first century you know what we do…we Google it. So when I got home the first thing I did was do a quick little search for strike anywhere matches. Interesting what you find out when you Google. Apparently this is not a local problem, this may be global. There is an entire chat room devoted to this very subject, with people from all walks of life bemoaning the difficulty of finding this very common household product. There is even talk of these matches being outlawed in some states. You guessed it, liability issues. I hope I don’t find out that the office of Homeland Security has determined in its infinite wisdom, that the strike anywhere match is now to dangerous too be sold on the open market, but I think it has.

I don’t remember if the terrorists used these in 9-11 or not but I kinda doubt it. There is even talk in these chat rooms about these matches having Hazmat designation, which means they are considered hazardous material, which I believe boarders on the insane. I remember as a child we used to make stink bombs out of an ink pen, a simple bobby pin and one of these matches. I don’t believe anybody ever died or lost an eye or had any kind of permanent scars from the lowly friction match but I do remember an upset teacher or two. But, somebody somewhere in a big fancy office, who probably never lit a match on the seat of their pants, decided for us that these were too dangerous for the American public.

Now I know that I should use this space to discuss this week in Oklahoma politics but I can’t let this go without at least a little rant about big brother protecting us from ourselves. I challenge you to go shopping, and try to find these matches. I did find a source at a small hardware store, I bought the last three boxes and told them to order me a case and I would buy them all. And I think I will keep them under lock and key and hope my name hasn’t been flagged by the secret agents in the U.S. Government or the "double naught spies" that ‘ol Jethro used to talk about on the Beverly Hillbillies. I bet ‘ol Jed Clampett could light a match on the seat of his pants. I promise I am not going to over throw anything, I just want to light my burn barrel with friction matches in a little water proof pill bottle that I keep down by the shop.

The funny thing is, some would argue that they have been replaced by the these new fangled long stemmed lighters but I am here to tell you whoever designed that little gem is an idiot, they light about three times and then you throw them away. But I am sure that we are much safer. But I promise you we went backward not forward, kinda like "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it." I know this seems like a little thing but I think it shows how silly we can get when we start having discussions on safety.

Notice I didn’t tell you where my source was, it’s my own little honey hole, like a secret bass pond or a secret grove of trees where the big buck hangs out. You can torture me, but I ain’t talking. So if you find any strike anywhere wooden matches you better buy them before the government totally outlaws them, for your own good. My goodness what’s next, the round toothpick? God help us. Kinda makes me want to eat paste and run with scissors just to make sure I am still alive, I am such a rebel.

If you would like to contact me, while I’m at the Capitol, please don’t hesitate to call 800-522-8502 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 800-522-8502 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or send an email to donarmes@okhouse.gov .

And here’s a little something to think about, as you go down the road:

"The sky never falls all at once – it’s always a little at a time." -Don Armes

Where Did It Go?

Where Did It Go?

I know that the older you get the faster the years click off, at least that’s what those old 50 year old guys used to say when I was 30, and now that I’m in the 50 year old club I think I understand more and more what they mean. About this time last year I had written about the fact that Veterans Day would always be much more remembered at our house because of the passing of my dad on the 8th. That seems like a long time ago but as usual I was busy with day to day life and it snuck up on me and I realized that hey, it’s been a year since dad passed and its Veterans Day again.

I went to a very nice program last week at the VFW on the anniversary of his passing and then for the first time in a year made a trip to the Veteran’s Center where we honored all branches of the Armed Services. For the first time I walked the halls where dad had spent the end of his life. I saw a lot of familiar faces and shook the hands of a lot of the Veterans who live there that had become friends. It was an emotional experience as I reacquainted with many of the staff members who cared for my dad as well as countless other Veterans that live there. I got to say thanks to some people who I had probably failed to properly thank for the great job that they did in caring for him at the end of his life. It’s a wonderful facility with a great staff of very caring compassionate people who do a wonderful job taking care of America’s war heroes and I will forever be in their debt even though I know that they were just doing their job. It takes a special person to do that but thank God we have them.

There are certain items that for me are non-negotiable. One of those items is the funding of the Lawton Veterans Center. I know full well the day to day operations of that facility from being there every day for a year or so when my dad was a resident. They did not give my dad extra care because of my position and I don’t think they should have. What was interesting was that my dad seemed to be the complaint department for many of the residents because they knew that I was an elected official and could probably get someone’s attention and many times did; when things were not right or the food was not as good as it should have been or a host of other issues. Each time that one of the residents would file an unofficial complaint to dad, I would stop by the administrator’s office and very gently let the administrator know that the troops were restless, knowing full well that they were peddling as fast as they could and operating on thin budgets. The bottom line is they all did a very good job with what they had to work with and deeply cared for the residents all of whom served their country and earned the right to be there by their service.

It’s a tough job because they deal with the passing of heroes on almost a daily basis. When you’re in and out of the building every day you often see a young nurse wiping away tears as she makes her rounds, knowing that they lost another one. And you know there are people in those jobs that have wonderful and compassionate hearts.

So will I vote to fully fund Ok veterans centers? You bet I will cuz my father died in one. And I know how much they care.



If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:


Patriotism... is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. ~Adlai Stevenson

Earthshake

It’s amazing how adults talk using some of the funny things their kids learned growing up. Our oldest daughter Katy had a favorite movie when she was little called The Land Before Time. It was about dinosaurs and it was on a VHS tape and it’s one of those movies that she almost wore completely out playing over and over again. In that movie when the Earth rumbled the little dinosaurs would say “Earthshake!” so that is what first came to my mind when I was standing in the lobby at the Cowboy Hall of Fame Saturday night when I experienced my very first Earthquake. I guess I’ll add that to the list of things that I’ll always remember where I was when they occurred. It was kind of odd, it was definitely a strange feeling and the best way I know to describe it is like you were in a football stadium and everyone was stomping their feet and you could feel a little shaking under your feet. A small group of us were standing around visiting and weren’t really sure what was going on until it was pretty much over, almost like it didn’t register. For us it’s not all that common of an occurrence. Since Saturday I’ve heard numerous accounts from people all over the place that felt the tremor. I guess if you lived in California it would probably be a normal thing because we all know that eventually California is supposed to slide off into the Ocean anyhow. I thought we had been relatively unscathed across the state until I saw the news reports Monday morning about the damage to St. Gregory’s College where there was some brick damage to a building. I also wonder after talking to the store manager at the Lawton Coop that there may be some yet undetected grain elevator damage across the state as some of those concrete elevators are getting quite a bit of age on them. Probably the funniest thing I saw as people reported the event on facebook was the scene of the white plastic lawn furniture where one plastic chair had fallen over and it said “Oklahoma Earthquake 2011, we will rebuild”. Quite a little event and I’d say it got everyone’s attention.

We all know now that we’re not immune and one good thing about living in flat country with very few skyscrapers is that we don’t have much to fear unless it was a big one. I haven’t heard any reports of tsunamis at Lake Hefner or small children being lost in huge cracks, in fact I think there was a greater danger of falling into cracks from the drought than from our Earthquake. As I said earlier it will be one of those little items that you tuck in your memory that will probably stick with most of us that we can pinpoint our location and what we were doing when the event occurred, although it pales in comparison to many of those big events like 9/11 or the space shuttle disaster or for some that are a couple of years older than me, the assassination of President Kennedy. As I said before I was at the Cowboy Hall of Fame and had just finished the auction for the Diamond Hats which is a group of ladies that have an annual fundraiser to raise money to help with the premium sale at the Oklahoma Youth Expo. We had a great event and everybody was kind of milling around preparing to go home when the quake occurred. What will be interesting now is to see if we have any more. Living near the Meers fault as I do, we’ve always known it was possible but again it’s not something that we lose a lot of sleep over unless of course the Earth opens up and Mt. Scott falls in or it knocks over some big building, Heaven forbid.

As a follow up to last weeks article about our pharmacy situation, we’re starting to hear a little more about meetings that are occurring between OSEEGIB and the Oklahoma Pharmacy Association on ways to save the state money without driving all the state employees and teachers to mail order prescription service. I think the important thing is that the dialog has been started and we’re considering many of the other people, which is extremely important. I feel pretty good about the possibilities of a good outcome and hopefully it will be something that will work for everyone and still allow neighborhood pharmacies to exist while gaining some efficiencies and savings for the state coffers. It’s an ongoing saga and we still don’t totally know the outcome, but again, the important part is that all the parties are in the discussion and of course we’ll inform you of developments.

If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:
An earthquake achieves what the law promises but does not in practice maintain - the equality of all men. ~Ignazio Silone

Not On My Watch

It seems like, in this business, that an issue can arise seemingly out of nowhere that can inflame a large number of people rather quickly. It usually happens when we are in session and there is an issue being discussed before the legislature. This one was different and it has the potential to impact anyone out there who carries Health Choice insurance. The board that oversees the state insurance program is called OSEEGIB which is the Oklahoma State and Education Employees Group Insurance Board. OSEEGIB decided that they would take a step that they claim would save the state 8 million dollars in insurance costs. Like a lot of things sounds real good until you analyze how they are going to do it. The proposal was to take all state employees and require them to order their maintenance drugs by mail order. I was first alerted to this issue by Corey Fikes down in Grandfield Oklahoma, the owner and pharmacist of Fikes Pharmacy, a small privately owned pharmacy that serves a great deal of that area. Maintenance drugs are things like blood pressure medications, cholesterol medications, and heart medications that must be taken daily, any number of pharmaceuticals or medicines that many Oklahomans take on a daily basis. My first thought as I analyzed what was happening was one of the simplest reasons, it was the extreme temperatures we had this summer. I’ve yet to get a good explanation on how you could get a guarantee on how these maintenance drugs would sit in a rural mailbox in 110 degree temperatures and not have some detrimental effects on any type of pill and that was just the first layer of the onion. As you continue to peel back the layers you continue to find problems, one of which was even bigger and that was the fact that it had the potential to hurt the smaller pharmacies across the state. Requiring people to order maintenance drugs from some pharmacy in Timbuktu and take away the relationship between the pharmacist and customer. For example, Ms. Smith who may take a heart medication comes in to fill a prescription for some type of antibiotic or some other medication, she relies on the pharmacist to check on drug interactions which can be detrimental to her or a whole host of potential problems. Many times that pharmacist is the same person who knows her medical history and is that kind of 2nd layer of protection for her that a mail order house would not be. The person in the mail order house could be pharmacy grad student or someone of that nature who may, or may not have any idea of the patient or their medical history and may not even care. If they happen to mess up, no big deal, it’s some lady in Grandfield Oklahoma or wherever that they don’t really know so there is really no motivation to be careful and I believe human error would be a huge factor in requiring people to go mail order. One of the main reasons I think its bad is that it’s the classic example of the Walmart business plan. While we all trade at Walmart from time to time because many of the options have been eliminated, I still blame Walmart for destroying main street businesses. Now I’m not a Walmart hater and I don’t believe in my heart that Sam Walton started the Walmart kingdom with the idea of driving people out of business but the fact is that’s exactly what it has done. I believe that ordering prescription customers to order maintenance drugs through the mail will be detrimental to these local pharmacists and their employees. We are supposed to try to promote jobs in our state not eliminate them and I truly believe that while the idea was well intentioned it will do just that. Everyone seems to be engaging in what may be the battle of the year and it’s a battle we must absolutely win for the sake of our constituents and our locally owned pharmacy businesses because the result could be catastrophic

It seems that the OSEEGIB board may have done this when we were not in session on purpose with the intention of having it in place before anybody could react. I think what they are finding is that legislators are reacting in an almost unified voice to preserve their constituents right to deal directly with the druggist that they know and trust and still have some control over their own healthcare. There was a meeting held last Friday in Oklahoma City between the pharmacy association and the OSEEGIB board where the pharmacy association had some alternative measures that would show some savings without having to lay waste to small town pharmacies across Oklahoma. I don’t know the results of that meeting as of yet but I’m certainly hoping that the outcome was positive. I can assure you that the legislature will engage and that something will happen to rectify this situation. We’ll see.

If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:

The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor. ~Hubert H. Humphrey