Bradford Route 219 Bypass

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This post is about a irritation I've had for several years now. It concerns the 219 Bypass going through Bradford and the work or reconstruction on it. If you live in the area you will know this has been an ongoing project for 10 years. I noticed a small little article in the local newspaper "The Bradford Era" that shows what happened 10 years ago on a particular day and then 20 years ago and 30 and so on. It showed at 10 years ago the start of reconstruction on this road. If you live in Pennsylvania anywhere you will realize that the entire 219 route is a big joke.

For the last several years construction is done on this bypass and then when the weather gets bad, they stop any more work on it and do not do anything until spring. Drive on it now and it's been going on all this past summer as it has been the last 5 years.

I recently watched a story on the History Channel about the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago, IL and the construction of 2 additional lanes that were constructed to this expressway. This expressway is 11 miles long and 14 lanes wide. The two additional lanes were scheduled to be completed in two years. Although over budget, the additional two lanes were completed on time.This is a 14 lane expressway!

The 219 Bradford Bypass in my opinion, is nothing but a big joke as is the entire 219 system in Pennsylvania. If you live in the more remote parts of Pennsylvania, the saying is, "The closer you get to Harrisburg, the better the roads get". Seems also the state of Pennsylvania wants to funnel all it's money into the Philadelphia area also. I guess the money from the taxpayers in this NW Pennsylvania area doesn't mean crap to Harrisburg. Drive on any local road in this area and watch the PennDot workers out trying to patch all the huge potholes and then you get the idea of how the local people are getting screwed. This post is all my own personal opinion but if you've lived in the area all your life you'll get the idea. :)

NASCAR

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Today's post will be about NASCAR. I have added a small poll to the lower right of this site to get your feelings on NASCAR. If you get a chance please feel free to select a option on the poll. Nothing is saved of any personal information. It's just to get peoples thoughts on NASCAR since I'm a big fan of NASCAR racing.

Some people go nuts over NASCAR racing and plan alot of their free time around it by either going to races or watching it on TV weekly like some sports enthusiasts watch football or baseball or golf or tennis.

Some people dislike it all together and thinks it's just a "Redneck" southern sport with no real talent and the drivers just go around in a left circle all the time.

Now if you have ever driven in city traffic in 4 lanes of traffic at 70 to 90 mph bumper to bumper speed on your way home from work during rush hour for 50 miles and it gives you any anxiety or makes you nervous then try doing it at 200 mph and actual bumper to bumper contact for 500 miles then you might get more of a appreciation for the talents and stress these drivers experience when they do this with 43 other cars each week all trying to be in the same spot at the same time.

If you've never attended a NASCAR race, I would suggest if you get the time to give it a try. Some of these tracks get 200,000 people in attendance and almost every single week at every single track the attendance is in the 100,000 area. How many football games or baseball games can say that? And this is on a weekly basis!

Until you have actually been to a NASCAR race and get the feel and sound you will not believe it. This is not the same sound you get at your local racetrack around your area.

Enjoy the experience if NASCAR is a sport your interested in. :)

Diabetes Test Strips

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Greetings,

This post will be about diabetes but not about the disease itself. This post is to make people with this disease aware about the cost of some supplies relating to the monitoring of the blood sugar levels. Mainly the very costly test strips. As anyone with diabetes can tell you, most test strips are costly. If you do not have insurance that pays for these or any retirement health plan and the cost comes out of your own pocket this can be a problem for a lot of people.

A good portion of people that pay for test strips and even the monitors themselves get them locally at either a pharmacy such as Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid just to name a few or one of the Big Box stores such as Wal-Mart. Many older people are not aware that getting test strips thru online companies is much cheaper. In fact in alot of cases the price is half of what is purchased locally.

The best place I have found to get test strips and whom most people think has the cheapest prices on the planet for test strips is on Amazon.com.

A very good example of the difference in prices is I personally use a Accu-Chek monitoring system and Accu-Chek test strips. To purchase these strips for a box of 50 at Wal-Mart for example cost $38. I can purchase the same strip, model & brand on Amazon for $19 per 50.

I have looked at other brands and models of the meters and strips that they need and almost every single brand of strips for all different brands and monitors cost less than half on Amazon.

Now alot of diabetes customers tell me that they have a particular brand & model of meter and some of their test strips can range in price up to $75 to even $100 for a box of 50 or 100. I'm sure that if you look on Amazon you will find them much lower in price. Also as a personal opinion, I would suggest that if you have a monitoring model that uses this costly of a test strip that with the cost of present day monitors being so cheap and some companies almost giving them away for free, that if yours is and older brand & model that you might want to update your present monitor with a newer brand & model that uses a cheaper test strip.

I'm sure that alot of readers on here do not like online buying, or do not have access to the internet for whatever reason but I would strongly suggest that they have some family member, friend or anyone with access to online to check into this for them as this can save any diabetes patient a great deal of money.

I hope this information may be of interest to anyone that has to pay for these supplies out of their own pocket.