Dolce Gusto, Keurig, Tassimo or?

L.E. Fant and wife picked up a Dolce Gusto single serve coffee machine last weekend.

There was much discussion regarding which one to buy...

The Keurig has a huge choice of coffee blends yet needs additional hardware to "froth milk" for latte and cappuccino drinks.

The Dolce Gusto has a lesser range of coffee blends but does make latte and cappuccino drinks without extra equipment.

As the Cuisinart coffee maker is till functioning well and makes decent regular coffee, our decision was based on ease of making latte and cappuccino drinks.

We are pleased with the machine so far. As expected the cost of each drink is around one Dollar for latte and cappuccino and fifty cents for straight coffee.

The latte and cappuccino is, to our taste, remarkably good and no trip to Starbucks and the $4.00 is now needed when we desire such drinks.

COX CABLE FAILS TO PLEASE.

Digital Devils-as L.E. Fant refers to Cox Cable- has at last paid L.E. his account balance. It took them approximately TWO YEARS to do so.

You may recall that L.E. closed his account with this cable monopoly around June of 2008. He returned all equipment and was provided a receipt which showed a balance [seemingly low, however apparently many charges for termination occur] of $4 or so.

L.E. expected a check to arrive-however, one did not arrive and now two years have passed.

At a chance meeting with a Cox employee L.E. mentioned the lack of refund and the employee made inquiry at Cox. Some weeks later a check arrived.

One may wonder how many such balances are kept by Cox even though properly it should mail a check to its ex-customer.

This experience vindicates L.E.'s decision to cease dealing with the digital Devil as he prefers to know Cox Cable as.

Our City is now poor...SO LET US BUILD A NEW CITY HALL!

L.E. Fant's twin Grand Daughter Astrid

born extremely prematurely together with her sister

under a single payer health care system. She has enjoyed

first class care, as has her sister Goldie.

Total out of pocket expenses, to date, for the births,

months of neo -natal ICU, surgeries, prescriptions

and home care amount to approximately FIFTY DOLLARS!!!

Compare that experience to that of a friend who just gave birth to a wonderful and healthy daughter. Even with "good insurance" she had out of pocket expenses approximately 100 times more for a single birth-not twins with extreme difficulties due to extreme premature births.

L.E.'s friend now cannot stay with her new born daughter as she desires-SHE HAS TO GO BACK TO WORK OR LOSE HER FAMILY'S HEALTH INSURANCE.

TO BUY INSURANCE FOR HER YOUNG FAMILY IS PROHIBITIVE AS THE COST IS OVER $1,200 PER MONTH.

Whereas, in the case of Astrid and Goldie their parents may enjoy time with their children as their government has mandated four weeks annual leave with full pay and many public holidays which are also paid-for all. Also not forgetting mandated paid maternity leave and other benefits which together make for a far less stressful time for new parents. All this makes for a good quality of life which L.E. conjectures may well be better than ours in Las Vegas where the archaic so-called "right to work" labor law exists along with many other measures which exist to the detriment of workers.

It appears that meaningful health care reform is unlikely for us lucky folks in the richest country in the world because we have been provided much advertising (using our health care Dollars) to prolong our existing system whereby Insurance corporations-not medical providers run our health care.

Senate majority leader HARRY REID has put his foot in his mouth by making comments regarding then candidate Obama. His comments were, at best, in extremely poor taste. One must wonder whether power has influenced Senator Reid negatively as it has many others in high places.

Our State now has both federal Senators appearing tarnished. Maybe it is time that they were gone.

OUR CITY IS SUFFERING AS REVENUES ARE DOWN.

Workers are being asked to take large pay cuts.

One wonders whether our City officials have considered raising franchise fees on corporations such as COX COMMUNICATIONS, our monopolistic cable provider and who likely pays a tiny fee for use of our taxpayer facilities. Does Nevada Power and Southwest Gas pay a reasonable franchise fee to us? Do telephone companies pay fees for using our infrastructure?

Is it a good idea to build a new City Hall under the existing economic conditions?