OUTRAGEOUS !

$106,000! That’s one hundred and six thousand dollars!! That’s how much the hospital charged for the simple little angioplasty I had last month. That doesn’t include the surgeon who did it nor the anesthesiologists that put me to sleep. Needless to say, Medicare sliced that down by orders of magnitude.. After Medicare and my insurance paid their share of a much smaller number, I have only to pay $211, which isn’t bad. But consider the poor guy that has no insurance. He simply couldn’t have the procedure. Now I understand the why of Obama’s Healthcare bill. Let’s get it cranked up in a hurry.

These hospitals say they have to overcharge to pay for all the charity work they do. I know my hospital has handled a bunch of patients from the Haiti earthquake, but don’t put the onus of paying for them on poor Americans. This is just plain ridiculous!

$106,000! Cheez!!

I Did a Bad Thing

My conscience never kicked in. It was overpowered by laughter. I flat-out stole the following from Kenju's blog IMAGINE...(Always a source of Joy.)


1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you
realize you're wrong.
3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was
younger.
4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.
5. How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
6. Was learning cursive really necessary?
7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I'm pretty
sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the
Person died.
9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
10. Bad decisions make good stories.
11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work
when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for
the rest of the day.
12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I
don't want to have to restart my collection...again.
13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me
if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear
I did not make any changes to.
14. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash
this - ever.
15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello?), but
when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voice
mail . What did you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run
way?
16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not
seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
17. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to
answer when they call.
19. I disagree with Kay Jewelers . I would bet on any given Friday or
Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.
20. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option
21. Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and
suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first
saw it.
22. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand
than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.
24. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and
hunger.
25. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod
and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?
26. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up
to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers
and sisters!
27. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get
dirty, and you can wear them forever.
28. Is it just me or do high school kids get dumber & dumber every year?
29. There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are
going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.
30. As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers,
but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.
31. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still
not know what time it is.
32. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car
keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the
Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from
3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!

When Approaching Old Age

The other day I was reading an article, I think it was on ThirdAge.com, about how to age gracefully and happily. It made several points, but the one that struck me was about being foregiving. It quoted the old saw that holding a grudge is like drinking a glass of poison and hoping the other guy will die.

I thought that over and decided that I really no longer hold any grudges. I do remember a few I held for quite a while, but I have long since decided that they were silly. I guess that is sort of the equivalent of forgiving. There was the company clerk in the Army that fixed the books so that he got to return home a month before I did – even though we should have gone home at the same time. But he was just getting even. I had caught him stealing a pair of gloves from the supply room. Are you listening, Lester? I forgive you.

That high school English teacher who gave me a “C” and kept me off the honor roll my last semester makes the list. Really, it was my mother that stayed angry about that. If the teacher hadn’t got mad at me, I would have been on the honor roll every semester in high school. I heard she wept when she found out what she had done. Heck, all I did was stand up and walk out of her class without permission. Did any of this change the course of my life? Naw!

Speaking of grades – There were two of us in our freshman year of college with the same first and last names. His middle initial was G and mine was S. At the end of the first semester, he got my grades and I got his. I didn’t realize what happened , but I appealed those I was given and got them corrected. They let him keep mine, but I never knew if he appreciated that my hard work saved his butt. Just a memory, not a grudge.

I think the article was right. You will have a happier time as you age if you forgive the insults and dislikes of your life and concentrate on the good people and events that have enriched your travels through life.

OK, I know it is foolish, but I was reading last night about how the big fad now is to photograph everything one eats , so I decided to try it. -- for one day
.
I missed picturing my appetizer for dinner. It was a saucerful of about a dozen mussels sauteed in a bunch of exotic sounding stuff which I forget. Good.
In case my unexcellent photograph disguises the identity of my menu-- breakfast was an english muffin with whipped cream cheese, grapes, a banana, orange juice and 14 pills. Lunch was pickle and pimento loaf on white, yogurt, two sugar wafers, one left-over Easter chocolate and a diet Coke. Dinner consisted of the aforementioned mussels, roast chicken with cranberry sauce, creamed spinach, beets, cranberry juice and dessert of soft-serve swirl (vanilla and chocolate)

Now if anyone gives an old clay tinker's dam about my nutrition I'll be mighty surprised. About the only thing I learned is that my wife was shocked when I whipped out my camera at the dinner table and that the camera time-stamp is still set on EST.

I hear that next month the U S Postal Service will honor with a stamp the greatest cartoonist of the great generation. Hooray for him and for those who honor Bill Mauldin. I was a combat infantryman many moons ago. I remember laughing at his cartoons even as I was feeling like his characters looked.

From the time the war was over until this day, every time I have seen Willie and Joe, I have felt a moment of pride that I carried a rifle into combat with those two. There were times that we will never forget. But as years has gone by. the awful parts of the memories have faded somewhat and the comic moments have become more distinct. Bill Mauldin had the talent to collapse that transition time and make us see the humor while the ugliness was still with us. He amused the world while he represented all riflemen in the Army.