Free Rambling Thoughts
Cheryl is busy getting ready for her cruise to Alaska with her grandkids. Mary and I got together for lunch as she is heading to Portland later this week. I had a Greek Gyro at the Greek-run restaurant downtown. For $5 + change I got a huge wrap that I couldn’t even finish. Mary is having a 50 yr reunion with her Elementary class. There were 50 in the class, and so far they will have about 50 people—including some spouses—at the thing. What a hoot. She said they were discouraging spouses for the get-together, saying that they want to see old friends and not bore the spouses. I’m not a reunion type guy. The friends I had back then are not people I have kept up with. I live more in the day or decade I’m in. I’m sure that she will have a great time.
I’m a little panicked today. I was scheduled to see my PCP next week. Today I got a call that he was cancelling my appointment. Huh? I asked if he was OK, and the receptionist said “yes”. I asked if he was taking a long deserved vacation. “No.” So I asked what was up. Winnie then told me that his medical license had expired and that he couldn’t see any patients or issue any prescriptions until he got renewed. What? My PCP does everything on a computer. He spends much of our hour long visits taking about new medical breakthroughs, his problems with ‘specialists’, and how a GP doesn’t make tons of money. He has taken good care of me for about 4 years, and once I understood he was a gatekeeper of my few medical issues. How can a man like this let his license expire? Winnie said everything should be back to normal by the 12th and she would call me. First I know about ‘certification’ issues in education in AZ. If a certification expires you have to meet the current standards to renew, there is no ‘grandfathering’. If you keep your certification up-to-date, you can renew forever. Teachers are warned many times if a course is required before you can renew. Secondly, I went to the AZ Medical Board site and looked up my doctor. Sure enough, he renewed his certificate in 1980 and it expired in June, 2010. That was a little scary—a 30 year certificate. I checked to see if he had any ‘actions’ taken by the board. Nothing showed up, so that is good. I really don’t want to start with a new PCP. First, there aren’t that many GP’s in Flagstaff and ‘new patients’ have to see the doctor every three months for a couple of years so they can ‘get to know you.’ All doctors are very good at running tests—blood tests, MRI’s, stool samples, pee samples, more MRI’s. A new doctor, to protect the practice, doesn’t seem to be able to rely on previous results. I get that they want accurate information, what I don’t get is why physicians don’t really share test results with a new GP. It took over a year for my cardiologist to get the stent information to my GP. I talked to others and found that this is common when you are not a ‘regular’ patient with the specialist. ‘Regular’ seems to mean to see the specialist every three months. I remember when my mother’s physician retired unexpectedly. I went to the office, filled out a form, promising to keep the records for at least 8 years. Then I was handed a two foot high stack of folders. I took that pile to her new doctor. They didn’t want them. I sorta understood. My mother at that time was in a care facility and the records were from the 1970’s on. It was way too much stuff for anyone to read. So here now I am in the same mess. I want that commercial to come true—a national registry so when I see a new doctor, my files are readily available, informative, and useful. The commercial has a guy sitting on stage in a huge auditorium. The Dr. asks if he has ever had some weird long Latin name. A doctor in the audience pipes up yes, in 1991 at St. Mary’s hospital, results negative. Another one pipes up found to have some other similar thing in 2003. The time for Health Care reform is yesterday.
The monsoons are trying real hard to get to Flagstaff. A nice set of rain clouds blew in this afternoon and kept things cool—85° with a nice breeze. No rain here, but it sure was close. I could smell it.
Holy Mackerel: On this date in 1937 ►999 emergency service is started in London When 999 was dialed, a buzzer sounded and a red light flashed in the exchange to attract an operator's attention.
AND
1982 ►Federal Equal Rights Amendment fails 3 states short of ratification
My Quote For The Day
Khalil Gibran: Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity.
Somewhat Useless Information
Diet Coke was invented in 1982
Grey Matter Puzzle 1
Can you decipher this phrase:
friends
standing
miss
friends
Unusual News Item
SAN JOSE, CA— An unseemly sentence that compares a kiss to the union of a thirsty gerbil and a giant water bottle has won the top prize in an annual bad writing contest. San Jose State University said Tuesday that Molly Ringle of Seattle was the grand prize winner of the 2010 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which the university has sponsored since 1982.
In her winning entry, Ringle wrote: "For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity's affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss — a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity's mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world's thirstiest gerbil."
A Little Laff
A cowboy and a biker are on death row, and are to be executed on the same day. The day comes, and they are brought to the gas chamber. The warden asks the cowboy if he has a last request, to which the cowboy replies, "Ah shore do, wardn. Ahd be mighty grateful ifn yood play Achy Breaky Heart fur me bahfore ah hafta go.""Sure enough, cowboy, we can do that," says the warden. He turns to the biker, "And you, biker, what’s your last request?""That you kill me first."
Grey Matter Puzzle 2
My tines be long, My tines be short, My tines end ere, My first report.
What am I?
My You Tube Site of the Day
Havasupai Falls in the Grand Canyon: Click Here!
Grey Matter Picture--This is a close up of what common object?
returns tomorrow
Some Calendar Info
► Weekly Observances ◄
28 -7/5: Fish Are Friends, Not Food! Week AND National Prevention of Eye Injuries Awareness
► Today’s Observances ◄
Meteor Day
Leap Second Time Adjustment Day
Guatemala: Revolution Day (1871)
Lybia: Troop Withdrawal Day
Mongolia: Constitution Day
Rwanda & Burundi: Independence Day (1962 from Belguim): Rwanda is Bantu for Land of a Thousand Hills
Surinam: Lebaran, official holiday
Zaire: Independence Day (1960 from Belgium): Zaire is Bantu for ‘the river that swallows all rivers’
► Hit Songs on this date ◄
A-Tisket, A-Tasket: Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb in 1938
Woody Wood-Pecker: Kay Kyser in 1948
Purple People Eater: Sheb Wooley in 1958
This Guy's in Love with You: Herb Alpert in 1968
Shadow Dancing: Andy Gibb in 1978
Dirty Diana: Michael Jackson in 1988
► Born today ◄
…The Arts
Buddy Rich, 1917, , drummer/orch leader, born in Brooklyn NY
Harry Blackstone Jr, 1934, magician, born in Three Rivers, MI
Florence Ballard, 1943, singer (Supremes), born in Detroit, MI
Lena Horne, 1917, singer: Love Me or Leave Me, Stormy Weather; actress: The Wiz, born in Brooklyn, NY
…Athletics
Billy Mills, 72, Lakota, 10K runner (Olympic-gold-1964), born in Pine Ridge, SD
…Business & Education
--
…Politics
Elizabeth Kortright Monroe, 1768, 1st lady, born in NYC, NY
…Science / Religion
--
► Obituaries today ◄
Lillian Hellman, American playwright @ 79 in 1984
Mrs Martin Luther King Sr (Alberta) shot in church, by a black man @ 69 in 1974
James Oglethorpe, English general and founder of the state of Georgia @ 89 in 1785
► Events ◄
…The Arts
1936 ►"Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell, published
…Athletics
1859 ►Charles Blondin is 1st to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope
…Business & Education
1906 ►Pure Food & Drug Act & Meat Inspection Act adopted
1953 ►The first all-fiberglass-bodied American sports car, the Corvette was produced
…Politics (US)
1834 ►Congress creates Indian Territory (now Oklahoma)
1950 ►Pres Truman orders US troops into Korea
…Politics (outside US)
1894 ►Korea declares independence from China, asks for Japanese aid
1914 ►Mahatma Gandhi's 1st arrest, campaigning for Indian rights in S Africa
1934 ►"Night of the Long Knives," Hitler stages bloody purge of Nazi party
1997 ►The Colonial flag of Hong Kong is lowered for the last time prior to hand over to China
2007 ►A green Jeep Cherokee filled with gas cylinders and fuel is crashed through the check in entrance at Glasgow Airport in Scotland where it burst into flames
…Science / Religion
1940 ►US Fish & Wildlife Service established
Grey Matter Answers
…1
Misunderstanding between friends
…2
Lightning
Grey Matter Photo
Returns tomorrow
Today’s Photo Shot
Billy Mills Then Now
