Trip to Tennessee

I returned yesterday from visiting my friends in Tennessee, Dave and Jen. I had a fun time, as I always do.

Dave and I both love to play poker, so we played heads up Friday night, then he had about six people he knew come over Saturday night to play with us and Jen. I probably didn't play very well, and didn't catch a lot of good cards; I lost $15 both nights combined. Sunday night he took me to a cash game at the bowling alley, where I won back the money I lost. It's always fun to play cards with Dave.

We also like to play frisbee golf. Saturday we played two of the courses in Knoxville, and Sunday we played a third course. Sunday was especially a work out. Besides playing the frisbee golf course twice, Dave, Jen, and I did a five mile hike in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that morning. It was a lovely walk. I got to see a deer during the hike.

As always, it was a fun and busy time with Dave and Jen!

Things That Annoy Me but Probably Shouldn't

---When someone has something stuck between their two front teeth and I don’t say anything out of meanness because I can keep looking and laugh to myself. My meanness annoys me.

---When the most thrilling part of my day is speeding up to get thru a yellow light, looking back and seeing that the police didn’t see me. What a dull life I lead.

---When a checkout line opens up next to mine and there’s a stampede to it and I’m left in the same slow line.

---When someone pays me a back-handed compliment - like recently when someone said to me, “Looks like you’re the only one in your family who’s managed to stay married.”

---That I have no friends left who like or even remember Joan Baez. I was having lunch with a customer recently and Joan’s song “Diamonds and Rust” came on in the restaurant (the most haunting song in the English language) and I started weeping uncontrollably. I was irritated that I was embarrassed and that the young professor had never even heard of Joan Baez.

---Sitting at the restaurant dinner table, wondering if the appetizers are being shared equally by everyone.

---When I eat General Tso’s chicken knowing full-well that he was a ruthless, blood-thirsty killer of thousands and I eat it anyway.

---Having to preface much of what I say these days with, “I can’t remember if I’ve told you this or not, but. . . “

---Trying to deduce someone’s real feelings in an email when they don’t leave a smiley or frowny.

---When I’m paying at the cash register and they ask for my zip code. I usually say “Six,” and just stand there.

---People who think karaoke is their chance at 15 minutes of fame.

---When a friend says “I’ve got good news” and it’s all about them.

---Finding last summer’s “To Do” list and seeing that most of it remains undone.

---Not being able to throw out an old magazine because it has an article that you want to read but you know you’ll never get around to reading it.
--When someone keeps sniffling but doesn’t blow his nose.

Late Summer

Late summer is a time for reflecting over the summer that is quickly fading and looking forward to the rest of the year. It is time to take stock.

I think about the things that I did not get done this summer though my intentions were good. (My intentions are almost always good) I think about what there is still time to do and those things that will have to be postponed.

Then I think about the Fall to come. Like many Southern men, I look forward to the start of football season. What would life be like without football season? I don't want to think about it. It's too horrible to contemplate.

I don't have anything to do with "Christmas in July." One of the local radio stations played Christmas music last weekend. What could be more horrible in July?

This July will pass. August will come. I am ready for August.

Michael Moore - "Sicko"

This was my first Michael Moore film. I must say that I am impressed for this movie packs a punch. Michael Moore knows how to make a point. And he knows how to make a serious point with humor.

That the US health care system is broken is a given. Only the comfortably smug, the health care industry, and the pharmaceutical industry will say otherwise.

We pay such a human price for a system in which 40 million do not have health insurance and many, many people do not get the care they need. It's tragic; it's disgusting; it's a national disgrace. The problem is that only victims, their family, and their friends understand the disgrace.

See this movie. You'll be a better American because of it.

Change will eventually come in this country. Universal health care will eventually happen.

In retrospect one day, this movie will part of the reform that will come

Summer Activities

We were late getting our air-conditioner serviced this year. The man came last Friday, said everything is OK, and that’ll be $119 please. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that it pays to do routine maintance of your household machinery. This time we had bad luck.

I came in Sunday and the outside unit was making a ferocious noise. It sounded like it was going to blow up at any time. I went around back and immediately saw that the fan was not turning and that the box was so hot you could fry an egg on it.

I go running into the house shouting, “Turn it off! Turn it off!”

So we turn it off and sweat the rest of the day. The next morning we find out it’s the capacitor, a little device that fires up the motor and the compressor. Thank goodness that’s all it was. The man only charged us for the part--$45.

What’s a summer without something breaking down around the house?

Michael Moore

I hope to see "Sicko" one day this week. My impression is that the movie is generating a lot of discussion in the country.

Review of Michael Moore's SiCKO

A man cuts off the tips of two of his fingers and is told one could be reattached for $60,000 and the other for $12,000, his choice. A woman's husband dies because his insurance denies payment for a procedure that could have saved his life. An older couple must move in with their daughter because their co-pays and deductibles bankrupted them. A woman is told to pay her hospital bill because it was discovered she once had a yeast infection that is unrelated to her current malady. A woman's emergency ride to the hospital is not payed by insurance because the ride was not preapproved, although she was in a car accident and was unconscious...

The healthcare industry employs people to uncover anything about patients that could be used to deny paying their medical bills. Paying them is called a "medical loss." Denying payment earns medical reviewers salary bonuses...

Moore's film effectively exposes the problems and concerns about America's healthcare industry. It is scary these sorts of things occur in a wealthy country in Western civilization.

Although pinpointing the ugliness of American healthcare, the film has weaknesses too. It leaves out important information, such as the cost to taxpayers for free universal healthcare and the downfalls of France's, England's, and Canada's healthcare systems.

However, the message that this country's healthcare industry is immensely erroneous, egregious, and inegalitarian is disturbingly clear. 40-50 million Americans are without health insurance. Those with it are denied proper care too easily and too often. The healthcare industry is bent on profit and uses whatever never-ending list of preexisting conditions and other insidious methods to get it.

Coupled with this serious commentary is Moore's talented intermixing of comedy. There is the famous footage of a lady telling President Bush she works three jobs, to which Bush responds that that is uniquely American. Unfortunately, in the midst of these problems with healthcare, we have a president who is an utter out of touch war mongering buffoon. Also, Moore takes some Americans in need of healthcare to Guantanamo Bay, where "evil-doers" get better medical treatment than many Americans.

It is also interesting to compare America with the systems of France, England, and Canada. Drugs are cheaper or free in those countries. Hospital bills are cheaper or nonexistent. Nanny care is provided by the French government. Wait time for doctors is shorter...

It makes you think.

If only this country had the attitude of "we," not "I"... If only we believed that those with more should help the unfortunate and disadvantaged... If only the poor and those without would voice their frustration and fight for their interests... If only politicians, CEOs, and the powerful cared, rather than not caring about whether ordinary Americans struggle or die...

Moore's film surely has its shortcomings, but it makes you think... and makes you realize, at least, the healthcare industry is a big mess. Moore could one day be seen as a hero, if change ever comes.

Everyone should see this film and be concerned about healthcare in this country.

Doctors

I want to tell you right now that I have little respect for doctors. The only doctor that I ever respected was the doctor who delivered me into this world in 1949 but who died back in 1968. The last time I spoke to Dr. Couch was in the spring of 1968 when I was getting my medical forms filled out for going to Auburn.

“Let me know when you’re ready, Freddy, and I’ll get you into medical school,” Dr. Couch told me.

Unfortunately Dr. Couch died at age 57 that Fall and so I did not have the opportunity to become Dr. Hudson. Too bad for me, but there was a doctor! He delivered me. He made house calls. He knew and kept up with everybody in my family. He knew things other than medicine.

The problem is that ever since I’ve wanted my doctor to be a knowledgable all-around person, somebody I can talk to about anything. Ain’t gonna happen! Medical doctors today are just technicians like your plumber or your electrician. They don’t know any more about subjects other than medicine than you or me.

I’ll go even further. Most doctors are hacks. The only reason they got into medical school was because their daddies were doctors or because they had some connection. Hey, I had an “in” until he up and died. Doctors aren’t any smarter than you or me.

My family doctor, Dr. Smitherman JUNIOR, is an OK family doctor, but he has NO sense of humor or personality. In the 10 years I’ve been seeing him, he has yet to crack a smile. I’d switch but the next one might be dumber. Last time I told him this joke, and he just looked at me dumbfounded. He didn’t get it, and there’s not much to get.

Four doctors went on a duck-hunting trip together: a family practioner, a gynecologist, a surgeon and a pathologist. As a bird flew overhead, the family doctor started to shoot, but held off because he wasn’t absolutely sure it was a duck. The gynecologist started to shoot, but lowered his gun when he realized he couldn’t be sure if it were a male or a female duck. The surgeon, meanwhile, blew the bird away, turned to the pathologist, and said, “Go see if that was a duck.”

Come to think of it, I had told him another joke once.

Dr. Smitherman, the next time you fly, for safety’s sake, take a bomb with you. . . . because the odds are astronomical that there won’t be two guys on the same plane with a bomb.


Not even a smile from my doctor either time. As Bugs Bunny would say, what a maroon!

July 6

Another 4th of July has come and gone. We were pleased to entertain our friend Joe Christian on the 4th. We've known Joe since he married Daisy in 1995. Daisy left us 2 years ago, but we've kept in touch with Joe ever since. Joe is always fun to be with. We had BBQ and all the fixins---a wonderful 4th.