Tea and memories

I made tea for myself this Saturday morning.

I had taken the short walk to the little bakery down the street to pick up our daily bread and two apple strudel, and that called for some tea.

As I poured the water over the teabag the scented steam rose and woke a memory.

I, as a 7 year old, was taken back to a morning in my grandmother's kitchen, a big house just outside of Morristown, NJ with large gardens. I was always allowed 'grown-up' tea when I went to visit with her. She would always fill the hot cup of tea with warmed milk. There was a particular scent of that hot mix and to this day I will be sent back to those times when I smell hot tea with milk.

The power of 'aroma therapy' was, I believe, born out of this human ability.

ps, the apple strudel was very tasty too.

Note to Rachel - my dear friend, I cannot read your blog as it has been made private. I miss being a part of your progress. Hope you are doing well in your nursing classes.

Seasons of Change

The change had begun and summer of 2009 is shortly to become history. Was it a good season? It had its moments. Now I turn my thoughts to the next season of changes. Weather? Most certainly for that is without control on our part. Within life, I feel a change coming on for myself. It may bring some sadness but it is time to make these changes. I need courage and motivation to make these changes but made they must, else my own future will be bleak.

When faced with choices of a major proportion I tend to be introspective, examining all options, avenues and scenarios, then become motivated. Not all of my choices have been successful in my life but most have not been so devastating that I could not modify or overcome them. Still I fear failure (don't we all?) and my next steps, when they begin, must be carried out completely in their entirety.

I must give all this careful thought. The dangers are, one tends to fall back into the comfort zone of sameness even if that is where you do not wish to be.

Back to the Health Care issue

There has been a lot of press about health care for everyone in the USA. Some are afraid of that possibility and call it socialized medicine using a tone of voice that evokes impending doom or horror. Others are saying 'it's about time' we not only gave serious thought to it but to implement it. Now is the time is the cry of many. It will hit home for many who may have, in the past, been against it as the solid companies they work for drop health care down to a minimum of coverage with most having to pay large out-of-pocket deductibles and ancillary changes.

It has been said by many in the upper income brackets that the USA has 'the best health care in the world' and yet this great health care is not affordable to a very large portion of our population in the 'Greatest Nation in the World'. And those numbers are growing because of the economic downturn (I would use the word "depression" but that seems to be a word out of favor)

There are people who can afford health care but go off to another country to have very expensive procedures or operation because either their own health care wont cover it (an HMO that has deemed it 'experimental' or some other excuse) and the other country will perform it in high quality hospitals with highly trained doctors at a fraction of the cost that an American hospital would charge. Now that is the crux of the real issue of health care in the United States of America. Our health care, no matter if it is a general office visit to your GP or more specialized, has become so outrageously expensive as to become out of control. Why? Well, aren't we a free market system? And since health care has become Big Business then why not charge what the market will bear?

If you are old enough you might remember when a visit to your GP would cost $5 and he would give you some sample medications to tide you over till you got your prescription filled. Now you don't go to a GP anymore, you go to some medical center where 'your' doctor is a part of a larger medical business. You don't really get to know your doctor nor his staff as in the 'old days'.

You can argue that doctors had to do this consolidation to cut their own costs and you would be correct. Their malpractice insurance has sky-rocketed. Several years ago there was an effort to limit mal-practice suit amounts but that failed. There are arguments both for and against that are quite valid. However it is in large part a factor of insurance companies dictating premiums in accordance with their need for a certain profit margin. One has only to look at the past year's issues with large insurance companies and the 'bail-outs' AND the huge bonus programs that these large companies lavished on their executives to know that it was imperative that a large profit margin had to be maintained. And to do that, large insurance premiums had to be charged. After all we are a Free Market System and health care is now a part of that big business. Good health is not a right, it is available only if you can afford it.

Read Michal Kinsley's "Health Care Faces the 'R' Word" and get a view point that rings true.

The cost of health care is out of control in the USA. How does one get control of something that should be affordable to all? I am still collecting data and forming opinions on this. And yes, I am using a lot of data from Germany in forming these opinions because I have had an up close and personal view of that system. It works and it works because it is under control and it is under control because of a long term dedication by the government. All insurance premiums are based on ability to pay. And you, the insured, get access to ALL medical procedures, not just those listed in some fine print drawn up by that certain insurance company. Now there's an inovative thought!

My weekend reading-dollarsign origin?

So, we are having morning coffee and the subject came up - 'What is the history of the dollar'. My passion is origins. Origins of words, of customs or of where did mom get that recipe. So, off I go to the internet to research.

Here are my results from the website - http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/dollar.html

The United States Abbreviation Theory

One of the most popular theories is that the dollar sign is derived from the initials of the United States. If you superimpose a capital "U" on a capital "S" then drop the lower part of the "U", what you end up with is a version of the dollar symbol with two strokes. This theory was endorsed by the American libertarian philosopher and staunch defender of capitalism, Ayn Rand, in her novel Atlas Shrugged. Chapter 10 is entitled the Sign of the Dollar. Rand claimed the dollar sign was the symbol not only of the currency, but also the nation, a free economy, and a free mind.



So much for a Sunday morning trivia discussion, eh?

Revamping our Health Care

Can our health care system be revamped, reworked and renewed to include all US citizens?

I have been following a number of articles about this issue starting way back in the Clinton era when Ms Clinton tried to come up with something.

My first thought was, shouldn't the health care providers first get on the 'same page' about what is considered BASIC CARE?

On the outset, a child born in the USA should begin having regular preventive health care included dental. If we have a healthy youth then it should follow that we would have healthier adults.

In Forbes I read about MEDITECH being used to make hospitals more efficient and create less duplicate work within the hospital medical system. Doctors in all departments would have complete access to a patient's history and current medication lists, test and their results and any other doctors or departments with which the patient has been involved. This system is widely used in larger university medical communities such as the one I am currently familiar, Heidelberg University.

Is this the best place to begin for any medical system? To have a system of sharing patient history could cut the very costs that are choking our health care now.

I continue to monitor these issues. After all, if the USA is to make the claim "the greatest nation on Earth" then it had better get rid of this fear of the word 'social' and know that our society (a word dirived from scocial) must be cared for in many ways through either government sponsored programs or greater oportunities for everyone to obtain 'the American Dream' (and that is a very subjective item).

More to come on this.

Blogging = twittering?

Big noise over the internet about this Twitter stuff. Just another way to keep everyone glued to their internet connection? Twitter about nonsense. Twitter about your own coolness. Twitter about your pain. Twitter about twittering.

I am sure the mobile communications industry is pushing all this too cause then you MUST have the full service and of COURSE you're gonna need that new, latest and greatest cell phone 'blackberry' or 'iphone' clone, right? Big bucks babe. It's all about spending more than you earn on 'stuff'!

The 'STUFF' industry is suffering right now, peps. You, the consumer public are just not digging down deep in your pockets to get those teckie goodies. Get out the old plastic and get all that "STUFF" anyway, even if your job is shaky and you have lost some of your nest-egg with the global slow-down of stocks, 401k's money markets, etc.

Make your life more ultra light. Have only the things that are really necessary to achieve an enjoyable life but don't set that 'bar' of what is enjoyable, too high.

So, there it is, my own Twitter of the day.

Maybe I should make this blog into my own little Twitter page! LOL!

The truth sometimes hurts

Philip Larkin - This Be The Verse

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
 They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
 And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
 By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
 And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
 It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
 And don't have any kids yourself.

Light at the end of that long dark tunnel

In all the years I have been flying back and forth between the USA and Europe I have managed to save some frequent flyer miles. On one trip I was able to upgrade my lowly little narrow coach seat to a full blown first class ticket with all the perks. That included access to the comfy lounges at the airport where you can wait that 3 or 4 hour lay-over in relative comfort with snacks, coffee, juices (free) and drinks (for a price) along with TV or a quiet little nook. Wide seats with a foot rest. A drink and a snack before the take-off, a drink after take off and a nice appetizer , a drink anytime you ask for it. Designer dinners, a light snack just before heading into a landing pattern and did I mention drinks?

Now I am planning another trip to the USA using my miles. I have accumulated enough over the past several years to get round trip tickets for both myself and My Man. I had to book them for the "off peak" season - winter, and fly back in the slow season, early spring. Round trip International tix for 2, about $2500 worth of flying for just over $200 (booking fees you know).
I need this time off. I let my boss know that I was leaving for 8 weeks and he never asked me why cause he knew what I had been through these past months.

It's been a very long 10 months. It was April that my man began to have health problems. I don't know if he will ever be the same as he was, most likely not and I am not sure how much improvement he will achieve. However, we are going to give ourselves some time to rest and recuperate from all this. Florida sun, warmth, color and family (mine) will have some therapeutic affect, it must. This man has seen the insides of 4 different hospitals and spent over 18 weeks total in hospital rooms since July. He has not really be out of our little apartment for many weeks. He needs human contact, some freedom to get out into the warm outdoors where his sensitivity to cold doesn't bother him. And I need Spring to come early.

He needs to smile. He needs to have hope. He needs to see a future.