Chit Chat

What is with people that feel they need to enter into conversation with you for no reason? I was getting my teeth cleaned the other day when the hygienist asked “have you made any vacation plans for the summer?” At the time, my mouth was open with two metal objects in it, one of them being sharp. What made her think my summer plans were any of her business? Had her mother not taught her not to talk to strangers? Is it a power thing?

Hair workers all seem to have an overwhelming urge to talk to you, like they need to make up for the poor quality of the haircut you are about to get. People sitting next to you in airplanes often suffer from the problem as well. I do need to make the exception if you are a pretty lady. The male species is required to attempt to talk to you. It is a curse you need to learn to live with. Average looking guys should not have to.

I do realize that business people need to make an opportunity assessment of persons in their presence. But this involves only a couple of quick questions and should take less than a minute. No need to harass the person if there is not an end game. … and how about those business meeting that promote the “networking” opportunities. I go to a lot of these for financial institutions. They have long breaks and receptions to promote communications between attendees. Finding someone to talk to is easy, until you ask a business question. I like to ask things like “what is your bank’s strategy for growing deposits?” You would be amazed at the length of the pause and the blank stare. It is incredible how many business people have no plan for the future, even though they spends weeks in 5 year planning sessions with large numbers of their colleagues. Maybe I just need to make some vacation plans for the summer.

Movie Reviews

I just realized I hadn’t written any movie reviews lately. Probably because I haven’t gone to any movies, except for Star Trek. It was a really good action movie with a lead character that wasn’t very likable. What else do you need to know? There aren’t any other good movies unless you like animated. I don’t. The Hangover is supposed to be a good comedy but I’m sure too raunchy for Judge Judy and me. Another ex-Daily Show correspondent, Ed Helms, makes it big with that show, joining Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert. I think the Daily Show has usurped Saturday Night Live as the jumping off point for comedy stardom. I sure hope the new Woody Allen movie is going to be good. The reviews are but a screaming Larry David who falls for a 20 year old just doesn’t sound that appealing.

Health Care Reform ... oops

We are in dire need of health care reform as I have indicated in prior blogs. Profit motive and good consumer health care are not compatible. Every Western European country, Canada and Japan are able to offer better care than us at half the cost. Unfortunately we have a system where the politicians need to make everyone happy except for those that don't like huge deficit spending.

The only system that makes sense is a single payer system (US government). One third of the expense today is in the administration of 1,000s of different plans with varying coverages, deductibles and co-pays. Eliminating this administrative nightmare is the largest area of potential savings. With a single payer system, everyone has the same plan so it is simple to administer, but that leaves the insurance companies hanging out to dry. US politicians will never allow this to happen to good paying lobbyists like the insurance companies. The result of our current efforts will be an even more expensive, poor system that simply cost a great deal more than what we have today. Ugh.

The 6 days are up and Hayden is going home

It's Thursday and time for Jill and Tylir to return home ... and they say they want Hayden back. It's true that grandchildren are our reward for not killing our children. Hayden has been tons of fun. I can't think of a time she cried. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the level of care given. Though it is a good thing there was two of us. I don't know how else you give a child continuous attention for 24 hours a day. ... The phone is ringing ...
Hi Jill
What do you mean that your flight out of Miami was "taken out of service."
And the next one too.
And the next one is overbooked?
You're going to be over 6 hours late?
I think I'm going to cry.

Hayden Comes to Visit

Saturday, Shirley and I took Jill and Tylir to the airport for their Bahamas trip and Hayden was officially turned over to us for 6 days. Hey, no problem. Hayden is the sweetest, always smiling little bundle of joy you ever want to meet. However, after 90 minutes of her rapid fire demands and orders I realized I had enough ... and the plane hadn't taken off yet. I called Jill and told her not to get on that airplane. She claimed that she was already on the plane and the luggage thing would be a real pain. I said you don't understand pain (well, maybe she does thus not getting off the plane). But I'm in my golden years I explained to no avail. She chuckled and reminded me about applying the butt cream.

It's been two days now. I've been down to Eric and Dena's home and taken their entire family out to Red Lobster for what was a surprisingly good dinner. I keep hoping Dena's motherly instincts would kick in and that she would insist on taking Hayden for the child's sake. It worked exactly as well as getting Jill to not board that plane. At least the new tractor is suppose to arrive today. It should be a good chance to simultaneously learn how it works and teach Hayden to mow. I'll have it made for many years to come if she can drive that tractor half as well as she drives Shirley and I.

I feel better now

I was listening to my early NPR show, The People's Pharmacy, this morning. Today's topic was drug safety. The good ole FDA came up, that government watchdog that is suppose to take care to insure that we get good drugs, other than marijuana of course. It turns out a whistle blower notified them of fraud in the production of medicine from the largest generic manufacturer in India, one of the largest in the world. Three years later they investigated and found the fraud to be real. Being the good stewards of our health, they waited another nine months. Finally, they issued an alert to all pharmacies and doctors that drugs from this company may not be what they claim. No recall. They said not to worry about the fraudulent drugs already on the shelf. Another good example of lobbying contributions getting a good return. I wish ordinary consumers could invest in lobbying efforts ... it pays a much higher returns than the stock market ... and much less risk.