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Showing posts from 2012

The Interesting Birthday Party

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In 1975 I graduated from UCLA with a Masters in Public Health/Hospital Administration.   My first paying job as an administrator was as an assistant administrator at Santa Monica Hospital Medical Center .   One of my departments supervised was the Les Kelly Family Clinic for the community.   Quarterly I met with Les personally and gave him an overview of operations and how many clients we were able to serve as a result of his generous donation for which we named his clinic.   You will likely know of Les indirectly as he founded a service to evaluate the value of used cars known as the "Kelly Bluebook". He was a nice guy and he also built the lake for the Bell Air Country Club so he ran in celebrity circles. The story is about a birthday party we hosted for Les at the hospital Auditorium.   I won't bore you with the details but one example is while walking through the group I bumped into a guy that looked familiar playing an accordion which turned out to be

Let’s see, how much time did I spend on yard work today? Let me break it down:

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1) 10 minutes calculating that I could prune a limb from a tree and Jean would not notice it until way later; 2) 10 minutes prepositioning the tools and ladder to reach the limb;   3) 5 minutes cutting (including 2 minutes thinking I may have dulled the chain saw cutting out a tree root buried in the dirt last time) 4) 2 second to determine that the limb would not be falling in the direction I previously calculated; 5) 5 minutes clearing brush and tools;   6) 1 second for Jean to spot the blood smear when she discovered the “project-in-progress;” 7) 10 minutes wound debridement, cleansing and bandaging; 8) 10 minutes to finish and put up tools; 9) 1 second to self-congratulate myself and walk back into air conditioning thinking it went pretty well this time……LOL

Healthcare Liberty Rights….

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Personal healthcare is so; well, personal when it touches you as an individual.   It really lights the lights of protest and is ripe for sound bites.   The one that gets me a little edgy is the cry that individual rights are infringed with any plan that is related to health care and people should be allowed to make all their decisions unilaterally.   I have a sympathetic ear for such concerns but in reality there is a catch and it is likely you will not hear much about it because it sounds radical or uncaring.   You hear a little piece of it when you read a boring spending statistic that Medicare spends the greatest amount of one person’s lifetime care costs in the last six months of life.   The tricky unknown in the formula is calculating exactly when your personal last six months of life begins.   Real boring stuff unless it is your life, a loved one or you are saddled with the payment policy to fund the spending. Here is the unpopular point; when the person wh

Ah darn!! Hoodwinked again….

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Well I thought I was doing the right thing and generally speaking I was right.   But even right these days comes with a risk analysis involving a risk-reward curve.   Honestly, I always knew the ham for my daily ham sandwich was packaged in something but always kicked the can down the road about thinking much about what it might be.   Yes, eating low fat ham is a better choice than a lot of choices but my time of reckoning has arrived.   Darn it!   “The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) has just completed a detailed review of more than 7,000 clinical studies covering links between diet and cancer. Its conclusion is rocking the health world with startling bluntness: Processed meats are too dangerous for human consumption. Consumers should stop buying and eating all processed meat products for the rest of their lives. Processed meats include bacon, sausage, hot dogs, sandwich meat, packaged ham, pepperoni, salami and virtually all red meat used in frozen prepared meals. They are usually

I love you Aunt Bobbie…

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In the summer of 1971 I returned home to the IL area with my wife Susie Mundinger-Yates. We traveled a nice route which included several of her relatives but also mine and a little tour of “places” that you show people trying to give them an idea about your early life. I was 24 years old, a 4 year military veteran, was a licensed clinical professional, successfully returned to college, had been accepted to a California University in the fall, had a little money, driving a new sports car and married to a nice attractive woman. In short, I full of myself! I sported hair then I would find longish today and a full red bed which I wore for several years. I was not doing this for some political statement or meaning, it was just me perhaps relaxing standards after a military stint. But at the time during the anti-war era, judgments were made about such folks and what they stood for based on appearance. Perhaps I forgot this as I made my way from California College to the Mid-Western cult

So, just where are you “from?”

It is February 29, 2012 and I was looking at the new layout of my Facebook page and it struck me as odd that it says I am FROM Fithian, IL. (Not that it is bad to be from there) But then I started thinking heck, where am I from? I made good and kind friends in Fithian and attended my last 2 years and graduated from Oakwood Consolidated Township High School. Previous to arriving in Fithian I attended 2 years at Georgetown High School. I also attended school in Catlin, IL, Westville, IL, Chrisman, IL (twice), Kingman, IN, Dana, IN, Hammond, IN, and Hessville, IN. It gets a little foggy at this point but I recall living in Edgar, IL (rural area) and I had my day of birth in Paris, IL. (For several years I would send my mother a photo I took of Paris Hospital telling her the neighbors are still complaining about all of her screaming from that day). Then I moved to 420 Dobson Hall, Kirksville, MO; I don’t understand exactly why I remember my dorm room number but I don’t think I am from th