Callie..."hospitalists" seem to be fairly common here.  I don't like it, but we were fortunate that the doc who was the "hospitalist" while my husband was in the hospital was a kind and good doc.  He retired  as his wife has early onset dementia and he needs to be home.
 They've hired some "group" like the rotating ER docs to be the hospitalists.
 I like that idea even less than a local doc who gives up his practice for this role.  [My husband had experience with hospitalists when his sister was quite ill in Billings, MT.  Ray flew out and found these hospitalists changed EVERY WEEK...so it was like a revolving circus door.  Repeating the same tests, changing meds, and the next week...redo it all again.  After 3 weeks of this Ray finally cornered one who seemed better than others and told him(the doc) to tell Ray when he felt it was time to take her to Mayo in Rochester, MN.  The doc finally did...and she was flown to Rochester. ]
 
In a large hospital, this would be beyond a nightmare, to me.
I think you can tell I'm not a fan of this, esp. since it seems that only seriously ill people are in the hospital. 

jane

Yes, there was a "hospitalist" when my hubby was in ICU (3 yrs. ago).  Think we saw this person twice.  I asked him point blank what a "hospitalist" was and what he did.  I didn't get a very lengthy answer. 

Talking about the stuff that Junee had at the chicken dinner was "Marmite".  I understand it is a very acquired taste, and not to the liking of most folk not from  Australia or U.K.  Someone once said it tasted like Cod Liver Oil. We should all remember that from our childhoods, seems like it was something kids received, like a vitamin.

Junee...if you are looking in today, which i hope you do...i am sending you HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREETINGS all the way from UK...

Good morning 😍

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WISHES 🌹 JUNEE 🌹
 
Please meet our newest grand pup in my avatar‼️ He is a Beredoodle, part Bernese Mountain Dog and poodle.  He is as layed back as any pup I have ever met.  Very smart and doing fantastic at being trained.

Another smoky day here in the Mile High😩  We are shocked and saddened to think we could possibly have the worse air in the world😩⚠️  It is all do to the horrible fires in the west.  We are just in-line for the worst smoke from California and they are predicting that conditions will remain this way for months 😩😤

MARILYN, thank you for the birthday wishes for Luke.  No, Dave does not have three teenagers YET....Kate is only 11. 

CALLIE, Happy belated Birthday wishes to your son.  Is this the son that had back surgery?  I hope he is doing well with the recovery.

I wish you all a good day.

Jenny

Good Morning,  another hot and humid day in central Oklahoma. Our skies are hazy with smoke from the fires out west but it isn't reaching the ground....according to the weather gurus.  I haven't smelled any----yet.

Jenny, Son whose birthday is the 27th had the surgery (BTW, I discovered he's a Virgo - not a Leo.  I remember when he learned about these "signs" and announced he "didn't want to be that woman; he wanted to be an animal like his brother).  He is doing very well - can be in their pool and drive.  He's tried one out of two - guess which one it was! 
Yesterday's "birthday son" is the Dad of the 3 Grands.

Love your Beredoodle. 

Nothing on my calendar this whole week.  Rather hope it stays that way.

Wishing Everyfriend Everywhere an Enjoyable Day.

Happy birthday to all the other Leos and the one Virgo!

We're in the middle of our second week of low-hanging clouds and rain. Even though expected, it's still sad to say goodby to summer.

Another sunny morning in Florida. That will most likely change this afternoon.

Hoping you are looking in Junee. Happy 99th Birthday!


We've had "hospitalists" here for years. I dislike the concept. Once you are in the hospital your doctor is someone who knows nothing about you or your history. My last two visits to the ER and hospital were a nightmare. The one bright spot for me was one of the nurses was wonderful. They are short staffed and have a shortage of nurses. All hospital rooms were changed to private rooms so that created a shortage of beds.

Marmite is definitely an acquired taste! When Mary de Boer from New Zealand came to the Pennsylvania Bash she brought me a jar of marmite. It has a very strong taste and is salty. It's something you use sparingly!  Meeting Mary after years of private chat was one of the highlights of my time on SeniorNet.

I had an appointment with the opthamologist yesterday. No change in my macular degeneration which is always good news! So far I have the "dry" kind. (Dry means no bleeding behind the eye)

Jenny - Love your new grand-pup! Have they said how big he will get?

I started this in the morning but it's already after 12. Have a good afternoon everyone!

 

Good morning everyone!  I'm planning to go to the SAS shoe store later, and hope to find something comfortable.  I've been wearing sandals all summer, but now need a tie or moccasin style that I can wear with socks.  Always frustrating, because I need a narrow width, and they are difficult to find.  If I still have any energy left after that, I plan to stop at the antique shop on the way home, and enjoy looking at all of my favorite things.  A place where I can temporarily forget my troubles, as well as the terrible things that are happening here in California, around the US and in other countries! 

I hope we get a message from Junee today or soon.  I looked at her Facebook page this morning, and see that she is acknowledging all of her greetings, for her 99th birthday!  Also her son or grandson, took some new pictures of her that are just beautiful!  Those of you who have Facebook, can go to her profile and see everything, even though she may not be your FB friend.  She has what is called an "open profile", that anyone can see.  Her full name is June Cutting.

We here in Annapolis have had our beloved Anne Arundel Medical Center taken over (last year, 2020, the Year of the Emergence of the Pandemic) by a group called Luminis Health, and from the tone of letters to our local newspaper, we don't much like it.  I think, albeit I personally am not a cog in the world of Medicine and am pretty totally ignorant of that world, it is a sad fact that our beloved local medical centers are losing money due to having to take whomsoever appears there in a state of sickness and give them treatment AND due to huge and often protracted batting back & forth over what organization from which level of government (federal, state, county or city) or which philanthropic group is going to pay up in real money, or will the case wind up in the large sum of losses incurred by the medical group. And yes, I believe every human being should receive treatment. I am just not sure at all about, in fact feel quite uncomfortable contemplating, having a non-medical group full of cogs such as I come in and enclose the entire complex within its tentacles of change from bottom lines of red to black.

I have not been to hospital since Luminis took over, albeit I have read some unhappy accounts from others. Only one thing has twanged my chords, and that is the Case of The Nine Oncologists.  Happens there were a very popular group of 9 oncologists in a large office in the complex. Suddenly Luminis turned its spotlights on this group and took away their hospital privileges and cut all ties with them.  They brought in their own cancer specialists, and presented these to the area served with a "take it or leave it" attitude.  One of the nine doctors was Mine. Yes, I knew she had (has?) other patients; but she was MINE. I am a breast cancer survivor, and most grateful to Dr. Werner and one of the surgeons in the group. She had told me no more mammograms as of 2019.  She let me go as a patient in 2020.  If I Ever have any more cancer, I will try to find out how to get back into the care of this doctor. I will stand my ground and, if necessary, yell at the top of my lungs for My Doctor. 
So I understand how all of the folks with complaints about our new system that I am reading about in our local newspaper feel; but most especially I belong fiercely to the groupies writing on behalf of The Nine Oncologists cut out of the system. Not fair to them, Not Fair to us, Not Fair To ME![/color]

Large Hospitals and Medial Centers taking over the smaller ones seems to be the way of the day. I used to be able to call my doctors office when I had a problem and get either him or his office help. Now I call a number and it gets answered in NYC by someone who has no idea who my doctor is but will connect me with someone --- probably in that (my Doc's) office. When one is ailing they really don't want to play phone tag, and explain to everyone along the way just why you want to talk with your doctor.  I guess this is progress, just like computers were going to alleviate all the paper work. -         

So far as I can tell, the hospitals here have been busy pairing with each other rather than outside medical management firms. There is one hospital, however, that has for many years had a poor management reputation. It has been pairing and unpairing with other hospitals in the area to save costs for years. They have tried and failed at least three times. It is also the first, or one of the first, that decided to start its own medical insurance program. At first I heard good things about the insurance plans, but not now, not after people discovered how badly they were nickle and dimed to death with things that turned out not to be covered. There is one other hospital complex that has now started their own medical insurance program that I know of. I have not heard how good it is yet. This seems like a fox guarding the hen house kind of thing to me. I don't expect it to be a good thing for patients.

Okay, now for the fun part. Steamtime Live has added another live 24hr. web cam to their repertoire. This one is New York city harbor area. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-AWZXNf150 

It is, as it has been forever,  All  About  The  Money.  "Follow The Money!"

People with more money than they know what to do with get together with their buddies and boards and look for ways to skin the rest of us.

I am genetically put together to believe that providing health care should not BE all about the almighty dollar.

And doctors should be rewarded for their diligence in pursuit of their educations and giving us life-enhancing care.  They are now being asked to sign contracts with these humongous health providers, and at the same time losing controls they previously had.

I smile inwardly as I remember the first decade of my life.  My small town, the Brits would have called it a village, had only one doctor. Dr. Pete.  He did it all, and did it with a small black, one board buggy drawn by one horse.  His chariot.  He would call me Mary Jane and tell me he would give me a nickel if I could tell him how many dairy cows there were in the United States.  In those days, the flag had only 48 stars. I, of course, hadn't a clue, but I tried valiantly to come up with a number, because five cents bought a LOT of candy back in the days before World War II.

Dr. Pete grew up with my grandmother, and our families knew one another well.  I can remember seeing him come in our front door, never knocking, and that was acceptable, and throwing his head back and raising his voice to yell out: "AAAANN - IE !"  I called her Grandma, her children called her Mama, the townspeople called her Mrs. ______.  I knew her name was Anna Margaret, but had never, ever heard her called any kind or sort of name until the first time Dr. Pete did that. It tickled me then, as the memory does now.

Sometimes it calms me down to be able to smile at something from the past.  I tend to get really riled up over the here and now of just about everything.

The entire healthcare situation is puzzling and sad.  Puzzling, because it  seemed to happen all of a sudden, out of nowhere, with these huge conglomerates or corporations,  sweeping across the country, and buying out all the hospitals, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies. (Now called Big Pharma).    We have no choice anymore.  It's either accept the new rules and the new way of handling patients and medications, or go without.   I hate it that all of our medicines, (prescriptions and over-the-counter),  are made in labs overseas in China, India, and countless other countries, employing people from those countries, instead of Americans.   Such an important industry,  that used to provide training, and good paying quality jobs for Americans.  Now gone - never to return again.

What with that, plus all the other endless, miserable and frightening problems/situations  going on in the US and world right now, I am and will always be, forever grateful for being born so long ago in 1934.   I had the privilege of  growing up and living almost my entire life in what seems now like another dimension! 

Yesterday I drove past the newly completed architectural wonder in San Jose,  dubbed the "Apple Spaceship".   A spectacular new building, sitting on acres of land, still in the process of development.   Inside the building are employees from around the world - working and coming up with new ideas so we, the people, can have faster, better and always new and improved iPhones, tablets, MacBooks, and watches, etc. 
The sad part - just outside the perimeter the "campus", is a shocking sight.   One of the largest homeless encampments in Santa Clara Valley.  These pictures don't even begin to show what it's like to actually see this horrific sight, but this gives you an idea.

Pictures of homeless encampment outside new apple campus    For reasons I don't understand, I cannot make this link appear?   Just as well I guess, as it's a depressing sight.

Sad to say that many of what I consider essential industries have shifted their production overseas, including making vital parts for our military. Many of the new hulls for our cargo ships are built in China. Much of the steel industry is over there. If supply lines are disrupted, we don't have the industries to handle replacing vital tech parts for essential communications. And so it goes. I won't even get into our national debt and who have been buying up our treasury notes and industries here. Or what countries never signed the nuclear weapons agreements, and who are busy building their own nuclear arsenal. Scary stuff!

Well, MarsGal, you've hit the nail on the head. I don't mind whom among our species is able to make a living wage and flourish with decent nutrition, but I DO care about what happens to us when none of a crucial part of our Defense is any longer made in our own country or its territories or in any friendly nations, but entirely within the borders of a strong competitor country and potential enemy.  Do you think on that and wonder if our right hand knows what our left hand is doing?  Only the other day, while reading a best seller from the non-fiction list, I read of our government stumbling over just that problem, and it scared me half to death. I have no desire to point fingers or get into anything political; I think that is all a huge waste of time anyway. Just get all the Important stuff back here in OUR factories and check off the entire list of items we, as a nation, might need were we to have to seal all of our borders and prepare to defend ourselves against the actual physical invasion of billions of people who are without water or crops or homes due to climate change. The jobs created might eliminate, or at least shrink, those homeless shanties. I will not be alive when things get a lot worse, and for that I am downright grateful: but get our bits & pieces & parts & stuff back here on our home soil.  Also, I know personally a family of 4 who have just moved from Washington State to New York State because of the weather.  There will be a huge move from West to East. I want my descendants to live on, and it is going to be a tough going, because we are not paying attention. I should amend that: not Enough of us are paying attention. And yes, chances are your important, life-providing meds are being made in China. Or anywhere except here.

Right MaryPage. And then there are those who willfully ignore all of this because it doesn't affect them now so why worry about it. I can think of at least one family member like that. Well,guess what. When the time does finally come to hit them up side the head, it will be too late.

Sounds like we have a thunderstorm coming in.

A good Wednesday HELLO to all.  Our awful smoke has lightened up some, thankfully.

MARSGAL, enjoyed the NY Harbor video.  Thank you for sharing. I share your concerns regarding where our military and other essentials are being produced.  HOW DID WE ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN? Pitiful😡

MARYPAGE, I Could not agree with you more😩 "And doctors should be rewarded for their diligence in pursuit of their educations and giving us life-enhancing care."  Sadly, doctors are no longer ALLOWED to treat patients the way they would like and need to‼️ I love and enjoy the stories you share, especially like the one of Dr. Pete. I am thankful we have our special memories that we can look back on and smile😘. BTW, there is ZERO question regarding if the right hand knows what the left hand is doing😩. This is obvious in our every day life and it is very concerning 😩😩

Is it me, or have any of you notced....and please feel free to correct me.....It seems most of my friends and relatives that have a connection to a military past or have lived through war situations seem to be much more concerned about our reliance on foreign countries than ones that have not? 

MARILYN, everything you wrote yesterday is exactly how I am feeling.....so many unacceptable situations to deal with these days.  I am so thankful for how things have been in my life and yours was even better.  Now we are forced to try to exist in a world that is extremely troubled and hard to accept.  I have witnessed the shock of seeing these homeless incampments and they are horrendous 😩😡. Many have asked me how our family members that are relocating to San Francisco can even consider this move with all the stories of how bad the homeless mess is there?  Take a good look around and show me a city that does not have this issue?

BEVERLY, the grandpup is said to be a MINI Beredoodle, and he is touted to be not over 30 pounds and 16 inches.  From the size of his paws......I question this, but who knows?  He is going so fast..... we saw him last night again as we celebrated Luke's 13th Birthday.  I think the pup may have grown an inch in 3 days😂😂

I am hoping to accomplish SOMETHING today, but my state of mind tends to get in the way of really doing much😩

Have a great day❣️

Jenny

Quote from: Denver on August 12, 2021, 02:38:16 PMIs it me, or have any of you noticed....and please feel free to correct me.....It seems most of my friends and relatives that have a connection to a military past or have lived through war situations seem to be much more concerned about our reliance on foreign countries than ones that have not? 

I chalk it up to ignorance,(not stupidity).  I doubt that History, as we know it, is being taught today. As someone said, when it happens it will be too late.  Recently someone tried to bring industry back to the USA but was severely admonished for it. We are all getting to the point where we will be gone when it hits the fan. I have no grands so it will not affect my family as much as so many others.  If people would only look at the lives of those we are trying to emulate they might wake up and rethink things.

As far as Politics it seems to me that they are all in it for their own gain. They ask us to donate and support their election. If they get elected they go on to become rich people and usually forget how they got there. IMO - Most things they do are to support their future continuation in politics.

Someone, please kick my soapbox.  Sorry for my rant.

Rammel, your opinion is of value.  Every opinion is of value.

My main theme, as probably everyone knows by now, runs pretty well in the same direction as yours: It's all about the money.  Follow The Money.

Corporations run this country.  Corporations and the owners thereof.  If their bottom lines can be MORE because their parts, ingredients, or whatever goes into their products can be produced cheaper in China, they go for it.  The Pentagon ought to outlaw this, but they don't.  I am hoping they will wake up and change their rules for awarding bids.  On anything we cannot do without, they should insist upon Made In America.  I am no expert on this subject, and I hate sounding like a simplistic ranter, but this is what I am seeing.

The matter of our meds being made elsewhere is scary, as well and all.  I don't understand why we are not allowed to buy cheaper Canadian meds, helping our own budgets and also our friendly neighbors to the North, not to mention our insurance companies, but the Pharma industry in the U.S. is allowed to have these meds actually Made far, far away.  It all gets too complicated for this old crone, but I do hope our Representatives will look at it in a very thorough way.

Changing the subject a little but while we are are talking about money...You know what they say " money is the route of all evil " you either have the very poor, 3rd world countries, no food or clean water, young children on the streets fending for themselves, and easy prey for being physically or sexually abused, or the very very rich jet-setters who buy what they want with the click of their fingers, luxury yachts and the luxury fittings that go with it, it is like a competition of who buys it first...I watched the tv programme just a few weeks ago...the more they have the more they want to impress their click of wealthy friends and female hostesses...they just have to have what no one else has...and they know that they will get just what they want, chucking money around to the people who order it for them, they also have to pay body-guards and have high tech security systems to protect them and their yachts...Now who wants to be living like that, always looking over ones shoulder...

And then there is us in the middle, just content with our little lot, family for those who still do have, genuine friends, not, " hanger's on'ers, " at least WE can sleep at night...

The globalists are on the rise, led partly, I suspect, by the big multinational corporations. Of course the money. Think how big corps save if they have to deal with only one (world) economy, accounting and tax structure. Think of it; one tax structure for the whole world. They, governments and big business, have been working on this for years and continue to do so. Other areas of global concern have also been slowly moving in a global direction. Think of the possibilities. What is the ultimate goal (or end game) for these globalists? What would life governed by One World Government look like? No crystal ball here. We hope for the best, fear for the worst, those of us who care to even think about it.

Well, enough of my musings.

Today should be the last of the over 90 degree weather here for a while. Sunday and Monday look like okay days to mow my lawn. Sometime very soon I need to get mulch and a few bags of top soil. Then I can replant my iris, etc. around the porch. The decking will get painted in the fall. I don't know yet when my new doors will arrive. That will be pretty much it for the outside this year except maybe getting someone in do clear out the brush and trim back the privet again. Gosh those privet grow fast. 

Good Friday morning to ya!  This is the Thirteenth, so be extra careful, please!

The hot, muggy, unbreatheable weather has come to the Chesapeake.  However, my pinwheels tell me a breeze still comes this way from those huge waters.  Relief and cooler temps are due tomorrow. BGE (Baltimore Gas Electric) has sent us all a robo call asking that we try to conserve electricity today, and promising a reward in cash money will show up on our bills if we succeed in lowering our customary usage.

Last night I finished reading yesterday's newspaper before cozying up in bed, and there was an AP article you may all have in your newspapers, as well. Seems a lot of groups besides our own has gotten sick of the price of drugs, and they have started making their own medicines.  Millions of doses have already been shipped out, and prices have been cut way down. Hurrah!

Friday the Thirteenth - just another hot and smokey day,  here in Northern California.  The southern part of the state seems to be doing much better than we are, as far as fires, smoke and high temperatures are concerned.  They don't have the forests down there that we have up here, which is one of the reasons.   

We still have the Dixie Fire, blazing away in the Sierra.   As of last night, it had burned a half a million acres.   Bigger than some of our small N/E states!  The real tragedy is that it was just announced that the Dixie Fire was deliberately set by a man who was at one time, a college professor.  Apparently he went into the area alone, pretending to be a camper, and set a number of small fires that immediately burgeoned out of control - causing the two biggest fires, still raging.   Didn't say how the Forest Service happened to catch him, but I'm sure it will all be in our news soon. 

The tragedy of a person doing such a heinous crime, is beyond words.  Thousands of people in our mountain communities, burned out of their homes and ranches.  One entire town, burned to the ground.  The small city of Greenville, which was a historic Gold Rush community.  It was a quaint and busy mountain town,  with a small town area with the usual shops, hardware store and what are called rural supply stores.  The town was surrounded by horse ranches, dairy farms and other small farms.   All gone now - burned to ugly black ash - including the stands of once tall beautiful old pine trees.     

I think ____ am I crazy?  Don't answer that, but I think I saw some pictures on the news of a man igniting fires.  Could they have been of the man you describe?  Could they have put some cameras on the perimeters of some of your forests?

Please, someone else tell me that you saw them, too.

Mary Page - I haven't seen pictures of the fire perpetrator - but you probably did.  That is likely how they identified him?  Maybe there are cameras set up at trails leading into State Forests, or at isolated camp sites?    If not, there certainly should be.  Seems there are lots of these arsonists or pyromaniacs out there, and every step should be taken to identify and catch them. 

I looked up those two terms on Google, and found out there is a definite difference. 
An arsonist is someone who sets fires as a vengeful act.  He is angry, and wants the satisfaction of seeing people suffer. 
A pyromaniac is someone with a mental disorder.  Setting fires is a compulsive act, and he gets a thrill from watching the fire burn.

Wildlife enthusiasts and researchers, and hunters will set up cameras along animal trails and other animal haunts. I've seen some of them posted to YouTube. They are often tripped by motion detectors and some come with WiFi. If you are not close by, but the camera is set up to reach a cell cite or satellite dish, it will shoot the pix and videos up to an online account for you. Other cameras use SD(?) cards which you would have to go and collect before getting the pix. I was looking into these cameras the other day.

You forgot the arsonists who do it for money, MaryPage. When I was in high school, one of our neighbors had a son in the mental hospital who was a pyromaniac. I used to wonder what happened to the inmates when the state decided to close the one across the river where he was housed. This was some years after they decided to cut loose the more harmless inmates many of whom, as you can imagine, ended up on the streets and in homeless encampments. I remember there was a bit of contention over that move.

A good Saturday HELLO from pretty blue sky Colorado.  Thank goodness the smoke is being sent up and back to the West for now‼️ Sorry for those folks, but thankful for a reprieve for us.

My surgery will be Friday the 27th, two weeks from yesterday and that seems like eternity for me....I am so tired of dealing with this non useable and painful shoulder of mine.....it just wears me down😩😤

I just read on FaceBook that Judith Carr passed away the 11th of August.  I know some of you might remember her.  Not sure if she was active anymore or not?

Guess I had best at least TRY to accomplish something today 😤

Have a good one‼️

Jenny

The whole world seems to be going bananas about now what with the fires in Algeria, Greece, Turkey, Russia (largest in the world right now), US and Canada, Haiti getting hit with yet another major earthquake (they can't seem to get a break from misery can they), COVID still mutating and going strong, China looking like it wants to take its turn with Afghanistan, Middle East and Ethiopian conflicts heating up again, major drought in the western US, rising conflict over the South China Sea area, and who knows what else. I sincerely hope we don't see a plague of locusts or famine. Doom and gloom! What a way to start the morning.

In my own little corner of the world, it's time to mow the lawn again. I hope the humidity is down some today, otherwise it will be a bit trying. Other than that, I've been battling tiny gnats these last few days. They are even into the cat litter boxes. In all the time I have been here, I have never had a plague of gnats to deal with, even in the humid, rainy weather we had a few years back. Oh, and I am still finding and squishing Spotted Lantern Flies. They have morphed into adults now.

Our Welsh club is disbanding. There was very little communication from board members over the last year. I suspect it was because COVID restrictions hit us just before our meeting to formally invest the new board members for the year. After three for four emails from the treasurer seeking opinions on whether to disband the dwindling club without getting responses from most of our members, including the incoming president, the treasurer is closing the books and donating the remaining club money to the Welsh Home in Ohio. We are meeting informally for lunch for the last time in a few days.

MarsGal...do what i now do....stop watching the news channels on your tv...far too depressing..

MarsGal - Yes, YES . . . I'm in agreement with all you said, and all the sad and painful examples that you gave us. 
And there are still more things to keep our heads reeling  -  the ongoing, and unsolvable problem of vaccinations and masks.  Violent protestors stabbing each other in a horrible vaccine  confrontation, in front of the Los Angeles City Hall, last night.  It was like a scene from a bizarre action movie, to watch the angry mob attacking each other!  For and against masks: For and against vaccines.  Never the twain shall meet.  What to do about it?  Nobody knows.

That's a small thing, compared to the tragedies in Haiti and Afghanistan,  I know.  I only mentioned it, because all of these situations are seemingly uncontrollable.    There are no answers, because people refuse to cooperate . . . refuse to make peace . . . refuse to help each other.

Even the wildfires refuse to be controlled!    They rage on and on, just like the people.