The Saga of Susan, Part II

The attraction to Hammond for Susan (and her husband David Klein) was the price of the house and the proximity to David's employment. And her house, believe me, though I have no pictorial evidence thereof, is nice as well as the neighborhood she lives in.

About two blocks away from her house is the Great Wall of Hammond, which I happen to have no picture of, either. This is the story: more than a year ago, the cash-strapped community of Hammond, formerly a proud Midwestern industry port that has fallen now into hard times, was coping with a problem. The problem? Black kids from Calumet City Illinois were riding their bikes into Hammond and stealing stuff from people's homes. What were the righteous citizens of Hammond to do?

Well, build a wall, of course.

So, the outraged citizens of Hammond spent their precious resources building this curb down the middle of State Line Road to deter this traffic. The people living on either side of State Line Road (one side is Calumet City, the other Hammond) now could not cross is or make left-hand turns which deterred traffic alright. But the funny thing was: I stood on State Line Road and watched black kids from Calumet City ride their bikes right over the curb, in fact do wheelies right over the curb and ride right into Hammond, completely undeterred. The only thing the curb has done is keep the Hammond police force from being able to chase the kids on bikes back to Calumet City.

Don't build walls, people. This is silly.

Let's Not Forget My Pal Susan, Part I

Part of my spring vacation this year was spent in the charming hamlet known as Hammond Indiana, a hop-skip-and-jump from Chicago down a litter-strewn toll road, a mecca for....

SMOKERS!

Well, the price of the house was right. And it's not all that bad, but unfortunately I did not take pictures of anything good about Hammond. In fact, while I was downloading pictures from the camera I kept thinking, oh here's one of Sue in the nice part of Hammond, only to discover on closer inspection that it was a picture of a woman in Italy (who sort of looked like Sue) out in a field. Sorry, Sue.

Carolyn's Mom, Marianne.....

I got an unexpected phone call from Carolyn on Friday early a.m. Carolyn was back in Portland because her mother had collapsed at the airport, was rushed to the hospital and given emergency surgery for divertriculitis - basically her bowel had ruptured and it could have been a disaster without quick treatment. Marianne is fine and recovering well, but will be in the hospital for about a week before she can go home.

So Carolyn and Alberto are back in Portland for awhile. Their kids are still in Montana with Carolyn's family, but are scheduled to be back in Portland Saturday evening. I think Alberto and the kids will go home next week, but Carolyn will stick around to nurse her Mom back to health.

(Secretly I am overjoyed to have Carolyn here a little while longer.....!!!)

Sicko, the movie

David and I went to see Sicko this evening.


Two thumbs up. Way up.



Since Ms. Duncan asked me to give my thoughts on this movie, I thought I would post a couple of my thoughts as I watched:

• The government spends a lot of time dissing lawyers - especially trial lawyers. Why? 'They' drive up malpractice costs. Or 'they' bring frivolous lawsuits. But quite frankly, in this movie (and in real life) the only noble people bitching about health care are lawyers. In the movie it is either plaintiff attorneys suing for the benefits of patients against health insurance companies or in the despicable case of the patients being dumped at the mission on skid row in LA - the City Attorney's office sent a lawyer down there to be nice to the poor woman who had been severely beaten. No doctor was in the room with the woman attending to her pain, but the city attorney asked the woman "are you in pain? Is there anything I can do for you?" Why are people so afraid of lawyers? One possible answer: lawyers can demand justice for those suffering in a very unjust situation, which is threatening to those who are profiting from a very unjust system.


• If anything, Michael Moore did not go far enough - the greed doesn't stop at insurance companies or hospitals. Heck, everybody knows about the doctors. It's the hidden and unexpected greed mongers that will really make you sick - he touched a bit on the pharmaceutical industry, but it doesn't stop there. Think about all the sycophants who produce the merchandise that gets sold in healthcare settings, anything from stethoscopes to swabs to bandages, etc. The mark-ups and bad business dealings are rampant in every setting. If you want to understand the scope of the problem, I suggest you read a few other blogs who document it on a daily basis. Start with Health Care Renewal, which is a bunch of doctors who publish stories about excess, waste, fraud, etc in the US health care system. They post, on average, about 3-5 stories a day.

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts about this movie as I get further away from it, but for now suffice it to say: if you live in this country and are at the mercy of this healthcare system, it should be required watching. And in the meantime, stay healthy.

For My Out-of-Town Friends and Relatives

Some people we know from places as far-flung as Denver or Hammond or Cesena Italy might someday need a place to stay in Portland whilst they come to visit me. Or David. Or both of us.

Introducing the latest in guest house accommodations: yes, folks, this is the smallest house in the world awaiting your arrival in Portland to serve your needs for luxury.

The stucco: New! The paint: New!

And right outside the door to your guest accommodations, in certain times of the year, is your very own corn crop! You can harvest some ears and boil them on your stove in your very own kitchen! (Recipes not included)

The Other Member of My Family..

Here is the newest member of our family: Lucy Good Fortune, rescued from the Oregon Humane Society last May. She likes to lay around and meow at us intermittently. She runs to the food dish to check whether we put anything new in it, about as often as we check our email throughout the day.

It is raining out in the Pacific Northwest - a nice way to come home from the evil hot and humid right coast of the Americas.

It's Hotter than H-E-Double Toothpicks here

Last night I had dinner with Tim Carey (head of the Sheps Center at UNC) and his lovely wife Kathleen. We took a walk through the gardens in the middle of Chapel Hill, eventually strolling down the main street, past the historic and famous Varsity Theater (still showing movies - Sicko is playing there currently - since 1927), to dinner at Top O' The Hill. It was about 140 degrees out and humid, the cicadas roaring their 17 year pleasure at us and the crepe myrtle trees blushing in all shades pink. And if that weren't enough to convince me I was south of the mason dixon line, the lovely cadence of the North Carolinian voices was sure to.

Back to Portland this afternoon to continue on...