Sunday afternoon

Tamale Pie is excellent. Had two large servings for lunch. No salt added--it contains a whole can of small pitted black olives. In addition to a large can of Green Giant Mexicorn (has red and green pepper in it), the juice from the corn, 2 packages of Chili-O chili seasoning, 2 8 oz. cans of tomato sauce, and 2 lbs. ground beef. (That all simmers for 10 minutes.) (Actually, this time I added the olives afterwards, but I don't think it matters.) Then it goes into a baking pan, topped with a box of yellow cornbread mix (prepared according to instructions on the box). Bakes 40 minutes at 375 F. No fuss.

Doing some laundry. Have more of that to do.

So I guess the storm we had yesterday has now become Tropical Storm Claudette.

Saturday night late

I really enjoyed going to the gym today. I hadn't been there on a Saturday in a long time. Not that I actually enjoy the gym, but that going today was good. (There's a distinction.) It gave me a lift. Today I did my all-time least favorite exercise (among others less objectionable) -- leg curls. I still hated it. I only went today because I didn't go last night. I might go on Saturdays from now on, unless I have a big project (or something) on a Saturday and can't go. Friday nights the place is almost empty however, which I like. It was kind of busy in there today (at around 5:30). It closes at 7:00 on Saturdays and Sundays now. (It used to close at 8:00, but now it's open 24 hours Mon. thru Thurs., which doesn't benefit me.) (I used to go on Sundays at 7:00 when they closed at 8:00, which suited me.) The gym routine can become extremely monotonous for me, so I'm always open to varying it. (My second least favorite exercise is a type of arm curl machine. I can't find a picture of it.)

I felt great today after the gym and did a really good job shopping. Usually I feel a little lethargic on Saturdays, maybe from going to the gym the night before (and a hold-over "free-floating anxiety" from B.'s departure). (Saturdays were the worst day after he left.) Maybe I'm getting over stuff. It kind of perked me up when last Sunday I heard B. saying good things about me in his argument with the BF, even though they were both drunk and perhaps on drugs. There's something to be said for "in vino veritas."

I think it's overrated, however. People say and do so many unwise things when they've had too much. B.'s probably happier with this guy (even if he may be a drug dealer) than he was with me. The presumptive drug dealer is certainly a better companion if he doesn't "work" in the traditional sense. I always had to go to work in the morning, while B. works at night. We didn't see enough of each other. That was a huge part of the problem. Meanwhile he let himself bond with this person rather than finding something more constructive to do. He's in some kind of predicament now, I guess.

Canadian Healthcare: My Grandma’s End Of Life ‘Life Panel’

From Firedoglake here.

I'm a Canadian who used to live in the States and started my family down there before I came home again.

So I know how Healthcare works on both sides of the border.

I also wrote quite extensively about a fellow Canadian, and Universal Healthcare Haters' Club Inc. shill, Ms. Shona Holmes here, here and here.

But today I want to tell you about my Grandma, who died not long ago at the age of 91 after a long and full life that might have ended much earlier if it hadn't been for the Canadian Healthcare system...

Why?

Because my Grandma E. was 76 when she had her aortic aneurysm.

Now, I'm sure you all know the story of another much more famous Canadian, Neil Young, who also had an aneurysm, which is essentially the ballooning out of a blood vessel.

It happens when the wall of the vessel weakens due to disease, old age or, in the case of Mr. Young, because of a congenital abnormality.

'Congenital' means that you were born with it.

Which also means that it is a pre-existing condition.

Of course, despite the fact that he now lives in the States, Mr. Young didn't have to worry about any of that 'pre-existing condition' business because he is rich. . . .

My Grandma E. was most definitely not rich. . . .

Saturday night

Tamale Pie is in the oven. Obviously I didn't have it for dinner. Was hungry after the gym, so I drove up to Lime Mexican Grill and had a burrito. Ate everything but one tortilla chip. Then did my grocery shopping at the Publix there. Was craving ginger snaps so I bought a bag of those and had eaten half of it by the time I got home. I'm stuffed. (Plus I'd had a protein drink when I stopped by home after the gym.) Had some coffee over at Starbucks after unloading the groceries. I'll do the laundry tomorrow.

Watching "Rate My Space" (atomic retro kitchen). The appliances remind me of the ones we had when I was a kid. (They were very old then. I was very young.)

I recently read this Salon article ("What's really in your shampoo"). The gist of the article was that, aside from a couple of detergents contained in shampoo that actually clean the hair, there are a lot of ingredients added to enhance the shampooing experience that may be harming the environment.

Shampoo, for example, contributes to high levels of estrogen and estrogen-like substances (endocrine disrupters) in freshwater downstream of sewage treatment plants that damage fish populations and cause male fish to grow ovaries, a sort of liquid feminism. My hometown of Calgary, Canada, studied the fish downstream of where we add our treated sewage to the river and discovered that female fish outnumber male fish 9 to 1. Estrogen runs through it. One study identifies more than 200 chemicals that are still present in wastewater after treatment. But the problem is likely much larger: environmental damage is difficult to estimate because we're dumping chemicals into the environment that have never been studied.

The writer, a Canadian, now uses Sunlight dish detergent to wash his hair. I bought some today. I'll let you know how it works.

Saturday afternoon

Lucky ended up waking me up anyway, twice, with his meowing. (And I had to put the cats out of the bedroom twice.) (Maybe he's upset that I closed up his hiding place.) The only reason I let them back in after the first time was that I wanted to have the door open, since the room was getting a little stuffy. I ended up cranking up the A/C and slept well the rest of the morning. (See here.)

[Later] Replaced the A/C filter. It was getting dirty. Just had a 2-egg omelet with ham, bacon and cheese. Yummy. Had eaten a sliced boiled egg on low-fat Triscuits earlier.

Will go to gym later, then grocery shopping. The gym closes at 7:00 on the weekends. I'm making Tamale Pie. A simple recipe made with Chili-O chili seasoning, black olives, canned corn, tomato sauce and ground beef, with yellow cornbread mix on top. Haven't made that in years.

Have to do all kinds of laundry this weekend. (Last night I bought a package of underwear at Target.)

It's a little stormy here today. There's a tropical storm somewhere. I really have to check that out. [Did that.] Tropical Storm Ana is headed right at us.

Friday night late

On Tuesday night when I visited B., I went out on a limb and told him he was welcome back here so long as I could trust him (just to get away from the abuse from the BF). He expressed no interest in that at all. (And here on Sunday night he was yelling to his BF that I was a better person than the BF. In vino veritas?) So now all is back to normal over there, I was assured. Fine. I'd been almost afraid that B. would show up here in a taxi on Sunday night. I really can't deal with that turmoil. The BF doesn't work and B. didn't have to go to work the next day -- but I did.

Bought a load of colorful clothes hangers tonight. More than I will ever need, especially when I'm through donating most of my clothes to Goodwill. I'll also donate all my drab old hangers. No more drab hangers! (I have no more wires ones. I gave the last one to a maintenance man who was fixing the leak on the hot water heater.)

Friday night

This morning, Lucky woke me up way too early. (Only my alarm is allowed to wake me up.) Lucky was playing under the bed. As I mentioned in an earlier post, he's loosened the fabric that covers the bottom of one of the two mattress foundations (the one underneath where I happen to sleep) and lies and plays in there, like it's his secret hideaway. I think he had a ball in there this morning. I'd fall back asleep and he'd wake me up again. I'd had enough. Finally I got up and he ran out of the room. I shut the door and managed to get a little more sleep.

Tonight I was going to go to the gym but didn't want to deal with Lucky while I was trying to take a nap. I could have shut him out of the room, but Bootsy was already up on the bed and Lucky would have felt bad. I wasn't that tired anyway -- I'd dozed some on the bus -- so I got dressed and drove up to Target (5 minutes away). Got a staple gun -- since I didn't have one -- to staple the fabric back onto the foundation, staples, etc. Then I got home and realized I'd bought the wrong staples, so I drove back up there and exchanged them. The fabric is now fastened back to the foundation. (I stapled it real good.) Lucky has taken notice. Ha!

I have enough trouble sleeping and don't need a cat flopping around under the bed while I'm trying to sleep. And I really hate being awakened in the morning before it's time to get up. I barely get enough sleep as it is. I wanted to get the mattress foundation fixed tonight so I don't have to worry about it when I go to bed later. That alone could give me insomnia. (Again, I could kick the cats out of the bedroom.)

The fabric was dangling by a few strategic staples, by the way. Lucky's really been going at it under there.

I'll go to the gym this weekend.

Now I am a little tired.

Wendell Potter is on Anderson Cooper tonight. (See here.)

Thursday night

My supervisor turns 50 tomorrow but didn't want us to do anything elaborate for her birthday. (She's taking the day off.) I bought her a "so you're turning 50" Hallmark card and gave her an IOU for a lunch on me. (Someone else in the department took her out to lunch today.)

This has been kind of a crazy week with the stuff going on with B. The drunken, drugged-up (?) BF brought me into it (and I brought B.'s friend into it). Their domestic situation is under close scrutiny now. And the BF knows I'm not a fan. (I'd also advised B. to talk to his doctor about the situation.)

So the "death panels" have been killed from the healthcare legislation? As I made a comment earlier on a post about Sarah Palin's latest Facebook entry on that topic (which obviously wasn't written by her--it had footnotes, even--and she barely makes sense when not reading from a script), would she rather see a brain-dead patient's estate go to doctors and hospitals and insurance companies than to the patient's own family? What about those family values?

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), who's on the Finance Committee, says the government shouldn't be involved in end-of-life matters. Yet as Rachel Maddow pointed out tonight, the Republican Congress and George Bush had no qualms about getting involved in the matter of brain-dead Terri Schiavo. Bush even truncated a vacation at his Texas "ranch" to return to Washington to show his support for the cause (although he didn't truncate a vacation when he was warned that Al-Qaeda was going to attack the United States). See Joan Walsh here ("Throw Grassley from the train!"). Also see here ("Grassley voted for end-of-life counseling in 2003").

Everyone should have a living will. Even Rush Limbaugh was doing advertisements (as was Rachel Maddow) for an outfit that does living wills. (Of course, now Rush is talking about the government killing granny.) Even if you're young, do you want to be artificially kept alive if, say, you get into an accident and your brain is dead and your family members will suffer paying the never-ending bills? Let's be real: it's a total waste of money. And these bills are getting higher and higher.

Tonight I saw how Bootsy has been getting on and off the bed since I rearranged the furniture. The bed is too high for him to jump up on. He used to jump up on a chair, then a nightstand, then the bed. Lately he's been jumping up on the nightstand and then the bed (and complaining). Tonight I put a leather cube by the nightstand so he can jump up on that first, since it's lower than the nightstand. (He's heavy and slow-moving and probably has arthritis as well.) (Lucky flies up on everything.)

(Actually, I had the leather cube by the nightstand on the other side of the room, farthest from the door. He was jumping up on the nightstand by the door, rather than walking around the bed.)

Made a load of chili tonight. The fresh Kielbasa I'd prepared for lunch today wasn't that great. Maybe that's why it was on sale. Hillshire Farms (or whatever) tastes better. I'd followed the instructions on the package for the Publix Kielbasa and simmered it in water for 15 minutes till it reached 160 F. internally. I think a lot of flavor leached out in the process. Maybe I would microwave it next time.

The Claim: Cold Temperatures Improve Sleep

See NYT article here.

Avoiding caffeine, sticking to a schedule and drinking a glass of warm milk are the usual tips for a good night’s rest. But the right room temperature can also play a crucial role.

Studies have found that in general, the optimal temperature for sleep is quite cool, around 60 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit. For some, temperatures that fall too far below or above this range can lead to restlessness.

Temperatures in this range, it seems, help facilitate the decrease in core body temperature that in turn initiates sleepiness. A growing number of studies are finding that temperature regulation plays a role in many cases of chronic insomnia. Researchers have shown, for example, that insomniacs tend to have a warmer core body temperature than normal sleepers just before bed, which leads to heightened arousal and a struggle to fall asleep as the body tries to reset its internal thermostat.

For normal sleepers, the drop in core temperature is marked by an increase in temperature in the hands and feet, as the blood vessels dilate and the body radiates heat. Studies show that for troubled sleepers, a cool room and a hot-water bottle placed at the feet, which rapidly dilates blood vessels, can push the internal thermostat to a better setting.

THE BOTTOM LINE

A slightly cool room and a lower core temperature are optimal for sleep.

Police mug shot from The Smoking Gun

Here.

On the NHS (the Brits' system)

Also from TPM here.

From TPM Reader PR ...

I am sure you receive many such stories. My father was chronically ill with kidney problems with a very grim prognosis. This was in the 1970's around the time dialysis became a possibility. The National Health Service paid for the installation of a dialysis machine plus all the necessary plumbing and renovation of a room in his home so that he could use the machine three times a week rather than travel to the hospital in London. The cost was enormous and there is no way my parents could have afforded it. His quality of life for his last years was improved beyond recognition. I don't recall any bureaucracy or fuss: the entire decision was the doctor's. After he passed away the NHS paid for the disassembly and removal of everything too.

The NHS may foul up many of the little things and it may deserve criticism, but in my family's case we avoided financial hardship, and my father benefitted from [what was then] cutting edge technology because of it. I doubt we would have been treated the same way by a private insurance company.

It is this memory that makes health care reform so personal for me, and makes the extraordinary behavior of its opponents so repugnant.

It is worth noting that among health care policy analysts the British system is generally considered inferior to that of Canada and especially that of France, which, from my recollection is often deemed the best in the world. The main culprit, as I understand it, is simply that it's underfunded relative to these other countries.

That said, considering that in the US many are going around claiming that the NHS amounts to a system of wide scale euthanasia it's worth countering some of the bamboozlement with some real life stories.

Stephen Hawking likes his "Death Panel" Health Care just fine, thanks

From TPM here.

Turns out that the world's best-known and most health-challenged physicist thinks that his single-payer health care system works just fine.

"I wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for the NHS. I have received a large amount of high quality treatment without which I would not have survived." ---Stephen Hawking, August 11, 2009

[. . .]

See this post for back story.

How the health insurance business works today

From Mary at The Left Coaster here.

Wendell Potter explains the health insurance industry's business model.

And he explains that his Road to Damascus moment came when he attended a Remote Area Expedition in Arkansas and saw the multitude of people who come from miles away and waited for days to get some health care.

Wednesday night

Back from gym. The Ben Affleck double was there.

Today I had another chat with B.'s friend, the one he talks with every day. She said he's "blind" to the situation he's in and said she could only pray that he would exit the relationship safely. (She sounded extremely concerned.) I told her I'd given him the domestic abuse hotline number.

I can appreciate the fact that if the BF doesn't work (and B. works at night), they have a lot of time to spend together, which we didn't (although we were on the phone all day). So he gets more companionship. But his friend says the BF tries to keep B. away from his friends. (He certainly tries to keep him away from me, which in a sense is understandable.)

I know what it's like to be in an abusive relationship. You want to make it work and think things will get better. Neither B.'s friend nor I think that's a realistic prospect. (She's really on top of the situation, since she talks with B. daily.) I've thought all along that B.'s relationship with the BF would end badly and B.'s friend said as much (emphatically so).

Cooking fresh Kielbasa to take to work. I'll eat it with canned German potato salad. I buy "Read" brand. I think it's excellent. (All it has in it is potatoes, water, sugar, vinegar, bacon, modified corn starch, salt, onion, spice, natural flavor and parsley flakes.)

I just cut the Kielbasa up and mixed it in with the potato salad. It'll be quite tasty. (Added a little cider vinegar.)

Major triumph tonight. Fixed leaking toilet with WD-40. The thing in the tank that was supposed to rise and cut off the water wasn't rising. The WD-40 fixed that. Hallelujah. A cheap fix. Nite! (The WD-40 guy passed away recently. God bless him.)

Tuesday night

Tonight I visited B. at his place of business. He seemed fine. Everything's patched up between him and the BF. (He said they both had had too much to drink at the beach on Sunday.) B. said the BF had never threatened to kick him out before. If he's OK with everything, I'm not going to worry. He also said he would be allowed to stay at his mom's for two weeks (per year, I guess). Last night I was really rattled (after talking yesterday with B.'s friend--she'd brought up the ongoing domestic problems) but I'm OK now. I also gave B. the number of a gay men's domestic abuse hotline. I know that B. is not violent, but I got the impression from B.'s friend that the other one was. She told me she worries about his well-being in that situation, which only made me worry. (And she said she talks to him every day.) She even warned me not to call B. on his cell yesterday in case the other one might be around (he doesn't work--and has two boys) or, I guess, discover my number on his phone. (I'd already been warned by the BF not to call B., so I wasn't about to.)

If the guy has two boys (as I found out today), I don't see what's in it for B. The boys will be looked after (in whatever way) before B. ever is. Judging by the BF's calls on Sunday, B. is disposable (and, no doubt, replaceable). (Maybe B. doesn't realize this yet.) (Love is blind?)

I myself was in an abusive relationship and (at work) called a hotline based in San Francisco and ended up getting professional counseling here in town. The counselor said to move out -- that things wouldn't get any better. I did move out shortly afterward, after the BF threatened my cats. (He said, "Don't be surprised if you come home someday and your cats are gone.") I immediately went out and got an apartment, right on Arch Creek, by the way, with manatees and all.

I'd lived on Arch Creek years earlier, before Hurricane Andrew. I was on the ground floor (it was only a two-story building), and Andrew was supposed to hit here, near the county line. I was ready for a flood. Then Andrew made land farther south.

I'm back to not trusting B., which is a good sign my own self-preservation is kicking back in. (And here I'd felt so bad for him.) If I were the BF, I wouldn't trust B. either, considering how the BF was able to lure B. away from here. (Perhaps B. could just as easily be lured away by someone else.) (Maybe that's why the BF keeps him on a leash.) But I trust the BF even less. I'm not a player in this game, however. I need stability. I can't deal with the drama.

Our current US healthcare system has a better cost control method than killing old people: kill them off before they get old

From Firedoglake here.

It is interesting to note that for those age 65 is where the US performs best (though not the near the best among other high income countries). The average growth rates in life expectancy for all age groups in other high income countries seems to be accelerating, while it is stagnating for younger groups in the US, except for young women. However, both elderly men and women have accelerating growth rates in life expectancy, though, again, the growth rate is not among the best.

This relatively better performance among the elderly gives evidence in favor of healthcare reform. Two of the three groups with accelerating life expectancies in the US are the elderly, who have near universal coverage. The high levels of life expectancy and the accelerating growth rates give evidence that more regulated government financed universal health care system does not mean poorer care for the elderly.

Remember that other high income countries provide universal care for all ages, and perform better at all ages and for both sexes, and at lower cost.

If people are going to sling disgusting charges of euthanasia and eldercide around, then I propose the following response, backed up by data. The current US system has gone one step better than eldercide and has adopted a policy of saving money by killing off people before they get elderly. The current system shows more variety and sparkle than a glum gray socialist dystopia that would kill all of the elderly. The US system was killing off old women for twenty years, until around 2000. Since then it has switched modes into killing off old men, who seem to have had it too good for a long while, and perhaps were getting swelled heads. . . .

Monday night

I stayed up last night (but not past bedtime) with the phone line open in case anyone should call. Today I talked to a close friend of B.'s. She said B. was "home." So he didn't get kicked out of his place last night and become "homeless," as the BF had threatened. That was good news.

I was glad to hear that B. is in constant touch with this friend. She told me the situation is really bad and that she fears for his safety. B. was off today, but I'm going to call him at work tomorrow. (I don't dare call him on his cell phone.) (The BF had told me a while back that if I wanted to contact B., I had to call the BF and he would make arrangements.) This guy's a maniac. And B. was just Baby Huey enough to fall for this guy's enticements (including drugs maybe?). (B. had made a reference to himself as "Baby Huey" when we first met. Maybe somebody had called him that in his past.)

From the linked article:

A hungry fox would show up feigning friendship and setting traps along the way. At first Huey was blissfully unaware of the fox's true agenda. But as his peers watched the annoyed fox in action from a safe distance (and fearing for his safety just as they did their own), he came to realize the truth about his predator and dispose of him, usually by saying: "I think you're trying to kill me!", and would finish the fox. . . .

I'm going to call B. tomorrow.

Reality Check: The Website

See here.

FACT CHECK: No 'death panel' in health care bill

Time to put these crackpot ideas to rest. AP story here.

Aug 10th, 2009 | WASHINGTON -- Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin says the health care overhaul bill would set up a "death panel." Federal bureaucrats would play God, ruling on whether ailing seniors are worth enough to society to deserve life-sustaining medical care. Palin and other critics are wrong.

Nothing in the legislation would carry out such a bleak vision. The provision that has caused the uproar would instead authorize Medicare to pay doctors for counseling patients about end-of-life care, if the patient wishes. Here are some questions and answers on the controversy:

Q: Does the health care legislation bill promote "mercy killing," or euthanasia?

A: No.

Q: Then what's all the fuss about?

A: A provision in the House bill written by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., would allow Medicare to pay doctors for voluntary counseling sessions that address end-of-life issues. The conversations between doctor and patient would include living wills, making a close relative or a trusted friend your health care proxy, learning about hospice as an option for the terminally ill, and information about pain medications for people suffering chronic discomfort. . . .

Q: Who supports the provision?

A: The American Medical Association, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and Consumers Union are among the groups supporting the provision. AARP, the seniors' lobby, is taking out print advertisements this week that label as false the claim that the legislation will empower the government to take over life-and-death decisions from individuals.

Q: Should the federal government be getting involved with living wills and end-of-life questions -- decisions that are highly personal and really difficult?

A: It already is.

The government requires hospitals to ask adult patients if they have a living will, or "advance directive." If the patient doesn't have one, and wants one, the hospital has to provide assistance. The mandate on hospitals was instituted during a Republican administration, in 1992, under President George H.W. Bush. . . .

They asked me whether I had a living will when I went in for the colonoscopy and gastroscopy not long ago. (I've had one for years.) Everybody should have one. Modern medicine can keep you alive almost indefinitely in some kind of hopeless brain-dead state. It's basically a waste of your and your family's money. (But the hospitals and doctors are happy to take it.)

But see here ("We have 'death panels' already.") You should be worried about these guys.

Obama's Weekly Address: Necessary Reform, Absurd Attacks