A Short History of Medicine

"Doctor, I have an earache."

2000 B.C. -- "Here, eat this root."

1000 A.D. -- "That root is heathen; say this prayer."

1850 A.D. -- "That prayer is superstition; drink this potion."

1940 A.D. -- "That potion is snake oil; swallow this pill."

1985 A.D. -- "That pill is ineffective; take this antibiotic."

2000 A.D. -- "That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this root!"

Thanks to Marc Shea

Personal best 10K time!

I ran my personal best 10k today. Not really all that impressive, as it was my first 10K run today. My video crew filmed a bit near the end, in which I have been running an hour.

Time: 1:00:06

Shoes: River shoes (see previous blog entry)

Style: Forefooted running style (aka: barefooted style)

Calories burned: 890

Distance covered: 6.21 miles (10k... duh)

Aftermath:

Cardiovascular system, no issues, I had plenty of wind. Lower back, Forefooted style is with a straight back and level head, no issues. Knees, no issues. Shin splints, no issue. Ankles, no issue. Feet, nothing structural. I did suffer some blisters on my big toe. Next time I will need some socks to wick away the sweat in the river shoes. Yes, I said next time. Calf muscles, strained and sore. In getting the running style down I have a tendency to not let my heel touch the ground at all. I believe I have this issue resolved.

I cannot recall needing to ingest food like I did after the race. In a good way. More to follow, I have to go ride bikes with Connor now.

Quiz about Health Care Law.

Which of the following statements is true about Government run health care?

• It is financially unsustainable, increasing the deficit beyond our national means.
• It is unconstitutional and will be overturned in the courts.
• A Republican majority in the next Congress will repeal it.
• It will fail in the Legislative process because of procedural manipulation by the Democrat leadership.
• Doctors will refuse service to patients seeking subsidized, under market care.
• It will cause health insurance premiums to become so expensive that the entire system to collapse.

We want, we need, we desire

'The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it'. ~~Ronald Reagan

While our representatives ignore the massive outpouring of constituents screaming at the top of their lungs to stop Obamacare at the shredding of the constitution of the United States. I am reminded of the human nature lessons I learned on the phone doing Sales for Dell Computers.

People like lots of stuff until they see the price tag.

While at Dell the training started with qualifying the customer. That means finding out if they could pay and how much they could pay. Just a quick note: salespeople are not your friend, they are friendly as a means to an end. I would find people who claim to have no budget are going to say "thats too expensive." This is true of citizens .vs. government.

Do we want excellent healthcare? yes. Do we want safe food? yes. Do we want everyone to have a job? yes. Do we want the homeless to have have shelter, be fed and made into productive citizens? yes. Do we want our elderly taken care of? yes.

Do we want to pay for all of the above? That all depends.

Big government does not work. It has never worked, it will never worked. I recently had a discussion about the end of the USA. 100 years was the discussed figure. To me that depends on the healthcare vote. 100 years could be optimistic.

The Government is causing Obesity!

My buddy Flying Van is hostile towards school lunches. I believe he feels that the government is spending his money incorrectly. A point I am in agreement with.

The idea behind the lunch entitlement is that poor people can not afford to buy food or they care so little about the kids they have they choose not to feed them or they lack the training on how to purchase and prepare food. Seeing how kids are required to go to school, this makes it a logical place to feed these poor starving kids, who must be thinking about their empty stomachs instead of learning reading, writing and arithmetics.

That is to say your brain needs calories to function. Add to that the fact that hunger is a distraction and you have a prime example of the Government aiding education!

One of the primary problems with the above idea that people are starving. No doubt there are people in the US, who cannot access the cornucopia of goodness. If someone is starving the human thing to do is to get them fed, then have them to feed themselves. Finally have them help feed those who are starving.

So holding a parent responsible for providing for their child gets jettisoned. Having a community wanting to help the less fortunate is also jettisoned. And the chance of the child learning to feed themselves is shunted towards letting the government feed you.

Case in point: If you are on food stamps the USDA added incentives and other changes that targets the link between Obesity and Food Stamps with an idea to trim rampant obesity rates among low-income groups. Obesity is not caused by starvation... Right?

So we know that food stamps, from the government, are making poor people fat. Now I read that school lunches are not just making sure that hungry kid has sustenance to insure better performance. No our School lunch program, from the government, are making hungry kids Obese.

I never got\purchased school lunches. My mom made me a sandwich with some fruit and veg for quite a number of years. Sadly, many of those lunches were never eaten. Sometime around third grade I was responsible for my own lunch. Which means I had breakfast and dinner at home and ignored lunch. In HS I was on swim team and had instant breakfast (beats upchucking). Again, if I did have some lunch it was not everyday.

Basically, I was too lazy to make a lunch and too busy to bother with lunch. When I did eat, I made up for the missing meals. I did a pretty good job of burning off any extra calories as well.

Now my daughter needs to have regular intervals of food intake or she gets listless. My nephew would have to eat a certain nutritional balance to avoid nasty headaches.

To my way of thinking. Yes, we need to feed habitually hungry kids. The parents need to be held responsible or face some kind of consequence. Funding a Union does not seem to be covering the basic need.

Schools = social experiment with no outcome requirement.

Assume you are married and have a child who has a driving license a car which they support. Further, said child has an issue with driving too fast. As a parent you want to make sure they are safe and obeying the law.

What are the degree of options?

Do not allow them to drive is at one end with Do nothing at the other. I propose that most parents will do something within those parameters. I can think of a handful of discussion and demonstrations that would be pretty persuasive. In other words I would be inclined to have a sliding scale starting with discussion and education, which falls closer to the Do Nothing end.

The above analogy is a pretty typical problem solving exercise. Analogy? Oh, did I forget to mention this is about Childhood Obesity?

Obesity does have a number of health risk factors. It is a problem. So how to solve that problem?

Same degrees of options apply Do nothing to incarcerate the individual until they show proper health habits...

Seeing as how we do have mandatory schooling in this country and, to me, this is an educational issue. How about evaluating each kids health and informing the parents?

Or Having a class on exercise and health benefits, with Instruction, Hands on and Reading components makes a certain degree of sense.

If you wanted the same thing but done private sector you could push that burden to insurance companies with something like lower rates if your fit, or some insane idea like that.

Federally you could impose a Fat Tax on anyone obese. (okay, getting to much on the sillier end of things).

Of course you do need to factor in that being Fat does not pose health risks to everyone. (Here is the layman term press release of same). There are "thin" people with the same health issues as fatter ones. So why target the fat? Why not target the unhealthy? or why target anyone? Why not target everyone?

At Connors school the decided to eliminate the icing from the cinnamon rolls (because 48 less calories will solve obesity in children?). They also made the soda machines carry non-sugar\low sugar beverages. Anyone who has met Connor can see he is not in the fat category. If you spend a day with him, you know he falls into the fit category as well. Further he has a very tough time with Change. So I get a phone call from a lunch lady (who apparently loves Connor's demeanor) asking permission to add icing to his cinnamon roll. Curiously, I was not consulted to remove said icing.

As for the soda machines, what was the outcome? Jr. High students left campus to the corner store and bought a 64 ounce soda, instead of the 12 ounce they were drinking. So kids drank MORE SUGAR!

Fiscal responsibility.

Obama, to much fan-fair, Praised the Pay-as-you-go rule. The media high-fived and there was much rejoicing. There was talk of fiscal responsibility and joyous singing praise of the deficit hawk Obama. The meaning, at first glance, is to make sure any bill is funded prior to passing. That means you cut other programs or raise revenue by some other means. That sounds good right? Not adding to the debt or deficit with any new expense. Pres. Barry says: “the American people are tired of politicians who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk when it comes to fiscal responsibility.”

The same bill raised the deficit limit to 14.3 Trillion. This is disturbing to anyone who has a household budget. Liberals just shrug and think it is a good thing to borrow that much more money to help the economy. Because nothing makes you richer then being in more debt... [/facepalm]. Also, because they passed PayGo they are now fiscally responsible... Trust in them...

Enter Senator Jim Bunning who stated his intent to block a $10 billion spending bill until it is offset by cuts elsewhere, or payed-for-as-they-go. Which should have gotten him the same high praise from the media right? I mean Pres. Obama got accolades as did the Congress for fiscal responsibility? This is a Republican joining the Democrats! Bi-Partisan support for PayGo! This is winning!

Nope, Jim Bunning is\was being vilified for his mean spirited fiscal responsibility. So as I sit mystified at the MSM and the hypocrisy. The Democrats are going to pass healthcare despite the fact they do not have the votes, nor the ability to under the rules that they operate. Pelosi said this is the most Ethical Congress ever! Which can only be true if your Ethics are situational...

Source:

Bunning’s Spending Hold Makes Him a Cad to TV Nets, Focus on His Supposed Victims

Jim Bunning's fiscal hardball jams GOP

More on the Bunning Benefits Blockade

Superbowl Abortion advertisement

Copy Pasted from here: By Jeff Miller

Being both a Catholic pundit and living in Gator country by contract I am required to comment on the Im Tebow Superbowl ad. A lot of pixels and ink have already been spilled over this so I will spill some more.

Those who support legal abortion often chaff at being called pro-abortion - the much prefer pro-choice. No doubt they believe this is the case, but in reality there are few if any who see abortion and not having an abortion both a morally neutral acts of exactly the same weight. After all what was the last time you saw a Planned Parenthood Maternity Ward or a NARAL Home for Unwed Mothers.

The fuss over the Tim Tebow ad really proves this. The ad presents one side of choice so what is the big deal to them? A mother talking about the decision to choose life is not exactly controversial since all of our mothers did exactly the same thing.

The obvious reason they hate they so much is that it shows the reality of "choice" the existence or the snuffing out of a human being. Over the years more and more people whose mothers considered abortion and decided against it have been talking about this fact. They are survivors of a "choice". There is also the case of abortion survivor Gianna Jessen who lived despite the attempt to abort her. The pro-abortion side is upset that they can't run similar ads. In fact they have been able to find zero aborted babies willing to film a Superbowl or any other ad for them. They can't even find people who want to take their mothers to task for having them. Those that each day regret their mothers did not abort them.

Tim Tebow does not represent a tissue mass or any other ecumenism euphemism for a child in the womb, but the normal consequence of not stopping life while in the womb. A Heisman Trophy winner is present because he mother choose life over the doctor's suggestion. Though Joy Behar said he could just as easily have become a "racist." Great idea Joy Behar - we should kill all children to prevent such an occurrence. Seeing Tim Tebow and hearing this story can remind us of the 50 Million individual persons who did not survive their mother's choice.

The abortion industry and abortion supporters have always been about minimizing or hiding reality. Women are told across the world falsehoods about the stages of the child in their womb. Terms are used to describe this that have no bearing on the reality. Over and over Ultrasound has been called a weapon because it helps to visualize reality. Laws requiring that women be properly informed about the life in the womb and presented with factual medical and scientific information about this are blocked time and again by the pro-abortion crowd.

A mother choosing life is polarizing and divisive. What a sick culture we live in.

A rather odd fact is that Planned Parenthood is responding to this ad by having two men, an ex-footbal player and a Gold Medalist, talking about women's rights being respected. Now could you imagine the outcry of a pro-life ad involving two men talking against abortion? The pro-abortion crowd would go crazy criticizing it for being so out of touch and not being able to speak for women.

Though I guess Planned Parenthood could get lots of men who favor abortion to do commercials for them. They could speak how abortion saved them from being trapped in a relationship. How abortion enabled them to maintain their lifestyle of treating women as objects and to keep pretending their was not natural consequence of sex. Predatory males certainly love legal abortion. In the meantime pro-abortion supporters want to remain to keep their head in the sand and to deny that a women's choice determines if a person will continue to live or not. Tim Tebow should just go away and not remind them of the consequence of "choice".

For us who are pro-life it reminds us to pray for those mothers in difficult situations that are considering abortion as a solution and to help them in every possible way that we can.

Crazy is as Crazy does.

Discussion on Flying Van and Shoo's blog reminded me of a Froggy story.

His dad (I believe as my sieve like brain tells me) was working with a gentleman with a mental disorder. The nature of this disorder manifested itself in the gentleman assuming he was dead. He walked around and spoke and did all the normal everyday things. He would just purport to be demised.

During the course of discourse Froggy's dad came up with a hypothesis he presented.

"Tell me, dear sir, can dead people bleed?"

"Can dead people bleed? Of course not! are you mad?"

"Seeing as how your dead, we should do a pin prick test on your finger to prove to me your state"

The man agreed and a pin prick later the blood did flow. The man was quite taken aback and stared at the crimson liquid as it slowly flowed.

"Amazing, what do you know! Dead people DO BLEED!"

~fin~

Solving the Worlds problems

Periodically the topic of a conversation will orbit around solving the worlds problems. The notion is that the world is bad and overall people are sheepish and dullards. If only they would adopt a certain mindset etc. life would be come utopia.

Childhood Obesity is one of those "save the world" issues, that everyone has a good idea about how to fix.

The problem is that someone took a couple of surveys (1976–1980 and 2003–2006) that show that the prevalence of obesity has increased: for children aged 2–5 years, prevalence increased from 5.0% to 12.4%; for those aged 6–11 years, prevalence increased from 6.5% to 17.0%; and for those aged 12–19 years, prevalence increased from 5.0% to 17.6%.1, 46

This was reported in the media with their typical doom and gloom flourish, that makes you wring your hands in worry and shame. Of course there is a spin on this that points badly at the lifestyle in the USA. Fast food, video games, bad parents, processed foods, not enough tax dollars etc.

When solving the worlds problem conversations crop up there is usually a chorus of "someone should do something!"

It occurs that the problem could be the survey, if we stopped taking surveys....?

Morbidly Fit

BMI scale is misused by Health Care professionals.

Lloyd was a work out partner of mine. This was not by intention, rather, by serendipity. As a newly wed I got a membership to Gold Gym and would start my mornings with a robust workout. I answered a bellowing call to spot Lloyds benchpress. After that he 'helped' me with my workouts. Even now the sore muscle memory hits me.

Lloyd was a Body builder, he had some success but would complain about the drug use. Also, the politics that made size more important then symmetry and definition. Lloyd was a Natural body builder and had to put in the hours instead of the juice. This was before the steroid issues blew up. Turns out he was spot on about the overuse. Anyways, this man was genetically gifted. He stood around 6'4" and 285 lbs. at 5% body fat. He was a regular marathon runner as well. Quick read. He was in shape.

Now in the course of human events he had a kid by someone he was not married too. He had left the lifestyle in order to provide for his kid. So he was working at the Oil Fields and working out morning and night.

Lloyd had tried to get life insurance, he was denied for being Morbidly Obese. This was done by someone sitting in a cubical looking on some actuarial charts. Fighting the system resulted in him driving all over the southland visiting various doctors and then going to others to confirm that he was NOT obese.

The Body Mass Index (BMI) is a statistical measurement which compares a person's weight and height to identify weight problems within a population. It was invented between 1830 and 1850 by Adolphe Quetelet, get that 19th Century!

Dr. GJ Hamwi's developed a more comprehensive formula designed for a person with a light, medium, or heavy frame.

For medium frame men: 106 lb for the first 5 ft; 6 lb for each inch over 5 ft

or

Weight for a Male 5 ft 11.5 in Tall: 175 lb

Light Frame: 158 lb

Heavy Frame: 193 lb

No formula can predict ideal body weight accurately. There are too many differences in body types, frame size and body composition. If you want to REALLY know, do an immersion test. Find out your body composition and you are better informed.

My Spoon is too big

Well my clothes are actually...

I grabbed a favorite shirt of mine and went out to eat recently. This particular dinner has been blogged about below with pictures. My shirt looks like crap on me, because it had been on a much larger version of me.

All my old shirts are too big. This, is very annoying to me for a couple of reasons. I LIKE my old shirts but when you put on a dress shirt and its like tucking in a spinnaker sail IT LOOKS LIKE GATHERED CRAP!

It was bad enough that my Briefs had turned into Boxers (I do not like boxers). Now my shirt collection is requiring being purged! Tee-shirts can be worn big. It is even comfortable. Sweat Shirts I prefer big. It turns out there is something to be said for work shirts that fit.

Do NOT get me wrong. I am well pleased that for the first time in 30 years I am below 200 pounds. I just never took into account that my wardrobe would become obsolete.

Silly me...

Okay, I feel better (until I look at my FORMER shirts again)... So anyways. I went to the Doctors today. My NEW doctor. My old one saw the writing on the wall and opted for early retirement then face the Government Rationed Healthcare system that seems to be coming our way.

This new doctor was not born in the USA. No big deal, but I am starting to wonder if there are ANY new doctors being born in the USA... And I got a bit of a life shock, this may or may not make sense\be funny to anyone out there depending upon your age and experience.

THIS DOCTOR IS YOUNGER THEN ME! For the first time EVER! yes, it was a fundamental shift in my universe. Shocking to say the least. Doctor baby face was nice enough, he apparently enjoys his laptop computer as he spent much more time looking at it then at me. I was anxious to hear how my blood work went. Being Type II, and having shunned 88 pounds, you can understand.

He starts explaining things, with an increasingly confusing loop the loop of information:

Doc: Okay your blood test results are excellent, your numbers are at the upper range for normal.

Me: Wow, Normal? Great I was hoping to get off my medication.

Doc babyF: Well, your numbers are normal for a regular person.

Me: I have daily bowel movements, I am not sure what that has to do with...

Doc babyF: No I mean your blood work would show your not diabetic in a normal person.

Me: I'm not a normal person?

Doc babyF: You have Diabetes.

Me: Yes, but with my weight loss I was thinking I would be able to reverse that. Now you say my numbers show my blood sugars are normal! That means I'm Cured!

Doc babyF: No, it doesnt, you still have diabetes. If you Did NOT have diabetes your blood test would be normal.

Me: Did the numbers before show I had dabetes?

Doc babyF: Yes, most assuradly.

Me: and now the numbers show my blood is the same as a normal, non-type II person?

Doc babyF: Exactly correct.

Me: So the only reason I am not cured NOW is because I was diagnosed earlier?

Doc babyF: Yes, that is correct.

Me: ........................................wtf?

Anyways. My BP is phenomenal! My Cholesterol is Excellent! My weight is a tad high (according to a highly flawed calculation called BMI, but so be it).

All in all I am a much healthier human being, just in time for Christmas! Now if I just had something to wear!

Don't Copy Europe's Mistakes: Less Government Is the Right Way to Fix Healthcare

House Bill linked

If your interested in the House version of the Health Care reform, Click here. The Senate Bill has not been posted as of yet. There is a strong suggestion that it should be posted. Which will hopefully allow We the People to peruse what they are wanting to do.

As far as the House bill goes. Per the Heritage Foundation: "The bottom line is: Almost everybody will pay more, and a new appointed bureaucrat will make your health care choices for you."

Contact your Senator, let them know how you want them to vote.

Contact your House representative, let them know how you want them to vote.

• Number one: let families and businesses buy health insurance across state lines.
• Number two: allow individuals, small businesses, and trade associations to pool together and acquire health insurance at lower prices, the same way large corporations and labor unions do.
• Number three: give states the tools to create their own innovative reforms that lower health care costs.
• Number four: end junk lawsuits that contribute to higher health care costs by increasing the number of tests and procedures that physicians sometimes order not because they think it's good medicine, but because they are afraid of being sued.

Calorie information might not influence fast food choices

Calorie information might not influence fast food choices

Lesson in well intentioned interference by the government not yielding any results. Do not get me wrong, I like being able to look up nutritional information.

I tend to avoid places that do not allow me to check them out (especially when I am on a goal to get my weight down). Making an informed choice is a good thing.

Obesity is a problem. Is it a government problem? Is there a government solution? With the government take over of Health Care, you can bet they are going to exert all the control they can. Already we see regulation after regulation on how to make food. Talk about taxing certain "bad" products to stop consumption. Imagine what was done to smoking, but on food choices.

Results never seem to matter with Government. The effort to do "whats right", regardless of the outcome, regardless of what freedoms are lost, regardless of the Damage.

All comes back to the horrid excuse of humanity: "I only had the best of intentions"

**UPDATE: Todays Wall Street Journal

Government run health care (*again*)

One of the arguments FOR the public option is the insurance companies rejecting claims. Said public option would somehow be better.

Beverly Gossage, Research Fellow for Show-Me Institute and founder of HSA Benefits Consulting wondered which insurance companies rejected the most claims. She found her answer in the AMA’s own 2008 National Health Insurer Report Card. Well now this is interesting

The Medicare denial rate found in the study was roughly 1.7 times that of all of the private carriers combined.

You would think Medicare's sheer size might enable it to have smoother procedures with its providers that would enable it to turn down a lower percentage of claims.

Why should Americans accept the idea of a government-run system when, based on documented government experience, they will be more likely to see their claims denied?

Lest we forget almost every state run system has refusals to treat in the first place! Which is currently against the law in hospital emergency rooms in the U.S.

Additional Link

Ridin' de bike mon!

This AM I opted to go on a bike ride. I have a goal in the back of my mind for riding up to Eugene. So this was the start of that, if you will. It was cloudy and cold but not threatening. The weather appeared to be cooperating. Dressing for success I went with the sweats with windbreakers and my handy gloves. I had a backpack in case I needed less layers. I filled a flagon of H20 and loaded the bike into the van. My route was pretty simple, start at Tinas work and ride home. I like the concept of going home better then a destination as it seems more relaxing at the end.

The drive was quick enough, we kissed goodbye and I mounted up. Immediately my eyes must have gotten very sad, as the tear ducts started flowing. This was followed by my nose. I made sure I was not crying with a quick mental check and continued onwards. I abated the flow of mucus from said nostrils by circling my breathing. In through the nose out through the mouth. This produces an amusing amount of steam. It was 42 degrees, so thats to be expected. Soon my various body parts figured out crying was no good and they settled down to a less embarrassing, internally containable flow.

My scientific mind would attribute the change in environment from the warm car to the cold air required biological adjustments, and as my body preformed them that particular function was running as required.

The town of Sutherlin quickly vanished as I rode past houses with increasingly sized yards in various states of tidiness. There was one sculptured lawn that gave me some mental notes for my own wild overgrowth. Soon I was on the lonely highway. Just me my bike and those few vehicles. I was actually moving along more quickly then I had considered. I was keeping a good 16 mph pace. At the 15 minute mark I stopped and drank some water, as I understand hydration is very important.

The hills were not difficult but they did require some effort and reduction in gearing. As I have not a clue what the shifting is supposed to be (as I am sure there are a multitude of opinions and facts on the subject) I kept the left gear on 2 (options being 1, 2, 3) and the right gear on 6 (options being 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). For the hill I dropped down to 4 and on the flats got back up to 6. My MPH suffered a bit. The all to brief downhill did not play too much of a part in the entire trip.

Near our community collage is the bigger hill. At the top is a rural fire station. This gave me pause to drink more fluid. In anticipation of the next hurdle. The Umpqua bridge. This is a narrow two lane bridge that Trevor had much angst about the crossing. He recounted there being a near impossible turn, I myself was unsure of the height of the siderails, the thought of having a mishap over the edge was a minor consideration, but a consideration nonetheless.

As it turns out the rail was high enough, the sidewalk was single file narrow but ample for a deliberate rider. The turn at the end was easy to ignore with a bunny hop back to the pavement. This took me into the town of Winchester (don't blink!). I pit stopped for some calorie intake and found my legs stiffened up. Not sure if that was a good or bad idea, sitting there like that.

Back on the bike I started the gradual climb into Roseburg. I opted to have ear coverings, I hate when my ears get really cold. With the humidity in the air and the colder temperature they would have been aching. My toes got cold through my shoes. I have considered getting bike shoes that lock into the peddles. I need to make sure they are not vented in the front. Along the zipper of my jacket I noticed the cold creeping inwards.

All in all nothing uncomfortable or unmanageable as I crossed into the annexed city line. In hindsight I should have continued my 15min ride couple min break. but, I forgot.

As I headed down the last stretch I got fatigue. I geared down to my hill climbing 4 and still was having a tougher time riding. This was VERY noticeable, as I ride this way to and from work and I do so at a very brisk pace. It was then that my mind kicked me and said (DRINK DUMMY).

I stopped in front of the former nudie bar and finished off my liquid. It is astonishing how much that little break helped. I was in better form and even made the climb back up to my driveway.

Trip was 15.12 miles taking 1:08:13. This puts me around 15 mph (which is above goal! yeah me!). I burned around 890 calories.

So now for Ibuprofen, water and not moving all that much for recovery. My abductors felt thrashed and the connecting tissue on the right outer thigh (medial collateral ligament?) seems a bit distressed. Oddest of all my sternocleidomastoid muscle (left side back of neck from behind the ear down to the shoulder), is stiffer. I guess it is from bearing body weight from the handle bars. Not sure.

Good first ride!

Where in I discuss my thighs.

My T-shirts.... *snif* my T-shirts are much to big. They have a good 12 inches of girth around them. That means they are destined for the rag pile before their time. Sad really, few things are better in life then donning a soft, comfortable, T-shirt after a good days work.

It is one of those I-lost-weight-observations that I had not considered prior to said observation occurring. Odd that...

Previously I observed my fat head, now my old hats fit without inducing a migraine. Also, it takes a substantial change to notice you "feel better" and that is a mental, not physical state. Also, riding a bike sans 60+ lbs is much more fun.

My river sandals no longer fit tight. I would be out of pants if not for my buddy Jack who lost weight as well, sent me a care package of his "fat clothes" (he went from 210 to 148).

I think my hockey roller skates will fit again. Need to test that theory out.

My shirts that fit are now being confused with my son Trevor's on laundry day.

People only give you compliments to a certain weight, then they start cautioning you. It goes from "Wow, your looking good!" to "Your wasting away."

Then the oddest observation yet thus far. Leg hair. To be specific inner thigh leg hair.

At a certain point the fatty deposits around the upper thighs can lead to a "meeting in the middle." This provides a near constant friction that will lop off the hairs at skin level. It can also lead to chaffing and other unpleasant details I opt not to elucidate upon.

Lo and behold while doing a biological function on a porcelain decedent of John Crappers lifestyle changer. I made note of a hirsute addition to my previously shorn abductors.

I pondered for a moment, as one does. Finally coming to the aforementioned conclusion.

This overall event left me both curious and fearful of what will be next.

Astounding Engimatic Happy Kid FTW!

My youngest, Connor, is a bright happy kid. He is gentle kind, enjoys the world around him. He is also language delayed autistic. So going the the dentist is very different for him. It requires him to be fully sedated. Get that? Under via IV drip for the duration of his dentist trip.

Sedation frightens the hell out of me, because I know how many things can go wrong. Now his dentist is very good and has an impeccable track record, in all ways he is a professional and damn near peerless in his skills. Still intellectualize all you want, my darling baby boy is going to be fed drugs until unconscious. It just does not sit right, and probably never will.

This is one of the few times I recognize a burden with Autism. Something that would normally require a "be brave kid" instead is Draconian. Due to some evil well meaning pre-school teachers he still cannot abide his hair being cut for as long as needed. Having them clear out the barber shop so you can restrain your kid while the understanding barber does his job is taxing, humiliating and can be viewed as cruel.

Still with diligence and modeling we have gotten him to the point were he will allow the hair cutting to a reasonable point.

The last go around they tried to induce a dream like state. No go. Then they tried Gas. No go. Then they did an IV. I have never seen someone fight against going under like he did. Seriously his will power blew me away.

He spent the next 24 hours lethargic and vomiting. I felt unevenly, because I knew this needed to be done, yet my heart broke seeing him in this situation. He had a follow-up and after the long trial of his first go around he was able to open his mouth and let them work. His legs nervously moved and his hands were on either side of his face.

Flash forward, today. Connor is going in for cleaning, x-rays and possibly drilling. I REALLY am feeling the angst. He just does not comprehend what is going on and it has to be justifiably frightening and confusing.

I really expected the worse. Lo and behold he did not need sedation. He was willing to allow them to do their job, they let him hold and look at the instruments and with mirrors observe the procedure. They were even able to get him to laugh here and there. I'm dumbfounded.

Somehow he was able to put together in his mind that this was uncomfortable but important. Imagine, if you will, the difficulty in explaining what someone is going to work in your mouth with a hook scraping your teeth? Futher, say you have to use a HIGHLY limited vocabulary and the person has no experience to draw comparisons too. Somewhere in that skull lurks a highly deductive, brilliant mind.

Singapore Health something to ponder

Singapore spends a third of what the U.S. does on health care (as a percentage of GDP) yet has better health indicators. Of course, much of this may be attributable to lifestyle differences rather than a superior health care system. Nevertheless, the Singapore system has some very interesting characteristics:

• There are mandatory health savings accounts: “Individuals pre-save for medical expenses through mandatory deductions from their paychecks and employer contributions… Only approved categories of medical treatment can be paid for by deducting one’s Medi-save account, for oneself, grandparents, parents, spouse or children: consultations with private practitioners for minor ailments must be paid from out-of-pocket cash…”

• “The private health care system competes with the public health care, which helps contain prices in both directions. Private medical insurance is also available.”

• Private health care providers are required to publish price lists to encourage comparison shopping.

• The government pays for “basic health care services… subject to tight expenditure control.” Bottom line: The government pays 80% of “basic public health care services.”

• Government plays a big role with contagious disease, and adds some paternalism on top: “Preventing diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tobacco-related illnesses by ensuring good health conditions takes a high priority.”

• The government provides optional low-cost catastrophic health insurance, plus a safety net “subject to stringent means-testing.”

• Almost all care is subject to significant co-pays. Instituting co-pays is an important means to control cost.

So a proven system, not socialist or fascist.