Sometimes there is not enough to write a complete blog--just not enough meat on the bone to sustain it from start to finish. Seems that I have run into that proverbial wall known as "writer's block". I have a lot of ideas--actually random thoughts--sprouting up in that rock garden located between my ears, but nothing that is worthwhile. So . . . I'll go with the random thoughts.
Sometime between mid-November of 2011 and January 1st of 2012 the state of Montana crossed the nexus of one million residents. Yep, Big Sky Country now has a population over a million, but most Montanans looked around on New Year's Day and didn't notice anything any different. But somewhere out there in the great state of Montana is an individual--someone who was either born in the state or moved into the state from somewhere else--who is the actual millionth person. I'm betting the person moved to Montana as I still find it difficult to find many born and bred Montanans. Yep, were moving on up. At this rate we should hit two million in about a hundred years!
According to the weather forecasters for Montana, December was just about the windiest it has ever been for the state. Mostly it seemed to be blowing out of the east, but what did we expect? It is the start of another presidential election year and the Iowa Caucus was just completed--might explain all the unseasonably warm weather we been having so far this winter. Whatever the cause, it has been windy. I'm getting used to it--I sort of enjoying leaning to the right--gives me a whole new perspective on the world. Actually, most of the wind seems to blow out of the northwest and a long-time resident told me that it was because Idaho blows and Wyoming sucks. Not quite sure about that one, but it makes as much sense as anything else.
Health . . . care . . . there are two words I no longer believe should go together. For awhile now I have been hearing about the experiences of folks who have had to deal with the healthcare system--they have not been pleasant. In the paper a guy in eastern Montana shot himself in the leg in the parking lot of the local hospital because he was desperate for pain medication. He says the doctors refused to give him medication. The doctors imply that he was becoming addicted. The truth probably lays between here and there, but the bottom line was the guy was in pain. Shooting yourself in the leg gets results--not quite sure how they are going to charge the insurance company for that one. A friend has a daughter sitting in the hospital in South Dakota--going on nine days now. This twenty-something year old is pregnant with her second child, has been in the hospital several times with this pain since mid-summer, and the doctors cannot figure anything else. In the meantime she suffers and wants to go home to her husband and toddler, but the doctors don't want her to go home. So they keep coming up with tests to run while the ol' meter keeps on running up the bill. There is not much care going on in this situation, but the hospital gets paids no matter what.
There was a time when doctors actually advocated for their patients--honored the "do no harm" oath they sweared to, but that is getting more and more difficult all of the time. I don't blame the doctors because they are no longer running the healthcare industry--insurance companies are. As much as the doctors would love to put the "caring" back into healthcare, it is prettty difficult when they have to check out the insurance codes before making a decision. Of course I am no esxpert on the topic, and this is just my opinion. Most folks don't put much credence in my opinions, but it sure would be nice if the first question from a hospital was, "Are you doing okay?" instead of, "Do you have insurance?" This I know from experience from taking the number three son into many hospital emergency rooms when he was having seizures. I say we need to put the "care" back into healthcare!
Well, my beloved Uniersity of Nebraska Cornhuskers--Big Red--ended the season with a convincing loss to the University of South Carolina Gamecocks. What the heck is a "gamecock"? Big Red looked like a balloon that slowly leaked air out until it was flat by the fourth quarter. It was an effort in futility and almost an embarrassment especially when the offense had four penalties in a row at one point. What made it worse was watching the head coach--Bo Pelini ranting and raving on the sidelines. It was an uphill battle from the beginning, but Bo is losing it and I think that it is killing both the him and the team. I was glad to see his brother go, and maybe it will be time for Bo to go after the next season--we will see. But, hey, I'm a Big Red fan and I can flip flop with the best of them. It is only eight months until it all starts over again!
In about three-and-a-half months the first grandchild makes an appearance in this big old goofy world. I'm kind of excited . . . I'm curious what I'll be called: grandpa, papa, grandfater, or even the old fart. Whatever the case I pray that everything goes well during the pregnancy--for both the mother and child. Plus, I want the child to grow up with a better sense of punctuation than his or her grandfather because I sure would hate to lose my life due to a misplaced comma! Besides that, both the wife and I are looking forward to being grandparents in April and July--payback is hell!
Well, I warned you at the start that these were random thoughts--and they weren't even good random thoughts. They were pretty darn random and did not add up to much of nothing. Oh well, I think the wind has been blowing through one ear and out the other, I go see a doctor about that but it isn't covered by my insurance. Oh well, I am sure one of these random thoughts was my millionth one between here and there. At least it wasn't during the sermon, but I think my congregation would disagree. They looked up and nothing had changed.
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