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[deletedT]

...... nor surprised that he managed to sneak in a sly reference to Jesus. ("your wife isn't going anywhere without THE son" rather than "HER son.")

@The_Doc_Man
I really didn't pay attention to that. As I said I didn't read it. I just was just jumping over the words to see if I can find Accepted. I had to call my wife and tell her to work on it or not.

Tera, I don't have the ability to offer lodging or accommodations, but after COVID-19 is no longer an issue, if you ever found your way to New Orleans I would be happy to show you some sights around the town. Depending on your digestion, I know some places that could give you some typical Creole cuisine and there is always a concert or festival of some kind in our fair city (except Christmas and New Year's). Just try to reach me through the forum if that ever becomes something to pursue.

Doc, talking to you through these posts is a pleasure. Meeting you will be a dream come true.

Each of your posts here, addressed to me or others, seems to be a river of wisdom. I admire your sense of selecting the words, and the ability to put them in a phrase to express your thoughts in the most effective way. What is amazing about you, is the fact that you have a wide variety of knowledge in numerous aspects. Database, web application, programming, network.....But I love your control over the words and the way you choose words. Your deep knowledge of literature has always amazed me. I have spent so many hours digesting what you've been trying to say and the perfect words you've chosen, looking up their meaning and how it connects to your logic.

But to be true, I love reading your posts, when you are calm, when you don't have a tone of anger behind words. Although I understand the situation and what causes that anger, and what has triggered that hostility. I hate myself when I talk to Adam. He makes me loose my temper and talk in a way that never my real-me will ever do. I wrote something but never posted it because no matter everything I said was true, but I hated myself to be that kind of a person to speak in that way. I told myself let's not play his game. Let's play my game. And I didn't post it.

Edit: I forgot to mention chemistry. If I'm not wrong you have a PHD in chemistry.

 

[Micron]

it would be our pleasure to have you on our table for the dinner.

LOL!! Some things don't always translate exactly as you intend.
Given that, perhaps I should mention that I would go well with a glass of Merlot? That if you trim off the fat I will cook faster but 3 hours at 350 degrees Fahrenheit ought to be good enough?

Just kidding of course! In the meantime, stay safe.

 

[NauticalGent]

Given that, perhaps I should mention that I would go well with a glass of Merlot?

Disturbing....!

 

[deletedT]

LOL!! Some things don't always translate exactly as you intend.

I noticed that, but it was too late to correct it.

 

[isladogs]

LOL. Would fava beans go well with that?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

If I'm not wrong you have a PHD in chemistry.

You are not wrong. PhD, 1975, University of New Orleans (at the time, a member of the LSU system), in the topic of Analytical Chemistry.

My dissertation work was based on using a computer to do on-line analysis; i.e. directly electronically connected to the lab equipment, so that I could get results within seconds after the experiment's completion. Even with computer assistance, it took a LOT of experiments and a LOT of long nights in the lab to get my conclusions right. By being meticulous, when I finished my dissertation, my committee accepted the work on the first review. I finished the work and performed my dissertation defense in November of 1975, started my first "real" job a week later, and walked across the stage to pick up the diploma three weeks after that.

My original college work with computers was in the field of real-time operation and creation of fast device drivers for data capture and display. My main chemical focus was in the field of heteropoly anions, which are useful for certain types of low-level metal analysis such as would occur for contaminated ground water. Plus if you ever used oil-based paints (on canvas, not on houses), certain yellows and blues get their strong colors from heteropoly anions.

I admire your sense of selecting the words, and the ability to put them in a phrase to express your thoughts in the most effective way.

That is very kind of you. It comes from having been taught by my major professor to choose words carefully for publication, because grammatical errors get your articles rejected before anyone bothers to consider the technical side of your submission. Then, when my mother became ill but was still at home, I took up writing fiction as a hobby.

I had been reading a lot because it was necessary to stay close and yet stay quiet. But I finally read one too many badly-composed novels. I will not name names (in case the author is still alive) but I found a four-part series that went through interminable plot twists and turns of no particular consequence. At the end of the series, the only profound moral that the author had to offer was "there is a little bit of good and a little bit of bad in each of us." I was so totally incensed at having wasted my time on such a trite platitude that I said to myself, "I can do better than that." Over a period of a few days, that statement echoed in my mind and metamorphosed into "You say you can do better? Put up or shut up." And that was the start of my writing hobby. Five complete novels later, I still write. I have no buyers and right now am not interested in self-publication.

One of the things I found was that writing was cathartic. When I felt really bad about my mother's developing illness, it was a way for me to take that emotion from within me and dump it to the printed page. That catharsis is one of the ways I got through that dark time.

I also got a good joke from my writing (though my employers didn't always see the humor in it). I used to tell them "I write government documentation by day and fantasy fiction by night, no retraining required to switch back and forth."

 

[Pat Hartman]

Health insurance?? That's a joke with a $6,000 deductible and double her previous premium. That's what ObamaCare did for her. It tripled my premium but luckily only for two years until I qualified for Medicare. Prior to the "Affordable" Care Act, her deductible was $500. My daughter makes too much money to qualify for Obamacare even as a single mother with two in college. The problem comes from living in Fairfield County Connecticut which is well up there in the list of most expensive places to live. My daughter is working so she's fine. I'm retired and thought I had enough money in my 401k. Silly me. With interest rates near zero, it's hard to even keep up with inflation without being in the market.

 

[moke123]

I guess I've been lucky for many years. I've never had a deductible and my co-pays have been steady for a long time at $20 with a few exceptions for some specialties. Currently my employee contribution is only @ $250 a month. A couple years ago it was @ $350 for a family plan. My daughters plan has no deductible, a $20 co-pay, and costs her less than $50 a month and covers everything. Deductible plans are a way for employers to pass costs off to the employees.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

My medical plan is zero-deductible but my pharmaceutical plan is not, due to recent changes in their formulary tables. Next enrollment period, I may have to switch my plan D carrier.

 

[ColinEssex]

American health insurance is still a mystery to non Americans.
Surely, if you are seriously ill, say a heart attack, you call an ambulance and it takes you to hospital. How can the first question a doctor says is "are you insured? If so prove it". If no, then they ignore you?
If they treat you and you're not insured, why bother with insurance, ok you might not get a room with nice flowers, but at least you're being treated.
Oh, do the ambulance charge for picking you up? Or is that free?
Col

 

[AccessBlaster]

How can the first question a doctor says is "are you insured?

Usually the first question is "does it hurt when I do this".

 

[moke123]

Oh, do the ambulance charge for picking you up? Or is that free?

Yes they do as a matter of fact. Several hundred dollars.

My wife was ill for a long time and eventually wound up in a nursing home.
I recieved a bill for $380 from a podiatrist who I never heard of. I called to find out what services he performed and why I was being billed for it.
They told me the bill should have been sent to the insurance company and was sent to me in error. When I pressed them for what services they performed they
told me they clipped her toenails. I kid you not.

 

[ColinEssex]

Usually the first question is "does it hurt when I do this".

But only to someone waving an insurance policy? At what point do they ask for proof of insurance? Just before they chuck you out if you haven't got any I suppose.

If we, in the UK, get the strange urge to visit the USA, we have to get health insurance worth millions just in case. I heard if you sneeze, they charge you for it.
Col

 

[vba_php]

When I pressed them for what services they performed they
told me they clipped her toenails. I kid you not.

LOL. that's cute.

@ColinEssex I told many people long ago that the American healthcare system is horrid because most providers want the money and don't care one bit about the care. that is true unfortunately for a lot of providers over here. but then again, you have to realize that this is America, and money runs the place. And if that's threatened, they'll go to war over it. it's what makes the place so great. i'm not sure what your country's wonderful view on that reality is. Nor do I really care. But I would be certainly interested to hear what Thatcher's take or Blair's take on it is/was.

 

[AccessBlaster]

American healthcare system is horrid because most providers want the money and don't care one bit about the care.

That's not my experience, and if it were true why do people from other counties come here? John Hopkins Cedars-Sinai, UCLA heath just to name a very few. They come here because they like horrid treatment?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Col, I'm SURE that you know by now to ignore Adam when he gets on his negativity rants. The healthcare system is staffed by compassionate people who really do feel that their chosen profession comes with an obligation to help others. However, in this case there is a SMALL grain of truth in his latest tirade against the USA business environment.

Our medical system doesn't turn you away during your emergency. The question comes about when you need long-term treatment or unusually expensive treatment and they have to try to find funding sources. Your care isn't free. In the UK, you pay for it in taxes. In the USA, we don't do it that way. We pay for it through (usually) group insurance of one kind or another.

If you are eligible for Medicare or Medicaid, you will probably get your treatment. If you have privately funded insurance, you will get your treatment. Even if you took the cheapie stuff offered through "Obamacare" (The Affordable Care Act), you might be able to get some treatment. If you have no insurance at all and are not eligible for public assistance, there will come a point where you cannot be admitted for ongoing treatment. It will always depend on available resources. We have only so many doctors and nurses to go around. They don't work for free.

At some point, the "bean counters" will step in with that little dose of reality that says "we don't have an infinite budget." There will come a point when someone has to make a decision as to whether an incredibly expensive process can continue. Even in the UK, you don't pay for the visit - but you don't have the resources for immediate care either. You guys can wait a long time for a visit, from what I understand.

It's a different perspective. We can get rapid care but it can be expensive. You can get free care but it won't be quite as rapidly responsive. Both of those relate to "limited resources."

 

[AccessBlaster]

Col, I'm SURE that you know by now to ignore Adam when he gets on his negativity rants.

To be fair Doc everything you just said above Col already knows, he's just winding up anyone who cares to answer he's bored... similar to Adam.

He's Adam light without Jesus.

 

[vba_php]

He's Adam light without Jesus.

lol. Nice. In terms of the healthcare system not being horrid I guess it's probably changing now that Congress and the president are finally getting their crap together. But then again it doesn't change the fact that they will be doing exactly what they always do and that is delaying the inevitable breakdown of government finances yet again because no one up there gets along with each other

 

[Pat Hartman]

Saying the American health care system is horrid is the same as saying Americans are racists. People from all over the world come here for medical care and people from all over the world try to emigrate here - legally or illegally. It's left-wing talking points with a grain of truth. Having been taken to the hospital in an ambulance, bleeding from the head, I can confirm that the first question they asked me was "do you have insurance". I said yes and so they called a plastic surgeon to sew me up. Otherwise, the resident on duty would have had to do it. I would have been sewed up regardless. So, as others have said, emergency care is always available and that's why uninsured people go to the emergency room when they have a cold

 

[AccessBlaster]

COVID-19 is changing everything in real time, who knows what it will look like when we come out of this mess.

Will we have to carry a "non-infectious" card, and show your papers while moving from state to state?

Will they enact a new patriot act?