Friday, August 29, 2014

Let It Out.....Time to grieve, and....

Time to be with yourself........I hate this. I have a long history of grieving after-the-fact, and sometimes far later.

When my Mom died, I was a stoic person through the funeral and the things that followed.....I later wrote a piece to express my feelings and I let it out to my family....pre-Facebook....Before Christmas as i shared a story called "The Empty Seat!".......I cried a lot.....

Now I lost my younger brother Mark DeLand.....he had many health problems and his death was not unexpected....but to me it is still my younger brother. By nearly 10 years....I remember him as the blonde little kid who was a trial to me, and my sibling at the same time.

Now he is gone....the 2nd of my siblings to pass before me.He and I had a relationship that was drive by the fact we never had the same goals/jobs/life experiences.....We truly lived lives different and alone one from the other.

However, we also spent a lot of time trying desperately to figure out life. We often, when in the same place.....mostly while he lived in Polk County and I worked there.....drinking a beer or a Jack and Coke (his choice for many years)......and we spoke of our parents and our relationship with them. Sometimes we met at a 7-11 or a similar place and got a 6 pack and sat in my car  (then a country-owned car) and toasted life while discussing where we were.....

We never got as close as I would have liked.....whatever the reason.....BUT, that being said, I loved him from birth to death....and he left behind a marvelous son, Pete......I have loved Pete, and his cousin Mike from afar as they were the younger generation. Mike passed far too young at 41 from a brain aneurism....Pete remains and is a rock in my family.....the son of my Brother Mark.....

Life goes on and now I am blessed with my 1st Great Grandson......Gabriel.... He is now 4 months old and I will see him this weekend!

Life and family proceed, but My dear brother Mark...I will miss you.....and my remaining sibling Dawn....come on kid....let us defy the odds and live for another 10 to 20 years......

Life at 71 is happy and active for me.....I will NOT go softly into that dark night....You will have to drag me fighting and enjoying life!

I love and Loved you Bro........miss you more than you could ever imagine!

What can this President NOT destroy.......??????

Obama has left us completely out of the loop, and in a position of being committed to NOTHING as a result of Putin's current incursion into The Ukraine.......He is also leaving us as a nation bereft of any form of response to the ISIS creation of a Calliphate in Syria/Iraq.......He acts as if nothing here is his responsibility...including his display of "I did not order the removal of troops from Iraq"..... BS Mr. President......you did and your crowing about the removal is still a matter of MANY video recordings.....

This President, were he a GOP.....would have been pilloried by the media...but strangely (yeah right) there is no chatter; no stories; no movement by this compliant media who are determined to protect our 1st "Black" (Yeah Right!) President......

Our country is in the hands of a calliphate of veteran pols who will do anything and everything to see they live on and protect THEIR places in Congress........They are not the reps of the people, but the people re-elect the names they have known. Idiots all....our electorate!

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Changes.....Constant.....

Just completed the last issue of the 14th year of the hospital newsletter I do.....Outcomes In Perspective.....I retired some 8 years ago and agreed to stay on and publish the newsletter.

Several things occurred to me as I finished the issue and converted the draft version to .pdf format.

Changes....in the newsletter, and its delivery. My 1st edition was completed in Word. It was a bit rough around the edges and needed a lot of attention. I discovered Publisher and that changed the newsletter completely. Easy to use and quick. I worked each month to complete the newsletter, work with my boss at the hospital to edit it and then I first drove the file to the printer. Later we devised a system of sending it online. Then about 5 years ago we went on the web entirely to the site for our 5,000 doctors. Now it was in color and much more attractive. Currently the consideration is underway to drop the newsletter completely and set up a web site with links to the articles allowing our docs to pick and choose their needs and interests. Changes!

As I was completing the issue it occurred to me there were equally earth-shaking changes in the hospital and treatment and by who!!!!!  For a number of years we listed our new docs each month; welcoming them to the hospital. Today, my list of new "Medical Professionals" includes those with MD and DO and PhD.....but also some new titles....PA, CRNA, CNM, etc. As I reflected on this change it came to me that the care these new people give.....while not quite at the level of knowledge of an MD.....is probably better both knowledge-wise and technically than the care we were able to offer through our MDs just a decade ago.

Isn't progress marvelous? Every day at my hospital we implant organs in people whose own have failed or nearly-so....adding months to many years to their lives. One of our transplants, recently passed.....after MORE THAN 17 years of added life due our transplant capability.

As blogger-extraordinaire Professor Reynolds often puts it......."Faster Please!"

Friday, August 22, 2014

"The most transparent administration....ever!" Hiding it all!

Security By Obscurity! The new government evasion of transparency......

But, not the only one.....The SEC joins in.....

It is all part of the WH/Administration/Federal Agency growth of power and ignoring the laws and the people in favor of even more power!


Monday, August 11, 2014

Kill The USPS!!!!

They cost us BILLIONS....and most reports include the fact that the "mandated" cost of employees under federal union control is the reason!  Given a free employee contract situation the USPS would flourish!

Federal Unions......death of the empire!

A Time For Reflection!....A Time for Brother

He was a little skinny shrimp.....a blonde...a brother. He came into my life at age 9 and a 1/2.....

I remember my Mother and her introduction to me of my budding unborn brother. She called me to her and held my hand on her swelling belly and I felt his kicks against her.....That was amazing to me.

Then Mom went to the hospital and came home a few days later with a small, skinny, squalling little thing she called Mark.....Official name, Mark Douglas DeLand.....

I was asked to love him, and as Mom liked him...so did I...but he sure was a stinky, squalling, little mess.

Later I grew to like him as I took care of him from time to time and he grew and began to walk and talk. Due our home, with its strange configuration of rooms, he and I ended up sleeping in a double bed together.

WHAT A PAIN!.....he was this small skinny child who had eight elbows and 6 knees when sleeping. My god, but he made sleep difficult! I soon learned how to handle getting him to sleep.....He loved and laughed at stupid things I'd say....such as the names of children's books listed on the back of his prized books.....Things such as "Racketty-Boom!" sent him into gales of laughter. And so nightly I read the names of books to him and he'd laugh until tired prevailed and he'd sleep.....

ALL 8 elbows, and 6 knees!

When I was in my teens and playing tennis; trying to get in shape, I ran in the alley behind our home.. When he reached about 5 or 6 he joined me....he'd run laps on the alleyway....That was one of the times we shared as youngsters.

We grew apart....mostly due age; but also, due my move away after high school. I was 18; he, 8...

We were apart as he grew and moved thru his high school years. Then he graduated and married. His high school sweetheart. I, by then, had two kids and had moved about a good bit.

We again crossed paths when i came to Joliet, IL and was first a radio newsman and later Manager of the Chamber of Commerce. He came to Joliet and was looking for work. He ended up doing various jobs, and later they moved to Chicago where he tried various jobs again.

I moved on and went through my own crisis.....divorce and move back home and then a scant few years later off to Florida in 1978.

A few years later he moved to join me in Lakeland, FL...where he still lives. We became friends anew....So different; so alike........That is my Brother and I.

Time marches on and both have faced major changes; life events which altered what we did and where we lived. Both have kids and I step-kids......We remain Brothers...

I love you Bro.....you are the person, other than our remaining sister, I have known longest in life. You are the remnant of our family.....we pass on our genes, and we live, and eventually we die.

I'd chose no one else to be the brother you have been thru thick and thin.....You care....you show caring, and often at the expense of gain financial or otherwise.

I love you my Brother.

Always and forever.......

Family is 1st......