Ski Patrol To The Rescue!

The other day I was in my basement looking around at all the crap for an old webcam and I came across some family vacation pictures in a box. When I say family vacation I am talking about extended family; my three sisters, husbands, all the neices and nephews and generally a couple of friends as well. We travel in packs. It's always more fun with the whole group! The picture above is one of our skiing holidays at Wisp ski resort at Deep Creek Lake. We have been to Deep Creek Lake many times over the years, it's a fun place in any season.

Featured prominently above is my sister Sherri, yes, the one with the soft cast on her leg. None of us are exactly Jean-Claude on skis but Sherri, well, you want to avoid her at all cost. A kamikaze with the ski poles! Ski with her at your own risk....she will take you down with her. She's done it to me.

As I recall this incident happened on day 1 of a week long vacation. We were just warming up, getting in a groove, on a beginners run and down she went! I came around a bend and noticed a familiar heap on the side of the trail, nope she wasn't getting to the bottom under her own power. Off I went to to get the ski patrol. I had forgotten to bring my camera with me and I'm so angry with myself for not getting pictures of her coming down the hill on a stretcher!

You know I grabbed the camera before I took her to the emergency room! Oh, relax, it's not like she had a bone sticking out of her leg or anything! I couldn't help laughing at her sitting in a wheel chair at the hospital. It was such a cliche! Oh, you know, she pulled a ligament, nothing serious. She refused pain killers as we had plenty of the liquid variety back at the chalet.

Really, knowing Sherri, this was perfect because it got her out of cooking or doing dishes all week! Don't scoff, I know her.

Health Reform?

Pictured above is a young physician by the name of Dr. Starner Jones. His short two-paragraph letter to   the White House accurately puts the blame on a   "Culture  Crisis" insteadof a "Health Care Crisis".  It's worth a   quick read:

Dear Mr. President:

During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had   the   pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.

        While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that   her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer.

        And, you and our Congress expect  me to pay for this woman's health care?  I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is  not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or  nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis   of culture",  a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on  luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance.  It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me".

        Once you fix this  "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.

        Respectfully,

        STARNER JONES,  MD