Whiteside

We were up on whiteside mountain in North Carolina. It wasn't too difficult, but we went up the easy way, and down the stairs. I'm happy about the trip. The views were really nice from that location, the pictures don't quite convey the situation.

Another nice picture, this time in the lobby of a church.
The wedding itself was a little too churchy if you asked for my opinion, but that is the reason that churches exist I suppose, to welcome members in the transitions of their lives.
We had a nice ceremony before my parents and the notary along with her sister. The wedding was going to get out of hand, but we decided to push things up and we had it earlier, but before invitations went out. We went on a cruise for a honeymoon. It was a good time. Oddly enough, Uncle Bill, and Aunt Dottie are also going on a short 5 day cruise or something out of the port of Tampa.
The other people in the lobby are friends of Uncle Bill's.

Here we are sitting in my Uncle's dining room with my Father, his friend, and my Uncle and his new wife, Dottie, standing behind Fran.

Here we are by my Uncle's pool.

Here we are the nice two on the right most in the picture.
The others at this wedding were important, but this is pointing out some good pictures of me.

I called the TBI-FL help line

I called the TBI-FL help line, and shared my idea about increasing the use of computer mediated communication among the TBI population. I'm not sure if much of anything positive will happen from it, but who really knows? This really seems to be a social services help line, and not so much of a part of a national organization, but who really knows, maybe there is some national organization component behind this.

Maybe I might be contacted about being a mentor for some others. I probably don't have very many answers, but I guess I can try to help some others, if they want assistance.

The wisdom of an electrician

While I was at work the other day, an electrician told me a story:

A man (who we'll call Sam) and his wife (who we'll call Sherry) were in bed. The man is having trouble with sleeping. So, at 3 am, he tells his wife that he's having all of these worries about being able to repay his neighbor (Who we'll call Bill) who leant him some money. He can't sleep, and he's preventing his wife from sleeping, so his wife opens up the window, and yells across the way "Hey Bill, Sam is worried that he's not going to be able to repay you that money you leant him."

Sherry says "there, let Bill worry about it and come back to bed so that we can get some more sleep."

That story works on several different levels that I can think of.

It sort of points out the foolishness of loosing sleep over things which you cannot control.

And informing your creditors that you may not be able to repay debts on the timetable established allows your creditor to worry about getting paid.

I'm not sure what I would be embarking on if I wanted to follow through with setting up a chairitable foundation to benefit brain injured individuals, primarily through the use of enhancing the utilization of computer mediated communication. I'm not sure what sorts of legal obligations or whatever might be involved. Maybe it would be too much. I don't know if it would be a worthwhile thing to do, but it seems to me that it would probably be providing a service that here to fore isn't emphasized enough.

Maybe I am wrong. I'd love to be confident that I was mistaken. I'd love it if brain injured individuals were encouraged to find their voice online, and express it. Sadly, I somehow doubt that there are large numbers of brain injured individuals on-line, at least compared with the general population. One would think that there should be.

I guess that as with any charitable organization, having donors is important. In tougher economic times, the pool of available donors has shrunk, considerably.

I suppose that I have a pretty good story of having overcome a number of obstacles. If the foundation will ultimately be successful, I guess it needs more than just a personality.

I think I might begin making some inquiries though.

Lettuce Lake Park

This evening, we went to Lettuce Lake Park (a nearby County Park), and we walked the one point two mile circuit. Toward the end, we walked out on the boardwalk, and it was very cool. Earlier, the drought was so bad that the Hillsborough River was so low, due to a lack of rainfall. But recently, we've had some rain fall pretty consistently. The level of the river was impressive. There was water under most of the boardwalk path. The flow of the river was impressive.

Fisher Premium Whole Cashews

Hmm, I like cashews. I guess they are moderately more expensive than peanuts, and not as readily available to find with flavored coatings, as possibly pecans, or some other nuts are. But I think that cashews are really quite filling. These cashews were $11.99 at Sweetbay Supermarket, but on a per pound basis that's about $6.00. These cashews were among the more expensive of the group, but they are pretty good. I guess I could try to do some value comparisons for the future's sake, but I like the screw on top.

The deal is in the buy

Many years ago, my father befriended a pawn shop owner. My father talks with many people easily. My father asked the Pawn Shop guy how he could know what so much stuff is valued at. The Pawn Shop guy responded "the deal is in the buy." You can always pay too much for something, and give away your profit, but if the price agreed upon is sufficiently low, then there shouldn't be much difficulty selling the piece to others.

This can be applied to real estate, or other money lending schemes.

Goats on the Roof

Goats on the roof. A really cool place selling little bits of stuff. A road side attraction.

Rhodies

Rhododendrons, at a cemetary on the way south leaving Highlands. My wife thought it was funny that the Highlandsers referred to these as Rhoadies. She got to think about the roadies who assist bands with the set up and take down of music gear for concerts.

Florida National Cemetary

Yes, even more grave stones. This is a small part of the cemetary. My Father and Mother will probably eventually be buried here. Maybe Interred here would be better. I think that they may be cremated and have their ashes placed under a stone, or something similar.

I am not certain what the process is.

Florida National Cemetary

More Grave Stones.

Florida National Cemetary

Hmm, these are some gravestones at the Florida National Cemetary.

From the VA website

The President’s vision for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is to transform VA into a 21st Century organization that is Veteran–centric, results–driven, and forward–looking. The Department’s resource request for 2010 is nearly $113 billion–up $15.1 billion, or 15 percent, from the 2009 enacted budget. This is the largest one–year percentage increase for VA requested by a President in over 30 years. VA’s budget request for 2010 provides the resources critical to achieving the President’s vision – Read more about it here!
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This was touched upon by the speaker today at the meeting. Tampa probably gets a small sliver of that amount, but in any event, we are making efforts to improve the care of our nation's wounded warriors. We are actively providing care (and rehabilitation) to some of the OIF/OEF woundeds.

Working at the VA Hospital

I like working at the VA Hospital in Tampa.

We had a presentation by some guy from the VISN, and he mentioned how the new Secretary, Erik Shinseki (sp?), was changing things as far as how central office is organized, and there would probably be other changes. The guy stressed that no eligable veteran would be denied care for which he was entitled to, through service to our country.

Operation Enduring (Iraqi) Freedom [OEF/OIF], our current conflicts that we are presently involved with, are causing some stresses in soldiers, airmen, marines, sailors, or coast guardsmen. The VA exists to help these veterans, and others who have previously served.

The VA of today is better. There is more money being appropriated to care for, and treat veterans. The money also goes to fund Veterans Benefits Administration, as well as the Veterans Health Administration, along with the National Cemetary Administration. VBA and VHA take up sizable chunks of the money. Of that, some is geared toward salaries of the people who work at those agencies' offices, most probably goes to pay for the Benefits and Healthcare that has been earned by the veterans.

texting

OK, I've previously said that this is probably not a good thing. I guess it's one of the downsides about having ubiquitous technology. People get addicted to their blackberries or whichever digital devices. I guess I'm a cheapskate at heart. I don't have a mobile device for texting. I do like using the computer, but I don't drive, and I don't try to play on the internet while I'm travelling, or whatever.

Some of this is an appreciation for what $50 is like.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/21/text-offenders-rampant-on-road/

Digitizing Healthcare

http://news.cnet.com/Dragging-health-records-into-the-Digital-Age/2009-11393_3-6249503.html?tag=txt

Wow, this series is pretty interesting. I was alerted to the article because it contained the phrase "VA Hospital" which generated a google alert for me. I didn't realize that Kaiser Permanente was almost a closed system. It is good that as healthcare improves, there might be some incentives to adopt technological advances.

Depending on how involved the government wants to get in the health insurance business, saving money could be a positive motivation.

Of course, with most things political, it could be a matter of time before the pendulum swings in the other direction.

H1N1 Flu

The muck gets deeper.
The second guessing might start to begin. I thought I saw on Drudge where Japan is starting to see cases of the Flu.
Maybe I saw on Fareed Zakaria GPS where they were congratulating Mexico for acting so swiftly, to try to limit the exposure of the Flu. "Muchas Gracias" they said. Indeed!


An assistant city school principal died Sunday night from complications of swine flu in the city's first fatality from the deadly disease.
Assistant principal Mitchell Wiener of Intermediate School 238 in Queens died Sunday night at Flushing Hospital, a spokesman said.Read more: "Assistant principal Mitchell Wiener dies from complications of swine flu" - http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/05/17/2009-05-17_assisant_principal_dies_from_swine_flu.html#ixzz0Fodq6cUS&A

some art on the walls of my office

fan flower (?)