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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: elpolvo who wrote (49155)	3/29/2002 1:05:22 PM
From: Murrey Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

Nice post, Waldo!

To: elpolvo who wrote (49155)	3/29/2002 8:07:57 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 65232

Good stuff, Polvie. You make me feel a little richer. I still have the wants, but they be pretty simple, like a fireplace insert to replace my old stove; I could live without it. Sometimes, I try to keep things in perspective by looking at the entire mudball we live on. I may never feel wealthy enuf to buy that Vette (which shouldn't be subjected to 2 miles of mud all rainy season anyway), but probably 90% of the developing world would give their right arm to have 40 acres. What did all those kings of old have that I didn't, besides the army? Cold drafty castles vs cold drafty cabin;court jester vs radio/tv/net/etc; oranges in the store year round; better alcoholic beverages, better docs, etc. For all their wealth, they didn't have it as good as we do; a lot of us have our own teeny tiny kingdoms equal to theirs. Look at Silverback and me talking about whether to buy gold; we don't even have to send out Cortez to get it for us; just go to the coin store. Re medicine: yeah, I feel it is in harmony with the greater scheme. I am working for The Man, but The Man in this case tends to be more in harmony too, although he has to crunch the # to keep hospitals open (a real concern of mine, at least in rural areas;hospitals are headed towards financial disaster). Sometimes I feel like a whore, just raking it in for the hospital. If I am in an "intimate" locale like the ER or ICU and really cranking, I can do 6 or those EKGs I was gonna give to you for free in an hour; the hospital makes around $1200. That bothers me. You know those little puffers you see on TV? Takes me 5 minutes;washing, doing, washing, initialing chart...about 20 bucks, I think. On the other hand, that money goes to pay nurses and housekeepers and telephone operators and all the other things which don't get charged for. Most of the time it feels petty good, and sometimes you get to see miracles. Think we may just have had one. A young man just went thru a bob-wire fence on his 4 wheeler. Gave him a second smile, ear to ear. Missed carotids by 3mm, cut the windpipe, and the wire ended up against his spinal column. Pretty ugly, as bad as most of us have seen, what they don't show on TV (I never watch medicine on TV). 7 hr surgery, 36 hours on a ventilator (long for post-op, but he was sedated pretty heavily), and it looks like he may end up with the best case scenario, everything working, instead of being unable to use his tongue, which would mean no talking, no swallowing, no eating, and a life-long feeding tube. Do you believe in miracles? Medicine was the foundation on which I built my belief in a Supreme Being. Yeah, it sure isn't 9 to 5. Sometimes I forget. Thanks for the reminder. Ratso Rizzo