Seasonal Visitor, historic downtown Sanford, Florida.

We’ll be flying out to Cape Cod tomorrow for our first ever (well, first since Babycakes and I joined this family) Thanksgiving in the land of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags who welcomed them to our fair shores. I decided to post this early since I don’t think I”ll have a computer handy there. We means Bluemoon and Babycakes and my Honey and me.

It will also be the first holiday we spend with my Honey’s son, his wife and two children. This past summer’s family rapprochement is continuing, and is the thing I’m most thankful for this particular year. This young couple and their two children are delightful, and fun to be around. My family has enlarged!

Of course I added the words “this particular year” to the above, because I am primarily thankful, every day of every year, for my three (dare I say it) girls.

Today my Honey and I attended a feast at Babycakes’s school. The children had decorated the place (and themselves), and the cafeteria staff made the food (turkey and the usual stuff) which was quite good. Bluemoon was a volunteer server. We sat near Babycakes’s teacher, and it was all just fun. We are lazing away the rest of the day; I consider travel days trying, and am storing energy.

I genuinely hope everyone who reads this (ah, heck, everyone whether they read this or not) has a lovely Thanksgiving holiday.

My sister told me, via email, that she and her husband were contemplating buying a few acres in central Tennessee (they live in Knoxville), adjacent to my youngest brother’s property (where his vacation cabin sits), and building a small home. This got me thinking about something which has piqued my interest for a long time: cabins, tiny houses, affordable shelter, etc.

Quite a while back, I bought a coffee-table book called The Cabin. (Dale Mulfinger and Susan E. Davis, The Taunton Press 2001). The authors decided that each house/cabin pictured and described would be no more than 1200 square feet, and not be a treehouse, sheepherder’s wagon, yurt or teepee. They selected 37 cabins in four categories: the rustic cabin; the transformed cabin; the traditional cabin; and the modern cabin. I have perused this book many times, somewhat wistfully as I doubt I’ll ever have a cabin. The thought/question which, naturally, runs through my mind the most is: why do so many of us want, or think we want, large houses and the attendant expense of acquiring them, maintaining them, paying taxes on them, and heating and cooling them? Oh, Im sure that some of the cabins illustrated in the book are relatively expensive for the amount of shelter offered, but, still, some of them probably are not, and they are not, of course, the end-all and be-all of small effecient shelter. I’m sending this book off to my sister.

One of the links on my blog here is “Design Ideas” (http://dornob.com). There are multiple illustrated articles on the site dealing with tiny homes. I alerted my sister to this link.

Obviously, a variety of practical considerations go into home size. How many people? Is it also a place of work? What are the zoning/building code laws? What is one’s budget?

Anyway, I hope my sister and her husband get to do this project. If they want to do it with “self help,” I’m willing to offer my labor and limited skills.

I have more thoughts about housing/shelter, but I have duties today, so I’ll quit for now.

Peace, out

Don’t ask me.

My brain is going on me, I can’t remember what I’ve discussed before. I’ve started eating almonds. Supposed to be “brain food” good for memory.

I was listening to something, somewhere (Pandora? Satellite? TV Show?) and heard “Hanging On” by Katie Sawicki. I went right away to iTunes and bought it. I just found a YouTube video of her doing it live, which isn’t nearly as good as the studio recording. I’m going to try to embed it, but so many artists, foolishly if you ask me, are killing embedding I don’t know if it’ll work.

I also recently bought Peter Bradley Adams’s new album on iTunes. I buy very few full albums by any artist. Him, I do. He was the male half of Eastmountainsouth and has continued to make wonderful music since that duo ceased operations. I’m posting a YouTube non-video of one of his songs, again, if it’ll work.

Peace, out

Okay, I capitulate. My next venture into things political will be my constitutionally granted vote in some election or other. Secret vote. I cannot say what particular election might excite my urge to cast a ballot. I do know that I have faith in no politician of any stripe, party or gender. None. I do know how to tell when they are lying, of course, due to an old “lawyer joke”:  when their lips move.

There are no major issues facing the people of our country, or any other country, or facing the planet itself I can do anything about.

I can cherish my family and friends, and hope the weather’s nice when I want to be outdoors.

Peace, out.

Jerry’s Auto Body, Deland, Florida

I finished reading two books, one on my iPhone and one the “normal” way.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman. This is the first book I purchased and downloaded to read on my iPhone, using Stanza. I was happy with the way the print appeared on the page, the ease of page turning, and the comfort of holding the iPhone to read. I was not put off a bit by the small screen size, surprisingly. I’ll absolutely do it again. As for the book, it is about a college-age kid who goes to a magicians’ school instead of a traditional college. A pleasant read, I enjoyed it. The level of writing was competent.

I may as well say now that I do not do “book reviews.” I have no intention of giving away authors’ plots or other details, and consider that books are much like wine. When all is said and done, you like them or not, enjoy them or not. A scant few rise above the pack, and I don’t mind saying when they do. On the subject of wine, I read an article recently about that. After the big scandal in France where some wine distributors were passing off pedestrian wine as superior wine (for us ignorant buckaroos here in America), the rating system was supposed to provide some guidance. Some real spiffy wine dudes were gonna do blind tastings, and provide ratings. And they do. Some other smart fellow decided to test the tasters. At a wine event of some sort, he managed to get the tasters to do some blind tastings, without telling them that in some cases they were sampling wine from the same bottle (i.e. a given taster/tester was given separate samples from the exact same bottle). Well, it won’t surprise anyone to hear that ratings were widely varied by the same taster/tester. What a hoot!

There are a lot of really decent American wines to drink without spending much more than $20 (and sometimes less). Past that, even the experts are just wasting their money, if you ask me. Now if springing for an expensive bottle has other purposes, so be it. On one of our first dates, I took my honey to a spiffy French joint, and ordered a really expensive bottle of French wine (Montrachet Chevalier). I first had it in France at a little place near Nice called “Moulin de Mougin” or something like that, a multiple Michelin star place in and old olive oil mill. This stuff is just too good (and I’m not a big white wine guy). When I ordered it (in France), the snooty sommelier raised his eyebrows and said “very nice,” as though a pig had learned to read Shakespeare. Truth is, I didn’t know a single wine on the menu, and coulda thrown a dart. My Honey loved the wine, and we’ve been together ever since (16 years plus). Did I say expensive?

But I digress.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. I’ve enjoyed reading a couple of Mr. Brown’s novels, notably, of course, The DaVinci Code. I even liked the movie. I’d say that with Lost Symbol, he’s maybe slightly off his game, but it’s still a good yarn full of interesting factoids (although I have no way of knowing how accurate they are). I enjoyed it. Ran through it quite fast.  A couple of little things won’t spoil it for you. There is a lot of stuff about Free Masonry in the book, including some folks with the highest rank, that being Thirty-third degree. My late father-in-law was a Thirty-third degree Mason. The National Cathedral is a location in the story. One of the structures of the National Cathedral is called the College of Preachers. I doubt if many folks can report, as I can, that I had dinner one evening in the College of Preachers dining room. Wonderful Gothic place. Our old pal Professor Langdon is here, of course, going strong.

I’m sure this book will be another blockbuster movie.

How’s that hypocritcal oath working for ya’ doc? How’s that million dollar home, private schools for your kids, and your private airplane doin’ for ya?

DOCTORS TO MARCH AGAINST HEALTH CARE REFORM.

Orlando-area doctors are expected to march in downtown Orlando on Saturday, Nov. 21, to protest federal health care legislation.

The Million Med March will begin at 11 a.m. at Constitution Green at 300 S. Summerlin Ave. and will end at City Hall, 400 S. Orange Ave., where there will be a rally. Doctors in every state are expected to participate in similar marches.

The event is sponsored by the American Patriots PAC.

And what the hell is “American Patriots PAC” a doctor’s income support group?

Associated Press

STUDY: INJURED UNINSURED MORE LIKELY TO DIE IN ER

CHICAGO – Uninsured patients with traumatic injuries, such as car crashes, falls and gunshot wounds, were almost twice as likely to die in the hospital as similarly injured patients with health insurance, according to a troubling new study.

The findings by Harvard University researchers surprised doctors and health experts who have believed emergency room care was equitable.

“This is another drop in a sea of evidence that the uninsured fare much worse in their health in the United States,” said senior author Dr. Atul Gawande, a Harvard surgeon and medical journalist.

The study, appearing in the November issue of Archives of Surgery, comes as Congress is debating the expansion of health insurance coverage to millions more Americans. It could add fodder to that debate.

The researchers couldn’t pin down the reasons behind the differences they found. The uninsured might experience more delays being transferred from hospital to hospital. Or they might get different care. Or they could have more trouble communicating with doctors.

The hospitals that treat them also could have fewer resources.

“Those hospitals tend to be financially strapped, not have the same level of staffing, not have the same level of surgeons and testing and equipment,” Gawande said. “That also is likely a major contributor.”

Gawande favors health care reform and has frequently written about the inequities of the current system.

The researchers took into account the severity of the injuries and the patients’ race, gender and age. After those adjustments, they still found the uninsured were 80 percent more likely to die than those with insurance — even low-income patients insured by the government’s Medicaid program.

“I’m really surprised,” said Dr. Eric Lavonas of the American College of Emergency Physicians and a doctor atDenver Health Medical Center. “It’s well known that people without health insurance don’t get the same quality of health care in this country, but I would have thought that this group of patients would be the least vulnerable.”

Some private hospitals are more likely to transfer an uninsured patient than an insured patient, said Lavonas, who wasn’t involved in the new research.

“Sometimes we get patients transferred and we suspect they’re being transferred because of payment issues,” he said. “The transferring physician says, ‘We’re not able to handle this.’”

Federal law requires hospital ERs to treat all patients who are medically unstable. But hospitals can transfer patients, or send them away, once they’re stabilized. A transfer could worsen a patient’s condition by delaying treatment.

The researchers analyzed data on nearly 690,000 U.S. patients from 2002 through 2006. Burn patients were not included, nor were people who were treated and released, or dead on arrival.

In the study, the overall death rate was 4.7 percent, so most emergency room patients survived their injuries. The commercially insured patients had a death rate of 3.3 percent. The uninsured patients’ death rate was 5.7 percent. Those rates were before the adjustments for other risk factors.

The findings are based on an analysis of data from the National Trauma Data Bank, which includes more than 900 U.S. hospitals.

“We have to take the findings very seriously,” said lead author Dr. Heather Rosen, a surgery resident at Los Angeles County Hospital, who found similar results when she analyzed children’s trauma data for an earlier study. “This affects every person, of every age, of every race.”

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – More than one in seven American households struggled to put enough food on the table in 2008, the highest number since the U.S. Department of Agriculture began tracking food security levels in 1995.

That’s 14.6 percent of U.S. households, or about 49 million people. The numbers are a significant increase from 2007, when 11.1 percent of U.S. households suffered from what USDA classifies as “food insecurity” — not having enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the numbers could be higher in 2009 because of the global economic slowdown.

“This report suggests its time for America to get very serious aboutfood security and hunger,” Vilsack told reporters during a conference call.

The USDA said Monday that 5.7 percent of those who struggled for food experienced “very low food security,” meaning household members reduced their food intake.

The numbers dovetail with dire economic conditions for many Americans. And they may not take the full measure of America’s current struggles with hunger: Vilsack and the report’s lead author, Mark Nord withUSDA’s economic research service, both emphasized that the numbers reflected the situation in 2008 and that the economy’s continued troubles in 2009 would likely mean higher numbers next year.

The report also showed an increasing number of children in the United States are suffering food insecurity. In 2008, 16.7 million children were classified as food insecure, 4.3 million more than in 2007.

Hunger advocates said they were not surprised by the numbers, and said the numbers for children, in particular, were lamentable.

“What should really shock us is that almost one in four children in our country lives on the brink of hunger,” said David Beckmann, the President of Bread of the World, a hunger advocacy organization.

Vickie Escarra, the president of Feeding America, another hunger advocacy group, said all indications were that numbers in 2009 would be even worse than 2008.

“(T)he escalating unemployment rate and the number of working-poor, lead us to believe that the number of people facing hunger will continue to rise significantly over the coming year,” she said. “Research on previouseconomic recessions indicates that people who fall into the grips of poverty in a time of recession do not recover financially.”

Vilsack said that it would take a concerted effort to reduce the number of Americans who face food insecurity and said he hoped that the stark reality of Monday’s report would inspire action. He also said it was important to recognize that the numbers could have been much worse without adequately funded food aid programs, such as food stamps.

“There’s an opportunity here for the country to make a major commitment to focus on ways we can improve this process and make sure that food is safe and available for everyone,” he said.

Thank you for your service, now curl up and die.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The number of US veterans who died in 2008 because they lacked health insurance was 14 times higher than the US military death toll in Afghanistan that year, according to a new study.

The analysis produced by two Harvard medical researchers estimates that 2,266 US military veterans under the age of 65 died in 2008 because they lacked health coverage and had reduced access to medical care.

That figure is more than 14 times higher than the 155 US troop deaths in Afghanistan in 2008, the study says.

Released as the United States commemorates fallen soldiers onVeterans Day, the study warns that even health care provided by theVeterans Health Administration (VA) leaves many veterans without coverage.

The analysis uses census data to isolate the number of US veterans who lack both private health coverage and care offered by the VA.

“That’s a group that’s about 1.5 million people,” said David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program who co-authored the study.

Himmelstein and co-author Stephanie Woolhandler, also a Harvard medical professor, overlaid that figure with another study examining the mortality rate associated with lack of health insurance.

“The uninsured have about a 40 percent higher risk of dying each year than otherwise comparable insured individuals,” Himmelstein told AFP.

“Putting that all together you get an estimate of almost 2,300 — 2,266 veterans who die each year from lack of health insurance.”

Only some US veterans have access to medical care through the VA and coverage is apportioned on the basis of eight “priority groups.”

“They range from things like people who were prisoners of war, who have coverage for life, or who have battle injuries and therefore have coverage for their injuries for life,” said Himmelstein.

Veterans who fall below an income threshold that is determined on a county-by-county basis can qualify for care, but many veterans are “working poor” and fall just above the bracket.

“The priority eight group, the lowest priority, are veterans above the very poor group who have no other reason to be eligible and that group is essentially shut out of the VA,” according to Himmelstein.

The study comes as the US Senate weighs health care reform legislation and whether to offer government health insurance.

Himmelstein warns that congressional proposals could still leave veterans uncovered and favors a national health care program similar to those in Britain and Canada.

34 Ford

Still here, still going strong.

Every end is a beginning,

Every beginning an end.