Doctor shortages are coming to red states…

Well…with the Dobbs decision from the SC that killed Roe, the intended consequence is that all red states have passed laws or had them on the books that would ban abortion…and some of them have already passed laws banning teaching doctors how to perform them…and that has had the unintended consequence of setting up a conflict with the organizations that set what doctors need to be trained in to be able to have an MD…meaning that doctors trained in red states will only be able to practice in red states, and that is causing an exodus of top MD candidates out of the red states…but it is not only limited to those choosing OB/GYN as their speciality but a recent poll shows that almost 70% of those heading into med school, no matter what they are specializing in won’t learn or practice in a red state that bans abortion….and what that means is that there is a massive doctor shortage coming to red states since most doctors want be able to live and work anywhere they want and that means they need to be accredited to do that. With their religious zealotry, the repubs are setting their citizens up for substandard care if they can get any care at all…but I’m sure they don’t care…after all, if they did they wouldn’t have taken rights away from more than 50% of the population in their states…and this goes along with the closures of hundreds of hospitals in red states that are closing since they refused the money that comes with Medicaid expansion that would have saved them….so I guess it doesn’t matter that they won’t have any doctors…they won’t have any hospitals to work in anyway….just frickin brilliant, repubs….

Just a little weird….

Well…I forgot to talk about this weird little thing in the earlier post this morning…late in the day yesterday, I checked the mail and had a small envelope from Spectrum Health that was hand addressed and that was weird in itself, but when I opened it, it got ever weirder when it was from the staff that worked on me when I had my colonoscopy…and they thanked me for being such a nice patient and for doing the prep so well that it made their job easier…and every person that I came into contact that day signed the card, too….that sure seems a little strange to me…but a nice little touch…

This is how you tell…

Well…with the explosion of political ads running up to the election on the 8th, I really need to give you a little primer on how to decipher them and make them easier to understand…it’s very simple…if the ad is attacking a dem, it’s a lie…and if the ad is supporting a repub, it’s also a lie..see, that’s how easy it is….so don’t be confused or let some repub lie filled advertising sway your vote…you know one true thing, and that is the dems work for the people to make their lives better and deal with society’s problems while the repubs only work to make people’s lives worse as they give the country away to their big donors and take rights away from everyone but their base…and you can take them at their word for that…they’ve already taken the rights to privacy away from women and they are now going to gut SS and Medicare to give tax cuts to the rich..those are facts that no amount of lies in advertising is going to change…so tune out the ads and vote with that one truth in your mind…the dems will make things better, and the repubs will make things worse…that’s all you need to know….geez…

October 28th

Well…running a little late today with getting up at 5:41 but getting back down until 7 or so but I sure don’t feel like I slept at all….the two rides and doing the lawn and leaves took a lot out of me as did the zoom call that lasted an hour and a half…way too busy of a day for me and I don’t want to do that again today…but I am going to do an indoor ride today and an outdoor one so I need to get going soon…okay, I really don’t need to get going since I have all day and I think I’ll ease into it this morning…after starting out cold, it turned into a pretty nice day yesterday and today is going to do the same thing with highs in the 60′s for the next few days…and it’s almost November and it’s supposed to be much colder than that….but I’ll take it….don’t need to cook today but I will need to plan food for the next few days and start getting stuff out of the freezer….I did take my next to last container of ham soup out of the freezer the other day and it should be thawed by tomorrow and that will start to make room to make another batch so I can use the three ham bones I have in there….don’t think I’ll be doing a turkey for t-day this year since they haven’t been coming out so good and the prices have tripled with the avian flu that has killed millions of birds and that means they are not the bargain they normally are….not much to do today…just the rides and some cleaning since my kitchen needs work and I should do that….but right now, I just want more coffee….and to read some news…although it’s not good for our side lately so I may be doing a blackout for a few months…more later…

I knew this was going to happen…

Well…after having problems with my back for the past few weeks from just riding the bike into the wind, I knew that mowing the lawn and picking up leaves was going to make it much, much worse…and it did…just had the biggest spasm I’ve had since this crap started and I could not move in any direction without breathtaking pain stabbing at me….and now it has spread even farther up my back so it is almost to my shoulder blades now and extends all the way around my sides…damn…I hate complaining about this crap but it is limiting what I can do and I don’t like it…I did get 7 big bags of leaves picked up but more than half of them are still on the trees so I’ll be back at it in a few days to pick up some more…will have to go out and get more bags, too…still have three in the garage but it doesn’t take long to fill three of them so I’ll get 10 more and hope that will be enough for all of the rest of them…I did get two bike rides in today to go with all the outdoor work so I think I can take some time off until we have to talk to the travel agent at 5….not sure if my laptop will work for a zoom meeting it is so old but I can try my tablet if it doesn’t work….ouch….

Any PA friends out there?

Well…have some time on my hands this morning with the temp dropping to 30 outside right now and that is way too damn cold to go out and work on the leaves…so I thought I’d come here to talk to my PA friends about the senate race there…the other night, there was the one and only debate between the carpetbagger Oz, and John Fetterman and if you listen to the modern media, the only story coming out of it was that Fetterman, who is recovering from a stroke just a month or so ago is not able to do the job as senator since he has symptoms of the stroke still and at times haltingly speaks and takes time to formulate answers…now, is the media trying to do the repubs work for them? I would focus on the policy that each candidate has put forward, and on that it was shown that Oz is just another repub who wants to take rights away from women in PA and showed it with this comment from the debate…when asked if women’s healthcare choices should be only between her and her doctor, Oz responded that the choice should be “between the woman, her doctor, and local government officials” yeah, you heard that right…for the most intimate medical decisions that a woman can make, Oz wants her to have to go to “local government officials” to get approval to save her life if there is a problem with a pregnancy or even if there’s not….now, PA men, how would you like it if you had to go to “local government officials” to get approval for a colonoscopy that could save your life? Or get approval from these same officials if you want to get a vasectomy or be treated for an STI? Do you have to bring one of these officials with you to your doctor’s appointment? Yeah, I know I’m using a little hyperbole but there is only one person in this race that will protect the privacy of all Americans and that is John Fetterman….and he will help to restore the rights of over half of this country to what they were under Roe…and Oz won’t…it’s that clear…vote Fetterman for a better US….geez….

October 27th

Well…that was okay I guess…only up once at 2:51 and out of bed just a little before 6 and that’s pretty normal for nights when I’m being good…and that was number two on the way to seven getting ready for my doctor’s appointment next Tuesday….so I feel okay this morning and have plenty of time before I need to get on the bike by 7:30 or so to get the first indoor ride in…it’s only 32 out there right now and I’ll need it to warm up some before I make the first pass on the leaves today and bag them up to go out next Monday night….didn’t get a lot done yesterday but the grocery run and working on the notes for the trip…and we have the zoom meeting with the travel agent this afternoon and I hope my laptop will do the job for that…if not, I have my tablet and phone that I can try….and I did use my tablet to watch an episode of the Rockford Files last night and it was clear as a bell so I’m sure it will work….I did forget about a side trip to Liverpool from Manchester on the trip since I do want to do a Beatles walking tour and Liverpool is only 35 miles from Manchester….so that’s now on the agenda and we will finalize most of it today….I have been trying to crack my back for a couple of days to deal with the lower back pain with not much luck…and I aggravated it going into the wind yesterday and I’m sure I’m going to make it much worse today with working on the leaves….not much…okay, that’s wrong…have lots to do today…starting with getting 8 miles done downstairs in an hour or so, then out for the leaves, on the bike for an outside ride, more work on the trip, watching Man U play, and then the zoom meeting….geez, I’m going to need a break later…and I do need to make lunch and dinner…so yep, a busy day that is going to start here in a little while…but right now I need coffee and to look for a topic for later….more later….

Remember this before you vote…

Well…with the repubs screaming their heads off about gas prices and inflation and trying to pin it all on the dems, you just have to remember this before you vote…they were given the chance to attack the main cause of inflation, price gouging by corporations, especially oil companies whose profit are up by almost 100% over the past year, and every damn one of them voted against doing anything about it…this shows they don’t care at all about any of this…the only thing they want to use the inflation that is hurting their constituents for is to attack the dems. Have your heard any policy plan they have to deal with inflation? Nope, didn’t think so because they don’t care about it…just like they don’t care about doing anything for the people…they just want power to reward their big donors with another tax cut…and these same donors are pouring hundreds of million of their money into these races to elect more repubs…and there is something wrong when a rich guy can give 30 million to elect repubs and get a 250 million dollar tax cut…I think it’s become the new investment for most of these folks…buy a legislative seat, get money back…and that has got to end….and the only way that will happen is to elect more dems…so vote..and not for repubs…geez…

I was a good samaritan this morning…

Well…when I was out doing the grocery run this morning, I pulled into daily deals parking lot and in the corner was and old Ford Ranger pickup truck with it’s hood open and a sign saying “jump” stuck in the front of the engine bay…so after I got what I needed at DD, I wheeled over to the truck to see if there was anyone in it and there was, so I told him I could give him a jump if he had cables and he did, so I backed the Miata up to the front of his truck since the battery in it is in the trunk and he hooked his truck up to my car with some homemade jumper cables that were pretty thin and I sat there for a few minutes with my car running to get a little charge in his battery and his truck started right up…after talking to him a bit, I found out he had spent the night in that parking lot since he is basically homeless so I reached in my pocket and gave him the 9 bucks I had in it since I can afford it…the thing is, I’ve been in that situation before and could feel for the guy sitting there in the cold and rain…not homeless but stranded and broke with a dead car…and I can’t figure out why no one else stopped to help him…I guess people aren’t as nice as they used to be….I think I’ll buy a set of jumper cables to keep in the car just in case someone else needs help….

October 26th

Well…it looks like the first ride today will be downstairs and I need to get to it in 15 minutes or so so I can get to the grocery run by 8:15 or so…and I have just started my first cup of coffee so that is going to be a stretch…slept okay last night but I am struggling with allergies and have had a sore throat from it since yesterday that is pretty damn annoying…had a good day yesterday but needed to work on the trip research but didn’t…so today will be all research, all the time so I can be ready for the conference tomorrow afternoon…should only take me a few hours for that and with the rain out there, I’ll probably not be able to ride outdoors so that will make it easier to get my work done…I thought my back was getting better after I took the day off Monday but it went right back to crap after riding only one ride yesterday so I need to figure out what is going on since it hurts to just sit here…yeah, I know I’m getting old but this shouldn’t hurt like this…I wonder if it’s from bone loss? Shouldn’t be since it feels like muscle pain and not the deep pain that comes with a disc problem…hmmmm…not much to do today…just the ride and grocery run are the only plans I have and I should be done with that by 9:30 or so and that will open up my day for the rest of the things I need to do…so, I should get at it….more later….