What is More Boring

I thought that the debates of the Democrat candidates for president of the United States were boring. Their statements were just more failed Leftist dreams and promises that are unbelievably naïve. All of them propose increased taxes and removing constitutionally guaranteed rights. Their ideals continue to disperse “free” items: health care, education, housing, etc. None of it is free. Taxation for those who work or for companies that provide products or services have to pick up the tab. And we all know, except for politicians, that businesses will pass on the costs to the consumers. That means every tax increase is born by the common hard-working citizen.

They also try to buy votes by raising the minimum wage. All it means is the politicians will be able to collect more in taxes, the cost of goods will increase and negate the higher wage, and those on a fixed income will fall farther behind. They will soon have to choose food, medicine, or heat to stave off death.

Now to the crux of the matter: the impeachment trial. What a waste of taxpayers’ money. What waste of the politicians’ time that they should have been serving their constituents and not their self-serving grandstanding. They are so afraid that President Trump will carry out his promise to drain the swamp. It is almost as if the cockroaches are afraid of their past corrupt deeds are being brought to light.

With the continued accomplishments President Trump has brought to fruition in his short time in office, they fear what a second term may bring. Today’s meager field of candidates and their flimsy platforms leave them little choice but to continue to twist facts and invent outright lies to assault President Trump. They have weaponized the American citizen’s safeguard from tyranny and are using it to batter our President.

Joe Biden was exposed by blatantly doing what they charge our Commander-In-Chief of doing, but choose to turn a blind eye to that.  There are insinuations the ex-President Obama knew about this and allowed it. There is also the unresolved source of the FISA report, Spy-gate, and who can forget the debacle of Benghazi where he and Hillary Clinton chose to cover up the death of an ambassador and several Marines by lying about a film.

The Democrats are saying President Trump tried to find dirt on Joe Biden and yet they have 4 Democrat candidates for president who will be voting on the guilt or innocence of Donald Trump. They should immediately recuse themselves, what hypocrites.

Please, stop the charade. Stop the lies. Start working for American citizens and not attempting to continue the “One World” dynasty of past political leaders.

It Was Bottoms Up

There were times in my life that I’ve been surprised when something happened, but then there were times that I was shocked. One such time was when I was working in the triage area of the emergency department at Frick Hospital. A man walked in with the seat of his pants covered in blood. He was pressing a towel tightly against his bottom. I hurried him inside and helped the other nurses remove his trousers and underwear while keeping pressure over the area that the towel had been covering. His pants had an almost three inch rip across the seat of the trousers. We removed his clothing and began to cleanse away the blood. As we moved closer and closer to the injury, we were able to see the cut was large and deep. We needed to see exactly what had been cut and how large it was. Finally, after much cleaning we changed the towel for a large, absorbent pad. The laceration of his skin was nearly as long as the rip in his pants.

            While we were cleaning and assessing the wound, the man explained that he had been at a party and was shoved onto an empty beer bottle that had been left on a chair. “It shattered and cut me.”

            The glass shard had cut deeply, lacerating his anal sphincter. When the emergency room doctor saw the depth of the wound, its location, and the severity of it, he said, “Keep pressure on it and notify the surgeon on call.”

            One of the other nurses started an I. V. and gave a dose of antibiotic. We hurried to get the man ready for the operating room. I went back to my post in the triage area.

I hadn’t been there for long when a teenage girl walked in. She looked about thirteen or fourteen. I asked her, “May I help you?”

Flippantly and disrespectfully she said, “Yeah, I’m looking for my old man.” This was in the early 1970’s and such a cavalier attitude was unusual and unexpected.

“What’s your father’s name?” I asked.

It was her reply that nearly bowled me over. I could hardly believe what I’d heard.

Without giving me her father’s name, she chirped, “He’s the one with the new A**shole!”

 

Long Weekend

It actually started Thursday. I’ve been contemplating when I would buy a newer car. My 2011 Chevy Malibu was starting to show its age. I’d driven just over 100,000 miles and had no major problems, but superficial rust was beginning in spots around each wheel well. I’ve known it’s needed new struts on the front for more than a year and the tire service gauge alert has been malfunctioning for nearly as long. It was the superficial rust that spurred me into activity. I wanted to wait until spring so I didn’t have to drive a newer car in the winter road salt, but I was afraid that if I waited, the rust would become cancerous and eat away at my vehicle.

I decided to go to C. Harper auto dealership in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. I’d checked their inventory and saw several newer models of Malibu. I liked the way my 2011 drove and looked, so I was lured into their dealership. To make a long story short, I now own a 2018 white Malibu. It’s the same color as my 2011 and unless someone looks closely, they won’t notice the difference.

Friday I attended a writers meeting in Latrobe. Jan, my friend rode with me and said she likes the seats better than the old ones. The seats are easier for her to climb into and out of with more support and the interior roomier. I’m still trying to figure out the radio.

Saturday, I needed some items that probably could have waited, but with the new car, I wanted to get used to driving it. Besides that, the gasoline tank was below half and I’ve always been one of those drivers that like to have their tank more than half full. I think that habit started when my kids were young. Back then, there were no 24 hour convenience stores. They were all closed overnight. I was always concerned that one of my children might be injured or become sick and I wouldn’t be able to get them to the hospital.

While I was out, I noticed my cell phone wasn’t announcing notifications from Facebook. Since I was close, I stopped at the Verizon store to see what was wrong. I met a wonderful representative named Kate. She struggled to find the problem even Googling for information. Others had the same problem and they too had no resolution. One users answer was that it came back spontaneously. I left without the problem being solved, but when I came home, I saw notices that others were having the same problem. Later, it rectified itself.

Yesterday included the usual Sunday activities of church, Sunday school, and Sunday evening services.

Sometimes

It was another busy evening at Frick Hospital emergency department when an ambulance radioed in saying they were bringing another chest pain to our emergency room. That was just what we needed. All of our monitor beds were full, either folk with chest pains or people with shortness of breath. I was wondering what I could do, when the doctor said he was planning to discharge a middle aged man in our bed number eight. He’d been medically cleared, so I grabbed a wheelchair, pulled out his I. V., and moved him into the middle aisle between the bottoms of the beds. I ripped the dirty sheet off the cart, did a quick wipe of the mattress with cleaning fluid, and tossed on a fresh sheet before going back into the triage area.

The man with chest pain, coming in by ambulance now had a bed. I was in the triage area that evening and as I bustled back and forth from triage area to the emergency room desk, I noticed that the man I’d earlier placed in the wheelchair was looking grayer and grayer as he waited for his paperwork to be completed. I decided to check the man in the wheelchair who was still waiting to be discharged. The man looked really sick. But before I could ask, he began to clutch his chest. I was so glad that one of the other beds had opened up. That patient had been admitted to the hospital taken to his room upstairs. The bed still wore a rumpled sheet and hadn’t been cleaned.

 “I need help in here!” I called, as the man started to collapse and slide to the floor out of the chair. A feeling of panic kicked in and I snatched him from the seat and tossed him onto the dirty bed. It was just in time. Normally I wouldn’t have been able to lift the man by myself. But it’s strange how adrenaline can give you extra strength.

The man’s heart had infarcted while waiting to be discharged from the emergency department. He didn’t arrest, but had a massive myocardial infarct. We stabilized him and sent him to a larger facility. I’m glad that we had been busy and the paper work was delayed. If the man had been on his way home and infarcted, he would never have survived. Sometimes things just happen for a reason.

It’s All in What You Say and How You Say It

The new Facebook aps that allow you to warp your image and alter voice reminded me of a story one of my corpsmen friends told me while in training at the Naval Hospital in Great Lakes, Illinois. We were working together one evening when he started to laugh. “What?” I asked. He had just taken something from the hospital supply room. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but he told me that while he was stationed at another hospital he and the others on the ward were horsing around and talking oddly and kidding each other.

He said, “We didn’t have the item that the doctor wanted and I went to another floor to borrow it. The doctor was present and needed it right then. I quickly ducked down to the ward below and asked to borrow the instrument. However, I forgot that we were talking with a silly accent prior to the doctor’s request and when I asked to borrow the instrument from the nurse who was in charge, she actually had a speech impediment and talked almost the same way that I was speaking with my fake speaking accent. I was so embarrassed. It was much too late to explain, even if I wanted too and the doctor was waiting. I didn’t want her to think I was making fun of or mocking her, so it was necessary for me to remember that each time I met her, I had to talk the same way.”

It also reminds me of a time in Orlando, Florida when remembering what to say was imperative. The wife and daughter of a visiting dignitary fell out of a car when the door popped open. They were from Saudi Arabia and spoke no English. The doctor in the emergency department with me and I spoke no Saudi. The only language that these Saudi patients, the doctor, and I spoke that we could all understand was French.

French was their second language and the French that the doctor and I knew was from high school several years before. It was on the verge of a fiasco with us trying to assess the wife and daughter to see if they were seriously injured or having pain anywhere.

Somehow we managed, but I’m sure that it made a real impression on the Saudi lady and her daughter.

Climate Change

Have you ever been at a gathering, at a party, or in a meeting and the atmosphere in a room changes drastically when a certain person enters? Even before he or she says one word, a different feeling fills the room almost immediately. Sometimes upon their entrance the meeting place brightens as though it’s been swathed in warm springtime sunshine or that spotlights have been switched on. Smiles and pleasant conversation continue at a higher level. But when another type of person enters, a thick gray blanket of gloom settles in, a presence that smothers conversation and removes any thoughts of joy or mirth. A wave of melancholy and doom rolls over the gathering like a massive all-encompassing tsunami.

We’ve all met or know people like this. We’ve all been in a group when the first type of person strolls in. This person radiates happiness and joy and becomes a magnet to those who are attending the gathering. There is a concentration to this springboard of blessings. It is almost tangible. Moving around the room this person radiates a sweet smell of contentment and joy throughout the group. Sometimes the person shares memories, sometimes stories, sometimes jokes, but always sharing something of him or herself with the others. This person listens to others and makes them feel comfortable and important.

Then there are the other people who seem to suck the very life out of a group. Like a giant emotional leech that depletes the happiness and joy from others. These people are like a black hole; a vortex, a void that can never be filled. Nothing escapes them; darkness prevails, swallowing up all that is light, bright, or the least bit enjoyable. They’re always taking and never giving. They’re surrounded by an unwelcome aura like the dust that follows Pigpen from the Charlie Brown series.

To me these are the manmade climate changes. God has created the change of seasons, the rain, the snow, and the sunshine. He controls it all. Volcanoes, winds with cyclones and hurricanes, rains or lack of rains are part of his great plan. Mankind may not understand, but those who worship nature instead of the Creator will try to attempt to combat what the LORD has deemed to be appropriate. There is so much energy in an earthquake or a volcanic eruption that men can only record and measure the results. Banning a plastic straw is less than removing a single grain of sand.

I don’t believe in abusing animals nor should we mistreat the environment around, but man saving the planet is farcical. There will come a day when God will destroy the planet and to rebuild it to his complete his will.

 

 

Decay

It becomes terrible realization when a person begins to age and feels the effects of decay on their body. What was once so easy to do now become an adventure. Bones become brittle, joints become less mobile and stiff, muscles weaken, and the brain fogs. Time has a way of wearing on all living creatures and leaves us to recall our youth. Sometimes there’s a desire to cast off the wisdom gathered from our growing years and try to frolic like a colt in springtime. We might yearn to retain the energy and stamina of a small child that still resides inside our aging shell.

Perhaps it’s why God has allowed that desire to turn to him; that hope for something better than we are; a passion to regain the body that he designed to be perfect for us. That’s the body we will gain when we’re transported to heaven.

Mankind earned the decay when Adam and Eve rebelled against God’s will hearkening to the temptation of Satan. The taint of the fruit from the tree of knowing good and evil has changed our bodies that were designed to live forever. I believe that the elements in that fruit changed mankind’s DNA, just like radiation can alter mankind’s genes.

Satan lured God’s creation into committing the very same act of rebellion that caused God to exile Lucifer from his exalted post in heaven and cast him to earth. Satan beguiled the woman telling her the “ye shall be as gods.” He tempted her to sin and through her, reach Adam. He wanted God’s perfect creatures to revolt against God’s will too. Satan, a created being, wanted to corrupt and destroy all of God’s creations. Satan’s anger was still directed at God attempting to thwart God’s will at every turn.

God has given mankind a gift of rejuvenation. Although the body will weaken, decay, and die, God sent his Son Jesus Christ to shed his blood on the cross at Calvary to give a second, never-ending life in a perfect body; an eternal body that will never decay. It is free. The gift from a loving Father to his creation. Christ became the payment for the sin debt.

God created Hell for Satan and those angels which chose to follow him in rebellion. The pit has been enlarged to accommodate mankind that also chooses to live in sin and to continue to revolt and reject Christ as their redeemer.

Are you tired of the aches and pains? There is a cure. God offers this gift freely.