The Thing That Goes Doink

Got my test results back. Everything is normal, but I'll be constantly monitored to make sure there isn't any adrenal gland dysfunction.

Which beats surgery any day of the week.

First of all, a quick update on my weight loss. So far I'm down about five pounds, in about five months. I'm okay with this. There are serious health risks to losing weight rapidly, and I'd rather not go that direction. For the most part I'm exercising for 20-30 minutes Monday through Friday, usually doing Wii Fit. I really should haul my butt down to the exercise room and get on the treadmill and the weight machine. However I'm doing a variety of exercises on Wii Fit Plus so I'm hoping that while I'm not specifically targeting particular muscle groups, I'm working everything over the course of the week with the result of slowly getting rid of this excess weight. Point in case, my calves are looking nice and firm. Now if I could get my glutes and thighs to the same point all would be dandy. Though...actually I'm not interested in looking sculpted. A bit thinner, yes, but I don't want to be able to identify muscle groups though my skin. I'd prefer to just trim down my physique - and I may need to consult a doctor about that because my weight issue may be that hereditary thyroid problem that may take some medication to get straightened out.

To add to my exercising, my husband and I have been focusing on eating healthier. This including buying a lot of fruits and vegetables the last time we went grocery shopping. Instead of grabbing junk food for snacking on, I grab either a clementine orange or an apple. We're also focusing on light, reduced fat, and fat free items, as well as reading food labels in an effort to cut down on fat intake because not every thing comes in fat free or light options. I think I'm going to try and plan all of next week's meals out of the Ellie Krieger cookbook, where the emphasis is on healthy eating and substituting higher fat items for lower fat and healthier items. It's certainly not going to kill us to eat out of that cookbook, on top of which the recipes are all really good and certainly don't taste low fat and low calories. Hooray for not eating cardboard!

Weather wise it's starting to warm up. It's only supposed to be something like 36 today and it's already up to the mid forties. Naturally the snow is melting quite rapidly - and we're going to stay warm(ish) for the next week or so, meaning that by the middle of the next week most of the snow will be completely melted. I think the only snow that will remain will be whatever was shoved to the side in the parking lots. At least until it starts dumping on us again.

I think I'm going to take advantage of my husband being at work this afternoon and start wrapping presents, as well as printing off the photos from the WSU campus for my dad's collage. I kind of miss the days where I would be done with my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving, meaning that the moment the tree was set up, I would start wrapping and tease everyone with their gifts which sat under the tree for nearly a month before they could open them. I'm still waiting for a few of the gifts to arrive (as I only ordered them yesterday), but that's really not an issue. I can finally stop hiding the presents under the bed in the guest room and taunt my husband with them under the tree.

Anyway I'm going to get lunch and then take care of the photos, which are really the only gifts I have left. Except my step-dad. I still have no idea what to get my step-dad. I've resorted to asking my mother but apparently she had no idea either, so short of calling him and picking his brain or visiting with him this weekend to try and figure out what he wants, I'm going to have to wait until my mom gets back to me with ideas.

I was just watching the news and they couldn't stop raving about how great heath care is in Cuba. How it has one of the best ratios of doctors to patients. How foreigners go there to be cared for. "Look at the pretty, clean clinics! Look at the doctors! Look at how they're all women, too!" It is GLORIOUS and America can learn from this!

To this I say, "Congratulations CNN, you've just been played like a cheap violin."

I would have thought by now that the general public would have figured out that what people see of Cuba is what the government WANTS them to see. I've seen the real Cuba. Nature there is beautiful. C'mon, it's a tropical island, of course it's beautiful. Show me the slums and the clinics there, and then we'll talk about Cuba's "model health care." Actually, they don't have to - I've seen the pictures that my father snapped without anyone knowing. I've seen photos taken by a Swiss journalist who decided to see what real health care in Cuba is about. What he found and then published has made him persona non gratis on the island, and will never be able to go back.

For fuck's sake people - communists are all the same: They show you what they want you to see and not what really is.

(Does anyone here remember the whole Anti-Fascist Protective Rampart incident of the 1960s? Anyone?  How about the fact that the USSR was basically Uppervolta with rockets for a very long time?)

Wander down an alley. I promise that what you'll find there is the real Cuba, and not the pretty facade that the government wants you to see.

Of the people who don't have insurance, how many qualify though an employer and actively CHOOSE not to take it? How many qualify for government health care assistance but actively CHOOSE not to receive it? And how many are left who legitimately do not have any insurance or health care assistance. Probably far less that the reported 50 million.

Yes, health care is expensive. And here's the problem as I see it: doctors run a battery of expensive tests trying to find a proper diagnosis. Doctors also have to pay outrageous malpractice insurance.

Hmmm, if we stopped being so litigation happy we'd probably get more people who'd go into the medical field and the cost of health care would probably drop. Wow, health care crisis adverted (well, in the most basic and simplest terms). I don't want to have to pay for some schmuck who decides that he's unhappy with a doctor for some puerile reason and wants some quick cash. Neither does anyone else, I'm sure.

I'm all for health care reform, because regardless people need it - but we have to be smart about. And following Cuba's example isn't.