23 May 2014 from a Grateful nation

25 May 2014 Cassi Creek  Back to where it was

          In 1972 I did part of my clinical rotations at HST  VA Hospital.  The system then was restricted to vets with service-connected injuries.  The patient wards were occupied by older men who were essentially being warehoused after their service in WWI, WWII, &/or Korea. 

          In those days clinical lab instrumentation didn’t all have the high-pitched alarms to summon the operator.  I learned to keep a mechanical timer with me so that I could work with the instruments of my profession. 

          My hearing loss and tinnitus, was documented by the Army but no one suggested that I might be eligible for follow-on care with VA.  I didn’t have enough information about service connected hearing loss to file my own claim with VA.  My hearing deteriorated progressively and I was finally brought into the VA system in 2002.  The criteria for admission to the system and the hospitals had been expanded since my last contact with VA in 1980 – Agent Orange screening .  It took about 6 months to run through various screening appointments and I spent a lot of days in the VA waiting rooms. 

          After moving to TN, my hearing was re-evaluated and I was provided a 2^nd set of hearing aids.  I’ve also become further disabled (service connected) due to PTSD and Parkinson’s Disease – both service connected.  There is an appeal pending on the degree of disability due to Parkinson’s that has been somewhere in the clerical chain for about 6 months now.  I’m told it will take another 18 or so to migrate toward review. 

          In the mean time, I see various providers for glaucoma, Parkinson’s and my primary care doctor.  Previously, I’ve been happy with the quality of care I’ve received.  I would probably be seeing private- outside – physicians at about the same frequency as I currently see my VA providers.  Lately, my hearing has become even more damaged and my hearing aids less useful and less comfortable.  I’ve been trying to schedule a new audiology evaluation for almost a year now.  Audiology  is one of the services that is poorly staffed when the number of veterans with hearing loss is considered.  My primary care doctor’s clerk was asked to schedule an appointment.   He told me that I could call and schedule my own.  That led nowhere when I was told by the Audiology intake desk that I hadn’t been seen in over two years and would need a referral from my primary care doc, or from the audiology techs who work on hearing aids.  So far, I’ve been going round in circles with no one able or willing to schedule a new evaluation. 

          While I really haven’t encountered much delay and misdirection, I have hit some walls in obtaining treatment.  When I tried to schedule a screening colonoscopy the first available appointment was 11 months distant.  That was then canceled and rescheduled for 13 months from the initial request.  The vision clinics are also overloaded and under staffed.  Now I’m finding the same delays as I try to have my hearing re-evaluated. 

          I’ve looked at my VA outpatient care as objectively as possible.  I don’t believe that private insurance and providers would have offered any higher level of care.  But I’m running into situations and delays now that seem to stem from what has once more become an over-loaded, under-staffed, and badly underfunded system.  While I’ve never encountered any resentment or been made to feel unwelcome by VA staff, I see the levels of satisfaction with VA care dropping as other veterans experience the same problems. 

          I don’t think that I’m encountering the hidden schedules that have surfaced in Arizona and other facilities.  But the possibility that VA is once more becoming the agency it was in the 1970’s is very disturbing.  

6 May 2014 Shake shuffle and slice

Cassi Creek:  after a long delay mostly due to some serious fatigue and a desire to actually say something of significant value, I take pen in hand once more.

          It’s called literary license.  Did we fail to listen in high school English?  Of course we did.  Well, most of us did not listen.

          Into VA today for neurology follow-up.  0800 appointment, requiring me to roll out at 0500 to make check in time.  The parking lot dance was not too bad this morning and I made check in with 10 minutes of window remaining.  The LPN for the Neuro OP clinic did her bit, vitals, within two minutes of the time I sat down in Neuro OP waiting.  Then there was no action until 0920.  Today was Neuro grand rounds.  So my early appointment generated a long hold time but I was still the first patient to be seen by a neuro resident this morning. 

          Naturally, my tremor was fairly well controlled this morning and I was able to walk without shuffling.  They were both quite pronounced about 0500, the trough level for the dopamine meds I take.

          Tomorrow, we send the generator out for overhaul.  It has been unnecessary since 2011.  I’m fine with that lack of need.  But it does need some replacement parts.  It will be accompanied by the riding mower.  That valiant tool encountered some sort of rock or other frost-heaved obstacle last weekend.  It will run no more until it is seen by a small engine mechanic. 

          The generator may take some time to find and obtain parts.  It was manufactured in China.  The mower probably was as well but the label, at least, indicates U.S. manufacture. 

          Burgers to grill tonight.  Prep is done  for dinner.  Last Saturday I managed to slice one finger and one thumb while slicing garlic.  The unwanted protein was extremely thin and not even deep enough to bleed.  But that is decidedly a warning about future days in the kitchen.

28 April 2014 Hear the wind blow

Cassi Creek:  three years ago we were sitting here in the heat and humidity, happy that we had been fortunate to be missed by the tornadoes that ripped a path just to our north.  We could hear them but could not see them in the thunder storm that spawned and directed them. 

          The NWS Severe Storms Prediction center publishes convection forecasts that indicate the degree of risk and the location of risk for severe storms.  Most of the time we are lucky to be on the outside edge of the more serious storms.  Today, tornado watch 110 has us right in the middle of the box. 

          The high temperature today has been around 87°F.  The muggy, oppressive feeling that we associate with tornadic storms has been evident.  We’re about to see the first wave of storms roll in. 

          The forecast also calls for high winds, hail, and heavy rains producing flash flooding.  Spring is definitely here. 

24 April 2014 Up the long ladders and down the steep slopes!

Cassi Creek:  Warm, dry, and lacking in Sherpas

Hillary must be spinning about now.  Once upon a time, climbers actually carried some of their own gear, found and forced their own routes, and regarded Sherpas as climbing partners rather than beasts of burden and delivery services. 

There are plenty more minimum wage workers where the last batch came from. 

25 April 2014  Still down the steep slopes 

When will we ever learn?  over-sized implants do not increase intelligence or protect from idiocy

Hike with Mike began as walk in the rain.  The day promises to be wet and windy.  Need to have the Pathfinder lubed and oiled.  Also need new wipers.  The driver’s side wiper is horribly ineffective, leaving an obscured visual field. 

          The rain let up about ¼ of the way through the hike.  Instead of drizzle, I spent the morning listening to drivel about it being illegal for the U.S. government to own land.  I guess those “all powerful states” just popped into existence, fully formed, bordered, and populated after the various land purchases and annexations. 

22 April 2014 The annual eastern nation hunt

This cartoon stands by itself.

Hike with Mike this morning was touched with a bit of rain.  1^st drops hit about half way down valley.  The rest of the hike was more or less rainy.  The dog seemed not to mind it.  It’s been raining as small cells slide by, dropping small amounts of rain.  The forecast called for rain.  It has been here. 

          Need to get a new battery for the riding mower.  That’s on tap for this afternoon. 

          

21 April 2014 Shorten it up in back and trim the sides

Cassi Creek:  Spring is fully engaged in this region.  Pollen coats most surfaces and fills the air.  Allergies are causing discomfort for many residents.  You can hear the sniffing every where you go.

          The riding mower needs a new battery in order to be used.  I’ll get that this week.  The walk behind mower is functional.  The string trimmer, now 5 years old, has steadfastly refused to start.  I’ve fed it fresh gasoline/oil, cleaned its spark plug, and exercised its recoil starter dutifully.  The trimmer, a heavy-duty model purchased to attack Japanese knotweed, has sneered at me for the better part of a week. 

          Yesterday I bought two gallons of new gasoline and prepped yet another fuel mix for the trimmer’s two-cycle motor.  Pulling the starter cord until both shoulders were non-functional, left me annoyed and hurting.  I left the trimmer outside last night, thinking that I would take it in for service today or tomorrow. 

          Google searches and phone calls led to the sad realization that the dealers for that brand have quit the area.  There is one dealer listed at a close enough proximity to consider using.  They were not answering their phone. 

          There are several back yard small engine shops in the vicinity.  None of them are factory stores.  That means that any and all parts will have to be ordered when and if someone gets around to it.  The local repair companies have not been particularly awe inspiring.  The last parts I ordered from a warrantee shop took 3 weeks to arrive.  Compounding that delay, they were not the correct parts. 

          This morning, I decided to visit futility once more.  After ten or twelve pulls, the engine coughed, caught, and then died.  More pulls > more coughs > more engine noise > shutdown.  And finally, the engine caught and continued to growl, sputter, and work.  I trimmed a bit of green stuff and stopped the engine.  Tomorrow I will undertake the necessary trimming.   

17 April 2014 Sounds like Ukraine

Cassi Creek: 

There is evil in the world today that should have died.  Anti-Semitism still flourishes in Eastern Europe.  Jews have been told to separate their selves from the non-Jewish populace, to register their property, and to prepare for deportation. 

          The murders in Kansas demonstrate how little the Holocaust actually caused change in behavior, learning, and action. 

http://us.cnn.com/2014/04/17/world/ukraine-religious-threats/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

The history of one Shtetl  - it is estimated that 10,000 Jews were killed at this single location.

http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/polonnoye/polonnoye.html

“I ought to tell…

(Memoirs of the Former Prisoner of the Polonnoye Jewish ghetto)

By Maria Moiseyevna Tribun

Translated by Irina Kaplan and Evelyn Mintzer

The mass “pogroms” and the shootings of the Jews took place during the first week of September 1941. The Jews were hunted down, loaded on trucks, taken to the woods by a railway station and shot. Small children were simply thrown alive into a ditch. The Jews, before they were killed, were stripped naked; gold teeth were removed from their mouths. German soldiers carried out these executions with their local accomplices called “politsai”.

In October-November all the Jews of Polonnoye, Poninka, Novolabun, Bereznya, Vorobievka and Kotelyanka that were still alive, were summoned into a ghetto located in the barracks of a granite quarry on Berezovskaya Street. My infant son, my parents, my brother and sister and myself were among these Jews. We lived in the barracks, slept on the concrete floor and on the shared bunks; there was no heat, the food was sparse. There were over 1,000 people. Some local residents who lived nearby, and our friends from the city and the townships, took pity of us and tried to help as much as they could by bringing potatoes, beets and bread so we wouldn’t starve to death. This existence lasted for months. Some Jews were swollen from starvation. Nobody could leave the ghetto; on the way to work we were guarded by “politsai”. All ghetto inhabitants were ordered to wear a special symbol on their clothes: yellow circles in the front and back, plus white armbands with the Star of David. Those, who were found guilty of even the smallest misdeed, were subjected to corporal punishments, or even shot to death. All ghetto inhabitants were supposed to be present when the corporal punishments were administered. Often we were forced to go to the Jewish Cemetery and destroy the gravestones on the graves of our own loved ones.

Once a stone fell on one young woman’s foot and smashed her toes. She made an attempt to step aside so she could wash her wound and apply a bandage. A guard accused the girl of escaping, and while her father and others watched in horror, the guard shot the girl.

There were plagues like typhus, because the ghetto was overcrowded, and nutritious food was not available.

On June 25, 1942, the ghetto was surrounded by the fascist executioners, who arrived from the city of Shepetovka. The executioners selected from our midst 15 young men and women who would be sent to the Shepetovka ghetto. The rest of the women, old people and children were shot to death.

Among those victims were my parents, my brother and my infant son. By that time I managed to escape from the ghetto and made it to the village of Kotelyanka. There the family of Radion Yanyuk, whom I knew from before, hid me and my sister Evgeniya, who had escaped from the Shepetovka ghetto. Radion and his wife Yevdokiya did all they could to save my sister and me from death.

They subjected themselves to a great risk. If we were found, not only us, but Radion and Yevdokiya too, would be severely punished.

Now I bow before those brave people. They hid me until the village was liberated by the Soviet Army troops in January of 1944.

My sister Evgeniya by the end of 1943 joined a guerrilla detachment”

Greater numbers of Jews were killed in the ravine Babi Yar.  These images are not for the weak stomached.  But if we let the current crop of Jew haters spread their particular brand of evil, there will be more killings like these.

http://www.charonboat.com/item/179