Pappa Hardy’s Musings on Life.

My wife and I went to an employee meeting tonight, provided by her employer, to hear a discussion about changes in our health care coverage. While the coverage from the Utah County Government is still much better than what I could get through my employer, still, it is a lot worse than it has been.

The high cost of health care is mind boggling, and no matter what government or private companies try to do about the problem, it still hurts and adversely affects someone. Of course, the problem is that many are abusing the current systems, get care for things they could take care of themselves, or we have become so litigious as a nation that the lawyers and others now have their hands in the pie. In any way you slice it, the public, “us”, is taking it in the shorts. IT is persuading me to that perhaps national “gasp” health care might be an option, but that doesn’t work either as we can see from around the earth. We have got to find a better alternative.

We had an enjoyable trip with our children to Las Vegas. However, yesterday was a real tension building day as they tried to drive across I-80 to Wyoming. It was closed then open, the weather and roads were terrible, and it was tough for the parental units.

We ourselves were almost in a pileup near Cedar City when someone panicked over a piece of ice on the road. I hate driving in the winter. I am glad the children drove and made it and were safe in the trip.

I am sure that the kids would make this the correct ranking of what I enjoy most:

1-Sitting in front of the computer
2-Sitting in my rocking chair
3-Sitting in my rocking chair, in front of the computer
4-Sleeping.

What do they really think?

Ah, its that time of the year again. Turkey time. As we get older though, it isn’t the eating that interests us. No, it is the getting together with family that we find fascinating. Why?

1-We get to see the kids. Yeah, it is that time in my life when seeing the kids is about the most enjoyable thing we can do, other than spending time with our spouse.

2-We get to see relatives that we don’t always see. Now that we live in Utah, that is easier but we enjoy that still the same.

3-We get to catch up on all the family gossip. We love talking to our kids and seeing what is going on with them.

4-Most importantly, we just love having them home again. It makes you feel younger and you yearn for that time in your life when the little critters were around all the time. Well, maybe makes you yearn, if you are crazy in the head.

Well, maybe I am excited for this time of the year.

Well, this has been the weekend. It has been a weekend of Scouting (my first in a while) and then family dinners. I was asked to be a merit badge counselor for the Stake Merit Badge Powwow (as they call them in Payson) and then we got together with Chris and a date in Salt Lake for dinner I had with me Bonnie, my sweetheart for many years. I am so glad that my wife could be with me and I enjoy being with here. It was nice to be with her after a day of being with Boy Scouts of all ages, interests, and attention spans.

Then,

I slept OK last night. It is interesting that I am getting to that part of my life where my life quality is measured by how well I slept all night long and whether or not my solid waste system is moving on a regular basis. How embarrassing. That is how it is though when you get to be an older man.

Well, my shoulders are in great pain. Got two shots in my left shoulder (influenza and penumonia) and one in my right (tetanus). When I was heavier, much heavier, I had a lot of extra body mass (I am trying to gentle on my self image here) in my shoulders, and if I got a shot, it didn’t hurt much.

I used to pride myself on the fact that I would get a shot, it wouldn’t hurt, and I was a big boy. There is not much left there on the shoulders, and when I got my shots last night they stung. By the time we finished seeing a movie last night, I was in pain. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished. Does that mean that if I get on a self improvement kick, like loosing weight, that I get to experience more pain, rather than less? I am not sure that was what I was buying into when I started into this project. I sit here at my modern computing machine, my shoulders in great pain. There is no justice in the world.