Well, my dad had his biopsy about 2 weeks ago and his follow up with his surgeon. He is still in quite a lot of pain on his right side. He surgeon says he does not have lymphoma, he has lung cancer. Dad smokes about a pack a day so I am not surprised. He is very scared. The cancer has spread to his bone (hence the rib pain) and quite a bit to his lymph nodes. The doctor took out most of the large lymph node tumor but couldn't get it all.
I called my mother and told her about it (my parents have been divorced for over 30 years) and she went on about how she would not want any chemo etc. For some reason this really irritated me. Partly because that is my job (I am an oncology nurse) and see people getting treated every day and getting years of more time and partly because Dad will need chemotherapy to stay alive throughout this year. Also, I know that even if she wanted chemotherapy, she would not be able to get it in Tennessee because she does not have health insurance and is not yet old enough to receive Medicare. AND, she is still smoking even after burying one ex-husband with lung cancer. All I wanted to do was get off the phone- not talk to her about this, and I am the one who called! So I basically told her to let my brother know so he could call Dad.
I plan to visit my Dad this upcoming Labor Day weekend, I have Monday off. He lives on Long Island so the drive will be pretty sucky.
My brother did end up calling him and wants him to come to Tennessee to visit. Dad would like to see his grandsons (my sister's boys) play football (they both play for their school teams).
My sister told my Dad that she would come up for Christmas with her kids. I am told he really broke down crying at that point. I am glad she can do that. I will probably have to work on Christmas so will need to pick a different time. Sometimes it stinks working in healthcare at a hospital but even if I had the day off, I would have to work the day before or day after so it is not like I would be able to come down anyhow. I'll try to take some personal time as I won't be eligible for vacation time until March. I hope most of my schedule will be in blocks (3 on, 4 off) so I can avoid trying to request time off.
I don't think this year will be a good one. I guess the aborted relocation to Tennessee worked out the way it did for a reason.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Sunday, August 13, 2006
The Dog and the Wolf
This post is actually a joiner of a conversation initiated by NYCO in regard to NYRI. Here is some background on NYRI--first the proponents:
http://www.nyri.us/HTML_Site/home.html
Now the actual citizens they propose to run roughshod over to push it through:http://www.nyri.info/info.htm
It is classic upstate/downstate conflict that will most likely end the same way these conflicts do, with downstate pretty much getting whatever they want.
NYCO's entry:
http://www.silent-edge.org/wp/?p=403#comments
"Upstate New York can’t say NIMBY about power generation and transmission, but neither can they (sic downstate-ed) (as Michael Bloomberg does in Gallagher’s article). And honestly, there is just so long that NYC politicians can respond to this conundrum by acting all patrician about the tax money that gets sent up here, when the economy is so bad that the standard of living continues to go down in upstate New York and there are no new jobs because of the bad business climate. Something is not working, and it’s not simply because upstate New Yorkers are somehow less intelligent or “just slow.”
My Dad gave me a heads up about this article a couple of weeks ago complaining about NIMBY etc.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11804
He lives in Moriches and receives the Daily News every day but thier website will only give you access to artticles within the last 6 days. Luckily planetark picked it up.
Personally, not only would I prefer they keep their energy generated locally, I have a long wish list of other items I would like the greater NYC metropolitan area to keep local, (prisons, taxes, pollution, their sewage, their gangs, their drugs, their politicians)--there is quite the tight fist on money, may as well be consistent. Many downstate like to point out that their area is more successful economically thus contributes more to the tax rolls. However ahead you are in the deal when it comes to the tax rolls, is it really winning if the deck is stacked? How much of NYC is actually leased to foreign interests or deregulated contract holders, outside of the UN complex? What is the real effect of the combination of subsidized rent control and out of the stratosphere real estate prices downstate. A recent trip showed me that as far as Poughkeepsie (last stop on the Metro North) that Toll Brothers are there building and developing on any patch of green with no consideration given to the need for greater infrastructure to accomodate the hordes from the lower counties hunting for affordable housing.
NYCO states:
"But there seems to be an incongruity here, since New York City is so obviously closer to the pulse of America’s power and influence than upstate is (indeed, you could say it is the pulse). It seems evident that America’s ways are going to have to change — nationally, we all talk about alternative energy sources, smarter development, bringing back balance to our urban and non-urban ways of living — but New York City seems to have not quite gotten the memo. It’s almost as if Mayor Bloomberg, dazzled by his own city’s current shininess and glittering real estate market, doesn’t see the writing on the wall about American dominance (and by extension, his city’s dominance), and the subtle ways in which his city is losing creativity and initiative, and its positive influence in a changing world. All that glitters is not gold. And when a great city loses its initiative, it is no longer a great city, but merely a commodity, a prize."
It is with little schadenfraude/consolation that one large probem NYC has is the disappearing middle class residents fleeing (not much different from upstate so far as that goes)--they are priced right out. Same goes for Long Island. However, it is not that people are priced out of upstate, more it is the combination of disappearing job prospects, poor business climate and high taxes. Two factors which are directly attributed to the State (Albany) and the first is attributed to federal government policy that rewards corporations to cut and run and find the latest cheapest slave labor pool. But that phenomena is not singular to upstate NY.
My Dad sat on a committee with a number of LI politicos (including Suozzi I believe). Their object was to review some options for land use on some acreage owned by the county. One proposal they were studying and doing research on was creating a planned housing complex/community geared toward a particular income level that could keep people in the area that work certain necessary jobs like nurses, scientists, fire and policemen, lab technicians and teachers. Only they wanted them to be mostly 2 bedrooms, as encouraging families would stress the school districts.
I told him the only chance for it to work is to make at least half 3 bedroom townhomes and provide their own school district or room in the local districts otherwise people won't settle there.
However, I don't think the project will see the light of day, just like the ones cited in the linked article. The taxpayers would rather pay more for imported nurses or imported power. In a way that makes them a metaphor for the United States, dependant on other regions for their necessaries (oil) and being unwilling then unable to provide for themselves as they sold out (or at least rented with long term leases) their knowledge base, equipment, infratstructure, manufacturing and resources to the highest bidder (China? Dubai? Great Britain?).
What do you call a people who pay others to take away their self-reliance and independance? Dare I find a "The Good Earth" moral to the story?
Thus the moral today "Better Starve Free than Be a Fat Slave."
http://www.nyri.us/HTML_Site/home.html
Now the actual citizens they propose to run roughshod over to push it through:http://www.nyri.info/info.htm
It is classic upstate/downstate conflict that will most likely end the same way these conflicts do, with downstate pretty much getting whatever they want.
NYCO's entry:
http://www.silent-edge.org/wp/?p=403#comments
"Upstate New York can’t say NIMBY about power generation and transmission, but neither can they (sic downstate-ed) (as Michael Bloomberg does in Gallagher’s article). And honestly, there is just so long that NYC politicians can respond to this conundrum by acting all patrician about the tax money that gets sent up here, when the economy is so bad that the standard of living continues to go down in upstate New York and there are no new jobs because of the bad business climate. Something is not working, and it’s not simply because upstate New Yorkers are somehow less intelligent or “just slow.”
My Dad gave me a heads up about this article a couple of weeks ago complaining about NIMBY etc.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11804
He lives in Moriches and receives the Daily News every day but thier website will only give you access to artticles within the last 6 days. Luckily planetark picked it up.
Personally, not only would I prefer they keep their energy generated locally, I have a long wish list of other items I would like the greater NYC metropolitan area to keep local, (prisons, taxes, pollution, their sewage, their gangs, their drugs, their politicians)--there is quite the tight fist on money, may as well be consistent. Many downstate like to point out that their area is more successful economically thus contributes more to the tax rolls. However ahead you are in the deal when it comes to the tax rolls, is it really winning if the deck is stacked? How much of NYC is actually leased to foreign interests or deregulated contract holders, outside of the UN complex? What is the real effect of the combination of subsidized rent control and out of the stratosphere real estate prices downstate. A recent trip showed me that as far as Poughkeepsie (last stop on the Metro North) that Toll Brothers are there building and developing on any patch of green with no consideration given to the need for greater infrastructure to accomodate the hordes from the lower counties hunting for affordable housing.
NYCO states:
"But there seems to be an incongruity here, since New York City is so obviously closer to the pulse of America’s power and influence than upstate is (indeed, you could say it is the pulse). It seems evident that America’s ways are going to have to change — nationally, we all talk about alternative energy sources, smarter development, bringing back balance to our urban and non-urban ways of living — but New York City seems to have not quite gotten the memo. It’s almost as if Mayor Bloomberg, dazzled by his own city’s current shininess and glittering real estate market, doesn’t see the writing on the wall about American dominance (and by extension, his city’s dominance), and the subtle ways in which his city is losing creativity and initiative, and its positive influence in a changing world. All that glitters is not gold. And when a great city loses its initiative, it is no longer a great city, but merely a commodity, a prize."
It is with little schadenfraude/consolation that one large probem NYC has is the disappearing middle class residents fleeing (not much different from upstate so far as that goes)--they are priced right out. Same goes for Long Island. However, it is not that people are priced out of upstate, more it is the combination of disappearing job prospects, poor business climate and high taxes. Two factors which are directly attributed to the State (Albany) and the first is attributed to federal government policy that rewards corporations to cut and run and find the latest cheapest slave labor pool. But that phenomena is not singular to upstate NY.
My Dad sat on a committee with a number of LI politicos (including Suozzi I believe). Their object was to review some options for land use on some acreage owned by the county. One proposal they were studying and doing research on was creating a planned housing complex/community geared toward a particular income level that could keep people in the area that work certain necessary jobs like nurses, scientists, fire and policemen, lab technicians and teachers. Only they wanted them to be mostly 2 bedrooms, as encouraging families would stress the school districts.
I told him the only chance for it to work is to make at least half 3 bedroom townhomes and provide their own school district or room in the local districts otherwise people won't settle there.
However, I don't think the project will see the light of day, just like the ones cited in the linked article. The taxpayers would rather pay more for imported nurses or imported power. In a way that makes them a metaphor for the United States, dependant on other regions for their necessaries (oil) and being unwilling then unable to provide for themselves as they sold out (or at least rented with long term leases) their knowledge base, equipment, infratstructure, manufacturing and resources to the highest bidder (China? Dubai? Great Britain?).
What do you call a people who pay others to take away their self-reliance and independance? Dare I find a "The Good Earth" moral to the story?
Thus the moral today "Better Starve Free than Be a Fat Slave."
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