#ROW80 – Wednesday Check In – A Sort of a Word Count? Why Does the U.S. Health System Suck SO Bad?

Well, this is a first for me, in a while. An actual check in, where I actually put some actual words down for my actual edit. And excruciating it was. However, I am rather pleased by the result. Never having edited my own work, I thought I would be harder on myself. This means that I will loathe these edits later on, wondering what on God's Earth I was thinking. But, baby steps and all that happy crappy.


So, I've managed to edit about 700 words. Now, when we talk about “edit,” are we talking about leaving words in the paragraph, or taking them out? Does that count, or should I be subtracting those, because if that is the case, I've really managed to edit about -1459 words, and I don't think that's so good. And what about this “changing” thing. “Words?” or entire “Paragraphs?” If it's just words, you have a sum total of more or less. “Paragraphs” are stupid for counting, because we're not really editing them. Or are we? See? Can you tell I've never done this before? I'm totally scoobying this? Help? This shit is really hard. I think I'll stick with words, because I had more of those after I gouged out great chunks of drivel about the pinochle game with the ex-felons. . . Oh wait, I didn't. That's in the next chapter. Is that a teaser? Ha ha, color me Oops!

I look nothing like this, with the exception of the eyes. My left eye is crazier...

Anyway, I have found that dealing with the Health Care System in the United States, is everything way wrong with the U.S. in a microcosm. No body knows how to do their job. Meaningless CYA letters are mailed to and fro, unasked for in most cases and the letters themselves are written by that room full of monkeys that type Shakespeare for a hobby. Then, the Supplemental Insurance Companies run the letters through the HIBACHI AUTO TRANSLATOR that has been in use for decades by horrible Asian Spy Martial-Arts rip-off movies like so:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-most-baffling-subtitles-in-foreign-action-movie-history/

Holy shit! Is this a movie about kickboxing riot cops versus Cthulhu? Because if it is, then I think we should all, as a species, chip in together and get Indonesia a nice giant box of chocolates or something as a thank you. But if it's not, then I call dibs on that shit right now and you all are witnesses. 

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-most-baffling-subtitles-in-foreign-action-movie-history/#ixzz2bGJPftqg *

Today, I found out it takes 15 departments to dispatch drivers to pick up one person after a doctor appointment. After having carefully followed the rules since March 1, when I received this Blight on the Planet called Supplemental Insurance/Medicare, it was made very clear to me to NEVER deviate from the process. I am so hard-wired I make Boolean logic look wild and crazy! I do process and I do it hard. I am all about process. I grew up in chaos and loathe it.


That being the case, today, after my shrink appointment, which went a big long (we're discussing psycho-therapy, or PsychoBabble Rap) I quickly nipped over to the Chinese joint and ordered JC and me some Chinese food. I got back to my doc's office, called for my ride to pick me up, which is THE PROCESS. THEY DON'T COME UNTIL YOU CALL! The lady at my Supplemental insurance said, okay, we'll have them dispatched. THAT IS THE PROCESS. THEY DON'T COME UNTIL YOU CALL! Except for today. Offices closed. Lights are coming on; my food is growing cold. I'm bewildered. I called my Supplemental Suckage group and got put on hold with their after-hours group.


I finally get an agent from Neptune; the customer service was as bad as you would expect, but not earth-shakingly bad, nor profoundly bad, as what happens to poor Buck in “Numb3rs, Season 5, Episode 11, “Arrow in Time,” which I love to talk about endlessly because this scene, approximately 8 minutes from the show's end, is played out in a church, with FBI agent Don, calmly explaining to a furious, heart broken, grieving and frightened 19-year old that he has to do 250 years in prison. All of this is played with the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt's piece “Requiem to Benjamin Britten,” for Strings and Bells. The music itself, is nothing more than a cascading scale of notes of several octaves, but pure and simple; clean, yet I found it sinister. I've played the piece and it's one of the few times I've heard music on a Television show that was not an original composition, set as “mood music.” It's chilling, tragic, unbelievably dark, and the last note is as of Hell itself. It is one of the most powerful things I've heard and seen together. The show's composer made an excellent call on that. The start is when Charlie and his father talk about Maxwell's Demon, at 7:40 from the end of the show.

I embedded the code from You Tube, so that hopefully Ms. Alberta Ross can see and hear this; I finally found it on You Tube. But it's a powerful statement and his Buck's end is final and tragic. The music, again, from Arvo Part, an Estonian composer who wrote mainly choral and canonical works wrote this for Bells and Strings. It is simple in construction, but so powerful. 

Well, nothing that dire happened today, but my food was cold and that was 2 3/4 digressions. By the time I got home, I was no longer in high dudgeon and just worn out. Neurological problems just tire you and the drugs don't help. Actually, with this new medicine for my tremors, Primidone, I cannot seem to muster up more than a medium-tall dudgeon. When I start counting my dudgeons in inches, then we're going to have to do something else. I haven't had any sightings of the dead, or sprouted any extra appendages yet, nor have I levitated. One can hope. At least I'm starting to actually edit, produce words, sentences, paragraphs with some coherence. 

I guess I didn't answer the question about why the health care system here is so horrid. It just is and will get worse, I fear. On to more important things, like Lion Drome.

*My thanks to Mr. Robert Brockway over at Cracked.com. He has put up with me and my antics patiently and is a prince, as well as an awesome, awesome writer. Check him out. I laughed all over again reading this article. My 2nd favorite article of his is this one: http://www.cracked.com/blog/15-old-photographs-that-prove-world-used-to-be-insane/ 
2 words: Executive Lion: "Wonder if I ate my briefcase?"