Wide World of Sports
Hello World,
Well, I don't know about where you are, but in the local area this past week, the weather has certainly been all over the map, and a few places that haven't even been mapped, so from that I guess we can surmise that our old nemesis Comrade Mischka is back at his post at the controls of the Kremlin's infernal weather machine, and up to his old tricks. In fairness to the devious Russkie, it must be said that some of the days were perfectly glorious for this time of year, and a pleasure to be out in them. But they were interspersed with days that were cold, clammy, dank and dreary, and that's not just four of the Seven Dwarves talking, believe me. Some areas had early snow, and I'm thinking that we can't like the sound of that in October, not by a long shot. You certainly don't know what to expect next, so we'd all better be prepared for anything, and that's probably just what we'll get, and in spades.
Speaking of October, this is a time of year when things can be very interesting on the sports scene around here. It's true that the Mets' woeful season couldn't end soon enough, and in many ways, was literally over before it started, although it dragged on all the way through September before sputtering to a dismal close. Across town, the Yankees have delighted the fans of the local pinstripe franchise with their relentless march to the World Series, while the Phillies have got people wondering if this might be their year after all. On the gridiron, both the Giants and Jets got off to fast starts, and although they haven't been able to sustain that momentum, they are still entertaining to watch and could yet end up with surprisingly good records when all is said and done. And as hard as it may seem to believe, the NHL assures me that they do still play professional ice hockey in this country, and after some high-profile off-season player moves, the Rangers are trying to make believers out of the scoffers, jumping off to a 7-1 start and looking like they mean business. Next week, the NBA season kicks off, so it's a good thing that there are 24-hour sports channels, because otherwise, it wouldn't be possible to cover all of the teams in all of the sports that people want to see, and we obviously couldn't have that in a technology-saturated culture like this one, by golly. So for everyone who worships at the altar of sports, there is plenty to be thankful for at this time of year, if only for the realization that Comrade Mischka is merely in control of the weather, and not sports. You can bet that if he had his grubby paws on the Kremlin's infernal sports machine, we'd have the Dodgers playing the Celtics in football, the Patriots taking on the Canadiens in baseball, the Lakers against Serena Williams in golf, and the Cowboys skating around Mine That Bird in hockey, and it would only get worse from there. So the next time we find ourselves suffering from raining frogs or plagues of locusts, we can all be glad that at least our sports are safe from his diabolical machinations.
On the subject of diabolical machinations, of course everyone knows that I hate to be an alarmist, but I see where they've scheduled the end of Daylight Saving Time to be on Halloween this year, and I can't imagine that causing any sort of inconvenience, can you? The scary part is that they actually pay people to come up with these terrible ideas, and after all, we can't blame everything on Comrade Mischka, try as we might. For anyone who wondered how things were progressing in my costume gathering efforts, you may be relieved to hear that other parts of the costume ensemble did in fact arrive, after that first tiny package, and as they are much more substantial than the first item, I think we can safely avoid having an X-rated outfit this time around. Unfortunately, I must have mis-read the description of the costume at the web site, because I thought it included one very necessary component, which it apparently does not, and now I have to go scramble around to round that up on my own. Oh well, it wouldn't be Halloween if I wasn't running around after errant costume parts, so this is just par for the course around here, heaven knows. And the important thing is to remember to be grateful that Comrade Mischka is only in control of the weather, and not Halloween costumes, or else ..... well, you get the idea.
In other news of local interest, I have some bad news for the world-wide spy community next year, because I already went to the ReserveAmerica web site and reserved my regular two campsites at Wildwood next July, and got them for the week that I wanted, so there. Now I won't have to get all frazzled trying to set up on two unfamiliar sites, and the spies will just have to find another spot for their clandestine activities for the week, and good riddance. Now, whatever else may go wrong with my vacation, and there is never any lack of things that can go wrong, at least it will be in the comfort of my own campsites once again, and not off in the wilds of uncharted territory across the street instead. And the spies will just have to fend for themselves, without the friendly confines of C-35 to fall back on this time around, at least not on my watch, and thanks so very much not. Frankly, you wouldn't think that you would have to reserve these two funky, lopsided sites 10 months ahead of time, but after this year's debacle, I'm not taking chances with this anymore, so that's what I'll do if I have to, and beat the spies at their own game. From this point on, they're going to have to get up pretty early in the morning to put anything over on me, because I can be diabolical if I need to, and that's not just the raining frogs and plague of locusts talking, believe me.
Of course, everyone understands by now that the provisions of HIPAA protect the sensitive medical information of individuals from being improperly divulged, compromised or misused by medical providers or other entities that have access to the information for professional purposes, such as insurance companies. It goes without saying that patient confidentiality is a concept that we can all rally around, and never more so than in these paranoid times, heaven knows. But it brought me up short last week, when I got a letter at church from our liability provider, warning us about prayer requests, of all things. They make a point of clarifying that prayer requests are not covered by any HIPAA provisions or privacy protection, however, they contend that there is a burgeoning popular misconception that they are, with unsettling implications. In churches where the prayer requests identify members and their specific problems, so the congregation can pray for precisely what is needed, there is a concern that this violates the person's privacy, having their marital woes, failing health, or financial difficulties bandied about in public, and often when they're not even there to refute any misinformation. What you're left with, as hospital workers can all tell you, is being reduced to general blathering, without referring to anyone by name, or identifying their condition, which unfortunately renders a prayer request about as specific as your average fortune cookie, and without even the lucky numbers that go with it. I don't mind saying that I'm as jiggy with HIPAA as the next person, and maybe more than most, but I can't help but feel that it's a sad state of affairs when you can't even pray for people at church without worrying about violating their privacy, or stooping to the level of vague generalities that mean nothing to anyone. Of course, the next step will be to make people sign a waiver before a church can add them to their prayer requests, or the whole idea may just die off, and we'll have The Tomb of the Unknown Prayer Request, which unlike the Cheers bar, is a place where no one knows your name, by golly.
Meanwhile at work, the hospital management in their infinite wisdom must have become alarmed at record levels of high productivity among the staff, and rather than implementing a drug testing program to see if everyone was taking amphetamines, they decided that we needed a diversion that would slow things down to a crawl. Their idea worked like a charm, because no one could miss the installation of a brand new smoking shelter in the employee courtyard last week, as it took the entire week, and the rapt attention of every single employee on the campus, at all hours of the day. When I first noticed the project getting underway, with the pieces being unloaded from a truck, I thought it was to encourage the smokers to move farther away from the back of the main hospital building, where they tend to gather just outside the doors and under the overhang, and routinely set off the smoke detectors, sometimes several times in the same day. We found out later that it wasn't for the benefit of employees at all, but rather participants in the hospital's substance abuse program, who are regularly brought outside for a cigarette break (the hospital can get them to stop drinking and taking drugs, but apparently when it comes to smoking, they're on their own) and out they go, no matter what the weather. The program received a grant for this purpose, and ended up with a pretty good-sized shelter, including a roof and bench for your smoking pleasure. Although it's enclosed with glass walls, it has two openings, so it can only offer protection from the elements up to a point, and of course, that's if you discount the possibility of raining frogs and plagues of locusts. But still, some protection is better than none, heaven knows, and everyone realizes that things can always be worse, and that's not just the amphetamines talking, believe me. Say, is that the Dodgers and the Celtics playing football?
Elle
Well, I don't know about where you are, but in the local area this past week, the weather has certainly been all over the map, and a few places that haven't even been mapped, so from that I guess we can surmise that our old nemesis Comrade Mischka is back at his post at the controls of the Kremlin's infernal weather machine, and up to his old tricks. In fairness to the devious Russkie, it must be said that some of the days were perfectly glorious for this time of year, and a pleasure to be out in them. But they were interspersed with days that were cold, clammy, dank and dreary, and that's not just four of the Seven Dwarves talking, believe me. Some areas had early snow, and I'm thinking that we can't like the sound of that in October, not by a long shot. You certainly don't know what to expect next, so we'd all better be prepared for anything, and that's probably just what we'll get, and in spades.
Speaking of October, this is a time of year when things can be very interesting on the sports scene around here. It's true that the Mets' woeful season couldn't end soon enough, and in many ways, was literally over before it started, although it dragged on all the way through September before sputtering to a dismal close. Across town, the Yankees have delighted the fans of the local pinstripe franchise with their relentless march to the World Series, while the Phillies have got people wondering if this might be their year after all. On the gridiron, both the Giants and Jets got off to fast starts, and although they haven't been able to sustain that momentum, they are still entertaining to watch and could yet end up with surprisingly good records when all is said and done. And as hard as it may seem to believe, the NHL assures me that they do still play professional ice hockey in this country, and after some high-profile off-season player moves, the Rangers are trying to make believers out of the scoffers, jumping off to a 7-1 start and looking like they mean business. Next week, the NBA season kicks off, so it's a good thing that there are 24-hour sports channels, because otherwise, it wouldn't be possible to cover all of the teams in all of the sports that people want to see, and we obviously couldn't have that in a technology-saturated culture like this one, by golly. So for everyone who worships at the altar of sports, there is plenty to be thankful for at this time of year, if only for the realization that Comrade Mischka is merely in control of the weather, and not sports. You can bet that if he had his grubby paws on the Kremlin's infernal sports machine, we'd have the Dodgers playing the Celtics in football, the Patriots taking on the Canadiens in baseball, the Lakers against Serena Williams in golf, and the Cowboys skating around Mine That Bird in hockey, and it would only get worse from there. So the next time we find ourselves suffering from raining frogs or plagues of locusts, we can all be glad that at least our sports are safe from his diabolical machinations.
On the subject of diabolical machinations, of course everyone knows that I hate to be an alarmist, but I see where they've scheduled the end of Daylight Saving Time to be on Halloween this year, and I can't imagine that causing any sort of inconvenience, can you? The scary part is that they actually pay people to come up with these terrible ideas, and after all, we can't blame everything on Comrade Mischka, try as we might. For anyone who wondered how things were progressing in my costume gathering efforts, you may be relieved to hear that other parts of the costume ensemble did in fact arrive, after that first tiny package, and as they are much more substantial than the first item, I think we can safely avoid having an X-rated outfit this time around. Unfortunately, I must have mis-read the description of the costume at the web site, because I thought it included one very necessary component, which it apparently does not, and now I have to go scramble around to round that up on my own. Oh well, it wouldn't be Halloween if I wasn't running around after errant costume parts, so this is just par for the course around here, heaven knows. And the important thing is to remember to be grateful that Comrade Mischka is only in control of the weather, and not Halloween costumes, or else ..... well, you get the idea.
In other news of local interest, I have some bad news for the world-wide spy community next year, because I already went to the ReserveAmerica web site and reserved my regular two campsites at Wildwood next July, and got them for the week that I wanted, so there. Now I won't have to get all frazzled trying to set up on two unfamiliar sites, and the spies will just have to find another spot for their clandestine activities for the week, and good riddance. Now, whatever else may go wrong with my vacation, and there is never any lack of things that can go wrong, at least it will be in the comfort of my own campsites once again, and not off in the wilds of uncharted territory across the street instead. And the spies will just have to fend for themselves, without the friendly confines of C-35 to fall back on this time around, at least not on my watch, and thanks so very much not. Frankly, you wouldn't think that you would have to reserve these two funky, lopsided sites 10 months ahead of time, but after this year's debacle, I'm not taking chances with this anymore, so that's what I'll do if I have to, and beat the spies at their own game. From this point on, they're going to have to get up pretty early in the morning to put anything over on me, because I can be diabolical if I need to, and that's not just the raining frogs and plague of locusts talking, believe me.
Of course, everyone understands by now that the provisions of HIPAA protect the sensitive medical information of individuals from being improperly divulged, compromised or misused by medical providers or other entities that have access to the information for professional purposes, such as insurance companies. It goes without saying that patient confidentiality is a concept that we can all rally around, and never more so than in these paranoid times, heaven knows. But it brought me up short last week, when I got a letter at church from our liability provider, warning us about prayer requests, of all things. They make a point of clarifying that prayer requests are not covered by any HIPAA provisions or privacy protection, however, they contend that there is a burgeoning popular misconception that they are, with unsettling implications. In churches where the prayer requests identify members and their specific problems, so the congregation can pray for precisely what is needed, there is a concern that this violates the person's privacy, having their marital woes, failing health, or financial difficulties bandied about in public, and often when they're not even there to refute any misinformation. What you're left with, as hospital workers can all tell you, is being reduced to general blathering, without referring to anyone by name, or identifying their condition, which unfortunately renders a prayer request about as specific as your average fortune cookie, and without even the lucky numbers that go with it. I don't mind saying that I'm as jiggy with HIPAA as the next person, and maybe more than most, but I can't help but feel that it's a sad state of affairs when you can't even pray for people at church without worrying about violating their privacy, or stooping to the level of vague generalities that mean nothing to anyone. Of course, the next step will be to make people sign a waiver before a church can add them to their prayer requests, or the whole idea may just die off, and we'll have The Tomb of the Unknown Prayer Request, which unlike the Cheers bar, is a place where no one knows your name, by golly.
Meanwhile at work, the hospital management in their infinite wisdom must have become alarmed at record levels of high productivity among the staff, and rather than implementing a drug testing program to see if everyone was taking amphetamines, they decided that we needed a diversion that would slow things down to a crawl. Their idea worked like a charm, because no one could miss the installation of a brand new smoking shelter in the employee courtyard last week, as it took the entire week, and the rapt attention of every single employee on the campus, at all hours of the day. When I first noticed the project getting underway, with the pieces being unloaded from a truck, I thought it was to encourage the smokers to move farther away from the back of the main hospital building, where they tend to gather just outside the doors and under the overhang, and routinely set off the smoke detectors, sometimes several times in the same day. We found out later that it wasn't for the benefit of employees at all, but rather participants in the hospital's substance abuse program, who are regularly brought outside for a cigarette break (the hospital can get them to stop drinking and taking drugs, but apparently when it comes to smoking, they're on their own) and out they go, no matter what the weather. The program received a grant for this purpose, and ended up with a pretty good-sized shelter, including a roof and bench for your smoking pleasure. Although it's enclosed with glass walls, it has two openings, so it can only offer protection from the elements up to a point, and of course, that's if you discount the possibility of raining frogs and plagues of locusts. But still, some protection is better than none, heaven knows, and everyone realizes that things can always be worse, and that's not just the amphetamines talking, believe me. Say, is that the Dodgers and the Celtics playing football?
Elle
posted by El Tango Fandango @ 6:06 PM
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