There's a fly ball in the air...
and the two outfielders are yelling at each other. "You take it." "No, you take it." Actually in a real baseball game they'd be yelling to the other to get out of the way; but in the situation I'm about to describe, no one wants to catch the ball.
I don't need sleeping pills to sleep. I need them to sleep well. During my lengthy hospital stay I started to really struggle with insomnia. Most of the days I was there, I would be awake until well after 1 a.m. at night and be awake by 5:30 a.m. When I was healthy and working both a full-time and a part-time job, I could get by with 4 to 5.5 hours of sleep a night. I can't do that any longer.
So I take two different medications to improve my sleep and they work very well. I know I'm not dependent upon them, as I've been without them for over a month now. My sleep has been poor but enough to get by. However, I want more than just getting by. If my health is to improve, I need quality sleep. Therefore, I need to get new prescriptions for these two medications.
The physician who is my primary care provider refuses to write prescriptions for these two medications for me. She'll refill any other medication that a specialist prescribed for me, to fill the gap until I can get an appointment to see that particular specialist. For some reason, she won't prescribe those drugs. She says they have to be prescribed by a psychiatrist. Which was happening until a few months ago.
At that point the psychiatrist who was prescribing my sleep medications (I'd see her only when it was time to renew) transferred to a different department. No one replaced her. I need a referral to see another psychiatrist, but apparently the only person who can do that for me, at least in order to schedule an appointment is a provider who is on maternity leave until October.
I'm fed up. I tried to go to the Mental Health Clinic today but there weren't any parking spaces close enough to it (it's well North of Wilshire and well away from the main buildings). I'm not sure what I'll do next. I'll let you know.
* * *
Employers should be giving their employees paid sick days. Not because of any government mandate, but because it is a sound business decision. Sick employees who force themselves to get in to work a scheduled shift don't improve the bottom line. They detract from it. They make other employees sick. If they work in a customer contact industry, they may make customers sick.
Most of the labor laws that exist to protect employees make sense. California's new law requiring employers to give employees at least three paid sick days off per year is not a good law. Regulations that require employers to maintain a safe workplace, a workplace free from sexual harassment and discrimination and so on all make sense.
This is California's Democratically controlled legislature, continuing to promulgate the "Nanny State" mentality. Driving employers and investment elsewhere. I know I sound like a broken record, but when you look at how Costco provides strong wages and benefits to their employees and the company remains very profitable, it seems to me that employers who want to succeed over the long haul would want to provide their employees with these kinds of perks.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Steven Bauer is a 57 year old actor. He's dating an 18 year old woman. They may have a connection now, but I wonder if it can last.
Scotland wants to leave the United Kingdom. Maybe the rest of the UK should have a say in this question, since Scotland's departure will impact their lives.
Richard Kiel was one of the absolute best henchmen in the James Bond film franchise. Only Harold Sakata's "Oddjob" was better. Kiel was terrific in other roles.
George Zimmerman is a ticking time bomb and when he explodes, someone will die.
After reading about a man who commutes 220 miles round trip to work five days a week, I immediately thought he was insane. Then I remembered when I was with my second ex-wife, we were considering buying a house so far removed from our jobs, our daily commute would have been even longer. Now I applaud him for his focus on his family and providing for them.
The next issue of the National Enquirer is supposedly going to run a story about a transgender woman who was in the same prison as O. J. Simpson; who claims that she was his lover while they were both incarcerated there. Is it true? Dunno.
I don't care what Olive Garden's investors say, bringing out only one breadstick per customer at a time is a waste.
Yes, Ms Sarah Palin, they knew who you were. It wasn't going to alter the outcome.
I had no idea the Cal-Vets Home at the West L. A. VA campus didn't have a kitchen. But this isn't a VA problem, it's a California problem.
I feel bad for the little two year old girl who was stung by a puss caterpillar in Virginia and had to go to the ER.
* * *
September 13th in History:
585 BC – Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, king of Rome, celebrates a triumph for his victories over the Sabines, and the surrender of Collatia.
509 BC – The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Rome's Capitoline Hill is dedicated on the ides of September.
335 – Emperor Constantine the Great consecrated the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
379 – Yax Nuun Ayiin I is coronated as 15 Ajaw of Tikal
533 – Belisarius of the Byzantine Empire defeats Gelimer and the Vandals at the Battle of Ad Decimum, near Carthage, North Africa.
1229 – Ögedei Khan is proclaimed Khagan of the Mongol Empire in Kodoe Aral, Khentii: Mongolia.
1501 – Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David.
1504 – Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand issue a Royal Warrant for the construction of a Royal Chapel (Capilla Real) to be built.
1541 – After three years of exile, John Calvin returns to Geneva to reform the church under a body of doctrine known as Calvinism.
1584 – San Lorenzo del Escorial Palace in Madrid is finished.
1609 – Henry Hudson reaches the river that would later be named after him – the Hudson River.
1743 – Great Britain, Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia sign the Treaty of Worms.
1759 – Battle of the Plains of Abraham: the British defeat the French near Quebec City in the Seven Years' War, known in the United States as the French and Indian War.
1782 – American Revolutionary War: Franco-Spanish troops launch the unsuccessful "grand assault" during the Great Siege of Gibraltar.
1788 – The Philadelphia Convention sets the date for the first presidential election in the United States, and New York City becomes the country's temporary capital.
1791 – King Louis XVI of France accepts the new constitution.
1808 – Finnish War: In the Battle of Jutas, Swedish forces under Lieutenant General Georg Carl von Döbeln beat the Russians, making von Döbeln a Swedish war hero.
1812 – War of 1812: A supply wagon sent to relieve Fort Harrison is ambushed in the Attack at the Narrows.
1814 – In a turning point in the War of 1812, the British fail to capture Baltimore. During the battle, Francis Scott Key composes his poem "Defence of Fort McHenry", which is later set to music and becomes the United States' national anthem.
1843 – The Greek Army rebels (OS date: September 3) against the autocratic rule of king Otto of Greece, demanding the granting of a constitution.
1847 – Mexican–American War: Six teenage military cadets known as Niños Héroes die defending Chapultepec Castle in the Battle of Chapultepec. American troops under General Winfield Scott capture Mexico City in the Mexican–American War.
1848 – Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage survives a 3-foot (0.91 m)-plus iron rod being driven through his head; the reported effects on his behavior and personality stimulate thinking about the nature of the brain and its functions.
1850 – First ascent of Piz Bernina, the highest summit of the eastern Alps.
1862 – American Civil War: Union soldiers find a copy of Robert E. Lee's battle plans in a field outside Frederick, Maryland. It is the prelude to the Battle of Antietam.
1882 – Anglo-Egyptian War: The Battle of Tel el-Kebir is fought.
1898 – Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film.
1899 – Henry Bliss is the first person in the United States to be killed in an automobile accident.
1899 – Mackinder, Ollier and Brocherel make the first ascent of Batian (5,199 m – 17,058 ft), the highest peak of Mount Kenya.
1900 – Filipino resistance fighters defeat a small American column in the Battle of Pulang Lupa, during the Philippine–American War.
1906 – First flight of a fixed-wing aircraft in Europe.
1914 – World War I: South African troops open hostilities in German south-west Africa (Namibia) with an assault on the Ramansdrift police station.
1914 – World War I: The Battle of Aisne begins between Germany and France.
1922 – The final act of the Greco-Turkish War, the Great Fire of Smyrna, commences.
1923 – Following a military coup in Spain, Miguel Primo de Rivera takes over, setting up a dictatorship.
1933 – Elizabeth McCombs becomes the first woman elected to the New Zealand Parliament.
1935 – Rockslide near Whirlpool Rapids Bridge ends the International Railway (New York–Ontario).
1942 – World War II: Second day of the Battle of Edson's Ridge in the Guadalcanal Campaign. U.S. Marines successfully defeated attacks by the Imperial Japanese Army with heavy losses for the Japanese forces.
1943 – The Municipal Theatre of Corfu is destroyed during an aerial bombardment by Luftwaffe.
1948 – Deputy Primer Minister of India Vallabhbhai Patel ordered the Army to move into the Hyderabad to integrate it with Indian Union.
1948 – Margaret Chase Smith is elected senator, and becomes the first woman to serve in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate.
1953 – Nikita Khrushchev is appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1956 – The dike around the Dutch polder East Flevoland is closed.
1956 – The IBM 305 RAMAC is introduced, the first commercial computer to use disk storage.
1964 – South Vietnamese Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Dương Văn Đức fail in a coup attempt against General Nguyễn Khánh.
1968 – Albania leaves the Warsaw Pact.
1971 – State police and National Guardsmen storm New York's Attica Prison to quell a prison revolt.
1971 – People's Republic of China: Chairman Mao Zedong's second in command and successor Marshal Lin Biao flees the country via plane after the failure of alleged coup against Mao. The plane crashes in Mongolia, killing all aboard.
1979 – South Africa grants independence to the "homeland" of Venda (not recognised outside South Africa).
1985 – Super Mario Bros. is released in Japan for the NES, which starts the Super Mario series of platforming games.
1987 – Goiânia accident: A radioactive object is stolen from an abandoned hospital in Goiânia, Brazil, contaminating many people in the following weeks and causing some to die from radiation poisoning.
1988 – Hurricane Gilbert is the strongest recorded hurricane in the Western Hemisphere, later replaced by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 (based on barometric pressure).
1989 – Largest anti-Apartheid march in South Africa, led by Desmond Tutu.
1993 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shakes hands with Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat at the White House after signing the Oslo Accords granting limited Palestinian autonomy.
1994 – Ulysses probe passes the Sun's south pole.
2001 – Civilian aircraft traffic resumes in the United States after the September 11 attacks.
2006 – Kimveer Gill kills one student and injures 19 more in the Dawson College shooting.
2007 – The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.
2008 – Delhi, India, is hit by a series of bomb blasts, resulting in 30 deaths and 130 injuries.
2008 – Hurricane Ike makes landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast of the United States, causing heavy damage to Galveston Island, Houston and surrounding areas.
2013 – Taliban insurgents attack the United States consulate in Herat, Afghanistan, with two members of the Afghan National Police reported dead and about 20 civilians injured.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
Cesare Borgia
Samuel Wilson
Walter Reed
Milton S. Hershey
John J. "Black Jack" Pershing
Sherwood Anderson
Max Pruss
Claudette Colbert
Roald Dahl
Yma Sumac
Mel Torme
Barbara Bain
Lewie Steinberg
Don Bluth
Richard Kiel
Oscar Arias
David Clayton-Thomas
Jacqueline Bisset
Peter Cetera
Nell Carter
Jean Smart
Randy Jones
Don Was
Fiona
Tavis Smiley
Annie Duke
Bernie Williams
Tyler Perry
Stella McCartney
Travis Knight
Fiona Apple
I don't need sleeping pills to sleep. I need them to sleep well. During my lengthy hospital stay I started to really struggle with insomnia. Most of the days I was there, I would be awake until well after 1 a.m. at night and be awake by 5:30 a.m. When I was healthy and working both a full-time and a part-time job, I could get by with 4 to 5.5 hours of sleep a night. I can't do that any longer.
So I take two different medications to improve my sleep and they work very well. I know I'm not dependent upon them, as I've been without them for over a month now. My sleep has been poor but enough to get by. However, I want more than just getting by. If my health is to improve, I need quality sleep. Therefore, I need to get new prescriptions for these two medications.
The physician who is my primary care provider refuses to write prescriptions for these two medications for me. She'll refill any other medication that a specialist prescribed for me, to fill the gap until I can get an appointment to see that particular specialist. For some reason, she won't prescribe those drugs. She says they have to be prescribed by a psychiatrist. Which was happening until a few months ago.
At that point the psychiatrist who was prescribing my sleep medications (I'd see her only when it was time to renew) transferred to a different department. No one replaced her. I need a referral to see another psychiatrist, but apparently the only person who can do that for me, at least in order to schedule an appointment is a provider who is on maternity leave until October.
I'm fed up. I tried to go to the Mental Health Clinic today but there weren't any parking spaces close enough to it (it's well North of Wilshire and well away from the main buildings). I'm not sure what I'll do next. I'll let you know.
* * *
Employers should be giving their employees paid sick days. Not because of any government mandate, but because it is a sound business decision. Sick employees who force themselves to get in to work a scheduled shift don't improve the bottom line. They detract from it. They make other employees sick. If they work in a customer contact industry, they may make customers sick.
Most of the labor laws that exist to protect employees make sense. California's new law requiring employers to give employees at least three paid sick days off per year is not a good law. Regulations that require employers to maintain a safe workplace, a workplace free from sexual harassment and discrimination and so on all make sense.
This is California's Democratically controlled legislature, continuing to promulgate the "Nanny State" mentality. Driving employers and investment elsewhere. I know I sound like a broken record, but when you look at how Costco provides strong wages and benefits to their employees and the company remains very profitable, it seems to me that employers who want to succeed over the long haul would want to provide their employees with these kinds of perks.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Steven Bauer is a 57 year old actor. He's dating an 18 year old woman. They may have a connection now, but I wonder if it can last.
Scotland wants to leave the United Kingdom. Maybe the rest of the UK should have a say in this question, since Scotland's departure will impact their lives.
Richard Kiel was one of the absolute best henchmen in the James Bond film franchise. Only Harold Sakata's "Oddjob" was better. Kiel was terrific in other roles.
George Zimmerman is a ticking time bomb and when he explodes, someone will die.
After reading about a man who commutes 220 miles round trip to work five days a week, I immediately thought he was insane. Then I remembered when I was with my second ex-wife, we were considering buying a house so far removed from our jobs, our daily commute would have been even longer. Now I applaud him for his focus on his family and providing for them.
The next issue of the National Enquirer is supposedly going to run a story about a transgender woman who was in the same prison as O. J. Simpson; who claims that she was his lover while they were both incarcerated there. Is it true? Dunno.
I don't care what Olive Garden's investors say, bringing out only one breadstick per customer at a time is a waste.
Yes, Ms Sarah Palin, they knew who you were. It wasn't going to alter the outcome.
I had no idea the Cal-Vets Home at the West L. A. VA campus didn't have a kitchen. But this isn't a VA problem, it's a California problem.
I feel bad for the little two year old girl who was stung by a puss caterpillar in Virginia and had to go to the ER.
* * *
September 13th in History:
585 BC – Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, king of Rome, celebrates a triumph for his victories over the Sabines, and the surrender of Collatia.
509 BC – The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Rome's Capitoline Hill is dedicated on the ides of September.
335 – Emperor Constantine the Great consecrated the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
379 – Yax Nuun Ayiin I is coronated as 15 Ajaw of Tikal
533 – Belisarius of the Byzantine Empire defeats Gelimer and the Vandals at the Battle of Ad Decimum, near Carthage, North Africa.
1229 – Ögedei Khan is proclaimed Khagan of the Mongol Empire in Kodoe Aral, Khentii: Mongolia.
1501 – Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David.
1504 – Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand issue a Royal Warrant for the construction of a Royal Chapel (Capilla Real) to be built.
1541 – After three years of exile, John Calvin returns to Geneva to reform the church under a body of doctrine known as Calvinism.
1584 – San Lorenzo del Escorial Palace in Madrid is finished.
1609 – Henry Hudson reaches the river that would later be named after him – the Hudson River.
1743 – Great Britain, Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia sign the Treaty of Worms.
1759 – Battle of the Plains of Abraham: the British defeat the French near Quebec City in the Seven Years' War, known in the United States as the French and Indian War.
1782 – American Revolutionary War: Franco-Spanish troops launch the unsuccessful "grand assault" during the Great Siege of Gibraltar.
1788 – The Philadelphia Convention sets the date for the first presidential election in the United States, and New York City becomes the country's temporary capital.
1791 – King Louis XVI of France accepts the new constitution.
1808 – Finnish War: In the Battle of Jutas, Swedish forces under Lieutenant General Georg Carl von Döbeln beat the Russians, making von Döbeln a Swedish war hero.
1812 – War of 1812: A supply wagon sent to relieve Fort Harrison is ambushed in the Attack at the Narrows.
1814 – In a turning point in the War of 1812, the British fail to capture Baltimore. During the battle, Francis Scott Key composes his poem "Defence of Fort McHenry", which is later set to music and becomes the United States' national anthem.
1843 – The Greek Army rebels (OS date: September 3) against the autocratic rule of king Otto of Greece, demanding the granting of a constitution.
1847 – Mexican–American War: Six teenage military cadets known as Niños Héroes die defending Chapultepec Castle in the Battle of Chapultepec. American troops under General Winfield Scott capture Mexico City in the Mexican–American War.
1848 – Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage survives a 3-foot (0.91 m)-plus iron rod being driven through his head; the reported effects on his behavior and personality stimulate thinking about the nature of the brain and its functions.
1850 – First ascent of Piz Bernina, the highest summit of the eastern Alps.
1862 – American Civil War: Union soldiers find a copy of Robert E. Lee's battle plans in a field outside Frederick, Maryland. It is the prelude to the Battle of Antietam.
1882 – Anglo-Egyptian War: The Battle of Tel el-Kebir is fought.
1898 – Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film.
1899 – Henry Bliss is the first person in the United States to be killed in an automobile accident.
1899 – Mackinder, Ollier and Brocherel make the first ascent of Batian (5,199 m – 17,058 ft), the highest peak of Mount Kenya.
1900 – Filipino resistance fighters defeat a small American column in the Battle of Pulang Lupa, during the Philippine–American War.
1906 – First flight of a fixed-wing aircraft in Europe.
1914 – World War I: South African troops open hostilities in German south-west Africa (Namibia) with an assault on the Ramansdrift police station.
1914 – World War I: The Battle of Aisne begins between Germany and France.
1922 – The final act of the Greco-Turkish War, the Great Fire of Smyrna, commences.
1923 – Following a military coup in Spain, Miguel Primo de Rivera takes over, setting up a dictatorship.
1933 – Elizabeth McCombs becomes the first woman elected to the New Zealand Parliament.
1935 – Rockslide near Whirlpool Rapids Bridge ends the International Railway (New York–Ontario).
1942 – World War II: Second day of the Battle of Edson's Ridge in the Guadalcanal Campaign. U.S. Marines successfully defeated attacks by the Imperial Japanese Army with heavy losses for the Japanese forces.
1943 – The Municipal Theatre of Corfu is destroyed during an aerial bombardment by Luftwaffe.
1948 – Deputy Primer Minister of India Vallabhbhai Patel ordered the Army to move into the Hyderabad to integrate it with Indian Union.
1948 – Margaret Chase Smith is elected senator, and becomes the first woman to serve in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate.
1953 – Nikita Khrushchev is appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1956 – The dike around the Dutch polder East Flevoland is closed.
1956 – The IBM 305 RAMAC is introduced, the first commercial computer to use disk storage.
1964 – South Vietnamese Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Dương Văn Đức fail in a coup attempt against General Nguyễn Khánh.
1968 – Albania leaves the Warsaw Pact.
1971 – State police and National Guardsmen storm New York's Attica Prison to quell a prison revolt.
1971 – People's Republic of China: Chairman Mao Zedong's second in command and successor Marshal Lin Biao flees the country via plane after the failure of alleged coup against Mao. The plane crashes in Mongolia, killing all aboard.
1979 – South Africa grants independence to the "homeland" of Venda (not recognised outside South Africa).
1985 – Super Mario Bros. is released in Japan for the NES, which starts the Super Mario series of platforming games.
1987 – Goiânia accident: A radioactive object is stolen from an abandoned hospital in Goiânia, Brazil, contaminating many people in the following weeks and causing some to die from radiation poisoning.
1988 – Hurricane Gilbert is the strongest recorded hurricane in the Western Hemisphere, later replaced by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 (based on barometric pressure).
1989 – Largest anti-Apartheid march in South Africa, led by Desmond Tutu.
1993 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shakes hands with Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat at the White House after signing the Oslo Accords granting limited Palestinian autonomy.
1994 – Ulysses probe passes the Sun's south pole.
2001 – Civilian aircraft traffic resumes in the United States after the September 11 attacks.
2006 – Kimveer Gill kills one student and injures 19 more in the Dawson College shooting.
2007 – The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.
2008 – Delhi, India, is hit by a series of bomb blasts, resulting in 30 deaths and 130 injuries.
2008 – Hurricane Ike makes landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast of the United States, causing heavy damage to Galveston Island, Houston and surrounding areas.
2013 – Taliban insurgents attack the United States consulate in Herat, Afghanistan, with two members of the Afghan National Police reported dead and about 20 civilians injured.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
Cesare Borgia
Samuel Wilson
Walter Reed
Milton S. Hershey
John J. "Black Jack" Pershing
Sherwood Anderson
Max Pruss
Claudette Colbert
Roald Dahl
Yma Sumac
Mel Torme
Barbara Bain
Lewie Steinberg
Don Bluth
Richard Kiel
Oscar Arias
David Clayton-Thomas
Jacqueline Bisset
Peter Cetera
Nell Carter
Jean Smart
Randy Jones
Don Was
Fiona
Tavis Smiley
Annie Duke
Bernie Williams
Tyler Perry
Stella McCartney
Travis Knight
Fiona Apple
posted by me at 8:51 PM
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