The Days of Wine and Doses

Dear WOD Friends, a lot has happened since my October post, basically all of it good. I will get to that in another post. Right now I want to comment on Poetry, not poetry in the lyrical sense but in the sense of romancing something wonderful out of something wonderful in its own right. Bob Berch is a great person I met through my new position at Hardy Wilson Memorial Hospital, Ann Berch, his wife, is the CFO. Again, more about that in another blog entry. I am sure Bob has many hobbies but the one he seems most proud of is winemaking. The name of his "Winerie(sp?) is "Enchanted." We're not talking "local hootch," or a moonshine still, or loads of fruit rotting away in fancy jars. This is the genuine article made from a variety of fruits such as pear, blackberry, and even Scupernongs...I'll leave that for you Yankees to figure out! This weekend we decanted a bottle or Bob's Pear Wine. The four of us on the tasting panel expected what anyone would expect...something akin to a Pear Liquor. We chilled the wine sufficiently and then let it breathe for about an hour. Directly upon opening there is a rush of alcohol that pinches your nose and burns the eyes but it is a very clean aroma, nothing chemical or organic. The wine itself was beautiful to look at, clear as the difinition of clear can be and on the glass picked up a beautiful shining spectrum of light. There was no trace of oils or any debris to be found. Upon drinking, the original alcohol "mist" was long gone. Holding the wine in your mouth and letting the air pass through left what can only be described as the "essence" of pear on your tongue. The wine had a very deep pear "tone" that remained...not to the point of being totally identifiable, again as in a liquour or a Schnapps like drink. Probably more what one might find in the peel of the pear vs the body. Success...all glasses and and the bottle were empty. Those on board who had promised never to touch a "specialty" or Fruit/ dessert wine were very impressed and are looking forward to Christmas eve when we will open a bottle of Bob's Blueberry wine. Great stuff from a great guy. Peace y'all! and Merry Christmas!

The World is changing

Wow, did not realize it's been since summertime I wrote something here. Have moved out of prison work, had a disagreement with the folks at the top in Pittsburgh. They wanted me to change my style of management which is is definately a NOCANDO!" issue. So we decided to part amicably. The healthcare field is way to small to be burning bridges so I always try to be sure I keep my thoughts to myself and just get a little editorial. Am now the new Administrator for Hardy Wilson Memorial Hospital in Hazlehurst, MS. It's a small town 30+ miles south of Jackson. The hospital was built in 1950 so is 1 year older than me. You know how broke down I am so .... There are plans to build a new hospital and I imagine that will be the one thing that fills up most of my time once we hit that point. Everyone I have met in the hospital is great, they are very welcoming which is good, and is hard when someone new is coming in and you don't know what that person is going to focus on, are they going to "clean house," and get rid of people are bring new people in , cut services, God knows what. I've been there but have always been pleasantly surprised at whomever the replacement was and have been able to increase my knowledge of healthcare admin through what that person knows. So am looking forward to whatever happens day to day and at this point in life that is a good place to be. I have always said I will never be able to retire thanks to 9/11 and the stupid real estate lenders creating a lousy economy and sucking up a ton of retirement money which I did not have a lot of anyway! None-the-less is I have to die at my desk this seems like a pretty good place to go, except they have their own EMS group which would probably just have fun shocking my carcass long after I was gone!! Peace y'all

Back in Business!!

It's good to be back. Unfortunately, my battle against the ruling powers to be able to create, manage and maintain a working website for absolutely free was fruitless. I went the 75 bucks to get all my shit back on the air so I could say whatever I wanted and to provide family and friends with an info update site or just something to look at when they were bored or trying to get up the nerve to commit suicide. Not a lot has changed since the update of Jan 17. I am still Administrator of the Medical Services at the Prison however this is a tenuous position for a variety of reasons. I tried to go into this position with the thought that the service could be run like a regular free-world hospital service. No fucking way. Though it is true I have perfected the "No Can Do" attitude, that has to do with social, political, and religious shit, not work shit. When you are working it's a contract that we pay you and you perform a job. You perform, we can keep the business going and make money and give it back to you so we all can keep working. I did not pick this up when I was getting my MBA, this is apriori knowledge or should be. You should be aware of this shit at birth, but apparently there are s many who are not and just want to get their dollar and don't care about the big picture. I want to run a successful Medical Service, I want us all...including ME...to keep our jobs and by doing so stick around to be ale to serve our client. What is so damn hard bout understanding that, assholes, it's call WORK ETHIC! Anyway I don't know if I'll make it but I have tried to learn from my mistakes and be a better person and through that make the changes necessary to do a better job and get others to do their job. Well, welcome back and Peace.

Face it

Getting stuck on My Face now. Interesting place to catch up with old frinds and family. Some funny stuff and some stupid but at least that keep it relatively cleaned up. Nothing against foul language or porno, just boring when people are too stupid to come up with something original to say. All the holidays are passed, all the company's gone home, and we're getting back to whatever normal is. Very busy times at work so if you hardly ever heard from me before its just going to get worse but you know where I am if you need me Peace y'all

And so this is Christmas: III

This Christmas season was filled with a lot of different emotions not to mention the stresses of work and just getting by day to day. But among the sadness and tragedy, the gloom and doom of the economy, the stupidity that seems to hover over the world, there are those grand moments of joy that comes from family and friends. Hopefully I can remember how to attach pictures in order to get the great picture of Bean and his first time with Santa. Beanie (Nate) is 6 months old now. Cut his first tooth...or should I say his first tooth cut him...on Christmas eve day. I got to spend a lot of time with and around him and he is a little character who seems to love his "Beano" the name I have been given, and of course he should know his Beano loves him as well. Peace

And so this is Christmas: II

In 33 years of working in hospitals and clinics in a variety of positions in clinical areas and administrative, I have worked with many great nurses. None of these, with all due respect to my good friends and teachers, rise to the level of Rosetta Williams. Rosetta was the Nurse manager at the 720 Clinic at Cental Mississippi Correctional Facility where I am the Administrator for the Medical Service. Rosetta was very dedicated to her profession, dedicated to her staff, her friends, and her patients who just happend to be inmates. She treated everyone with the respect that humans should treat other humans. Rosetta was killed in an auto collision on Thursday morning, December 11th , on one of those extremely rare snowy days in Mississippi. She was on her way to work, coming in even though she was not feeling well and had pulled over at least once to throw up. She turned around to go back home and it was almost immediately after that when the acciden happened. None of us have ever heard the details, which at this point really don't matter. She was 43 (same as Sam), had 3 children, and a wonderful supportive and loving family. Those of us who knew and worked with Rosetta are heartbroken, the Medical Service for the time being is trying to recover, she was that strong of a personality with that strong of a presence. She was great to be around, whether at work or having drinks at Chili's. We will all miss her very much.

And so this is Christmas: I

Our thoughts this Christmas are with Beth Jeswani and the Jeswani family following the tragic and senseless death of our good friend Sam at the Oboroi Hotel in Mumbai. Whether or not Sam would have been sensitive to or even have known what the terrorists's agenda was, Sam felt that if you had something to say that you believed in, then you should say it...but he would have felt that any idea or belief that would have brought about the death of another was not a good belief to have. The trite sayings that often arise when someone dies unfortunately are the closest words I can come to that truly describe him. He was gentle, caring, loved his wife, loved his dog, believed in his work, and through that helped to bring healing and life to his fellow man. He had great taste in music, and poetry and was a good office partner for many years. Ultimately I cannot imagine that Sam would have ended up marrying anyone other than Beth who is also one of the most caring, interesting, and truly cynical people I have ever had the pleasure to know and Sam knew that I loved her before he did...of course not in the way he did. There is really nothing to be said that is comforting, nothing to be said that can truly bring peace. Sam was doing what he enjoyed with the people he enjoyed and like everyone else killed during the terrorist raids, should not have died for the stupid reasons (it does not even matter what they were) they did. Out of selfishness and anger I'm pleased the terrorists died in their act and can only wish they were slow and horribly painful deaths. I'll feel that way until that selfishness and anger fades and the healing forgiveness that God brings to us takes it's place. Sam had asked that I make a butterfly for Beth for a gift. For some reason it always has been pushed to the back until he'd call or email and tell me to hurry. I'll be starting that piece next.