A Few Things

I would of mentioned a couple of these yesterday but didn't have time as my internet was down until around 8am.

I almost feel bad now. I guess the girl was for real.

Saw a couple gals across the street soliciting something earlier this week. Then, around the corner comes another girl- late teens, early twenties, real cutie. She comes over to my house and had an I.D. badge pinned to her shirt that said Teen Challenge. I figured that must be the same Teen Challenge we've been hearing about lately.

She says they're doing some renovating project at Sequoia Park and were looking for donations. I questioned her a bit about that, not having heard of any such project. I wondered if this was some scam. I finally gave her five bucks. I warned her that, if I found out there wasn't any such project, I'd come looking for her. She assured me the project was real.

The Times- Standard reports it was real.

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Somehow I missed it that the Eureka City Council passed the smoking ban on the boardwalk already. That really burns me up, no pun intended.

I'll have to admit I can count on just a couple fingers how often I do business in Old Town in one year. After this, I'll try and make sure to not do any business in Old Town from now on. The boycott is on! I hope you'll all join me.

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Interesting figures that Leo Sears came up with for his latest My Word column- Cost per resident for their local police and fire departments:

Police: Eureka $311- Arcata $265- Fortuna $159
Fire: Eureka $169- Arcata $87- Fortuna $92 and Humboldt Fire District $133

Why such a difference and does the extra cost for those that pay more show any benefit?

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Mike Thompson has introduced legislation that will supposedly increase the number of facilities that offer telehealth (aka telemedicine) services to some local residents. Telehealth, for those not familiar with the term, is just being able to use long distance technology to consult with specialists outside the area.

I've mentioned before here I'm skeptical that this will be money well spent, and that's considering how much of a stake I personally have in the issue. I have to travel regularly out of the area for medical consultations for the wife.

I haven't seen it work very well. Seems to me the medical hierarchy and bureaucracy gets in the way, at least in our case. Besides, physicians are often hesitant to diagnose and advise for conditions they can't see for themselves first hand.

I asked Dr. Hege, the wife's attending physician at UCSF Medical Center, if she saw promise in telemedicine as a way of eliminating all the wasteful back and forth travel. She said she didn't see it happening for chronic or life threatening diseases.

But, I guess we have to keep trying, huh?