OUT AND ABOUT

Great day yesterday! I finally got out of the house. Reborn.

My first stop was Tammy for a manicure. Always a pleasant experience. We talk about everything.

Yesterday, the Key West Hospital. Tammy told me the first bill received for her son’s emergency appendectomy a month ago was $40,000. They received a new one this week. $69,000. With indication it might not be the end.

Tammy and her husband have no insurance. Their mistake, their problem. Does not mean the hospital bill should be an ever spiraling thing. The son was only in the hospital one night. Nothing unusual about the surgery.

Then Walgreens. I hate pharmaceutical companies. They are rip offs.

I have needed Nexium for several years. Two pills a day. Stomach acid. A couple of weeks ago, the bill went from $36 for a one month 60 pill supply to $174. I switched to the generic. Same supply cost me $40. More than Nexium itself.

I went to pick up my second month supply of the generic. The one I paid $40 for last month. $83 this month.

No one to complain to. The insurance company said it is the manufacturer that sets the price. I have talked with manufacturers in the past. Was told it is their right to price as they see fit

F–k ’em all! They have to be brought down.

Don’s Place lat night for David’s retirement party. David is 66. A highway construction expert. Packing it in.

Lots of good company. David, Don, Boomer, Angus, Michael, Nancy, several of David’s personal friends, Keith, Jennifer, and me. July 4th food. Hamburgers, hot dogs, and salads.

It was a hot summer day in Don’s Place. Hotter than outside. The air conditioning was down. Monday. Still not fixed as of last night.

Don has a contract with the air conditioner company. Includes 3 month visits to clean and check the units. Been a customer five years.

Owner on vacation. Don says some kid running the business. Don was calling since Monday. Air conditioning people came over yesterday for first time. Claim to have found and corrected the problem.

Don went on the roof to check the fixed unit at 6 last night. Parts of the unit was covered in ice. He called the kid. No satisfaction. Should be working. Holiday vacation had started. Could not return till Tuesday.

Don is more patient than me. I would have gotten a new company last Monday night.

Anyhow, it was hot!!!

I only had two drinks. A good boy was I.

The Old Seven Mile Bridge closes down July 5 for four years. Repairs. The bridge about 45 miles up US 1. It is part of the old Flagler Railroad. The hurricane of 1935 wiped out the railroad. Portions the Seven Mile Bridge remain standing. About half.

Has turned into a place to walk. An enjoyable exciting experience. The wood bridge always crowded. I visit every two years. Generally with the grandkids. We walk and walk and walk. They then walk some more while I wait for them.

Then to Boondocks or No Name Pub.

A great day!

Many of Florida’s beaches and rivers clogged with ugly smelly green algae. Not Key West. Hopefully it will miss us.

The cause has to do with fresh lake waters getting into the rivers and ocean. Something bad in the fresh water.

People aroused. Can’t blame them. Thousands showed at one beach to protest the algae.

The Army corps has become involved.

William Hackley’s life in 1855 has become a source of knowledge.

We are into breast feeding. His wife had a baby. Her breast milk was drying up. Hackley borrowed someone’s goat. The goat was dry. Hackley wrote today that he might have to go to Havana for a goat.

On the corner of Duval and Front Streets in Key West stands a majestic brick building. Today, it harbors a clothing store.

Constructtion of the bank building occurred in 1897. $14,380.35.

The movie Top Gun made Tom Cruise an international star. The female lead was Key West’s own Kelley McGillis. Owner at the time or soon thereafter of Kelley’s Restaurant on Whitehead.

I mention Cruise this morning because I discovered he was born in Syracuse. Fifty miles from my home town Utica, the home of Syracuse University where I went to law school, and a city where I tried many cases.

He was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV. Sounds like he was born to money. He was not. His family was very poor.

A success story.

Enjoy your Sunday!

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