Time to lighten up. Things have been too heavy for more than a week. Even an evacuee experiences stress.
Last night an experience. I watched Casablanca with three women. Jean, Joanne, and Ann.
A great love story. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. The ladies cried throughout. Jean and Joanne had seen the film many times before. For Ann, the first time.
They bawled!
A new study recently released. Concerned teen age sex. When do the kids start having sex. Used to be 15. No longer. Now, 18. Described as 18 being the new 15.
Attributed to parents and children spending more time together. Parents thereby exercising more influence over them.
Michael Robinson I believe is a Key Wester who escaped Irma, also. I do not know him personally. However, his name and picture were familiar.
Robinson reported in Facebook an advertising sign he saw in Miami: Teeth Whitened and Vagina Rejuvenation.
Could both procedures be done at the same time?
Now to the serious.
Apparently everyone in Key West now has power, except for me and 44 neighbors. Anna called yesterday that my power was not working. Called Peter the realtor who watches over the house and is also a golf course resident. He had power and so did the people on his block.
He checked into it. I was without power. Turns out 45 homes on the golf course are with another electric company or two companies share the responsibility.
The two companies are arguing over who has to pay for the repairs.
I am not returning without power, water not having to be boiled, food and whatever other calamity remains.
Poor Jean. She may be stuck with us for a long time. I had to think before I shared the no power situation with you. I wanted t be sure the reason I have not left is no power, etc. and not that I have become comfortable living with Jean and Joe.
Looks like Key West is getting a pass as far as Maria is concerned. The projection is it will turn north while still in the ocean.
Florida electrical utilities screw the public. This includes our local Keys Energy. Charge for everything (including using a credit card to pay), frequently increase prices in spite of making significant profit.
The electric utilities and their lobbyists have had laws passed guaranteeing they can play fast and loose with customers.
One example involve solar panels. Florida unquestionably a great place for their usage. The power companies can stop a customer from using solar panels during an emergency by merely flipping a switch.
They do. The companies claim to permit the solar panels to operate could be dangerous to those doing power repairs.
For real?
Trump addresses the United Nations General Assembly today. Never know what he is going to say. He will say something that will enrage most. I hope not something like: North Korea, one more test and we will bomb you.
Republicans are taking one last shot at repealing Obamacare. A Graham-Cassidy bill will be introduced to repeal and replace. Similar to the one that went down to defeat in July, except tougher. Takes away even more things.
Congressional passage and the President signing into law has to occur by September 30. Otherwise, 60 votes will be required in the Senate to pass instead of 50.
On this date in 1881, President James Garfield died. He had been shot in the back and arm 80 days earlier at the Washington railroad station. By an unhappy office seeker, Charles Guiteau.
The back bullet was the cause of death.
Actually, it was several medical mishaps. Malpractice by today’s standards.
Garfield was on the dirty railroad floor a long time before being removed. During that time, a nearby physician tried to prod the bullet out. Unsuccessfully. Other persons were touching the wound.
Infection was inevitable.
Subsequent to that day, doctors continued to prod with fingers and instruments for the bullet. They prodded on only one side of his back.
An incompetent doctor was put in charge of the President. The doctor who happened to be present at the railroad station when the President was shot. He insisted the bullet was on one side, the side it had entered, and only that side could be prodded.
Clean doctor’s hands not a practice at the time.
The bullet had to be found. It was causing the infection killing the President.
Even Thomas Edison was called in. He had recently invented a new machine that could detect foreign objects in the body. The machine had been successfully tested on numerous Civil War veterans.
The machine could locate nothing.
The reason was the President was laying on a metal spring mattress. The mattress having only recently been invented. One had been given to the White House free for the President’s use.
The metal springs screwed up Edison’s machine. It did work properly. However not on metal springs.
When Garfield died, it was found the bullet was not on the side of his back where the doctors thought. It was on the other side. The prodding had caused it to move. The doctors were looking in the wrong place.
Guiteau was placed on trial for murder. His defense was he did not kill the President, the doctors did. Technically correct. Never the less, he was found guilty and executed.
I apologize for being long winded re the Garfield story. I wrote a lengthy column several years ago for KONK Life concerning the shooting and the President’s death.
No Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou tonight. The podcast requires my land line in Key West to do the show.
Enjoy your day!