Posted on 01/03/2008 6:35:58 PM PST by HairOfTheDog
I don’t want to go back into the hospital. I sat in the ER for 12 hours and nobody ever thought to offer me any food or even to go to the bathroom. I was so shook up over the whole thing I never thought to ask.
At 1:00am I was laying in bed trying to go to sleep and realized I hadn’t taken my blood pressure medicine. I got up and asked and they said to forget it, it was almost time for my other dose.
Then before I could eat breakfast they took me for tests and I didn’t get my BP medicine that morning either. They gave it to me around lunch time that day.
I was glad to get home so I could be in control of taking care of myself.
You know those narrow gurneys...they aren’t beds, they’re like narrow cots on wheels with side rails.
That’s what I sat on for 12 hours.
Every time I’ve been to a hospital... even with broken bones, it’s been hurry up and wait around.
When my aunt was a manager at Chrysler, she'd bring me various Chrysler-themed giveaways, like key fobs, car models, etc.
About fifteen years ago, she brought this fancy round tin with a picture of all sorts of Chrysler cars on the lid. I shook it, it sounded like a jigsaw puzzle inside. I put it away for a rainy day when a jigsaw puzzle might be entertaining.
A couple of years ago, she had done all her jigsaw puzzles, and asked if I had any for her to work on. I remembered the Chrysler one, and found it after only 30 minutes of frantic searching.
I took off the shrinkwrap, and opened it. It wasn't a jigsaw puzzle inside, it was chocolate in the shape of little Chrysler cars. After all those years, the chocolate was a little pale from oxidation, but it was still delicious. We had a good laugh over that.
Nowadays, the government would have required a nutritional label on the tin, a sure tipoff that there wasn't a jigsaw puzzle inside.
Incidentally, my aunt is still in the hospital, but still improving. She's expressing an interest in hospital food, and says it tastes pretty good. When she says hospital food is disgusting, we'll know she's completely cured, and ready to go home.
Funny. I’m glad it wasn’t cookies.
Glad your aunt is on the improve. :~)
When I broke my leg in college, I had to wait for halftime of the UK basketball game for the doctor to come and set it.
heh-that was great and reminds me to check the couch..
We sure hope the doctors find out what’s going on with your BP -
yute....dang they grow up fast. Thegirl will be there next year. She had a boy (a year younger) give her a small box of chocolates for valentines day. She said, “What do I do?”. I told her to say thank you, and enjoy the chocolate. G’nad told his father (a good friend)that the boy best know that if he ever hurts or touches her, he’ll die. The dad said he thought the boy already knew that...
Don’t see it...
Think maybe the mail missed me...
Maybe your beeber is over-stuned, or you’re not logged in.
My brain is a sieve ...
Wish it wasn’t taking so long to figure it all out for you. :-\ I’m still raying for you, of course!
Er...praying. I swear that’s what I typed...
*snort* g'nad's a good Daddy!
Heh, well that's what I READ!
The Roaring Twenties saw the first serious attempts at gun control, outside of the big cities. They started small, with "reasonable restrictions", such as permits to purchase and carry handguns. In reality, these laws disarmed the innocent, and protected the criminal.
Michigan's gun laws were based on a national model that some "good government" gun grabbers wrote up. The bottom line was gangs like the Purple Gang got purchase and carry permits, due to the general corruption of government at all levels. The innocent got nothin'. A gangster might go to jail for murder, but he'd never be convicted of violating the gun laws, because he was the only one who was "legit".
People turned to "firearm substitutes" because there was no way they would be allowed to carry a real handgun. Tear gas dispensers were a last-ditch defensive item. There were all sorts of overt and covert tear gas "weapons" in that era.
Another item from that era was the Thompson submachine gun. It was desired by cops and crooks alike, and was horribly expensive if you bought one legally. It was as much an icon in its day as the AK47 is to sh!theads today.
Manville Manufacturing made a 25mm (one inch) teargas gun for police use that capitalized on the Thompson aura. It was really just a hugh revolver, but it was intended to impress the hell out of folks on both ends of it.
It was moderately successful, and enough survived until today that BATFE removed it from its "curios and relics" list because of its rarity, although it is still considered a firearm. However, it was still a bit big for civilian use. So they used the same revolving cylinder design, and came up with something that looked more like a revolver, although it was still pretty big. Here it is, with a dummy Glock 21 for size comparison.
It was chambered for 12ga teargas cartridges, and the business end was vey business-like, and looked something like this:
In those days, nobody worried about putting a real 12ga shotgun shell in the cylinder, because the "gun" was just pot metal with a Bakelite (a primitive plastic) cylinder. Firing a live round would have been suicidal. But here's a genuine dummy, non-shotgun-shell being used to demonstrate the loading process.
I have no idea how many were made (it's not serial numbered), but it was obvious that people were desperate for any form of "almost-equalizer" when the brave new world of gun control was starting out. So what I have is an odd $20 gadget I picked up at a gun show ages ago.
And as I learned from a friend who has written a couple of books about the Purple Gang, no matter how many Tommy guns one side or the other had, the side with the BAR always won. The Thompson was respected, but the Browning Automatic Rifle was feared, and for good reason.
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