Stories From an Account Book

     In my last post I told you about a package that I received that held many stories. Of course I told the most fascinating one first.

    However, who knew that a plain ordinary little old farm account book could contain many stories? My Mom kept books for the farm. Things that were bought and sold were carefully entered. There were no totals or balances. The list just went on. The account book covered parts of the years 1944 - 1947.

    One entry, among many, caught my eye. The entry simply says Dr. and hospital boys tonsils. Aha! This is when my brother and I had our tonsils out! The doctor charge was $30.00 and the hospital charge was $17.00. There was no date for this entry, not even the year. I vaguely remember getting my tonsils out. I was not in school yet so it would have to be 1944. I can remember eating jelly in the hospital and getting into trouble from the nuns for getting out of bed to play with my brother. Once we got home we insisted on more jelly as we really liked jelly.

   The changes in charges are would be rather obvious. I wonder what the procedure changes would be? What would have been use for an anesthetic? What other medications would have been used?

    Shortly after this the Saskatchewan govt. brought in hospital care. So from that time on Saskatchewan residents did not have to pay for hospital care.

   So one entry brings back long ago memories. I'm sure that if I talked to my brother he would add more details.http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8688207620251526295#editor/target=post;postID=1929825484963442768;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=1;src=postname

A Preoccupation With Records!

    Since Felix Baumgartner made his historic jump the other day, it  has got me wondering about our preoccupation with records... the biggest, the fastest, the heaviest, the tallest, the oldest. You get what I mean.

     Baumgartner went to tremendous planning and expense to set up his record breaking jump. He carefully picked the best place on the planet to make the jump. All kinds of technology was  used. How many cameras were set up to record the event? A balloon made of plastic close to saran wrap thickness carried him to the outer edges of the atmosphere. The balloon...15 stories high! The tiny capsule he traveled in? One small mistake and it was over for Mr. Baumgartner. A small rip in his suit would be automatic disaster. A small rip in the plastic balloon? There were many things where there was no backup. 

    I had not been paying attention to this stunt. On the day of the jump twitter was full of "Felix" and then I realized what they were talking about.

   So the Guinness book of records gets another entry. As an aside, when I taught I tried to have one period a week for reading. Some little guy always got the Guinness book of records and would be mesmerized for the whole period.

    So I have to question the value of setting so many different records. Yes, I know this one had a certain amount of scientific value, but many records are pointless. Example: 150 combines in one field, a hockey game which is played for 72 hours. Aren't we wasting time and making spectacles of ourselves? 

    I for one can do without such records and can get myself cranked up to live a fulfilling life without all the hype cluttering my head.