The funny thing is that Gary will be able to find health care if he needs it because he doesn't have much. Those of us who HAVE things find health care expensive if we don't have insurance. The ability to pay is what's looked at. Personally, I think it's a challenge to live that way the older you get. You get by fine when you're young. But the day comes when you're not so young anymore and things start to catch up with you. At the very least,seeing a dentist is so important. When I was young, I thought about working really hard while I was full of energy just in case I couldn't do it when I was older. That idea has come full circle now as I recently found out I have a rare genetic defect that rears it's ugly head as you get past 50. I'm real glad to have insurance---to not have to work, as I could never walk the miles at work that I used to. Chelone--I'm glad you feel my generation didn't screw things up. But today's CEO's and those in charge are from my generation and I think many of them are little better than cannon fodder. I remember the people in charge at the company I worked for. It was a fortune 500 company and most of the people in charge were MBA's and those who came in to their positions because an uncle was high in the company. It was like a bunch of weepy eyed little kittens who had genetic problems do to so much inbreeding. There wasn't a person there who had ever gotten their hands dirty. Wisdom doesn't come from standing around watching over things from afar. You can't sit in your ivory tower and say you know what the peasants go thru to deliver your daily bread. You only learn what's REALLY going on by being in the trenches. All CEO's should have to come up thru the company----or at the very least, have to spend a year's time on the production floor so he knows the business from the ground up. When these CEO's rule from the top down, the lowest they get is to the company president's office. I don't think you're being wimpy,behaviorkelton, because you worry about all the things that can befall you. I think you're being realistic. It's the fool who sits and thinks, "this won't happen to me." If God allows you to get old, it's a blessing. If God allows you to get old, it's a curse. ALL of life is a double-edged sword and you have to make the right choices or get a big old slap in the face. You have a duty to protect yourself, best you can. Any risks you take in life should be calculated risks. Not crazy, foolish,"take your life in your hands" kind of risks. Those who depend on you would not look kindly on the fact that you've died at 50, because of no health care,when you COULD have lived till 80 with it. Don't diminish your worth to the world and those around you.

I have read and enjoyed "The Hot Zone"... I used to work for many years in public health so was/am interested in all that stuff. Another book you might like is called "The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance" by Laurie Garrett. This is a bit dry, but mostly interesting. She also wrote a follow up book called "Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health", but I haven't actually read that one so don't know how it is to read. Here is a list of disease book titles that I have colleced (with help from Fridag here at RP): * Bathsheba's Breast: Women, Cancer and History - James S. Olson * The Colony: The Harrowing Story of the Exiles of Molka'i - John Tayman * The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - Steven Johnson * Limeys: The Conquest of Scurvy - David I. Harvie * The Malaria Capers: more Tales of Parasites and People, Research and Reality - Robert Desowitz * Man and Microbes: Disease and Plagues in History and Modern Times - Arno Karlen * Napolean's Glands and Other Ventures in Biohistory - Arno Karlen * The Plague and I - Betty McDonald (about her bout of TB in the 1930's) * Plague and Peoples = William H McNeill * Pox: Genius, Madness and the Mysteries of Syphilis - Deborah Hayden * Purple Secret: Genes, "Madness", and the Royal Houses of Europe - John Rohl * Quinine: Malaria and the Quest for a Cure That Changed the World - Fiammetta Rocco * Rough Medicine: Surgeons at Sea in the age of the Sail - Joan Druett * Sex, Sin and Science: A History of Syphilis in America - John Parascondola * The Speckled Monster: A historial tale of Battling Smallpox - Jennifer Lee Carrell * The Strange Case of the Broad Street Pump: John Snow and Mystery of Cholera - Sandra Hempl * Who Gave Pinta to the Santa Maria? - Robert S Desowitz * Blood and Guts: A Short History of Medicine - Roy Porter Hope that helps!

My experience is just like yours, Sleeperblues. My only consistent reading these days is done at night, in bed. My granddaughter gave me a silver-spoon book mark engraved with "fell asleep here." :-) I loved The Great Alone, but haven't read any of her other books yet. However, this week I received Night Road, which I purchased used on eBay. It's "airing out" while I finish my current book. Firefly Lane has lots of great reviews on Amazon; I'm guessing all her books do, to one degree or another. I hadn't heard of her until my library gave me The Great Alone as a gift for doing a program last year.

DH gives me a copy of the O. Henry awards for short stories every year. I adore short stories. It is beyond my favorite form of literature. I appreciate the condensing that must take place to make a good short story. For me the shorter the better. This past year had some really good ones. His own work was often soft but the awards can be really fantastic. I am a fan. I get multiple short story books at Christmas. I enjoy the traditional character of the O. Henry award stories. A really good short story is reduced to its essence. An astonishing to me really good writer of shorts is of all people Stephen King. I do not read his novels. His shorts are too searing. He doesnt win awards because he is so prolific. Politics in writing.