Build in a Flood Plain, Expect a flood!

Why would anyone build a house in an obvious location that is known to flood? Just so you can pay flood insurance?

Individual survival depends on common sense and experience if you are lucky enough to get a second chance. I see young mother birds building nests on limbs low to the ground. It's an obvious no brainer.

Baby birds hatch if they are lucky enough to escape predators during the egg stage. They start peeping the moment they are born and whammo, some passing stray cat or coyote gets a free, easy meal.

Maybe that's what life is all about. The free and easy meal.

Someone cooks it and a passing predator eats it if you aren't vigilant. That's when you become a vigilante.

When does a predator become a hero? When you grab and eliminate a wild baby piglet.

I remember the days when we didn't even have health insurance. Life was simple. If we went to the doctor, we paid him with whatever we had. In the rural area, you might pay the doctor with chickens, veggies or wood. We checked our bills carefully and watched the charges.

Then, some lame brain came up with the concept of insurance. People didn't even bother to check their bills. They felt their insurance companies were paid handsomely with premiums, so they could check the bills. We began to see the doctors more because we felt we needed to get our full premium values. It became a vicious cycle. Doctors and hospital bills weren't checked or shopped for by the patients because insurance took care of it, so bills exponentially went through the roof along with escalating insurance premiums.

I try to avoid hospitals and doctor's offices at all costs. However, I landed in the emergency room with a rapid and irregular heart beat. They managed to slow the heart beat down to normal but wanted to keep me overnight. After 1 and 1/2 night, my hospital bill was $14,000. The doctors wanted to keep me one more night but I wasn't going to stay one more minute.

I didn't get anything extra in the hospital except "observance" , a Doppler test of the plumbing, periodic blood pressure checks and only saw the doctor (other than the emergency room visit) one time. The doctors were nice enough, but they were dealing with a cautious patient.

I've heard that more people die in the hospital than anywhere else. That's why I wanted out in a hurry.

Like the flood insurance, I sure didn't want to sit there where people crack the code too often. See the light. Pass through the pearly gates.

Then, they wanted to put me on all those medicines. I think they really believe in coumadin, blood thinners, etc. But, I remember when we didn't take anything like that and my grandparents and parents lived just as long as they do now. That's an advantage and maybe a curse.

But, remembering how things used to be puts a perspective on deciding my fate right now. My parents didn't take cholesterol or bone building medicines. Everything turned out well. They lived a long life and just died from normal old age problems.

Build your nest in a low branch and expect genetic extension.

Buy health, flood or hurricane insurance and expect to collect if you are born and live in those areas known to produce floods or hurricanes.

All this comes when I am required to pay over $2,500 in supplemental health insurance for the year. Is that the price of having survived abortion and being born in a home for unwed mothers and not smoking or drinking (to excess)?

You may win the war but have to pay for the damages later.