All Geezers Talk About is Their Ailments

The existence and popularity of "self help" books is a phenomenon that I see as a window into our culture. It also touches on the recent news topic of health care. This self help culture has completely change my life. Saved my life. There are of course a lot of fad books, and crazy cult books out there. But in any human endeavor there is always 15% of us who want to lie, steal, cheat, take advantage, be violent etc. We all have different ways of dealing with the 15%. I try not to let them ruin the mainstream good stuff. Of course if I've just been mugged, or burglarized, I may not be so rational and may in fact, join the 15% for a while. The self help concept has given me knowledge, if not wisdom. But more importantly it has given me alternative approaches to solving my problems, spiritually, mentally and physically. The best example I have of self help saving my life is my experience with Diabetes. The second best example is my experience with religion. Let's leave religion for another day, another blog post. Diabetes. We all know about it. There's a few million of us who are walking around with it and don't know it. It's now an epidemic. When I got diagnosed, I was far from rational. I was ignorant also. And it was to me, mostly about losing my airman medical certificate. This meant I was grounded and out sick from my job. The mainstream medical community welcomed me into diabetes and this is what they told me: 1. this is a "progressive" disease. It will shorten your life, you'll need more and more medication, eventually you will die from it. 2. there is no cure and never will be. 3. controlling blood glucose levels will help you prolong your life, and the only really good way of having that control is with insulin. As a type 2 diabetic you still make your own insulin, but eventually your pancreas will "burn out" and you will be dependent on insulin injections. 4. As the disease progresses, if you don't do a good job of controlling blood sugar with your insulin, you will go blind from retinopathy, have your feet amputated due to neuropathy complications, have kidney failure and more. 5 don't mess with diets such as low carbohydrate. This is dangerous. Stick to the recommended food pyramid of mostly healthy grains and stay away from the fats. 6. The good news is we are your team of health professionals and we are standing by to check on you as your disease progresses. We have surgeons who can do the amputations for you. And dialysis machines to keep you alive when your kidneys fail. And eye surgeons who can do some operations on your retina to slow the process of your going blind. So this is where I began my journey of learning through my savior: self help. I was lucky. I found a great book right away: "Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution". How I was attracted to that word 'solution'! Dr. Bernstein is an inspiration. He's a type 1 and a low carb diet advocate. He was an engineer from his college days. He was working on solutions to his diabetes but ran into a brick wall with conventional medicine So he went to medical school! He knew the solution was carbs the whole time. He practically invented the little meter that all diabetics use to test blood glucose. The doctors used to do that for the diabetic in the lab, so you used to have to go to the doc, pay for the check up, get a lab slip, go to the lab, just to get a snapshot of your blood glucose for that moment. And the AMA hated giving up that power of controlling the testing of BG. That logic of course still exists today with other tests. The doctor must see you and send you to the lab because you are too stupid to know when you need the test, and you are way too stupid to know what the results mean. Even though the results are clearly explained on your lab report. We have our home test for BG thanks in part to Dr. Bernstein's hard work. My diabetes diagnosis came from the Doc who was giving me a routine airman medical. Next I went to our family doctor. She told me about Type 2 diabetes and showed me the American Diabetes Association diet. She put me on an oral medication to take once a day. She ordered a lab test for me called an H A1c. It's a long term blood glucose test. And she told me to buy a blood glucose meter. So I went out and did these things. I had plenty of time because I was off work. With full pay. But I also read Dr. Bernstein's book. And started eating low carb. Lower even then the Dr. Atkins diet! My H A1c test came back high of course. But my daily "glucose meter" numbers just kept getting better and better. Was it because of the low carb diet or was it the pills I was now taking? Soon I knew the answer and how useless and dangerous to the type 2 diabetic those pills were. The antiquated pills she had prescribed, a derivative of the old "Sulfa" drugs, lower blood sugar by stimulating your already overworked pancreas to make more insulin. But I was in the process of learning that I was "insulin resistant" and adding more insulin would indeed "burn out" the beta cells in my pancreas. In other words, the pills my Doc gave me were making my diabetes worse. Much worse. How could she not know this? And if she didn't know, then don't prescribe. "Do no harm"! So I was mad at that Doc, and I stopped taking those pills. But there's more. Before I finally fired her I asked for one more thing. As I was in a hurry to get that Airman medical certification back, I needed a lower H A1c. So since she was my doctor of record I asked her for a lab slip for a fresh H A1c. She refused because she said it is a waste of time because it's only good every three months at the soonest. So wait three months and take the test. I knew I had read somewhere that this was BS. So I learned about the H A1c and how it works by measuring glucose attached to red blood cells. I learned that changes in daily BG levels affect the test with a recency factor of a weighted average. Results can show changes in as little as one to three weeks. So that was when my Doc was really fired!. But no other Doc would allow me to take the test! For the same wacko reason! So I leaned on a Doc who was a friend and he didn't want to do it either, but he did. Guess what. My new H A1c results--after 3 weeks-- had my number at a level the FAA would accept for flying! A number that was half way to normal non-diabetic numbers! Why didn't all the Docs know about this? They do know, but they play by rules that use old knowledge to prevent being sued! So the next step was to go to a specialist because a family doc knew little about diabetes! An endocrinologist! Now we'll get somewhere. 100 miles away in Wash. D.C. He's a great guy. His wife is the nurse and their matching 2 seat Mercedes cars are shining in the lot. He's real expensive and he and his wife spend 90% of their limited time with me triple checking my insurance. I saw him twice about three months apart, and I fired him. He doesn't care. He has plenty of patients. In fact he was so busy that I saw him about 4 minutes on one visit and maybe six on the next. The reason I fired him is because he's embedded so deeply in a diabetes paradigm that he couldn't see my situation at all. As I tried to quickly explain my journey with high blood glucose he was testing me for neuropathy by using a special wand to touch the bottom of my feet. And he said I was too thin and that if I lost any more weight to call his office immediately. In other words instead of seeing my situation of early diagnosis of poor glucose tolerance and my need for diet and exercise and needing to lose another 15 pounds, he had me sized up with his patients in late stage type 1 diabetes. He wanted me not to lose weight for fear that I was emaciated which is the final and near death situation of metabolic imbalance occurring when Diabetes Mellitus goes untreated. He's one of the best Endocrinologists in the DC area. He wasn't even in the same ballpark with my condition! I liked him though. He was a nice man, but he was working too hard. So the years went by and I found a new family Doc. What I would do was decide what treatment I wanted out of the medical system. Then make up a scenario for the Doc that would make him prescribe what I figured I needed. Low carb is the closest thing I have now to a cure. There is not one single Doc whom I have seen or met who thinks it is safe to go low carb. So my real Docs are on the web and in books. Self help! I took Metformin, another oral pill to help with blood sugar numbers. But recently I had a breakthrough. Having been lax in diet and lazy about testing, my condition got worse and worse till about a month ago. It's when I discovered a new mentor on the internet. The Doc who wrote a book: "Protein Power". I havn't read it, but the guy's blog is my inspiration. Also the book "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Taube. That is my new bible. This new information has made me "mad as hell" at the medical community. When I get mad I have new strength to diet and test. So I stopped taking the Metformin, because it didn't work anyway and my diet would make the late Dr. Atkins proud! And I seem to have new energy. Enough to write the longest post I've ever written. LloydLou ITTY ... ::::+::::

Feeling Nostalgic

The other day we had a little fly by here at the farm. The airstrip is pretty soft and is closed of course. Our friend made a really nice pass in a beautiful Malibu. Wife took some video which I havn't had a chance to preview. But if we get any footage at all, I'd like to put it up on YouTube. So I was surfing YouTube as I often do, for some back music to go with the vid. I was thinking about the instrumental, "Apache". It was by the Ventures, so I thought. The real story of Apache is too much to tell here. But one of the covers was by "the Shadows". Another long story. But this one Shadows vid was unbelievably cool. It was one of those British TV shows like "top of the pops" or something. The 4 guys were dressed in tuxedos. The 3 guitars were matching fenders. They were not even plugged in as the hit single played. The guys did a very stiff dance move in unison. It was pre Beatles. It is one of the coolest music vids I have ever seen. It's a poor quality as far as focus or grain and it is a copy of a copy of an old videotape. But if you want to see it, go to YouTube and search n98009, which is me. Then it's on my favorites. Or just search "The Shadows". It's so retro, I swear it looks like a new idea........ then I stumbled across another instrumental: "Telstar". Named after a satellite. Whenever I hear this song I just get this flood of memories. I'm a baby boomer. I was in Jr. High, maybe 7th or 8th grade. Telstar was an early satellite. Sputnik was in '57, and explorer 1 in '58 . Telstar was launched atop a Delta Rocket on July 10th 1962, my 13th birthday. When there was a launch from Cape Canaveral sometimes a TV would be put in our classroom so we could watch it at school. We were allowed to actually bring our radios if we had them to school to monitor the progress of the spacecraft. This was a big deal. World War II was only 17 years back and TV was very young. And battery powered portable radio very new too. During that era I had two radios that I remember. The first was a crystal set which was in the shape of a rocket. It would only pick up one or two broadcasts. The second was a transistor set that my dad had loaned me. It was of a type that boomers all remember. It had a 9 volt battery and a plastic case that could be broken down in half. Inside was the new technology of transistors mixed with the older but miniaturized diodes, capacitors, etc. that were soldered together in a little board. Every year that little radio's design got better and better. Soon the little board was littler and would be stacked with another board without the case getting any bigger. Then the soldered wires in the board started becoming strips of metal. Then certain common circuits had the strips of metal and could be manufactured independently for different radios and devices. Electrics had become electronics. Pretty soon they were stamping out the circuits with no solder and no wires. Just this flat circuit board of metal in a pattern. Etch the circuit into a board and pour in the conductor and there was the "printed circuit". The grandfather of the "chip" and Silicon Valley. My old transistor worked, but not well and it was fragile. While Telstar was orbiting and it's song was on the charts, I would go to my friends house in the neighborhood. He built a "Heathkit" HiFI, with the exciting "Stereo" feature. I would lie on the floor of his basement and listen to "Telstar" with the incredible Heathkit cranked up loud thru it's homemade woofers and tweeters. So many of my friends in Jr. High had dad's who worked at NASA. We lived near the Greenbelt Goddard Spaceflight Center outside of DC. Many of those dads were "Rocket Scientists". Before the term was a cliche. We all knew who Robert Goddard was. The rocket pioneer. And we knew about Werner Von Braun. I was in the "Civil Air Patrol" and our old World War II aviation books were updated to the sixties. When I completed the program, like becoming an "Eagle Scout", I had completed the final area of study known as "The Dawning Space Age". Our meetings were held at the "Robert Goddard Jr. High". My brother bought a "Heathkit" short wave kit. I worked on it with him. We borrowed a soldering iron. We wired up the board and connected the primitive speaker and D cell batteries and before we knew it we were picking up radio Moscow. We thought it was unbelievable. I told my neighbor about it and he laughed. Over at his house where the basement stereo was he showed me his brother's workbench where he was building a "Color TV" Heathkit. He then showed me a crystal set his brother had built from scratch as a physics project. He was picking up radio Moscow on a razor blade! A few weeks later at that same workbench I built my first model rocket. A rocketeer friend of mine sold me two standard small "Estes" rocket engines for $2. This was no small investment for me. So I took my new rocket engine and some other stuff to my buddy's brother's workbench. I had a new bookcover for school that was like shiny paper. I wrapped that carefully around the tubular little cardboard solid fuel engine. As I wrapped I lightly coated it with glue and created my rocket body. We had paint and balsa from model car work and control line model airplane stuff. I designed and made templates for the fins on paper and then made the fins out of balsa. Made a nose cone out of balsa. The nose cone had a recovery streamer. My entry level rocket was too crude for a parachute. My buddy had a battery powered launcher/igniter. It lit off and flew and I was in the space age. When tenth grade came I was in high school. I started thinking about girls. I started to play guitar and listen to folk singers who were left over from beatniks. I wanted to drive cars and "solo" in an airplane. I forgot about Heathkits and transistors and rocketry. I came of age. And now I realize how wonderfully innocent I was in the "dawning space age". LloydLouITTY ::::+::::

Tea Time in my senile mind

One more political thought I forgot to put in my previous geezer rant. I just gotta get this out into the cybersphere. It's about the Republicans, whom I don't want to pick on because we all know both parties are essentially the same. I just can't understand why the Republican Party would use junk yard dogs and crazies to try to voice their messages. Their appeal is that they are conservative. If Sarah Palin isn't an embarrassment to them now, eventually she will be and they will have to distance themselves from her. Now they have the Tea Party. Don't misunderstand me. I like protest. I like civil disobedience. I like to shake up the power structure. I like the folks in power to know that they can be overthrown. But abuse and violence over health care? Sarah Palin and the Tea Party are a one-two punch that seems to dent the "respectability" of the GOP. The Democrats have always had crazies so it's built into their system. They've never met a wacko fringe group they wouldn't welcome into their party. Votes is votes. Promise them anything. I can think of two wacko fringe groups that the GOP has had associated with them in the past, that they can not count on. The gun rights folks and the religious right. Make no mistake. These groups are extremely well organized and, unlike the Tea Party, they actually have an agenda that is written down and they clearly know what they want. No party can count on them because they are "one issue" voters. Democrat or Republican, if you promise to help them get what they want, you will get their vote. It almost seems like the Republicans are desperate if they must hitch Palin and the Tea Party to their wagon. Talk about a toxic fringe. How can it help them? They've always had more "class" then the Dems and they were supposed to be the brakes and the voice of reason. The two parties are just melding into one another and the issues are all out on the web and the whole electorate is now just about ten thousand little "tribes" of voters with their own little manifestos. My pet issues are split between the parties. And everyone I talk to is in the same boat. What is the Tea Party? I guarantee it is not about health care. The rich have the most to lose in the health care fiasco. Protesters in the street are not rich. The Tea Party is made up of people who are mad. And they want to lash out and hurt somebody. They are unhappy, they are hurting. What are they mad about? The biggest thing they are mad about is that there is a black president. The next biggest thing they are mad about is that our government is becoming more socialistic. And they are seeing a loss of "traditional values". They're afraid that their children won't grow up in the "wonderful free America" that they grew up in. They don't like gays and minorities, and non-Christians. If I'm wrong about the Tea Party, I need someone to explain to me what they want, what they stand for. The alliance between the Tea Party and the GOP is bad for both groups:. It's bad for the Tea Party because the Republicans are using them much like pawns in a chess game. In chess, the pawns are your front lines. They are very much in play as the game begins. When you move a pawn, it's called "promoting a pawn". So the Tea Party is in play for the GOP and they have been promoted into the media spotlight. But later in the game the pawns are sacrificed, and gone. It's bad for the GOP because they are using a radical group that will not be entirely dependable and controllable. Remember way back in '69 the Rolling Stones had a big concert which was supposed to be the epitome of Rock. It was held at a race track in California. Some stoned genius hired the Hells Angels to be security. Bad idea. Ya think? That was the end of the peace, love, flower child image that at least part of the hip generation had. Like Dr. Frankenstein, they lost control of the monster. So the beat generation got their image tarnished badly. Alas, this Tea Party will tarnish the Republicans. LLITTY ::::+::::

At least I'm not talkin' religion

I'm feeling the urge to talk a little politics. I know, bad idea. The Health Care Bill. Or bills as it was. I don't have a real side on this because I don't really know what is in the bill. It's a foot tall of regular sheets of paper. The add on bill is around an inch tall. So I'm gonna say general things about the issue. I didn't care if it passed or not. The way I figure it if it passed, fine. Health care for everyone including the needy. If it hadn't have passed, that's OK too because obviously it had some more tweaking to go. I can't understand what everyone is so upset about, or so happy about, if we don't know about the actual bill. I have friends who say what they don't like about it. But I know they haven't read it. Each side of the argument describes the bill differently. So I'm not going to talk about nuts and bolts because it's folly. What I've learned from the sharpshooter media is that if you like the bill, you're allowing Congress to bankrupt our country and turn it into a socialist state. If you don't like the bill, your a greedy selfish person, who is against the greatest progress our country has made since winning the space race, and/or drowning the Soviet Union. Now a little of my two cents. I always get suspicious when someone tries to "hurry along" a deal. If it's a good deal fine, then why hurry? What possible reason after 50 years of trying would we have to "shove" this through? Ever had a used car salesman try to sell you a car? It has to be now preferably before you drive it. Ever had a Realtor say better put in your offer because there are other folks interested, so Hurry! When I feel that pressure I just back away. Shame on Obama. He promised to work the aisles. And if you don't want the bill to pass and you want public opinion on your side, don't make up stuff like "death squads". You should know that will backfire. It seemed odd to me that after the bill passed, then we heard a lot from both sides about those things in the bill that the two sides did both want. Seems like that list of things should have been the starting point for the whole debate. And the name calling and the threats regardless of who shouted at who cast a bad light on the entire legislature. Don't cross that line. You took an oath. Be civil. It's a debate. So debate. No ad hominem attacks. This is not Junior High. I'm registered as a Republican, but to me both parties are the same. But I got a survey from the local or state Republicans the other day. It was kind of an opinion poll. The questions were phrased so that no matter what I answered in the multiple choice the result would be that I followed the conservative party line. One of the questions asked me about "Traditional Values". I don't know what that means. What traditional values? Segregation? Women's place in the home? America must be the best country on the planet in all things no matter what? No gays allowed? I made a few write-in answers and sent the form in. I'm pro guns, but they didn't ask about the Second Amendment. I spent a career as an airline pilot, and most of the pilots were very conservative. Oddly, many were Democrats. It's because of the union we were all in. I'm kind of a liberal in some social ways, and an atheist. So when cockpit talk got a little heated I would always change the subject to the union. This we could agree on. And we voted as a bloc for whom ever helped our cause. Almost always the Democrats. I've always been an AFL-CIO man since I was eighteen and started paying my first dues and carried my first card, long before I was a professional pilot. I was in the IBFO. The International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers. I earned enough money to be a Republican. But I always backed the union. Even when they were wrong. On this health care thing, sorry to all my dear conservative friends, but I gotta close with this: Both parties tax and spend and do anything they can do to stay in power, get re-elected, get their pet projects in. Both parties need to be voted out. But they won't be because we will all just vote our pocketbooks. We let them buy our votes. If they're both going to tax and spend and they will: I'd rather have a trillion dollar health care system than a trillion dollar war. War has a price more than dollars.

accidently like an anti

My cell phone is off and on charge while i take a break from communication. It charges up really fast which is a bad sign. It means I have cooked the little lithium ion battery. My wife's cell phone was also in need of a battery. A battery costs as much as a phone. So we went on a snowy outing in the trusty Jeep and got her a new phone. I'm always confused by the cell phone rules and customs and marketing. Some of my questions may sound like a geezer rant. Do you think? Why must all the cell phones have a camera? Why does cell phone usage require a contract? Why, until recently, were all the charging device plugs non standardized? Why was the internet $30 per month on the phone my wife liked, but only $10 on a less smart phone? Why are the buttons so small on the keyboards? Do we really want our phones to talk to us?
The biggest problem to me seems to be the feature creep that makes the phone so complicated doing things that we could do better at home or at work, with a computer. I predict that in a few years this feature creep will yield us an amazing portable device. It will be a sort of net book small lap top cell phone thing that will so do everything. It will be on the net via satellite, the phone the same way, have everything a smart phone has of course, but much more. you won't need a contract except to get to the satellite. Of course it will have a great camera! Because in a few years there will be a law that all portable devices must have a camera. We all know this "do it all" cell phone is coming, and from what i saw at the Verizon store, it's mostly here. So? Here's the rest of my prediction: At some point after the "personal portable satellite computer communication tool is in all of our hands, and has become a "mine's bigger than yours" status symbol, a new discovery will be made. A genius in Silicon Valley or Madison Avenue will "invent" something really cool. It will be the newest rage. The genius will invent a communication device so clean and simple everyone will want one.... to go with their other equipment. It will be a phone. Just a phone. Not even a camera! You'll just pick it up to call someone and that's all you'll do with it. Then you can put it back in your pocket or purse and get back to taking pictures or videos or writing texts or e mails. It's a great concept. I know it's too radical an idea now. We're just not ready for it. LLITTY ::::+::::

Half Quarter

I keep getting these little signs and signals and hints of Spring. My friends are saying "I'm ready for Spring". But isn't it too soon to start counting the days and wishing our short lives away as we wait for something in the future which will be better than "the now" that we have? I am wishing for Spring, but by God, I'm enjoying the "now". I've got patches of green in the grass. And coming up though my cheap asphalt. Our cold house crisis we have every year has eased off. Temps are seasonal finally. I guess we could say that the worst of the winter is over. I suspect we'll get a big storm or two before it's all over. During the below average temperatures I worked on tightening up our leaky old farmhouse. I put bales of straw against the north wall. I blocked off two rooms for the winter. We had the electrician come last week and install two new 220 volt heaters. I'm building a door for the pantry. Wife sleeps with a GreatDane that weighs more than her. The dog is a bed hog and likes to cozy up, so at least wife is warm at night. But if I go in to kiss wife goodnight, the Dane puts her big head between us and gives me a little growl. It's OK, I can catch a kiss and hug passing in the hall later. My airstrip got kind of soggy and is slowly getting firmer. It needs no rain and warmer temps to really dry out. I have some nice plans for our garden this season and I plan to start early. I plan to celebrate Groundhog day. This is a serious holiday for a calender worshiper like me. It's what's called a "half quarter". It falls between the Winter Solstice and the March 21st equinox. This is a holiday as old as the rest of the seasonal feasts. A few years back I actually went to Punxutawney in PA for the celebration. It was damned cold. After being out in the snow and cold out at Gobbler's Nob or whatever they call it for a few hours, I really didn't give a s___ what the Groundhog did. While the tourists are freezing their asses off on the hill waiting for "Phil" the Hog, the locals are celebrating in the town, which is a few miles away. In town there are old hotels, and a bookshop, and cafes, and booths outdoors with ice sculpture, and music and ice skating. It's pretty small, and some of the locals kind of protest your being there, and some want to get your money one way or another, and some love to see you and are proud of their town's fame. I have a plan for my Groundhog Day. I will get up just before dawn. I will have a nice big pot of coffee. I will add some whiskey. I will bundle up and smile. I will take my dog Jake (he looks and acts a bit like a large groundhog) and I will go out and watch the sunrise. A large fire will already be laid in my fire pit. So if it's not raining I'll have a nice fire. We'll see whether Jake sees his shadow. After a few hours of winter fun, I shall go back to bed. Wake up for the lovely sunset and write here and tell you about it. Of course you are invited. Drive way out here on a Tuesday to be up half the night in the cold. But that's exactly what I did when I went to Punxutawney. It's kind of like Times Square. Everybody should do it once.
LLITTY :::::+:::::

Alphabet Groups

I was considering joining the AARP. It's the retirement organization. I'm retired, so why not. But I'm having second thoughts because of something I saw on Fox News. The guy was saying that AARP wants a big government option in the health care plan, so they can sell more "fill the gap" insurance to their members. He said AARP was no longer an advocate for old folks. Just another business who wants them as a customer. So I didn't join. I can see both sides of the health care question. I can see both sides of all the issues in politics today. I'm not a Democrat or a Republican. I wish the Congress would enact an Amendment limiting all terms of office to four years. With elections every 2 years. Let's stop having professional politicians. Also let's have each bill in Congress stand alone. One Bill, one issue. No piggybacking, no trading favors on another bill. Just the Bill on it's own merits. I digress. Back to alphabet groups. I was considering joining the ADA. That's the American Diabetes Association. I've never joined and I guess I never will. I suspect it's even dirtier than the AARP. The ADA recommended diet includes enough carbohydrates to put most type 2 diabetics on insulin. Their recommended diet will make a type 2 into a type 1 and eventually kill him. The ADA is actually promoting diabetes. Next is ALPA. The airline pilot's association. I was a proud member for 29 years. But unfortunately, once I retired, they dropped me like a rock. No paycheck to "check off" dues from, no union. Next, the CAP. Civil Air Patrol. I've been a member off and on and now mostly off. I was a "Cadet" member and got a lot out of that program. I got my start in aviation there. I owe CAP. But the last few times I've dealt with the program, there was so much red tape to become a CAP pilot, that it didn't seem to be worth the time. I want to take young people up flying though. That takes me to the next group. The EAA. The experimental airplane association. I was in this once and to me it was just a magazine subscription. I wasn't building an airplane and I never will. But the EAA has a program to fly young people. It's called "Young Eagles". If you want to help in their young eagles program you must obviously join EAA. So we have a hit. I gonna rejoin EAA. But I'm not crazy about them for other reasons. Next we have the AOPA. Aircraft ownwers and pilots assoc. I just sent in my renewal dues of $39. This organization is pretty big. A few hundred thousand members. A lobby to help General Aviation. I wish they had the "Young Eagles" program instead of EAA. I hope the AOPA isn't "corrupt" like the ADA and the AARP but I suspect AOPA is big enough to have that sort of problem. The NRA, national rifle assoc. has sent me very glossy and nice junk mail forgiving me for letting my membership lapse, and reminding me of what a powerful lobby they are, and offering me a nice tote bag, if I will only rejoin. We'll see. I have limited budget for dues. Next, the SSA. (the soaring society). If you fly gliders you are told over and over to join this. You must be a member to receive "awards" as you progress in your gliding career. When I took lessons, the school told me I "had to join" SSA or could not fly there. So I joined and it was a magazine subscription. Now it's long expired, but I still fly gliders. Some day I may take a trip out west and go for one of those awards. Called "Diamonds". If that happens, I'll rejoin SSA. I thought that the SSA was the nicest, most innocent Alphabet group. Just guys floating around in quiet little gliders! But it turns out a few years ago their Chief Financial Officer ran off with $140,000. They had to boot him and then re-boot the organization. Maybe I'm just not a "joiner".