KIDNEY STONE SURGERY

3TC & Michele-- let's just hope we don't have June ruined by Canadian wildfire smoke this time around! The news was already reporting smoky conditions arising in BC and moving eastward last week due to a fire season already starting there, yuck!!!!! / Old Hat

3timechamp said...
And where is vacation destination??
Your getting away from New York Monsoon season.
Aruba is my go to get away but more January-February

I'm going to Atlanta, Georgia. My cousin lives there. I usually do two trips a year. Atlanta and then Florida. I do Florida the end of October.

OldHat: I was reading about the wildfires.

clo2014: Living in New York, it's not what is was like years ago. It's stressful. You have to watch everything. There are so many "unwell" people roaming the streets. One thing I will never do is get on a subway. The subway is like taking a risk with your life.

When I get back, I have a follow up with my urologist. After that, one of the ultrasounds picked up on a small nogule on my lung so I will get that checked out and pray it's just scar tissue.

Old Hat said...
For Michele, a comical subway story from late 1960s: a French colleague of mine told me yrs afterward that he and 3 male friends had moved an upright piano between distant points in Manhattan using the subway 2 AM+ ...!!!! They descended in Morningside Heights (W. 116th St. station) then eventually exited in Greenwich Village (W. 4th St. station) !!!! He added that they paid with 3 additional tokens to cover the piano's size!!!! I can't imagine how those guys pulled that off, considering the lengthy subway stairwells, but somehow they managed to arrive at their destination totally intact. *** As for myself, I have avoided going underground since the pandemic. In my experience safety from crime down below improved a lot during waking hours while Mike Bloomberg was mayor because his administration opposed fare-beaters & panhandlers. Then subway conditions went downhill again after he left office. / Old Hat [Wishing you a relaxing trip to GA!]

HAHAHA....you would be shocked at what goes on in the subways now and on the streets.

clo2014 said...
Things have changed so much. Years ago riding subways or buses were safe.... Now I'm scared to even touch them... And going down into the subway... Nope. That's not happening....not now.

Sadder still... Those corner street vendors we used to go to....gone.

I remember walking and looking at window displays.... And now I'm not comfortable even doing that....

So many changes....

My Aunt and Dad would be so sad to see this happening in their beloved city.

Clo

I work downtown manhattan. I take the ferry from staten island to work. The K-9 bomb dog that is at my building is always waiting for me when I get off the ferry. It's very sad that the city has turned into a sewer. When I go home, I take the express bus home which is fine. I also carry three weapons because you have to. You have to always look around. If I go outside during lunch, I stay by my building because you might get punched in the face if you walk around by some lunatic.

Old Hat said...
Michele, I blame it on the American Psychiatric Association + grandstanding politicians who never use mass transit or shop in public. The psychiatric association prez said to media in 12/22 that "the mentally ill should be treated like the physically ill". But IMO, NOT IF THEY REFUSE TO TAKE THEIR RX MED(S) !!!! That's the case with many in NYC who hang out in subway stations or under bldg. scaffolding, or roam the streets. The NYC mayor stated around the same time that it takes a MINIMUM 9 MONTHS to stabilize a mentally ill person who has refused prior psychiatric treatment. So why don't the psychiatriic associations lobby to get more in-house treatment centers opened? That's why many dangerous personalities are randomly attacking other people in public places. Violent individuals need to be confined with reliable supervision. / Old Hat

I agree with you 100% I cannot wait to stop working so I don't ever have to go into the city again.

Plus we have the civil liberties that family members can not invalidate by insisting on family members over the age of 18 be in counseling, take medication, or be in mental health housing. Forget about getting a conservatorship. That might happen in really famous cases but not in real life. The legal system does not want to invalidate the mentally ills civil rights--thereby holding that person's whole family hostage to a terrible situation with poor outcomes.

The U.S. needs the mental health system, politicians, the legal system and those "advocates" (who don't have to live in those situations and are able to walk away--yet still maintain that the mentally ill should choose if they need help....) to realize that these people need help, make them get it, continue to receive it and help their families help them. Currently their family members can not help them because the family members are helpless -- because of the laws we have enacted!! They are forced to watch this happen while there's a stranger on the street corner carrying signs saying mentally ill people should not be forced into conservatorships or take their medication. The worse part is that because of the way mental illness impacts health and thought processes impacted individuals don't realize they are ill--they think it's everyone else.

So we continue to arrests these people and not get them the help, healthcare, counseling they need and deserve. They don't need to be in jail. They need medication, counseling and rehabilitation on how to function in the world with their mental illness.

We've handicapped the family that would help them so they in turn--due to liability and safety issues--have no choice but to limit contact with their loved one.

It's disgraceful.

CCinPA: an NYC resident's perspective on how dangerous things are locally tends to vary depending on the borough they reside in. I've lived in Manhattan for decades and find it more crowded now than it used to be in terms of sidewalk and street traffic congestion, especially on weekdays. But in terms of criminal activity, I think of Manhattan as mostly safer than the Bronx. I've known people residing in Queens who would feel like Michele on Staten Island-- that Manhattan is more dangerous in terms of crime. I wouldn't call it a sewer, though. There are still many responsible people raising families here and contributing to worthy causes like parks and cultural institutions that tourists can now enjoy with the pandemic mostly under control. A couple days ago I happened to meet a lovely family from Toronto, 3 generations visiting together, who said that they still find NYC lively, interesting, and worthwhile to experience again. / Old Hat (Originally a Pennsylvanian)

Old Hat said...
In my experience safety from crime down below improved a lot during waking hours while Mike Bloomberg was mayor because his administration opposed fare-beaters & panhandlers. Then subway conditions went downhill again after he left office.

As a student in crime ridden NYC in the early 1970's I was mugged 3 times. Going into the subway was like descending into Dante's Inferno with all the cars filthy and covered with graffiti. I thought NYC was hopeless and was glad to finally leave.

But then Rudy Giuliani was elected mayor and started cleaning it up. Followed by Michael Bloomberg NYC became, believe it or not, the “safest big city in America”. So there is hope New York can reform once again.

It’s all the cities anymore really. There’s so many different issues at work — not enough police, crowded jails with not enough room, homeless allowed to sleep wherever they want. I do agree tho that mental illness IS a physical illness, however when someone is physically ill, they go to a hospital, right? I just don’t see the logic in letting them roam streets because it’s a physical illness. Just like everything else, we’ve swung too far away from the bad times when people where locked away on a whim.

The police are not allowed to do their job to the best of their ability. They put a stop to "stop and frisk" which I thought was insane.

The city is being taken over by mentally ill, lunatics and crazy people.

CCinPA said...
Old Hat -- I couldn't imagine moving to Manhattan from PA. Then again, I live in the woods. Cities have too many peeps for me lol And Michele has really enticed me to want to visit again (not!)

If you do visit, bring a weapon of some kind with you, maybe some mace. And when I retire, I'll be going to the woods too! I want to live with the birds and wild life!

Ok, I'm out of here until next Friday. Thank you to everyone for your support while I went through my kidney stone surgery!

3timechamp said...
I never have a problem in city or trains.
Dont go to South Bronx etc.
Don't think it's as bad as your making it out to be.
Having a weapon is little too much for me.
Why do millions live and commute and have no issue??

Thanks for this. Good to know.

3timechamp said...
I never have a problem in city or trains.
Dont go to South Bronx etc.
Don't think it's as bad as your making it out to be.
Having a weapon is little too much for me.
Why do millions live and commute and have no issue??

I only go by what I see when I commute for work. It's not pretty. I got spit on and food thrown at me while trying to commute to work, so yes, I carry a weapon.
I'm sure you read the papers. Women walking down the street getting punched in the face. Just recently a man got lit on fire in the subway.