Happy Birthday

In poker tournaments there are often “last longer” side bets between friends where the person who goes deepest gets money from those who lose their chips early. If my father and his contemporaries made that gamble for the game of life surely he would have been given long odds of outlasting most pets let alone people he knew. In his earlier years he lit one Lucky Strike with another adding up to four packs a day, didn’t exercise, ate like a carnivore and kept distillers working overtime. Dozens of his friends, customers and employees who by default had healthier lifestyles are pushing daisies while Dad is still going strong. If you had made those side bets with the right odds you could balance the national budget. Happy 77th Pops.

There were several medical procedures my father had that would have been fatal had he lived in Canada or Great Britain because there is often a years-long wait for operations such heart bypass. Soon we may get nationalized health care which will ensure substandard care and higher costs. Foreigners come here for medical attention. When we adopt their system where will we and our loved ones go?