Leave It To Peever


­­ Bumper sticker of the week: I've seen the light -- the party light.

­­ Quote of the week: ''The more you serve others, the more fulfilled you will be. Do not hurry the process. Take the time to savor what you have created. If you do, you will find, as I have, that you will feel more full when you share your life pudding with others than when you consume it alone.'' -Bernie Siegel, MD, ''Prescriptions for Living''

­­ I have had plenty of experience lately with hospitals and insurance companies. Here is but a sampling on admission:

Admissions: ''Mr. Weik, do you have insurance?''

Peever: ''Yes.''

Admissions: ''What's wrong with you?''

Peever: ''Heart attack?''

Admissions: ''Are you covered for a heart attack?''

Peever: ''I hope.''

Admissions: ''We need your insurance number and address for billing.''

Peever: ''Don't you think you ought to start doing something a little more medical-oriented?''

Admissions: ''There'll be plenty of time for that. Do you have co-pay or deductible? ''

It goes on and on. By now I'm sure you get the picture. No pay, no play.

­­ Bobby Knight, legendary Indiana coach, bites the dust. This really breaks me up. Here's a guy who should have been canned some 27 years ago. He maybe would make a good Marine sergeant, although his behavior and tactics are no longer used in the military. This is goodbye to a sorry example of a coach who had some great teams that won in spite of his pathological behavior.

­­ The American public pretty much doesn't have the collective sense of 5 morons, 2 idiots or 1 politician.

­­The cable company has been up to par lately. The neighbor sold their home and requested the cable to be turned off. Instead they turned ours off. I didn't notice a real big difference since it doesn't work most of the time anyway!

­­Speaking of big business.... After spending $400 to trim my front tree, Illinois Power sent their henchman in to tidy up the job.

­­Every week the Zephyr publishes the crime map. Seems to always be a lot of things on the map for crime to be going down. I'm sure there is an explanation.

­­The first debates are over. Very interesting Tuesday night. I watched a movie on TNN, a cowboy movie about Texas seemed relevant.

­­Remember when:--

You tipped over outhouses. This shows my age. Normally this was a smooth operation. Only two things could go wrong: (1) Someone was in the outhouse at the time of the tipping, or, (2) The owner would move the outhouse up about two or three feet and camouflage the hole. When you stepped up to tip it over, it could become a stinky situation.--

Gas was 25 cents a gallon, which is as low as I can remember. There were things called ''gas wars.'' Stations would go at one another for the lowest price. This was competition at its best. As you're well aware, they seem to have made peace.--

You didn't have to worry about the cable TV company taking you to the cleaners. Your only worry was keeping your antenna up.--

You could buy a house for less than you pay for most cars now. Our first home was a one and a half story, brick, completely remodeled home, with an in-ground swimming pool. All for $27,000.--

Haircuts were $1.25. Men wouldn't be caught dead in a salon -- maybe a saloon.--

The only thing you had to worry about when engaging in sex was pregnancy, for the most part. Today you have to worry about your life.--

The biggest problem in high school was not getting caught smooching in the library. No weapons, no drugs, no gangs, no metal detectors, no police. I do remember going to the principal's office twice, once for swearing and once for talking back to a teacher. He treated them as pretty serious offenses. Little did he know.--

You could go to the bank and get a loan on your name or job without having to put up your house or wife as collateral. Credit cards have taken over much of the money loaning business. Much too risky for banks. They'd sooner build pretty buildings.--

Someone dropping out or expelled from school was a major event rather than an everyday occurrence.--

If you can remember a lot of these things, you had better start cramming for finals.



Uploaded to The Zephyr Online October 4, 2000

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