jfv wrote: Thu Feb 19, 2026 9:28 am Greetings from Abu Dhabi; my last day here before returning home.

Was in Dubai yesterday and went up the Burj Khalifa. The amount of money being poured into this place… I’m out of my mind with conflicting thoughts. Should I be impressed with what humanity can accomplish, or appalled that this is what we’re spending money on and not things that help the planet and the weakest among us? And what the hell am I doing here?

Dubai has all of what money can buy, and none of what it can’t.

Dave N. wrote: Thu Feb 19, 2026 12:55 pm

jfv wrote: Thu Feb 19, 2026 9:28 am Greetings from Abu Dhabi; my last day here before returning home.

Was in Dubai yesterday and went up the Burj Khalifa. The amount of money being poured into this place… I’m out of my mind with conflicting thoughts. Should I be impressed with what humanity can accomplish, or appalled that this is what we’re spending money on and not things that help the planet and the weakest among us? And what the hell am I doing here?

Dubai has all of what money can buy, and none of what it can’t.

Yeah, that's definitely aligned with my thoughts.

I have ~ 24 hours to think about this more before I get home. Sort of wish I could take some sort of psychedelic but considering the country I'm currently in... that's not happening.

OK so a few pages back I said I wanted to just spend the rest of my life reading. I was wrong. I wanna spend the rest of my life readaing and playing tennis for a couple hours a day. Fuck, I wish someone made me play tennis when I was younger. Starting at 53 I'll never make the ATP.

Dave N. wrote: Thu Feb 19, 2026 12:55 pm

jfv wrote: Thu Feb 19, 2026 9:28 am Greetings from Abu Dhabi; my last day here before returning home.

Was in Dubai yesterday and went up the Burj Khalifa. The amount of money being poured into this place… I’m out of my mind with conflicting thoughts. Should I be impressed with what humanity can accomplish, or appalled that this is what we’re spending money on and not things that help the planet and the weakest among us? And what the hell am I doing here?

Dubai has all of what money can buy, and none of what it can’t.

I feel the same way about Rochester and the pretty buildings Mayo keeps building while the quality of patient care plummets and they continue to be closed off to ideas that would help their most vulnerable populations. Even basic logistic stuff like giving the SMART team access to Epic CareLink so they can get medical records faster to process SSDI applications faster. Which every other hospital system in Minnesota does. To this day, Mayo is the slowest responder to requests for medical records in the state. I brought these concerns from the SMART team directly to management and their response was the same as it always is: "Mayo doesn't <insert helpful thing>."

And they were obfuscating eligibility for charity to countless patients, or denying charity funds to eligible patients, to the point where the AG had to get involved.

They're spending billions on new buildings downtown that just move things around instead of adding capacity while psych needs are through the roof. More pressure to discharge people who shouldn't discharge. Who cares if a few peds patients complete suicide the exact way they said they would, when they said they would, where they said they would? The hospital got paid before they'd have to settle for a lower reimbursement from insurance. That's what really matters.

It's amazing how so many hospitals in this country are doing far more for vulnerable populations with far less income than Mayo, who has all the money in the world and chooses to spend it on opulence instead. Bill & Chuck are rolling in their graves.

enframed wrote: Thu Feb 19, 2026 9:01 pm Starting at 53 I'll never make the ATP.

Even if you did, the mandatory retirement from the airlines is 60. Better to just get a PPL or sport license and have fun. Who wants to be a CRJ FO making $25k a year at 53?

enframed wrote: Thu Feb 19, 2026 9:01 pm OK so a few pages back I said I wanted to just spend the rest of my life reading. I was wrong. I wanna spend the rest of my life readaing and playing tennis for a couple hours a day. Fuck, I wish someone made me play tennis when I was younger. Starting at 53 I'll never make the ATP.

My friend Wendy became a tennis fiend a couple of years ago, in her late 40’s. She’s currently playing in a local league and kicking ass. They beat out everyone in Texas and went to the nationals. I don’t know how her league or club is set up, but she’s obsessed.

ErickC wrote: Fri Feb 20, 2026 7:56 am
I feel the same way about Rochester and the pretty buildings Mayo keeps building while the quality of patient care plummets and they continue to be closed off to ideas that would help their most vulnerable populations. Even basic logistic stuff like giving the SMART team access to Epic CareLink so they can get medical records faster to process SSDI applications faster. Which every other hospital system in Minnesota does. To this day, Mayo is the slowest responder to requests for medical records in the state. I brought these concerns from the SMART team directly to management and their response was the same as it always is: "Mayo doesn't <insert helpful thing>."

And they were obfuscating eligibility for charity to countless patients, or denying charity funds to eligible patients, to the point where the AG had to get involved.

They're spending billions on new buildings downtown that just move things around instead of adding capacity while psych needs are through the roof. More pressure to discharge people who shouldn't discharge. Who cares if a few peds patients complete suicide the exact way they said they would, when they said they would, where they said they would? The hospital got paid before they'd have to settle for a lower reimbursement from insurance. That's what really matters.

It's amazing how so many hospitals in this country are doing far more for vulnerable populations with far less income than Mayo, who has all the money in the world and chooses to spend it on opulence instead. Bill & Chuck are rolling in their graves.

Amen. I wish I could say that was atypical.

Dave N. wrote: Fri Feb 20, 2026 8:38 am

enframed wrote: Thu Feb 19, 2026 9:01 pm OK so a few pages back I said I wanted to just spend the rest of my life reading. I was wrong. I wanna spend the rest of my life readaing and playing tennis for a couple hours a day. Fuck, I wish someone made me play tennis when I was younger. Starting at 53 I'll never make the ATP.

My friend Wendy became a tennis fiend a couple of years ago, in her late 40’s. She’s currently playing in a local league and kicking ass. They beat out everyone in Texas and went to the nationals. I don’t know how her league or club is set up, but she’s obsessed.

Good for her that's so awesome! There's lots of public courts and pick-up doubles all around LA it seems. I've not yet tried doubles. I'm not good enough for league play yet but I'm trying to get there.

I mistakenly sent a note to a coworker reminding them to do a menial task we take on rotation at the EXACT moment she was doing it. I'm officially annoying. But this gem of a woman gifted me a Linkin Park sticker as punishment for my faux pas. It's nice to feel seen by your coworkers.

enframed wrote: Thu Feb 19, 2026 9:01 pm OK so a few pages back I said I wanted to just spend the rest of my life reading. I was wrong. I wanna spend the rest of my life readaing and playing tennis for a couple hours a day. Fuck, I wish someone made me play tennis when I was younger. Starting at 53 I'll never make the ATP.

Fuck yeah - tennis rules!

I played as a kid and my best friend had a tennis court - we played every day in summer holidays…

Now I’m 57 - play once a week at night w some local dudes - super fun and I’m surprised how hungry I get for a bit of competition. Love hitting that ball to hell and back

In the racket ball sports hierarchy it’s hard to know which rules hardest - am a fan of badminton and table tennis too - keen to try the terribly named pickleball, but I hear it’s fun too … basically what is better than smashing an object around and sharing time/talk w folks you like?

I've been getting these text messages for my ex-wife, who I haven't talked to in about a decade. They were for some program, unsure what it was. But I ended up getting more than a few, and then I got a call from the program asking for my ex-wife by name. It was for an appointment for cosmetic surgery. I doubt she deliberately used my phone number, and sometimes I get mail and calls for things we used to be on together. Anyway, I got a chuckle at knowing how vain she might be in her mid-forties. She always used to say that she didn't want to be alive at 60, as a kind of joke about getting ugly. I disliked that about her, but now it seems like it's becoming a reality to her that's she's getting older.

Don't spend too much time thinking about my previous marriage, this just came out of nowhere. I just wonder that now she's not feeling young anymore if she regrets all the dumb life-altering decisions that have ruined other people's lives around her that she's done in the past.