Doctor Bill - 1979

Another comment from my 80s Notebook. This one from 11/3/79.

On August 3, 1979 I saw Dr. Wolin for a backache problem and a routine physical. This was the first since Navy separation. I paid $50 for the visit... by check the day of the visit. Right there in the office. 

Since then I've been routinely getting a statement from him about the bill. I think his billing service or computer was stuck on my receipt once a month. So now three months later the Statemen comes with a "Please" written on it. So it is a Bill!. That's what happens when you pay a medical bill on time... harassment. My only medical bill in a decade and they screw it up. I'm batting 1000. What would happen if I really got sick. Horror. 

I sent a copy of the cancelled check to prove I paid the doctor bill. 

11/3/09

Wow, I really find it hard to believe I went ten years without seeing a doctor. I think back on the days living in Germantown after getting out of the Navy and I really can't remember any medical issues or getting sick enough to see a doctor. Of course I always could have gone to the VA for medical treatment. I also think back that if the last time I had a physical was when I got out of the Navy that would have been late 1973 so that means it really was six years of not getting any medical service and not a decade as I wrote in 1979.

Also it's funny that I would blame the billing problem on using a computer. Little did I know back in 1979 how much my life would later evolve around computers.

Car Comments - 1979

From my 80's Notebook. This time November 3, 1979.

New York State law says that a car owner moving to New York has 30 days to register their car in NY. I've been in Buffalo six months now and finally I got my NY tags.

Way back in June, when Betsy and Joe were visiting, I also got a parking ticket that day. I stood in many lines waiting to get my tags but I didn't have my car title with me. It was strange because I didn't remember ever having one although the car was paid off but I looked in vain. It was a 1973 Chevy Vega. 

Next began a typical bureaucratic nightmare with letters and correspondences back and forth but nothing was accomplished. Lost checks, lost titles, liens, bullshit.

Then I finally got some good luck. I found the lost original title and of course I had it all the time. I really need to organize my paperwork better but now I have my NY plates for a fee of course... $20.

Then this week the car's engine died. Nothing. I tried to jump it but it needed towing. Fortunately I was able to use the Better Wire Products, my employer, automotive service Sonny's Car Clinic located nearby. The car was towed at 9:30 am and finished by 12 noon. Better Wire Products had pull.

The car needed a new alternator. They also fixed my flashers and did a NY State Inspection. Total cost was $120.

I wish I could do more work on the car myself. It's just a matter of doing it and having the tools and the time.

11/3/09

Looking back 30 years getting the car fixed was pretty cheap. I would not have that Vega much longer but that's another story in one of these 80's notebooks somewhere.

Irish Eccentricity - 1979

Irish Eccentricity

Originally a notebook entry in 11/3/79 about some Irish resources I was interested in at the time.

• The Year of the French by Thomas Flanagan. A novel about the 1798 invasion of Ireland by Republican France and the rebellion of County Mayo. The amazing theme in the book was the notion of the Irish poet, Gaelic, Celtic Owen McCarthy. The oral tradition.
• The Irish Renaissance. The late 19th and early 20th century Irish literature revival. W.B. Yeats, George William Russell (A.E.), James Joyce, and more. Celebrating Irish myth, folklore, drama, poetry, etc. The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats. 
• The Celts by Gerhard Herm. The founders of Europe, Druids, King Arthur, The Holy Grail, Headhunters
• Horslips - A Celtic Symphony
• The Historical Map of Ireland
• Irish music by The Chieftains
• The Wild Geese. The Irish soldiers and their families who traveled to Europe to fight in Catholic countries (France & Spain) to fight against England.
• The Irish Diaspora. Display of the ancient Irish treasures at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
• Ireland Today. The legacy of British imperialism.
• The Murder of Mountbatten. The symbol. A divided Ireland will always be a violent one.

11/2/09

I'm not sure what I was writing about in these notebook entries. This was all on one page. I did read Year of the French around that time.

On the Edge of the Eighties - 1979

This was the first entry in the notebook.. On the Edge of the Eighties. Reflections: Past, Present and Future. I started this in early November 1979. Quick writing in a notebook. We had moved to Buffalo from Philadelphia in June of 1979. 

11/1/79

The Eighties. They're nearly here. It seems almost impossible. The new decade and where am I now. Am I really ready for this new experience? What will the eighties bring to me, my life? And what were the Seventies? This is a good time to reflect on them. I've become of age, so to speak, in the seventies. Came to manhood and developed into what I am. A mixing of adolescent and teenage Sixties with the young adulthood Seventies. The Eighties will be the culmination of the previous two decades emerging from the childhood of the Fifties. The three decades were so very much different. What will my fourth decade be like? Age 28 through 38.

This decade approaches the half way mark of an expected lifetime. The Eighties are my mid years. I guess it would be fairer to say the Mid-Eighties through the Mid-Nineties but centuries ago in other times 28 to 38 were the peak years and 40 was an old person. But it this time it is half and maybe less. Anyway, now is a good time to think about myself. Who am I? What am I? How did I get this way? What am I becoming?

11/2/09

So I wrote that 30 years ago. It will be interesting to read through these comments and try to understand them as I put them into this blog.