YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

Spent most of the day at NIH. They paid for my cab fare both ways and fed me breakfast and lunch, as well as $90.00 for my time. It was different being a patient there, as opposed to the employee of a contracter. I guess growing up around here a lot of us have some tie to NIH or other. G's aunt was a secretary there. That was when it was politically correct to say "secretary." My first endocrinologist worked there. So did my second.

E. had a hard life. He was a great kid, but had an abusive father. The father was a federal government employee and from what I'm told an asshole. He pressured his sensitive, artistic son in to a goverment career, touting its stability and benefits. Ironically when this same father died his precious benefits had run out, he ended up in some low-budget home and died more or less a pauper. Now I hear E. is in his father's line of work.

E. met a woman, fell in love and got engaged. The fiancee became very sick with cancer and NIH was her last hope. She met a guy there, not sure whether he was a fellow patient or staff member. At any rate, they fell in love and she dumped E. for him. So much for making plans of any kind.