Harry goes toe to toe on the health insurance provider

Or 181.4 lbs.

Beeze and Mo started this week with true feelings and not much sports.....I'm inspired by the real people here at the Gab and it led to this kind of touchy feely true life encounter

Thank God I’m married to my super model wife

who keeps me in check and loves me in spite of my

…..Let’s call them weaknesses.

I had to go to my primary care Dr. this week to update my skin allergy meds.

My primary recently left one group practice and joined another. The former practice was not at all happy with his leaving and tried to get the Harry’s to stay.

We’ve had the same doctor for 22 years and short of rambling cross country we were not changing.

My first visit since the move, the nice lady at the desk took my info and then made a call and then put me in a phone confrontation with a condescending individual at the insurance provider

We debated over who was my listed Primary care Doc. They had some schmuck named Dr Vinny Boombarts from the old practice listed. I tell ya I get no respect.

I let them know that I HAVE NOT CHANGED DOCTORS IN 22 YEARS. And I don’t know who this guy is and I certainly DID NOT sign up with him.

I guess I made the room, occupied by about a dozen nice calm people waiting their turn for medical attention, a little uneasy to say the least…

 I started to wind up for another verbal swing on the person at the insurance provider...  when...

The beautiful and always in control of her emotions in any situation, Mrs Harry walked to me and put her hand on my shoulder and said

 “Jail really sucks this time of year babe, your scaring these nice people, please calm down and give me the phone please, I’ll get it straight”

With my blood pressure thru the roof and the oldharry Irish rage lurking dangerously just below the surface,

I complied. I tried to say, “I’m stepping outside for a minute” but was told later it sounded more like

“ IMSTeppinout--------sighairlingus ut”

After a five minute power walk around the parking lot, I stepped back in. My dear wife said, “all set! Just sit down and the Doc will see you in a minute”.

I don’t know how she stays so calm and in control in the face of stupidity but she does…she even passes on road rage…makes up excuses for the idiots that should have stayed off the road today...that must be why we were a match made in heaven.

Here is the lovely Mrs harry and I with son's number 3 and 4 at a wedding a couple of weeks back

and no gabbers, she’s not my daughter!

Although my daughter does resemble the mrs. All the kids favor mom with brains and looks and of course have been gifted with my…let’s call them my intensity and temperament.

181.4

Now the other part of the Dr. visit that was a little troubling was when the nice nurse inside said,

Mr H, can you step on the scales for me please?

Oh no I thought, not the scales.    (

I said "no need to waste the time miss, I’m 5’8” 165."

She said,” but I have to, please?”

So I did, stepped right up bravely as can be and looked at the digital readout on the

60" Office jumbo tron…181.4 lbs

“I think that’s a little high” I said.

“The Dr can recommend a little diet” she smartly said in reply

Mrs Harry laughed...

“Thanks” under my breath wiseass…” I said, no need.”

Ok, 181 to a lot of you gabbers probably doesn’t seem like much of a problem…

The last time I weighed 181 was 27 years ago on my and Mrs Harry’s wedding day.

You all remember 1986 right, the year the Red Sox lost the World Series…Buckner… the year the Bruins lost in the Stanley Cup finals, the year the Bears smoked the Patriots in the Super Bowl 460-10 and the year Larry Bird led the Celtics NBA championship banner #16

yeah then...I weighed 181 or so

When me and the misses met a couple years earlier I was a stealth 160 lbs of framers muscles, hard and tight.

By the time we got married I had bulked up from living the good life, no more framing, just running the crews from my phone, office or truck.

Eating her cooking along with lobster and drinking cognac was a regular thing…it was the eighty’s and I had plenty of money and free time and 181.4 pounds of bulk covering those rock hard abs.

Today it’s different, 27 years later and a weight that has mainly hovered around 170 throughout the Patriots Dynasty with a decent physique for a man my age. sorry no pic!

My wife came out with this on the way home” Hmm, 181.4 it says here…but don’t worry about it harry, it’s not as bad as you think, it’s partly the prednisone and partly your age!”

“Besides you weighed that when I married you remember?”

“I remember” Said I.

She added, “ but it was a lot more fun eating and drinking your way to 181.4 back then wasn't it?

My age!…I humbly responded, “I guess I need to clean up the weight bench and elliptical and get to work…or, or maybe I could just get some bigger shirts!”

thanks for reading and thanks for your comments

and go Bruins!

Thursday is here once again so lets start with some hard hitting NHL Update. The Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks combined for 12 goals in the first three games of the Stanley Cup finals Last nights game 4 saw 11 goals 5 in the second period alone. The Blackhawks jumped out to a 3-1 then a 4-2 lead on second and third chance opportunities and then thought hey had it figured out but the boston Bruins just kept playing there game their style and tied it at 4 then 5 when Johnnny Boychuk let one rip with 7:48 left in regulation to force the third overtime game in this final series.

The overtime seem to be played with caution and some chances on bothsides but nothing pure just back and forth and up and down hockey finally with 10:09 remaining in overtime the Blackhawks Brett Seabrook blasted one from the point beating Tuuka Rusk to tie the series up at 2.

The one thing I can say about this series so far and remember I’m a bruins fan is one team isn’t clearly better than the other and guys on both teams are leaving everything on the ice. It has gone both ways with just solid defense not so much last night for the must part guys just diving for pucks and skating full speed after every loose puck. If your not a Hockey fan you will be after this series. Game 5 will be Saturday in Chicago stay tuned because it does get anybody than this. Unlike the NBA finals with lots of flash this just two teams working their tails off . No whining no complaining just hardcore hockey.

I would like to give the Boston Red Sox credit for doing something for the fans on Tuesday.. The Sox and Rays played a make up game Tuesday afternoon as part of a day Night doubleheader. The game had a three hour Rain Delay before finishing so the Red Sox invited all the fans that stuckout the first game to stay for the second game. On the house. They also invited all the fans for the second game to come in and watch the end of the first game. I thought it was a nice gesture on the Red Sox part to reward some folks that endured a three hour rain delay.

Aaron Hernandez seems to be part of a murder investigation on Monday. He has been called a suspect but apparently according to some local sources and media outlets. The ex boyfriend of his girlfriends sister was found dead not far from his North Attleboro MA. Home. There is an SUV that was rented in Hernandez is name that  the police have interest in and they took a box of evidence from his home.

The Patriots seem to be in the news this week with a lot of non football related stuff. Stories about Mr. Kraft wanting his Superbowl Ring back from Russian President Vladimir Poudin have surfaced. Rob Gronkowski went through back surgery and will have 12 weeks of recovery the season starts in a 11. Then the Hernandez story  all this after the feel good happy signing of Tim Tebow. Every local news story I have heard mentions that Hernandez was a college teammate of Tim Tebow. Not sure what the siniifagnce  of that is. But shouldn’t it be Tim Tebow is a Co worker of Aaron Hernandez just saying.

Usually I save this space for sports or youth sports but Sunday Fathers day. I was at a local retailer the one where America Shops and I was making a purchase and a young salesman says to me can I help you boss. I don’t know why this is bothering me other than I had a consulting business fixing people problems in businesses. In my humble expert opinion this is a lack of training and common courtesy. So I went over to another salesman and older guy who wanted nothing to do with what had to say. So I simply asked him is that the way you guys train your people. He says something like  he calls everybody boss. I said I’m not everybody I’m a customer and I’m about to walk out on a large purchase. The guy walked away after a small exchange. I guess this what we have in the world of retail no respect  maybe it ‘s just a microcausim of society but it’s wrong and I urge you to fight back and demand simple respect as a customer of any of these places.

That’s all for today folks . I’m off to the Freedom Trail ( a walking tour of some the historic revolutionary war places in Boston including Paul Revers house and  the graveyard that Mother Goose and other Historical figures are buried in) with Lil Lanz’s 5^th grade class. This trip was supposed to be in early May after the stuff at the Marathon. But it was moved back.

 The kids are making up the 5 snowdays they had this year otherwise they would have been out Tuesday. Love the history stuff in the backyard rarely get a chance to appreciate it so I’m looking forward to it. Off course I drive along it everyday going to work,

So it's come out this week that Patriots TE Aaron Hernandez is major part of a murder investigation...And then it came out that he is being sued for shooting an acquaintance in the face...(that story sounds really FISHY)

So what do you think?  Is Hernandez becoming a problem?  Will the Pats stand by him or cut ties with him?

When the Friday Night Lights fade and Saturday afternoon gives way to Sunday, a player has been in action for roughly ten years. This doesn't count Pop Warner though. Over the past few years, football has owned the sports and overall ratings, leaving baseball in the dust. The rise in the NFL's popularity has led some to call football America's new national past time. There are very few other sports that are televised nationally from high school (thanks ESPN) to the professional ranks. People even clamor to watch the draft.

Football has become big business. Still, in the rush to honor the sport a lot of those who paved the way have been left behind. The Hall of Fame was opened in 1963. Teams like Green Bay, however, have been in business since before the 1920's. This sets up a debate between generations and eras. This gap will no doubt be the hardest part of these debates.

Just like the MLB Faces, each teams face will be decided by debate. The space below will be reserved for arguments for a player, coach, or owner. I will use direct quotes in the descriptions. I will include my choice for my hometown team to get folks started. Remember, the person named doesn't need to be the best player or coach, just the person who epitomizes the team.

My pick for the Lions: Barry Sanders RB

The Lions are a long and storied franchise. Before they were incorporated into the NFL, the were regular contenders for the championship. Since joining the League, the Lions have lost their luster. An undersized, shifty running back out of Oklahoma State brought a measure of respectability back to Detroit. During a 10 year career that spanned the 1990's, the Lions made the playoffs 5 times. Sanders finished his career as arguably the best running back in the game. He racked up 15,269 yards and may have had the most rushing yards of all time had he not walked away from the game in 1998.

Hello and welcome to another Wednesday of deep thoughts. Have you ever had one of those days when you seem to be chasing your tail? My wife left for the Philly area for a 3 day conference on Monday morning and it has been an uphill battle every since. This week it will be TGIT.

For the first time all year, I sat down and watched most of an NBA game. Honestly, I thought game 6 was a hard fought game that San Antonio let slip away. The Heat really impressed me with the defense they played from the beginning of the fourth quarter on. The Spurs struggled with finding the three ball, but still had the game in their pocket with only a few seconds left in the game. Who am I to question Pop, but if Tim Duncan is in the game, that offensive rebound that allowed Ray Allen to tie the game would have probably been in Duncan’s hands and game over. My prediction of Spurs in 6 games very nearly game to pass…but sadly for Spurs fans it was not to be. Does San Antonio have a chance to win game 7? Absolutely, but they will need a better shooting nigh to beat the Heat. The media will say that this was a punch in the Spurs gut. ..a really devastating loss that will be tough to get over. That may be true, but one thing that I know is that Pop will have the Spurs ready to compete on Thursday.

So, I guess you can’t fault LeBron for lack of confidence. News broke on Tuesday that James new Nike shoes have already crowned James with two championships. Do you think this was an accident? Nah…Nike does not make “accidents’. I would love to see them forced to recall the shoes…

Did you hear about the Atlanta area DJs getting canned for mocking an Ex New Orleans Saint, Steve Gleason. One of the ‘hosts” pretended to call in as Gleason. He told a few jokes before asking the hosts to smother him. What do people think about sometimes? How would anyone think that this would be remotely funny? Predictably, the phone line lit up with angry callers. The guilty trio took to twitter to apologize for their actions…but that did not keep their jobs. Thankfully!

Monday night, my son played a game down in San Antonio at the Mission’s minor league ball park. For the first time in a long time, I decided not to make the trip to see his game. I wish I had made the journey as he went yard for the first time using wood. This is really quite a poke as left center it is about 370…I wish I had been there, but listening to him describe the at bat was pretty damn cool too.

Yesterday I read that Aaron Hernandez is being questioned about a murder. I figured that it was probably nothing and that he would be cleared. Today, I heard on the news that Aaron Hernandez is facing a civil suit that accuses him of shooting a man in the eye while they were riding together in a car. Authorities have now picked up the story and a looking at filing criminal charges against him. With Gronk out after having surgery on his back and these accusations about Hernandez...it looks like the Pats maybe in dire need of a TE. Hmmm....not saying anything about Tebow, but it sure does look suspiciously like the hoodie might have been hedging his bet. Can you imagine this conversation...Tim the team needs you to work out a bit at TE...Coach Bill is not a dumb guy.

That is all I have today, but I will leave with a bit of Jack Handey…

Fear can sometimes be a useful emotion. For instance, let's say you're an astronaut on the moon and you fear that your partner has been turned into Dracula. The next time he goes out for the moon pieces, wham!, you just slam the door behind him and blast off. He might call you on the radio and say he's not Dracula, but you just say, "Think again, bat man."

Most of the time it was probably real bad being stuck down in a dungeon. But some days when there was a bad storm outside, you’d look out your little window and think, “boy I am glad that I am not out in THAT.

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a few deep thoughts of your own…