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Summit Up

SUMMIT UP

Good morning and welcome to Summit Up, the world’s only daily column hoping you don’t get sick.And we’re not just saying that because we got run over by a freight train called the flu last week. We’re saying it because we don’t want you to have to file for bankruptcy.This won’t be the first time we’ve complained about the morass that is health care and health insurance (and likely won’t be the last, either). But we’re sitting here reading this Reuters news story about a study some doctors just published in the journal Health Affairs which reports that half of all bankruptcies are due to medical bills. Yeah, that’s right, half.Those credit cards you’re worried about? Apparently, less than one percent of bankruptcies come from that, despite the myths out there. No, the real killer, according to these doctors, is not getting sick – but paying for it.We might have let this slip by, except in our very own paper yesterday there was another article on health coverage: Medicare is going to start covering Viagra and other drugs for erectile dysfunction. This is good news, because while you might go broke trying to get your cancer treatments or your psychotherapy, at least you won’t have to worry about performance in that department, right?Maybe it’s just too much for us to expect the world to make sense. We’ll stop that.***After our column the other day, we received several messages from alert readers.For the record, everybody: Those black birds are not crows, they’re ravens.Jonathan Bergstrom e-mailed in, noting that, “The ‘blackhawk’ adult is twice the size of a crow although almost identical in appearance, hence the confusion. The crow-sized ravens are the youngsters.”Dr. Dean Stjernholm also pointed out that crows prefer to hang out in Kansas.***We have an Angel Alert!! Angel Alert!! going out to Bank of the West in Frisco and Dillon Community Church. James Smith says the recent Senior Citizens’ Prom wouldn’t have been such a success without them.That definitely deserves some wings and halos.As does Murphy’s waiter Scott and bartender Paul. These two, says Sue Sorensen, are being angelized for helping out her husband Tuesday night. He’s diabetic, and while waiting for dinner, the insulin kicked in and, when Sue went to the bar for some orange juice, these two didn’t bat an eye and helped out immediately.How about more good news? Can you handle it? This Angel Alert!! Angel Alert!! goes out to the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center, courtesy of Joel Hildreth.Joel, whom we’ve written about before, is about as nuts for skiing as they come. How nuts? Well, Joel just put in his 112th consecutive month of skiing (do the math – that’s nine years and four months without missing a chance to get some turns in). Well, Joel says he busted up both his legs (skiing, of course) and would have missed his goal of 10 years, but Gene and Justin at the BOEC helped put him in a sit ski so he could get a day in in January.Rock on, Joel. And Justin and Gene have to promise to share their wings and halos and bonus karma points with the rest of the angels over there at the BOEC.***Congrats! to Katie Orlin, who made the dean’s list at Northeastern University this fall. Katie’s out there in Boston working on her liberal arts degree.***It is Thursday, citizens of Summit Up Land. Tell us what’s on your mind at summitup@summitdaily.com, fax at (970) 668-0755 or just holla at yo boys on the voicemail at (970) 668-3998, ext. 237.We’re out trying to teach these ravens to recite a little Edgar Allan Poe …


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