Upstream of the Herd

  As someone with many years at one facility and who is looking at retirement soon let me say this: Take care of yourself first. Any business has the primary goal of making a profit. If a business ever needs to decide between you and making a profit, they will choose profit-making, not you. So take care of yourself first. They do. You should too. So if that means job hopping periodically to increase your take-home pay and benefits, do it. Everyone always focuses on pay but benefits are important too. Hospitals and most medical facilities are wildly profitable- even the so-called "charitable organizations". It's a false belief that charitable organizations are self-sacrificing and aren't interested in making a profits. If you don't believe me, look at their financials yourself. They all issue "annual reports". You will be surprised at how much they make in profits. Here's what I would recommend: Got to work for whomever you please and sign up for thei...

 A guest post by my favorite person: "Let me tell y'all about the Pecos Cantaloupe, something I did not know nor care about until ten hours ago. The Pecos Cantaloupe is a rare variety of cantaloupe originating from—you guessed it— Pecos, Texas. It is often regarded as the best variety in the world and was once grown in large quantities throughout the Pecos region. However, the discovery of oil in west Texas inspired many growers to drop the whole "cantaloupe farmer" thing and pursue a much more lucrative career in fossil fuels. These days the Pecos Cantaloupe is grown almost exclusively by the Mandujano Brothers in the small town of Coyanosa. That doesn't mean there isn't commerical demand, though. My first (unwitting) encounter with the Pecos Cantaloupe was as a child, during a tour of the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory. There had evidently been a bumper crop of the cantaloupe that year, inspiring Blue Bell to buy a whole bunch and use them to produce a limite...