10/14/2024
WADE FINISHES THE LAS VEGAS STORY -- at least THIS LV Story!
We had a lot of adventures in Las Vegas, but I'm going to finish the story about the inspection at the VA outpatient clinic and I'm going to tell you how Estelle figured out a way to beat the odds at Roulette.
I was telling you about a colorful character, one of her psychiatirst colleagues with such a complicated name that we just call him "Dr. Z"
He was not a babe magnet by any means -- he was a senior citizen, and his hair and especially his beard were particularly unruly. Not Albert Einstein-unruly. The best image I can give you would be if Tolstoy was trying to emulate Hagrid.
And you may recall, Dr. Z had a fe**sh for st*****rs, who are known to choose men for financial reasons more than for their masculine beauty and charm.
Despite his roving eye (or other body parts), Dr. Z was a married man. He had a mail-order bride from Russia, who I hear was a medical doctor also -- but not licensed in the US. She also had a teen-aged son.
Dr. Z established and kept his relationship with these transactional-oriented beauties by plying them with free prescription pills. This was not exactly kosher. When VA patients would have a change of medication and turn in their old prescriptions, the doctor was supposed to give the left-over pills to the in-house pharmacy.
However, Dr. Z negotiated some kind of deal with the pharmacist so that he could keep the pills to present to his "dates," or whatever you want to call them.
Of course, dancing girls are usually popular with the men and have several in their lives. And from what Estelle told me, occasionally a young lady would have trouble with the man in her life and flee... sometimes seeking refuge in Dr. Z's apartment.
Yes, I am aware that his wife and step son were in the apartment, but apparently overnight guests could be accomodated -- and sometimes by lodging in the step-son's bedroom! (Well, the Doctor's wife was probably not going to scoot over and let a young lady share HER bed!).
When I heard this, I lamented the fact that when I was undergoing puberty in my early teen years, I never got to have a stripper spend the night in my room. I guess my parents were not open-minded, and my two brothers would probably have protested their lack of st*****rs also.
The issue of the clinical inspection by JHCAO was usually solved by the head of the clinic, a veteran herslf, of course. She would order the staff to dress in patriotic red-white-and-blue clothing, then she would cherry-pick some "random" files that the inspectors were supposed to choose for themselves, and after a cursory walk through the clinic, she would take the inspection team to a 3-martini lunch -- and the clinic would pass inspection.
Like many of the "temp" assignments (Locum Tenens, in medical parlance), the Las Vegas VA outpatient clinic wanted Estelle to stay on and be permanent staff. But she did 3 -6 month assignments in a 2 year period and then moved on. It just wasn't the type of place she wanted to work.
As I wrap up this story, I am not forgetting my teaser-comment about roulette. So here it is.
There are many "systems" people have tried for turning roulette into a money-making scheme, but the laws of mathematics and statistics are harsh mistresses.
Estelle took this as a personal challenge, though.
She had a way of incrementally increasing her bets, depending on whether she won or lost each spin of the wheel. When she had a certain number of consecutive wins, she would stop increasing the bet and reduce it to the starting amount.
She told me that it was successful, but it was a "grind." Neither of us were high rollers, so she never bet high stakes, and using her own courage to set the stakes, she figured she would come out ahead, but the amount of winnings were not even minimum wage level. So she knew she would make more money as a doctor, and she just kept playing roulette for fun.
One last thing -- one of my regrets now that Estelle is gone, I wish I had more pictures of us together. I was obsessive about photographing her and documenting her life, but I didn't do a lot of Selfies, and there were not many occasions when I asked people we were with to snap a picture of us together. So make sure you have plenty of pictures of yourself with your loved ones .... my unsolicited advice to you.
