We follow @TomRyanHME

At today's far-too-early AAHomecare Washington Update, the association announced a new app. But CEO Tom Ryan (you all know Tom, right?) mentioned he's on twitter. I'm sorry, we're in Georgia. I meant to use the official state phrase: ya'll.

"You all follow me on twitter, right?" he asked the crowd. Needless to say, that resulted in those of us who tweet regularly to tweet and retweet this statement or that they (we) follow @Tom RyanHME. These are the moments that twitter is fun and interactive. I'll be curious to learn if Tom picked up some new followers today.

This is a group that's really pushing the need to band together to effect change. As Jay Witter said during his presentation, some of the progress being made (however incremental it may seem), is because of efforts, both collaborative and individual, toward boosting industry bills.

I confess, I didn't get to spend time on the show floor today because I was holed up in the myserious Show Daily office. I understand there's about 100 new exhibitors and 1,000 new attendees. Even Madame Defarge would agree that's impressive in the best of times, which these certainly aren't.

And I must end the day with a shout out to the newly annointed homecare champions, Joel Mills of North Carolina-based Advanced Home Care and Invacare's Cara Bachenheimer. Both are truly deserving of the award. Joel couldn't be here tonight, but Cara was, for better or worse. I think it was Tom Ryan who led the crowd in a chant of "Cara! Cara! Cara!"

And to my own personal heroes of the day: the anonymous good Samaritan who found my missing show daily office key on the shuttle (easier to find the key than the actual location) and turned it in to GWCC security; the security officer who found the office to return it to me; and to Lane Vento, who unlocked the door at 7:30 this morning for me with a cheery "No problem."

My feet are up, the music is playing and the wine is cold. Peace out and good night.

Theresa Flaherty