Even more cranky

I am even more cranky now........Today, or possibly yesterday we heard from the GREAT AND POWERFUL AOL, telling the small and weak minions of AOL that they would no longer be having journals as of October 31, 2008.    I would like to know what pea brained executive thought it would be a good  idea. 

  Is the end of AOL in our futures.   With all the economic woes of the last few months, are they trying to tell us something?????  Now the suggestion is that we all shuffle off to Google.

Well, I did take their suggestions and set up my blog.   But, alas, in my haste and feeling extremely irked,  I spelled my name wrong.   I have only been spelling it right for the past 57 years.  But, never the less, it is done.

I only have to figure out how to move my journal:

http://whatclaludiaisnowthinking.blogspot.com/

I would have gone back and corrected it but the die has been cast and I will just go with the flow and not worry about how I have misspelled my own name.

 

 

Still cranky

"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
Samuel Johnson

That is a good thought, wish I had said it first.

I have been spending my time reading other journals today.  What I did find out is that a lot of people seem to be down in the dumps or in a funk.      I am not the only one who has penned some of the same sentiments this month.

I do not know what is the cause of my down mood.   Maybe it has something to do with the change of season, barometric pressure or the lengthening of the night and decrease of the day time.    I wish it would go away, what ever the cause.

Good news, Emily told me today that so far her average in Nursing School is 95.   Way to go EM.   I know you can keep up the excellent work.   I love ya baby.

 

 

Monday

I am feeling in sort of a crappy state.   I just can not seem to get motivated.  I go to work and can't wait to leave.    I am glad I have a week off in a few weeks.   I guess I will take my aggressions out on cleaning the house.  That is good for getting rid of frustrations.

On Saturday I went to do the Household Hazardous Waste clean up.  A  few times a year in Western PA they will have one day a month when you can get rid of your hazardous things.   Such as, oil, paint, insecticides, and other things of that nature.

This was the first year I volunteered because I    felt it was a good thing to do.    I live in Allegheny County, which was one of its sponsors..

There were a lot of volunteers and we got a lot of things done.  BUT, as I am standing there waiting for the people to file in a woman asked me if I was an employee of Allegheny; County.  NO, as we spoke and I found out, the employees of Allegheny County got paid time and a half to be there.   What was the definition of VOLUNTEER????     I really felt that I was being taken advantage of....why was I there on my day off, blissfully thinking I was helping when the majority of them were getting paid for it.

I will not do that again.   To think that my hard money, paying my county taxes was going to pay for alleged volunteers at this event.  It really made me a bit angry.  

Never again.

 

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Friday, Friday !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another work week under my belt.   Today I did hands.   One of the most common hand troubles is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.   It is when the hand gets numb because the nerve is entrapped.   This is a problem with repetitive actions.   Such as typing and computer work.    I give sedation  and the surgeon injects a bit of local and then he releases the tightness surrounding the nerve.   I think the hand is immobilized for about 2 weeks.   Just think, you can not feed yourself or worse wipe you own butt.    You really have to like someone to help with this. 

Tomorrow I am a volunteer for the hazardous waste recycling.   If you have hazardous waste, there are a few days in the summer and fall that you can take the stuff and paid $2 gallon and they will dispose of it for your.    It is really cheap and they get rid of it in a prescribed manner.     I think all I will be doing is passing our papers and things of that nature.  They expect 2000 drop offs.   I have a few gallons of motor oil to be disposed.   I also get a free T-shirt and a $10 gift card at the Giant Eagle.  (food store.)

I will take my camera and  take pics of the guys in the hazmat suits.   Back in 2004 when my dad died, my sibs and I cleaned out his garage and found all sort of hazardous waste.   It was in unlabeled jars; my worst fear was being ass-ended on the PA Turnpike and turning the car into a fire ball.   That did not happen, thank the Lord.   I was a bit nervous.    

New computer trouble.   It keeps sending me information that my wireless Internet is disconnected/ connected.  It is flashing like a beacon.   I do not know what to do.  I went into Acer Management and connected it,. but, why does it not stay connected.   Guess the computer needs exorcising.  I just got the damn thing back...   Making me crazy, it is.

Think I need a picture.   A few more gourds to add to the mixture.

 

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I don't have stock!!!!!!

Other than painting them and selling them at craft shows and in stores, what is the use of gourds???

At work:    People who will remain nameless:  "I don't feel sorry for all those rich people who have stock.   I don't have any stock"

Claudia:  "Do you have a 401K?

Coworker:  "Yes, with Fidelity."

Claudia:   "YOU HAVE STOCK"

What were they thinking??  Bet they hadn't looked at it since they set it up......

Today was an eight hour day.   That was really nice.....I left "early"

Tomorrow is another eight hour day.   I like these eight hour days.

Today I did cataracts with IOL implants.  That is Intra ocular lens..   They can make your vision 20/20 after your cataract is removed.

Tomorrow I am doing Gall Bladder removals all day.   One would think that everyone in America has had their GB removed.  Except me and I am happy to report that it is fine.   Of course, I make it a point to not abuse it with fatty foods.   The food served in our cafeteria is absolutely a gall bladder test meal.

 

 

 

 

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Scarey thought

"There is nothing more horrifying than stupidity in action."
Adlai E. Stevenson

This is in epidemic proportions today.    Also, never underestimate the power of stupidity in groups.

Tuesday

I erased all the clickable links in the previous entrys.   I discovered them when I went to add into my journal.  It looked like an idiot wrote it.......

I just can't seem to get going.   I am ready for a vacation.    When I get this feeling, I can recognize it because I hate everyone and everything about work..   I just can not wait to go home.

I have off the second week in October and I can not wait for it to come......Today I went to Wally World.   The main reason is the price of Pepsi Cola.  It is almost $2.00 per bottle at the nearby supermarket.   I personally, do not drink the stuff.   I hate the fizzyness of it.  I do not like Champaigne either.   Well. Wall Mart has it for $1.25 per 2 liters.  I bought other stuff too. 

These are gourds.   My freind Ruth grown them and sells them at assorted fall festival fairs.   I hope you read this and see another idea Ruth.

 

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question

  I wonder how long this will stay before it becomes a white space with a red X in a box.    That is one of my questions???

Saturday

"Do first things first, and second things not at all."
Peter Drucker

I wonder if Peter was refering to chores????  

I have been lax at writing.   Yesterday I worked 16 hours and worked from  morning till about 9 PM.   I was exhausted, and am wondering why I am doing this to myself.   We are short of help again,  not really, short of help but they have expanded the number of sites we cover and people are on vacation and medical leave.  Someone is always off at any given time.

I spent today going over my genealogy information.   That is very time consuming; but, sometimes, just like a squirrel you find an acorn or two.   On Roots Web there are forums and lists where people post names, and locations.   Today I got a reply from someone is Brazil (in English) and he was looking for information from Rosshaupt, Bohemia.  (Now the Czech Republic)   I did not have his information but got three more emails including one from a distant family member.   That will send me on another search for the elusive deceased family lines.  

Today and Tomorrow is the Shadyside Arts Festival.   Emily and I will be going.  I will take the camera but most people do not like yu taking pictures of their things.

 So I did get the instructions on how to add clickable links.  Now, how would I add it by using the words  SHADYSIDE ARTS FESTIVAL as a link?

Thursday

"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense."
Winston Churchill

Do you think he might have been a tad stubborn???

I am happy today, I found out that my stress test and GB, biliary tract, and pancreas ultra sounds were normal.    I was worried a bit, because of my mothers malignancies,  I guess that will be in the back of my mind with each major ache and pain.   The chest pain has not recurred and if it does I think I will call my Gastroenterologist, maybe it is something in my stomach.   There is a bacteria h. pylori, which causes ulcers and is indicated in stomach cancers.   The treatment is about two weeks of antibiotics and I think one of those acid reducers.  

The research docs who discovered that bacteria actually inoculated them selves by drinking the solution containing the h. pylori and then developed gastric ulcers.   Maybe they won the Nobel prize, I have to look that one up for sure......

Emily likes Nursing School.   She has to get up early (Normal time  for Chuck and I, but it is the middle of the night for her.)   To be in class at 7 AM.   Guess they want them to become accustomed to early rising.    I talked to an RN I know who retired and she said she now can sleep in to 7 AM.    A fantasy vacation for me would be a week of sleeping in till 9 AM.   

Irked this morning;   I had to order a box of checks, and the cost is $20.00 per box. WTF.   Although I pay my bills on line, I still need a few around.   I also had a problem when someone had breached my account and charges $5,000 including a trip to Singapore and I have no idea how they got my ATM number.    They had both Chucks and mine.   He NEVER EVER used his for purchases and I RARELY used mine.  And they got the number anyway......  Had to put a credit alert on the account.  

The banks will do virtually nothing because the amount they will recover is less than the legal fees...What a system.

"The cemetery is filled with indispensable men."
Charles de Gaulle

Now how about that thought......I always knew that where I worked would continue long after I am gone.

 

IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME !!!!!!

Much to my amazement I have not written in here for a few days.  It is not that anything was not going on I was just doing other things.   Things like working and watching the idiots who refused to evacuate because they thought it was a good idea to ride out the storm. 

Did you ever wonder what thought process (or lack on one) was involved in some of the most mind boggling decisions????  Anyone with an ounce of brains could look at the television and when you see that the hurricane takes up about 60% of the Golf of Mexico, what influenced you to stay?   And these idiots were calling for rescue in the middle to the night and the storm expecting someone to come and get their sorry asses.......  Now a lot of responders are risking their lives and safety to go and drag them out of their lairs like drowned rats......These are the same people who have a short memory span and have lost the visual images of New Orleans and Katrina....    WHAT WHERE THEY THINKING????

The wind is blowing in Western PA.  It is almost 9 PM and it is 86 outside.   The forecast says gusts from 25 to 50.   I do not know if we will get rain.   The forecast says no so I can expect to get some.  I would like to be a meteorologist.   It is the only job where you can be wrong 50% of the time and still have your job....What a life !!!

Wednesday

Wow.   Its Wednesday.  Yesterday I had a stress test.   You have to go and get your heart nuked, take pictures'  and walk on the treadmill, they get it nuked again and take pictures.    The treadmill goes from slow to fast, and increasing the the angle.   I made it for the six minutes with no pain.   I was short of breath but not enough to stop and fall over. 

Chuck, bless his heart, decided to take me.   So, in the waiting room, I am being interviewed by the RN.     RN:  "Do you have an allergies?"   ME:  "NO"

From the other side of the room, Chuck:  "You're allergic to Sulfa"    Me to Chuck:  "You are one of those spouses when the nurse ask the patient, they answer for them...."    Me, to the nurse,  "It gives me an upset stomach.  That is a side effect, not an allergy"    Me to Chuck:   "You are giving me fodder for my journal !!!"    RN:  "I am not getting into the middle of this one"   LAUGHS.

I had awakened with pain in the middle of my chest a few weeks back.   The Cardiologist said primarily it looks good.  Another doctor will read the nuked heart scans.....Wonder what the half life of the nuking isotope is?

Next is a Gall Bladder Scan, along with my biliary ducts (I had mention to my PCA about my mothers bile duct cancer)  and my pancreas after the discussion of  "The Last Lecture"    If nothing shows  (I AM REALLY HOPING)  I guess a trip to the Gastroenterologist is in my furture.   What the hell; he has already examined my colon.  Maybe he is in need of a new car !!!!!  I will do my part for him to get one.

 

 

 

Sunday

A tidy house is a sign of a wasted life.............

That was a sign at the Irish Festival, which Emily and I went to today.    http://www.pghirishfest.org/   I ran off the instructions that were given to me, but when I went to start this entry I could not find them.    They are somewhere and I will find them.   We went early and I was looking for books, or at least I had an idea about them.  I was looking for books on Irish Genealogy.  But, there was not a book to buy.   Just food, beer, jewelry and T-shirts and Irish  knick-knacks.   I did buy a t-shirt. http://www.kelticdesigns.com/   They really have a lot of nice designs.    I bought a T-shirt that was a Pentacle Knot.   You really have to peruse the bowels of this web site to find the T-shirts.   Emily at a chicken pita and I had a gyro.  

I wish I had purchased the above quoted sign.   It is funny but somehow I feel it is true.  My house is not dirty but neither am I Suzie Homemaker.   Sometimes I feel that I should have had a cleaning lady.  But, really, I would lose the only exercise I get.

Emily starts her clinical rotation this week.  I can not remember my first day of clinical when I went......Guess it went well.   I do remember my first day of OB and I hear a woman scream "You son of a bitch, you did this to me..........."   That made a lasting impression on me.   I never, ever, wanted to work on OB.   This was pre epidurals.......

I think what I liked the most was the Operating Room; maybe, it was because, at that time, it was the only place in the hospital that had air conditioning.......I was a wuss from the start.....

We had, at that time three month rotations in all the specialities.  I loved the OR.....When I was a senior I was interested in the Nurse Anesthetist.    http://www.aana.com/   I would only have one patient to take care of at one time..   After working for six months I applied and was accepted..    That was the best career move for me.....The anesthetist worse a lot of jewelry, and I liked that.   When I went not too many people were interested in the field,  so, they paid me a stipend to go.     NOW it is in a Master prepared field and soon to become a Doctorate prepared career.   I wonder, why would anyone do this when the same amount of time is required to go to Medical School.   You would get paid about 4 times as much if you had a MD behind your name. 

It is a push by the colleges and university's.   Most of the Professions are now on a doctorate level.  The Pharmacists are required a PharmD, the Occupational and Physical Therapist.   I really feel it is a money making ploy by the Higher Education Gurus.    If they want to control cost, making the entry level positions a Doctorate level is definitely not the way to do.  But, it is set in motion and we can not change it. 

They would probably do that for the entry level RN, but there is such a shortage that it would be impossible to do.

 

 

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Going to the Vets

Emily and her new found cat friends.  This was taken about ten years ago.

I keep getting post cards and I know I have to do it.   What, make an appointment to take the cats to the vets.   It is traumatizing for me and the cats.   Lucy, ALWAYS poops in the travel box, the thing I am glad about is it is (this is disgusting) always solid and I have a fresh specimen.  One is always needed when you go.

Henry, screams like a mountain lion in the back of the car.   Really loud and frantic.

Molly, who just squeaks and never meows, let go with loud full fledged MEOWS.

Jenny, meows loudly every four seconds during the whole trip; both going and return.  When Emily moved back from Cleveland, Jenny meowed for the two and a half hour trip.   I was ready to open the window and let her out.  She was inside her travel box, but the thought did enter my mind.

I have had pets most of my life.  The latest thing is cat dental hygiene.   A new young woman, just recently graduated from Vet School, told me that the cats had bad teeth and some needed to be removed.   The estimate was for about $1,000.    Now, I ask, how many people have $4,000 just lying about dedicated to cat extractions.     I could spend that getting my own teeth implanted.   I have decided to take them to the older woman (my age LOL) who had never mentioned the cats teeth to me.   Seriously, that is a lot of cash to remove a few teeth.    

Emily's second week in Nursing School is done.   She still likes it.....She said she has made a few friends, which is good.   I think they will have a study group.    She also wondered why they did not accept her Developmental Psychology from college.  She went to see and the course and its grade was not noticed because it was under the OFFICIAL STAMP.    She was happy because that is a few hundred less she has to borrow.   Yeah.......

It is still hot, I am really waiting for it to cool off.   I hate hot weather.  Anytime I have to use the A/C it is too hot for me.

 

Thursday

"The height of cleverness is being able to conceal it."
Frantois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld

 

"It is hard to believe a man is telling you the truth when you know you would lie if you were in his place."
H. L. Mencken

Just a few quick quotes, we are off to play Trivia tonight......Have to start thinking and being clever.

 

 

Henry again...

Henry was sooooo small when we got him at the Humane Society.  My red cat Ginger has recently died and I love red cats.   I think he was about 6 weeks, so small with such a big MEOW.   I swear he said "Pick me, pick me"

WE got two cats that day.  Including Lucy, she was a bit of an odd ball.  She is very pretty, "when you are very pretty you do not have to be smart."  That's what my daughter said....  Lucy is still odd, I do not think she had been properly socialized.  You get three pats max; she would have made a good solitary pet.

We had removed the carpeting and were going to have another installed.   The basement door is about 2" higher because of the removed carpet.     The first day I had the two kitten sleep in the basement; their bed, litter box and food/water dishes were down there.   They came up when one of us were home and down for the night.  

One night, I put the two of them to bed and I could hear meowing and then some scratching.    To this day, I do not know how Henry did it, but he crawled under that door in the 2" space.   I heard the noise and next thing I knew there he was walking across the living room and I swear he was smiling.....He only did that one and the problem  was self resolving because in about a week he got to big to do it again.    After I knew they could climb the steps the graduated to the upstairs. 

 

 

LUCY

This is Henry; he is getting old.  He will be somewhere about  10 next  year.       Henry is starting to slow down.    He used to go into my bathroom, jump on the sink, and then he would calculate his trajectory and leap upon the window  sill to look out the window at his backyard domain.  Now he will follow me in and stand below the window and meow for me to lift him up so he can watch.   

Emily also noticed that he is slower coming up the steps from  our  basement.  He was taking the steps slow and carefully placing his feet.   He still is hot on getting to the food dish...

Today I  received my replacement Office 2003 CD.    Somehow the old Office 2003 got scratched.   I was trying to find an old disc from some source.   I had posted an inquiry on one of the computer sites and, much to my delight, I found out that if you had registered your  CD Microsoft would replace it at a minimal cost.   YEAH !! 

So yesterday it came and it is installed.   I had also ran a scan to see if there were any updates and found that I needed MS VISTA Service Pack 1.  That took about an hour, I decided to not do any more today; just incase something went wrong and if I found something I could uninstall the program.    Do you know that some people pay big bucks for others to install their things ????   Really,  if   you can read and have half a brain, they easy to install.   I will preface that with, if every thing goes well.   I always seem to find some glitch that is not covered by the FAQ'S and end up sending emails to whomever to solve what ever dilemma may have happened.

Work was not to bad on my 16 hours.  I finished up about seven and then perused the Internet for a bit.   I could take my laptop but it would be on the hospital site and filters "ENTERTAINMENT" which  is what this journal is considered.     What I find irksome is that they allow "SPORTS" web sites thought.

GRRRRRR.

 

Monday, Monday....

My day was spent reloading the computer.  Before I sent it back to ACER I had moved everything to another hard drive.   Actually, I had moved some to a flash drive and everything to the external hard drive.    I actually forget what I had moved.    So, I spent today moving my photos back.  I still have to download the printer and scanner.   Did you notice that the electronics rarely come with CD's anymore.  What you have to do is connect the device to the computer, access the Internet and download the program for its operation.    There must be a lot of money spent in making those installation CD's to go with your purchase...

 Above are bromeliads, I think they are related to pineapples.     I really like fresh pineapples, but the pineapples are about $4 to $5 each.   I refuse to spend that on a pineapple.............I just can't do it.......Maybe, if I were taking a fruit salad to a picnic I would.

Back to work tomorrow, another one of those 16 hour shifts.   Tomorrow will be a busy day, all those non emergent emergency cases will be stacked up and need to be done. I have off Wednesday and Friday.  

This week is going to be a hot one.   It is more like the July-August forecast than September.   It is strange, the first week of September to be so hot.  But, really, this summer has been a nice one; a little cool weather and a little hot weather.  It has also been cool at nights.  

I think that Wednesday will be devoted to connecting my devices and then try to make clic links.  Beth, thank you for the instructions....

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