Off tomorrow.   Got the news that one  of my cooworkers/friends PET scan results were good.    It lookd like her tumor was localized.   She has to go thru a year of chemo,  that will be rough but considering the alternative.......................

My daughter has an interview next Friday, hope  this is what she wants to do..............

Taking my friend out to lunch tomorrow along with my other friend Rosemary and the above daughter (if she gets out of bed and goes with us)

Really, nothing on my radar.  Today was a good day at work.  It is nice when you have a good day with your co-workers.  We laughed all day long........................But, the most amazing thing was all my paitents were under 150 pounds.  

Usually they are all over 250.....Hope I am retired before they are all over that....

 

Tuesday

I just read an article where a woman made 40K by collecting and selling tumbleweeds.  I would  love to come up with something totally useless but everyone would love to have it.    Now, if I could only figure out what that would be........................

Pet rocks, Chia pets, hula hoops.............

Today was an uneventful day at work.  I was assigned OB and spent the morning doing post op rounds, stocking OB, doing breaks, helping with shoulder block and doing lunches.  I am a highly paid gofer........Tomorrow I will be in a room and sit on my rump.

Monday

Today is a dark and rainy day.  But, I would bet that a lot of people in the rest of the USA would love to have this problem.   Its not really a problem, it is just wet.  Went to work and found out I was in charge, then someone called off.   I was then in a room and it lasted all day.  

Did orthopedics.  The doc is a nice guy and he gives all his patient local after the end of the case and they wake up relatively pain free.  It worked out very well.

I am on OB tomorrow and I would rather do orthopedics.   Some of the woman act like they are the only ones in the history of the world to have labor pain.  It just gets to me sometimes.

Nothing else going on in my mundane life.

 

sunday

After much constirnation I bought a new computer.   I  got a good deal.  Acomputer, a printer and a year of security for quite a nice price.   I have to fill in the rebates.  It is a small computer like I prefer.   And I got my aol downloaded too.  

I just have to get use to it.  But I like it fine, so far.

aoljaolPictureAdd, aoljaolPictureAdd_1

Black Friday

In my whole life I haven't been shopping on Black Friday.   Some of the stores were opening at midnight.  There are all kinds of nuts out there while I am safe and snug in my house.   I was suppose to work but got a call that I could have the day off.   We had 13 people scheduled and only 5 rooms.   No one minds taking a Friday off.   You just have to save some time and it will be OK.   I do have to go to the grocery store and pharmacy to get a few things.

There won't be crowded because they will all be at the mall.   My daughter, however, goes to work at 3.  For a 20 minute ride she said she will leave an hour to get there.  Then parking will be the pits.   They sell a lot of jewelry but the crowds are tremendous.

Had a dusting of snow last night.  Nothing to shovel.  Chuck worked an extra day and he was hoping it would be dead in the radiology department.

 

Thursday---Thanksgiving

Ever since I was a little kid my thoughts on Thanksgiving would be "I wonder what I will be doing next year at this time."   Mostly everything was the same.   But once in a while life throws you a curve ball.  Like the year 1965, I was in nursing school.  I really didn't see that one coming the year before.  

I had graduated from high school and really didn't know what I was going to do.   No ever sat me down and asked "Claudia, what are you career goals ?"   But back at that time  there were very many options open to women.   Medical school classes would take 2 women out of a class of 100.   Men were paid more than women "because they had a family to support."    I chose nursing because there was not anything to do at the time.  Guess it was sort of a default thing.  I had to do something, and this seemed to be the easiest.  What it all came down to was the school that had an opening in August after I had applied in March.

I discussed that with my daughter and to her that was unbelievable.   It really is 42 years later.   But she also said with every career opportunity it was hard to decide what to do since she like to do many things.   But nothing had a "PASSION."  My words at that time was find something to do that will pay you and make passion a hobby.  I haven't found my passion yet, although, there are lots of things I like t do.

Then there was the year I met my husband.  We had a disagreement whether it was 1967 or 1968.   Not really a disagreement but rather a discussion over food and beer.  I say it was 1967 and he says it was 1968.  Either way it was a while ago.   That Thanksgiving  after I met him, I didn't see that coming either.   Either way "I love you Chuck."   He sometimes reads this journal to see what I am thinking. 

Then there was the year that the Thanksgiving was celebrated in Korea.  The quest was getting a turkey.  I think we ate with my friend Ruth and her husband and many other expatriates.  You did a wonder full job Ruth.  We had to buy a lot of foods on the black market because there was not a selection of western foods there at the time.  If  you could find something in a shop the price was triple what you would have paid back in the USA.

And a then the one that was in Yugoslavia.   I remember that one because there were a lot of expatients living there and we had dinner in a castle on the Sava River.   That particularly stands out because half of the diners got sick.  I don't remember what they ate.  There were two choices and I didn't eat the one that made everyone sick.  

One year we had Thanksgiving dinner in Iowa and Ruth and her family come from Chicago on Friday and had dinner.  It was a good time too.

So, who knows what we will be doing next year.  I am always prepared for the unusual and unexpected.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL.

 

 

 

WEednesday

This is in Williamsburg.   I think it is the Capital Building.   I got a call and I have off on Friday.   The schedule must be very light and twelve people are not needed.  Don't know what I will do but Chuck and Emily are both working.   Maybe I will do my nails. 

Am I crazy enough to go out and try the malls.  The old computer is shot.   It is giving me "Danger Will Robinson" warnings.   It stops what it is doing and sends me message to install things that have been recently installed.   I have not installed anything recently.  Now its newest thing is to shut itself off.    Word of advice.  DO NOT HAVE AN OLD COMPUTER REPAIRED.  I did and it worked fine for one month and then it was up to its old tricks.  I don't understand how because he wiped it out and re-installed the softwear.   The computer guy thinks it is from Microsofts Updates, since this happened after one of those updates.   Well, too late, too late, too late once it is on there.

Had a "high maintenance" hair appointment.   My hair appointments have all become high maintenance.    There are some things people should not do themselves.  In my opinion.  One of them is coloring of ones own hair.   The second thing is carpet cleaning.   And the third thing (when you get old and have to worry about falling off the ladder) is clean your own windows.   Have to find someone to do that.

 

aoljaolPictureAdd, aoljaolPictureAdd_1

Tuesday

"History is a vast early warning system."
Norman Cousins

If a person learns anything, it is NOT to invade Russia in the winter.   A la Napolean and Germany in WWII.

I am off for three days in a row.  I should be cleaning but I just don't feel like it at all.  In fact, I feel like it less and less.  The dust really does not matter to me.  

Work is the same.  Funny thing, they came out with a sign on bonus if you re-up for another year.  But they won't pay it till the anniversary date. No one will  be signing early and probably waiting till the anniversary date occurs.  If people quit maybe they will up the cashola amount.  LOL LOL

  Another funny thing is shortly after this they added weekday second call, and the late, late shift.   I think people are looking elsewhere.   In fact, I KNOW, they are looking elsewhere.   With not too much longer to work and the fact I will not be working long enough to get vested else where I am just going to go with the flow for now.

Maybe I will go clean out the freezer and throw away:  Things with freezer burn, things older than a year and that I don't remeber buying, and mystery items that I haven't a clue what they are or where they came from.   Guess I will have a salvation of plastic containers by the time this day is over.   This HAS to be done today because the garbage man comes today and I don't want thing sitting around rotting and fermenting all week.

 

LONG WEEK

I haven't written  much in this jouranl because I have spent a lot of time being IRATE.  The first thing has been for the past month I am getting unsolicited text messages on my cell phone.   I AM ON THE DO NOT CALL LIST FOR MY HOME AND MY CELL PHONE.    I feel that if the message comes to me using my number it is a call.   And to make the whole matter worse I am paying for those messages.

I have started my campaign to get them.  First I have contacted the local TV station and they have a consumer editor who handles complailnts.  I complained to her. 

kdka.com - Yvonne Zanos

Secondly, I have written to the Attorney General of PA and complained to him.  If there is a way to have those idiots fined for sending me message I will do it.   I consider this a great imposition on me.

Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General - Tom Corbett - Protecting Pennsylvanians

The second source of my rant is PEP BOYS,   I am in the mood to send their store headquarters an email nasty gram.   I think I will do it and write what their offense was maybe tomorrow.

 

 

Cats

There are four cats living at my house.  All of the were adopted by me and my daughter.  They just kind of take over.  It is a coolish autumn day and they are all positioned by a heater vent.  They do not sit by the A/C vent in the summer.   It is a wonder they don't get bedsores from sitting there so long.

I would like to be my cat for a week.  There is a wonderful human who feeds then and caters to their needs.   Their cat box is always clean and there is a steady supply of food and water.    All they have to do it be on the alert for rodent intruders.  And be avaliable for a head scratch or back pat when the human feels the necessity of cat contact.

This is Ginger who was one of the bestcats ever.

Sunday

"Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences."
Norman Cousins
This seems to be lacking in todays society.   The consequences are always someone elses fault.

Claudia

"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge."
Daniel J. Boorstin

Guess this applies to the dumbshits of the world.  I hope they don't unite.

"Judgment is more than skill. It sets forth on intellectual seas beyond the shores of hard indisputable factual information."
Kingman Brewster

The above dumbshits would say "Duh"

Saturday

I think I have used this before but I don't care.  I am doing an experiement on if it is possible to,  or rather how to, put more than one picture in an entry.  This was taken at the VA Farm Market in Winchester. 

People at work are in an uproar.  They hav added a 2 to 10;30 position.  I think it won't be used more than it is used.   Also have added a second call during the week.  I envision a few people leaving.  I am just going with the flow.   Why get upset when you don't know what will happen.  Besides I can theoretically retire in October 2008.  I can tolerate that place for another 11 months.

Emily is playing in a concert in Johnstown this evening.  They are playing Beethovens 5th.  The beggining is probably the most recognized four notes in mucis.  They sounde good in rehersal.

Yes, it can be done with mininal disruption to the body of the paragraph

Wednesday

Its a long time since I have written.   Been to work for three days and my foot hurts so bad.  Today I took naprosyn and it felt much better, I also wore my birkenstock shoes and I guess it was a combination of both.

Work has been busy.   I think it would feel better if my foot was pain free.   It is really busy and there were seven rooms running at three.   There is always two more rooms than we have people to cover.   The latest is a 2 to 10;30 shift.  and second call all thru the week.   I  think this is in preparation for the heart program that is to start in March. 

JCAHO is here this week.  These are a bunch of inspectors that we pay big bucks to come and see how we are doing and then they find some nits to pick.  We really pay for this.  The big thing now is labeling syringes.   You are suppose to draw up medication first and then put on the label,  they want no labeled syringes in your drawer.   They are in utopia.  How can a person "double" check if there is no label  with which to check two times.       They came in my room to watch the induction (commencement of anesthesia).  I did everthing perfect, as usual.  Being OCD helps to have everything just so, and always the same and in the same order.   Most people who work in the OR are OCD.  I don't know if it attracts that sort of personality or it developes as you work there.   I had a student and everything went well.   I personally think he was checking for our "surgical pause"; where before the incision the person, dob, and surgical procedure are checked with the surgeon and the permit on the chart.  This is done to insure that the proper surgery and side is done.

Our department got good grades.   I am off tomorrow and it is play off week at Trivia.   I wish I could recruit a few more players.  We need someone who is good in sports.

Saturday

Taken at the Virginia Farm Market.  Winchester VA is only about a 30 minute drive from Fulton County PA.   Winchester is a really nice town.  I could live there.  The problem in driving thru PA is that I70 from the PA border to Brezewood is 55mph.   What are the officials thinking.   The road is primarily straight and NO ONE goes 55 anyway.   PA is so antiquated in their thinking on so many fronts.

I like the journal much better now that I can add pictures.   I  am glad the people in the photo do not have their faces showing.   A few things to do today I can't decided where to start.  My foot looks much better but the incision is still tender to touch.  I have been wearing slide in shoes.  I don't know if it will hurt when I were real shoes, but I have a suspicion that it may.  Think I will start by closing this and washing my hair.

 

Friday

Photo is of house in  Colonial Williamsburg.  The nice thing about digital cameras is you can take as many as you like and delete them if they are no good.

Back in PA. Going away is nice the first two days and then after that I get tired of lectures and just want to go home.  The weather was nice and the trip was uneventful.  I hate driving in bad weather.   I left Williamsburg about 2ish and then drove to Winchester.  It was going on 5 o'clock.  I stayed overnight.  I do not like to drive in the dark, especially when I am not familiar with the roads and it is deer mating season.

On this trip I saw about 14 deer carcases along the highways.   There is a trivia fact I heard and they said that every day about 52 deer are killed in PA with fatal encounters with moving vehicles.  I wish they would allow more of them to be harvested during the hunting season.

I have been off three weeks and really don't miss it at all.

Friday

"Fanaticism is ... overcompensation for doubt."
Robertson Davies