I'm ALIVE! ...and on the internet

It has been a long, cold, grey winter. Welcome to O-hia. We have, after a fashion, had some sunshine at intervals over the last few days. The sky was, at least, more blue than overcast, and I was wishing that I had tossed my shades into my pack... "What is this alien brightness to which my eyes are unaccustomed?"

It took more than two months of rescheduled appointments (due to work and frigid temperatures) to get my cable and internet installed, but as of one week ago, I'm back! As my only available day for an install appointment is Saturday, that in itself compounded the logistics and lengthened the time-frame. Having to work and/or watch the grands on Saturday while my daughter worked complicated the scenario.

After the third reschedule, I even took an afternoon off during the week to make an appointment for the install. The temperature that day was in the single digits and the wind chill was more than -20 degrees. I just couldn't bring myself to have the installer out in that sort of frigid mess. As I told the very nice customer service person on the phone, I didn't want that particular karma lurking about seeking its opportune moment. The CSR was in humorous agreement on that fact. From the left-brained cynical wench next door (aka my offspring), "If you don't have the tech out working, someone else will. That's just stupid." "Maybe, but let someone else have that karma. I don't want it."

The Judeo-Christian interpretation... "reaping and sowing" Why would I "sow" into someone having to be outside working in totally miserable conditions for my enjoyment of something as superfluous as digital cable television and internet access? Do I really want to "reap the harvest" from that particular bit of selfish behavior? Nope. Not me.

Hindolo's take on having cable installed... "You are getting cable? What has changed?" Ever the pragmatist. (He with the 43-inch LCD as the focal point of the living room and no cable...)

Genny IM'd me the other night. I'm glad she did. I have missed our chats. Fortunately, she blogs frequently so I have been able to stay updated on the parental units and the goings on at the shelter. I told her that I had experienced a "Genny moment" on the bus that morning on my way to work.

I was happily knitting away on the Rambling Rows Afghan pattern (shameless plug for Cottage Creation Patterns and Carol Anderson--and why the heck not, Paradise Fibers in Spokane from where I purchased the pattern) that I am making in bright, jewel-toned colors for a therapy blanket for one of the treatment rooms. A rather unkempt man wearing a bright orange insulated coverall boarded the bus after having secured his bicycle to the rack. He immediately commented on my knitting, introduced himself as "Mike" and reached to shake my hand. As I was in the middle of the decrease stitch pattern, I could not shake his hand but did offer mine once I had completed the decrease.

Mike then commented about how he thought it was a very exciting and interesting thing that I had the telecommunications receiver antenna connecting the pointed sticks together. (I was knitting on a circular knitting needle, two short sticks of bamboo connected with a nylon cable. * explanation added for clarity for the knitting uninitiated*)

I explained that it was a nylon cable, a very poor conductor of telecommunications signals. "My attempt at reality orientation," as I explained to Genny. Mike was, however, not to be dissuaded. It then became a fiber optic cable. Genny laughed; had Mike been able to be convinced, he would have then had to admit that he was able to be cured. Not likely to be with schizophrenia that is generally poorly managed among the underserved who are out in the community.

I told Genny that I really wanted to drag him on to the office with me and start upon "fixing" him.

I genuinely despise it when God gives those glimpses of clarity and unction. I am not a psych nurse.

I will tell you that I am not a pediatric nurse, either. I just happened to wind up, through God's doing, where I'm at. It was no fault of my own; I had nothing to do with it. I work at a job that I didn't even apply for! (This is the second solely pediatric stint of my career, by the way.)

Ali (my doc) thinks it's funny. Since I told her of how I came to be at this job, she has enjoyed relating it to a few of our patients and to some of the students and interns and residents who have rotated with us. She didn't envision her practice being what it is, either. God just seems to have these ideas for us...

What are you gonna do? I have enough experience in going down this road to know that you can go along the hard way, or you can go along the easy way. Sort of like trying to put a coat on a two-year-old. "Do you want to put your coat on here or do you want to put your coat on by the door?" It is understood that the coat is going to be put on. The variables are timing and place.

Time for me to be on to some other things.
More later.

The Big Chill

Winter has set upon us with vengeance. The temperatures have been frigid and the wind chill serves to make being outside intolerable and down-right dangerous. I worked last night, running about in temperatures that were equivalent to around -15F. The wind chill advisory was in effect until around noon today. The temperatures climbed to around 13 with the wind chill hovering near zero all day. It was a good day to sleep, and sleep I did.

I made it home around 8:30 this morning and into bed a couple of hours later. I was up around 3pm. Wonder if my body clock is already getting conditioned to being up at that time to retrieve kiddos from the sitter's? That has become my routine for the last couple of weeks in settling back into working the night shift. Drop the kiddos to school and to the sitters, to bed around 10:00-10:30, awake around 3:00-3:15, retrieve from the sitter's, await the arrival of the big-'uns from school. Sort of funny how my body is adapting back to a routine that, though having been away from it for 2 1/2 years, I did for many, many years. The only difference being that now I have added melatonin in order to be able to sleep well during the day. It helps.

The biggest glitch in the system for the last couple of weeks has been that I have to be back in at 7pm. By the time I am relieved of the children, I have no time for a nap before work. Those 12-hour overnights are killer, given my age and medical conditions. Lemme tell ya that the frigid temps aren't any help in that scenario. My fibromyalgia was so acutely painful last week due to extreme changes in temperatures and humidity. Due to the limited amount of sleep that I was able to get during the days, there was no way that I could take my Flexeril before bed. By the time I got a day where I could take it and sleep, the muscles of my upper arms were acutely painful to light touch. We're not even going to talk about my shoulders and upper back. OUCH!!! Misery it was for a few days.

And, then I fell. Again. Thursday.

Running out, still groggy, to get the kiddos from the sitter's and tripped over the blade of a plastic toy snow shovel (belonging to the neighbor kids) near the back steps. I fell forward. Cut my lip and bruised my chin on the training wheel on one of the bikes (Not put away after the moderate temperatures disappeared last week.) I have a lump on the top of my head from the bolt that holds the rear wheel on the frame. I feel lucky not to have split my head open on it. I have a bad cut on my right hand but have no idea what I hit it on. My knees took a good bang into the semi-frozen mud. My arms are sooooooo sore from trying to break my fall. I realized the next day, when putting on my deodorant, that even my armpits hurt! Oy! Coupled with the flare in the fibromyalgia, my upper body feels like I will never be pain free again.

This pay period that began yesterday is going to be a much-longer two-weeks than the last. I have whittled my scheduled 102 hours down to 90 with a couple of changes. We'll see what happens with covering more call-offs. Oh, the joys of being the supervisor. LOL

Brian and I split the shift to cover last night's call off. Both of us had worked yesterday day shift. He had gone home and gotten a nap (luckily). I would have simply stayed through, but by the time I would have finished the overnight shift at 7am this morning, I would have been up for over 24 hours and worked 20 straight. Not a good scenario. So, he came at 7pm. I went home and napped until 12:30 and was back in before 2am. He and I do make a good team.

He put out the memo that I officially assume the supervisor position on 1 February but am the acting night shift supervisor until then. He told me he would contact accounting to make sure that my salary got retro-ed back to the time that I took over. I told him that he would do no such thing as I have both overtime and worked holiday pay during this current pay period.

I borrowed a couple of DVDs to watch this evening. Not sure if I will get to them or not. I am having a nice time crocheting and relaxing. Well, trying to relax. Some work things keep running through my brain. Not good. Maybe watching the movies while I crochet will help to keep them at bay.

A friend gave me a 30 day pass for my Pogo games account. I have yet to log-on and play. Pogo doesn't hold my interest these days. I have other things to do and can waste my time more productively on other projects. LOL

I am inclined to close this here and do just that.

23:16 - Things Are Looking Up for 2008

I am thought to have survived the holiday season relatively intact. The familial and other associated celebratory gatherings were far less taxing to the soul than the unrelenting bullshit factor to which I was subjected as an occupational hazard.

My daughter is a warped one. I am not sure how it occurred (yeah, right). We were talking about the willingness of Americans to accept celebrations of other cultures. She has decided that the only reason Muslim observances are not embraced by Americans is because there is no drinking involved. Americans are all about diversity and multi-culturalism provided alcohol is a component of the celebration.

Went to work for 4 hours. Double-time. It works. I was out of there by 7:15p. The drive home took a bit longer than usual due to the blowing snow had the roads quite slick.
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It is now Wednesday evening. I ran in and out of single-digit temperatures for 8 hours today. My feet are still numb. I hate this time of year. When the temperatures are this cold, I ache continuously. It isn't to the "time to take the morphine" ache yet, but it is getting close.

I have inherited my daughter's Welsh Springer Spaniel. Not my idea. Really. The dog that my son-in-law insisted they take 3 1/2 years ago when Jason could no longer care for it because it was soooooooooo attached to my daughter has been annoying to him for that very reason since the day they acquired her. "Velcro Dog." As I already have my own Velcro Dog, it has proved to be quite an up-my-butt fiasco these last 3 days. Mocha has come to visit and spend the night occasionally. She will run into my house with Addie and not want to leave until after Amanda has gone to bed, so she ends up spending the night. She even stayed the week when my daughter went to California a couple of years ago. Michael is just flat-out mean to her, so she was better off here. This is her third day here. It would seem that she has decided that she lives here now as she is challenging Addie for dominance. I have not informed Hindolo about the acquisition of Velcro Dog #2.

I inherited the dog because my daughter is getting two ferrets next week. One of the guys that my son-in-law works with knows a recent widower who wants to get rid of his deceased wife's ferrets. Being that Amanda absolutely adores ferrets, there was no question of her wanting to take them. The problem lies in the fact that Mocha loathes small, furry creatures of all types. She has killed a squirrel, an opossum, a couple of stray cats that she didn't want in the yard. She is suspected in the killing of one or more escaped hamsters during the short-lived "hamster phase" that occurred next door.

She has no problems with her own cats or with my cats. Only problems with those interloping cats. Ferrets and Mocha would not make a good mix. Being that the cats travel freely back and forth from one household to the other via a couple of gaps in the basement wall and through the plumbing access in the bathrooms, I imagine in won't be long before the ferrets figure out the passageways. As Mocha went through four owners in two years after her original owner died, neither Amanda or I have the heart to send her to someone else. She is not a bad dog, and she is happy here. So, I inherited her.

It would seem that the Nyquil is starting to do what it is that Nyquil does... I'm off to bed for now.
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Thursday afternoon and I have been relieved of kiddo duty. I am going in for four hours this evening to fill-in due to a call off. I should not complain too much. It could have been 12 hours.

I have been asked, again, to consider taking the night supervisor position. Things have gotten so bad that I am to the point of seriously considering it. We have both staff and nurses that need to be gone. It is not something that I want to do forever. I certainly had other plans that I was considering for the next year while Hindolo finishes school. Sometimes the very reason that you do not want to do something is why you should do it. We have a nurses meeting scheduled towards the end of the month. I told Brian that I would make my decision and let him know before the meeting. I have a feeling my plan to work part-time weekend day-shift starting in February is in jeopardy. This is not going to be an easy decision by any means.

I queried four other nurses. Two were positive, two expressed reservations at my desire to not really want to do this. My mom thinks it's a good thing for me to do. Amanda said that my reasoning of being 46, single, no kids is exactly why I should consider doing this rather than not. I mentioned it to Hindolo, and he expressed some reservation about me working nights. It may simply be that he doesn't want me running around grounds alone in the middle of the night. We will talk more this weekend. I need to schedule an appointment with my doctor to see what she has to say about this idea before I make a decision.

The guy started back to class today. More classwork than clinicals this quarter but a comprehensive exam at the end covering the last three quarters in order to be admitted to the final year of the program. Oh how lovely will my life become here in about 8 or 9 more weeks?

I have much to think about here in the coming days. Personal changes are underway for eating and lifestyle. I suppose those would be my New Year's Resolutions, though I began to implement changes last year. I do want to do more with my design work and crafts. Last year was a total "bust." Just write it off and start with a clean slate. At the least, I'm headed into the new year on a positive note. That's always a good thing.