How Quickly Things Change

I was all set to have a relaxing weekend - things have lately, been pretty quiet and strangely enough going well. Jackson took the car for the day so David and I decided to head out for Clarksburg. Right before we left the phone rang - it was from a previous job that had not ended badly, but hadn't ended well is the best way I can put it. They had a leak in the roof which happens - but the guy was somewhat threatening which was odd, since David hadn't refused to do it or anything. But we certainly weren't going to go running over there either so he'll have to deal with it. Then on the way down the road my cell phone rang and it was another country not heard from - they wanted David to come look at a roof too. David called them back while I made pictures at CVS and then off we went to Clarksburg. I got some great deals at AC Moore's and David got Pearl a hunting vest - since there are a number of guys that use the game preserves he wants to make sure no one shoots her by accident. And she looks very spiffy in it in case you're wondering, she doesn't like it but I think she would like getting shot less so she wears it. Anyhow, just as we were getting home my cell phone rang AGAIN and it was Susan - the nurse that was oncall this weekend had broken her leg jumping out of her husband's pickup truck and was onroute to the hospital via ambulance and there was a Bridgeport patient that needed to be seen, not to mention the Sunday visits. Jackson had my car so I couldn't help Saturday but I'll be doing the two today as someone has to do it. Of course this will change the oncall schedule too, we went from once every 5 weeks, to every 4 weeks and now it'll be every 3 weeks. Why do I feel like pretty soon we'll be back to every other week again??

Great Expectations.

David was out training Pearl last night - on thier last walk through the woods she pinned the injured pheasant instead of retrieving it - David was not happy. So he was using the pheasant to practice with and Pearl did retrieve it until she decided she'd rather do something else and then wandered off. He started to get mad, but I pointed out Pearl had only been hunting for a couple of weeks and quite frankly as far as the fetching things goes - she doesn't always bring the rubber frog back either. We just don't make a major production since no one but Pearl is enchanted with a wet rubber frog anyhow and most days I would PREFER she not bring it back. So he broke out the Vienna Sausages and got 100% results after that - Pearl would sell her mother for a Vienna Sausage. The weather has been wet and rainy all week - the main reason David has been able to get so much pheasant hunting in - but is supposed to clear up in the coming days. They're going early this morning for a bit as Saturday is when everyone and his brother goes and it gets a bit crowded. As for me I had a student with me for a couple of days this week which was fun - she was about my age and NOT enchanted with home health, I guess it's not for everyone. She said she was not comfortable with going into people's homes like  that and was VERY uncomfortable with the pediatric aspects of it all, I never thought of that which would explain why it doesn't bother me. I think the driving freaked her out a bit too - what I consider fun and relaxing she thought was too much and not something she would not like to do. Oh well, to each his own I suppose.

A Reason To Exist

David is quite taken with the hunting around here - he and Pearl have gone for the past two days and have gotten one pheasant so far, much to David's great joy. As I stated previously, the hunting preserves are only a few miles from the house and since we've had bad weather David's been able to get a bit of hunting in between rain showers. The rain has been pretty steady for the past two days and the yard is uber- yucky as all the leaves have fallen so there's soggy leaves every where you look these days. Jackson and Becky are planning on hitting the Fright Farm again this year so hopefully the rain will hold off on the weekend. I'm on call Halloween weekend so they can't go then. The weather has finally started to cool, this time of year is a pain in the butt as the mornings start off fridgid and then by 1 o'clock you're rollling up your sleeves and pitching the sweater. We have the heat on this morning for pretty much the first time this year. I am STILL working on the shawl, I've got about 15 more rows to go, but it's dragging now as I get to the end. The rows are well over a thousand stitches so it's about an hour a row and I've been working on it for so long it seems it will never end. I might do a few christmas tree hats when I get done just so I can do something easy - and FAST. I ordered way too much yarn for the shawl and actually have enough to do a second one. The big question would be of course - do I want to do another one??

First Stew Of The Season....

.....even though it's EIGHTY FREAKING DEGREES OUT. Arrgh! Will Fall ever come and stay? This weekend has been an up and down sort of thing - first of all since we asked Pool People #2 to close the pool after waiting forever and a day, at 4 O'Clock on Saturday Poolpeople #1 showed up ready to roll. Terry apologized and said they should've told us that if we called at the end of September there would be 80 pools ahead of ours - of course Poolpeople #2 don't have an answering machine so we can't leave them a message. Part of me wanted to tell Poolperson #1 that we had someone else to do it, but you know A Bird In The Hand and all - I just wanted SOMEONE to close the thing as I've been scooping out bushels of leaves a couple of times daily. David attempted to hunt today, but when he got there there were no other hunters - turns out there's no hunting on Sunday in PA. He had called when he got there and I had the reg book, but couldn't fine anything saying you couldn't. After he hung up I DID find the rule (page 22, 1st column, 2 sentences buried on the bottom) and couldn't get ahold of him. So I got in my car and drove over so he wouldn't get fined or worse lose his spanky new license. Jackson called me when I got home to let me know David was home. David called me then too to let me know his phone had glitched and he'd been unable to answer it, but a guy saw him get out of his truck with the dog and told him there was no hunting on Sunday so he just left. He was a bit disappointed, bu it's not a big deal, he's going to shoot some trap with Cecil this afternoon and will most likely sneak off at some point in the week with Pearl The Mighty Hunting Dog for a big adventure. I haven't really done much this weekend except lay about and so forth. I'm really waiting for it to cool off - I just don't feel like moving around until then. Pearl and I go out in the yard, but it's just too hot! And since all of my summer clothes are packed away I have nothing but long sleeves and pants.

AOL Makes Me Crazy

I am seriously thinking about just ditching the AOL - the only thing that stops me is the blog of course and the fact that I've had this screen name for years and the idea of having to change it and tell everyone, etc is just too annoying. The latest problem with it is everytime I go to log in my password comes up invalid and then I have to change it. The weird thing is if I sign in under David's screen his works - and mine is the master screen name so that makes even less sense. After I log off today I'm going to run the Norton as I've already reinstalled the AOL without any sucess. Not much going on today, the weather has cooled a bit more and the leaves are all falling straight into my pool. We finally found another pool company and they will be closing the pool finally next week. I'm pretty beaned at Mick - if he couldn't do it he could have at least called and let us know instead of leaving us hanging as we head into November. Jackson is staying over Becky's house tonight which is apparently ok with Becky's parents. He's going to be 18 in a couple of months so I'm sort of Whatever about the whole thing. This morning I took David on a tour of the State Game Lands of Pennsylvania, he got his hunting license for Pa as the preserves are actually closer to us than WV's are. It's about 7 miles from our house and there's over 8,000 acres set aside for hunting. He's going to wait until it calms down, today was opening day and it was a sea of orange vests and pickup trucks. Pearl will be going with him - they've been practicing in the yard with doves -in WV no one seems to have a problem with you discharging firearms in the backyard. The neighbor has a tree stand in our yard for the deer also, so I'm guessing it's not against any rules or something. I hope!

Reality Sucks.

I have to admit, I started my day with a knot in my stomach and no song in my heart. Sometimes when you get to take a few days off it re-energizes you and makes your job all shiny and new. For the rest of us however it reminds us how bad things have gotten and it's like going back to prison after weekend furlough. I do hate it, the worst is I REALLY like my job, I really do! I enjoy the patients, the variations of treatment and patients, the driving - when I apply for another job it will be the same kind but a different place. My favorite back to work discovery was a co-worker had been running her mouth again about my making trouble with a patient to the boss - until someone else reminded her I wasn't even in town and she should try to get her story straight before she went tattling down the hall!! I don't get into that nonsense, it just turns into a finger pointing event but it does hurt my feelings. I have no problem with this individual and even get along with her, so I have no idea what's going on - and I really don't want to know or care. eek. I was glad this morning to get straight on the road and stay there and I'll be doing that for the rest of the week hopefully. Jackson is feeling much better, he's down to the occasional cough and sniffle with no pink eyes in sight. David is almost done sheetrocking the basement and has started spackling, he's also going to be building a porch for clients at some point this week. I am getting ahead of myself by getting my winter clothes all out and my summer clothes all put away - and it's not even January yet!

We're Back!

David took Jackson to the doctor on Thursday as not only had his cough worsened, but he was sporting a pair of Candy Apple Red eyes. Jackson insisted he didn't want to, but I'm glad I made him seek Medical Attention as not only did he have bronchitis but Pink Eye too! We had planned on leaving early Friday but Jackson had a rough night and we needed to drop Pearl off at the dogsitter plus all of that last minute stuff that appears out of nowhere. We left about 10 and enjoyed the trip, stopping for a long lunch and arrived at my sister's house at 4. My mom drove down from LI for the night and that was really nice to have everyone together for a little while. She left around 11 the next morning and we took the boys to the King of Prussia mall. It is WAY too expensive to buy anything there but fun to windowshop and have lunch on the second floor overlooking the fountains. Adam had decided on an Irish pub/restaurant for his birthday dinner and because we had such a large party we had to Wait. According to the people I was with, I have inherited my Table Waiting Skills from my father Hank The Impatient who apparently also glares at the staff and glances at his watch frequently if made to wait any longer than 3 minutes. I personally think anything over 7 minutes is excessive and after  10 minutes I'm ready to find a different place to eat. But it was not my birthday was it so I did make an effort to keep the Sighing and Glaring to a minimum. The food I have to admit was wonderful and it was a good dinner. We went home for birthday cake after and Adam is now officially 24! The next day we didn't do much, went to the outlets and a fake Amish gift shop, I bought two little pieces of Shoofly pie because A) I am the only person who likes it and B) if I buy a whole pie I will EAT a whole pie and no one wants that kind of trouble.Diane made a big supper and then after thier friends the Copacs came over with thier dog Cooper and thier baby Corden both of whom are too cute. Both of the boys enjoyed playing with the baby - Cordon is about 1 and very funny of course. We left early Monday morning, me missing Adam already - he is doing better I think but has a long way to go. It hasn't been an easy transition for him and has been a struggle but I think he's starting to get his head above water - it's just going to take time. We got home about noon and went to pick up Miss Pants at 3pm - she was beside herself with Joy and Hysteria, she lost a little weight but we expected that as Vizslas tend to pine when separated from thier families. I think we're all glad to be home.

Counting Down

Even though it's really only a four day weekend, I'm very much looking foward to some time off from work. The slowdown continues with the patients and work has gotten very rough - everyone is testy and mean - hiding from the boss has become an occupation with most of the staff. It's a bit disconcerting on my end - I actually LIKE my job but with this atmosphere of unrest it's a little hard to continue and not play into the office politics. So I could do with a little time away from the office, I'm playing around with asking for one more day off - that would still leave me with a full week of vacation time. Jackson is recovering from his illness, he still has a cough but was able to go to school yesterday and then spend the afternoon at Becky's. On Sunday due to the fact he couldn't move around too much he was forced to spend the afternoon watching TV with his mother. Much to his dismay  the documentary I've been waiting to see for two weeks happened to be on so he was forced to watch Love Me, Love My Doll on the BBC -

      http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/245/index.jsp

It was hilariously creepy - these men are obsessed with thier rubber life sized dolls - we figured out they cost about $6000!! The whole hour covered pretty much everything you would ever need to know about these dolls, Jackson spent most of the hour looking  somewhat distressed when he wasn't laughing his butt off. David is taking Pearline to the dogsitter today for one more "dry run" so she can play with others of her kind.  We have everything set for the weekend including someone to come and take care of the cats and so forth, I cannot wait.

The Best Laid Plans

I picked up the corsage yesterday - we employ the fancy florist, Zaccgnini's because they always do such a swell job. It's quite lovely, I know because it's still residing in my refridgerator this morning because Jackson didn't make it to the Homecoming dance. He woke up yesterday with a temp of 101.5 and the rest of the day went downhill from there. He kept thinking he'd feel better but around 4 pm he still was unable to get out of bed - he still had a fever despite my frequent dosings of tylonol and at 4:30 finally threw in the towel. I have to say Becky was much more understanding about it than I would have been at the that age but Jackson said she'd been kind of on the fence about going anyhow. She is NOT however on the fence about going to senior prom but that's in the spring. Anyhoo, I did my one admit in Grafton yesterday and then went to a flea market at the Clinton firehouse which was fun. I got a bunch of stuff for only $8 that I seriously don't need and can't figure out why I bought it in the first place, however that can be said for a few of my other purchases in the past and at least these unnecessary items didn't even break a ten. Jackson and I watched the BBC channel last night - we are seriously addicted to Dr. Who and Torchwood and never miss an episode (when they have marathons we're glued to the tube all day!). I have to finish up some paperwork today and hopefully everyone will stay quiet - although  I doubt it.

And I Was Almost Home Free.....

......and then the phone rang, I have an admit to do tomorrow. Being on call is a bit nerve-wracking as it can go either way -there can be not a peep all weekend or it can turn into Drive-A-Thon since you have to cover all 250 square miles by yourself. Anyhoo, I ordered the corsage for Jackson today in my travels - he and Becky are attending the Morgantown Homecoming Dance again this year. Jackson was a bit bleary on what color her dress would be so I did red roses on a black and white background. If they have any complaints they can do it themselves or I'll wear the corsage while I clean the bathrooms this weekend. I did a flu shot clinic the other day, that really sucked. It was at the Waynesburg Shop & Save and there were a few things I had complaints about - first off the Pharmacy that is NOT part of Shop & Save was having thier own flu clinic next week. I knew this because there were big signs up all over and the overhead kept announcing it every half an hour. It would have been less of a problem if they hadn't been offering thier shots for $5 less than we were. Then they seated me near the freezer aisle which is a not so hot spot. Especially after 4 hours. Then of course there's the people element to the whole thing - I had several people come up just to let me know they'd already gotten thier flu shot. Two asked who was going to give it (given the fact I was wearing a NURSING UNIFORM I kind of thought this was a given.  I resisted the urge to start peeking under the table and peering down aisles..). I did end up giving about 16 shots since it's covered by Medicare part B - in my rather liberal spare time otherwise I caught up on paperwork (thank goodness I'd brought it along just in case I had a "spare" minute) and I did some people watching of course. There was a teenage couple shopping with a parent that were  making out so frantically I thought at one point he was just going to bend her over the frozen turkey section and have at it - there was a somewhat disgruntled elderly gentleman with Parkinson's shopping with his adult son trailing behind him discreetly as possible,  trying very hard not to interfer. And there seemed to be quite a few people that wanted to take advantage of the papertowels on sale behind me but were a bit leery of the nurse with the sharp instruments positioned in front of them. Over all it wasn't a bad gig.

Lost In Space

ARRGH -  I HATE getting lost, don't you? This morning started off so well - I thought I had clear directions that I  did not. I had a lot of driving to do today on top of all that,so it made it very stressful. I headed off for the town and followed the directions I was given. The first problem was the road I was on turned into another road (which was not noted) and I could find no sign for 218. So I headed back the 10 miles after talking to some construction workers who pointed me in another direction (one of the guys had a girlfriend that lived in that town) but the 218 I was heading down I know  will take you into Spraggs. Hmm. SO, I went back to the post office and found that 218 has a north and south and I was headed down the wrong path. Oh and just in case you're ever driving down Jakes Run - there is no sign for 218, apparently you're just supposed to know where it is.  I arrived at the patient's house 50 miles later with all the driving back and forth I did and an hour late to boot.  Then I was off to the other end of WV for a regular patient and then to Fairmont to the lab. THEN I had to head off to Pennsylvania, about another 50 miles down the road. The patient had a problem with his access which necessitated him going back to the hospital (with me in tow) to fix the problem and then back to his house for the actual visit. I had another patient I was supposed to see but Susan found someone else to see that one - that goodness because that patient would have been treated to Crabbypants the Nurse and who knows what would have happened then. David has been working on the house steady - he is done residing the entire thing and is going to start the inside at some point. He picked up a siding job too but has to wait for the siding to be ordered so he has a bit of time. I'm still working on the Shawl That Will Never End, I still have about 40 rounds to go, they take forever!!