The Tipping Point

 We are, once again in that annoying state of Almost There. The closing for the house has been delayed by a couple of days due to the seller's lawyer not having their stuff done. I signed off my power of attorney the other day to our lawyer so it won't be an issue if I'm not there. I was upset but having been through this so many times it's not unexpected - just about every house we've sold has been a marathon at the end. I feel bad for the buyers though - they ran out of leave time and had to return to their base before they could take possession of the house. Speaking of houses David got the drainage system, it backed up again and he was out there digging and the neighbor Ed saw him. Ed threw on a pair of boots and came over with a shovel and the two of them dug, ran the hose, etc and after an hour or so got it clear. The basement drains cleared out and we have not had a problem since. I have to say we lucked out in the neighbor department - we always have help when we need it - and we rarely have to ask. It was a relief as a new french drain system could run into the thousands if it totally fails. I am off of call as of 8 am this morning, still batting that one around. To me it's just so stressful - especially the fact you're loaded with visits for Saturday and if it rolls over to Sunday you end up working two weeks straight without a break. I'm getting a handle on the computer thing but I'm still spending anywhere from 2 to 4 hours after work doing paperwork and add in calling patients and setting up the next day I go to bed and get up. Period. Going back to being a visit nurse was a good decision, I don't regret it. But I am going to have to figure out where to go from here as the reason I stopped being a manager was to decrease my stress, not increase it. I know a lot of it has been bad timing for being on call - the basement flooding, the drains failing, delay in selling the house, etc.. I don't know which way to run most days. And of course the Big Eye Appointment on  Monday, a two hour - or so - extravaganza which involves eyeball tapping and flashing lights. I took the whole day off as the last time I tried to work after one of these appointments I spent the day in sunglasses with my head down. One of my co-workers thought I was either very ashamed of myself or suffering from the world's worst depression. After that I found the best way to deal with it was go home pull the shades and hang out for 4 or 5 hours. But that's another stress - being proactive on the glaucoma is a good thing but thinking about why I have to be proactive - that one is hard. If I had to pick a sense to lose it would not be my sight and that is a worry all on it's own, isn't it? One of the bad things about being in the medical field is you're constantly being reminded that it does not always happen to these amorpheous "Other People". That no one wakes up and says "gee - I hope I go deaf today!"That try as you might, sometimes it does happen to you and you just have to deal with it. But you also get a good view on the people that didn't take care of it, that just sort of skated along hoping it would be ok and tried to ignore it until it became too late. So I wear my glasses and go to my appointments and do whatever Dr. Feghali says. But I still have my sight and lots of it so  I 've been busy reading in my tiny bit of spare time, I have to slow down on book buying though! Kobo had a huge sale of Sue Grafton books so I bought the first 15 to stockpile - I know I know! But they were only $3.99 apiece as opposed to 7.99 to 9.99 so I bought them all. I have some more I want to buy but it will have to wait. In the sweater department I have the pocket attached and now need to knit up the bottom, then the sleeves, edging on the hood and the pocket so the edges don't roll - sort of almost done. We are not doing too much today, we did a little shopping, went to the bookstore and bought coffee. LOVE coffee from the bookstores - it's always so good! I'm sure the calories would horrify me but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.