TIMBER!

When we first moved in the Homeowners Association gave us permission to remove the large tree in our yard.. It was about 15 feet higher than the house and dead. When Ray was here he thought we should take it down now - if we get a large storm it could fall and hit the roof, so yesterday David and Jackson took it down. They had a great time since the entire activity involved Mayhem and Destruction of An Incredibly Huge Object. They had ropes and sharp objects going,  Jackson was having an especially good time swinging the axe. They got hung up at one point - there was just a little bit left on the bottom, but that small part was like iron(#5). I suggested they give it up as it was getting dark but they refused to back down from our Enemy of Wood. After more chainsaw, ropes and pushing they managed to bring down the main trunk so now our entire backyard is a mess, branches and logs all over. David will be cutting it up for firewood, one of the other reasons we took it down now. The last picture is David and Copper relaxing, Copper being all tuckered out from supervising and barking. In other news Wayne Memorial called yesterday to arrange for me to come in for paperwork, physical and of course drug screening. I've been drug screened so much in the past year everytime I see a jar I want to pee in it. I wasn't sure I'd been hired til they called so I acted cool like I knew it all along. I've got two more weeks at Moses Taylor, two long weeks I might add. The whole thing is very nerve wracking as it's two weeks to do something Very Wrong so every shift is just one more day to get through.

Black Friday

Although most people spent Black Friday shopping, others of us spent the day relaxing. The second picture is of the sweater I just finished which is currently winging it's way to Boston. It's the size of a bathrobe(someday I will learn to gauge!)  so I thought it would be best for it to do it's duty as a sweater in the sub zero home of Kim. Not to mention the color is Boston Rose. I slept til noon and then we went off adventuring, heading out to Dingman's Ferry. When we got to the bridge David pulled over - according to him and Ray there was toll to cross the bridge. I told him if one of the big spenders in the front couldn't pony up the SEVENTY FIVE CENTS to cross the stinkin' bridge I certainly could, sigh. Dingmans' Ferry is just that. A Ferry. The rest is B-O-R-I-N-G. If  I'd known it was going to be nothing but road and a couple drugstores, I probably would've thought twice about coughing up the 75 cents and haggled it down to a quarter. We headed out to Milford which was much nicer and I'm looking foward to going back when I have more time - it's all these beautiful old historic building with lots of knick knack stores. We had a great time walking around, David and Ray had been there  when we were looking for a house. A fixer-up cost about 150,000 so it's a pretty expensive area.  We ate dinner in the italian restaurant uptown where we had dinner with Janet and Diane and then back home. I've got to call the dentist today, one of the crowns he put in last week is hurting which stinks since I have to go to work tonight and the only day off I have is Monday. I'm back to work tonight, time is just dragging of course. And Ray heads back to NJ tommorrow. The weather is really cold now, 20 degrees but no snow yet!

Friends That Bite

As you can see, Claw has no problem biting the hand that feeds her. Or any hand as a matter of fact. Stinky work just got stinkier, I got my new "Schedule Of Revenge" - you dont want to know. I completely blew off Thanksgiving, I was so stressed out I couldn't sleep so I told David, Ray and Jackson to go out without me. I thought about going, but would've spent the entire time counting down the hours I had left to sleep and how long til I had to be back at work while hurrying everyone through thier meal. We're going out again today and I'll celebrate the holiday without having to worry. Ray is here for a few days, the temp dropped big time last night! It's now in the 20's we got a dusting of snow so I think it's a prelude to the rest of the winter. David prefers to stay delusional for now. Ray's down for a few days, I was thinking we might try to shop but I don't know as it is black friday! So we may just limit ourselves to Post Thanksgiving Dinner. Jackson the Stinker is still in bed and Vincent is busy making troubles upstairs. David and Ray went out to breakfast which is traditional for them.

Working Without A Net..

I must enjoy chaos in my life since I seem to be inviting it in everytime it shows up. I quit my job this morning, handed in my resignation at 7:30 am sharp. I think I've mentioned things were not going well - from my point of view at least - and yesterday David suggested we go to Wayne Memorial in Honesdale. It's a small, rural community hospital and I've always regretted not looking at them closer. I just showed up (as is my habit) and was directed to Human Resources across the street, housed in a turn of the century home. I filled out an application and was told they would call me later. I decided to do an independent tour of the hospital and just walked right in and wandered around until I found the nursing office. I was offered a job in the ICU and Telemetry (you float between the two floors) they sent for the nurse manager and my application. They seem to be better staffed, it pays $3 more an hour, FREE parking, closer to home and I can toss the all whites. There were a few strange things - I did mention it's a rural hospital - I actually saw two nurses wearing white dresses and CAPS. The nurse manager said they've always worn the caps and it was ok with her. Quitting this morning was not easy - as much as I don't like the way they staff the floor I have become quite attached to some of the people I work with. The manager was very gracious about it but looked about this far from crying which made me feel really bad. My last day will be the 14th - RN's have to give 3 weeks notice but I think maybe I'll send everyone to NY then and can finish up while Adam and them visit. It'll work out. Right now is a stomach clencher of course because I have to wait for my references to come back, etc...and there's always room for error. Oh well, there's always the Wal-Mart Greeter job!!

Say Cheese! (Cake!)

The weekend went well - I slept not too good Friday morning - I was too excited about guests!! and was a bit nervous about the dentist. I had TWO crowns put in, I've got temporaries and the one in the way back is shiny metal so I spent most of the weekend making gang signs at Diane since I now have a rapper tooth.. Janet and Di arrived around 7 pm - just in time for the roast chicken to be done and then we sat around the fire, drinking wine, watching tv and talking. Everyone was tired so we all went to bed early and of course everyone was up at a ridiculously early time the next morning. Well, some of us. The rain started before dawn but we're hardy souls in Pennsylvania and can shop in any weather. We drove out to the Pocono Cheesecake Factory - it's very expensive but worth it. Jackson and I got chocolate (1/4) and cherry (1/2) for $25 - Janet and Di got about $50. The man behind them was ordering a HUGE amount, taking 4 cheesecakes of this, a couple of that, we should've stayed to hear what his bill was! We had lunch at the local diner - man does not live by cheesecake alone - and then off to the outlets. We did great and had so much fun shopping. We got home by three and everyone sacked out for the afternoon. We had dinner in a local italian resturant where Di and Janet told us all about thier trip to Italy. This morning we went to breakfast at the clubhouse - dinner there is outrageously pricey, but breakfast is reasonable. After breakfast we drove and around and showed them the rest of the hideout and then they left around 11:30. The animals tried to behave - but failed. At least Copper didn't have that awful gas he had the last time they visited! And Mr. Lee showed off her balancing skills on the loft. We went out this afternoon to Dixon City, I decorated the mantel over the fireplace for Christmas. We didn't buy too much as we need to look and see what we have. But we did have a very good weekend!

Bend Over And Open Wide

This is an interesting picture I took at the Coal Mining Museum - it's a pair of antique bowel forceps - I'm not sure exactly how they were used, but the ends are made of leather. Hygenically speaking I certainly wouldn't want to be the SECOND person  in line to be seen!! Antique medical equipment can usually out do any torture device known to man, most of it is scary just to look at. I'm finally off today, I've got a dentist appointment at 3:30 and then Janet and Diane are finally coming to visit us! I've got a three day weekend so I 'm really looking foward to having visitors and being awake the entire time for it. Janet said Diane isn't bringing her bowel forceps because they're in the dishwasher at the moment - I guess we'll just have to share mine. Work is not going very well, we're always understaffed and they have a strange nursing model. They use "pods" which is actually team nursing. It's me, an LPN and an aide - but they always pull the aide and even though the LPN is responsible for labs, dressings and meds if they dont' do it or miss something I'M responsible. And there's 12 patients to each pod. I might just nose around at the other hospital I considered in Honesdale and put it on the back up list for now.

We've Had Our Fill Of Roadkill

One of the things they don't do here that they do on LI is clean up road kill - ever. The most effort I've seen is the dead animal slung up on the shoulder of the road if it's blocking traffic.. Someone hit a beaver a few months ago shortly after we moved here. Beavers are NOT this size of bunnies in case you don't know - they're actually about 60 lbs. Anyhow, since it's a road we frequent we get to see it - or what's left of it - quite often. I kick myself for not getting David to skin it - free fur! But we do get the entertainment of watching it disintergrate and left to it's own devices, a body takes a very very VERY long time to disappear. First it poofed up big and then the next week even bigger. This was followed by deflation, infestation and flattened out. It's almost gone now, you can't even tell what it was. Everyday a little bit more disppears, it's just a sad little smudge on the side of the road.  And there's all sorts of roadkill here, I've seen just about every indigenous animal ka-powed on the road except for birds. And there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of birds around here anyhow, I've seen some Canadian geese and there's that annoying woodpecker that taps on  my bedroom wall at the precise moment I fall asleep, but other than that not much in the way of avian life.  Tons of deer however! And the deer hate Vincent for some reason which we find hilarious to say the least. We don't worry about Vincent being roadkill because he would have to move away from the door for that to happen. Jackson is going to be roadkill if he doenst get his grades up - he's failing both science and math - we're getting on him a little, but after having moved twice in 6months we can give him a little grace period. Just a little side note - Kim found a copy of that tape of the house of WV so she gets at least 6 Brownie Points! Thank you!