Room With A View

David's almost got the new room upstairs completed, he's down to odds and ends. I put up two of the old photos so you could see the big difference. We've decided eventually when we find the furniture it'll have a day bed in it and will be used as an extra family type room. The cats find it very intriguing and spend time investigating it, trying to act mysterious and so forth. The other morning when got up the water pressure was crap-o-la,  the shower was like a gentle drizzle.In the winter there are two things I hate to do without, water and heat - just the thought of it is miserable. But just as suddenly it started, the pressure returned much to my relief. When we went out later we discovered the reason was a large burst pipe down the road, of course I was without my camera! - the frozen waters flooding the woods and (eek!) someone's vacation home were quite spectacular. We're supposed to get some nice weather this weekend - I'll be working so I don't care. David heard on the weather it will be in the 40's and he's clutching to that particular weather report like it's Nostrudamas's predictions. Considering they change the report more often than Cher changes looks I'll be hiding when the fallout hits! I worked a twelve hour last night, from what I can tell they just offered 12 hour shifts to get more nurses to sign on so twice a week they try to think of things for me to do for 4 hours. Last night I got sent up to the 4th floor to help out and I don't mind it. It's actually fun to be the "helper", you don't have any true responsibility and everyone's happy to see you coming. Like other places I've worked no one seems to like to put in IV's so I did that - I enjoy it. I had a patient with dementia who asked if I minded if he called me "beautiful woman" - as far as I'm concerned when dealing with that population they can call me whatever they want as long as they don't whap me. Then he informed me his wife was MY SAME AGE, then just as cheerfully declared the aide passing by was his girlfriend and I was to keep an eye on her - amusing the aide to no end. The supervisor also stopped by to tell me I was taking a post op patient on ICU and during all this I was putting in the IV, sometimes I think being a nurse pushes the limits of multi-tasking. The last picture I posted was my new pink suede boots that I got for $14 - yes,they are a strange color but they're warm and waterproof so I guess I can put up with the color (they were originally $80).I'm sure the drastic drop in price had less to do with the quality and more to do with the strange color!

Butt Mom!!.....

Things I have discovered about Pennsylvania:

"Minus 7" is not a math problem. It is a tempeture

"Hat hair" isn't necessarily a bad thing at times.

There are some days when you don't really care if you have hat hair or not.

When the roads ice, downhill is WAY scarier than uphill.

Jackson's been to school on time for two days now with no delays which is a record at this point in time. Work's been going pretty good, in the past week I've worked on 3 different floors - my shoes and I have yet to be on the same floors at the same time. Everyone leaves thier shoes at work and I do mean everyone! They have shoe racks on all the floors just for this and with the cold weather it makes sense. I bought a pair of shearling lined suede boots which I'm never without at this point. I've been floating the hospital all week but I don't mind as it gives me an opportunity to meet everyone and really, so far everyone has been so nice! There's the usual bit of gossip here and there of course, but none of it especially mean which is encouraging. A lot of the patients are from outlying areas so it's giving me quite a bird's eye view on the area. Oh, and my digital camera recovered from it's injury, it just started working on it's own again and I'm glad about that. I was not looking foward to spending $150 (and up) for a new one. I'm very careful with it now!

 

 

Portrait Of A Bad Cat

That bad cat Vincent broke my digital camera last night! I'd been using it and left it on the coffee table and when I got up this morning it was lying on the floor with the batteries popped out. When I take a picture all I get is black with streaks of color. I contacted Kodak and that could be caused by someone (or some cat!!) dropping it. Sigh, so we're in the market for a new one I suppose. And I'm also having problems with EZPass, can you believe it? David lost his credit card a few months ago so we had to cancel and get new ones which changed the account. I hadn't used my EZPass until last month so I get a letter saying my credit card won't allow them to charge it so my pass is invalid. I filled out the paperwork thinking things were OK and THEN I get a letter from the credit card co. telling me they can't allow it. Seems my new address on the my bank checks (physical address) don't jive with the new address on my credit card account so they won't allow me to use it. I can't remember my PIN # for the pass or my old credit card account number so I can't do anything over the phone - it's trouble all around. David is doing battle with Waste Management again, we keep getting this bill for $64 that we don't owe - we thought it had been cleared up since we'd spoken to them in March of last year and they'd said we didn't owe it. Then we get told they sent a bill to our old address in July(??) and since we didn't answer they gave it to a collection agency. Since it's now January that makes no sense at all. It's still snowing, Jackson had the whole day off today as a change of pace from having two hours off. Jackson said the delays work because what they do is shorten up all the classes so they get the full day in. I'm off to work tonight but off for the weekend!

Is It Cold Enough For Ya!

The tempetures have been holding pretty steady in the 1 to 3 degree range. I just LOVE shouting after David, "SO, IS IT COLD ENOUGH FOR YA?" because he makes a very not nice face when I say that. We have tons of icicles hanging off the back of the house which is nifty and adds a tiny element of danger. We got about a foot of snow from that last storm, not too bad considering what other people got.  Work has been going pretty good, I was floated up to the med-surg floor last night and got to meet some more people. And I get paid on Wednesday so there is that. I'm still knitting that poncho, but am making some progress on it. Things have been pretty slow the past few days, Jackson still heads out to school ten-ish almost every morning. The roads are kept plowed but they tend to ice up over night which is why the constant delays for school. Animals are fine, Vincent has not attempted any more treks outside since last week, he prefers to sit on the little table in front of the window and watch the world go by where he's warm and dry.

How Cold Is Cold?

I suspected the temps had dropped when I went out to clean the windows of my car and the Windex froze on contact. My suspcions grew when I noticed my uncanny ability to walk on top of the snow without breaking it. We don't have to call the dogs in anymore as they do thier business about 10 feet away from the deck and are at the back door almost before they left! It was minus six again when we got up this am but it's warmed up to about  - 2 degrees now. I'm a bit worried about driving to work tonight as the snow is supposed to start falling late afternoon and I'm working the 11-7. I got a schedule for work and they do a fairly decent job of it. My weekends are Fridays and Saturdays so I've got real weekends off. I'm relieved to be back on an every other weekend off work schedule. Being off every weekend gets a bit tiring since it leaves me free to chauffer Mr. Jackson around and I don't seen to be able to get anything more than that done. We've spotted him talking to another kid on his bus so he is making friends despite all his claims of Lone-Wolfness and so forth. Adam's also fine, out to sea again which is not sitting well with him. He's been seeing a girl and from what we know she goes to college and he hasn't been hanging around the bars so I think we can safely put her in the "nice" girl column of life. All the animals are fine of course, this morning they're all piled around the woodstove. We just wade past them once in awhile to throw another log on - if one of them died you'd never know it since they don't move at all. David been keeping busy finishing his room upstairs and he's slated to start an addition in March so he's been keeping busy with that. I'm still knitting that poncho - I'm on the 2nd half - and managed to find a skein of yarn that matches the burgandy. I bought a ton of yarn on clearance but the downside is if I run short I can't just go buy another skein since most of it has been discontinued. My only other altenative's the internet, I did find the exact yarn I needed but it would've cost about $9 to buy it. That would've negated any savings from buying it onsale, not to mention havingt to wait for it. And we all know how patient I am!!

Winter has finally arrived in true form in our neck of the woods. We got another 4 or 5 inches with more predicted over the weekend. It's a lot like Syrucuse here weather wise, it's not only that you get snow, it's that it never melts between bouts so it just continuly piles up. Jackson has another 2 hour delay this morning so he'll be heading off to school around 10 or so. The cats are content to stay in, Vincent got very brave the other day and went outside for a good two and a half minutes.  He was fun to watch in any case, he was walking on the deck with exaggerated steps in an effort not to touch the snow, he looked like he was swimming. I made him come in the house and he was more than happy to oblige. The other two don't even look at the door, ever since Claw almost got eaten she's shown no desire to go out and Mr. Lee's not allowed in any case. I've got work tonight and tomorrow and then after that I don't know - I'll probably get my permenent schedule by friday. Either that or I'm off for the winter!!

Snow-body Snows The Trouble I've Seen.

Since it snows here all the way through May (or so!) I'm afraid that gives me free license to use the word "snow" in a variety of ways. This morning the tempeture was six below, but warmed up to a balmly 1 degree as I left for work. Work has been going fairly well, there are a large amount of nurses from NY there, one I  work with grew up in Center Moriches and my preceptor last night grew up in Queens. I'll be off orientation by Friday and will have a schedule by then. Jackson's school got dismissed early which I suspected it would - when I got up at noon the snow was coming down fairly well. I waited for him to call, he didn't so I got in the shower which would be when he called. He had to endure at least 30 minutes of true hardship and even managed to walk about 600 feet before I came and got him. This was due more to talking than snow, but he made the most out of what he considers a distressing situation. All of which was cured with two boxes of girlscout cookies when we got home (yes, it's that time of the year again!). I was a little annoyed that while he was at the bus stop he shared his cell phone so the other kids could call home for rides and then none of the parents offered him a ride home! They're predicting a full foot of snow for Sunday - don't tell David, I want it to be a surprise, LOL!!