Is it only Wednesday? You're kidding me!

Where to begin? Since my last placid blog of Sunday, I have been one busy girl. This is a busy week as the lobster season here ends Thursday so gear is being landed, lobsters put down in the pound, boats switched over to go fishing and general chaos. I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to distance myself from this confusion but it is contagious.

The most exciting thing happening on Sunday was that the man of the house decided to install his birthday present of a CD player/radio in the sauna. No, he hasn’t completely jumped off the edge of his sanity, this is where it’s meant to go. The speakers were already installed when we bought the sauna but the new receiver needed to be wired to the speakers and set up on the walk in close shelf behind the sauna. Sounds easy right? Well, I’m here to tell you that it required a joint effort (again I felt like a scrub nurse assisting a preeminent surgeon) and much muttering and grunting. First removal of all the Christmas decorations to access the top of the sauna. Then himself standing on the top handle (you heard me, not step) of the step stool while I held it down and he balanced on the fulcrum of the edge of the sauna roof while he gestured wildly for tools which I was supposed to read his mind for (hence the reminding me of the surgeon descriptor) accompanied by loud unintelligible sounds of arrghhhh, ugh, oomph etc. This was alternated with hustling over to the bathroom and jumping up the sauna bench, fishing frantically in the speaker holes in the ceiling then stomping back to the closet. Repeated multiple times. Almost unbelievably, the system was hooked up in about 45 minutes and even more incredible it works beautifully. Then restacking the holiday decorations and voila - all done. Pretty tame really.

Monday brought with it a trip to the district center to work for the day, meaning an extra early start, a 35 minute delay in traffic and then hitting the ground running when I got through the doors. It was vaccinations up the ying yang, the phone just non stop and then a rush off to do the orientation presentation. A large crowd, a number I’d worked with in long term care so kind of old home week and then a rushed lunch. A traveling immunization clinic through the ER and OR staff and then notice of a mumps teleconference at 3:30 p.m. Sure - why not? I’m already into the time in lieu at a level it’ll be hard to recoup, what’s another hour. Then a stop for a scrapbook for the house construction scrapping and home to start my second shift. All plans to ‘eat out of the fridge and pretend we’re childless’ for the man and me disappeared as plans turned into a casserole for supper to feed two offspring one friend and ourselves for a total of 5 by 7 p.m.

The # 1 son related a tale of attempting to go to town with the girlfriend to pay her insurance but only made it half way as…someone must’ve huffed a beer bottle out on the road (what were they thinking he says, everyone knows you should throw them in the woods - how about not throwing them out at all I suggest - blank look - but I digress) so he blows a large tire in his 4 x 4 truck. He manages to get the vehicle to the side of the road and starts walking (no spare of course) when the local junk yard owner (who this boy has single handedly supported for several years now) picks them up in the large tow truck (girlfriend tells me she needs to check her jacket for grease as the interior was black) and delivers them to the garage where he patches the tire. In town he connects with someone he calls Fizz (in depth questioning reveals that this boy’s mother named him Curtis which I find a perfectly acceptable moniker but what would I know?) who takes them back to the truck. Since he can change a tire with his eyes closed he is quickly underway again and home but….the insurance still wasn’t paid. The dog got walked as dusk was falling. Memo to self - bad idea - this is when the June bugs come out. A nice email from a friend saying her son was now engaged - can’t even see that (and don’t want to at this point) from here but sure am happy for them.

Tuesday was an even earlier start , another traffic delay of ½ an hour plus the hour drive to the district center to meet the boss and a co-worker for the drive to a district infection control meeting another hour further on. A chance to discover all that we’re unable to do as both programs are under siege. Had a nice lunch though at a place called The Boardwalk in downtown Digby, highly recommend it if you’re traveling that way. Another hour and a half time in lieu. What a long day. Did get to read the paper when I was being chauffeured to the meeting and found a 60 year old going home from the hospital with twins. Yeah, you heard me right and there was no mention of a psychiatric evaluation either - go figure! Tonight the plans to eat leftovers materialized and the dog did get walked before the June bug witching hour. Only the second day of the week and I was ready for a day off.

I knew that Wednesday (today) was going to be a bummer when a bird committed suicide on the grill of the car before I made it to the golf course on my way to work. It was already a write off when I just looked in the date book with the consultant who does fit testing for N95 particulate respirators booked for the morning. My day starts with - what else? Vaccinations, attempting to wade through the messages and then a visit from the ambulance folks who have been told to visit for their vaccinations. In the middle of this the computer decides to be really cranky and takes about 25 minutes just to open a Word document so I have to call the help desk (have NO idea why they call it that as that would denote assistance) The tester is late as he’s stuck in construction in three different spots on the way down from the city.

Lots of new employees for who I’m trying to sort the health records for. In the middle of this, one of the trades people appears at the door with an unknown man and they begin to discuss door stops (try to unearth mine to show me but it’s buried in the confusion of my office) and how this man has to install 4 or 5 in the renovation project and wants my approval. I look blankly at them and say “get going” but they hesitate and ask if they’ll “get in trouble” I assure them that if it’s trouble they’re concerned about, they sure won’t get it from me today! I don’t even have a chance to connect with daughter # 1 who drops by after having a job interview in town. Sigh.

By 1 p.m. the consultant is on the road, I’m wolfing my lunch in front of the email and then off on another round. The project manager appears at my door with air testing results (fine) but staff are concerned about the skunk like smell of the renovation project This requires a walk through by the Nurse Manager, Project Manager and myself and the thoughts are that it is the smell of the new flooring. In the course of the immunizations one of the staff tells me that “the Bank likes it when I work” and I thought ‘I hear you sister’. When I finally manage to extricate myself from the phone/computer/papers to head out I’m only ½ hr late so I’m gaining.

Home to hear the story of the day from the # 1 son as they were landing gear today. The unwell neighbour who he’s been helping and the neighbour’s son (who had injured his back) start the day out by not being able to get into the outboard for the trip to the boat anchored on the mooring. Our son says to himself at 5 a.m. that “this is going to be a long day” as he gets the boat off the mooring, brings it to the wharf and the other two crawl down the ladder. Within a short time the neighbour’s son is on his hands and knees on the deck (crawling around like a dog as described by the storyteller at supper) due to back pain and the neighbour is doing his best to just steer the boat. As our son tells another fisherman “it can’t be that hard to go lobstering alone, I did it today”. When they are down to only 18 traps left the neighbour catches a glove in the hoist and his hand is yanked suddenly into the hauler. It is amazing that he doesn’t lose fingers, let alone his hand. He yells for help and our son manages to throw it out of gear. He has a nasty cut/crush injury on the edge of his hand and of course refuses medical attention, he does however call his wife to come pick him up and ices it. Fishing is one of the most dangerous industries in the world and this is just one example. The highlight of our son’s day is to be told by this fisherman of 53 years that “you shouldn’t be on a boat if you don’t know what you’re doing and I’ve had a lot of hired men but I’ve never had one as good as you” I’m not sure his 19 year old head will fit in his hat in the morning now. He’s now into planning for fishing which is likely to begin on Saturday. This is the apprenticeship planned where he learns to be able to take the boat fishing on his own by this fall if needed. He’s like a duck that boy, great on the water, awkward on land.

Must write myself a note to remember the milk in the a.m. Our milk delivery here is Monday and Thursday and we get 3 - 2L of skim milk and 1 - 2L of orange juice when we turn the sign around. On Monday there were no dairy products there when I got up. The man of the house had me convinced that ‘someone was thirsty and took our order’ Now why they would just do this now after 20 yrs of delivery and why they’d want such a healthy order I’m not sure. But his concern was that they would repeat this and the milk should be left in the barn. I fell for the line and called the milk man. He left a sheepish voice mail today saying that he’d left the interior light on in his truck cab, run the battery dead and not made Monday’s delivery for the first time in his history without calling and was very apologetic. I told the man of the house to stop watching CNN and remember we live in rural NS where the answer is human error not human evil.