Scenic Tour

Well now today was some kind of a day. I did the scenic tour of southwestern NS up to the Bay of Fundy. It started out as a planned jaunt to a Workers Compensation information session but went quickly down hill before I even got out of the driveway. I started out for my session and was soon driving with the cell phone glued to my ear (yes, yes I’m fully aware of the safety issues on that one) as I talked to the Nurse Manager of the facility 2.5 hrs drive away that I’m covering for. I did make it in (a few minutes after the start of the presentation due to a lengthy construction delay on the 103) to the WCB session . But by 9:45 I had managed to disrupt my table mates three times as I left to retrieve messages, had eaten a dry muffin and drunk a lukewarm cup of tea I snatched on one of my trips by the side table, and decided that I could be presenting the info as it was very basic and geared towards novices in industry. So I muttered “mumps” to the WCB physician as I made my exit and was off and running.

The Nurse Manager had convinced me that if I and the Public Health nurse did a tag team visit we could speed immunize a generous number of their staff. She was getting to the frantic point as far as staffing goes so I thought this might reassure her a bit. I stopped at the regional hospital, picked up some paperwork, switched cold packs and loaded up the cooler with 70 does of vaccine and headed out. I made it about 10 minutes outside of town before I was caught in another construction project on the 101 and delayed for about 20 minutes. I had a phone call from one of the team (who’s office I’d raided for paperwork) to tell me I’d (of course) picked up the wrong version of the consent so she emailed the new version to the Nurse Manager at my destination.

Arriving late I walked into a lineup in my colleagues office (never seen it before) so the PH nurse and myself made ourselves at home and started the production line. In two hours we managed to immunize 33 employees and with secretarial help (something that I was thrilled to have for a change) the paperwork was all completed before we left. The group was very appreciative and cooperative and much like my own facility so no problems. I retraced my route and was only 1 hr. into overtime by the time I returned. The 400 km road trip did give me a chance to listen to The Secret on CD while I was being paid.

A phone call on the way home to the man of the house revealed that one of our neighbours (a cancer survivor) was having a hard time getting his traps hauled due to labour difficulties. His son had put his back out, he’d had three different hired men in the past two weeks (one who didn’t show up at all, the second who made it once and the last one who called drunk at 4:30 as they were supposed to be leaving) and he was exasperated saying “if I’d known it was going to be this kind of spring I’da never put my traps in the water. I haven’t made enough to pay for the hard grease on the shaft” The landings have been very poor and the past two days when there were a few lobsters he couldn’t get his pots hauled. The consensus on the wharf was that he could use a break so someone was dispatched to see if the prodigal son here could be released from his gear rigging duties to assist. As I have a message to ‘make an extra lunch’ that appears to be the plan. His money management issues aside, the boy knows how to work so I’m sure this will lift the spirits of the afflicted neighbour.

Supper was surf and turf which in our version was BBQ hamburgers and lobsters which didn’t pass the fitness test. Did you know that lobsters have to be able to do a stomach curl so they will stand being kept in the pound or shipped? The weaks come home to our pot so we actually eat more since the man of the house has been buying them (past 15 years) than when he was just catching them (got to sell every one if they‘re yours). The youngest daughter and her main squeeze joined us and enjoyed the feast.

It was then discovered that in my haste and excitement of leaving this morning I had been completely oblivious to the fact it was Thursday (which is a milk delivery day) and the milk sign was turned to yes at the head of the driveway. This meant that 2 - 2L of milk and 1 - 2L of orange juice (worth the GDP of a small African nation) had been basking in the sun since it arose this morning. I knew my schedule was going to catch up with me.

As I walked the dog, one of the neighbours (an elderly bachelor) stopped in his truck to ask if I was “looking for a man” which is a sort of joke locally as a few years back some women who had never been known to walk regularly began having evening trysts under the cover of fitness. I laughed and told him I had enough trouble with the one I had (which would officially be 30 yrs next month) and he agreed that not being together was (unfortunately) becoming more common nowadays. Disclaimer - My apologies here to all those in non original marriages …He told me with a big grin of a man in one of the local communities who had married a divorcee and when someone made the comment that he had a ‘new’ wife he answered “well you can say new, but slightly used I guess” My neighbour asked if I was enjoying my job and when I said “no” he said “well you’ll just have to find something else, you have before” So I explained I was kind of running out of local options and really just hanging in until released from tuition and he pondered this and decided that was ‘a good enough reason’ to which I agreed. I always enjoy my conversations with him because although he doesn’t have a lot of formal education he is extremely well read and very insightful. We’ve had some excellent discussions on the health care system, not much slips by him.

Must go and make those lunches I’ve been talking about. Yeehaw - tomorrow IS Friday.