A Pretty Good Time

A few moments as I wait for the shore captain to arrive for supper – he is loading trawl and ice on the fishing boat and “doing some other stuff” so I anticipate the time change of last weekend which has given him later daylight hours is the reason. This has been a beautiful sunny, although windy day which I have spent in style. What a great day to have off – from paid employment at least. After sleeping in I washed three loads of laundry and wrestled them onto the clothesline and they are well aired out with today’s stiff breeze. A dog walk (which turned into a run as we were chased by a hound dog down the road) in the sunshine. Then a baking ‘spree’ where I whipped up a loaf of oatmeal bread in the bread maker, a sponge (or hot milk cake if that’s how you know it) with green icing (lime flavored) for the St. Patrick’s Day patient party at work, a batch of chocolate chip cookies and a roaster of apple pan dowdy. That should hold things down for the next three 12 hour day shifts in a row, but I digress. The sunshine was so warm through the windows I had to leave the door to the veranda open when I was baking, much to the delight of the felines who smiled in the rays and moved from one piece of furniture to another.

Had a call at noon from the two oldest daughters who were enjoying their week together in style. Actually the call was to settle a local trivia question (which required research in the phone book – they had tried their Dad’s cell but he didn’t answer) as they headed down to Drumheller from Red Deer. It was apparently warm, sunny and scenic and they were both in high spirits. Stories of bison viewing at local parks, shopping at West Edmonton Mall etc. were shared until the cell phone signal was lost. Nice for them to have time off as they’ve both been working hard. Although the visiting guest had forgotten her camera in the excitement of packing, she had remembered the lobsters and salt fish which were a big hit and apparently packed more than one pair of pants – so less drama with March Break versus Christmas sisters.

Speaking of hard work….Last night when I dragged myself through the door after a particularly hectic (but highly entertaining) 12 hour day in the Emergency Department I found the life partner looking pretty much like I did. “I saved you some of the pot roast leftovers to microwave” he said. Since I had only gulped a bowl of chowder and biscuit (while documenting on forms) which a coworker was dispatched to fetch at noon from the cafeteria, I wasn’t about to argue with that. Then he discovered on the movie channel, The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, which we settled in to watch with Tostitos and salsa. Since I am in love with Denzel Washington this wasn’t a hardship and I thoroughly enjoyed the line where he answers his wife wasn’t happy with a decision he made but accepted it, and the reply was “that’s love” but Denzel says “no, that’s marriage, they’re two completely different things”. Hard to argue that point after almost 33 years.

Still recovering from the very flying trip to the city on Friday (after a slight delay for a medical first responder call – more on that later) where we took the above mentioned seafood, some grandmother things and a flashstick of photos for delivery to the western daughter by the student teacher. We had a double date with daughter # 2, her fiancé at It’s All Greek to Me, which is a great Greek restaurant on Quinpool Road. The owner of the Montessori school where this daughter has taught apparently has lunches catered by this establishment as it’s part of her extended Greek family. Lucky kids. The departure delay was due to the shore captain’s doing his CSI thing on a phone call to his diabetic employee and deducing he was likely having a low blood sugar. He attempted to call him back (no answer as the phone was off the hook) so he asked me to contact a neighbour (no luck as she was home alone with the five children she babysits) so stopped on the way home but was stood off at the door by an obviously hypoglycemic occupant. He made a hasty trip home to enlist my aid and get ready for the city. A quick call to the employee’s spouse at the nursing home where she works who advised she’d had to call EHS the previous Friday for the same thing and he’d regained consciousness with a large Mountie sitting on his chest. By the time we reached his house the Manor van was sitting in their yard while the occupants enjoyed their picnic of sandwiches and cookies with the Day Program Coordinator while the employee’s spouse was doing her best (at a distance due to the resistive hypoglycemic behavior) to encourage him to drink his orange juice and eat his tuna sandwich. We stayed long enough to ensure he had enough calories on board to make it safe enough to leave him until their daughter arrived home at 4 p.m. and headed out on courier trip.

Had a chat on the weekend with the baby daughter who is doing well in her studies and pulling off Bs or better while working lots of hours with the homecare agency. She was hoping to add a second job to her schedule for the summer as her classes are over by April 18th. There will be a bit of juggling required for the wedding in June but family get togethers don’t usually come in such pleasant varieties, so a good problem to have.

Tomorrow morning I’m picking up a co-worker jus t up the road and it is very nice to have a local traveling companion for the commute and workday. Good chance to get caught up on all the news and assures that there will be at least one friendly face looking back at me in the a.m. Have sent the prodigal son in this evening to sample the new triage system as he advised me this morning that he had ‘something’ in his left eye, which on further questioning he admitted was likely metal in. I encouraged him to go to Emerg but to no avail, he thought it was better after eye drops. Tonight he arrived home with a very reddened eye and the suggestion it might be a sty – NOT – so now he has (hopefully) headed in to seek medical assistance.

Well, time to close with the quote of the day:

If only we'd stop trying to be happy we'd have a pretty good time. - Edith Wharton