http://bit.ly/I2SwjI
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| Our villa - jacuzzi too |
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| Lion fish alert |
We arrived home to some sad feline news as the boy captain reported that Klyde (our Himalayan cat) had had a "kitty stroke or something" a few days after we left as he was fine in the morning when he left to go lobstering but he found him dead in front of the door upon coming home late that night. Apparently it was a bit of a challenge to dig the grave with the collarbone still troublesome.The other two felines were pretty shaken up. Klyde was only 11 and hadn't had any health problems so it was a bit of a surprise but he obviously didn't suffer and we didn't have to make the tough decision if he was. Still look for him at times though.
With only ten days to study for PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) while working my shifts it was a busy return to reality. It was nice to have the teacher daughter visit over Easter, just after her birthday so we had supper at Lothar's Cafe (great as usual) and she was pleased with an Easter egg hunt. We worked on her wedding scrapbook and it is just awaiting a few final photos. Good to have it done before her second anniversary.
I took a vacation day to study before the PALS course as all that social life on the weekend took its toll and did manage to make it through the course material, complete the pretest and study some of the algorithms. The final night shift I worked did not allow for sitting down, let alone studying anything so that was it. A short nap on Friday and then off to the city for an overnight with the daughter and son-in-law.
Over to the IWK for the course early in the a.m. and it was intense. Met several students who I'd known in my 'former life' and one of the physicians from our hospital attended as well. My group consisted of a military RN who barked "understood" when asked a question, a newish grad who had memorized the book but didn't have much experience, an advanced paramedic who does Life Flight throughout the north and hadn't even read the manual as he lived the material, a Doc I'd worked with on my ENP clinical (a left over hippie) and another more intense one who does locums in Ontario and BC so an eclectic group for sure. We were pretty shell shocked when we were sent on our way at 4:30 p.m.
I headed downtown to catch the end of the Lung Run which is a 5k (first) race for the daughter. It was a beautiful warm, sunny day for the 500 + participants and she was 29/69 in her class with a time of 28:12 so not shabby at all for a first effort. She was still on her runners high so we headed home to change gears and out for supper. Enjoyed a wonderful meal at Palladium Family Restaurant in Cole Harbour which is owned by my sister-in-law's son (insert nepotism disclaimer here on the rave review) and so we caught up with him on the family news.
http://palladiumfamily.ca/
The quesadillas were fantastic, the Greek nachos - pita, feta, chicken, olives and more with tzatziki were wonderful and then we ordered spankopita, rice and veggies - too much food! So we had enough for lunches for three people the next day as the servings are huge. The only negative was no room for dessert and they are all homemade. Sigh.
The final course day was very stress inducing with a bit of a review then the written exam with a passmark of 84% meaning you could only get four questions wrong out of 33 - good idea I guess if you're a parent of a sick kid but nerve wracking for the PALS students. Then the exam results aren't shared until you complete the practical testing being team leader in two major scenarios of cardiac, respiratory and shock. Reconvene to find out our results (insert celebratory whoop for the 97% here) and we make a run for it.
The physician from work was heading over to the Bryan Adams concert with a group of nurses from our workplace, ensuring a good time was had by all. I however have my sights set on the Bruce Springsteen concert which has been announced for Magnetic Hill in Moncton on August 26th and there is always Cyndi Lauper in July - so many concerts so little time.
I stop at the Frenchy's near my daughter's place in Dartmouth which is a pretty good one and score lots of great stuff while I get myself calmed down enough to be sociable. I make it back as her mother-in-law and sister-in-law arrive and we catch up on the news and enjoy a BBQ supper in the warm spring evening. I set out for the trek home making it by 8 pm. finding.....the life partner sick in bed. Welcome home.
Both the boy captain (who has enough sense like his mother to just go to bed until he gets better) and the shore captain (who feels he must be the center of things and responsible for the universe and parks himself in the middle of what is going on) have been ill with the viral illness making its rounds. It even afflicted the electrician daughter out west putting her off work for a week. HOW I have escaped it after being trapped in triage last week with so many suffering from it and then the men folk I'm not sure but...fingers crossed.
The mailbox yesterday yielded a charger from Kowloon, Hong Kong for my iPod shuffle - thank you eBay for both of those purchases. Whether the shuffle is hot or not is uncertain - it is pink - but it does have a rather eclectic collection of music downloaded which I discovered when I charged it. Adding my own playlist (which I've been developing) of 500 songs which it will hold or removing the 'pants hanging off the buft' so-called music will be a task for the youngest daughter when she visits next.
Today I mailed my income tax return as the shore captain finally picked it up from the company and I was unimpressed to find they had not claimed for any of my travel expenses to do with education. Apparently the medical travel is no problem but you must keep a mileage log, gas receipts, insurance and maintenance bills if you wish to claim education costs. The only problem with reconstructing that list would be the gas receipts and so as I had made 8+ trips to the city associated with the course I kissed $600 goodbye. Not as if I don't pay enough taxes so I was significantly displeased at not being given a heads up on that one last year. Not the least with the questioning as to why I had done the course if my employer required it but hadn't funded it -already a bit of a sore spot with me! The suggestion that I could do it next year is not helpful as a) we are already at the end of April and no gas receipts have been saved yet b) I have done the hateful course and don't plan to repeat such insanity. Good thing I was on my way to a massage appointment after that phone conversation.
In ending my 'me day' I'm readying myself to go out to a scrapbooking session this evening - working on the album from fall 2009 so just a wee bit behind but with the regaining of the life situation I will be rectifying that.
Back to work in the a.m. for my four shifts. Likely going to be a struggle as it's the first complete set of shifts I've worked in a while. Gotta make that retirement plan as I don't want to fall in to the Five Regrets as in this link:
Or perhaps I will find a volunteer situation that works for me - this link was in one of the books I read on vacation called The Bear Ate My Pants which was the story of volunteering in an animal rescue organization outside of Quito, Ecuador:
Gotta leave something for the next post, so a promise to share some travel info sites. Hasta leugo.
