The shore captain is keeping early mornings (and thus off to la la land by 9 pm) all this week (well, most weeks who I am kidding?) as he has boats coming and going. The lad is off to see his girlfriend this weekend and left in a cloud of expensive cologne on Friday pm. So, it's just me and the animals enjoying the beach house. Off to pick up a few groceries shortly but first to update you. 

Looking at return to work tomorrow although I can't say I'm feeling as if I've had my usual days off.  After spending most of the afternoon of my 'in between days and night shift' on the phone for meetings,  a good chunk of that night shift doing the nine online NRP pretests which we have to pass to do the course on Tuesday and then answering the phone for a call back ambulance run the next evening. It wasn't the overtime which attracted me but it has been a while since I climbed in the back of an EHS rig so just wanted to see if this old gal could still swing it. An interesting ride to say the least, one of those situations where you say "well it seemed like a good idea at the time" kind of like labour. After a 45 minute wait for a cab at the EHS base (taxi had gone to the local hospital through some sort of miscommunication) I was on my way back. Only caught a short nap as the driver had what sounded like bronchitis and a loud cough brought me fully awake and disorientated as in "why am I in the middle of an ashtray in the fog with a bald headed man driving through the middle of nowhere at 3 am?". Got to hear his life story (demented father-in-law they'd cared for x 12 yrs., complete with adult protection et al, who was placed in a nursing home, fell and broke his hip within 12 hrs. of admission and died within the week) as well as the 25 yr. old son who was trying to die in the regional hospital ICU as he was a junkie who had been septic but was now recovering and they were looking at rehab. This lad had completely wiped out bank accounts for his parents and caused such grief that I was grateful the story came as I was exiting the cab so I could escape the pain. I headed back inside to find that the fun had continued and so I was glad to make my way out to the car and home. Arrived as the shore captain was getting up at 5 a.m. to head over to the plant, he didn't look surprised to see me in my uniform but said "yeah, I heard the phone ring at some point and woke up to find that you weren't in the bed so I figured it was something like that". Good to know that he's so concerned about my security - you know if the abductors called and lured me somewhere anytime after 9 p.m.....

Speaking of him taking his roommate responsibilities seriously...I called the local Source store where they'd ordered the charger for my iPod shuffle as it seemed like it should've been here by now. When I spoke to the one person who usually knows what's going on and receives my trust he says "oh I'm sure I saw that was in a couple of days ago, what do you mean you weren't called? I'll check" He returns shortly to read off the packing slip "shuffle usb charging cable, called August 8th at 5:20 pm, left a message with a man". So, as I told him "well that narrows the list down to two and I have my theory as to which suspect didn't give me the message".  And yes, the charger works perfectly with my eBay iPod shuffle and enabled me to remove Sky's choice of music, sync with my 100+ playlist on iTunes and enjoy the tunes while the dog and I get our exercise.

But added to the list of male transgressions is also the 'not paying attention while watching TV' one. I handed him the daily newspaper with an article inside about teachers (which of course with a teacher daughter is of interest). When I questioned him later as to what he thought of it he said "well, I read about the indoor air quality but I couldn't make a connection". I was surprised and said "so, you didn't turn the page but just looked at what I handed to you because you weren't listening to the instructions?" Can't even blame it on the coverage of the Olympics as this isn't a new phenomena for him.

Now, of the two males in the household, apparently the younger of the two (or so it was revealed by one fisherman talking to another while awaiting cases at the court house - but that's another story) had sold his mossing punt. This raised questions as to how he was planning to continue to rake irish moss and since the materials and most of the labour had been supplied by his father a few years ago, was it even to be called 'his' punt? After tracking him down the junior captain claimed that he had a new outboard coming out of the mould at the boat building shop that evening for the same price as he'd sold the punt. Explains all the fiberglas in his clothes lately but I'm sure that's still only a partial story. As they were working on installing the various metal fixtures in the boat and getting ready to use the grinder, the only son asks his buddy to pass him the safety glasses which apparently raised the question of "what's up with you being all about safety today?" to which he replied "my mother's the RN working in Emerg tonight and getting something in my eye isn't the way I want to see her." Might also have to do with having had a piece of metal in there before and passing out after having it scrapped off as well as arc welders flash from welding in the dark last week and the accompanying nurse yak about all of that. Whatever the reason - I'll take it.

And while on the topic of safety and reminding me of the Twitter feed I receive called Overheard at my Workplace, I offer the following story. One of my coworkers was telling another about cattle as her husband had called for the phone number of a local farmer as Molly was in heat. It seems (with apologies to all vegans everywhere) that Molly is to be bred, not eaten, well actually her babies will be eaten but that is the way of the farm. The coworker's teenaged son is involved with 4H and this time of year with exhibitions there are livestock competitions to work towards awards etc. I walked in to the office to hear "they should never have given him that big a cow, it wasn't like ours who are very calm and like big dogs, even though Molly weighs 1450 lbs. she just follows you around. This one had never been broken in and when they were doing fluff and buff and used the clippers he just went right out through the stall and it took three men to help get him back". Only in the country.

Speaking of ranching country - had a phone call from the western daughter advising that she had gone for an interview with a new company and I was pleased to see that they recognized her as the smart, hardworking female we do and offered her a position. This sounds like it will be a better fit with a safety focus, more hours, better pay and also another female electrician on staff. Appears she had a good first day and will have lots of work.

Am including a shot of my black eyed susans here which I think I've gotten settled out by the mailbox at the end of the driveway. They remind me of the trip down the driveway at Grammie's in River Phillip to get the mail from the mailbox when we visited on summer vacation. A bit of creative landscaping was required to keep them from washing into the ditch but they now seem happy in their new home. The canine footprints show they've become accepted as part of the local greenery. I have harvested some of the prolific ornamental onions as the gift which keeps on giving and rescued some of my shrubs from the briars, but overall my gardens have to learn to be self sufficient.

Okay, have eased in to my Sunday morning gently enough it seems by downloading music and posting to the blog and I'm off to provision the household as we have friends from out west coming to stay over on Tuesday night. Looking forward to traveling with and spending the day with my buddy tomorrow so that will make the work day a bit more enjoyable.