GOOD HELP IS HARD TO FIND....

Getting these two to do any office work is like pulling hen's teeth....


They tend to lounge around and waste the day away doing stuff like..... sleeping!


"Wha...? You want me to do something? What? Load the printer with more paper... well, okay.... if you insist..."


"Where do we keep the paper again?"


"Is it in here....?"


"Is it up there...?"


"Alright, already... I'll close it when I'm done.... OKAY??!!!??"


"Blah, blahblah blah BLAH!"


"No.... I didn't say anything...."


"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"


"Okay.... I think I found it."


"Noooo... I am NOT dawdling...."


"Gimme a minute, will ya! It's hard to handle this stuff when you don't have fingers! Sheesh."


"I'm on my break. I'll get to it in 15 minutes."


"GAWD! This job is way too physical!!"


"I need to rest...."


"I was NOT sleeping on the job! Really, I wasn't...."


"I'm ready! For what.... I don't know.... but I am ready... honest!"

THANKFULNESS..... AND TURKEY DAY

Canadian Thanksgiving in just over a week away. In my family, it is a time to gather together, enjoying the warmth and love of each other's company, talking, eating and laughing. Sharing the bond that keeps us all close.

At this time of year, I always find myself reminiscing about past gatherings and the wonderful memories I carry with me in my head and in my heart.

It has been 19 years since my father died, five since Mum passed away, and almost three since my oldest sister, Laurel, was killed in a highway accident. Those three all live in my heart, with strong and special memories of each keeping me close to them.

This year, my oldest nephew and his lovely wife have recently relocated to Calgary so will not be with those of us who live in Winnipeg for the turkey fest. They will both be missed but knowing they'll be coming back at Christmas for a visit eases that.

My oldest and dearest best friend, Debbie, is coming up from Texas tomorrow. She'll be here visiting me, her in-laws and her mum and sister. She'll be here for Thanksgiving. She'll actually get two Thanksgivings this year, because she'll be back home in Texas for the American version next month.

I am so excited that she will be here - staying with me and giving us the opportunity to hang out together, which is something we really haven't done in a couple of decades to any great degree. We have been best buds for 36 years... I remember her telling me a few years ago that her oldest daughter (now 21 but then a teen) expressing envy at the length and apparent ease of our friendship. Debbie told her daughter that we both made the effort to keep our friendship alive and well - it didn't just do this on it's own. I don't think her daughter had any idea that you have to work at any relationship - even one with a girlfriend.

One of the poignant thoughts for me this Thanksgiving, although I no longer have my parents or my oldest sister here, is that Debbie doesn't really have hers either. Her dad died ten years ago. Her older sister (she just has the one sibling) is mentally handicapped, has OCD, paranoia and is a huge handful at the best of times.

Her mum, sadly enough, is now confined to a locked dementia unit in a local hospital, awaiting placement in a personal care facility that is equipped for the cognitively challenged. She now requires special care due to the severeity of her dementia and her increasingly aggressive behaviour. She is no longer a person that Debbie recognizes, just as she no longer recognizes her own daughter.

So Debbie doesn't really have any family left. She is like my own sister and I love her absolutely to bits. She will always be a part of my family, and now that hers is shrinking even smaller, I think this will become more important to her.

So my thanks goes to everyone in my family, for being who they are and for loving me for who I am. And also to my siblings for having always taken Debbie in as part of the family, as she's spent tons of time with them all when we were younger. For her loving me, for her supporting me in all the situations I have found myself involved in in my life, be they happy or sad, good or bad. She has always been there for me. I have always been there for her.

If two people could ever be soulmates, she and I are just that. We are connected, we think alike and have ESP when it comes to calling or when things happen to one or the other - we just seem to know.

So on this upcoming Turkey Day, Debbie will be joining me and my family, and she will be loved and welcomed in as one of the clan. I am glad she will be here... and I am glad I can be here for her.

BATTENING THE HATCHES...

Well, it is officially Fall now... on the calendar and by the temperature in my house last night. I was out with my girlfriends having dinner and when I got home, it was only 63F (my thermostat is old and is only in Fahrenheit).

Needless to say, it was freezing! Even my dog was chilly. The hairs on her back were standing up a bit. She'd probably been sleeping all evening while I was out - as she is wont to do - so no movement = no increase in body heat.

I was forced to turn the heat on. On Sept. 29th!!!! GAWD! In September I needed the heat on. That just sucks big time. It was just for a few hours and I turned it down overnight, but when the temp outside is 2 or 3C (yeah I know that is Celsius but that is what the weather icon on my taskbar tells me, so the thermostat and weather thingie are not on the same page, let alone in the same era), you gotta get the furnace pumping to take that chill out of the air. Especially when that air in indoors!

So today I replaced my old thermostat with a new, 5+1+1 day programmable one. All new-fangled and computerized. So now the house will cool down and heat up automatically and it should (as they claim) save me money in the long run.

I also replaced the door sweep on my door. I would say front door but it is on the side of the house. And it is the only swing-type door I have. As the only other door to the outside is the sliding patio type. So I got that freshly sealed to prevent cold air from wiggling it's way under the door in the dead of winter. The weather stripping around the door frame is in good shape.

To see the state of affairs above me, I climbed up into my attic today. Wanted to see what the insulation situation was like. Turns out it is that blown in grey stuff. It is pretty uneven, so I think I will buy some and spread it around to thicken things up. Have to figure out how much to put in there. The local hydro company has some pretty good tips on their website for this. They say you should have the attic insulated to R50. Will have to measure and figure out what I have now, so I know how much to add.

I also am going to make a rigid foam cover for my one and only basement window. It is an original, wooden framed window. All the other windows in the house were replaced with nice, decent quality vinyl windows a few years ago, so no worries there. Why they didn't included the basement one is beyond me. One more would have added about $300 to the total bill. So I think I will replace it in the spring, when funds are little freer (hopefully). For the winter, however, it will get a nice, thick layer of rigid foam insulation to keep the cold at bay.

Since I just moved into this house in July, I really don't have any idea what it will be like in the winter. I am certain it can't be as bad as the house I rented last winter, where there was old sawdust for insulation (the damn thing was built in 1900!) so it cost me over $300/month to heat the thing to a chilly 15C. I wore so many layers of clothes last winter INSIDE that it was friggin' ridiculous! I hated that house.....

But this house I really like. I have been in it for two months now and have done a little bit of decorating. I have a huge list of things planned to do in the future, but those will be tackled slowly and over a number of years to help defray the cost.

Unless, of course, I win a bit of something on the lottery.....

A NEW WORD IS BORN

I knew someone would find a name for our election process for this year.


Electile Dysfunction :
The inability to become aroused over any of the choices for PRIME MINISTER put forth by any party in the 2008 election year.

Amen!!!

IT'S TIME TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY

A man died in the ER department of a very busy local hospital on the weekend. A man who was sent to the ER by a community clinic where they were unable to help with his medical issue. The man was found dead in the waiting room approximately 34 hours after he arrived.

Today the details of this tragedy surfaced. This man was one of the homeless in Winnipeg who was a frequent ER visitor. He had a catheter that was blocked and was unable to drain urine from his bladder via that catheter. The autopsy showed he died of a bladder infection.

What also surfaced was that this man never registered at the triage desk in the ER so the staff did not know he was there. It also surfaced that the community clinic where he had been seen and sent to the ER in a cab from never called the hospital to say he was coming in.

Now, it is a horrible situation and should never have happened but who is at fault here?

One would think, that if you go to the ER with a problem, you have to go to the triage desk to let them register you and get you into the queue to be seen by a doctor. Or even a nurse. A plugged catheter can be easily replaced and the issue resolved, along with appropriate antibiotics to treat the infection. But this man did not bother to do that. He sat in the waiting room, getting more loaded with bacteria and septic by the hour, until he passed away. Unbeknownst to those around him, until someone finally noticed his lifeless form.

The ER staff at that hospital are extremely busy. It is a huge facility, with multiple hospitals rolled into one big conglomeration, and hundreds of people probably pass through that ER every day. If they don't know you're there, how can they help you?

The community clinic that sent the man there didn't follow up with any kind of contact to the ER. At least, that is what is mentioned in the news. So.... why did someone from that clinic not just call the ER and tell them they were sending this guy over and what the issue was? Why was there no follow up to see if the man had been attended to in the ER?

My opinion on this is that the man himself was the first one responsible for what happened. He'd been to the ER enough times to know that you have to present yourself at triage to be seen. He arrived in a cab, for gawd's sake, so he must have been well enough at that point to make it to the desk and tell them his story.

The second offender in this scenario is the community clinic, with lack of contact and follow-up with the ER. Continuity of care has to exist to ensure that things get done properly and in a timely manner. Health care is the one area where this is of extreme importance. Helloooo..... it obviously makes a difference between life and death.

I can't say that the ER staff are really to blame, but one would think that a guy whose been parked in a corner somewhere for a day and a half would be noticed by the staff at some point - hopefully before he's dead. But I haven't spent any time in that ER so I really can't say what it is like. I guess it really depends on how busy it is (and I do know that many ER's are crazy-go-nuts most of the time) and how observant the staff are; whether they are understaffed and overworked or whatever.

All I can say is, is that everyone needs to take responsibility for themselves. In all aspects of their lives. Don't expect someone else to look after you if you are capable of making decisions for yourself, cuz more than likely that won't happen. And if someone is NOT able to take responsibility for themselves, then someone needs to be assigned to do that, be it family or a worker in whatever capacity. And they need to follow through until everything is resolved.

It is a tragedy, and I am waiting for the legal fallout to happen. Will this man's family sue the hospital, or the community clinic? If they do, where the hell were they when he ended up in that clinic and then the ER? Who will be disciplined for this in the health care settings where this man was seen (or not)?