WILLIAMSBURG PICTURES

SUNDAY

Emily and I got up early and were off to the Christmas Flower Show.   I was disappointed because what they had mostly were the LONGFELLOW GLAS BY FRABEL and even though I liked them the show was more of the glass and not very Christmassy.     I was disappointed to say the least.  Last year there were a plethora of Christmas trees and seasonal decorations and Poinsettias of every color, at least red, pink, white and shades of variegation.   This year there were very few.

The picture below was in the main entrance where last year there were decorated evergreens.

Christmas 2008, same position below

This year there was just one little woodland setting.

 

 

2008 Below

 

 

 

2009 Tree.

I think it is time for the Frabels to move on to their next location.

Note to Tami, don’t bother to come down to see the show.  And that’s the truth.

OUT AND ABOUT EARLY

Up early and OTD to go to Sears. Yesterday the traffic was crazy, or so I hear from the news reports. Today there was hardly any, at least at 7 AM.

Got my shopping done and off to the Library to get more books out. I wish I had gone into town because there were not many books to choose from. I got there at 11 so their either had not put the returns out or there was a crowd that checked them all out early this morning.

Got a quick stop at the supermarket, Lucy the cat does not like the chicken cat food, she licks the sauce and then tries to cover up the rest; it is really funny watching the cat try to cover up things with the ceramic tile floor. So, I got a selection of things she prefers and will dilute my supply with hated chicken.

Spent the afternoon going thru my notes and adding to my Ancestry Family Tree. I had told my brother Bill I would send it to him, so I hope to get it in the mail this week.

Really an uneventful Saturday !!!!! And I like it that way........

COME AND GONE

 

Turkey day has come and gone.....There was just the immediate family, except for Bill.    My brother and his wife had cooked a turkey and a turkey breast.   There were all the usual accompaniments.     I made the quintessential Green Bean Casserole and corn.     To feed that crowd I cooked three bags of frozen vegetables of each, most of it was consumed.  

I had taken my camera but somehow forgot about it and didn't get any pictures taken.   What is unusual, and I don't know  why, the nephews are all dating and none of the nieces are dating anyone.    Is Mr Right an endangered species, are the girls busy studying in their careers?    I hope to think that is the case.

One niece is enrolled in the Doctorate program for PT.   One will graduate and plans on going to Nursing School, One is in school to peruse OT, Emily is  in Nursing School and two are in  High School.    The guys are also in college, graduated from college or planning to go to college.   It is amazing how the time flew.

The next gathering in Christmas and I hope to take pictures then.  I have the vegetable assignment then too.    I have to decide what to make for that day.  I have a month to prepare and need to know how many will be there.

THANKSGIVING 2009

Just sitting here perusing the Internet because I am not cooking dinner today.   Last year I had Thanksgiving at our house with all the family.

I think Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, it is not religion specific and anyone can celebrate.   When I was a child I started wondering what I would be doing next Thanksgiving.   I have had the same thought ever since.   Sometimes I have been really surprised.

The first time that stands out is we were in Pennsylvania eating at one of our parents and a year later we were living in Korea.  My husbands job had taken us there.   I do remember my friend Ruth hosted the dinner,  sorry Ruth I don't remember the menu.    Finding western foods in an Asian country  was quite challenge.    They had the black market where you could find anything at a price.    Things like baked beans, cranberry sauce, peanut butter and any other things that were not on the Koreas diet.   I can imagine how much different it is there now.

The next time, it was 1977 I think.  We were in Yugoslavia and we ate our dinner in a castle.    There were two choices to dinner,   I remember that half of the diners got sick, and it was a food borne illness.   I did not get sick, but I just can't remember what was the culprit at that meal.     The castle was now a restaurant and the wall were covered with tapestry. 

There were all sort of castles in Europe, the built them on the top of hills and now they are in ruins, hotels or bed and breakfasts, or museums.   I have to dig out my old photos and scan them.    I will make that a project for the new year,  I do not think it warrants a resolution.

Today we are going to my brother Richard's five of the six live in Western PA.   My other brother in VA could not make it because his wife and daughter have to work at sometime this weekend.   My contribution is going to be the vegetables, which is better than my sister Shawnna, who is going to peal and cook 10 pounds of potatoes.   Sounds like a prison job to me.   I should not have said that, it may be my job next year.

DAY BEFORE TURKEY DAY

Today seemed to drag on and on at work. It wasn't too busy, just 25 scheduled cases but then there were the add ons. That is what we call the semi-emergencies. Things that need to be done and mostly come in thru the ER.

Today I did a potpourri of different things. Hernia, Incision and Drainage of a massive blood clot (Called an I&D, for the incision and drainage) that does not need a description, but it usually is not pleasant.

Then on to Urology and relief for a Laminectomy. I think the add ons increased the schedule by 50%. I must be honest, what I was thinking about was I wish this day would end and I could go home.

When I left at five it was already dark. I usually go the back way, but since it was dark I did not want to drive the dark and windy roads, so I got stuck in some of the rush hour traffic. (Why is it called rush hour when the traffic slows to a crawl?)

I will be off for four days and I know it will fly like the wind.

Tuesday Have you Noticed?

Somehow, I should have realized, but I didn't. I was sitting here and thinking of what should I write about today......Then I checked the Blogs of Note, on the bottom of the Dashboard.

I went to one, and then traveled onto the Next Blog. Somehow, or maybe it is magic, when you get to the content of one all the rest are of the same genre, or does genre only apply to movies?

I have perused many book reading and evaluations, blogs on fashion, or so they call it in some instances. And then there are blogs that are just plain weird. How do people think this stuff up, really, how do they.

The ones I some how I got on their trail, were blogs started when the children were born and their lives. There are really a lot of those, I suppose I am jealous of them. When the daughter was born there were no blogs. I guess I would have had tendinitis in right index finger from taking so many pictures myself. I took a roll a month, but sometimes the flash on the camera would work and sometimes it would not. I did not have the money at that time just to out and buy a new one.

Maybe I could scan the ones I have, adjust them in Photoshop and then make a belated blog........I will have to think on that.

CAN NOT BELIEVE IT

My last patient of the day was cancelled. This woman (age 28) came to the hospital, for elective surgery, and had a full blown case of the flu...

What was she thinking, that no one would notice???? She was coughing and hacking, febrile with major body aches and pains.

Are people really that stupid not to realize that she would not be done for an elective procedure with the flu, and how many people did she contaminate with that stunt?

Is this a part of the rampant "its all about me" I asked the daughter, what would she do......"not go." she had the common sense before she went to Nursing School....

There is nothing more dangerous that masses of stupidity.

QUOTES OF THE DAY

"Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against
somebody rather than for somebody."
 - Franklin P. Adams

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government
fears the people, there is liberty."
- Thomas Jefferson

SUNDAY AGAIN

I realized that I had not written in my blog for a week. There is nothing going on except work, work, work, Emily is on a break from Friday till after Thanksgiving, but she has a test on Tuesday.

On Thursday she said she had a sore throat and by Friday morning she has a cold. No muscle, whole body aches. So it is not the flu. She had a regualr flu shot, but the Nursing Students have not yet been offered the H1N1 shots. One would think that people in health care would have been offered them. They are allowed only 2 sick days but the school told them if they got the flu they would be OK with their make up time.

The ICUs in our area are filling up with H1N1, and a few have died. What they list their deaths as is pneumonia, which is essentially the truth, they just leave the H1N1 out of the picture. I imagine there are a lot more deaths than they want to mention . I suppose they don't want to panic the public. It is sad that in this day and age the flu is stronger than modern medicine. But, most of those who died did have some underlying medical condition. It is sort of scary.

People at work were hoping to get off on Wednesday but the schedule is filling up fast, I have yet to figure out who would want to have major surgery and be in the hospital over a Holiday?? Guess they have no friends or life, or perhaps, they want to mess up their families Holiday too. That would not surprise me one bit.

I am not cooking at all this year (for a Holiday) On Thurday we will go to my brothers and on Christmas to my sisters. I heard on the radio yesterday that the Pumpkin crop was ruined and they will not be packing any more for this year. So, even thought I am not cooking, I bought a few cans. Who knows my assignment may be pumpkin pies for Christmas.

In our family the host cooks the turkey and stuffing, and the rest of the sibs cook the dessert and side dishes. It works out well, because everyone wants what they had the year before.....You always know what is cooking.

I am hoping to try to post more often. I will see how that goes.

SUNDAY WATCHING EMILY

Emily said she would organize my pantry. It is a job that needed to be done, and I wasn't up to doing it my self. She said she likes the "thought" or organizing, I will not post a picture of her room.

She has spent the past hour taking things out and placing them on the floor. "We will never have to buy mustard again!!!!!"..........."We have the biggest collection of Asian food, outside of an Asian house!!!!!!........ "There are two bottles of Maple Syrup"........

My problem is that I buy things I think I might need, really I make a list and the repopulate it and somehow (????) it gets pushed to the back of the pantry. She said she is going to make me labels and I am to check the closet before another purchase......Sounds good in theory to me. Oh, I see things going back in......she told me next is my spice collection. I have to admit I have about four containers of cinnamon in there.

When she graduates in June (singing Old To Joy) I can stock her pantry from mine, this will give me room to restock, or perhaps I shall mend my pack rat ways......

I hope it works.

THE WEEKEND AT LAST

Today I spent my day doing plastics. Two facelifts, to be exact. Each one will take about six hours. The surgeon is OCD and everything has to be balanced and perfect. Which is a good thing when you are have a cosmetic procedure.

Cosmetic surgery is all self pay, unless there was some accident or disease process that made a defect. So, for six hours I sat and recorded the vital signs, give medications and essentially keep the person alive and out of harms way. If the B/P or pulse drops I have medication to give. I also am on alert for the unexpected. Most of the time it does not happen but you have to be vigilant and ready to treat anything that will happen.

When a person has surgery that will last a long time we have to keep them warm. So, I will use a fluid warmer and a warming blanket. When they get cold, their blood vessels constrict and there is a decrease of blood flow to the newly operative site. That will not be a good thing.

After a face lift, the entire face is swollen and unrecognizable. I guess it takes about six weeks for everything to look good, although the swelling can persist longer. I wish he had a book of how they look when they are finished.

The hospital system associated with her Nursing School came to try to convince the student to come and work. She likes the OR and ER best. But it is the eternal dilemma, THEY WILL NOT HIRE WITHOUT EXPERIENCE. Now where in the hell do you get the experience. I told her that is why most of the RNs in the OR are in their fifties.

That is such a crock of ..............

VETERANS DAY

 

 

 

In honor of Veterans Day I would like to add this picture of the cute guy who caught my eye forty one years ago.

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN.....

The conference is over and yesterday I started home. I do not like to drive in the dark on unfamiliar roads. I especially worry about four legged woodland creatures jumping out on the road.

I left Williamsburg about 12:30 and then drove to Winchester and stayed overnight. I so did want just to keep driving, but I knew that I only had about one hour of daylight left. I watched a bit of mindless TV and then went to sleep.

This morning I awoke at 4 AM, and could not fall asleep again. This time I again watched mindless TV and decided the world has gone crazy.

I departed at 07:30 and it was really cold out there. I have this little icons on my dashboard of a cut away of a tire with an exclamation mark inside of it. This is a indicator that the tire pressure on one of the tires is low. I stopped at Sheetz and checked all four tires, one took larger volume of air than the rest, filled up the tank and was off. The sensor seems to be in the air filling stem and will reset itself after a few minutes. The first time I had to fill up the tires I had expected immediate gratification, but it takes a few minutes to reset. That is a good invention, at least for me.

I was driving thru the mountains of Western Maryland and for a moment could not figure out what was on the grass and trees, DUH in the same second it dawned on me that it was a dusting of snow..... It was a pretty drive thru those mountains. Driving the PA Turnpike is something I do not like to do. So I decided to drive I 68 which runs parallel to the Turnpike. The traffic was light and three lanes where the direction was uphill.

I got off at US 219 and drove North thru Meyersdale and caught the Turnpike at Somerset. I had not been in that direction for about 25 years, and much to my surprise there was a bypass around Meyersdale. This is a town of about 2,800 people, now, why in the world would milions be spent for that by pass? I could imagine if they had made the whole US 219 a four lane, limited access highway but it was only a few miles..... Just another example of the squandering of our tax dollars again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyersdale,_Pennsylvania

MADE IT TO VIRGINIA

I made it to Virginia in eight hours. That is the usual amount of time it takes to drive here, from Pittsburgh that is. The drive was sunny and when I got to Winchester I could see dark clouds to the east, and that was the direction that I was headed. In Fredericksburg it started to rain and was raining all the while I was on I 95.

I do not know how any one else feels about the US Interstate system, but I think I 95 ranks up there being about the WORST to drive. It is three lanes, 75 MPH and bumper to bumper. I feel like I am in a demolition derby all the time.

Then I 64 is very busy too but it is mostly two lanes. Whoa, what did I forget...the damned PA Turnpike which is the absolute worst maintained road in the Interstate System.....and there is no wiggle room what so ever on I76.

I have two days of classes done and two to go. I spent my afternoons doing a little shopping and walking around Williamsburg. Today was nice and sunny so I took a few pictures. Tomorrow I will go to class and then out to dinner with my brother and his family. I think Mexican is on the menu.

I realized this afternoon that there are just so many pictures to be taken of Williamsburg, they really all look alike. With the possible exception of ones with snow.