6-25-2018 - Donuts in the Dark

Noel

Noel

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It is "zero dark thirty" as Hubs refers to pre-dawn. I am leaving for a mandatory "disaster simulation" required assignment. We start the day by going to an old warehouse; set up half the area as a neo-natal unit. Then we read about the babies admitted and their parental backgrounds. We go about pretending to care for them notating what we are doing, why, and responses until the disaster is simulated.

We lose staff; equipment is damaged; and we must make life-or-death decisions triaging infant care. This all takes over half a day. Then we are given a review with much critique on whether or not our decisions and care were sound. Then we are quizzed on nuclear bomb, biological warfare, chemical warfare, pandemic viruses, etc. and proper protocols.

By the end of this day I usually cry all the way home because my heart is broken for the nurses who in real life had to make some of these decisions and watch precious babies die for lack of staff, medications, equipment, etc. Then I am very very grateful that so far this is not in my realm of experience.

Wishing each of you a good Monday and start to your week. I most likely will not try to catch up tonight because I hope to retire early to catch up on my sleep. I will thinking of each of you and hoping AGuy is back in the fold again!

On a happier note:

Today is Leon's Day, Noel spelled backwards. Or HalfMas, because we are exactly halfway through the year until Christmas! If you love Christmas like I do, that is a joy, not to mention trying to remember what it feels like to be cold when we're in triple digits for the next three months.

leonday.png
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Never heard of Leon day until RS mentioned it last week......talking of Days filming Christmas, & it was not even Leon Day yet. Yesterday at church, the sermon mentioned exactly 6 mos to Christmas Eve......lol, & then about losing light, til then, and after, gaining it back again. But he sure never mentioned Leon day. LOL

Woke up in the dark, probably 4:30, tried to get back to sleep, alas, it would not come. Trouble is, then I am so tired in evening, fall asleep watching TV, and thus, the cycle doesn't get broken.

Going to be a nice day, have a few errands, but a friend who now lives in FL is in town, so will be meeting her this a.m. Have not seen her in a couple years, so will be nice catchin up.
 
Good morning.

Wow Noel, that is amazing you learn all of that. Good luck with that today.

Poirot, have a good catch with you friend.

We had a great weekend camping. We decided to stay a little closer to home as we knew it would start raining Friday night and would be quicker getting home after packing up in the rain Saturday morning. And did it ever rain.

We were home so early, 10am, that we had the whole day to do whatever. We napped and watched a movie.

Yesterday we were up early again so got all our cooking done for lunches, laundry and yard work finished by 11am. We put up the tent trailer in our driveway to air out and cleaned it and got it ready for Canada Day long weekend coming up. By 2:30pm we were making drinks for 7 neighbours in our cul de sac and and we're having a driveway party in front of the tent trailer.

Now I'm on the train to work. It'll be a short day today as I go for my x-rays and ultrasound for my shoulder and it is also a short work week as I took Friday off to go camping.

Still no word on the job I interviewed for on May 1st. I sent a follow up email 2 weeks ago but no response. Hey, it only took a year and a half to get to the interview so I should hear by 2019 if I got the position. Hahaha.

Have to play catch up on donuts for the past 5 days or so. Have a good day/week everyone.
 
Good morning everyone.

It is a bit cool yet in the 50s, but temps are supposed to reach the mid 70s. After the temps in the 90s, heavy rain, and now night temps in the 50s my hostas are confused. They're already blooming which shouldn't happen here until the beginning of September.

Noel, disaster training is a necessary evil. Thank goodness a mechanism is in place to take care of the babies you have and others who may come in if a catastrophic event occurs.

I volunteer with our county disaster preparedness group from the hospitals, police, national guard, and army reserve base. (Also on the state registry to be "called up".) Since I'm not "medical", I was trained to do preliminary intakes, direct traffic flow in the building, and escort for people with disabilities.

My county has huge flu shot clinics the first Saturday in October so we have hundreds of "patients and victims " coming through. The other counties use volunteer "victims". This drill is conducted throughout the state and with FEMA and the CDC watching.

It is nerve wracking when a message comes through from the regional director, the state, or the feds that our meds have run out (even though in actuality there is a room full). A courier must be sent out to another site for more or we may have to send meds elsewhere in a radiation storm, aerosol anthrax, etc. Everything is timed, and sometimes people "go missing" or are declared dead when doing the transport.

I pray that we never have to do this for real.

Many of the stores and restaurants around here are having their half way to Christmas festivities and sales. At least they don't have Santa taking pictures with kids.
 
Good morning everyone!

It’s only 78 right now but the humidity is 84%.

Noel, it’s terrible that this type of training is even necessary. We have an active shooter learning module we have to do every year.

If it’s Leon Day that means it’s less than two months until we start receiving Christmas merchandise. :rolleyes:

Muzza, sounds like you had a productive weekend.

Poirot, enjoy your time with your friend.

Rs, your hostas would be really confused here. It will snow one week and be in the 70s the next in February most years.

I did a workout earlier and decided to check donuts while I cooled off so now I’m really hungry. Guess it’s time for breakfast and of course, coffee.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!
 
Speaking of Leon Day, I used to work at as a waiter in the fine dining room of a rustic lodge in Waterton Lakes National Park. This hotel was one of two hotels that stayed open in the winter but many of the staff that came were summer students and would go back to school at the end of August, so the owners would throw a Christmas Staff party in July and it soon turned into a week of festivities for the guests as well. It was called Christmas in July and we would decorate the lodge full on Christmas, have carolling in the library, and a staff party that was Christmas themed. It was such a fun time and cool to see guests come back specifically for that time of July every year.
 
It's great to come here and find the interesting comments already. I'm running later than I realized. Poirot, my sleep "routine" is similar to yours. But occasionally I do fall back asleep in the darkness of morning hours. This morning I did so and didn't wake up until nearly 7:00. Forced myself to get moving, as I thought I was going to go with my niece to check out her cows and look for my five heifers that have been lodging on her place while they grew out enough to be with the bulls.

When they were put there last winter I didn't have a separate place free to put them. Now they need to be put in with my herd (and the bulls) but she said one of them was missing last week, so that needs to be investigated. But she decided to wait until tomorrow so I'm back on track to get ready to go to the nursing home. I have some papers I must read and deal with in the next day or two. Other paperwork needing attention too. Takes time and concentration for some of this stuff. It's what I put off as long as possible.

Very interesting to hear about all the planning and training in place for emergencies. So many things going on in this world that we don't even know about unless we are directly involved with it. I can tell you about the maintenance happening this morning on an oil pipeline that gets gasoline and other petroleum products to all of us. The trucks and heavy equipment came rumbling past my house early this morning.

Or I can tell you how food gets to your plates. But I know nothing of all the hard work that goes into preparing for emergencies and disasters. Most of you are doing things each day that serve the needs of all of us, and we aren't even aware of some of it. That's one reason why I enjoy reading what all of you have to say each day. Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences here.

It was 104* yesterday. Much of the same today. Wishing a good day to all of you.
 
Noel - when I worked at the hospital (in finance) I was always so impressed with how much training every department did to try and keep up with being prepared. Thank you for what you do. Also, I love Christmas too. I just don't like the coldness that comes with it. I did see this weekend that the Hallmark channel is going to run Christmas movies in July.

Muzz - it sounds like you got washed out on the camping trip but you still had a great weekend!

RS - My hostas are really big this year. They haven't bloomed yet but I have seen others in the neighborhood have.

Iamred - It seems weird that you would be receiving inventory for Christmas in just a few months.

OC - good luck with your paperwork. It's such a relief once it's done.

We had a great weekend but our boat is still in the shop, so we took a long bike ride yesterday. Today is sunny but very very windy. Gust up to 50 mph. I would rather take the rain.

Have a good day!
 
It's been cloudy and sunny today. Rain maybe tomorrow AM.

I did a fast cleaning of the house so I could work outside some.
I weeded around the mailbox. I plan to weed side bed Tues
if it doesn't rain.

Noel, I hope the disaster preparation went well today.

Poirot, sorry to hear your sleep pattern is still out of sync.
I force myself to stay awake until 10PM. This morning, I
woke up when the alarm went off. I guess I was tired.

Muzzaman, I hope your doctor appt went well.

rs, I hope you have a good vacation week.

OC, I'm glad you were able to get back to sleep.

I hope everyone has a nice afternoon and evening.
 
I usually stay up til 11, but last night dozed off for about 45 min., woke, went to bed. Still woke at 4:30. Not enough sleep for sure.

Catching up with my friend was delightful, we did a long catchup, I managed my errands before meeting her. Alas, I forgot a meeting I was to attend at 9 a.m. (left home at 8:30), my friend/neighbor came to pick me up, and I was gone. She could not imagine what happened to me, especially as I twice reminded her of the meeting. (Co-Op). I was absolutely mortified, and this was the only time I had not written something in my calendar book, so sure was I of not forgetting. But the out of state friend called Sunday evening.........and I guess everything left my mind or something equally stupid.
 
Good Afternoon Everyone,

I'm going to apologize in advance if I'm not around much the next few days. I'm in all day training for a new system that will be put into place in the near future at work. It's rather exhausting and due to the seating arraignment, everyone behind me can see everything I'm looking at. I'll try to catch up in the evenings as best as I'm able, but in the mean time.

Please know that I miss all of you terribly.
 
I hear some of you speak of Hostas. I've heard the name but have never known what they look like or anything about them. So for a couple of months I've been seeing these tall green plants with orange flowers out the dining room windows of the nursing home. For some reason I think they are hostas. I don't know why I think that. It just comes to mind when I look at them.
 
Good evening all.

So we did Royal Gorge on Sunday and Arches National Park today. I need to get all the pictures fixed to get uploaded.

Today I received the phone call. They got my new application for the job and have now turned it over to HR. I now need to wait for HR at the district to offer the job, sign the contract, get fingerprinted and then I can start work.

A picture today of our visit of the Vietnam Vet Memorial in Fruita Colorado and then one from yesterday of me crossing the Royal Gorge bridge. (they are thumbnails, so they will get somewhat bigger if you click on them)

Vietnam War Memorial.jpg walking Royal Gorge.jpg

I'm exhausted and sunburned.

I'll try to check in tomorrow.
 
Just finished reading all your posts from yesterday. To those involved in annual preparedness events, thanks for sharing your heart & experience. For those of you sharing your day & week, thanks for the uplift after a stressful day. And Robin, more congratulations again!
 
Robin........your pics are beautiful......did you walk all the way across that bridge? It is nice to know various cities all over the U.S. have some kind of Memorials for our brave men who served our country.

Am so glad all has worked out and you have a job that you are looking forward to taking on. Good for you, girl!
 
Those are lilies. They come from bulbs. There a lot of varieties of them.
 
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