It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

So, it snowed last night and today. Not a lot of snow, but enough to coat the ground a little, so YAY, the snow made it here just before December. This was a holly bush just outside the Church building. I was walking past it after Church and saw that it had all the christmas colors and it seemed to capture the season appropriately. Unfortunately, I only had my camera phone with me so the picture's not the clearest nor the greatest quality (I'm a perfectionist, remember) but I still think it does the scene some justice.

In the spirit of Mary's latest post, I will tell my Black Friday story: I did participate...online at least. Last year I went all out. I went to www.blackfriday.info (there's many other websites as well, just google 'black friday') which has all the deals in one location and with a keyword search option for the item you're seeking and price comparisons...very helpful. I made my list, mapped my route according to which store opened at which time, which items were high priority in terms of selling out the quickest. It was VERY fruitful. I hit five different stores and got everything on my list. I'm telling you, it was quite the prep work. I rehearsed my plan of attack for driving and parking, and I knew my strategy cold. I even held an after-action review with Michelle when I was done. I started at 4am and was done with shopping and home by 7:30am. This year, I decided that I only needed one thing at Radioshack and was planning on getting there right when it opened. But, I was checking online to verify opening time, the item, and location and saw that those deals were already available on their website that night. So, I got to have my cake, and eat it too. I got the deal and got to sleep-in. I'm gonna try to do Black Friday online from now on--WAY EASIER.

Diary from the ER

I've seen quite the variety of people as well as cases this month: the good, the bad, and the insane. A disclaimer: my intent is not to poke fun at people with legitimate medical problems who can genuinely benefit from the medical care we provide, but the intent is to find some humor in otherwise disheartening and depressing social situations (ie. seeing people misuse and abuse medical care while others who need it can't get it). Besides, there's times when you gotta find ways to laugh to keep from crying or overly stressing yourself out.

In terms of types of patients, there's the ones that can't imagine a life without daily narcotics/sedatives/major tranquilizers and would like our help in legally obtaining these (wink-wink, nudge-nudge). There's others who I feel silly asking who their family doctor is--because DUH, that's what the ER's for (my mistake). Then, there's others who think we are McDonalds: if they've been waiting 15min then that's too long, and their knee (which seems to be hurting unbearably every time they visit the ER meanwhile they watch TV looking quite comfortable and walk around with ease) trumps the guy with a heart attack and the lady who can barely breathe. Still (it gets better) others audaciously demand to be fed during their 1-2hr visit the ER. There are those who have no sense of the cost of providing healthcare because they don't pay anything in the form of a copay or deductible and have no incentive not to abuse the system. There's others who refuse to accept any consequences to their behavior and see fit to accuse and verbally abuse others when their actions lead to unhappy outcomes. For example, a person came in complaining of abdominal pain, but not in acute distress, and had no medical indication that anything was emergently wrong with them. This person denied having any relief from prescription-strength tylenol or motrin, so was given a dose of strong narcotics which the patient finally said it helped. The patient became upset when the staff held onto her narcotic prescriptions while she went out "for a smoke" and just erupted when she was told that we legally could not allow her to drive her car knowingly under the influence of heavy narcotics (the equivalent of being sloppy-drunk)-- she would have to call and wait for someone to come get her. She was even offered a taxi ride free-of-charge. Neither of these options were acceptable to her, and she forcefully yelled and fussed at the staff about everything being our fault (which very much resembled a toddler temper-tantrum, quite entertaining to a small degree but mostly annoying and tiresome). The police were called to help talk some since into her and calm her down. Well, they ended up slowly chasing her around the parking lot for at least a half-hour until eventually hauling her away.

Then, there are those who I refer to as the "heart-break kids." Those who have a bad case of the "kids-raising-kids" syndrome. Those who are more upset about the inconvenience to their personal lives than the fact that their children are hurt or sick--which just breaks your heart (hence their title).

Other times, there are people that come into the ER because of what the doctor affectionately calls "a case of TMBD" (too many birth-days). These are the people who I'm sure at one point led fulfilling lives and contributed much to society, but who now can't control their bladder or bowels, can't tell you what day it is, who their are, or what they did that day, and a part of you wonders if they have come to the hospital for their final admission. (once again, not meant to be insulting, just a way of finding an ounce of humor in an otherwise depressing situation)

Then, their are the bright spots in your day. There are those who have come into the ER not because they wanted to, but because the ambulance or their spouse brought them. They are so appreciative of any care you provide to them, they are more worried about being a burden on your time than the concussion, deep cut, or heart attack that they are experiencing, their family and friends are supportive and grateful for the care they are receiving, and they keep apologizing for injuring themselves and making you take care of them.

I must admit that I've met both some of the nicest and easy-going people as well as the meanest, most manipulative people while working in the ER. All in all, it's been a great experience and one I will not soon forget.

A Hint...

I fear that this one may be a little far out there for most. So, these hints should help a lot:

Were all three people physically normal with full faculties of speech, hearing, and sight? -- YES

Had they ever spoken directly to each other? -- NO

Would they like to speak to each other? -- YES

Is there any physical barrier that prevents them from conversing? -- NO

Had they grown up together? -- NO

A New Riddle

Now that we've warmed up so quickly with the last one, here's a new one:

A woman sat at her kitchen table with her two sons. She spoke to each of her sons and they replied to her, but the sons never spoke to each other. The boys had not fallen out and did not dislike each other. Although they conversed freely with their mother, they never addressed a word to one another. Why?

Here's a Conundrum, a Riddle if you will...

Farmer Giles has four sheep. One day, he notices that they are standing in such a way that they are all the same distance away from each other. That is to say, the distance between any two of the four sheep is the same. How can this be so?

The first person to figure it out gets major kudos/props. Good luck!

Blast From the Past

Yes, maybe I do have too much time on my hands, but I couldn't resist...alas

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Weekend in Review

Since, I have several things to post about, I felt that title fit best. While getting ready for church today, I found a very cute situation developing in the bathroom and snapped a quick pic to share:

Michelle was doing her hair and makeup, Jacob was playing with his toothbrush, and Lizzy was enjoying a bathroom-floor adventure of finding new things to put in her mouth that at times can rival what you find in a toilet in terms of gross-factor. Isn't family life great!

Here's Jacob quietly looking at a dinosaur (which he affectionately calls "saucasores") coloring book on a relaxing Sunday afternoon -- too cute for words:


Here is something I saw today that sums up autumn in Kansas City pretty well:


This final picture tells the story of my weekend adventure:

It started Friday night on my way home from the hospital in Lexington, MO. I had just got done filling up my tank at $1.79 a gallon (jealous?--don't be, that was the only good thing about that evening). I had just finished a 12hr shift in the ER and wanted nothing more than to come home and enjoy a half-hour with the family before going to bed. Well, the Honda which I had been driving event-free for months decides it doesn't want to start. So, I thought "Fine, not bad, I'll call AAA and get a jump-start. It's probably just a bad battery due to leaving the lights on one-too-many times. I'll be set back about a half-hour. I'll just pickup a new battery tomorrow."

So, I got ahold of AAA and was told that it would take about 45 min for the person to get there. It got down to about 36 degrees that night, neither my car nor my heater were running, and I was still in scrubs from the hospital which don't hold in heat very well. I did have my winter coat however (luckily I park far enough away from the hospital that I felt the need to bring it that night). It was still pretty cold waiting for help to arrive. The guy gets there, hooks up the starterpack, starts the car, has me sign the form, and then bids me farewell.

I get into the car and turn on the headlights . . . and the car dies. Of course, the car had only been running a couple of minutes and the battery still didn't have enough juice to start. I was also kicking myself because we had a portable starter pack in the other car which I recently took out of the Honda. I figured at this point that it was most likely the alternator which was bad which meant that I wouldn't be making it home on my own that night. So, I called AAA-- again, and I had them call that person back out for a tow. So, I fought another 30 minutes of trying not to freeze too stiff until the guy gets there. Well, my membership only pays for the first 3 miles of towing, and I still had 40+ miles to go, so this was not a cheap option but it was one of very few. The other option was to have them tow it back to their shop and have it fixed there. I figured that I knew my way around the car engine enough to buy the alternator myself at more-than-likely a cheaper price than they would find, swap it out without having to pay for labor, not force michelle to pack up the sleeping kids at 11pm and come get me then drive back out there again at a later date, and come out better-off money-wise. So, I sucked up the initial cost of towing it back to the house.

I was relieved to finally get home and sleep in a warm bed next to the woman I love so dear. So, Saturday I had the privilege of figuring out how to get the car with a dead alternator into the garage so I could do the work without freezing into a perfectly shaped human popsicle. The alternator had barely enough current to keep the spark plugs working, so any other electrical item running would cause it to die. The problem I then had is everytime I closed the driver's door it would sputter and die because of the automatic shoulder harness (which I could not turn off).

Well, I now had the help of our portable battery from the other car which up until that moment I was using to start the car. So, I thought if it's got enough juice to start the engine it should have enough to give extra power to the electrical sysem to keep the spark plugs working while the stupid shoulder harness did it's thing. The problem was that I could not drive with the hood up-- kinda hard to see. So, I figured out a way to situate the portable battery over the engine so that I wouldn't get too warm nor fall out nor disconnect from the terminals and lower the hood enough to see where I was going. Well, I felt like Jed Clampett for a few minutes . . . but IT WORKED!!!

Well, I began to get on a roll, and things were working like clockwork. The alternator was easy to disconnect and dismount (socket wrenches are a God-send BTW, a must-have when working on cars), and this was accomplished within a half-hour. I was feeling pretty good about myself, until I realized that while I had gotten it loose from the engine, I had NOT figured out how to get it out of the engine compartment. I knew it would be a long drawn-out nightmare getting it out the top because of all the stuff in the way that I would spend hours disconnecting and reconnecting, so I then decided on trying from the bottom of the car which while still very cramped for space and still requiring the removal of additional hardware, it would be the lesser of the two headaches (much like the decision-making process for this 2008 presidential election...but I digress).

About 3 hours later of trial'n'error with battling very stubborn partially rusted bolts in a 18yr old car engine along with the purchase of $6 14mm 3/8" drive deep socket, the additional hardware was removed and the alternator slipped out like a charm! That picture is the old alternator that gave me so much grief this weekend. The car runs like a dream now -- like any rusted-out 18yr old car without A/C, power-steering, power windows/locks, and an annoying automatic shoulder harness would. Did I mention the annoying shoulder harness (that lovely contraption that came and left in the early 90's car models).

So folks, the moral of the story-- learn to laugh at yourself, don't take yourself or your situation too seriously, learn to enjoy the adventure while battling through trials, keep your stick on the ice, don't throw rocks at old people, and make sure you tell your loved ones that you love and appreciate them-- they can never hear that too often.