Happy Hallowe'en!

Meow, y'all!

Abby and the Yard Cat

We recently were delighted to host our daughter and grandaughter for a two week "plus change" visit while our son-in-law was touring Korea and China with the Vancouver Symphony. Abby was enthralled by our half-dozen strong pride of housecats, but they would have nothing to do with her. Oscar, the cat who has chosen to live in our yard, was more than happy to entertain her from the safety of the far side of the door glass. That reminds me, I have to clean those windows, as well as the glass doors on the media cabinet.

Fingerprints and noseprints notwithstanding, we miss them terribly since they returned to Canada a few days ago. I really miss Abby's little toothless smile that greeted me when I came home from work in the late afternoons. It never failed to make the day just fall away. See you at Christmas, my darlings.

Just in time for Hallowe'en, Joe McCarthy rises from the dead

"I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would love to see an expose like that."

-- U.S. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.

Modern-day McCarthyism is rearing its ugly head, ladies and gentlemen. Sarah Palin speaks of the real America, the pro-America parts of this country. As opposed to bogus America, anti-America parts? Where, exactly, would those be? I'm guessing inner city neighborhoods, college campuses, the ravaged, hurricane-scoured Ninth Ward of New Orleans, the entire state of California maybe, just for starters. What about the parts of Alaska that harbor secessionists? Sounds pretty anti-America to me. But Palin's husband "palled around" with the founder of the Alaskan Independence Party, and was himself a member. There's a word for that, let me see if I can remember.... I think it's TREASON.
Look, I'm old enough to remember the height of the Cold War, the paranoia and suspicion that pervaded my childhood, the threat of Soviet ICBMs coming over the Arctic to vaporize our cities, the mushroom cloud that hung over daily life in the Fifties and Sixties. I also remember the lies that got us deeper and deeper into Vietnam, the invocation of "law and order" that Nixon used to divide the country and garner more power for himself. If you do not learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it. Here we go again.
Apparently Ms. Bachmann has attempted to back-pedal, denying she ever called for an investigation of anti-American Congressmen and Senators. I refer you to the opening quote. Yet, in the very same statement she continues to say that Barack Obama is "not for America." I think I'll send her opponent some money. His name is Elwyn Tinklenberg, and he's received 1.3 million dollars in new contributions since Ms. Bachmann tried to play hardball with Chris Matthews last Friday.
Wake up, voters. This country is being overtaken by false patriots who do not understand the Constitution they claim to defend.

It's happening, sooner than I thought it would

I'm losing my focus, or my grip, whatever you may call it.
Work got the best of me over the last two to three weeks. Just back from a vacation, and I was frazzled on Day 1. Things did not improve as I struggled through split shifts and on to the following week, when I was tasked with training a young pharmacist who had spent his first year out of school languishing in the retail side of the profession. He is bright, but he doesn't retain processes well. He damn near broke me. I ended the week in my boss' office, actually crying. I never cry in front of people at work anymore. Last week was not much better, as new procedures for handling outpatient infusion admixtures were implemented in the IV Room without anyone actually 1) telling the staff or 2) writing out a policy and procedure. No one knew who among us was responsible for prioritizing the orders. One of the more ambitious techs took the initiative but didn't understand enough about staging chemo infusions to be able to cut her way through the Gordian knot that met us that morning. I had literally piles of new IVs to check and get out the pass-through window to go to inpatients. Lots of bicarb IVs for renal protection, first dose of the day Protonix IVs, epidurals that were let run out over third shift, and there was the TPN compounder setup to check from stem to stern before we could start mixing neonatal IVs for the day.
I've had a three-day weekend, and been able to spend some real time during the day with my grandbaby before she returns to Canada this week, but my free days were tinged with the dread of returning to work on Monday morning. It colors my every thought; I can't even bring myself to venture outside to plant a few bulbs for fear those dark haunts will intrude and spoil what is one of my few remaining pleasurable activities.
So I stay inside and tackle the mess that is my actual desktop and mail file, only to find I have inadvertently allowed my driver's license to expire. So am I senile, or depressed, or just overwhelmed?