sad

Per KGW Portland:

PORTLAND -- Local weather records have fallen like the rain this spring.

Over the weekend, Portland broke the record for latest date to reach 60 degrees. Before this year, March 27 was the latest into the year before reaching the 60-degree point. That record fell Sunday and KGW Meteorologist Nick Allard said Portland wasn't likely to finally break 60 degrees until Wednesday.

With Tuesday morning's rain, Portland has now also had 28 days of measurable rain during March, breaking the old record for 27 days of rain in March.

By late Tuesday, March 2011 had also earned the distinction of being the fifth-rainiest on record, with 6.23 inches recorded at PDX Airport and more on the way.

KGW Chief Meteorologist Matt Zaffino said Portland had a good shot to finish fourth-wettest in history. In 1989, 6.73 inches of rain fell in the city. Portland's wettest March had 7.52 inches of rainfall back in 1957.

I know I rail against the weather here. I am also sure that I would, and did, complain that our summers in Florida were a miserable mixture of high humidity and high heat, but even Portland weather apologists have to be getting sick of this month.

To the Creek tomorrow to see how EPIC works. Just in the nick of time too. More to come as always. Stay dry if you can.

Snowboarding is difficult

I am in complete and total denial that yet another weekend has almost come to a close. It was at least a full one.

Spent Friday night at the Blazer game and I can honestly say that I have never seen such an exciting ending, certainly not live. A turnover by San Antonio and a game winning basket by the Blazers in the last 0.9 seconds. I have tremendous doubts that the team will survive past the opening round of the playoffs yet again, but at least they are fun to watch. The ride home on the max with the drunken revelers was less fun, though also entertaining in its own way. Note to self and others: do not pick a fight on packed Max car with someone who will literally be standing within 6" of your personal space for the next 10-15 minutes at least. I was glad I was not on that max car.

Saturday was work. Epic. I am very rapidly losing interest in the entire process, though I know that it will ultimately make me more marketable as more and more systems switch to it for electronic charting. That said, I have spent no less than 12 hours in classes at Conway, another few in classes at our campus, a handful of hours in meetings related to its impact in the clinic, and I have 6-8 more this week. On the good side, I finished up early and was home napping by 1. Any Saturday (or any day really) with a nap in it is a good day! Followed that up with a birthday gathering for Joe.

Sunday was tumbling down the side of a snow covered mountain at high speeds with a polished piece of wood strapped to both feet............or, snowboarding. I have to say, I am more and more coming to realize that perhaps snow and I only agreeably mix on flat or relatively flat surfaces. If an incline of any sort need be introduced into the relationship, I need to ensure I am on something large, inflatable, and almost impossible to fall out of. I can't say I hated snowboarding, but I can say I will remember it with every ache over the next week. I think, much like skiing, there is an exhilarating freedom once you get moving forward at speed, but that is strongly undercut by the terrifying realization that, somehow, you have to stop and that, due to a rather novice understanding of how to do so combined with a staggering lack of grace and coordination, the only way to accomplish that is by using less aerodynamic portions of your body to loosely 'anchor' yourself to the surface of the mountain. For a split second you think this might prove effective and, if not graceful, at least effective and injury free. But then, shockingly, you remember that you have tethered yourself to the aforementioned snowboard and grace will be the last word used to describe the arms akimbo ragdoll you fully resemble. Suffice to say I did this a lot.

I hope everyone else survived their respective weekend adventures. As for me, it is time for a beer to salve the pain, which is a cure as good as any I know.

Happy anniversary?

So, I logged into the time call system at work the other day (the 23rd to be exact) and the automated voice on the other side reminded me it was my two year anniversary at the hospital. Has it really been that long? I mean, honestly, it hardly seems possible. Of course, bets are being taken now to see whether I make it through to year 3.

I have been wanting to blog more frequently, but of late there has been a confluence of events including a protracted though not necessarily severe cold, an absolute assault on my allergies, too many long after work meetings with our financial adviser and trying desperately to get started on some sort of exercise regimen in spite of the aforementioned ailments. This along with my job's seeming inability to get and maintain adequate staffing levels. I worked last Sunday, and am off today (Friday) because I work tomorrow. Of course, they called to see if I could work today too (which, including tomorrow would have been 7 consecutive days of work), but I just don't have it in me. I like what I do, but I think I will burn out quickly if things don't change. There is so much pressure to never miss an hour or a day or, god forbid, need assistance with anything. I have to balance between having too few patients (which makes me the go-to backup for the in hospital chaos) or too many (which means I might need a second person......and there is no second person to be had). I am trying not to get frustrated, but of course I do. All I know is that it never does seem to stabilize in health care. That is the one constant.

So, sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice to go back to school and pursue nursing. Financially, absolutely (well, after another year anyway, and then I will be on the positive side of that ledger). Emotionally/mentally.........hard to say. Mostly yes though. Its just that the tough days are so much tougher when they come because the stakes are a lot higher.

There is so much more I want to write about, but I feel utterly scattered. Our adviser meetings have been so odd. The summation is this: the more you make, the less you take home now. Everything is put into different pots per our adviser, but I think of them more as time capsules. You stick your money in now, bury it, and dig it back up when you are 50 or 60 or 70. Only the system itself is predicated on continued earnings and no life-changing events such as having children, buying another home, or losing said jobs and finding lesser paying ones. Of course, the thought then is you re-evaluate from there. In the meantime, do we stash what we can or do we kind of enjoy the moment in time when we can (or theoretically should be able to) enjoy ourselves a bit?

Well, speaking of living in the moment, I really ought to catch up on all the household things that have fallen by the wayside while I have a few hours. More to come as always.

home sick

Today the fortuitous and calamitous intersected and I stayed home. I ended up not having any clinic patients scheduled and felt absolutely drug out by a cold, though I would have found a way to go in if I had a patient scheduled, largely because there is no one to run the clinic if I am gone. I don't mean that no one can (though largely that is true), but rather that they just don't have the warm bodies at the moment. One RN put in her notice, another took a personal leave. The on call staff is largely already portioned out to outlying hospitals due to other regular staff moving on or moving out. So, whereas there are supposed to be at least 4 RNs plus a charge on (and generally 5), it is not uncommon to have just 2 total lately. I help when I can, but only if I don't have patients of my own.

For me, it is frustrating because, if I need assistance of any kind, it ain't coming. Also, I turn quite a few patients away since I can only handle so much on my own, and within the bounds of my licensure. Still, given the choice, I would rather that then the chaos that must be routine now on the floor. Ah well.

Met with our financial adviser the other evening. It was interesting to be sure. Not really so much about investments and the like and more about rather abstract questions such as: What would you do if you knew you were going to die in five years? What would you do if you didn't need money? Not surprisingly, quitting working was top of the list :) A little more surprising was the lack of anything tangible from Tia or I. No homes or nicer cars or the like. Mostly just being able to be master of our own clocks and be able to live somewhere warm in the winter. That pretty much covers the biggest pieces (other than increased volunteering). Hopefully our adviser will be able to tell us how to get there.

More to come as events warrant. My head is too full of cold meds to formulate much more at the moment.

Mexico!

I have been wanting to write about Mexico since I got back. But,
what I am increasingly learning, you really need a day to recuperate
after your vacation. I think that that is predominantly due to
travel. We spent the entirety of our last day getting up far earlier
than we had the entire week (and staying up just as late as one does
on vacation) and then waiting in lines to get off the boat, lines to
get our luggage, lines at customs, lines at the airport and then a few
hours waiting at the airport and a few more on the plane. By the time
we stepped foot across our threshold, we had been up and in the
process of 'travelling home' for 10 hours, only about a quarter of
which was spent on a plane. Suffice to say, it isnt like we did a
whole lot of unpacking when we got home. Even our feeble attempt to
get milk ran into delays as our car battery died after sitting idle
for better than a week requiring a call and wait for someone to come
and jump start it (hard to do yourself without a second car).

So, on to the actual cruise. As with anything, it had its roses and
its thorns. I think we have kind of hit a wall with the large ship
cruises, reminiscent of the wall we hit in Bend. As much as we liked
the B&B there and the town itself, there comes a point when you feel
like you have 'been there, done that' and the shine kind of comes off
it. We had a good time, but the shine is definitely gone (though
sometimes it just means a break is in order).

Food
Rose:
- As usual, the food. People review cruise food rather harshly for
what it is........which is better than pretty much anything you make
at home or, by and large, what you might find dining out in moderately
priced establishments. I never fail to be impressed by the array of
choices, the speed of service, and the efficiency of the entire
operation. It is impressive to say the least and the food on the
Carnival ship was as good as any.
Thorn:
- Cannot explain why they had so many interesting choices on the Lido
for lunch, and then shut 75% of it down for dinner. Even the grill,
which was promised to be open, never was at dinner. So, for lunch you
could do sit down dining, or choose from 4 different buffet lines, a
buffet dessert line, or a grill plus ice cream and pizza. For dinner,
one buffet and one sit down option. Odd.

Boat:
Rose:
- The balcony room, although not as well used as it might have been
had we encountered warmer temps, was really well appointed and the
amount of natural light and sea sounds were really nice. We even got
to see a whale breach less than 200 feet from our balcony. The ship
itself looked in excellent condition and relatively new considering it
is an 'older' ship.
Thorn:
- It had the weakest library I have ever seen. One shelf of books
total. Mostly it was for internet usage (which at $0.75/minute is
quite dear). Also, no real quiet spots to read outside of your room.
It was definitely not geared for any kind of peaceful relaxation. It
was definitely a drinking boat. Also, the lido area was not arranged
well for traffic and created a lot bottlenecks around each buffet line
and could have used more seating as well.

Ports:
Roses:
- La Paz, despite its distance from where the boat actually docked,
was a gem. It was clearly not ready to be a port city, which was
quite pleasant. No one hounding you at endless stalls and lots of
quiet beachfront. Was more or less what I hoped to find in Mexico,
though did not find all that much.
- The food in Cabo. We purposely avoided the tourist spots with
their high process and buckets of beer and instead found 2 different
local taco stands that both had incredible food. We were able to stuff
ourselves and have beverages and still pay less than $10 total.
Smoked swordfish tacos in Cabo were the highlight for me. Fresh
caught and smoked that morning. The best thing I ate all week.

Miscellaneous:
Roses:
- The staff. From our steward who called us by name from day 1 to an
entertaining and pleasant wait staff, I had no complaints with parting
with gratuities.
- The comedians were, although uneven, altogether above average.
Plus, they rotated them so you had the opportunity to see 4 total with
varied shows.
- The atrium. Gaudy yes, but eye catching to be sure.

Thorns:
- The waiting........the constant waiting at every port. We tendered
into Cabo (which meant lines of nearly 45 minutes to get off the boat
and better than that to get back on it), parked on the outskirts of La
Paz (25 minutes to town by bus and nothing in between) which meant
waits of more than an hour to get back and just as long to leave the
ship, and even in Puerta Vallarta, the port was in the middle of a
compound with no clear way out to the city proper other than by taking
a $10 taxi ride. Plus a wait of 2 hours to get on the boat itself due
to some difficulties r/t a Coast Guard inspection.
- The activities on the boat were sorely lacking. Endless trivia
seemed to be about all they could come up with.
- The Oscars. They were shown on the boat with live voting, but for
reasons that escape me, they felt they needed to telecast them at
maximum ear splitting volume. Left before a the red-carpet was rolled
up and the bloated self-congratulatory speeches began.
- On board movies. Generally cruise ships have a nice array of films
either just out on DVD or second run. This ship has a mishmash of
older films (5-10 years old, not classics) and recent box office
bombs......and only a small number to boot. Plus no onboard theater
which was a bummer.
- Gym. Generally a high point on most boats. Not this one. Very
little equipment and not very updated at that. Plus, always at least
1 or 2 of their limited cardio machines out of order (which wouldnt be
a big deal, but the jogging track, such as it was, was blocked off by
ping pong tables and sunbathers). Bad bad bad.

Overall, I would not do a Carnival boat again. I think it just misses
on too many counts and it isn't that much less expensive for the
trade-offs. Still a vacation beats the heck out of work, even if it
is slightly less than you had hoped.