So, do Arlo and Janis still work? Yes, they do. They’ve been luckier than many over the years; they’ve had stable employment, maybe not with the same companies the entire time but in similar fields and environments. There is no doubt they’re in that winding-down phase of employment, when the management would love to get rid of them and replace them with someone younger and cheaper or, more likely today, outsource their work entirely, but they just know too damn much about how things work. Perhaps one of them will be offered the “consultant” track soon, where they’re paid half the money to clean up after a workforce making even less. Speaking of money, they like the money, of course, but they would leave for a new challenge and less remuneration in a heart beat, say helping run a fun little local-food enterprise, but the benefits are the trap, especially the insurance. See? You don’t really want to hear all this. They have modern jobs, sure, but they still are modern cartoon jobs. It’s nice work if you can get it.
240 responses to “Harpe Diem”
This is Nurse Ratched. Actually, I’m Dixie McCall RN BSN but Ms. Monies said you would understand. She asked me to keep you up to date, which I am happy to do. She has been taken to the OR and is being sedated. More later.
Just playing on Sirius. Really nice music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og4pSYN98vQ
emb, no, just something a FB friend sent along. It fit with your prior post and I seem to recall TIP using the same painting but his caption wasn’t as funny.
emb: there *are* common binary-based systems, at least in the English-derived world. Both liquid and dry measure units are separated by one or more factors of 2 – e.g. a bushel is 4 pecks, 8 gallons, 32 quarts, 64 pints. And look at how non-metric folks commonly divide inches: by halves, quarters, . . ., 64ths,. . . . (I suspect this is rooted in the ease of dividing a continuous quantity into equal halves, relative to dividing it into equal thirds, fifths, etc.)
Ms. Monies is doing fine, and her surgeon is closing the incision.
–Dixie
Good morning Villagers….
Jackie, prayers for you and your Doctor….and don’t go home any sooner than you have to.
Thanks Mark for the link…will listen later.
Need to go, have to get and cat food here.
later……
1 1/2-2 hr. is pretty usual for jt. replacements. Hour or so for recovery, unhappy workout tomorrow morning in dedicated workout room near the orthopod patient rooms. Hope all goes well. Local observations only; protocols may vary elsewhere. Gratitude / Dixie and RNs in general. Nurse Ratcheds are relatively rare.
Peace,
Ms. Monies is still doing fine. The procedure went as expected, and she is being moved to recovery, where she will remain for a couple of hours before being moved to a room.
–Dixie
Like Gene, we are lost in the weeds.
Everyone please stay well, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Hopefully, that light is not on the front of a locomotive pulling an oncoming train, TMFKas. Be well, too, brother.
‘. . . a couple of hours . . ..’ As noted, protocols may differ. Peace,
Jackie, prayers that all is going well. Thank you, Nurse McCall, for the updates.
sand, hugs.
Steve, I’m not much of a traveller, but I really enjoy yours!
Jimmy, can’t wait to see where this storyline goes!
Ms. Monies is in her room, awake and alert and doing well.
–Dixie
I took the liberty of looking at some of this blog. Pretty cool. I may be back.
Jackie/Dixie/Ratched (very much not:) Came to these notes late but thrilled to see, frabjous day, indeed. Thank you Dixie, for the above and beyond service to your patient.
emb and Mark J., that is how I learned the history of math too. But the fun is in the imagining. The thought of polka dotted, trumpet nosed, fuzz-covered things smarter than we mere mortals is a fun diversion. Maybe not proper, but it stretches the grey matter some on the creative side.
Approaching the interrelated system of measures in a different direction, dryly: small increments of time were often marked by the metronome we carry. A healthy adult at rest has a heart rate around 60 bpm. But is subject to WIDE variations, especially in exciting times. Needing a more reliable standard, and learning the physics of pendulums (pendula for strict adherents), lead to clockworks of significant accuracy.
Bring this back around, most population centers are at sea-level, and with minor adjustments for accuracy, the required pendulum is one-meter in length. Meter, like a poetic measure of rhythm, the root of metronome.
Strictly speaking, er, strictly scribing, accuracy should be precision. Precision is how well it works internally, accuracy is only attained by comparing to an agreed independent standard.
https://scontent-dft4-3.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13051605_1130319173685051_2959225789375581320_n.jpg?oh=e4da6c07c783bea86b9b5832957e1d7f&oe=59B95350
Thanks to Mindy from Indy, who posted this on Facebook.
This really is Jackie now and my new nurse just came on whom I had not met. What a surprise!
Trina and Mark Yoder from Bjermidgi, Minnesota, just moved down here. Tall lovely RN and she went to university there, worked at hospital until last month I believe. What a coincidence!
I will bet she knew Elaine and emb too, if I only knew who emb was?
By the way, I am doing great and no.side effects from anaesthesia. Not much pain yet but they have a pain meds pump on me that automatically dispenses. I have to do breathing exercises for lungs and have an oxygen tube for nose.
And most important of all, the food is good. Loved lunch, fresh fruit cup, a lemon bar, iced tea, plate of delicious raw vegetables with scoop of chicken salad in middle.
I am ready to get second knee done ASAP.
That’s great, Jackie. Sounds like you have plenty of good nurses there, including Dixie. Glad you got to have it done at last.
Jackie, sounds like a very good experience. I am so happy for you. Thank you, for the answer unasked. That you will have 2nd, separate surgery. Will it have to wait for some PT progress first? Or is PT better on two fresh rebuilds?
Sending metaphorical flowers, and well wishes.
Also note, just decided on what backed dessert for weekend. Mmm, lemon bars.
Baked, darn fingers.
Moved to sitting up in chair and got to pee. Not in same chair.
It hurt and very shaking and weak.
Dixie is at motel napping with Dickens. I wonder where she finds uniforms that large? Especially the white hose and size 13 shoes?
For Iron Horse and national transportation interest. On Wikipedia today, section ‘Did you know…’, item on the Red Rock Bridge, a short piece that ties in Iron Horse evolution, infrastructure succession, and that wonderful television show/long format advertisement for Rick’s favorite car, the Corvette. The parade of model year changes presented in ‘Route 66’ made for great eyecandy product placement. Look at the freedom you have in this year’s Corvette, available now and by order from your local Chevy dealer! That’s just good marketing, right there.
A steel truss bridge, the name referred to the natural features in place, and additional quarried rock from nearby, used in the piers that could withstand the spring thaw floods. Several prior wooden truss bridges had been lost at significant cost.
Apparently there was a time, before additional bridges, when rail traffic was infrequent enough to allow workers to install planks across the rails for limited automobile traffic. Good timekeeping and regular schedules helped. Reaping a toll for their efforts, as an option to, then temporary replacement of, the nearby ferry service. Does not indicate how the fares compared. Good piece of capitalism fueling improvements. All eventually made redundant by the Interstate system.
If you’ve seen the BBC presentation of Douglas Adams’s (possessive case of a name properly ending with ‘s’) _Dirk_Gently…_, you’ll recognize Elijah Wood proclaiming, “It’s all connected!”
Oops, this was there earlier today. Wikipedia changes the front page after 7pm CDT. But the article remains: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Rock_Bridge
Morphy, a link to another site with info on this bridge. This is an interesting site, if you are interested in old buildings, etc, as I am.
https://bridgehunter.com/ca/san-bernardino/colorado-river/