angels among us

I just finished bushhogging  the lawn   bigass yard up here on the top of Pecan Lane with the mower that gets hauled from here to the junction and back many times during the growing season.  This was the final cut for summer of '10 and consisted of a whole lot of dust and seed.  To say that it's dry is an understatement.  Think grapes of wrath and all that.  As I was making the loops on the rider, I remembered my first summer as a divorcee when I pushed a Wallyworld special every single day and never got the whole thing done. Of course I was much younger then.  Somehow or another I turned into a senior member of life and can barely manage to keep up with what time I go to work, much less do yard work with any sort of enthusiasm.  It ain't fun anymore.  It's a chore and I can't afford to pay somebody to do it so there ya go.  Maybe with a little help from my friends?  I am being pro-active by using my mother's day weedwhacker and pushmower to clean out the flower beds and fence rows.  I smooth ran over the front daffodil bed leaving bulbs shining their bare butts to Big Ernie and everybody.  I'm over it.  Time to move on.

The wonder of Facebook never ceases to amaze me.  My hefty little niece got born around 4AM and my KY cousin called me with congrats around eight because we all know that corporate America doesn't allow social networking on the job and Poops doesn't have a smartphone. Because, well....it's not in the budget.  These days I'm doing well to have a turkey sammich for dinner and Diet Dr. Pepper to jumpstart my day.  I live in an almost hundred year old very poorly insulated farmhouse with nice floors and high utility bills because my beloved parents are a mile down the road and they need me.  None of this matters to the landlord because he is strictly business and could care less about our legacy here.  No thank you to my daddy for all of his years of loyal service.  It's a blessing, and a curse all rolled into one, a paradox if you will.  Babygirl is happy and healthy.  There is a new woman named Peyton born into the next generation of tough Stafford women. Life is good.

We have a semi-annual uniform sale at the sawmill where you get a discount and can do a handy payroll deduction to buy work duds.  I wandered through the racks this morning and didn't see much except for some shoes I'd like.  These year old Nikes are NOT cuttin' it on the concrete up in that place, ergo mats or not.  I'll put that one on the SD list for sure :)   We've had lots of docs in and out of the lab this week which is sort of unusual.  Nobody much darkens the inner sanctum of where the tests are run except for techs, phlebotomists and a few nurses.  It's really rather comical to see a doc's face when he has an "ah-ha" moment as he or she understands how something is really done that they have always taken for granted.. like blood tests on which they base a huge part of their decision making process.  Of course every time the boss's boss shows up we're eating donuts or something equally decadent in our break room.  He rarely sees the hustle either.

I think one of the reasons that our profession has failed to attract new students is just because of that fact.  To most patients, everybody is a nurse.  They never see us......only the phlebotomists that we train OTJ and watch walk out the door for other employment.  If I were one who needed a lot of validation to feel important at work, I'd have been gone many years ago.  Almost was a few times.  But, something always kept me believing in what we do there as a team and a family within the laboratory walls.  Most of us have been there for 30+ years and there is nobody to replace us when retirement comes, if it does!  I'll probably drop dead in the hall and some cute little blond x-ray student girl will step right over me.  I'm kidding...okay?

And as for the ones who've come and gone?  They'll always be a part of the journey.

^j^