Ted BSN

Good Morning - Recently woke up. Just finished First Coffee. (It did taste mighty good!) It snowed during the night! But, we didn't get the accumulation that was predicted. There's only about 2 inches of snow on the grown. I'll be leaving for church soon. A few of the choir members won't be there today, so choir rehearsal will be short, and there'll be no anthem today. I have no plans to do anything after church. Tomorrow, I work, then I am off the next three nights. (If "Call" is offered for tomorrow, I will take it!) Hope all have a nice day today! Ted

Good Morning! Tweety - Good to read that you enjoyed the concert. And, good for you for taking the "Dreaded Thursday" off from work! Enjoy the day off, while enjoying the recent and pleasant memories of last night's concert. Joe - Glad that J was feeling well enough for your Wednesday night date together. Had a really good night's sleep, last night (although the "All Knowing" Fit-Bit watch said the sleep was only "Fair"). Hopefully this aging and cranky body has caught up on much-needed sleep after a few days of sleep deprivation last weekend. Not sure what we're going to do today. It snowed last night, but there's only about 1" of wet snow on the ground. Apparently there's an RV show that Amy is interested in seeing this afternoon. It's about an hour's drive away from where we live. If the roads are OK, we might go. Amy and I are planning our Retirement Years. One of the things we're thinking about doing is purchasing a nicer RV, and traveling the country. These "Home on Wheels" seem quite comfy-looking. It wouldn't be something we'd live in all year round. But, it would be part of a "retirement package" where we'd travel the country for several weeks out of the year (while having a "stationary" home-base either in the New England area or the Sedona, Arizona area). Gotta admit that the whole retirement thing has been a daily pondering (hopefully not TOO obsessive). First, though, we must pare down our debt (before we get into more debt). In the meanwhile, I think I'll whittle away at this instrumental composition that I started. . . finally get some of these ideas down on manuscript paper, and do some recording (sequencing). I want to complete at least one piece before I go back to work this coming Monday. Well. . . I think I'll go downstairs and get me Second Coffee (then come back up to my happy studio). Peace, folks! Ted

Good Afternoon - Just finished eating a delicious lunch/dinner that Amy made: Chicken Franciase! Yum! Getting ready for Second Sleep. Been wearing my Fit-Bit with me throughout the day. According to the all-wise Fit-Bit, my "First Sleep" was judged as being "Fair". Last night at work, I was both Mr. ICU Nurse and Mr. Shift Director. The full-time night Shift Director called out sick. So, arrangements were made for me to fill in part of that 8-hour hole. Thankfully, our teen-tiny hospital was relatively "Q" last night. Still, there was a staffing hole for the day shift on Med/Surg that needed filling due to a sick call-out. (Nothing like asking people to work an extra shift, at 5:30/6:00 in the morning, on what is normally their day off from work. Ugh!) Hopefully tonight will be relatively "Q". Well. . . Sleep beckons. Hopefully the all-wise Fit-Bit will say "Great!!" for Second Sleep! L O L! Cheers! Ted

Good Morning, Joe! It seems that we both started today's "Good Morning" threads. AGAIN! L O L! Can a moderator/administrator type combine our two threads?? Pretty please??? :D

Good Morning! Amy and I had a nice and relaxing day, yesterday. We had a "Dinner and Movie" date together. The food was yummy, and the movie was very cool. We saw the new Star Wars movie. It was produced by JJ Abrahams. It seems that he likes to produce movies about space! L O L! (He also produced the newer Star Trek movies!) Tonight starts the 1st of four 12-hour shifts in a row for work. (Ugh!) So, it'll be the usual "Eat, Sleep and Work" thing for the next four days (except for Sunday, when church and choir activities will be added to the day). Hope all have a pleasant day today. Ted

NSIME - Yep! It's no fun raking wet leaves. I haven't raked leaves in decades. Either the wind blows them away, or the decay on the lawn, acting as natural fertilizer. In the spring time, I mow over them, and no one can ever tell they were there. I bet Ozzie looks great after his stay at the groomers! Off to work I go. . .

BCgradnurse - Oh dear! Bronchitis is no fun. Hope you're feeling up to your normal, healthy self, with LOTS of energy. . . soon! nursej22 - It's cool that you met two former NFL players (owners of the gym). Hope all goes well with you DH. Hope you're feeling better, too. I've been in a somewhat grumpy mood as well. Exercise does help get out of it. (Mr. Fit-Bit, which resides on my left wrest, likes to remind me to do just that: exercise! GRRRR! L O L! ) Will check out the web-site that you shared! I could use a good laugh! L O L! Joe - Hope J is feeling better so that you can have a nice dinner together tonight. Tweety - Seems like you had a nice day, yesterday. Hope work is kind to you today. Recently woke up from Second Sleep. Gonna leave to go to work, soon. I have an evaluation for being a Shift Director, before I start the 3PM to 11PM shift (as Shift Director). Hope the evaluation thing goes well. Not looking forward to dealing with the whole "parallel charting" thing. The hospital is providing a therapy dog for the staff during the days that the testing goes on. The therapy dog is, of all things, a chihuahua!! L O L! Those things are usually vicious!! This dog, though, is cute and very calm. I was surprised! Hope the poor dog survives all of the anxious petting that it's gonna get from staff! Cheers. . .

Good Morning! Recently woke up from First Sleep. (The bladder beckoned.) Thought I'd type a warm "Hello", along with a few other words, then go back to bed to attempt Second Sleep. Worked as Shift Director for the 3PM to 11PM shift yesterday. One word: "Ugh!" Besides being a busy evening shift, our hospital was practicing the new updated Meditech system that will be fully implemented next month. The "practice" part involved physicians and nurses doing "parallel charting" on selected patients. "Parallel charting" is geek-speak for "double charting", using the current (older) Meditech system and the new one. Needless to say, it was a surreal time for all involved. Parts of this practice went fairly well. Other parts??? Not so much. There were "end users" (that would be the nurses and doctors) who saw that practice software for the FIRST time, yesterday. This was after being told, for the past couple of weeks, to informally "practice" on our own with the "practice" upgraded Meditech software. Unfortunately, most, including me(!), were NOT able to practice on their own due to a significant communication glitch between our the "suits" of our larger healthcare system and the our teeny-tiny hospital. When I found out about this "communication glitch", I wanted to explode!!! Well, it seems that EVERYONE is going through the trials and tribulations of this HUGE software upgrade, including those freakin' "suits". (Idiots!!!) Anyway, it seems that most, if not all, have proper access to that practice upgraded Meditech software. Finally. Needless to say, yesterday evening was a wild ride. And. . . Today, I repeat the role of Mr. Shift Director for the 3PM to 11PM shift. Hopefully, things will go much more smoothly with this whole "parallel charting" thing. I'm not used to this evening shift thing. The evening shift has always been my least favorite one. (The day shift comes in a close second place!) Folks, I'm a long-standing night shift worker, and I like it that way. L O L! Don't have much more to share. Gonna try to get me some Second Sleep. Peace, folks. Ted

Good Morning! It's a quiet morning, at this 5:45 AM (EST) hour. Been up since around 4:30 AM. Finally, I'm wearing my Fit-Bit watch that Amy gave me for Christmas. According to Fit-Bit, my sleep last night (this morning) was "Poor". Well, Duh!!! L O L! Well, this "smart watch" was able to tell me what I already know. L O L! Amy loves her new (and bigger) Fit-Bit watch. She said she will keep the older (and smaller) Fit-Bit watch that I gave her last Christmas. (I gave her the newer and bigger one at her request.) I'm not sure how I feel about wearing mine, though. I haven't worn a watch of any kind in a loooooong time. They tend to break on me, for some reason. They just stop working. This has been true for both digital and analog watches. Supposedly this watch will remind me when to "get up and move around". I see arguments with my "smart watch" in the future!! L O L! (When Amy's Fit-Bit watches buzzes her to "get up and walk", she actually gets up and marches in place, or walks around the house if it's cold outside. I just sit on the couch, shake my head, and continue to watch television.) (Yes. I known. I need to exercise more.) This week is the week-from-hell, with regards to work. As shared here before, I picked up two extra 8-hour evening shifts this week as Shift Director. Tonight, though, I play the role of Mr. ICU Nurse for the full 12-hours. Yes, the paycheck will look mighty nice. But, I much prefer my days (nights) off than to work extra hours. Oh well. I'll stop whining and just do what I have to do. L O L! So, today will be the usual "Eat, Sleep and Work" thing. Actually, I'll be doing this for the entire week. (whine!!) Nothing much else to share, really. I hope all have an uneventful day today. Ted

Good Afternoon - herring_RN - I appreciate the videos that you post here! Thanks! Gonna listen to them later this evening. Just got back from a brief "power-walk" with Amy. It's COLD outside!! But we needed the exercise. (Or at least I needed the exercise!!) It's tough to get motivated to go outside and do our power-walk thing with the cold, wintery weather. Church was nice. The choir sounded lovely. They'll be learning new anthems to sing for the Lenten/Easter season. Not sure what I'm going to do for the rest of this afternoon and evening. I might finally focus on finishing a composition that I started several weeks ago. Right now?!?!? I feel like taking a nap. I just caught myself falling asleep at the computer (again) as I was typing this post. L O L! Hope all have an uneventful afternoon and evening for what's left of this day. Ted

Good Morning! It's a cloudy, damp morning in this part of the world. Apparently, it's supposed to rain, on again and off again, throughout the day. Had a nice day, yesterday. Amy and I went out for a "dinner" and a movie. We had "dinner" at around 2:00 PM in the afternoon, at one of our favorite Chinese restaurants. It was yummy, as usual. As for the movie?!? We finally saw, "Knives Out". It was really a great "Who Done It" movie with humor and an interesting plot-twist in the end. Highly recommend it, if you haven't seen it already. After the movie, we went to Home Depot and (finally) purchased a new kitchen sink faucet to replace our broken one. Don't have any plans for today. Well, (finally) replacing the broken kitchen sink faucet is most probably one plan for the day. L O L! Hopefully, the new faucet will fit the fixtures. There're some left-over Christmas decorations that need to be put away, too. Tomorrow is the usual church choir rehearsal and church service. Again, no solid plans for tomorrow afternoon. Next week will be busy. I picked up TWO extra shifts as Shift Director. Although next week's paycheck will be mighty pretty, I'm not looking forward to going to work for two extra days. These extra shifts are 8-hour evening shifts. I'm not a real fan in working the evening shift. The ER tends to be the busiest during this time. Oh well. I'll make sure my running shoes are on as I give the ER another pair of helping hands. Hope all have a pleasant day today! Ted

Good Afternoon - Just woke up from Second Sleep. Gonna get ready for work, shortly. Amy and I had a relaxing day, yesterday, "celebrating" the First of a New Year and a New Decade. We slowly put away the X-Mess Tree ornaments as we watched a pretty cool action-adventure movie on the television. The only strenuous thing I did, yesterday, was drag the tree into the spot where all X-Mess Trees go to decompose. This spot is deep in our property's woods, far away from eye-sight, but close enough to drag trees there. There are 13 trees there at various degrees of decomposing. I believe this spot is home to many small woodland animals and insects. At least, I like to think this is the case. Anyway, we had a nice and relaxing day, yesterday. Late last night, I FINALLY finished editing together a video of the trip my sister and I took with our Mom, along with our spouses. I took LOTS of photos during that trip. Unfortunately, many of them were out of focus. This took place about six years ago. I guess my picture taking, back then, was in its experimental stage when I tried to do everything manually, including focusing the shot. I now remember the reason why it took me so long to put together a video of our trip to Hawaii: The Out-of-Focus photos and videos. (Ugh!) But my loving sister asked for this video. So, she received. It was nice viewing these photos again. It brought back really nice memories of our time together with Mom. The trip to Hawaii was my mother's gift to us. Mom had recently made the brave decision to stop chemotherapy treatments after receiving news that the current chemo regime was not working for her recurrent metastatic colon cancer. The cancer was spreading everywhere, despite all kinds of therapy. (She had already gone through through the full cycles of chemo and radiation therapies, prior to finding out about the recurrent cancer.) Now, my mom was a special lady. She really was. Once, long ago, she was institutionalized for being diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia. This was during the late-1960s/early-1970s. She even received received electro-shock treatments back then (as I was told by my father), which, I believe, was the old-way of receiving those terrible treatments. There was no doubt that my mother had gone through some kind of mental decompensation. But she, somehow, someway, managed to work through it. By the late 1970s, after my parents divorced, she got herself off welfare and found a full-time job. She kept that job unto the time of her retirement, for 30+ years. The paid rent, paid all of her bills on time, and managed to squirrel away a rather nice savings for herself for her retirement. When she was in her mid-70s, she retired and moved to be closer to me. About a year into her retirement, she found out she had colon cancer. So, after a rather extensive surgery getting rid of the large cancerous tumor, for the next couple of years we spent our time together at the oncology clinic as she received her chemo and radiation therapies. Mom took it all with grace and great patience. If there was ever an opportunity for Mom to have another emotional and/or "mental breakdown", it would have been this period of her life. But nope!! She seemed to simply accept the dreadful situation for what it was, did what she had to do, and lived as best as she could. She made friends. She went to senior citizen activities. She did her cancer treatment thing. And, she loved and adored her children and grandchildren (my sister's kids). It was her request that we all go to Hawaii together. Apparently, it was a dream of hers to go to Hawaii. She had a BLAST! Well all did!! After that trip, she moved in to live with me, where she spent the last few months of her life. It was a sad time, for sure. But, it was a time filled with great love and humor! Mom could have whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. She loved her Martinis! After a few trials and errors, I learned how to make them for her! L O L! Without a doubt, she enjoyed being with her family. Mom quietly passed away in Her Room (which was our dining room, prior to her stay). She was surrounded by my loving wife and my sister-in-law. During her last couple of days, it was obvious that Mom was slowly "Meeting Her Maker". On her last day, it seemed to my sister and I that we should make burial arrangements. My sister wanted the BEST lot for our Mom. Literally. . . as my sister and I were signing the papers at the burial ground with the burial grounds-keeper, I received a phone call from my wife that Mom drew her last breath. She died surrounded by those who loved her, but not in eye-sight of her children watching her draw her last breath. It's as if Mom waited for us to leave. I believe that I shared this story here before. Please forgive me for recounting this again. But, I'm sitting here reliving aging memories that are now 6+ years old. I miss my Mom. (I miss my Dad, who died only several months ago.) And, I adore the memories that we made together, especially those memories of our time spent vacationing in Hawaii! (Mom paid for the trip!!) Well. . . Here's the video, complete with out-of-focused pictures. Enjoy. 2013 Vacation in Hawaii with Mom! Gotta go and get ready for work! Peace! Ted

Happy New Decade!! Honestly?!? It kind of blows my mind that it's the year 2020! Wow! We all know that life is going to be what it's going to be. Still, I wish us all the best as the year 2020 rolls itself out, and the new decade continues to march forward. Work last night. . . Someone said the "Q" word. Damn them!! At least I was able to play the role of Mr. ICU Nurse as we hurriedly transferred a patient from the Med/Surg floor to our teeny-tiny ICU in acute respiratory distress. At one point I thought the poor patient was going to meet his maker. Nope. A little Lasix later and he was sitting upright in bed fidgeting with his cellphone. And, he was fine ever since. L O L! Still, he received the royal ICU monitoring, followed by the ICU charting. L O L! What else took place at work last night?!?!? Oh yes! The FOOD!! Every. Single. Employee. Brought. Food. To. Eat! And, Eat I did!! (Major-UGH!!!) Happy New Year!!! So, as I waddled out to my car at the end of the shift, I thought to myself, "Ted! You're NOT going to step on the scale later today!" And, I to this moment, I STILL have NOT stepped on this scale for the year 2020. I don't want to break the damned thing! (Super Major-Ugh!!) Currently, the sun it out. Amy just said, "Let's go for a stroll." (It's what we do to attempt to help try to possibly keep in good health.) So, after I'm done typing these words on this bulletin board, I'm going to dress warmly - really warmly, because it's freakin' cold outside - and go for our 3 mile stroll. I have a whole night's worth of "Eating Like a Crazy-Man" to walk off! This is going to be an interesting year. I turn 60 this year. It's the main reason why my mind is blown that it's the year 2020. Life sure ain't gonna be perfect. There'll be food that shouldn't be eaten, but will be eaten. But there'll also be lots of healthy strolls on sunny days. They'll also be music-making, video-making, love-making, friendship-making, typing on bulletin boards, site-seeing far-away countries, working, playing, resting, and appreciating "Life, the Universe, and Everything". Peace and Blessings to Everyone. . . Ted

Hi Joe! I see you started the Good Morning thread for December 30th, too! Hopefully a kind moderator/administrator type can merge our two threads together. Sad to read that your sister wasn't feeling well. Hopefully you all can get together sooner than later. Peace, Joe! Ted

Good Morning! It's a cold, wet and rainy morning, at this part of the world, with temperatures in the mid-30s. Weather-wise, the concern is for the temperature to drop, and have the rain turn to sleet. The news weather people are in semi-hyper-mode with their weather forecasting. The concern is real, though. Thankfully, all seems safe as Amy prepares to leave and drive her 27+ mile commute to work this morning. The concern is for this afternoon to early evening when the road conditions are supposed to be bad. Amy is prepared to spend the night at her hospital rather than risk a super-slick commute home (only to have to return to work tomorrow morning). If the road conditions are bad this afternoon, I'll leave for work real early and drive like a little old man. And, if the roads are bad tomorrow morning, I'll stay at my teeny-tiny hospital after work as well. Slept well last night. Slept more than I anticipated, actually. I was hoping to be up for a good portion of the night to finish the Hawaii video. Oh well. It'll get done when it gets done. Nothing much planned for today. Just the usual Eat, Sleep and Work thing. Hope all have a safe and uneventful day today. Ted