Sometimes validation is all you need.  You can believe the way you think you are believe-in...but every now and then we all take a step back and wonder if we are skewed one way or the other...that the filter we use may need a cleaning...and that is where validation out of left field can make you say hmmmmm...so I'm not the only one...

I really have an issue with yes people.  Vulgarity warning.  Those people who would not say shit if they had a mouth full.  You know who they are.  They ride on the coat-tails of others agreeing with everything thing they say...ya.  Everyone knows who they are....and so do they!

Until next time.....

We should all care...another roll model...sports roll model...not only doping..but lying about it.  Accepting millions of dollars, smiling at the world as a hero...yes...we should all care...he is evil!

Something to analyze...thank goodness...I'd almost run out of issues!

I shared a communications class with the Colfax and Mingo EMS last night.  It was a blast.  I'm never nervous to speak to a group when my topic is something I believe in.  EMS and marching band so far...Too bad I didn't know this 45 years ago, I might have chosen another career...say standup comic...or rabblerouzer/lobbyist.

Found a new doctor today.  I received a letter from the clinic of my former doctor, whom I adored, saying she was leaving the clinic...I assume they didn't share her future plans because they didn't want to lose clinic clients.  I had my first appointment today at a branch of the clinic closer to home.  So far so good...I was starting to get pent up sitting in the room for 30 minutes but the minute she walked in the door, I knew it was going to be worth it.  Damn, I came close to walking out.

Physical therapy scheduled for my back..blood pressure pill change due to different health insurance.  The old one had no generic...she said the difference is like a
Red Delicious and a Washington apple.  She seems very thorough too...maybe this is just the Mercy Hospital Clinic way...I love their overall approach to my health and my appointment rather than in and out with a pill for what is ailing me at the moment.

I have two more days off...my intention is to not leave the house.  I love these blessed escapes from reality..just me and the critters and him. 

May order new cell phones...think we are going to go with galaxy III and not Iphones?  just the way I'm leaning.  If you have one or the other and have an opinion, I'm all ears.  Probably going with Verizon instead of US Cellular too...I know someone has to have an opinion.

Until next time.....

Make no mistake...this is not a happy story...  The multitudes who are not associated with the emergency field simply have no idea...somewhere there is a place we go to download stuff no one should ever have to see or know about.  This is the story of one call on a Saturday afternoon that is now in my psyche and will roam around in there for years to come.  It was a single car fatal traffic accident...it's one of those calls that we get from only a couple of people so we don't get that immediate adrenalin rush..in fact, I really thought it was going to be one of those typical Iowa winter calls with a car in the ditch...especially when the 2nd reporter advised it was in the ditch upside down in the creek and looked like it had been there awhile.  Unfortunately the deputy arriving on scene found that there was someone inside..it didn't really matter at this point how long it had been there.  Put yourself in the place of the deputy who rolls up on the scene, the volunteer ambulance service (our neighbors and friends) who roll up...the paramedics..... and the wrecker driver who generally has to just deal with hookin' and towin'.  So...now we have a couple handfulls of folks who are seeing things that no one should have to see and this gruesomeness has to go somewhere.

My partner and I now had the plate number of the vehicle (which was out of state) and the owner's name..because of experience, we began the task of digging to find information for notifications and identification, etc.  We now know that somewhere there is a family whose life is about to turn tragic and they don't know it.

We turned to Facebook.  There he is....and there was a picture of the car that matched the license plate check.  At this point, my partner says..yup this is probably him..hopefully some dirt bag stole his car and it just hasn't been reported yet.

Nope.

Our victim was recently married, recently became a father, was in the military and had just come home around the 27th of December.  The thing that about brought me to my knees was his post on the 27th saying not to miss loving and hugging the "shit" out of your family over the holidays because family is everything.

Ref my blog the other day about the importance of the social media and reading that your Great Aunt Matilda had died and sending good karmic vibes to your family.

I'm sending good karmic vibes to his family. 

I hope the other emergency crews have an emotional outlet...this isn't the first and it won't be the last...God have mercy on us!

Until next time.....

During the Algebra year of math, I had a teacher named Mr Gritton...he was a crazy perverted bastard.  He threw kids against the wall, dumped them in trash cans, picked pencils off the floor in order to look up girl's skirts...on my Facebook friend's page for junior high and high school, there are still kids talking about how horrible he was..and the worst part...I couldn't get algebra because he was such a horrible teacher.  I will never forgive him and I'm sure there are a lot of people who feel the same as I do.  I hope he is burning and spinning as we speak!

Belle E Button is finally making her way out of the basement on her own.  She comes up and sits by the basement door in the kitchen and hisses...she's eating big kitty food with her brothers .... she continues to hiss but they look at her like I look at people who have a perpetual bad attitude.  She's cuddling with us on the davenport while we watch TV.  I'm lovin' it.

I'm seeing all of these pictures of friends and family in Hawaii, Cancun and Florida.  It is killing me.  I'm trying to build up some time off for Baby Callaghan but everyday, I check flights and hotel rates and decide to make a decision tomorrow.  That may get me thru but I sincerely doubt it.  He is not any help at all...when I bring up a destination, he always says...well, you know I"m game.

It's time to work...it's a cold, windy Saturday...hopefully it will keep everyone in bed and away from their phones!!!!!!!

Until next time....

Don't get pissed and click on the deadly red X. in the top right corner.  I've been thinking about this for a couple of days and am now going to attempt to put it into words.  First and foremost...Katy is a teacher.  A teacher of deaf students.  This is a total passion she has followed.  She earned her bachelors at Kent State University; then, went on to earn her Masters..she is an advocate for the deaf and hard of hearing and has become involved in several societal organizations to enhance the life of deaf people.  She received an unaffordable education all the while saying this is what she wanted to do and she was going to go for it.  She makes a typical beginning teacher's salary although she did get a bump after earning her graduate degree.  Apparently and obviously, she is willing to be a teacher...a specialized teacher.... whether or not her pay is good.  She is following her passion. She is enveloped in personal satisfaction and I hope to God she doesn't burn out one of these days and raise holy hell because she is so lowly paid for the job she has done....but regardless, I say...IT IS NOT FAIR>

Teachers are the people hired to teach our children the fundamentals...Parents are still needed to raise the children.  Do we pay teachers a liveable wage and glow when they exceed expectation and ignore when they are bad teachers?  Isn't that what we, as a society, do anyway.  We have an expectation of those receiving high salaries to do high level work for their pay...so is this a money issue or a societal expectation and acceptance issue.

Until next time....

This HAS to be one of the cutest pet pictures EVER!  Bennie curls up around Marly every night during prime time.  Mainly he curls up in that little space between his front legs and his chin...seriously...they are so close to the same color that unless you notice Marly has a strange new lump, you don't even know Benny is there....They are both sound asleep in this picture

"sound asleep" what exactly does that mean?

He is off to work...I seem to be in mundane, non-disciplined nearly comatose mood the last two days.  I must accomplish something today or I'll go back to work tomorrow irritated because I will still have the things from last week hanging over my head.  But first...I see Ed Hicks has passed me in Angry Birds Friends tournament.  It's Ed Hicks fault if I don't accomplish anything today.......

Until next time....

It's a boy...I'm going to have a grandson.  While I've always thought we should have tried for one more child so he could possible have a boy, I knew that in reality, I couldn't afford another girl!  Then I always really thought that the natural conception selection...say that three times fast...knew that my body probably wasn't able to carry a boy *tongue in cheek.  So when I found out that Jenny was having a male child, I was rather speechless...I've not been around that many male babies...Oh..goodness...how do you raise them.  And then with the help of Kimba...I realized just how ignorant that sounded.  Regardless of the sex, this child is going to be amazing!

I did my winter bug/flea bomb treatment of the house this morning.  I send the cats out to the garage...I thought it would be like an amusement park for them with new things to crawl on and under, new smells, lots of boxes.  Someone looking in the window would have thought I beat them!  These are not your normal cats.  Then I gave them their quarterly Frontline treatment.  The human cuts open the little plastic dispenser and squeezes it on their back between their shoulder blades...I might as well have used a needle and syringe.  At this point, they see me coming and take off running.

I ate boxed, generic mac and cheese for lunch...you know the boxed kind with the little tiny mac and the powdered cheese.  It barely gets better than this!

......hahaha....and I'm gonna be a gramma.

Until next time....

This is one of those mornings that I have so much to say and so little time...little time because once I get on one of my rants, I frequently can't remember what else I was going to say...

Social media and instant messaging.  I've heard the whining, moaning and indignant anger from folks who don't electronically communicate with friends and acquaintances.  I've been personally criticized and mothered as to how us electronic communicators are ruining America.  OH  SHUT  UP!

I've made more connections using social media than would have been humanly possible without this tool.  I've reconnected with old friends that I always wondered about but didn't know if they were dead or alive.  I pretty much know at a glance what is going on in the lives of most everyone that I connect to....and it is WONDERFUL!  I may not be in your top 10 list of personal friends, but when your Great Aunt Matilda dies...you will get a prayerful good vibe from me because even though I didn't know you had a Great Auntie, I can share a good karmic vibe with you. 

If I have a thought or something I want to tell you, or just let you know I"m thinking about you because something reminded me of you...simple...I send you a short message ...you send me a message back and we have connected...if I spent time on the telephone (which I detest, by the way) I would have to give up my job and all of my private life just to keep up with the volume of information I have using electronic and social media...and I am more likely to send you a message than I am to call you on the telephone - do the pleasantries just to tell you that I tried the dunkin donuts coffee (which is the best, by the way) and love it.

I talk on the telephone for 8 hours a day to people I generally don't like...I, absolutely, positively am not going home from work and talk on the telephone....no matter how much you love this type of communication.  I am not going to do it...This, of course, applies to the daily conversations about life and what you had to eat during the day, this does not apply to emotional, rescue mission phone calls...I have been a people pleaser for 56 years..everyone's emotional well being has always been catered to before my own and it is not healthy.

Sorry. 

Until next time....if you come back?

It's Day 2.  We have a new seated sheriff...I've already driven myself crazy trying to think of someones name from 20 years ago even though Jenny has told me to just let it go...My cup of Tassimo coffee tastes like dirt..what's up with that?  Today is Kim Balmer's birthday...she will be entertained all day by her husband, the recently retired sheriff.  I was up for over an hour in the middle of the night with a quite severe bout of anxiety...I woke up in one of those freeky thought patterns like a scratched  LP record...over and over about 33 1/3 revolutions a minute....But, by golly, I have good intentions...crap coffee, lack of sleep and listening to everyone's problems for the next few hours will NOT send me back to bad habits...oops...too late

Until next time...