Yesterday was a day like any other day. Except, yesterday I went to get the report on my follow up x-rays. They showed no sign of pneumonia. Yay! They did however show signs of COPD. So, I am off for more tests, more doctor appointments, and more medication. The medication will have side effects. I am hopeful that the side effects will be soft manageable hair, improved eyesight, and stronger muscles. I am hopeful, but I am not delusional enough to actually expect such side effects. 🙄
This morning, I happened upon a blog that listed a number of thought provoking question. One of the questions was “Do you follow the ten commandments?”
The ten commandments are pretty basic to decent human behaviour – so yes, I generally follow the ten commandments. (Nobody is perfect). I kept thinking about this. I know why I follow the commandments. They make sense. They are the foundation of a constructive life. If I did not follow the commandments, my life would be in chaos. I would be filled with guilt, in trouble with the courts, lose my job, I would drive away friends and family – there would be constant negative consequences.
I was taught the ten commandments by the time I was three years old. Even then, I am pretty sure I could understand the consequences of murder, lying and stealing or the benefit of honoring one’s parents or setting aside one day a week to honor life and creation.
What I can’t understand, is why the powers that be felt it necessary to teach me that if I broke the commandments, God would smite me down and I would spend eternity burning in hell. Seems kind of overkill for anything a tot might be capable of.
I am not a diehard monarchist, nor an anti-monarchist for that matter. I don’t scour magazines and the internet for news on the British Royals. I will read an article on them if it seems interesting, but I tend to judge the content with an open mind.
This week, there seems to be a number of articles popping up about Harry and Meghan returning to Britain to attend a few functions. The articles I have seen have focussed on the apparent fact that they are not bringing Archie with them. To believe what I have read, the royal family is crushed that they will not have the opportunity to spend time with the little tot. In rather a subtle way, journalists are using this as yet another opportunity to point out how selfish and disrespectful Harry and Meghan are.
Personally, I am pretty sure the royal family understands. It is not too surprising, in the midst of this coronavirus situation, that young parents would be leary about exposing an infant to days on end spent in crowded airports and confined to airplanes with travellers from around the world – for very limited opportunity to spend time with extended family.
If Harry and Meghan were taking Archie to Britain, the news would be full of nonsense about their reckless parenting ways. People would be up in arms about them taking unnecessary risks with their son’s health and well being.
I understand that people have an interest in the royal family. I certainly don’t mind reading about the events that they attend, the charity work they do, even the highlights of their family life. Personally, I do not feel that they need to be judged for every bloody thing they say, do or wear.
The Queen and her family, for the most part, seem to be fairly intelligent, rational, caring, considerate people. I trust them to make their own decisions on day to day matters without this constant chatter from the peanut gallery. In my opinion, it is time for people to back off already. 🤷
There are 100 more business days until I retire. Whoo hoo!
I am retiring at the end of July, the best time of the year in Saskatchewan. The flowers will be blooming, the sun will be shining, the birds will be singing and I will be free to enjoy it all😊
As much as I have enjoyed the challenges of my career, I am looking forward to being free of the stress of deadlines and profit margins and tracking endless details. 🤑
I am looking forward to having free time to read and write, cook and clean, walk the dog and putter in my garden. I am looking forward to having time to visit my sisters and meet new friends. I can’t wait to have FREE time. 🕰️
I am so looking forward to freedom! Only 100 more business days and I will be free to start a new chapter in my life. The closer I get, the better it looks. 🥳
Completed Net Filing our taxes and applications for a government senior drug plan. Whoo Hoo! Just a few thoughts on the subject:
1) I, like millions of others, hate filling out government forms. I also hate, and again I am not alone here, the challenges of using technology to do virtually anything. Having filled out the government forms of the day and receiving confirmation that they went where they need to be, I am feeling quite accomplished. Celebrating with a glass of wine accomplished, but since it is only noon, I settled for a mini cupcake.
2) As bad as it is to complete government forms, some of today’s forms were exceptionally bad. It was not that they were any more incomprehensible than usual. It was just due to the reason for filing them. Being as I am turning 65 this summer, I had to submit an application to be covered by our government senior drug plan, plus I had to submit an application for a my husband for spousal coverage because he is over 60 but under 65. Here is the thing though – neither my husband nor I qualify for this plan. My husband still works – and will work for another 4 years. He makes too much income from his employment for either of us to qualify. We have to submit our applications so that we can receive a denial for coverage from this plan, that we must send to his company’s insurance company so they will continue our health coverage because we do not qualify for government coverage, because his employment income is too high for us to qualify. They have his employment records. They know he works. They know what his wage is and they know his wage would disqualify us. So, why??? Why do we need to do this?
3) I do not hate paying income taxes. 😛. I am not thrilled that our provincial government squanders a LOT of our tax revenue and that much of it does not go where it should go. I am not thrilled with our provincial government for a LOT of reasons. That is a whole other blog. But, I do not hate paying income taxes. I have been paying taxes since I started working. I have always felt that I was fortunate to have employment that covered providing for my family – as well as allowed me to contribute to our country & province as a whole. Even as a single mother, I contributed to schools, hospitals, highways, law enforcement, social programs and the like through my taxes. I was pretty proud of that actually. Still am🙂
4). Finally, I am glad that I finished doing and filing our taxes and drug plan applications in a timely fashion. I used to be terrible for procrastinating on things like this. I was scrambling on April 30th for years and years. I have learned to get on it and get it done! Finally! 🤸🤸🤸
Maybe a few more months but I am almost all natural grey – or silver, or maybe even pure white. But I am almost there.🧓
Ready to start my Friday. Fed my dog, had my coffee and vitamins, checked the weather and news and I wrote my morning affirmations.
Going for follow up x-rays on my way to work. Hopefully that will be the end of pneumonia 2020. It’s Friday, so that means order out lunch with Kori. We are celebrating today so I am treating us to a special lunch. I forget what we are celebrating but Friday lunch is always the best part of the work week so worth celebrating. 😂
Last night my office partner got home from work to find her cat sick and suffering. It is always hard to have a sick pet. It is even harder when you cannot afford the medical care, medicine and special diet food they require. Luckily, Kori had a friend to help her with the finances to get Ziggy the care he required. By tomorrow night, he will be home chasing bottle caps and looking for kibble and cuddles.
When we had our dog Casey and our little blind cat Suzie we spent a fortune on veterinary bills. One month alone we spent $1,500.00 on ear surgery for Suzie and $2,500.00 for dental surgery and to remove a small growth for Casey. Even in a good year, our vet bills were in the hundreds.
When we got Kat, I looked into veterinary insurance. The cost is rediculous. There is no way around it, keeping a pet healthy and well takes money and a lot of it these days.
It costs a lot to provide veterinarian services. The equipment, staff, building, utilities, taxes, insurance, administration, cremation charges, supplies, ongoing education and training of staff – it all cost. The bottom line is veterinarians have to charge for their services because they have to cover their expenses and make enough profit to provide for themselves, their families and their own pets.
I don’t know what the answer is, but I know people love and need their pets and want to provide the care they require. With today’s veterinarian prices – I don’t know how a lot of people manage to do that.
I have been working for about fifty years. I am relatively intelligent, concientious and responsible. My employers, for the most part, have appreciated me. Unfortunately, even the best fall – and when I fall, I fall hard. If you are having a bad day at work, take a few minutes to read about a few of my less than stellar ones.
As a teenager, I worked at the local theatre. I sold entrance tickets and worked the canteen. During the movie, I would walk up and down the aisles making sure no one was smoking, drinking alcohol, making out, or pushing their knees against the seat ahead of them. I carried a BIG flashlight. If someone was out of line, I would shine my flashlight down on them. This was usually enough to get the offender to shape up. One night a classmate had his knees up against a seat. I shone my flashlight on his knees and he put his feet down. I walked to the front of the theatre, turned back, and as I passed my classmate, I noticed he had his knees back up. I reached out to gently tap his knee with my flashlight. The head flew off the flashlight and clattered to the floor. Lightbulb, spring, and batteries flew in all directions – shattering the silence of the moment – that moment when everyone is holding their breath in anticipation of the most terrifying scene of the year’s number one horror movie. That week my boss bought me a new flashlight. A really small flashlight.
After I graduated, I went to visit my sister and brother-in-law in Thompson, Manitoba – northern wilderness at its finest. I decided to stay a while. I applied for a position in a small construction company’s office. I agreed when my tentative employer asked if he could take me to lunch to discuss my possible employment. He offered to pick me up and I agreed to that as well. I did my long dark hair, fixed my make-up, dressed up in a pretty little dress and stepped to the top of the stairs – just as my sister opened the door. I had a good look at my boss- to-be as he stepped inside the house at the foot of the staircase. I took one step down, slipped on the top step and unceremoniously slid down the length of the staircase, body slammed the poor guy into the door and landed on top of him (with my pretty little dress wrapped around my throat). I found my resume months later. The note at the top of the page read “nice hair”.
My next adventure, was going to visit another sister and brother in law and their children. I became a nurse’s aide in their local hospital. I had a few bad days there but one that has remained particularly memorable. I was working the night shift. The head nurse sent me to change a patient’s colostomy bag. I had no idea what a colostomy bag was. I went to the store room and found a package marked ‘colostomy bag’. I cannot remember wondering what I would do with it. I proceeded to the patient’s room. As I stepped up to his bed, he said “I removed the old bag for you”. He lifted a towel off of his abdomen. I panicked, flipped the red emergency switch and ran into the hall, lights flashing, sirens wailing. Nurses, doctors and orderlies were rushing towards me. I rushed up to them and as calmly as possible said “My patient exploded – there is poop everywhere!”.
I finally decided that I should probably settle on office work and landed back in the construction industry, working for a millwork company. Amongst my many duties, I was in charge of getting shipments out. One month we had a large contract for cabinets to be shipped out to RNF in Prince Albert – several shipments, and I got them out without a hitch. Then my boss told me there was another trailer filled and ready to go. I grabbed labels, packing slips and bill of lading. Everything was filled out, the transport company was called, I had time to start working on the invoicing. Two days later, Logan Stevens from Yorkton called to ask where their cabinets were. Oh….
And today… I have been having a great week. It is only Tuesday, but so far so good. This afternoon, I got a call. A contractor called to tell me they wanted to proceed with an order that I had priced. It is a big order. I grabbed the file and started going through it. I had missed a major step in the pricing. My boss came back from site and I brought him the file. I had already figured out that I had also made one mistake in our favour, that there was one cost that had decreased and another that we could negotiate a better deal on. He offered a couple of additional suggestions. We will make it work, we will even make a profit. But…
Working is a part of life. We all have bad days. Through the years, I have found that when things go wrong taking responsibility is key. Finding a fix, if possible, is crucial. And, you cannot die of embarrassment even when you really want to.
It was back to work this morning after a week off to recover from pneumonia.
It is strange how one can plug along day after day, doing what one has to do – until you can’t. I was struggling to eat. I was struggling to breathe. I was definitely struggling to think and focus. I was just so exhausted. Now that I feel so much better, I cannot imagine how awful I was feeling before and why I did not realize that there was something serious out of sync.
I felt so good today. I dealt with a dozen files, wrote up a dozen invoices, sent out price requests and samples. I cleaned the washroom. (I am not going to care once I am gone but I cannot imagine how a half dozen adults can use a washroom for a week, rinse coffee cups and wash dirty hands and not once wipe off the sink?) 🤷. It is not rocket science. 🤦 I went through the electronic plan room and checked out new tenders that had been uploaded. I answered countless calls. It felt so good to feel efficient, energetic and reasonably intelligent.
I am still anxious to retire – more so every day. But I am glad that I feel well enough to kind of enjoy being back to work!
Seclusion 101 with AnneMarie 