AS I LIVE and BREATHE...

It is time for me to come to grips with my life as it is now. I remain unemployed mainly because of some debilitating conditions that do not allow me to work in the nursing field anymore. This does not break my heart a lot since I have been on the burnout road for several years now. Still it is one thing to retire gently and another to retire forcibly. Either way, it leaves me to wonder what exactly the rest of the world thinks that nurses know and don't know, do and don't do that would render us completely useless doing any other work in the world unless it entails caring for people at their worst. What part of customer service would I not be able to handle after taking the bull by the horn and keeping not only the patient happy, but the patient's family, physicians, ancillary servers, the attendants, the supervisors, the other team members, the dietician, and most importantly the secretary . What part of multitasking would an RN not be able to do after answering call lights, phones, doctors questions, giving out medications, instructions, holding hands, counseling, working all hours, while planning meals for family at home all at the same time. Nurses have delegation down to a science as well as manipulative logic, ombudsmanship and time management. So why in the world will not anyone hire someone to run their tiny little office desk whose resume highlights nothing but nursing.? What do they think we spend years of schooling doing if not learning all aspects of a business like medicine. Needless to say, my search for a simple yet challenging position involving utilization of my life skill obtained during plenty years of living and working has met with just such prejudice. Never mind that nurses sometimes read and write better and more concisely than any counterpart on "the outside." But no, I have run into the double mayhap triple whammy of being older, having been a nurse and being a woman to boot. So I sit here with a pile of resumes sent, applications completed, and letters rejecting in a pile tall enough to reach the 37th floor of the Sears Tower. I sit here watching my unemployment run out and my cupboard dwindle all for the lack of foresight by most potential employers. If I had a dime for every human resource engineer who has told me "we are concerned you would be bored and leave right away" I wouldn't really need to find another job.

I have not been here on this blog for a long time due to so many events coming and going in my life. Some family turmoil, some personal, some goose and duck, some cat, some physical. Whoa--physical? Well, yes, with age comes the golden part of the golden years. Something not mentioned in the life handbook is that with age comes deterioration. Nowhere did I see that horrible thing with the funny name, "bursitis," could effect anyone at any time. Well I got it suddenly in both hips and spent a goodly amount of time getting steroid injections and physical therapy. If that didn't put a crimp in things, I developed an hernia that needed emergency repair. But that is all over and now I am back at the keyboard, oh lucky you.

The geese, however have had a rash of injuries all caused by , what else? careless fisherpersons. There was little Mugwart the Mallard who had a fish line with the lead weights attached to his legs making walking nigh on impossible and swimming difficult and flying risky. One day he disappeared. Then there is Cujo one of the African geese who had a line wrapped around his left leg at the ankle so tight it make his dew claw deformed. I got him to the point where he would eat from my hand and so I called the game warden who did come but not prepared to catch a goose. Then he never returned. Cujo has limped around now for months and suddenly, the limping is not so bad and his skin has grown over the line so he is handicapped but not dying. There is Gander the Canada goose with a line wrapped tightly around his right knee rendering him severely limping and in obvious pain. But the wardens won't come. They say I need to catch the goose then they will come. Is that not the job of a game warden? Guess not. And lastly there is a young African goose, Allie, with line wrapped tightly around the right ankle. She is in a lot of pain too. I don't know what to do for them. They are hard to catch.

Winter came in with a vengeance and for the past 3 weeks we have had the worst ice storms and snow in a long long time. The lake froze over and the geese could not get around as the ice was so pervasive they would fall. But in the weeks they were gone, I found myself in a sort of mourning mode for the loss of my quirky loud belligerent friends. It was quiet and uneventful. Yesterday the last of the ice melted on the lake in time for this weekend snow, but the geese and ducks are back for awhile, the noise, the smell, the fun. God had a great sense of humor and fun when he created the world. GEESE, who knew?

Until next time.

Mary G