Some ramblings........

Last night I was piddling around, unable to sleep, TCM had no good movies on and Gumbo was snoring too much for me to read, so I went surfing. I am not sure how I found the first blog that led me to the blog that I am going to reccommend, but, that is neither here nor there. I spent all night reading this blog, read all the archived posts and everything. If I knew how to add a 'blogs I read' section to my sidebar, I would list this one there. So, here it is http://randomreality.blogware.com/.
I know you will like it as much as I have.

Reading his blog made me remember working at the hospital. I am a Respiratory Therapist, but stopped working in 1999 because of my OCD (nasty thing). I tried one time to go to England to work. I have been a Britophile (I think I made that up) for so long now. I decided to call a contract company who hired nurses and other medical types. Their biggest potential employers were in Saudi Arabia, but I knew that there was no way I could live there without offending someone. Not intentionally, but, well, it is a known fact that if I had to think before I spoke, I would never say anything. Ok, so, I get up at like 3am one morning and call this company in London. The man I talked to was very nice but told me that at that time they were not hiring foreigners to work in the UK. I was totally shocked and told him that I was NOT a foreigner. He was nice when he told me that to the UK I was. We kept talking and the end result was that if I could get a work permit there, then he would give me a chance. But, he also told me that the UK does not have Respiratory Therapists, that Physical Therapists do most of what we do. I am not sure the RNs do what we, as RTs did. I was trained to intubate, manage ventilators, insert arterial lines as well as the routine breathing treatments. At the hospital where I worked, a Veterans Hospital, we had a lot of responsibility. For instance, one night in the Cardiac Care Unit, I intubated a patient. Placed him on the ventilator. Managed the ventilator (settings, etc)and inserted an arterial line.

But, I digress. I never made it to England, dangit. And, it looks like I may never make it there just to visit. I have major issues with flying. Actually, it is the crashing that I have issues with. I am not afraid of dying. It is the time of terror prior to hitting the ground that I want nothing to do with. I have a friend who tells me that if I will go to Thailand with her, she will go to the UK with me. Right. She says we will go to my doctor and get anti-anxiety meds for the flights. I don't think there are enought drugs available to get me on the plane. I would have to have IV meds and be wheeled on in a wheelchair, then given an aisle seat with no one sitting next to me so when I slide over, comatose, with slobber sliding down my chin, I won't get any on anyone else. Then, I would have to do it all over again when I get ready to come home.

And, a more realistic note, I finally got the insurance money for the damage my house got during Katrina. So, now I can get the roof, chimney and ceilings fixed. I have decided that I am going to plant bamboo along the fence line. That way I won't have to get a privacy fence. And, bamboo has the added benefit of helping fix (resolve?) some of the pollution.

This brings up another issue. Not the pollution. Fixing my house. See, my oldest son does roofs. But, he and I have never had good business dealings. I am not sure he will do his best on my house. So, I am having other roofers give me bids. Now I have to figure out how to tell him this without hurting his feelings.