how about drinking?

Kim, paradoxically the spikes are NOT due to riots or large protest gatherings! These protests are outdoors, almost everyone is wearing masks, and the marchers are trying to social-distance. IL has had its share of protest marches & outdoor demonstrations--but our cases are going down, and our rolling positivity rate is down to 2%. Check your state numbers--I think the entire northeast is on a downward trend. Even MN, where the rioting and protesting began, has shown a decline in cases. The key is that these gatherings are all outdoors. The rise in cases is occurring in the South & West, which opened up too quickly and too fully. That's why the average age in those states is getting younger: it corresponds to younger adults carelessly gathering in large numbers in bars (especially bars, where alcohol loosens inhibitions and makes people forget to social-distance), restaurants, pool parties, BBQs and indoor gatherings such as church services. Not just that, but Southern & (most) Western states have a higher proportion of morons who refuse to wear masks or keep their distance because they feel it violates their "freedom." (Sorry if I inadvertently offended anyone here, but from what I'm reading on BCO, all of us ladies seem to have the common sense & decency to abide by CDC guidelines, even if certain of our governors care more about their states' economies and image than about their constituents' health and lives).

Just stopping in for a quick hello. Work is still so busy, but I am down to 10 more months to go. (actually 10 months on the 28th). The lawn mower stopped working, I got it fixed last year and didn't want to put more money into it so I got another one. This is kind of embarrassing, but I had to get my son to show me where everything was, the grass in the back yard was getting high and I wanted to raise the blade up. He will probably mow from now on and my grandson always wants to mow when he visits, I think he just likes driving the riding lawn mower. My mom is having trouble with her leg, I think it is her back, but the pain is in the leg and keeps getting worse, she went to the doctor and she has degenerated disc ( I think) - she got a shot from her primary doctor that didn't help so she went to a orthopedic, and goes Friday to get a different type of shot. She always had so much energy and was always working around the yard and had a garden going, but she doesn't do all that and it feels like she just got old this year.

I love reading about everything you all are doing, hope everyone is well.

Sandy, I just have to jump in and say that you hit the nail on the head when you said, “morons who won’t wear masks” in the west. It is so frustrating. Only Walmart and Safeway are requiring employees to wear masks here so that is where we are shopping. Costco is requiring customers to wear masks and of course the “freedom fighters” are boycotting. The good news is Washington State is one of 17 now requiring mandatory mask wearing in public. I don’t see that happening in my area of Idaho.

Peregrine, ID is experiencing a spike in cases, no doubt because it's a notorious haven for libertarians (espec. the militia movement). Patrick Henry did not say "give me liberty and I don't care if you drop dead."

Kim, shakshuka is a Middle Eastern (some say Tunisian, others Israeli) dish of eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce with sliced olives and feta cheese crumbles.

Cami, the MRI machine at Evanston Hosp. is a "wide-bore" scanner that is roomier and less noisy--but more sensitive than older narrower machines and much more sensitive and accurate than "open MRI" scanners. The only problem I ever had with an MRI is when I had my wrist scanned back in 2018 (in a narrow-bore machine): I had to lie on my stomach with both arms stretched out in front of me like I was Superman flying through the sky...for 45 minutes. The scan was done at Glenbrook, and the only music they could offer through headphones was on this bizarre SiriusXM classic rock channel with commercials in Mandarin and movie clips in Spanish between the songs--six of which are permanently ruined for me. And then my shoulders were so sore I had to have a nurse put my bra back on me. Because these scans will be of my head (especially near my ears), I don't think there's any way I can be offered music since the headphones would interfere with the imaging. So earplugs and meditation (and maybe running my favorite songs through my "mind's ear") will be my only distraction.

Complicating matters is that on Wed. before the MRV scan I have ingrown-toenail surgery scheduled on my R big toe (only 3 weeks after the podiatrist dug out a big pointy corner barb, it's hurting again). That office is also in Evanston in the Prof. bldg next to St. Francis Hosp., about a mile south of Evanston Hospital (where the scanner is). I have it timed so that my toe will still be painless by the time I have to drive up for my scans; and when the local anesthetic starts to wear off I can pop some Extra Strength Tylenol (and maybe add ibuprofen once I'm upright again). For sleep, I have in reserve a precious few Tylenol #3s if necessary. Thurs., I have nothing planned; and by Fri. evening I should pretty much be out of pain. If not, I can always re-schedule the scans. But waiting even a week for the ingrown-toenail surgery is going to be bad; waiting 2 weeks till the next pedi will be torture.

Sandy - Good to hear you have your diagnostics scheduled out. Toenail surgery - Ouch!

Cammie - Still here. Thanks for remembering.

DH & I both went to Dentist today. Infected tooth I had awhile ago will be $2,000 to repair. Afterward, replenished wine (so I can make Chambord Spritz drinks again) and irish cream and quick store visit. Wore our masks, & used sanitizer, etc. Felt very safe at Dentist. Picked up a rotisserie chicken - 1st one we have had in over 3 months. Imbibed in a coffee mocha liberally laced with irish cream this afternoon.

Here in N KY, "morons who won't wear a mask" abound. When I do groceries, seems only about 75% of store patrons wear masks. I was heartened to see a mom and her 2 youngish daughters all 3 wearing masks. Neighbors across the street still hold several gatherings a week with no one masked/no social distancing.

Updated photo of yours truly is below.

Celia - very pretty

Masks are mandatory for customers and workers in Denver. Not sure about surrounding areas/suburbs, but I rarely not in Denver proper. DH and I carry ours when we walk the neighborhood as they are not required for that, but we keep our distance from people, even friends. If we talk, we put mask on.

Jazz - enjoy your little getaway

Chi - good luck with all your procedures

JUST IN CASE

Good Morning, Loungettes!Well, yesterday turned into a pretty weird day. Shortly after I got done with my post here I got a call from the scheduled, one of the nurses had called out sick, could I come in an cover for a while until she could find one of the regular nurses to come in. OK, I can do that, but I have a mandatory meeting at 1 peeyem, so I need to be off the unit by then.Get to the nursing home just before 8 ayem, the nurse I'm relieving is going out the door as I go in (Huh?What about giving me report?) cuz she has an appointment. The nurse working on the other unit has the keys for my unit (keys to the med room, narcotics, treatment cart, etc).OK, so I go get signed in, find the nurse on the other unit, she's upset and in tears cuz she got moved to the long term care/admission unit where she hasn't worked for a while. She gives me her census sheet where she has her notes about what is due when, but doesn't really give me report (info like who has fallen recently, who has new orders, who's had a condition change, little details like that). OK, I'm good at what I do, I can drop into a situation and take charge and make it work. So over to my unit I go, and take a quick look through the electronic records and jump in giving morning insulin doses that are an hour overdue, visually check everyone, start talking with the staff (mostly listening to them complain about being short handed) and start getting the work done. The social worker comes by, tells me that a resident on the Admit unit has finished quarantine and will be moving to a room on my unit during the day, not sure exactly when, need to get that room ready. OK, dealt with getting that room ready, working on doing the dressing changes and other treatments that need doing. Discover that 2 CNAs, not 1 have called out, and the whole CNA assignment needs to be reworked to cover until another CNA comes in at 11 to help out. Listen to more complaints about being short handed and not getting messages.Just get things back under control and the State Survey Team arrives! Yup. Worse staffing day in months, and this is the day we get a Federal Survey. So now I'm working on getting dressings and treatments done, notes written, vital signs reviewed, and I have to keep running all the way to the other end of the building to print off reports and gather info to take to the Director of Nursing for the survey team.And help the other nurse who has an admission and has never done an admission here before, and is totally overwhelmed and in tears again. God bless the scheduled, who found another nurse to come in and help out.I had her go help the other nurse as my stuff was under control, if not on time. The one of the surveyors needs to sit down with me as the educator and go over education stuff in detail, took probably 45 minutes, but she was very nice about doing it at the nurses' station so I could still answer phone calls and deal with things as they happened. But it did require another trip all the way to the other end of the building to my office to get my big record book. And I find out that the survey isn't just the Infection Control Federal survey that all nursing must have done, but a complaint survey as well.I still haven't found out what the complaint was, but I did find out that the surveyor was very impressed with my work! Gold star for me! And for one of the medication techs, who is fantastic every day, and she actually went and found some gold stars and put one on my name badge as well as on hers, so that was fun. Anyway, the surveyors are done and gone in a few hours. That's good. At lunch time I get the message that there isn't a nurse to come in and take over for me, so I have to stay until 7 peeyem. OK, so I'm not going to make the mandatory 1 to 3:30 meeting. I shoot an e-mail off to HR, let her figure out how to fix that problem. In the middle of lunch one of the residents has a major choking spell. As in, I wasn't sure we weren't going to end up calling 911, but she did manage to clear things out on her own after a bit. By this time I've lost track of the crises count and just work in all the charting and phone calling that has to be done after an incident like that.The, all of a sudden, there is a new person in one of the rooms on my unit!Yup, the person from the admit unit has been transferred over, and I haven't even been told her name yet, let alone anything about her. I call the other unit nurse, she didn't even know the person was going to be moved. Meltdown ensues. I get her calmed down, tell her to send over the lady's chart and I'll take care of all the transfer work. Of course, I forgot one thing, to notify the kitchen, so at suppertime her tray went to the admission unit and not to my unit. Now, in the normal kitchen schedule, my unit gets the meal cart first, the admission unit gets theirs last/third. So this new lady is wondering where her dinner is, the CNAs are having meltdowns cuz she doesn't have a tray. The admit unit calls, her tray is there, we arrange a quick hand off, I deliver the tray to her room, another crisis resolved. So I finally got everything done, nothing left over for the overnight nurse to pick up, the 2 nurses on the other unit have everything mostly caught up, only a couple things need to be picked up by the overnight nurse. OK, the handoff should be pretty smooth. Nope, the overnight nurse is one who is flaky, flighty, and easily flipped out. You know the type, asks you a question but won't let you finish a sentence when you try to answer and has to spend a bunch of time pointing out how hard all this is and how the recent changes have made things harder and this isn't what she signed up for, making sure you know how hard she works, micromanaging the CNAs, chasing down insignficant details while ignoring the important stuff, blah, blah, blah.She was way more concerned about making sure I emptied the garbage can at the desk than getting report about the residents. Needless to say, I treated myself to a couple of lobstah rolls for dinner. Sadie was not happy with me, I had told her I would be home at the usual time and I wasn't. I swear that dog can tell time! But I enjoyed the heck out of those rolls and petting Sadie while sipping Birch Beer Cordial, let me tell you!

Cammy Cat--it did feel good to think I had a nice leisurely morning until the phone rang! So glad I am off today. I slept until almost 8:30 ayem!

Misty--I think it's great to have someone else do the most of the mowing. I actually pay to have it done and think it's a good value for the money! Particularly since I hire a neighbor who is trying to establish a lawn care business. Sorry to hear about your Mom's pain. Very often leg pain does come from a back issue. I hope the shots help.

Morning, Jazzy!

Hi, Peregrine!I'm with you on the mask thing. I wish one of the big stores around here would be boycotted by the "freedom fighters" folks, then I'd know it would be safer to go that store! Mostly staff are masked around here, but very few customers are. I think I would feel more protected if face coverings were mandatory here, but I don't see that happening outside of a few individual stores choosing to make it mandatory.

Chi--shakshuka sounds interesting. I can remember learning about some of the crazy positions people needed to be in during MRI and CT scans when I was a student nurse. I'm glad the tech is evolving to decrease that part of the scan process. You might want to consider taking a dose of tylenol BEFORE the toe procedure, it will help block the inflammation from starting/keep it lower and let the local last longer.

Misty--LOL!!

Celia--coffee mocha with irish cream, YUM! That is a BEAUTIFUL pic!

Karen--I don't mask outside, either, unless I am very close to people.It's not needed so much outside. Inside, however, is a totally different.

Cammy Cat--I hear you about FaceBook. I've paused a few friends who are only posting political stuff and blocked a lot of sites and a few people posting what I consider inappropriate and hateful content. I just do not need all that crap right now. Fb is for keeping up with friends and family. I wonder if I could start a non-political version of Fb, one where political content is not allowed?Hmmm.

Oh my gosh, Mango soda????? Never heard of it before!! Got to find me some, now!

Hi!! Rub my belly??

Celia - I'd feel the same way with my coffee drink and my wine too. Yes...I've developed a taste for the dark wines with fresh fruit in it, (canned is fine too. Jes thot I'd toss in my 2 cents too.

Lubs,lubs!!

Good Morning, Loungettes!Just a quick poop in, got to go in early to cover the 7 to 3 shift today. Somuch for working 24 hour per week, with today's shift I'll be at 32 hours, at least!

Sadie says Hi!

Mema--glad the scan results are good! Hope the headaches get figured out ASAP. Headaches are not fun. Are you sure you aren't dehydrated?

Chi--Don't blame you for limiting major stressors to one per week!Good plan, actually.

Hello Friday

Ingredients

• Ice cubes
• 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons spicy ginger ale (such as Blenheim)
• 1 tablespoons (1/2 ounce) 100-proof bourbon (such as Old Grand-Dad Bonded)
• 1 teaspoon Angostura bitters

How to Make It

Step

Fill a rocks glass with ice cubes; add all ingredients. Stir gently, and serve.

From <https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/hello-friday>

Mornin ladies,

Oh My Stars Kim, that all happened in just those few hours. And out of everyone melting down <I don't blame them> I knew u wouldn't and u kept ur cool and made sure everything was done and finished the way it should be. I know that was more hrs. than usual but things just kept on happening one right after the other. How u do it all amazes me, well in a way it doesn't cuz that's the kind of nurse you are and always have been. That was a rough day for u so I'm not saying anything about the number of hrs. u spent there. Do u really think the ones who called in sick were just normal sick, I mean no Covid stuff. But coming home to Sadie was the complete highlight of that day, or any other day for that matter. Cute pic. of your girl.She really missed u for that day. And cute as usual.

SusyQ so glad to see you, but super sorry for ur hang on headaches. Those must be horrible.I'm glad the scan came out all right but puleeeeze let us know about the MRI. Oh trying for hair growth is so challenging I hope u get some decent results I bought it but haven't used it yet but my sister uses Toppit and uses it when she goes anywhere, but she has dark hair if that makes a difference. It really looks good. She's lost more than I have so it helps how she looks. But it's good ur getting out with ur DH of course be careful.So poop in to let us know.

JC good to see u. I thought maybe u were gone already. So when r u leaving cuz ur ready to go now, I can tell.

When does Lori come back, anyone know??? Seems like she's been gone for so long. She must be having a good time.

Sandy that's smart not having 2 things done at the same time, even tho it's a time saver it's not worth what u have to go thru... Haven't heard about Gordy and Leslie for a while so I assume they're doing good. <I like to hear that> And 49 years WOW Happy Anniversary that's a while Sandy. And u know I like to hear what u ate, so now ur keeping it from me. I always liked buffets until the last few years and really thought of all the germs that could come with it, but I especially liked a salad one, my favorite part of the meal taking all the things I like, but I haven't been to one in a long time now and probably won't anymore, even tho we'd go to the same restaurants and the servers always offered to make my plate for me, which I didn't do...my cousin would, she knew exactly what I liked and how much.LOL and dessert would be 2 plates of everything and we'd all eat it and all of it too. But no more.

My GFs and I made plans to go out to lunch right before this crap started so we're still waiting, we want to make sure.

I ordered a new bed pillow this week to sit on, it's starting to get uncomfortable to sit and be on my computer or work. I've tried those actual sit on ones but they're all to hard, so I'll see . Dan told me to use his card so that helped me but I didn't go crazy with the price. He told me to use it whenever I need something for me personally or my meds, but I buy my own meds just every so often I use it for something I really need. He is so good to me.

Jodie is coming this morning so I'll take a shower and I have some new skin lotion and I always like to use new things. She comes earliesh cuz that's when I have the most energy as the day progresses I start to lazy up, I think cuz of my pain meds for that one. Yes that's what I think and I'm sticken' to it.

So hoping everyone is doing well and has a good day.

LUBS U ALL

Good Morning, Loungettes! Happy Saturday! Sadie and I had a wonderful sleep in this ayem. And a wonderful sleep last night. Still pretty warm here but the humidity has left and that makes all the difference to me. While I was at work yesterday we got a terrific thunderstorm with quarter sized hail come through, along with acouple of absolute drenching downpours. Got home after work, not a sign of a drop of rain anywhere. It's been dry, we need the rain badly, starting to get wildfires. A couple of houses in town where I work got hit by lightening and have some fire damage. I was kind ofhoping we'd get a good thunderbumper here at home last night so I could watch it, but nope, just some clouds and breezes. Not much on the agenda today, probably going to be a lazy day today. Sadie says Hi to everyone!

Cammy Cat--so far as I know the people who called in sick are not COVID sick.There is another respiratory bug going around and it's being a heavy pollen season so allergic people are having issues, too, and those all look like COVID. Add to that how tired staff is getting with all the extra stress and constant rule changes since mid-March it's no wonder people are starting to get sick. At least we are now allowed to schedule vacation time, that's helping boost morale a lot. Just so you know, I did not plan to stay so long at work the other day.I actually agreed to work on the unit until 1 peeyem, but the scheduler couldn't find anyone to come in, and all the rest of the admin folks who could cover were at that mandatory 12 peeyem meeting, so I was stuck. I can't just walk away, no matter how hard I wish I could some days. I hadn't really thought about what's going to happen with buffets after all of this. Buffets have always been a weak point in food safety, not because the restaurants do anything wrong but just because of the sheer number of people who walking by and handling the serving utensils , and talking and breathing and coughing and sneezing, well, you get the picture. It's going to be a long time before I can comfortably go to a buffet, I think! I think we all start to "lazy up" as you call it, as the day goes on. But the pain meds are notorious for that, too, so you are probably right.

Lazy Daze Ingredients

• 1 oz Vodka
• 1 oz Coffee Liqueur
• 1/4 oz Creme de Menthe
• 1 oz Melon Liqueur
• 2 oz Lemonade
• 1 1/4 oz Whipping Cream

Shake and strain into an ice-filled highball glass. Add lemonade and float cream on top. Garnish with a cherry and mint sprig, and serve.

Best served in a Highball Glass.

From <http://www.haveacocktail.com/lazy-daze.htm>

Good Morning, Loungettes!Happy Sunday Funday! Sadie and I had a wonderfully lazy day yesterday. Today the sun is out and I'm going to try to get some stuff done around the house. Sadie says Woof to everyone.

Chi--sounds like your garden is getting along pretty well, except for the zucchini blossoms getting eaten!

English garden cocktail

Ingredients

• gin 50ml
• St Germain elderflower liqueur 25ml
• apple juice 75ml, not from concentrate
• lime juice 10ml
• cucumber ribbons to serve

Method

• Step 1
  Shake all the ingredients except the cucumber with ice and strain into a tall glass with filled with fresh ice.
• Step 2
  Decorate with cucumber ribbons to serve.

From <https://www.olivemagazine.com/drink/english-garden-cocktail/>