Random Five – Odds and ends

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Some weeks are busy and some not so much. This past week was supposed to be in the second group but quickly moved into the first. How does that happen? Throw a new car in the mix! Car decisions suck the life out of me!

Cars, cars, cars – I finished my car shopping and picked up a sparkly red Toyota RAV 4. The funny thing about cars is that you always expect the new car to have what your old car had plus new features.

I have features that are amazing (which I may or may not use) but my sun visor is so thick that I can’t clip on my remote garage door opener. Who would have thought to check that? There must be a logical solution. (There was….the beloved husband took a pliers and rebent the clip. Very down home solution and free!)

The instruction guides and owner’s manual are a whole lot bigger than my algebra textbook in high school and a lot more daunting!

Oh yes, blue tooth — For a long time I had no idea what “blue tooth” was. Still don’t. Sounds like a stupid name to call anything. I have it in my car and it means I can talk to my steering wheel and magic happens. I may have to try that out. There is a tutorial so I can “train” the car to recognize my voice. This is scary stuff! I wonder if it will order from Starbucks for me….

The week of family connections – If you read my last post, you know we had a death in the family. I also have a nephew recovering from major surgery.

His sister and I went to visit him. Family dynamics were at work. He is a man of few words. Never has been much of a talker. He said less than 100 words all afternoon.

His wife, sister and I rambled on for several hours. He laughed and smiled. Hopefully he was entertained. We had a good time! It was great to see him in good spirits with “return to work” plans.

Mini-medical school – One of our local hospitals runs a 5 week session on specific topics every year. I went last year (robotic surgery) and really enjoyed it. I wrote about it here.

The new session started this week and it was all about ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome). There was a huge plug for getting the flu shot because flu can cause significant long-term lung damage. They showed comparisons of X-rays (healthy versus not healthy) and MRI scans. I can almost read those things now. Sort of. The lungs are fascinating and we need to take care of them.

Next week is the heart. I am “pumped” to go! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If it weren’t for disgusting body fluids and yucky sick people, I could have worked in the medical field. It offers such great problem-solving opportunities.

I am still not sure if there is sex in the supply room as you see in Grey’s Anatomy but I’m working on it.

Let’s boogie! – No week is complete without some fun. The beloved husband and I went to an oldies dance! It’s always fun. Last time we sat next to a group of dedicated partiers who came with coolers of stuff (bottles of liquor, pudding shots, shrimp, bologna and cheese, that sort of thing). We had pretzels. I want to join their group. For more on that experience click here.

Morgan? — No Morgan stories for this week but she was afraid you would forget her so she begged me to post this!

I am watching the birds through the glass door when someone (?) put a camera in my face!

I was watching the birds through the glass door when someone (?) put a camera in my face! Did she get my good side?

So how was this week for you?

 

 

 

46 thoughts on “Random Five – Odds and ends”

  1. My kittens think Morgan looks very pretty, great picture! Congrats on the new car and all the bells and whistles.
    My car has manual locks and windows and a place to plug in my iPod and Ivan okay with that.
    Sorry for your loss and I hope your nephew recovers soon.

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  2. Congrats on the new car. How very American of you … red car, blue tooth, white knuckles as you learn all the new features. 🙂

    Sorry to hear you had a death in the family. Of course, often that’s the only time we ever get to see extended family. My (ex) husband was a man of few words. People would always ask what was wrong with him, or if he was angry with them, because he could be in the room with people for hours and never say a word. It just took him a very long time to open up to people. At home, he was a regular chatterbox. Well, okay, maybe not exactly that, but he did actually speak.

    Enjoy your classes, and tell Morgan she is looking quite lovely. Always.

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  6. I’m very comfortable in hospital settings and am very good at sitting at the side of someone needing company or functioning as an advocate. But actual nursing care–I couldn’t do it! And I love Bluetooth in my car. I stream music from my phone through the system and think it’s just like magic! Shows my age…these “new fangled” inventions just delight me. 🙂 Enjoy your new car!

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    • Today I discovered that I can tell if my phone battery needs recharging on my dashboard. Really cool because I always forget to juice it up. Every day is an adventure! Dan loves the smell. Me, not so much.

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  7. Cars are getting scary. They will rule the world some day. If they don’t want to go to Starbucks they won’t go… that kind of thing. Better treat tour car right or it’ll be Dunkin Donuts for you.
    I wish one of our hospitals would have classes like that…I would so go!
    Teddy was very excited to see such a good picture of Morgan.

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  8. I wish it would rain here in the Midwest. I wish I could attend my sister’s funeral in PA. She was 85 and had many wonderful qualities and some not so wonderful habits. She was generous to a fault and could sit and talk to anyone at any time. She had her addictions – nicotine and sugar and diabetes and lung cancer took over. She was 21 years older than me and I never lived in the same house with her. She married in May and I was born in August, 1950. We were not that close, but we were still sisters. The past year I have had my heart catch in my throat every time I came home and saw that I had a message from my other sister who was much closer to her and talked to her frequently. May she rest in peace and rejoin the infant daughter who was taken from her in 1956.
    If you have a sister……maybe you should call her.

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    • I would love a sister but I only have two brothers. One I haven’t seen in 20 years although there are no bad feelings between us. The other I saw Friday. Family dynamics. Hard to explain. Hard to make sense out of. My condolences on your sister. We are expecting rain here tonight into tomorrow. We usually get our weather from you so hopefully…..

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  10. Morgan’s quite the ‘Queen’…she looks regal. Your week sounds fun, fun! Congratulations on the red addition to your life; and it’s a talker. Way to go! The medical info class should be enlightening…I haven’t been to many of those! Actually should be more informed. Been raining here…delicious and so needed…thank you God. I shopped yesterday…online…all day. For starters I dealt with our ‘provider’ of all things electronically transmitted; they’ve had our account messed up for much too long and talk about pulling my hair out…almost lost it. A more pleasant part of the procedure was…ta-dah…buying myself an Apple iPad Air tablet…w/a new iPhone thrown in for good measure. I’d say it was the perfect ending of a great week…but I should’ve had a dancing night, like yours!!

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    • Sounds like your week was productive! I love that kind of week. I know it’s been dry where you are. Sometimes in August we have a really dry spell. In drought years we are very grateful for a downpour. It clears the air and makes everything fresh.

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  12. I’m sorry you had a death in the family…that’s always very sobering but reminds you, buy the car, have the coffee and dance, which you did.
    Morgan is my favorite shade of gray…I calle it Traveler gray, after Robert E. Lee’s horse 🙂

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  13. Could never forget Morgan! Congrats on your new ride. RED! All that medical stuff freaks me out, the less I know the better. I once made the mistake of searching out Dr. Google.. no more. I will be looking to see what you learn about the heart though.

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  14. That whole mini medical school things sounds neat to me. I would totally help out with something like that if my hospital did it. ARDS is a scary thing, that is for sure. I am excited to hear what you learn about the heart.
    Also congrats on the new car. I hope you and it (er… the blue tooth) come to an understanding soon. 🙂

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    • This is my second time and I love it. I missed one they did on cancer several years ago. A friend went to that series and got me interested. Understanding the lungs, what paralysis does to the diaphragm and damage that can happen with long term respirator use was all interesting to me. My cousin (age 88) just died of pneumonia and I have a better understanding of that too.

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  16. I’m happy to hear you put on your dancing shoes, Kate! There’s just something about dancing that makes you feel good.
    I had a great week and couldn’t have asked for nicer weather. Unfortunately that won’t be the case for the start of this week.
    Enjoy your new wheels!

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  17. Very sorry for your loss but I loved how you described the family – and that you all had the opportunity for a “reunion” – for that’s truly what those times often are. Hope your nephew is on the mend soon and it’s nice you had others to go on the visit with you 🙂

    I quite like my “new-to-me” Jeep but my visor is TOO SKINNY for the garage opener to clip to – so I have to keep it in the console. Also — the vehicle only has one outlet so I can charge my cell or charge the Garmin but not both. 2 things I never thought about but use daily which serve as irritants I’ve had to adapt to.

    Oh Morgan! Great way to wrap up your post 🙂

    MJ

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  18. So sorry to hear about the death in your family and your nephew’s surgery. It puts perspective on your “Being still” post from earlier this week. I do hope your nephew can get back to work in due time. It sounds like his wife, his sister and you were working your medicine.

    About cars. I loved my suburban because it had a resting compartment for my sunglasses. They were always where I couldn’t find them so as long as I had that suburban, I could find them. But now I have a Toyota, no special compartment for them to sit, and…sigh…I’m back to driving squinting into the western sun, but yes, we’re saving on gas.

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    • Yes the family has influenced my week for sure. Funny you should mention the sunglass thing. My new Toyota does not have a dedicated compartment for that either. They used to have a place between the visors but no longer. Now the only place is in the big covered hole between the seats. I am using a flat spot right now. We’ll see how that works. No place for tissues either!

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