Veg Box

Here's our third installment of the veg box for this year. These lovely organic goodies come from Winter Green Farm, a few hours away in Noti, Oregon. We pick up our box at our local farmer's market each week.

Selections include broccoli, garlic whistles, radishes, spinach, fennel, carrots and green onions. Lovely, mouth-watering treats await.

Rose

Daysleeper

I designed and ordered this aluminum sign for the front door today.

Dahlia Man gave me the idea from his memory of WWII shiftworkers.

RC

Busy

Above, a Hairy Woodpecker prepares to take off.

I'm enjoying some relaxation after a week of working quite a lot for me. My dentist appointment for tomorrow was canceled. That frees up my day completely. I'll most likely sleep in my hammock all day.

Ah, summer...

Rose

Uppers and Downers

When I first started the blog, a reader asked for pictures. The way I've been going lately, I could easily imagine someone asking for more words. Inside my head there are many, many words that are seeking expression. I've got mixed feelings about my job. I turned in a resignation letter today, but I'm sad to be leaving the great working team that I've been a part of for two years. I'm a little apprehensive about the big jump to working only agency, but excited about the many options that it allows for and the money I can make.

That makes it possible for me to take little sister Robin and her daughter A.E. on a cruise next month. We'll be sailing out of Miami on the Carnival Imagination and visiting Key West and Calica, and we're leaving in just one month from tomorrow. If you know me, you can imagine the whirlwind of excitement I'm in getting summer clothes out of storage, planning sidetrips, and of course, a crash course on birds of Mexico.

Lots to do.

Rose

Cat Carrier- dream journal

I was traveling around and wanted to take Ailleanach. I spotted a cloth mesh shoulder bag and put her in there. I went to work at a strange hospital. Ailleanach stayed with me the whole time. After work, I had several bags and had trouble juggling them. When I went to put Aillenach back in the bag, she said, "I don't want to go back in there. I want to go home." Then we were on a bridge with some other people waiting for a bus. I said, "Take my picture so everyone can see that I was in France." From there things deteriorated into more surrealism that I simply can't remember.

Sronnoc Esor

Pelagic Day

Nesting Cormorants(above) and Common Murres(below)
These pelagic birds spend most of their lives at sea, coming to Oregon's coastal rocks to nest.

Rose

A Few Flowers

Greater hedge nettle

Common tansy (non-native)

Coast manroot

How'd it go?

The first night of my agency work went very well. I had a new computer charting system to learn, which turned out to be quite manageable. There was a low patient load and a great staff. It's a treat to have a charge nurse and a ward secretary. In addition, conveniences like meds stocked in a cabinet right in the patient room are very nice. I was scheduled for tonight as well, but not needed, so we're back home with the kitties.

Coming up: pictures of today's jaunt.

Rose

Genesis

I'm starting my new job today. I still have the old job as well. What happens next depends on what happens next. So we're off for a few days to make a little money and enjoy the sights. The possibilities are limitless. I hope to see the Pelagic Cormorant and Black Oystercatcher. Perhaps we'll find a house to buy, a bood restaurant, who knows? I'll report back later.

Rose

Chainsaw Carving Festival

I wandered around this local event this morning, observing the carvers at work. Note the ubiquitous observer accompanied by his little doggies; everyone has doggies and they always bring them along. To close, a peaceful shot of the waterfront, which I much prefer.

Rose

Notes

I'll make an attempt at a regular journal entry. The above is random, the best picture I took today, which is not saying much. I've been trying for the Common Yellowthroat for days, but he's a quick mover. I've got the go-ahead to start my new agency job. I passed my drug test and got a satisfactory reference from Boss Lady. We've been having some rainy and overcast weather, which I am enjoying completely. I've been lazy about the movie reviews lately. Favorites recently have been Deja Vu and The Jacket. Both are thought provoking time-twisters. Apparently, we've been watching too much House, MD, because I had a dream last week in which the irritating Dr. House kissed me. Funny that I would choose hime over the hot Aussie, huh? I'm currently reading One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd, a novel by Jim Fergus. It is a well-researched and imaginative book about white women traded to Custer-era Cheyennes as wives in a last ditch attempt at peacemaking. Oh, and I'm trying to be a more considerate partner after jc's complaints that I am often the contrary. Guilty, I'm sure.

Rose

Creatures

Great Blue Heron
Coastal Deer
Roosevelt Elk with Brown-Headed Cowbird

New Office

jc has moved his office into the shed. Here's a sample.

Happy Sunday,



Rose

Guest Kitty Spot

Here are Noodle and Tux, graciously taken in by big-hearted XBFRN, who I don't think would leave any living thing out in the snow.

Growing or Rusting?

Simply thinking too much about the only picture I took on my trip to the city for the big, successful interview. Which parts of me are green leaves reaching for the sun and photosynthesizing, and which parts are merely oxidizing? I dunno, but big thanks to good friends who have been listening to me whine for the past couple of days.

Rose

Finding the One You Love

jc and I were talking last night about how lucky we were to find each other. My older sister Baptist Nun told me a while ago that she has given up on finding a man. Big M was getting pretty desperate by the time church friends basically set him up with his wife. Only Mr. Clean found his wife in the traditional evangelical way. He seems to have escaped the pervasive anti-social tendency that the rest of us have some degree of. He dated so many girls in college that he was bound to find one that was marriage material. During the three semesters that we were in college together, I had to make a special appointment to see him, often over breakfast.
Robin and I stepped outside the mold completely when we chose our husbands. We were groomed (badly)from an early age to grow up and be the wives of preachers or missionaries. We were taught that the man is the head of the household and to disobey him is a sin, even for the wife. Even when I bought that, I determined that I would only marry a man who wouldn't want to tell me what to do.

A good preacher's wife is an unusual person. She greets everyone with a warm smile and a handshake for the men and a hug for the women and children. She is perfectly dressed and groomed. She remembers everyone's name after being told once. She is at the disposal of the female members of the congregation for counseling or prayer. She is at the disposal of her husband for child-rearing, housekeeping, and anything else he wants. She never complains and always has a Bible verse at the ready that applies to any given situation. She holds herself to a higher standard than is expected of the general population. Needless to say, there are few women who actually fit this role perfectly, so most preacher's wives are fakers.

I spent my first four and a half years of college pursuing this ideal. My dream was to become a nurse so I could gain access to some country that didn't allow missionaries. Many of my college crushes were on pre-med students that were H&P classsmates or Chemistry lab partners. I had a glowing vision of how we would serve god and mankind together as a team. Later on, a ministerial student seemed like an equally good catch.

Now for the ironic part: guess how many dates I was asked on in college? (asking anyone out myself would have been unthinkable) Well, I don't know exactly, but you could count them on your fingers. I don't know how it works in the real world, but in our small church community, college is your only chance. You go away to the big "meet market" where the boys are expected to acquire degrees and wives. It's perfectly acceptable for the girls to drop out once they are engaged; that's the point. If you make it through college without finding someone, you might consider a master's degree. Otherwise, you go home where all the single christian men you aren't related to are either ten years older or younger than you.

Back to the point: why weren't men interested in me? I know my fashion sense is poor and I'm not much for social conversation, but I'm neither ugly, fat, nor stupid. I think the bottom line is that I'm too honest and opinionated to suit that type. That's where my upbringing went wrong and that's my interpretation of why Baptist Nun is an old maid and Robin and I married heathens.

jc and I met on match.com and I will forever tout its virtue, but that's another post.

Rose

ps-hoping that happiness is around the next corner for those who haven't found it yet.

Birds & Blooms

I think this is a non-native dogwood variety.

A sampling of Dahlia Man's roses

Cliff swallows nesting in the eaves of a gazebo.

the Chipmunk Bird

Look, there's a new bird at the feeder!








Oh no, it got away!






Quick, see where it's going!







It's escaping!

Mantoux PPD (purified protein derivative) tuberculin skin test

At left (or above, depending on Blogger) you can see my negative result. No I haven't been to Atlanta, Paris, the Czech Republic, or Montreal. I don't even think I've been caring for patients with TB. The test is required by the company I'm interviewing with on Thursday. The medical assistant at the nurse practicioner's office administered the test. I had to point out to her that all the serum leaked out the needle hub on the first try. I waited about 15 minutes before she came back and administered the test properly in the other arm. I can't wait to see the bill for that. The doctor's office kicked up a bit of a fuss when I told them I would have a nurse at the hospital read the result. However, that took less than a minute; I have no doubt it would have been another 30 minutes and $?? at the doctor's office. We'll all be wearing masks on planes in the future.

rc