Getting everything in order

Twice in the past couple weeks I've caught myself thinking about dying.  Since the first focused thoughts, it's been mulling around in the back of my head.

The first time it crossed my mind I was heading in to work.  I had to go early as I was stopping by the local (local to work, not my house) court house to pay my speeding ticket.  I had no idea how long the process would take so I gave myself an extra hour.

It took 5 minutes.  So I had 55 minutes to kill.  I ended up in a parking lot near to the prison so that I could smoke and listen to the radio.  If it had been a 'normal' day I probably would have done just that... but I was getting over a cold.

A quick aside... I don't get over colds as fast as I used too.  My annual 'colds' used to last 3 or 4 days.  From the fist cough to the final one.  While some colds do last that long, I get sick more often now and sometimes they last for weeks.  Let's face it, I don't take good care of myself and with 16 years of smoking in my rearview mirror, it's no wonder that colds last longer.  Anywho...

The evolution of a driver

I've been caught speeding; 

once when I was 25... 

I enjoy speeding.

It's just as simple as that.

Well, it's just a simple fact. 

When I drive something,

I want to drive it fast!

Those are slightly modified lyrics to the Jane's Addiction song 'Been Caught Stealing'.  They're apt as a couple days ago I got a speeding ticket.  My first such ticket in about a decade.

I've been driving for just under 24 years now.  Back in my day (I feel old when I say it that way....Get Off My Lawn!) we took school sponsored Drivers Education classes at 16 years old.  Once the class was finished we went to the secretary of state, took the drivers test (written and practical), and were issued a license.  None of this 'can only drive during daylight hours with a responsible related adult over the age of 25 for the first year' type of limited licence crap that my niece is currently going through.  Nope... the state said I could drive any time I wanted to anywhere I wanted with anyone I wanted.  Suckers.  I could easily be used as an example of WHY they changed the rules as I was quite the little (well... not little) hellion when I first started to drive.

Vacation Recap

I have returned safe and sound from my vacation.  I would love nothing more than to say it was magnificent, wonderful, amazing, or any other superlative description.  It WAS good.  It WAS fun.  But overall it felt like driving over to my friends place when he lived a couple hours drive away.

And you know what... that's good enough.  If I had to describe this in as few words as possible it would go something like this:

I flew down.  I hung out.  I flew back.

I guess since I went into so much detail in my last post about flying, I should cover how that went.  I could say that I overworried about it, but I believe that honest worry helped me research it fully and be prepared for everything that came up.  I ended up getting a ride to the airport and they dropped me off at the curbside 'departures' area.  Walking into the airport I was presented with a very long 'hallway' with all the ticket counters.  I had checked in online 24 hours earlier and therefore didn't have to stop at the counter so I stopped and packed up the last few things.

The 'Spirit' of travel

I mentioned a few posts ago that I'm traveling down to Dallas to visit with some friends on a surprise Vay Cay.  After Fiona's accident with the coyote I had decided on taking a flight down instead of driving.  I honestly didn't expect to have Fiona back.

Never having flown before, I had to learn rather quickly about buying tickets.  When I first looked at flights I was surprised by how expensive they were.  Originally I was looking at flights for the July 19th weekend and it seemed that I could get tickets for most airlines around $300.  The week of July 4th?  Yeah right... try $500.

I did shave a bit of that cost off by selecting to fly back on July 5th instead of the 6th.  But I still hesitated... and that hesitation cost me.  When I was ready to pull the trigger the costs had gone up quite a bit.  Delta, American, US Air.... they were all asking between $700 and $900.  For economy!  The only standout was Spirit Air.  Their price was still hovering around $300.  I may always try to select the best thing, but there is just no way I'm going to pay over double for something that I don't know is worth double.  So... I entered the realm of Spirit Air Bare Fares.

What do you see when you look at me?

I don't know where the thought came from, but I recently wondered... what do people see when they look at me?

I think I've described how I physically look before, but let me give a short recap.  I stand about six foot three (when I stand up straight).  I weigh about 270 pounds.  I've been told that I carry that much weight well, but I'm obviously not 'fit'.   I wear my hair in a flattop cut, and currently sport a mustache and beard.  It would be a full goatee, but I don't seem to have the genetic code required to grow hair between the bottom of the mustache and the top of the 'beard'.  I  have a bit of grey on my temples and a bit more grey in my facial hair.  I've been told that I have a 'baby face', and I imagine that's just a way to say that I look younger than I really am.

I have two states of dress;  at work I wear scrubs, when not at work I wear jeans and button up patterned shirts.  Think of 'Hawaiian' shirts and you'll be close.  So... what do people see?

Television

I enjoy television.  If I put my leisure time activities in order of time spent it would either be number one or number two on the list.  The only thing that might compare would be time spent browsing the web.

I am in the generation of adults that were raised on television.  From Saturday morning cartoons, to Sesame Street, I was often lying in front of our giant television with my eyes glued and my brain shut down.

Some of my first memories revolve around television.  I remember my parents paying to get Wrestlemania on pay per view.  I remember learning life's lessons from GI Joe (... and knowing is half the battle!).  I remember feeling like an adult when my parents let me watch Dallas with them.  I remember hurrying through meals so that we could watch The Dukes of Hazzard (Just'a good ol' boys Never meanin' no harm).  I remember seeing President Reagan's inaugural address.

And more than early memories, I can tell parts of my life through what I was watching on television.  Late elementary school was MTV (when it played music videos).  Jr High School was the time of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  High School was the time of Quantum Leap.  Early College was Friends and ER.  Chicago was Good Eats (or at least it's public television precursor).  Detroit was West Wing and the Sopranos.  Nursing school was House MD.  Waiting for a job was NCIS, NCIS LA, Parenthood, Blue Bloods and MANY more.  Even now, when my television viewing has returned to a trickle, it's Person of Interest, Elementary and The Walking Dead.

Surprise VayCay!

I've talked a bit about how a couple buddies and I have been planning on a get together.  We used to be really tight as we hung out together in addition to working massive hours together at the same company.

As the years passed, we've stopped working together and all moved away from each other.  One even went so far as to move to China for several years.

That friend is back in the States now, and while the other friend and I hung out fairly often, we still hadn't seen each other as a group for a long time.

At first, the plan was simple.  We'd pick a city, all arrive, and have a weekend blast.  At the time of this initial planning it would be easy on my part.  I had just started 12 hour shifts and had every other weekend off.  As in Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.  That IS something that I miss about the 12 hour shifts.  But as good plans often do... they changed.  The friend that was close to me had to move about 1000 miles away.  We would all now be separated by massive amounts of miles.  Plus picking  up  your family and moving can be draining, so we put the plans off.

Fiona 1 - Coyote 0

This past Friday looked like it might be a nightmare.  Not only was it Friday the 13th, but it was a full moon.  And sadly I've learned that full moons do generally equate to more people in the clinic.

But even after all the ruckus at work the past few days (see the previous post where I'm still laying out all that went wrong), Friday passed without any problem.  Well... there WERE problems, but nothing out of the ordinary.

But fate had me in it's bullseye it seems and was simply waiting a bit longer to pull the trigger.  Saturday night while driving home I hit a coyote.  Yes, we have coyotes in Michigan.

All things considered, it wasn't a bad accident.  There were no other cars around, I didn't go off the road, I wasn't physically injured... just a dog sized animal hitting my car.

Having hit several deer in the past, I'm well aware of how vigilant one has to be when driving through my home area at night.  The county I live in, if I read this correctly years ago, has the highest deer/human ratio of a truly populated county in the United States.   Yes, there are those barren counties where only a couple thousand people live and have herds of deer, but the county I live in has a population close to 100,000 and we have a HUGE deer population.

Frustrating Days

This is going to be a rant.  This is going to be me just gushing this out to get it off my chest and off my mind.  I've had a series of bad days at work.  This doesn't change my assertion that this is a good job and that I enjoy my job.  But like any J O B, there are bad days to deal with.

Before I get into the meat of this, I'm going to describe what goes into a 'normal' day... with the understanding that there isn't a single 'normal' day to be had in this job.  I may have covered some of this before, but I just want to lay it all out here in one go so that you have a good understanding of what made these days particularly frustrating.

There are many tasks to complete in any given day ranging from important 'must do NOW' tasks to lackadaisical 'get to it whenever' style tasks.   This list is going to seem quite concrete and set in stone, but the reality is that this list is quite fluid and ever changing.  Saving a life is of course always more important than reading emails, but the rest of these tasks can gain or lose importance depending on the situation.

So first up.... Immediately important tasks:

Reading

I love reading.  Some of my earliest memories revolve around reading, and I can almost define each part of my life by what books I was reading.  Mom got my brothers and I started early... she wanted us to know our ABCs before we went to Kindergarten.  The first book I read was... damn I can't remember the name.

I believe it was something like 'Sam I Am', but that's probably just memories of Dr Seuss invading other parts of me.  Anywho, I was 'reading' this series of books while in Kindergarten.  It felt like there was a never ending supply of these book, but was probably more like twelve.

Soon after, I started reading the Curios George series of books.  Those I absolutely adored.  Up to this point, my brothers and I had the same reading experience (obviously at different times as we are all about two years apart in age).  My older brother stopped reading the books after about a year, but I wanted to continue.  My mother kept me supplied with all kinds of children books and I just kept on reading.  When my younger brother got to that same developmental stage, he stopped reading right where my older brother did.