All Joking Aside

I got this joke from Trevor on the 77's list-serv discussion group.

Two muffins are in the oven baking
One says to the other, "It's really hot in here"
The other says, "Holy Crap! A talking muffin!"

I almost snorted green tea out my nose at lunch this afternoon.

Have one on Kripsy Kreme here.

NP: Over the Rhine: OHIO Disc 2 - She
- posted by TundraBoy @ 3:44 PM 0 comments

 
What The Hell Happened???

I guess that is an apropos query to start with. Its almost been a month, and what a month (and it’s not over quite yet). I think part of what happened was that I was hit full on with mental, emotional and physical stress. One by one.

First the mental: my job. I have written before about the Vil and mentioned how busy I can get. This is not a complaint. Honestly, I truly would rather be busy, than bored to tears with nothing to do for 8 hours. I know it has been more than usual this past month. It’s the season of family vacations, and with that comes staffing shortages. The trick is to figure out what absolutely needs to get done in a facility that houses almost 720 residents and 300 staff persons. You either learn to stretch yourself or you go nuts. Add to that some of the staff that I farm out assignments to had medical problems to attend to, and thus missed two weeks of work. Pile on that a personnel issue that ended with termination of a staff member. It just was a lot to absorb. People everyday ask me: “how you doing?” but they really don’t care to hear my reply. So I often say “fine” or “running around like a chicken with no legs cut off” or better yet, “ some days you are driving the truck, some days you are riding along in the truck, and some days you are clinging onto the bumper while the truck is doing 70 mph.” If you didn’t mean to hear the response, then in the infamous words of Jules Winnfield, “If you find my answers frightening, then you should cease asking scary questions”. Work is supposed to be work I guess.

Emotionally this past month has been filled with some intense moments. There are three things that really stand out.

First, my uncle Pete Nardiello died suddenly. My dad called me at work and said five disturbing words: “I have some bad news.” When you hear that, my mind automatically accesses the index for that phrase. You think of sick loved ones, those with chronic health problems, people who are enduring bad times. My uncle’s name was not one I thought of. Didn’t make the list. He was 58 years old. He had just retired from the New York State Department of Corrections. He was getting ready to bring down his boat to my cousin’s place in Daytona My cousin Brian is a Deputy Sheriff there. Buy a condo so he could golf in the winter, and to be closer to Brian. It certainly seems that it is unfair. He had plans. He had things to do. The message that Pete had died, took my breath away. I felt as if someone had hit me. So with all the “stuff” from work add a death to deal with and funeral and travel and time off from work. The funeral was very well attended, despite of some people who decided to act the asshole part out for everyone else and in front of everyone else. That aside, most of my family was there for the funeral. It was nice to see them all again, but under the circumstances, I would have preferred better reasons. I was one of the pallbearers. I’ll tell you what, my uncle was NOT a big guy, maybe 5’7 and 155-165 pounds, but that casket was heavy. Man oh day! I maybe it was the type of casket, it was oak I think, so that was prolly it. Or some people weren’t doing their fair share of the lifting (Mr. Peffley and Mr. Carlson, I am looking at you two). When I die, somebody is gonna hurt their back carrying my fat ass to the ground. If you think that I will be cremated, fuggedaboutit. If you think I am disrespectful to my uncle, not at all. He at least was watching the Yankees on the YES Network when he took his leave (thanks again Comcast for screwing with me the Phillies). What a way to go.

The second emotional blow was the death of a guy in my church. Now I suppose I should watch what I say here because I don’t know who is reading this and who will hear about it and how it will get distorted. So I’ll take a page from a guy who knows a bit about writing and measure my words (read: censor). I didn’t know this guy all that well, but he was a nice guy, who would do you a favor if you needed one. I hadn’t seen him in quite sometime and had been thinking of him when I got and email from my associate pastor. He let many people know that Tim had died. There was a dust up about the details being given out. Well, my thought on that is that people ought to have enough of the details to understand that Tim didn’t die of a massive heart attack like my uncle, but Tim was in the midst of a battle with addictions and some bad choices lead to his demise. If you don’t tell the truth about a situation in church, people will start sharing what I like to call “Prayer Request Gossip”. It’s the nice way to talk about people and then say, “we should pray for that person”. It is bullshit most of the time, as far as I am concerned and its what gives people outside of church reason not to go in. Be honest! Ok, will do. From my vantage point, Tim died because of bad choices, drink and substance abuse. It sucks. He left a wife and two kids behind. A wife lost a husband and a son and a daughter lost a dad. So why am I pissed off. I don’t even know the guy that well. My dad almost died last year. And if I am rehashing, that is how it is. When you attend a funeral, you tend to reflect on your own life. I attended two funerals on two consecutive Mondays. My own father was in a hospital for over a month and a half last year. He had triple bypass and a second surgery after he broke the wiring on his sternum. It was the second part that almost cost my father his life. He was discharged from the hospital and somehow the doctors and nurses missed the fact that his lungs were not draining but collecting fluid. So when he broke his sternum wiring with a coughing fit, and the trip to the ER and his subsequent admittal where he almost died (my mom was the one to call the nurses when my father started acting strangely and not breathing correctly). If she had gone home that night, instead of staying with my dad thru the night, he’d most likely be dead. I thought about that at two different funerals this past month. How close I had come to being fatherless. That tears me up. I am not ready for that. But then again I don’t know many people who are.

Which brings me to emotional point three. Two weekends ago my dad was yet again hospitalised. I hate getting those phone calls. But then again, that is kinda the reason I finally got a cell. In those times when you are just waiting and waiting for more info about what is going on, you are continually being spent emotionally. So I make phone calls to friends, family, and my pastors, just to talk it out. I am not married, nor do I have a significant other with which to really talk to, so I beat up on my pastors and a couple of friends (my deepest thanks for your support and true prayers and not the PRG). My weekend is shot, I spend a good chunk of time driving, in the hospital, and sleeping uncomfortably. What is discovered is a blood clot in the lower left lung. What a relief! Not a heart attack, no “event”. It is serious, but not even close to the hell I went thru with my family last year. But it still brings to mind all those feelings and desperate thoughts of losing my dad.

The physical stress is related to work. I responded to a fire alarm call on a Monday morning (now that I think of it, August Mondays suck) in the boiler room of our nursing facility, there was smoke pouring out, but no fire. The smoke was coming from the air-handling system. It was a Freon leak. More specifically Freon-22. I was exposed for 15-25 minutes. We had to set up ventilation fans to get the smoke out so it wouldn’t affect the residents. Guess what… it affected me. We didn’t have and still don’t have respirators. So I have been dealing with the physical ramifications of inhaling this stuff. Here is what Freon-22 can do to you when you are exposed. I still have the cough, it’s not near as bad as it was, it’s just a nuisance. I want to be well, and this just adds to the general blasé of the month. This is not to say that the whole month has sucked. Just most of it. I’ll get to that in a day or two. I guess I cope with it all by spending money. Not that I make a lot, but I really need to get some new underwear. As far as I’m concerned, that is money well spent.

NP: Over the Rhine – Ohio Disc 1: Show Me

- posted by TundraBoy @ 9:45 PM 0 comments

 
I haven't posted for a while, there has been a lot going that has wreaked havoc with my life...

word to the wise: treasure every moment with your families, you never know when it'll end
- posted by TundraBoy @ 9:49 PM 0 comments