Month: August 2021

Reflections

August 2021 Reflections

Karen

As usual, I’m starting this post mid-month. But not to worry, I have my bullet journal to reference. 

And I apologize, I legit forgot to post pictures of my bullet journal for last month, so I’ll post both July and August soon. 

I’ve had a lot of emotional turmoil these past few months, cut me some slack!

Aug 1-3: We went on our first camping trip in our cargo-conversion trailer! You can read all about it here. 

Aug 4: Back to work after a short vacation. Was grumpy and didn’t want to be there – AT ALL. 

Aug 6: Friday clinic with Dr. S. We had a promising applicant – she was going to medical school though didn’t pass her MCATS, (a college admission test to get into medical school), so while she was waiting to take her MCATS again, she was going to work as a medical assistant in our clinic. She’s from a different state and we were supposed to have a ZOOM interview with her, but she withdrew her application so that didn’t happen. I wasn’t crazy about the idea of this applicant as it seemed a little too good to be true and I wasn’t surprised she withdrew her application but I was disappointed as that means, still ZERO applications and ZERO prospects of getting anyone hired. The girl who was out for maternity leave is back, the other one who was getting married is gone so that still leaves us down two MA’s. I also learned from management that if we lose anymore people, which is a possibility if/when they mandates vaccines, I know of at least three people who will leave, the doctors will be forced to cut down the number of clinics they have due to lack of staffing. Once again, the COVID response is way worse than the actual disease. 

Aug 9: First clinic day back for Dr. M after my COVID “intervention.” (For those that don’t know, my team cornered me and basically had an intervention for me to try and talk me into getting the jab. It was weird and uncomfortable and though I appreciated them caring enough to try, hell will freeze over before I get the jab). It was a quiet clinic. We were all a bit subdued. I arrived to work feeling super bitchy and grumpy, but I forced myself to turn my frown upside down and by the end of clinic, we were close to being back to normal. However, we DON’T discuss all-things COVID. Dr. M. told us he will need shoulder surgery soon so we’re all scrambling to figure out how we’re going to handle his clinic and surgery schedules. This should be interesting …. and stressful. *sigh*

Aug 11: Working A LOT. I got 11 hours of overtime over a two week period. Again, largely because I’m working two doctors clinics and schedules. It’s a lot. And I’m super tired but I’m handling it. I’m getting a flow now but I couldn’t do this WITHOUT working overtime. Kevin is not thrilled about this but my paychecks are nice and fat, so that’s a plus. We still have a lot of people in the hospital with “COVID”. I put that in quotations because I wonder just how many of those cases are actually COVID cases. You can’t trust the tests and you can’t trust administration to be honest about this stuff. It’s all about an agenda so I’m taking everything I hear/see with a grain of salt. The “get the jab” propaganda is still super thick and we’re now up to 70% of employees, including nurses, are vaccinated. So after pushing the lottery incentive and placing pop-ups in front of our faces every day as we work on the computers about employee vaccination clinics – IT’S FREE- I’m a bit encouraged to see that the percentage only went up about 5% since before they started hard-core pushing this jab shit down our throats. We’ll see what happens. 

Aug 14: Experimented with filming myself as I do my podcast. That was fun. Learned a lot about editing as well. Kevin uses the Wondershare Filmora editing program and it’s pretty great. Highly recommend. Obviously, I’m a newbie at this video editing thing but I had so much fun playing around with it I’m hooked and ready to play some more. 

Aug 16: Brandon had his wisdom teeth cut out today. His teeth weren’t bothering him like Blake’s were bothering him, (Blake had an infected wisdom tooth – he suffered for about a year before having his cut out), but Brandon’s dentist told him he had two that were impacted and it would only be a matter of time before he would likely have to have them removed as well, so he though he would bite the bullet and get his removed. Kevin brought him home and he slept at our house for three hours before I came home. We bought him some spaghetti to eat but he was too sore to make much of a dent. I worried about how Brandon would handle the surgery. I feel like his pain threshold is not as strong as Blakes. Dr. M’s team ate lunch together today. We had a few birthdays that we hadn’t had a chance to celebrate so we ate lunch and had cookie cake afterward. It was nice to sit down and have some laughs outside of work. It felt like old times, quite frankly. 

Aug 17: My Kindle stopped working. It would turn on for a second, show nothing but black lines and then die. I looked at my Amazon orders and I’ve had this Kindle for almost four years. I don’t feel like that’s very long but to be fair, I use it CONSTANTLY so I feel like I got my money’s worth. I’m now three books behind on my Goodreads goal and it’s stressing me out. I had the worst night’s sleep that I’ve had in quite some time. I had a wicked bout of insomnia and since I didn’t have my Kindle and I’m not about to pick up a normal book and read it, I felt a little lost. So, I stayed up until 2:00 AM watching YouTube before I felt sleepy enough to go to bed. My alarm went off at 5:15 so I worked a clinic on three hours of sleep. I was really struggling to think and I was slurring and stumbling over my words. I’m betting my team though I had COVID. Because that’s what everyone thinks nowadays whenever someone isn’t acting right. Don’t deny it!

Aug 20: What the hell is happening with Afghanistan?? I can’t believe our idiot president withdrew our troops before making sure all American citizens and allies were evacuated before hand. Now, it’s an absolute mess over there and the Taliban are wearing our uniforms, using our weapons and mocking America. And either Biden is not aware of the mess he’s made or he doesn’t care because he keeps taking off on “vacation.” Maybe it’s both. Either way, he’s an asshole and any deaths that happen over there is all his fault. His approval rating is now down in the 40’s. Stupid old man. Those poor people over there must be terrified out of their minds. 

Aug 23: Well, the day has come. Not only did the FDA “approve” the Pfizer vaccine, (but did they though?) but the hospital where I work mandated the vaccine. I have until Oct 15th get the injection or lose my job. As you can imagine, there was A LOT of buzz and side conversations today. I’m pretty sure our clinic will lose three people, one medical secretary and two MA’s, when this is all said and done. A few people have already caved, which, whatever, it’s your life, your body, your choice, you do what you need to do, no judging. But for me? We all know how this will end for me. I feel like this whole get the jab or lose your job thing is sort of like the five levels of grief: Denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. I’ve gone through all of these stages and am now in the acceptance stage. So when they made the announcement, I hardly blinked an eye. I was expecting it. I was disappointed that the hospital jumped on the opportunity to mandate it mere HOURS after the FDA announced the “approval,” but I’m not surprised. I wrote about all these levels here along with what my future plans now look like. 

Aug 25: Talked to Kevin about filing a religious exemption at work. Not sure if it will work, not sure I really want to, but playing around with the idea. I’ve been understandably very distracted at work and I’m so tired of worrying/stressing about this whole subject that quite frankly, I’m ready to move on. 

Aug 26: Kevin used to be in a band. Way back when. In fact, he’s been in several bands. He plays guitar, for those curious. His truck has been making all sorts of weird noises lately so he took it to a friend, someone who used to be in a band with him and plays drums, who looked it over and did some work on it. The guys started talking and before you know it, this friend asked Kevin if he would be interested in getting together with some guys to jam. They came over today and they’re over at LeRoy’s house now jamming to their hearts content. I’m not exactly happy that Kevin is getting back into it but if that’s what he wants to do, I’m certainly not going to give him grief over it. It does make him happy and that’s all that really matters. 

Aug 27: It was a beautiful, sunny, hot day today and I suggested me, my nurse, our medical secretary and another nurse leave campus and go to lunch together. I drove them all and we went to a sandwich/pizza place. It was great conversation and we had a lot of laughs. It felt so good to get out of that oppressing place and have some fun. I was in regular clothes but the other girls were in scrubs and the place where we went were wearing masks, we were not. I wonder what they, and the other customers though that members of the medical field were not wearing masks. I personally don’t care what anyone thinks, judge away, but the though did cross my mind as we were being seated. We took a group picture afterward. I wanted something to remember that day and my friends for when I move on. Because I WILL move on. 

Aug 28: Kevin’s truck is out of commission and he’s super bummed about it. It wasn’t anything his buddy did, he only worked on the truck itself. Kevin updated his computer software in the truck and now it won’t run. Well, it runs, but he can’t drive it. The previous truck owner modified it quite a bit and Kevin thinks those modifications messed up the update. He’s kicking himself for updating it. I’m not a huge fan of updating anything because it always seems like every time you do that, something gets messed up. He’s got an appointment with a guy who works on car computers but it’s not until September 8th. In the meantime, he doesn’t have a truck and he’s not quite sure what to do with himself. He took his car out treasure hunting today but he will have to keep his purchases on the small side so he can get them into his car. I encouraged him to call the guy on Monday and check for any cancellations hoping that will get him in sooner. I hope he gets it fixed soon because we’re supposed to go on our second camping trip the end of this month and I’m selfishly not wanting to cancel that. Speaking of vacation, I’m asking my manager on Monday if I have to work two weeks after my vacation in order to get paid. If I do, then I’ll likely cancel the vacation as the deadline is not quite two weeks after my vacation. That answer will likely determine when I put my two weeks notice in. I still can’t believe I’m planning on leaving the hospital. I had fully intended on retiring there, but they forced my hand and NO ONE puts baby in the corner. (Dirty Dancing reference, if you didn’t catch that). 

Aug 31: I’m absolutely blown away by the fact that it’s September. Do you all realize that we’ll, (well, I will be, I don’t know when you guys are), be putting our Christmas tree up in two short months?!? That blows me away. But I LOVE this time of year. Fall is my favorite season, hands down and this Fall will be extra special, I will starting a new job. 

I’ve been sort of obsessed with this whole COVID topic. (Which is evident if you listen to my podcast – which I have two episodes to post and haven’t yet, but I will). I can think of NOTHING else right now. I want my exit to be as smooth as possible as I want to try and avoid any mushy goodbyes. I hate crying in public and I really don’t want to do that in front of the people I work with. Kevin text me a picture of my 10-year pin that I received in the mail today. How sad is it that I will be leaving very close to my work anniversary? I had a conversation with my boss the other day and asked a few questions about when my insurance will run out, etc. and I told her, flat out, I felt like the hospital was treating people who chose not to get the vaccine as second class citizens. I think she was a little taken aback, but that’s how I feel. 

Though the policy doesn’t say this yet, it will, but if you file an exemption and it’s accepted, then you will have to agree to take a weekly test for COVID. So I asked my boss what the logistics of that would look like. Let’s talk this out, shall we?

So. I’m forced to take a PCR test. Which is faulty and can’t be trusted as the FDA are recalling the tests at the end of the year because they’re having trouble distinguishing between influenza and COVID. I’m now forced to take a faulty test and if it comes back positive, because let’s face it, it likely will because the tests are faulty, what does that mean? My boss told me that if I’m asymptomatic I will be off work for 10 days and will use vacation time, if I have it. If I’m symptomatic, then I’m out for 14 days. Okay, so I’m out for ten days, come back, have to take another test and it comes back positive again. Now, I’m out for almost three weeks out of the month, I’m out of vacation time, not getting paid and it’s putting a strain on my co-workers. 

Sounds like a hell of a deal to me. 

I understand why the hospital is doing this. I get it. They are trying to protect themselves and don’t want to get sued, but they are purposefully making it extra hard for people who choose not to get the experimental injectable so that they basically give up and quit. 

No thanks. I will not be playing that game. I told my boss I will not be filing an exemption. So now, it’s just a question of timing for me. I do have a plan, but I won’t be sharing that plan with you guys, yet. 

We shopping at the Wal-Mart that Blake works out the other night and he told us that Brandon was still in a lot of pain from his wisdom teeth extraction. He says he’s doing better but still needs medication to help him sleep at night but he’s okay during the day. It’s Labor Day weekend this weekend, hopefully we can all get together. 

Things are tense at work. I’m sorry I keep talking about work, but it sort of consumes me right now. I feel like everyone is cranky and on edge, which, I guess they are, to be honest. And I feel like everyone is watching me and treating me differently. I’m sure it’s my imagination, but … everything just feels different. I feel like an outsider, which is sad but I guess not to be unexpected. At least a decision has been made and I can move forward. Being indecisive honestly drives me nuts. 

I’m not looking forward to learning a new job and I think the rest of this year is going to be unsettling for me, but I’ll soon settle into a new routine and it will be nice not having to be subjective to all the propaganda, bullying and bribing that I’m experiencing now. 

It’s so weird to think that (hopefully) this time next month I will have a different job. 

TBR

September To-Be-Read Stack

Karen

I thought July was eventful.

August has been an emotional roller coaster. I’ve been too tired and emotionally drained to post much. I’ve been busy wrapping my brain around the fact that my life is going to look very different in October, maybe even as soon as September, I’m keeping my options open. 

But I’ll get to that, soon. I recorded a podcast last week but never posted it. I’m creating a podcast today and will post both soon. I’m working with Kevin on editing the videos because yes, I made videos for both podcasts as well. I really want to document this time period because I’m at the famous crossroads that we all come to at various points in our lives and I’m undecided on which road to take. But now I know, I WILL be forced to take one such road – there’s no retracing my steps.

Stay tuned, it’s about to get a little bumpy up in here. 

In the meantime, here is a list of books I’m working through for September…

___________________________________________________

You can tell which book I’m currently reading by the Goodreads widget in the sidebar.

I’m all about Kindle e-books. I’m a hard core e-book reader. I haven’t read an actual book in quite a long time and I find that when I hold an actual book, it feels large and clunky. I much prefer my Kindle e-reader than an actual book. With that said, I get all of my books from Kindle Unlimited – I rarely, if ever, spend money on a book – it all goes into the $10 dollars a month I pay for Kindle Unlimited.

So, if you’re interested in reading lesser known authors and want to save a ton of money in books, join me!

I rarely read anything lower than a four-star review on Goodreads – I’ve come to trust the reviews of Goodreads readers. I stopped reading for a long time simply because every book I read was stupid, or disappointing and ultimately, a waste of time. (I feel the same with movies – haven’t watched movies, or TV, in about a year). I’ve had great luck sticking to this philosophy and most of the books I read are pretty good.

You can see my book ratings on my Goodreads account.

I have currently read 36 books out of 55.

Moving on, here is my September TBR stack:

  1. All Rhoades Lead Here by Mariana Zapata 
  2. Murder Theory by Andrew Mayne
  3. A Familiar Sight (Dr. Gretchen White) by Brianna Labuskes
  4. The Wrong Side (Bocephaus Hayes) by Robert Bailey 
  5. Love Next Door by Helena Hunting

Happy Reading!

 

Podcast

36: Where to get COVID-19 Medication – Also, CDC Tries to Pick on Florida and it Backfires in their Faces!

Karen
 
As usual, I’m obsessed with COVID. I think I’m more obsessed by our reaction to COVID than the disease itself. At any rate, if you’re vaccine hesitant, (and why wouldn’t you be if you’ve been keeping up with ALL of the information, not just what CNN and the CDC ram down our throats), take heart, there are medications available for you to purchase, indirectly – it’s in my show notes and I talk about it on my podcast as well. COVID is not going away, folks. We must learn to live with it. Life must go on, however that looks for you and your family. 
 
 
Mentioned in podcast:
 
 
Intermission music:
 
Shizima4 by PeriTune | http://peritune.com
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
 
Take me on the go! You can hear my podcast on the following platforms:

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I upload a new podcast every week. Thanks for listening!

*TALK” to you soon!

I was successful in editing the video to my podcast but it wasn’t finished processing before I had to go to work, so check back here later for the video! (I published it on Rumble because the title I wanted to use would no doubt be flagged by YouTube and I’m not in the mood for a strike today). 

 
Glamping

Maiden Voyage – Cargo Trailer Glamping – Trip #1 – Port of Kimberling Marina

Karen

After four long months, longer for Kevin because he was the one who actually did the work, we are finally using our camper. As I mentioned in my July Reflections post, I had no intention of going camping before our scheduled trip in September, but this past week was so traumatic for me (I sound so weak when I say that), that Kevin felt sorry for me and pretty much made me go camping. And he was right, I feel lighter and out here COVID doesn’t exist.

Our first camping trip together, (though technically this is not our camper’s first time going out, Kevin took LeRoy camping the third weekend of July), was to Port of Kimberling Marina just south of Branson, Missouri. We picked this campsite because it’s not far from where we live, about 90 minutes, and it’s located on a lake. We didn’t want to take it out too far our first time using it because we knew we would learn a lot from this experience and we didn’t want to be too far away from home in case something happened and we needed to cut our trip short.

We arrived at 3:30 PM on Saturday, July 31st and left at 10:00 AM on August 3rd. This was Kevin’s first time pulling the camper and though he has already pulled it twice, (when he bought it and brought it home and when he and LeRoy went camping), I was a nervous wreck. I was worried about cabinet doors flying open and I couldn’t help picturing shattered soup bowls on the floor when we parked it and opened it up.

Kevin did great pulling it though and there were no problems getting down here, at least, with the trailer. Kevin’s truck air conditioning though, not sure what is going on but his air emitted some sort of gas, or something, and it made my eyes water so much I literally had tears running down my face. I legit couldn’t see. It was burning Kevin’s eyes but he at least was able to still drive. We turned the air off and rolled the windows down and after a while, my eyes stopped watering. He said he had the air worked on but something is clearly still off and he will need to take it back in to figure out what’s going on. He also has a loud clanging, bumping sound from the front end as well so he’ll have to get that checked out. In fact, he really just needs to make sure the whole truck is in tip-top shape because we’ll be taking it cross country soon(ish) and we don’t want to break down anywhere.

Though, I suppose if we did, we would have someplace stay. Ha!

I booked the campsite and like a dumb ass, I forgot to print off the directions, or even an address, so we really had no idea where we were going. But we figured, it was a large(ish) campground, located at a marina, SURELY there would be signs, right??

Uh … sort of. There were signs, but somehow we missed the turn off and we nearly ended up in Arkansas before we realized we overshot our turn.

Note to self: Make sure to print off address along with the confirmation next time, dummy.

After turning on my phone data and using GPS, we found our campground. However, when we pulled in, we couldn’t tell where the office was so we pulled over to try and figure it out and a woman pulled up alongside us to direct us. She said she did the same thing when her family pulled in and we were grateful for the guidance. It was also nice to see there ARE still nice people out there somewhere. If you watch/listen to the news nowadays, you would think everyone is out for themselves and a total asshole. Not saying there aren’t some ugly people out there, but it’s nice to run across nice ones.

(Also – reminder – be nice to people).

It would have been too much of a hassle to turn our rig around and head toward the office, so we locked up the truck and walked to the office. We checked in, found our spot on the map they gave us and we found lot number 53.

Here comes the fun part – backing in.

I know this may come as a shock to some of you, but I’m not the best navigator when it comes to stuff like this. I’m one of those people who frantically wave for him to veer off to the left but forgets to make myself visible to him so he KNOWS to veer left. lol I think we need to start using our phones, maybe I can give better verbal instructions instead of visual instruction. After some maneuvering, Kevin gets the trailer into place, unhooks the trailer and takes out the cable to connect  the electricity. He made our electric connector more toward the front of the trailer, though wonders now if he should have made the connector more toward the back of the trailer, because when we went to hook up the cord, it wasn’t long enough to reach the site box. Oops! So, poor Kevin had to hook the trailer back up to his truck and back up another two feet for it to reach.

Note to self: have a longer cord on hand and don’t unhook the truck until we are sure our cords are going to reach.

After hooking up the electricity, water and sewer, it was time to open the trailer. I held my breath. Would it look like total destruction? Did the fridge fall over? Did everything from the cabinets spill out? Was the TV broken?

I’m happy to report, everything was just fine. Kevin had told me he put magnets on the cabinet doors and they held, everything was where it was supposed to be. I was really nervous though when we missed our turn off and had to turn around because we picked a pretty bumpy driveway to do it in and I was convinced it would be utter disaster but nope, everything was fine.

By the time we had gotten the outside hooked up and taken care of, we were DRIPPING sweat. Like, so much sweat I couldn’t see, again. (You can imagine how attractive I was after enduring faulty air conditioning and then enduring a sweat bath while setting up). I hadn’t eaten anything all day and it was 3:30 by the time we arrived, very little water so I was feeling faint. So was Kevin. So after we turned on the mini-split and cold air started coming out, we just collapsed on our chairs and waited to cool off for 10 minutes before we started getting the inside set up.

I had packed a cooler full of food and I’m glad I did. Our fridge took THREE hours before it cooled off enough for us to unpack the cooler.

Note to self: always pack cold stuff in a cooler and leave in cooler until fridge cools down.

It’s a great fridge, we bought a half fridge, not a dorm fridge. We needed something bigger but obviously not a full-size fridge and it really does work well. When you plug it in, the freezer gets cold pretty fast but I’m assuming it puts so much energy into getting the freezer cold that it takes a while for the rest of the fridge to cool down. It worked out okay though, we had put in frozen packs and we had saved two of the ice bags that came with our Hello Fresh boxes (back when we signed up for Hello Fresh – our discount code ran out and we’re not about to pay $60 bucks for two meals per week), so the cooler stayed pretty cold. I then moved the ice packs and the ice bags to the fridge and that helped cool the fridge down even faster.

After getting everything set up, it was time for dinner and I was STARVING, again, hadn’t eaten all day, and we had wraps, chips, water and banana bread. (I had baked some banana bread before we left). Kevin then hooked up the TV and using our PS3, we watched Blazing Saddles. I’ve seen that movie before but Kevin had not and in fact, one of the conservative talk show hosts that he listens to quotes from that movie and he was curious enough to want to watch it …. so we did.

If you haven’t seen Blazing Saddles, don’t. It’s BEYOND stupid and offensive, you could NEVER make that kind of movie nowadays. I don’t get offended very easily but there were so many N-words I just couldn’t stomach it.

Kevin also regretted watching it. And this was yet another reminder why we stopped watching movies – they are mostly garbage.

Our first night in the camper went well(ish). The mattresses were not as hard as I thought they would be but I had put a comforter down to try and make it softer. It may have made it softer but it also made it HOT. Our mini-split air conditioner works REALLY well, but the bed is at the back of the trailer, the mini-split at the front, so it gets a bit stuffy. I was hot/cold all night. We brought a fan and that helped push some air to the bed but laying on the comforter trapped my body heat and it was not fun.

Plus, I NEVER sleep very well the first night anywhere we go on vacation because it takes me a while to get used to my surroundings and I’m a light sleeper anyway so it doesn’t take much to wake me up.

Plus, we had some WICKED storms come through that night which kept me up.

(Side note: we also lost a limb back home – LeRoy took a picture of it and sent it to Kevin. It was too big for LeRoy to move on his own so guess what Kevin gets to do when we get home – where’s the chainsaw).

So no, our first night wasn’t the best.

Note to self: Don’t put a comforter on the mattress and then sleep on top of it in the summer months. Maybe in the winter …

Also, I wrote mattresses. Plural. That was not a typo. I bought two twin mattresses from Amazon. Actually, they are narrow twin mattresses. I bought two because we can not sleep together, largely because I’m a fish out of water whenever I sleep and I move around so much it wakes Kevin up. So I figured I would buy two mattresses and hopefully it wouldn’t disturb him too much. Newsflash – I didn’t disturb him. Much. 

Sunday, we stuck around the trailer, read and watched two movies: Quarantine and Wall Street (the second one). Quarantine was a horror movie and it’s about people who contract rabies but this virus is so fast moving that it consumes it’s victims in record time and they start turning on each other. Sort of like a zombie movie. It’s also told from a first-person perspective, sort of. It starts out with a reporter and her cameraman hanging out at a firehouse and assigned to two guys who will take them on their calls.

They arrive at a house to find out why a woman is screaming and acting funny. When they get to her apartment, it’s apparent something is not right with her and all hell breaks loose. The city locks them in this house and no one can leave. What’s cool about this story is the story is told from the cameraman’s perspective, he’s holding the camera and shooting the entire thing. You’re part of the story, only you see it through the cameraman’s eyes, or his camera, to be more precise. There is a lot of shaking and I felt sort of sick to my stomach from all the movement at one point, but you felt like you were right there, almost like a first-person shooter game, if you’ve ever played those before.

Wall Street was pretty good, too. I think Gecko is the perfect character for Michael Douglas. Sunday was super chill and it was exactly what we needed. No agenda, no plans, just relax and breathe.

Kevin grilled some hamburgers and we drove into Kimberling City and got ice cream at Sonic. The temperature cooled off quite a bit after the rain, too, so overall, it was a great day to just hang out around the campsite.

The second night was much better. I took the comforter off the bed, slept in a tank shirt and under a sheet and was quite comfortable. If fact, I slept so good I snored – a lot. So much so that Kevin had to get up and put in ear plugs.

Oops. I wish I could say I was too dainty and feminine to snore but nope, I snore so much it sounds like an out-of-control lumberjack waving his chainsaw around like he owns the world.

But I slept great, (thanks to taking a Benedryl as well), and I felt awake and ready to tackle Monday.

And we literally did nothing on Monday. Well, that’s not entirely true. We walked around the marina, took some pictures and relaxed by the lake to watch the boats come in / out. There was a swimming spot nearby so we listened to the kids yell and have a great time. The weather was perfect – sunny and warm, but not too warm. We read, talked and just zoned out for about three hours. It was balm to my soul and MUCH NEEDED. I could feel the stress just melting away. 

I know what you’re thinking – “But Karen, you’re literally camping right next to the water. Didn’t you and Kevin go on to the lake?” 

No, no we didn’t. Neither one of us are big water people. I am not opposed to hanging out on the lake but there is no way I will go swimming in the lake. It just creeps me out too much. The first time something brushes against my leg, I’m out. Though I have to admit, the water looked pretty clean. I feel the same way about the ocean, too. I will not swim in the ocean. The closest I get is walking along the beach. Never more than thigh deep. I’ll be honest, I’m not the best swimmer, which is probably the biggest reason I’m not a big water fan. 

Our last night, we drove into town and ate at a local BBQ place. It was pretty great. Had a pulled pork sandwich and we shared some fries.

So no, we didn’t spend any time ON the water. We simply sat around and enjoyed the scenery. We had no plans and we didn’t do anything. It was pretty great, honestly. It was a last minute trip to just get away and get some fresh air and that’s exactly what we did.

This is PRECISELY why we wanted to buy a trailer to begin with – to just get away for a bit. And I have to say, this was a great first trip out. We learned a lot about the trailer and I have a list of things I would like to improve. 

Such as:

Some kitchen utensils – can opener, spatula, knives, measuring cups, teaspoons, etc.
Salt and pepper shakers
Mixing bowl
Small skillet / griddle

Fly swatter
More hooks on the wall
Small towel rack for the kitchen towel and to hang our wet wash cloths on
TV mount
Black out curtains

We didn’t have any curtains for the windows but Kevin had cut a template for the windows out of Styrofoam and thought it would be a good idea to cut three more to use to stuff in the windows when it’s not in use and that’s what we used to cover the windows. But I would like to hang some black-out curtains at some point. Just little things like that to make it more homey. 

The toilet Kevin put in was a life saver. Especially Saturday morning when it POURED rain at 5:30 AM and I had to pee but didn’t have to put on shoes, grab an umbrella and trudge through the rain to the toilets. I was just able to use the toilet and go back to bed. 

BEST IDEA EVER TO INSTALL THAT THING. 

So that was our first trip in our cargo trailer. It was an impromptu, little planned trip, but we had a blast and I can’t wait to do it again. Which, by the way, we have two camping trips coming up in ONE WEEK sometime this Fall. We’re planning on vlogging the trip so that will be fun to take you guys along for the ride. I’m sure we will regret taking two camping trips in one week but with Kevin’s work schedule, it’s really the only way we can do it right now. He has a big client that demands all of his attention on Thursdays so … we have to get creative on the duration of our trips. The first trip will be four nights up north of us, and three days south of us. Stay tuned. 

For now, here are a few pictures from our first trip. 

Continue reading “Maiden Voyage – Cargo Trailer Glamping – Trip #1 – Port of Kimberling Marina” →

Podcast

Bonus Podcast Video

Karen

Kevin and I produced a “bonus” podcast video for you when we got back from our camping trip.

One – we felt bad for missing two weeks in a row and

Two – there is just so much to talk about!

Anyway, Kevin’s editing skills are coming along nicely, if I say so myself. lol

In addition to graphs, he throws in some pictures of our campsite. I am currently working on a more detailed post about our first camping trip in our cargo trailer conversion home but since we are now down three MA’s, I hit the ground running when I got back to work. I am working Dr. S’s clinics today, tomorrow, then Dr. M is back next week and he added on a clinic so I’ll be working three of his clinics along with helping to cover Dr. S’s calls next week. In a lot of ways, I hate taking time off because I will absolutely pay for it when I return.

I’m also going to try and film my Write From Karen podcast this week, too. We’ll see how that goes.

Reflections

July 2021 Reflections

Karen

So I’m actually starting this post on July 17th because quite frankly, I’ve had so much on my mind that I completely forgot to write anything. But I’m DETERMINED to start this new “habit” so I’m starting today – I have my mood tracker in my bullet journal to look back on and elaborate on but who knows, maybe I’ll make something up. I’ll leave it up to you to guess whether is really happened or not.

And my right eye will NOT stop watering and it’s really starting to annoy me – also – I hope my false eyelash doesn’t come off because there is nothing worse than a wonky eyelash. Well, there are worse things and yes, I wear false eyelashes.

July 2: The nurse I work with – her youngest daughter – was “exposed” to COVID though it’s unsure whether someone actually contracted COVID or if Bonnie’s husband, first cousin’s friend had it. Her daughter wasn’t sick but she still had to self-isolate for ten days which meant my nurse and her husband had to scramble to figure out who was going to stay home with her and who was going to go to work. I’m so glad we don’t have small children in this day and age. Not just when it comes to COVID and the fact that parents are having to fight to even get their children in the door of schools and who knows what it will look like this Fall, but because of all the of the crap that school boards and unions are trying so hard to shove down children’s throats to start indoctrinating them to a certain way of thinking thereby molding them into voters who will vote for their crazy agendas in the future. I honestly think, if we were raising our boys in today’s society, we would yank them out of school and homeschool them. I know that’s not an option for many people because – bills – but if you can swing it, I would encourage you to give it a hard look – for your children’s sake.

I’m starting to find my groove with Dr. S’s clinics. I’m starting to get to know her a bit better and understand her preferences. As a result, her clinics are running better and she seems more relaxed and happy, at least, I hope so. Her patients, though, are needy and demanding. And it’s largely because she’s had team members in the past who weren’t firm and allowed themselves to be bullied into bending the rules. Look. People will be people and if you give someone an inch, they will likely take a mile. Not everyone, thank God, MOST people are great and it’s a pleasure to take care of them but there are the select few who will throw a fit and just be rude and nasty primarily because it’s worked for them in the past and why stop doing what works? Nope. That’s not going to work for me. There’s a new sheriff in town and I will do everything I can to help you but you will NOT bully me.

Period.

July 4: This is Blake’s favorite holiday. He loves blowing things up, lol. However, our July 4th has changed over the years and now we’re downright boring. We used to go to my in-laws who lived on the outskirts of town, with a bag full of fireworks and shoot them off but with my in-laws getting older and needing a smaller, more easily accessible place to live, we no longer have anywhere to go shoot off fireworks and so we stopped buying them.

The boys, my nephew, LeRoy and my parents came over and Kevin cooked steak burgers. They are the best hamburgers and by far my favorite. We had a nice dinner together and some great conversation and it was really nice to see my parents in the flesh – the hugs were pretty great, too. In fact, every time my mom hugged anyone my dad would say, “now you have the Rona.” Every time I think back on this past year and the fear we succumbed to it just makes me SO ANGRY. Never again.

After dinner, we went to a parking lot across the street from a nearby country club and mooched off their fireworks. The weather was perfect and we had excellent seats – we had a front row seat. And the fireworks were great – the ones at the end of the show looked 3D, like they were coming right for you. It was a lot of fun.

July 7th: The whole COVID experimental injectable thing is really starting to ramp up at work. Cases are on the rise and we have quite a few people in the hospital now with COVID. The hospital “claims” it’s due to the Delta variant that 100% of the patients in the hospital are not vaccinated but I find it hard to believe. I find it hard to believe anything “experts” say nowadays since these same “experts” keep changing their story every other day. It’s hard to know what’s true and what’s agenda. I still find it so fascinating, in a horror-kind of way, the sheer PUSH to get people vaccinated. Almost to the point it feels like desperation. Which makes me ask the question – why?? When you look at all the data, look at all sides of the issue, all of this for a disease that is not that serious for the majority of people? I’m not saying it’s not real, I’m not saying it’s not serious for some people, but the majority of people get through it fairly well … and there are medications and treatments that have proven effective to help combat the symptoms if given early on – why get a vaccine given this information? People are pushing vaccines in the hopes that life will get back to normal – news flash – it’s not. The hysteria and the lockdowns from this past year has changed our country. And the more people BULLY others to try and get this experimental injectable the more people are hesitant to get it.

And when the CEO of our hospital comes out with tweets telling people that DARE TO QUESTION THE EXPERTS to , SHUT UP, and then come out and say that the employees at our hospital that are hesitant to get something we don’t agree with and don’t know what it contains injected into our arms are hesitant because we’re not as educated as say, our doctors, is truly insulting.

That hesitation almost correlates directly with your educational level in our organization,” he said. “So our doctors have least hesitation. And lesser educated people have a higher hesitation. We get that it is very complicated.”

You arrogant piece of shit.

And on top of all of that, our competing hospital announced they are mandating the vaccine for their employees and they have until September 30th to get it done. The hospital I work for hasn’t mandated it yet, but it’s coming. It would be naïve of me to think it’s not happening soon. And on one hand, I get it, it’s a medical facility, they don’t want to inadvertently infect someone in the hospital when they are already vulnerable but what about MY rights? Is this something that I have to forfeit because I work there?

So, I’ve had a lot on my mind. I’m busy planning and plotting my next move. I’ve been very distracted and that’s the biggest reason I haven’t blogged much this month, or participated in the July Camp NaNoWriMo – I just don’t have the desire to create anything right now when my reality has been tilted on its axis.

July 9: Very disgruntled at work. Everything and everyone is annoying me. It’s like my eyes have been open and I feel like I already have one foot in and one foot out of this hospital. I’m mentally preparing myself to make changes though I’ve done very little as to actually make that happen. It’s not that I hope it won’t happen, it’s happening, I’m just trying to figure out the best course of action and timing is everything, quite honestly. Kevin is 100% backing me in whatever I decide to do. He thinks I should quit now while the job market is hot, and I don’t disagree with him, but I’m leaning more to waiting until they actually make an announcement. I’m so conflicted!

July 10: Kevin and I did something on our bucket list – we went and reserved our grave plots today. Ha! I know, how weird and morbid and no, it doesn’t have anything to do with COVID. We’re getting older, though we hope we have decades of living still left to do before we fall asleep, and it’s time to start thinking about where we want to be buried and to start paying for it as we don’t want to saddle our boys with the cost of our funeral. This all started with Kevin and LeRoy going out to visit Nanny’s grave, (LeRoy’s adopted mom), along with Kevin’s parents to pay their respects. While they were there, Kevin’s parents talked about their plots and how they would love it if the family would choose to be buried with the rest of the family. This got Kevin to thinking about our conversation, because we’ve had quite a few over the years, of where we wanted to be buried and to have it completely paid for before the day of our death. As it so happened, there were plots available near his parents so he came home to talk to me about it.

The whole subject makes me squirm because it’s so uncomfortable and morbid but death is a fact of life and we can’t pretend it’s not going to happen at some point. (Hopefully, not for DECADES to come). Before I wanted to give my consent, I wanted to talk to our boys and to my parents. My parents said they would likely be buried in a National cemetery since my dad was in the Army and the boys could care less what we decided or where we would be buried. It’s hard for them to think about that kind of thing because they’re in their mid-20’s and you feel immortal when you’re that age. So, we made an appointment and talked to the funeral .. representative. (I don’t know if they have an official name – this is new territory to me, give me a break!)

The girl we spoke with was very nice and even made us laugh telling us about a March Madness sale they had. I have no idea what death and sports have in common but their products were 40% off and we told her if they had any other kind of “promotions” like that to let us know because let’s fact it, 40% off caskets would be a good deal.

We have now reserved our plots. We know where we will be buried. It feels weird but it’s something we needed to do because you just never know what sort of curveball life will throw at you. We’re not scared of death, primarily because we’re saved and believe that Christ will come back to raise us from the dead, but we’re not welcoming it with open arms either. I think that’s one reason why people are so freaked out about this COVID crap – because they don’t have hope for the future. I find that sad, quite honestly.

Get saved – it’s easy.

Continue reading “July 2021 Reflections” →