Sunday, December 23, 2012

How I Spent My “Fall” Vacation – Episode 53

Episode 53 – December 22 – The new room is so much quieter at night despite being beside the nurses station. I have slept soundly for 7 or 8 hours both days I’ve been here.
Recently, I was told a story about a hospital reality that made me a bit angry. Hospitals are usually full to capacity at Christmas time. Considering there is very little elective surgery going on during the last two weeks of December this seems contradictory. It turns out that a lot of people that are caregivers find a doctor that will come up with an excuse to hospitalize grandma for a couple of weeks so they can go away on a holiday.
My day nurse today was Denise which is always a good thing.
Having spent so long here and seeing so many patients come and go, I can safely say that slipping, tripping and falling are not great ideas, nothing good ever comes of these. My survey isn’t totally scientific but merely anecdotal but I am pretty confident my conclusions would hold up well in a double blind study.
The Crown Prince made his weekly appearance and brought up my mail. Obviously there are a lot of people out there that I’m going to have to send notes to when I make bail and get out of here. His two big missions today were to replenish my mandarin orange supply and to pick up my computer power cord and transformer and find a replacement. He had previously passed along some wise information he had learned in his electronics courses. If it’s warm it’s no problem; if it’s hot but not singeing any flesh it’s probably still fine; however it there is smoke, sparks or flames it’s not so good. Mine was getting very hot and at the junction it would spark and crackle if I moved wrong and at one point last week there was a little puff of smoke. This was not a good thing. Hospitals frown on you setting your bed on fire. They have special ward for patients who make a habit of that.
He told me about a birthday dinner he went to last night at a restaurant “Dark Table” that served the meal in complete darkness. I had heard of a couple of places in other cities using this concept/gimmick. He enjoyed it immensely. It does sound intriguing so if a group of you are out there feeling  guilty  about poor old Dennis lying in his hospital bed for two months and want to do something n*** for him when he gets out... But you can’t invite Croft apparently his probation order forbids him from being in dark places amongst mixed company or any living thing for that matter. ;-)
This afternoon was a day for royal visits. I heard a very distinctive voice at the nursing station say “Oh never mind there he is!” and I saw a pair of the most outstanding blue eyes you could imagine. It was one of my old drinking buddies, Sharon.  We were known to have closed a few bars like the Rose & Thorn and Pharaoh’s. We had worked together many years ago at the PNE. I mention royalty because in her youth Sharon uncannily resembled a certain member of the royal family. I won’t go too much farther on that because it used to drive her crazy when we were in our youth and people would approach her and comment about it. She spent a good deal of her career in law enforcement listening to it as well. I always thought she was much better looking and her good looks have gotten even better over the years. Okay, I admit it; I’m a sucker for blonde hair and blue eyes which is no surprise to most of you. We had a great chat about my walking yesterday and her past career and how she’s working much harder now that she’s retired. She was also kind enough to bring a few goodies including some biscotti hand made by her husband. It’s about time that little guy made some good use of his time. Thank you very much, Eric! And thank you, Sharon for making that long trip to brighten up an old friend’s day!
Unfortunately, Bryan and Sharon missed each other twice by minutes because Bryan returned from the computer store right after Sharon left. Of course, if Sharon hadn’t been too stubborn to ask for directions and ended up looking for me on the maternity floor and the morgue, they probably would have met the first time. That stubbornness must come from being both Scottish and a retired cop. ;-)
Speaking of Scots, they aren’t the only Celts that are stubborn and thrifty; the Irish can be a little of both.  I have been trying for the last week to squeeze every last glob out of my toothpaste tube and finally had to give in when I had the thing rolled thinner than a pencil.
Unfortunately, I was at the wrong end of the priority list for the physio so I didn’t get to walk today. I have to assume they are trying to get everyone they can ready to be discharged by Christmas Eve.
Tonight I tuned into Shaw on Demand and went British with my viewing and watched the season finales of “Hunted” a suspense/conspiracy drama and “Hit & Miss” a very edgy drama that would be very difficult to categorize in any genre because of its many tiered story lines and back stories. The Brits do so much better at television drama.
Along with my orange, I tried one of Eric’s biscotti. It was tasty with a bit of a surprise. I’m guessing it contained chili peppers and chocolate. There is a synonym for the young lady’s name that provided these treats and I have no plans of doing such. They are mine!!!!
To be continued...

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