Harelipfrog

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

New Link

I got the following story from "I work with fools."

Since I work with fools I love this site.

One of the first jobs I landed when I got out of high school involved me working for a forensic science laboratory. For the most part, it was interesting and the core group of folks were decent enough.

HOWEVER! There was this one DOLT who was in charge of the scientists, who was totally socially inept. You could stare him in the face and say,"Hello," and he'd just keep walking by. And other days, he'd talk your ear off about nonsensical shit like the merits of earwax. I always suspected he was bi-polar or had other personality disorders.

Anyhow, one day he came out and was feeling particularly "chatty." All the while he was chatting, he was "fiddling" around with this big powerhouse of a mechanical stapler we had for rather thick reports. Flip, flip, flip. On.Off. On. Off. Chatter chatter. Flip. Flip. On. Off. On. *THUD* Total. Eerie. Silence.

Turns out this brilliant IDIOT had. Stapled. His.Finger. Mind you, these were not mere staples which you could remove with a claw type staple remover. These staples were more like finishing nails. The only way to get it out (and yes, it did go thru the bone) would be to get out tin snips and snip off the bent parts of the "staple" and pull the straight nail like part that remained, out.

My lasting visual of that moment was him in his office, head between his legs. Body limp. Yes, he passed out cold. All the while another co-worker was diligently trying to yank out the "staple" with a claw-type staple remover.
I'm evil! Ha ha ha!

Saturday, April 09, 2005

Food Coloring

Today was the birthday party for my youngest BIL.

My MIL made the birthday cake. She iced the cake. She had purchased what she believed to be a tubed icing for writing on the cake.

She drew the greek letters of his honors society on the cake, wrote happy birthday on it, wrote his name on it, wrote 19 and surrounded it with sparkles, and drew balloons. By this time there was virtually nothing left in the little tubes and her fingertips were stained blue and there was a lot of icing on the cake.

She slid the tubes back into the box and handed them to me to put into the trash. It was at that moment that my SIL saw the front of the box. "Mom, that's food coloring!" (By the way, mom has two syllables the way she said it at the time)

Upon looking at the front of the box, it did clearly say food coloring. For some reason it had been on the shelf with the icings at the grocery store and she had just grabbed the box without really reading it.

We ate the cake anyway, concluding that since it was for human consumption that it would not hurt us. However we do have a number of interstingly tinted mouths (depending upon which portion of the cake/color of food coloring you got). My hubby's is profoundly stained as he proceeded to have fun with it and ate as much gel as he could (he's a fruitcake).

Still, a good day.

Happy Birthday David!

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

The Bottle Bill

I read the Tennessean online nearly every day. On the front page was an article about a bill currently in committee before the Tennessee legislature.

This is a bill that would require the collection of a $.05 deposit on all individual drink bottles (64oz or less) sold in the state. You would then be able to turn in those empties for your deposit. There are always a few bottles that for one reason or another don't get returned, and the funds from those unredeemed deposits would be used on litter programs among other things.

The idea being that if people turn their bottles in for the deposit, there will be fewer bottles on the sides of the roads. The state gets a bit more money, and we get cleaner streets and parks.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Here is a website regarding the bill. If you also think it is a good idea, the website has the contact information for your representative. Give them a buzz and let them know what you think.

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

The "Nursing Shortage"

I was watching TV this evening with my mother. During one of the interminable commercial breaks there was a teaser for this evenings news broadcast. The gist of the story was that unless the local nursing schools cranked out more nurses, there was going to be a shortage of nurses resulting in a health emergency.

What a crock of shit.

There is no shortage of nurses. What there is, is the current ongoing abuse and neglect of the nurses who are currently in the workforce as nurses. Should we be surprised when they leave for something else that is less demanding/stressful and pays more?

The majority of hospitals are understaffed with nurses. Not because the nurses are not out there, but because when nurses work as nurses they are chronicly understaffed, overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated. They work murderous hours, the ratio of patients to nurses has risen to the point of being dangerous, and when something goes wrong (which it always does under those circumstances) the nurses are blamed because they are the first persons on the scene. As a result a lot of very qualified and experienced nurses are moving into fields like pre-certification which require a nursing liscense, but you don't have the risk of having someone die on you each day.

Nurses have to carry almost as much malpractice insurance as a doctor. Why? If you have to ask that question, you obviously did not read the paragraph above.

My mother is an RN with about 30 years of experience. She has worked the ER, orthopaedics, and most recently nephrology/dialysis. She left hospital nursing for a variety of reasons. She does not have to worry about someone dying on her when she goes to work (a very real possibility working the acute dialysis patients at the hospital). She does not have to worry about docs who abuse the system and their patients for their own gain. She does not have to worry about being overworked, understaffed, and while she may still be unappreciated she is under a lot less pressure and strain.

The hospitals need nurses like my mother, nurses with experience and insight. But they will not be able to keep them because they will never be given the support and staffing that they need to do a good job.

And we will suffer for it.

Saturday, April 02, 2005


My Step-Father

Squirrelly Wrath

I have to admit that I love these. Particularly "Tech Support" and "Amityville Toaster".

I know, I'm weird. Check it out.