COQUILLE DIARY JULY 2001

COQUILLE DIARY JULY 2001:

7-2:  Well I was certainly wrong about the dark thirty flight out of North Bend.  It was packed full and they were asking for volunteers to take a later flight. Nope.  I want my seat.
Got into Boise about 9:30 am and Mom and Richard picked me up.  Thanks!!

Mom and I didn't do much that week.  I purchased  a "Leappad" sort of a computerized book that reads to Anthony.

Got to Emmett and went to take a peek at the kids house.  It is a very nicely kept modular home, nice big back deck, lovely parking, nice shade trees.  I don't like the ditch in the front lawn but it is good for irrigating.

The rest of the time we went out to places to eat.  I visited with Barb Whelan for dinner and had a huge case of the giggles.

Visited a couple down town antique shops, purchased an Emmett Cherry Festival hat for Tim.  I will probably wear it more than he.

Caught the plane to go back and got into Portland early enough to catch the very next flight that was just leaving.  Tim had already left so I had a short wait for him as he always likes to get there early.

7-9: Oh joy visit to dental hygenist.

The kids are moving from Sonoma, over nighted in Winnemucca and got into Emmett about 5 pm.  They are determined to sleep in their own beds as soon as possible.  Ma Berglund taught us all well.  Get the beds set up first thing. 

Well, we got a refund check from Unca Sam, MUCH better than last year.  

Quantum Mechanics Joke:
A neutron goes into a bar and orders a drink.
Bartender bring the drink and the neutron askes, "How much?
Bartender says, "For you? No charge."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

COQUILLE DIARY JUNE 2001

COQUILLE DIARY JUNE 2001:'

6-1:  Charlie called they sold the condo.  They plan to move to Emmett and go into the Chimney Sweep business.  I may be visiting Emmett more often.

June 6: incredibly busy day at work.  It is very difficult to FIND a particular dictation especially if a doctor requests a report.  So I had to scramble to find a couple x-ray dictations, do a birth certificate after interviewing the Mom and doing several other tapes.  Phew!!
Looking forward to vacation to Emmett.

6-15:  The kids made an off on a three bedroom house and it is near schools etc.  Good location  They are all in a kerfluffle to go back to Sonoma and close and move.  Oh what fun.

6-23:  took the dark thirty flight out of North Bend for my week long vacation in Emmett.  I will cover that in July yakity yak.

G'night folks.

COQUILLE DIARY MAY 2001

COQUILLE DIARY MAY 2001:

May 2: Couple book reports:  "Kiss of Shadows" By Laurel K. Hamilton.  Book set in present day reality as we know it but includes all things fey, fairy, goblin etc.  Main character is Meredith, girl detective.  She is on the lam from her Auntie who is Queen of the Unseelie Court.  She is in serious danger of being killed because Auntie has named her as heir or her evil, wicked, bad and nasty son.   Who ever has the first baby within three years gets the crown.  Not good news as the fey are not very fertile.  Meredith must choose four possible  sperm donors from her Aunts guard who have just been released from 800 years of celibacy.  She picks 3 and a goblin to go back to Hollywood and maked babies.  Fairly good plot and hoo boy is there ever sex. 

The other book is Broken Sword. a tale about Kind Arthur, 12 knights of the round table, Merlin, The Holy Grail, The Hell's Angels , New York City is set between 12th and 21st century.  Battle of Good and Evil.

Day at work: The time clock ran out of ink, so had to scribble in time. Cpu  is ok and still working, so I rebooted, wiggled some wires and worked for a while. Computer kid determined it only needed a new power cord. Fixed!! 

About 2 pm I experienced a gastrointestinal disaster, forced to go home to address the situation and return to work much refreshed.  Erk.

Walmart shoppers will soon be able to purchase Walmart brand of wine.  There have, of course, been many suggestions, the winner is Nasti Spumante.

Used mileage plan to book trip to Boise.  It will be a short vacation but Mom and I can wear ourselves out just running around locally.  So, look out, Emmett.

I received an email from a relative:
Sad news Friday May 4, 2001:  Larry LaPrise the Detroit native who wrote "The Hokey Pokey" died last week at age 83.  It was especially difficult for the family to keep him in the casket. They's putl his left leg in....

Would someone please invent the air conditioned blanket?  Please. Weather got up to 78, hence the wish for blankie AC.

5-25:  Senior Moment?  Could not get a print job to work at Joyce's station, so we gave up and printed it out on my printer.  I left Joyce a note that her printer was not working!!!  She said that the printer did not have PAPER in it.  Duhhh

Second senior moment.   Office supply person called to let me know my order had some in.  What order?  Went to check it out, there were three plastic bins sitting there.  I double checked.  I ordered these?  Yep.  Well, crap I wonder what I wanted with them.  Maybe I can put incomplete charts in them?  Got a call later.  Supplie officer was mistaken those crate things WERE for some other department.  Phew!  Senility staved off for a few years.

There is an attempt at Union organization going on at work.  The nurses already belong to Teamsters.  I don't see the advantage myself, the trickle down theory works well. What ever they get, we get an echo of it.  So no biggie.

That's all for May.

G'night folks.

COQUILLE DIARY APRIL 2001

COQUILLE DIARY APRIL 2001:

4-5:  Sent off the taxes to Fed and State.  Got an odd automated call from some state senator wanting all good citizens to refuse their kicker.  Which is sort of some kind of pay out from the state when a certain amount of money is in the "bank" and gets paid back to the tax payer.  Um, this is bad how?

4-12:  Brother Jim called saying that he was thinking of being a mechanic at a floating lumber camp along the Alaska coast.  Job is not full time but it will keep him occupied.

4-16:  Another dental visit, another molar pulled. 

That  is all for April.
G'night folks.

COQUILLE DIARY MARCH 2001

COQUILLE DIARY MARCH 2001:

Back to work: First week got the end of the month statistics almost done and about 60 charts coded and tagged for signatures and sent off to the doctor's boxes for completion.  

3-5:  Nice surprise. Mitch and Carla stopped in for part of their honeymoon.  We had dinner at the Mexican place.  I had pollo enchilada con mole.  The best mole I have ever had.  We then went home and played Scrabble.  They continued on down the coast to Ashland to try to catch some Shakespeare.

Book report:  Rosamund Pilchard "Coming Home"  It is worth reading the book simply for the gardening joke.  At one point a conversation revolved around some plants.  The narrator asked what those were and the gardener shrugged, "When I don't know what something is, I just say Inapoticum Forgetanamia".  I had to read it several times before I got the giggles.

Got an email from Charlie the house deal on Dean Street fell through.  Oh well.  They are still going to list the condo.

Chatted with Charlie, they are thinking about house hunting in Payette, Idaho.

Got a hair cut.  The girl cutting my hair kept snipping and snipping until the salon owner wondered by and asked her if she was going to use Butch Wax to style my do.  Oh well, I can always wear a hat or lots of lipstick and earrings to look less butch.

Noise abatement project at work.  A carpet was laid in the hallway to cut down on some of audible conversations that people in ICU can clearly hear in the nurses station.  "The patient is circling the drain"  that kind of chat  Eerk.

Jeez got an email from Monica K former boss woman from Barrow. She developed double vision symptoms and has been diagnosed with cavernoma.  That is where an actual hole is opening up in the brain, as I understand it.  The only solution is surgery of some sort or perhaps an exotic laser treatment called a Gamma Knife.  A better description of a cavernoma is that it is a sort of aneurysm and can hemorrhage and that is a bad thing.  University of Virginia has the gamma knife.  Update: Walter Reed will not do anything unless she has further symptoms.  Well that sucks.

JOKE:
A sweet young thing got a telephone call from her grandmother and asked her what had happened. Grandmother told her that her grandfather had died suddenly.

She rushed home to grieve with her grandmother and asked her what happened.

"Well" sniffed her grandmother, "He died while we were having sex on Sunday morning."

"Sex!" exclaimed the young woman, "Isn't that awfully risky at age 94?"

"Oh no!" sighed her grandmother "That's the day we always have sex on Sunday in time to the church bells.  In with the dings. Out with the dongs".  And she sobbed, "If that damn ice cream truck hadn't gone by he would still be alive!".

Well that finishes up March.

G'night folks.

COQUILLE DIARY FEBRUARY 2001

COQUILLE DIARY FEBRUARY 2001:

2-8:  The kids got back to Sonoma okey dokey, Anthony left all of his computer games here. Wonder if I will be able to master them?

Tough week at work:  Blew up a keyboard.  The shelf it sat on collapsed and I had to jury rig something with a board and a pipe.  Joyce's computer committed suicide.  The computer kid came and determined that the PC was repairable. He replaced something thank you very much.  He took the cover off to vent heat from the machine.  This will make Joyce very happy, she runs several degrees cooler than the rest of us over heated humans.

There was a murder in February. A woman and her mother were discovered shot to death.  The husband and gun were missing. Cops arrested him in Reno.  The husband went a little nut and also shot the dog and the cat too.

Taxes just completed the, owe Unca Sam and State of Oregon some bucks because I had defaulted on a 401k loan.  It was not awfully painful but perhaps we will get on the other side of the refund business next year.

2-14:  How appropriate Valentines Day injury.  A couple came into ER who each had injuries in their buttocks.  The injuries turned out to be B-B sized pellets that had been shot into their backsides whilst they exercised out doors connubial bliss in the bed of the pickup truck.  Perhaps the temptation to take a pot shot at rising moons was too much.  It was a bright moonlight night so perhaps night vision goggles were not required.

Husband ordered a pink cyclamen.  It came with several blossoms and potted in a silvery aluminum bucket with handle.  Very pretty.  I hope I do not kill it very soon.

2-19: President's Day is not a holiday at CVH. 

The wedding was a smash.  I ran around with the wedding party picking up bits and bobs here and there for decorations.  Sadly Mitch's grandmother died that day of cancer.  The ceremony was a blast. Jordan Berglund was ring bearer, Rachel Ecland was the flower girl. Uncle Paul walked Carla down the aisle. The minister mentioned that the wedding was celebrated on Dad's birthday and he would have been 84. 

We were in charge of loading presents in the van and delivering them to the house, got that done.  The married couple spent the night at The Four Seasons downtown.  We all met the next day for breakfast and chit chat  So much fun. We took off and headed home.

2-28:  Watched TV coverage of the 6.8 earthquake, the "rattle in Seattle".  Have to blame it on the dancing which got rather spirited when they played The Hokey Pokey.

Okay that was a lot of Feb in February. Well except for the weird murders and the pot shots.

G'night folks.

COQUILLE DIARY JANUARY 2001

COQUILLE DIARY JANUARY 2001:

Spent a quite new years eve.  Lots of folks around here like to shoot off what sounds like small artillery and what ever left over fireworks they have.

My neighbor brought over some apples from her brother which he had sent fro Corvallis, called Braeberns, Nummy.

I watched the Rose Parade on HGTV, no commercials quite pretty, it is just as easy to nod off during this version as the network coverage.  Meh.

I ordered Turbo-Tax 2000 and will assemble the various tax documents.  We already have the Oregon income tax forms in the mail.  They have rather interesting residency requirements, apparently you only have to THINK of Oregon as your permanent home and they want their cut. (Smile)

1-10: Happy sixth anniversary.  Yep we got hitched in the Barrow Court house.  We celebrated early at the Pancake Mill.  Tim had veggie omelet, I had potato pancakes.  Delish

Book Report "Eye of the Storm"  By Private Sneden.   A compilation of diaries kept by this man during the Civil War.  He was a map maker, painted many scene and was prisoner of war in Andersonville for seven months.  His job was to keep track of the dead.  He was part of a ten thousand man prisoner exchange.  He spent the post war years refining his diaries.  He died in an Old Soldiers Home without family at age 82.

Got invited to Carla and Mitch's wedding  on 2-24-01.  I went to Myrtle Wood place and snagged their last two champagne glasses made with Myrtle Wood stems.  Very pretty.

1-16: Dental appointment, Had one cavity filled left upper back molar pulled.  Short roots for which I can thank genetics.  In and out in less than 20 minutes.  Thanky!!

Charlie and Leslie are thinking of selling the Condo in Sonoma while the market is high.  They are coming to Coquille to look at houses.  There are always a few for sale around here, not a lot of new construction however.

Our alley neighbors had two trucks of gravel delivered and spread on the alley, our share was 60 bucks and all we had to do was give money.  Yay, my favorite kind of maintenance.

The kids came and walked a couple houses and are interested in one on Dean street.  We will see how the sale of the condo goes.

Looks like January is off to a good start.

G'night folks.

COQUILLE DIARY DECEMEMBER 2000

COQUILLE DIARY DECEMBER 2000:

12-11 GOT packages and cards mailed off. 
Made a quick batch of fruit cake and cooked it quickly in the freezer so I cold mail it to Mom.  She can always use it as a paper weight. 

I decided to loan six boxes of my Christmas ornaments to the volunteers at the hospital.  When I went in I thought the tree was decorated rather sparsely.  Apparently the ladies spent four hours opening boxes and exclaiming how cute they were and then just got tired.  So, that went well.  I can't decorate at home. WE. HAVE. CATS.

I got a big check from BUECI.  When I first moved to Barrow I played 25 dollars for a membership in the coop.  They pay yearly dividends.  This year it was for the princely sum of thirty-nine cents.

Well looks like the Supreme Court has bounced back the voting thing and Gore will be making a concession speech to Mr. Bush.

First winter storm.  We got a major storm here and the rest of Oregon got snow.  Local were grumping that the good weather had held for far too long.  

Christmas was quiet, I baked chicken, made pumpkin pie, cranberry relish salad, called Charlie and chatted.  It was nice.

12-29:  Maintenance gave me 30 minutes notice that they were taking down the Christmas tree and would I please remove my ornaments.  Okay, I'll be right down.  Only one broke, no one stole any of them.  

Merry, Merry!!

G'night folks.

COQUILLE DIARY NOVEMBER 2000

COQUILLE DIARY NOVEMBER 2000

11-6:  We drove both cars to Coos Bay, the van needs some work.  The contact points ae acting up so we took it to Verger. Estimate come back in three hours, be about 400 bucks.  Ok, went to breakfast at Pancake Mill, shopped at Freddy's.  Went back more bad news: Need new water pump, timing belt, transmission seal and a few more things, parts ove 900. Come back Wednesday. Bill went up to 1407.  Still gonna drive it until the wheels fall off.  I shudder at spending or financing 25 k for a new car.  Ack.
I also got some tub caulking supplies at Freddy's.  Tackled the tub and it looks a lot better. The old caulk was beyond rehab nasty.

11-11/16:  Barbara Whelan flew in to spend a few days with me.  My best friend from Idaho.  I have missed her a lot.  So we ran around a lot.  Went to Bandon and did Old Town, had lunch at the Boat Works and watched impressive sized waves crash on the jetty.  Then visited Shore Acres and toured the gardens and watched impressive waves crash way up high in the air creating little mini rainbows.  Very pretty. We went to lunch at Lucky Star and Barb introduced me to General Tsoa's Chicken.  Boy is that ever good!  My now favorite Chinese dish.  Yummy.  

Thanks giving: Plan on driving to Seattle to visit with Carla and Mitch.  

Our back of the alley neighbor burned some of our trash. We are going in on a load of gravel to put on the alley drive way.

Fifteen minutes of fame:  No ten, or wait make that 3 1/2 minutes.  I received an email from a site sponsored by "The Atlantic".  One of the features they have is called "Word fugitives".  People will post a question and others will answer, sometimes it is calm and erudite, sometimes for silly.  I really like silly.  About one year ago one of the posts was asking "Is there a verb or noun that describes the sensation  when you purchase a new car and suddenly you notice the same car everywhere?"  So I submitted the very obvious "newbiquitous".  Anyway they wanted permission to use my submission in the February print issue.  I am an author!  And no, there is no money involved, only the honor, but then you knew that didn't you?

Recap Thanksgiving in Seattle.  Nice sunny drive up on Wednesday.  The feast was sumptuous, Mitch cooked most of it.  Met most of his family, we played Pictionary. Carla and I cooked apple and pumpkin pies. My green tomato pickles were a huge hit.  I drove back the next morning and it was lovely.

Nice surprise in the mail.  Tim handed me an envelope from the hospital.  Inside was a check and a letter thanking the employees for their hard work all year!  Well how many small hospitals do you know of that hands out bonus checks?  Nice. Thanks Edna!!

Time to close November.

G'night folks.

COQUILLE DIARY OCTOBER 2000

COQUILLE DIARY OCTOBER 2000:

I did not document much in October.

We did notice a LOT of gnat type flies in the hospital.  Maintenance put up blue lamp bug zappers in the kitchen and it still was not good enough.  The Health Department came in, did an inspection and closed the kitchen.  Well crapola.  Will have to take my lunch.

10-31:  Tuesday night we had 40 to 50 trick or treaters at our house.  Husband played host and handed out treats.  For some demented reason I decided that we did not have enough candy on hand.

I decided to make rice crispy treats.  I used my largest  stock pot and slowly melted two bags of marshmallows and a cube of butter.  Then I poured this over 12 cups of rice cereal.  Unfortunately I forgot to butter my fingers before stirring the stuff together.  My hands became gigantic ham sized crispy treat clubs.  

I got stuff all over the stove, floor, face, in my hair, on my clothes.  All I missed was falling down in the stuff.  I finally clutched the fridge open and snatched out a bar of butter and using it like a bar of soap managed to get past the sticky.  I felt like I was reliving an old episode of "I Love Lucy". 

After what seemed like hours I got the mess divided between two cookie sheets and cooling in the fridge.  I then paused to clean up as much as possible.  What a mess.  I am certain that the effort of all this could be used as shot put training for the Olympics.
  
The hospital is open Friday.  Am tired of taking my lunch to work.

Well, crap the state closed the kitchen until further notice, cause our fly count is still to high.  Those little bastids are still coming out of the wall apparently.  Ugh!!!

Enough October.

G'night folks.

COQUILLE DIARY SEPTEMBER 2000

COQUILLE DIARY SEPTEMBER 2000:

9-13:  I shall be driving alone to Bend for the Orhima meeting.  I am not fond of driving over that pass I always get a nose bleed sensation.  I do like going through Sisters though, cute little touristy town. 

The workshop started at 2 pm and went to 8 pm, ugh.  Left the next day and drove to Coos Bay at Enterprise,  hopped in the van and drove home. 

Worked Sunday boy had things piled up.

9-18 Dental appointment, got tooth cleaning, it always feels Sooo good  when they STOP. 

Shrubbery.  Got the bushes in front of the windows trimmed down, lots of daylight coming in now.  Hubs feels there is too much for anyone to look in and see.  Um, yeah such an exciting view from the street...not.

Got an odd knock knock on the door.  Open to see older lady looking for some property. Told her this one was not for sale, check the next street over.  She tottered off.
Summer Olympics. Enjoyed the fireworks.  Seems like silly sports have been included.

Hospital remodel project.  This was discussed at the QA meeting.  Several versions being proposed all build on the present site. 

Heard from Charlie.  He called to ask Ellen's last name ad she was in Novato this weekend and they were getting together.  He didn't know her married name.  Jones is so hard to remember.

Had a situation at work.  I had to use my people skills (of which I possess few) to handle a potential situation.  Front desk called me to speak with a patient in the lobby.  The patient was a large marine in a cowboy hat who wanted his dictated record from this morning.  He explained that he was feeling stressed and suicidal.  I started to explain and he interrupted and essentially said he wasn't through talking and he didn't know why people would not let him explain why he wanted his records.  I promptly shut up and listened.  He explained that he was thinking of asking him wife to just let him kill himself and he decided he needed the record for referral to the VA.  I had him wait a few minutes while I checked with Joyce. Fortunately she found it and got it quickly typed up within a few minutes. Here you go, sir just sign the release and good luck.  Some medical record people crave interaction with the public...NOT. ME.

My neighbor left a pumpkin on our door step. Once it has served its seasonal purpose I shall cook it up for pie.

Green tomato pickles:  Our neighbor planted a large garden and has lots of green tomatoes still on the vine. I asked him if I could pick some for pickles and he agreed. I shall give him and his wife a pint or two.

My recipe calls for seven pounds of sliced green tomatoes.  These get immersed in pickling lime. I ordered some online and got all the junk together.  It is a two or three day process.  One day to pickle in the lime which makes the pickle very crisp.  Then day two cook in sugar brine and pickling spices. Allow to cool. Day three bring mix to a boil, can in jars and store on shelf. I love these pickles.  The recipe is from Grandma Horn and the best way to eat them is to grill a burger, grill a bun, slather with mayo and top with a couple slices of green pickle. Heaven!!!

Voting in Oregon. Yay we vote by MAIL.  Hazzah, no standing in line at the voting station.  The next step should be to vote on line but that is probably not doable for security reasons.

Enough September.

G'night folks.

COQUILLE DIARY AUGUST 2000

COQUILLE DIARY AUGUST 2000

August 13:  My sister, Gale and her friend, Carol Way decided to run away from home and came to visit .  They got in early afternoon Monday and rested.  The next morning we ran away to Coos Bay and had breakfast at the Pancake Mill and drove to Horsfals beach. The weather was lovely. We picked up lots of shells.  

Then we went to the Myrtle Wood factory.  The went back to downtown Coos Bay and walked over all the antique shops. We also drove to Shore Acres and walked about past the marked area and went into the danger zone way out by the edge of the cliffs.  Very exciting.  Then we drove to Bandon and looked at all the shops in old town.   

I worked the next day and the ladies stopped in at the hospital before they tootled on home.  They decided to go by way of the Redwoods.  Nice drive if a bit out of the way.

The hospital is purchasing new furniture for the patient rooms.  I have put a bid on three footstools at seven bucks a piece.  Perfect for holding blankies at the end of the bed.  I also purchased five metal bedside stands and they will make swell storage in the sunroom.

Coos County fair was a couple weeks ago. Our kitchen cook, Mary Noriega won first prize for her apple pie and won a brand new stove.  Yummy.

Blackberry arts festival.  Tim and I went and discovered we could purchase a whole blackberry pie for not a terrible price.  Even though we have a very large blackberry bush in the back yard,  Ya has to fight the spider and stickers for decent berries.  Taste good though.  The variety we have is not Himalayan because there are no seeds in the flesh. 

Got an email from Monica K former boss lady.  She just found out her daughter age 15 is four months pregnant.  Oh dear.  The father is a tall good looking Samoan kid.  The baby will be beautiful.  But it is not a good situation.

Oh goody, I found Battlebots on Comedy channel. So cool.  I love it, all sizes of robots bash at each other in the very large cage.  Much fun.

More hospital furniture:  I purchased two bed tables.  Putting on in the basement next to washer/dryer and one upstairs in the north bedroom, in case I ever want to have breakfast in bed.  

Tim and I are driving to Bend for the Oregon meeting.   Haven't been there in quite some time.  It will be a mini vacation.

Earthquake: The one in Yountville only rattled the kids awak.  They didn't see anything crashing on the cars and went back to bed.

Enough about August.

G'night folks.

COQUILLE DIARY JULY 2000

COQUILLE DIARY JULY 2000:


I had switched to working all weekends to accommodate Tim's schedule.  Hmmm well I will stay with it as working the weekends at the hospital is almost relaxing compared to the hubble bubble of the weekdays.

There has been the disappearance of a 15 year old girl. She was last seen walking on Central Avenue about 9 pm one evening.  After several days the FBI was called in who stopped cars and questioned people.  The girls boy friend is the son of the radiology technician.  It has been well over two weeks, if it were a simple run away I think she might have showed up.  We are the county seat and the town seems to be crawling with cops.  The town itself only has two or three units.

I have been watching Junkyard Wars on TLC.  Set in a junk yard England, two teams must build something that can be driven on the space of two days using what is available in the junk yard. Most fun!

I read Hannibal by Thomas Harris. Sequel to Silence of the Lambs. 

Surprising news today:  Edna Cotner took me aside to sign cost of living paperwork for the department and she told me that she was going to give me a raise from 14 bucks an hour to 19 bucks an hour.  I was surprise and barely got my mouth closed enough to stammer out a thank you. 

Got an invite to an open house for my college instructor Elaine Rockne's 80th birthday.  What a wonderful lady.  She came to Barrow a couple of time to teach coding classes.  I went with her to bingo one time and won a hundred bucks on a scratch off ticket.  I still do not enjoy bingo.

Joke of the month:
A couple in their 90's had been dating for some time. One evening the little old man turned to the lady and said "Tonight is the night we have sex."

So they did.

Later on the little old man was lying in bed feeling bad and though to himself, "My God, if I had known she was a virgin, I would have been more gentle with her."

The little old lady was lying in bed feeling kind of bad herself and though, "My God, if I had known the old goat could get it up, I would have taken off my panty hose."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA snort.

Crap my mammograms from Barrow caught up with me.  Radiologist want to do a biopsy.  So got that done.  It was a weird biopsy.  The radiologist had to place a needle and then the surgeon had to go near the needle to do the biopsy.  It came back negative. Yay.

The missing girl, Leah Freeman's body has been found.  The FBI returned. Every kid who ever knew her has lawyered up.  This will get ugly.  

Time to close July.

G'night folks.

COQUILLE DIARY MAY 2000

COQUILLE DIARY MAY 2000:

5-1:  Went to Myrtle Point to take a look at a 1981 Mazda RX7, 8 miles on a new engine.  1600 bucks.  Tim decided to purchase.

5-2:  Took the Mazda to Coos Bay and found out the hard way NOT to turn on the AC which DOES NOT WORK.  Had to have the Nice Napa man put on a new belt that got burned up.  We then went to eat at Bennetti's a very nice Italian place right downtown.

Last week we drove the Mazda to Shore Acres to tour the gardens. Lovely.

5-10: Ooh maybe I got out just in time.  Heard from a buddy by email in Barrow that ASNA went on a firing spree.  They laid off 34 employees.  8 nurses were canned along with the head nurses secretary.  Art Evangelista was laid off he has been central supply and sterile instruments guy.  He also managed the front desk at night.  Asna fired their own head of personnel.  Helen Simmonds was fired from eye clinic.  She has worked there forEVER. Village services were cut drastically.  There was an article in the Alaska Daily News where in Eben Hopson was explaining that there had been a technical error in the budget.  Uh, decimal space off a couple of digits?  Eesh.

5-15: Finally got the backlog of filing taken care up with the help of the volunteer ladies.  Some of it went back to 1996!!!

Took a quickie three day vacation to Idaho for a quick visit.  Carla met me there and we all had as much fun as possible.

I documented some lyrics all about making chili from a one hundred pound bag of pinto beans.  I re-read the thing and I don't think I will put it here, it is all about food and not even good enough to qualify for Oliver.  More, please.

Good news:  Budget will allow me to purchase two new computers.  Well hooray, we may get nosebleed from the increased speed.

This past week was Gay 90's Celebration.  1890's not the Gay Pride thing.  The usual small town stuff, small parade, high school band tootling away etc.

The weather has been quite warmish, went to Fred Meyer to purchase a couple of box fans.  We usually get a nice evening breeze so it's all good.

Enough for the darling buds of May.
G'night folks.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

I was being my usual late night insomniac self a couple of nights ago.  I asked turned on my Kindle and asked,  "Alexa, play BBC."

The BBC was just at that moment playing a piece on Emmett Till as part of their Black History Month report.  

The new Museum opened in Washington DC not too many months ago.  It is all about Black history in America, the good, the bad and the very ugly.  There is one room that has a replica of Emmett Till in his casket.  His body is represented by a photo taken of him in his open coffin at his funeral in 1955.

Emmett Till was a fourteen year old black kid who was sent down on the railroad from Chicago to visit for the summer with his Uncle.  

They lived in Music, Mississippi.  There was a store in the community that served the black community.  The men were used to sitting on the porch of the store to socialize. The store was owned by a white couple and the man's brother.

One day Emmett apparently whistled at the white woman.  The men sitting there were upset and nervous.  They expected retaliation of some sort.  I don't know why someone did not sent Emmett Till home to Chicago, but even if he had gone I think that someone else in the family may well have been lynched.  At any rate aroud 2 am there was a knock on the door at the uncles house and they took Emmett.  They took him to a barn and pistol whipped him, until his face was unrecognizable then they shot him in the eye with the .45 pistol.  They fixed a one hundred pound cement weight to his neck and threw him into the Talahatchee river.  The body should have never been found.

The body did turn up.  The Sheriff investigated and ordered the body to be buried immediately.  Mamie Till had arrived in the meantime and demanded the body.  The coffin was chained shut.  She took Emmett home.  

The mortician did the best he could, he dressed Emmett in a new nicely pressed suit, he lay in a new coffin with silk lining. The mortician could not do anything about putting his skull back together, it has been shattered in too many pieces.

Mamie could smell the stench of the body three blocks from the church.  She had the coffin remain open for reviewing.  After the services people lined up for four day to view the body.

The two men were tried for murder. There was an all male, all white jury.  The jury took 60 minutes to deliberate.  All of the black people who were lined up against the courthouse wall quietly left when it became clear that there would be no guilty verdict.  The men were acquitted.

A few years later the men were persuaded to tell their story.  They had been acquitted and could not be tried for the same crime again. So they told their story. It was pretty ugly.

I decided to see if there were any songs for Emmett Till. Joan Baez wrote a ballad in 1968.  Emmy Lou Harris wrote one in 2011.  PBS did a documentary in 2003.  There are a couple more songs floating around out there.

There are also plans for Hollywood to tell Emmett Till's story.  I think the story should be told in operatic fashion somewhat like Porgy and Bess. Big sound, big story, fabulous actors.  Until we conquer our beast selves the story bears repeating.  We need to hear this lawful lesson over and over. 

COUPLE THNGS I FORGOT

I forgot to mention a couple things that I did not document from the Bush Diaries.

1.  The stores kept some specialty items for the Filipino population.  One of the most odd to me, was pig uterus with ovaries.  The Filipinos are genius at utilizing offal.  The sample for sale was frozen into a block.  I shuddered and kept on shopping.  Today I decided to Google the item.  Sure enough I found a Video that showed ring like organ meat cut up and frying merrily away.  I would imagine that it would be tough.  There was an abundant amount of red hot peppers sliced up as well.  Ooh chewy and unbelievably tongue blistering HOT!!  

2.  The store also kept Papaya on hand which is wonderful no matter what you do to it.

3.  Remember the Canary Strangler person I talked about in a previous blog?  To recap he was convicted of a burglary or some such and he strangled the household canary because it would not shut up.  He couldn't leave?  Anyway he was here working in the court house and watching porn on the office computer and was fired.  Apparently he had also violated his parole somehow and he disappeared from Barrow.  However, I forgot to mention that he called from Florida wanting his pay check forwarded to him.  Yes, we will get right on that and it will probably be hand delivered by a big officer of the law.  

Only in Barrow, just sayin'.  

COQUILLE DIARY APRIL 2000

COQUILLE DIARY APRIL 2000:

April 1:  Saturday, spent the day dragging stuff out of Tim's office and vacuuming the rug and then the fun really started putting the various components of the computer back in the armoire.  

Tim had gone downstairs and in a few minutes hustled back up yelling, "Quick Jubilee is having more kittens!"  "What!? I will sue the Vet!".  "April Fools!" Cackle, cackle, cackle. 

We had  purchased a long narrow folding table to serve as counterspace and we put a small office fridge beneath the table.
  
Sunday, I experimented with pizza.  I used two rolls of dinner rolls for crust and purchased other stuff on top.  It turned out okay.  

Finally found NPR to listen to on Sunday mornings.  Yay!  I loved to listen to Weekend Edition on KBRW in Barrow.  Then Fran Tate would be on with Jazz Below Zero.

4-18: We had a baby delivered over the weekend.  Mom had no prenatal care, this is a nightmare for the docs but baby boy was healthy.  Mom kept taking Depo-Provera while pregnant.  Guess nothing was wrong with baby.

Heard a beauty of a story at work, all quite true:  Stacy G and her husband purchased a pot belly pig.  She and her husband went to go pick up the pig at the owner's home.  The former owner told them that the pig was house broken and would nudge them when it needed a pee break.  On their way home the pig nudged and they kept driving. The little pig went wee, wee, wee on the way home.  Not too long after that the pig once nudged them again and they decided to stop and give the pig a pee break.  They pulled over and noticed a state trooper parked just a little ways further.  The pig promptly went over to the side of the road and performed it's business.  The new owners called the pig to come and the  pig took off into the field at 60 miles an hour.  The cop almost burned himself with hot coffee from laughing so hard.  Stacy and husband gave up and went home.  Someone suggested they go back and rattle some pig chow in a metal pan.  Nope not worky.  Free piggy!!

4-20: Today we had the rep from Oregon Department of Statistics bring the software to install the electronic birth certificate program.  It works wonderful.

This was in the paper last week.  A chicken ranch was busted in Myrtle Point for cock fighting.  About thirty people scattered into the woods.  What some people won't do for fun??

We subjected ourselves to a used car salesman this last weekend. Looking for a beater for Tim. It was not pleasant.  Got our chops beaten and I got mad and walked out and asked Tim to get the cards so we could leave.  Keep looking.  That was very unpleasant.

Enough for April.

G'night folks

COQUILLE DIARY MARCH 2000

COQUILLE DIARY MARCH 2000:

3-3  Took off for the weekend to drive to Seattle to visit with Carla. She was off loading some furniture and stuff so I said, "Swell and thanky".  I hate refueling in Washington because we have self serve in Oregon and I am spoiled.  So I had to figure out what buttons to push, pump the gas, push button to get inside person to turn ON the pump then schlep into make the payment.  Wah wah wah!

Carla gave me a bookshelf and some books a lot of her copper collection and some linens as well as a large picture. Also given a rug that looks nice in front of the fireplace.  (It tends to crawl and may not last long).  I also shopped at Sears and scored clothing and undies.  

Went to a book shop and purchased a three volume edition of "1000 and one nights" by Sir Richard Burton.  Very interesting. By the time she got through telling all her stories she had born the nasty tempered big guy three sons and begged the king not to kill her as she could only provide a mother's care to the sons.  The king was impressed with  her piety, morality and pardoned her and her family.  I am using the three book volume to hold up a small reading lamp by my chair downstairs, so thematic doncha know.

Got home called Enterprise to come get the car and promptly developed all the wonderful symptoms of a full on upper respiratory infection.  Please pass the Nyquil.

Worky, worky, worky.

3-22: Heard from Monica.  She drove cross country to Virginia and now has a 90 minute commute each way.  Ugh.  She does think it is a fair trade off for the inside commute in Barrow.  Meh..

Work wise: Attempting the budget process.  I have zero control on input it is merely a matter of getting stats from the office and filling in the blanks and estimating how much it will be next year.  Shoot me!!!  Will some please invent Turbo-Budget!?

I requested equipment but that depends entirely on how much bucks are available for stuff like that and it aint' much.  Use it up etc.

We went to Myrtle Point and shopping at Schroeder and Son for some furniture.  We purchased an armoire type desk for the upstairs office and also a Mission style chair for the living room.  It is tobacco colored.  Um, ick name.

3-26:  I watched the King Dome implode in Seattle.  Quite impressive.  Carla drove out somewhere across the water to watch and the seismic activity was very present.  Once the dust cleared all the debris had dropped into a nice neat circle.

Worky, worky worky March.

G/night folks.

COQUILLE DIARY FEB 2000

COQUILLE DIARY FEB 2000:

2-1:  The business office ran a report that says that counts ALL incomplete inpatient and outpatient records is current through the end of December.  That sounds terrible to me but I have been assured that is the best it has been in four year.  Hmmm, okey dokey then.  Good on us.

Got an irate call from a doctor looking for records and states he had to call another doctor's office to obtain them. A little research revealed that the patient actually had two medical record numbers, so I pulled the records from the most recent number and renumbered those records to the older number and left the newer folder in the files stapled shut with a note to refer to the oldest number.  There is only look up by name and date of birth.  

We need to be able to look up by SSN as well. This will help a bit.  The business office gives out new numbers when they cannot look up the record by name and date of birth.  Apparently the master computer nerds at Reedsport can include a SSN lookup but it takes time and money.

2-4: Payday tomorrow will try to make the house payment.  Got the W2 from Barrow and will wrangle Turbo-Tax and get that off in the mail.

Got email from Monica, she is accepting a job with the Coast Guard and will be leaving March and will drive from Seattle to DC.  Ugh.

2-9: Got to do an Oregon birth certificate. Boy baby weighing a whopping 9 lb 4 ounces.

2-12:  Haircut.  Much less expensive than Barrow.

2:14: Tim sent me some flowers and a cute white Teddy bear for Valentine's Day.  Thank you darling man.

Judy Kollen is back to work using a roll of bubble wrap for back support.  I tried a large roll of paper towels with a bungie cord through it to attach to the chair.  Works fairly well.

Edna pulled me aside to tell me that she was going to cut Judy's salary as she was no longer in management.  Sheesh. Fortunately I do not have to deal with budget issues like this.
  
I havw joined the Coquille Public Library.  Nice building next to a large room with a stage that gets used to some gatherings and other things.  There is a gym further down the hall way.  There is an outdoor pool further back.

I am going to go visit Carla this weekend off.  I have three days off with our weird weekend coverage thing. I have let my sewing machine with her all these years in Barrow, time to come for simple sewing projects.

2-29: We had a Leap year baby.  A 26 year old gave birth in the bathroom of a local golf course.  Where ever the baby ends up getting first care does the honors of the BC.  She did not know she was pregnant.  Durrrr.

End of Leap Year February.

G'night folks.

COQUILLE DIARY JANUARY 2000

COQUILLE DIARY JANUARY 2000:

1-3: First day of "work" mostly occupied with a blizzard of paperwork for benefits, insurance, etc. Introduced to about 30 people who I will attempt to learn their names eventually.  So far it's "Nice to meetcha".

1-4:  Coos Bay to pee in a cup. Heard from Judy Kollen she had an MRI and has a ruptured disc and with surgery, will be out for several weeks.  Great.  I will jump in as best I can.  Am learning chart entry, filing etc. There is a huge amount of loose filing mostly labs.  Big drawer full of insurance requests that need to be processed.

1-5: Spent most of the day prioritizing correspondence and copying charts and weeded out requests from the state that that had a minimum of TWO requests for same records.  A little behind, yeah.

1-6;  Telephone folk came to the house and installed two jacks so we be connected.

It rained sideways yesterday, I thought it only rained like that in the tropics, it is sort of a monsoon season hear.  Wet!  I do not see much use of umbrellas, rain coats with hoods, yes.

1-12: Wrangling with transcription.  Getting some part time help.  With Judy out and me tackling the other stuff we are getting behind. 

Tim is thrilled Denny Pizza reopened and they deliver just like in the big cities. The other cool thing I enjoy is that we get our mail delivered to our front door, no more standing in line at the post office.

1-14: Getting the end of the month statistics into some kind of order.  Will have to make corrections in one column.

The medical records department provides coverage for the weekends, the nurses hate to pull records and I don't mind working.  The original idea was to rotate through three positions to cover the weekends but I think I will just work Sat/Sun and cover the week on days where we have meetings that I must attend.

Nice surprise at work. Edna told me that the reason we have a 90 day probationary period is that she can make adjustments in salary.  She is giving me a raise to 14 bucks per hour.  She can't give me much more than that because the other ladies are making between 12 and 13 dollars each and she didn't want me to make a lot more just wanted to recognize the effort I was putting into the job. Thanks!  Extra groceries. Oh and since Judy will be out so long I yam suddenly the manager.  Uh, okay.

Oh I forgot we only get paid once a month. That is a bit of a stretch but I will get used to it.

Going to DMV to take Oregon driver's test.  Yay.

Our Aeron chair finally came, had ordered it in November and now I have a chair at my computer desk.  Comfy.

1-21:  Survived my first CVH medical staff meeting. Started at 7:30 we were served a full breakfast, nice!  Lasted until 9:30.  Interesting discussion held regarding privileges for an acupuncturist.  Much sneering.

Will spend the rest of the week trying to locate discharge charts from Oct, Nov, Dec and get them coded.  There are incomplete charts in the doctors lounge located next to surgery, probably locate them there.  Fortunately the computer system gives me a list, otherwise just shoot me.

Got the list of newborns mailed to the three local newspapers.

Amongst the correspondence is a letter from Oregon Statistics they are offering the same electronic birth certificate program I used in Alaska!  Yes! Sign us up immediately please!

Characters at work.  The lab manager, Doug, is a very tall fellow who when there is no business sleeps in the blood draw chair until the next patient.

I have made new friends at work especially the one who scurried after me to say, "Pst, Royce, your skirt is tucked into your panty hose!"  Oops thanks

Okay time to close January 2000

G'night folks.

BUSH DIARY DECEMBER 1999

BUSH DIARY DECEMBER 1999:

12-11:  Last week in Barrow.  Today at noon Jinky disappeared early for lunch before I could ask about coverage in the department for lunch.  Then Becky asked if I wanted to see Tigger and Pooh before I left.  I said would have to that after work as that I was on duty for lunch

.  Gwen then came in from Pharmacy and said that I should have lunch in commons today. Huh?  Oh goodbye potluck! I was given a nice plaque in the shape of a gold mining pan with my dates of service engraved.  How nice!  I was also given a gift certificate from Sonoma-Williams catalog.  Looks like a big old mixer is in my future! Thanks, guys.

12-14:  Had surprise going away cake.  

12-15: Last day of work in Barrow! I really thought that I might get a little emotional after nine years at the same desk.  Um didn't even work up a golf ball sized throat lump. I have many wonderful memories and will stay in touch here and there for Barrow updates.Lots of hugs.  

Did a last load of wash, tossed a few things, over packed my suit cases and two carry on. Hugged Monica goodbye and taxied to Wiley Post airport to catch my Alaska Airlines flight. All tickety boo until Anchorage,  Had to reschedule flight due to high winds somewhere.  Typical holiday travel crowd.  Oy.  

Had a four hour layover in Portland which had dwindled to half an hour due to same high winds.  All of the luggage made but a toolbox of Tim's which I checked at the last minute.  It eventually showed up 22nd with the handle torn off.  Tim's favorite screw driver was in that thing

Have spent the last few days unpacking boxes previously delivered and deciding where to put stuff.  

I unpacked Anthony's Christmas present.  I got him a PlayHut set of five buildings and four tunnels.  It is set up in the attic.  He will have a blast with it and it folds up very compactly for travel or storage.  I actually ordered it from one of the on flight catalogs from the plane flight. 

We went to Schroeder and Son's to order a computer desk it is a roll top.  Went to Walmart and purchased four bookshelves that fold flat and the shelves drop down, holds lots of books.

12-21 Making fruitcake the kind WITHOUT the icky citron.  Maybe if it were made with orange or lemon zest that might make a difference.  

The guest bedroom is almost ready. I will have to rearrange my chest of drawers which consist of boxes of clothes and junk.

The kids are coming up and will over night in Shasta then finish the trip.  I have food ready to bake and eat eventually.

I met with Edna Cotner who is the Coquille Valley Hospital administrator on the 17th and I was hired. I start January 3.  I was so relieved that I wished everyone Happy Birthday instead of Merry Christmas.  Once I get some training my job will be to get medical staff to fall in love with the medical record department.  I get to train in Reedsport on the softward.  My Salary is 12.50 an hour.  Quite a drop from Barrow but it will make the house payment and buy groceries. 

Christmas was a hoot!  The kids got here and Anthony has four games for the computer and he knows how to put in the CD.  Carolyn and Dell came and stayed overnight on the 24th.  They slept in the little couches.  We ate we gabbed it was very enjoyable.

26th I ran away with the kids to Horsfalls beach, it was gorgeous, the sun was shining, the surf was pounding, the kids took off shoes and waded in the water. The kids left on the 29th and got home safely.

12-30 went to the antique place in North Bend, found a nifty book shop and rounded eight little old books for me.  Tim found a nice coffee table book called, "The Indispensable Cat".

Season's Greetings.