(or, "Special Weather Statement in Effect Until Further Notice)
This is the view out my bedroom window this morning. This has been the view out my bedroom most mornings during the month of July. Our region has been "blessed" with near-daily thundershowers -- total rainfalls are in the double-digits -- and so, flash floods and dampened spirits have been epidemic for what is beginning to seem like forever.
Long-time readers, all three of you, may remember that this is the time of year when the stress level at my job switches from "easily forgotten with a glass of wine at dinner" to "please-please-please-don't-let-me-kill-any-body-this-week." It's the time when the summer institute I am in charge of goes live, and my colleagues and I play host to adult students from across the country for a month of (their) professional development. Since enrollment is less than half of its usual 40-some participants (a statistic that brings its own stressors), one might be tempted to believe that things would go fairly smoothly this time around. Alas, one would be rudely shaken from that belief when, a week in to the Institute, the phone rings just before noon on a Sunday with the news that a participant is in the local emergency room with what may be congestive heart failure.
Luckily, that participant is back in class and doing well, her diet being closely watched by her classmates who won't let her within 50 yards of a salt shaker to avoid further fluid retention.
A fairly uneventful week was then followed by the sight of a participant limping in to the classroom with a request to be taken to the infirmary. Crutches and RICE therapy have gotten him almost fully mobile a week later.
The phone message that was waiting for me this past Monday, though, informed me that another participant was in the hospital, this time with a possible TIA (aka, mini-stroke). After two days they discharged her with the okay to return to her already restricted "normal" activities (she suffers from a seizure disorder).
By this time, I'm thinking that running a camp for 200 high school wrestlers would be a piece of cake compared to overseeing my 20 mostly-middle-aged educators, but that position's not vacant so I'm stuck here until August. 2.
I guess one bright spot is that the weather forced cancellation of that canoe trip thingy I always dread.
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Ahem...as one of your three readers, I have to point out that these traumas of Nature, ambulatory associates and avoided death by drowning, have at least brought you back to these pages...and that is a good thing for the three of us, methinks ;-)
ReplyDeleteLove the photograph, btw.
ReplyDeleteMethinks I agree with Jadedj. :)
ReplyDeletestick with the educators.... wrestlers bring their own traumas. and dramas!! sounds like a wild week so far. hang in there. what are you doing to them, anyway?!!
here in Niagara we are having staggering humidity with fairly thunderstorm commercials ... tough going so far. your image looks much lovelier than my window view.
nice to see you posting....
JJ, glad my photo made an impression ;-)
ReplyDeleteI will make a sincere effort to resume blogging once this ordeal is over. I'm sure I still have something to say.
Harlequin, thanks - I think I will just look for a job that doesn't involve taking care of anyone but myself. Or one where I am being taken care of!
Bah! As the third reader I say YOU should become a professional wrestler and put all this mamby pamby business behind you. I can see it now... and in this corner, Professor Wench, the Bubbaville Brawler.
ReplyDeleteIt is raining (again) in western Maine as I write. The medical problems you are witnessing may speak to the stress that career educators constantly carry in their jobs.
ReplyDeleteI was in the military for two decades; but the daily pressures and stress I encountered as a teacher and principal made the military seem mild by comparison.
the Ol'Buzzard
I, too, like the rainy screen pixelated photo. I don't like canoes or the water they occasionally tip into all that much, so I'm with you on cheering the cancellation.
ReplyDeleteMr. C, I'll take that under consideration. After I sleep for about a month....
ReplyDelete'Buzz, there may be something to that. Last week, though, one of our speakers talked about the importance of self-care, and I hope the folks take that to heart. I know I will!
Doug, I myself enjoy the water, but not being responsible for the safety of others in it! And not when thunderstorms can crop up at any moment!
So far I see 5 Readers.
ReplyDeleteI reckon that means i cannot comment.
Stay Well. and
only go to ER when called
by the management.
Punch, your comment is always awaited with great anticipation. I have one last week of this "fun" and then I'm giving myself a mental health break.
DeleteIt is said(by whom, I have no clue)that trouble comes in threes, so you should be over it. Obviously that number doesn't apply to readers.
ReplyDelete