In Writing! in Everyday Ramblings

All the flowers in this hill front garden are leaning left towards the sun. Right now it is warm, hazy and, sadly, humid. I love the warmth of summer, long for it the rest of the year. But I forget about the bugs.

And the spiders! They seem to be everywhere and early this year. I had a scary looking one in my bathroom sink this morning and I admit to trying to drown it while wishing it an auspicious rebirth. That didn’t work so I pondered and finally managed to get it in a jar and out the door to hopefully a happy and fulfilling next chapter in its arachnoid life.

I don’t know if you all remember but I had a rash across my belly a few years ago that I thought was the return of the dreaded Shingles only to have it biopsied and find out it was sourced from a spider bite.

I listened to this interview the other night with a Canadian scientist who studies bees, Laurence Paker that you can read or listen to here . With all the dire news about bees I have been confused because I see them everywhere.

He has helped me understand the broad outline of bee categories and what they do and how. The book is sadly not available at my library so I may get an electronic version though I have been having price aversion to e-books lately. More than half of our honeybees in the US go to California each year to pollinate the pollen crop.

Wow.

My oldest sister is having a talk at her P-Patch (Community Garden) later this month about bees. I hope she can get to it. Her very slow healing continues. Kes is going to go spend the weekend after next with her so my niece can work a few ridiculously long shifts and earn a little extra money.

I had a remarkable caregiver in class, just for a half hour on Tuesday. We worked on releasing the tension in her neck. She is tiny and bright and funny, lives rurally and has 4 boys under ten. One of them has cancer. We don’t call the class “Yoga”, we call it Gentle Movement and Relaxation because that is in fact what we do in there.

My coordinator still thinks there is more I can do to encourage participation but she backed off some and hopefully I can just relax a bit and do my thing. She is going to see about letting me talk to the unit nurses but was not optimistic because they are always so pressed for time.

My new boss sent me my review this morning. It took me about a half hour to get up the courage to read it. It is fabulous! I was kind of stunned. The first line is “In spite of many obstacles Noko's project was a huge success.”

And I got an E (for Exceeds) on Teamwork and Collaboration. I have always had a Needs Work on that one in seven years on this job. So this is a breakthrough. He acknowledges all the work I put in for the transition from Pacifica to St. Joe.

I will still be working under the new salary caps, which means my pay is basically frozen until I retire but at least it is writing that the project that I worked so hard on with so much irrational resistance is a success. We are kind of like department rock stars to the rest of the community right now, which is a welcome change.

What a relief to have the effort formally acknowledged. I admit I danced around a little after I read it.