Shadows

The past week has been virus heaven. I went to two meetings at work which indeed might have been two meetings too many. Glad to be teaching online for I could work for a couple of hours and then take a two hour nap and then start the cycle all over again. Finally beginning to feel like "me" is coming back.

One day during this episode the view out the window was interesting. 

I thought the long shadows cast by the midday sun were interesting.

Looking forward to February. I learned in a meteorology course that February 15 is good day in Minnesota.  I mentioned that once in a group and someone asked if that is because chocolate is on sale that day. Well, that's a second good reason. The first is that February 15 marks the time when enough sun is back that is statistically impossible to keep an outdoor ice rink frozen.

Views out the Window 2

The views were basically only out the window this weekend. I've encountered some sort of respiratory crud.

The thing remarkable about this picture is that I took it about 5:30 (17:30) pm. Hey! the daylight is coming back.

Meanwhile I've been reading the papers from students in my health policy class. They have been writing their analysis of our present health care system and their role as an advanced practice nurse in making it better. I'm so very proud of their ideas and their growth in only two weeks.

I'm also teaching a Graduate Nursing Informatics class. My students are all in our Entry Level MSN program. This is a program for persons with a degree in another field who now want to be a nurse. They have to write a reflective paper on how knowledge is built from facts and data. I've only read two of those papers, (they aren't due until February 1), but I'm knocked out at what they are doing in their clinical situations. One wrote about caring for an 83 year old woman who everyone thought was displaying dementia which her repeated attempts to get out bed and then falling. After three hours with this patient, this student went to her supervising nurse with the idea that the woman was displaying the confusion associated with urinary tract infections in the elderly. Further clinical evaluation proved this hunch was correct. We teach geriatric nursing-- few programs do this in depth as does this program -- and I can see having nurses out there who think like these students is definitely going to make a difference.

There is often a perception that online classes are impersonal. I think the opposite -- I get to know students' ideas and aspirations better because I hear from all of them -- not just those brave enough to speak in class.

Views out the Window

A busy week is coming to an end! I did at least 24 hours on Wednesday and Thursday alone with meetings and classes for the entire day and then reading and evaluating student papers for another 2-3 hours.

A long dental appointment filled this morning -- with much annoyance on my part. I was there for 90 minutes, that included a 45 minute period just sitting in the dental chair waiting for someone to have time to start the procedure I needed. I was handed a magazine to help me occupy my time -- a magazine that under normal circumstances I'd never buy or read -- one of those women's magazines that is nothing but a huge set of advertisements for cosmetics, etc.

I am a health professional so perhaps this all aggravates me more. We have a system that operates to maximize the system, rather than really trying to deliver services that meet people's needs. This wait was not due to another person needing services for a dental emergency or anything like that -- it is was due to the belief that the time of the dental professionals is more valuable than the time of the patients they serve.

Wednesday included a class that started at 4:00 (16:00 for my European readers) and continued to 5:40 PM. I happened to look out the window and thought the late afternoon view was quite beautiful.

The above view is out of one of the classrooms in the library. The white expanse is the roof of the attached public library which is a one story building. This is an unusual partnership. When the new library was built for our university, it included space for a public library branch. This brought public library services into an area of the city that was really lacking access.

We see in the background St. John's Hall. St. John's is an unusual name for a public university. The name is attached to the fact that this building was originally St. John's Hospital. I used to have an office in this building with a window looking towards the library. I truly enjoyed seeing the parade of people, both adults and children, everyday walking down the sidewalk to the public library.

We are in the very coldest days of winter -- and we are truly having winter this  year in Minnesota, after several years of milder winters. The snow falls and temperatures are like I remember from the 1980s, temperatures and snowfall that are surprise to younger people, who if they remember these conditions, remember them from the perspective of how much fun they had on snow days.

I gauge the weather now by looking out the window across to the bluff and seeing how much steam is coming out of the chimney for the hospice across the way. I enjoy this view every morning too because the rising sun turns the building a beautiful coral color.

This hospice is for persons who do not have health insurance. And speaking of hospice -- interesting data from a Health Reform Roundtable I attended at the University of Minnesota. The Kaiser Permanente system on the West Coast has 10 million participants. Data from this system now shows that persons with late stages of cancer who go on to receive standard treatment such as chemo or radiation live 29 days fewer than persons who simply enter hospice -- not to mention also the difference in quality of life provided in hospice care.

And part of the morning view is usually a train. The main switching yard is about 4 miles away. A train comes in and stops and waits for clearance into the switch yard. Stopping along the track that is out my window keeps the trains far enough away from tripping off all the signal lights and barriers.

So life is moving along.

Ongoing Adventures

Life is just humming along quickly, without anything special, unless we take the viewpoint that everything is special. I appreciate being reminded about this through my friend's blog: http://pacificrimphotography.blogspot.com

My university classes are buzzing along. I have two sections of the same course which are heavy front-loaded with content and learning products. Reading the papers and responding to the questions for these two sections is more than keeping me busy. Committee meetings are running full speed now too.

I got my granddaughter a Ipod Shuffle and my computer is not cooperating with that, so there's a problem to solve. Actually the Apple Store will help. We went there on Sunday. My granddaughter said I should take my computer along. She was both right and wrong. They would have helped, but we might have had to wait for two hours. I can make an appointment and go back another time without having too wait for very long.

Snow and cold continue to be challenges. We are heading into what is forecast as the coldest winter weather we will have. The always come in January when the northern latitudes have cooled about as much they can, and soon the longer days will be bring more sun and warming.

February 15 is one of my favorite days. Someone said, "Because that's when the Valentine's chocolate goes on sale?" Well that's  a good reason, but what first put it on my schedule is that's the day when it statistically becomes impossible to keep an outdoor ice rink frozen for skating.

So nothing remarkable -- yet perhaps everything is remarkable.



 

Computer Adventures

Got my computer back and found out the problems was caused -- not cured -- by virus software!  Who knew this could be a problem! Very glad to have it back because it works much better than the old one!

Two 12 hours days have me down. 

Expensive Adventures

For some reason my computer started having fits last night. It started putting up complaints about an unrecognized USB device, then the resolution would change, and then it would go into hibernation. This mystified me for I wasn't using anything new.

I took the computer to the Geek Squad this morning. That's blessing of being in Minnesota, although now that Best Buy owns Geek Squad perhaps it is more available in other parts of the country. The diagnosis and repair on this will not be cheap. We decided too to protect what's on the hard drive by copying it to an external hard drive, so I had to pay for that too. Needed to get that going anyway.

In another ten days I'm back to the dental office to get a permanent crown. Even though I have dental insurance, I still have a big co-pay on a crown.

And I have to get two new tires for the car too. Have to think about when to make that appointment.

Oh, January will be expensive.

Searching Adventures

In a couple of weeks I will participate in a session about being a Global Volunteer for participants at a Center for Lifelong Learning here in the Twin Cities. Today was a planning session for this. Every year at Zakopane we are presented with a fabulous powerpoint show prepared by one of the Polish teachers. I could find the CD for 2008 and 2009, but not the one for 2010. Also missing is my pink alarm clock. The pink alarm clock has traveled the world with me and I have a sentimental attachment for it. So I went on a search for both items, by searching through what has become some very messy containers of teaching materials related to my Poland volunteering.

Here's the pile that came out of the closet. But I never found the 2010 CD nor the pink alarm clock. I even went through all the pockets of suitcases I had in Europe last year -- nothing. I cannot imagine where these two things went.

I tried to modify the 2008 CD and damaged it, but the 2009 CD still works.

Oh well, the teaching materials got sorted out. I was reminded of a photo project I intended to do. There is a modified Bingo game called Community JINGO. The items are things such as city hall, power plant, and resale store. I had intended to take photos of those things to use before doing the game. So when the weather becomes more favorable I'll go out for some photo shoots. And it's only 4 months from today until I'll be in Poland for the program of teaching English in village schools.