Aaron's Cruise

My son Aaron is in Fort Benning, GA going to JumpSchool. He had his first jump today. The jump itself was great. He can't wait to do it again. The landing on the other hand was a little rough. He sprained his ankle really bad and may have to stay another week. I miss that kid. I was really looking forward to him coming home Friday.

Aaron and I have always been very close. I feel very responsible for him being involved with ROTC. He wants to be alot like his father. I am in the Army reserves so he is following in my footsteps. He didn't want his mom and dad to have to pay for his college so he tried out for ROTC and won a three year full ride scholarship. That was a nice little windfall. Fortunately the college that he attends, Olivet Nazarene University accepts the scholarship and then covers the room and board that the scholarship doesn't cover. The kid is really blessed.

Speaking of being blessed, he one very devoted Christian. He puts most adults to shame when you compare his spititual life with that of most Christian. He not only lives it at home or at church but also in the Army and every where else he goes. A father could not be more proud of his son than his mother and I are of him. God has truly blessed us. If you have the time say a prayer for Aaron I know he'll appreciate it.

The Techonology Cruise

My buddy, Tony has the really cool phone called Treo 650, that thing is amazing. I will have one of those one day. I have my lap top that I take just about everywhere, but can't really surf without a connection. The Treo is cellular so as long as you have a few bars you are set. Wish I was set.

This technology cruise has been very interesting. It all start for me about 10 years ago when I got my first PC. I lived in a very small town that only had dial up and it had such terrible band with that only a few people could be on at a time. Sometimes you couldn't get on until like 2am. Then there was the speed of the processor. It was so slow that I send you something snail mail it it might get there faster.

Even with all of the draw backs it was still very exciting. I remember using a sevice called VoxPhone to actually talk over the internet. I even talked to people in Australia. It was amazing. No with cable modems and DSL and processors that are 4 or more ghz. It really is vertual. Some of my family members are still in the dark ages and don't even have a computer, I would hate to be without mine. Communications are so much easier. I would venture to say that because of the info highway I have more friends than I ever would have otherwise.

When I go places on my Harley and meet new people, I stay in touch via the internet. I am certain I would not otherwise stay in touch. I talk to people that I have never meet and may never meet but my life is better for it. When I first got my computer, I was a little like Larry the cable guy. That's right I felt like I had just spent $2700.00 on a very expense deck of cards. I spent a lot of time playing solitare and freecell. Now I do so much more. Of course it would be impossible to go to school like I do without useing the internet. I love technology.

The Harley Cruise

My life is pretty much crazy most of the time. Here it is 11:55pm and I just got home form work. I have to be back in at 6:30am. I work hard and I play hard. I have a Harley Road King Custom that I love to ride. I am planning on going to the HOG Ralley in Chattanooga, TN in August if I can find some one to ride with me. You know the riding is going to be great. And the bands are unbelievable. It is going to be one rocking time. Bands include Trick Pony, SteppenWolf, Sister Hazel, Shelly Fairchild, Cowboy Mouth, Jason D. Williams, Mustang Sally, The Rounders, Collins Brothers Band, and No Axident. Ride all day Rock alnight. What a time this is going to be.

If there is anyone out there looking to ride with some one to this ralley please leave me your email. It promises to be a great time. I have been to several HOG ralleys in the past and I have always had a blast.From the rides thru the mountains to the wonderful Rock and Roll.

The amazing thing about HOG ralleys is that everyone there is instantly a friend. HOG or Harley Owner's Group really is like an extended family. I have meet people several different states and I stay in touch with most of them. I have called ahead to a HOG group in Nashville to see if I could hook up with them to go to the National Ralley in Atlanta. I spent the whole weekend with those guys and I still talk to them today. Some of the nicest people in the world ride Harleys.

Ya'll have a wonderful day and remember to keep the shiney side up.

The Work Cruise

Imentioned in my profile that I am a nurse and work for a small Rural Hospital in Indiana as the manager of the surgery department, I love my job. Today was our HFAP survey which made for a very interesting day. HFAP is our accreditation body. Anyway if you have ever been thru this process you will understand how stressful it can be. Today was especially stressful for me because I have only been on the job a month and a half. I was pretty much lost thru out. I was very fortunate to have someone from administration to help out. the process went so somthly that I can't believe I was so stressed.

I have to admit that I wasn't the only one that was stressed. My counter part on Med/Surg was beside herslef. She was really stressed out. But, from what I hear she and her department did great. We do have a great staff and administration. How many times have you ever heard anyone speak well of administration? Not very often I bet. Well it's true, at least where I work.

This is my first attempt at management in the nursing field. I have experience in other fields mainly retail along with owning my own business for a while. People are people no matter what field you are in. There are always personalities to deal with. I am very fortunate to have a very talented staff to work with. What's different is the paper work and all of the regulations that you have to deal with in the healthcare field. There are also numerous reports that have to be generated every month. It is taking some time to get it all down. Fortunately for me the previous manager is still with the organization and has been a great help to me.

Before I took this position I work in a different small rural hospital in Indiana where I was a surgical RN. I had a great shift, I worked three 12 hour shifts. I only had to work Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. I always had a 4 day weekend, who could ask for anything more? I traded those three 12 hour shifts for five of them or so it seems. I know I make less money per hour than I did in my previous position. Sometimes we should be careful of what we ask for. My problem is I find it difficult to leave if a case is still going on. I suppose I'll get over that someday, I hope.

Anybody else out there a nurse?

Nashville Cruise

Well obviously this is my first ever blog so I won't go into that. My Best friend Tony and I decided that since it had been so long since we have seen each other we should meet half way and spend the weekend together. Tony, who some of you may know from Bad Monkey No Banana, lives in Atlanta, GA, I live in Columbus, IN. Seperated by 500 miles. Needless to say we don't get together very often. He is busy with his career and family as I am with mine so it is difficult to find the time for our friendship. It is pretty amazing that we have remained friends for all of these years. There were times in our lives that we were seperated by far more than 500 miles. Tony spent eight years in the military and was shipped over seas and I was terrible about writing letters, but our friendship remains. A tribute to the both of us.

For years Tony and I have talked about going into business together and haven't been able to come up with the perfect plan. Well we think maybe we have come up with something that we both can agree upon. I am a nurse and I am the manager the surgery deparment in a small rural Indiana hospital and Tony is a manager with an international software company. A far cry from each other. But we both think that some type of service entity would be something we could do together, so we are investigating coffee shops as a possibility. So this trip to Nashville is basically two fold. We came here to spend some time together and to scope out coffee shops in the Nashville area.

It has been a very cool trip for me at least. When Tony and I would get together on that rare occasion, we would not talk to much about our past. We both had a tough childhood and we just didn't talk about to much. I look back and I think that was more of Tony's idea, he was really trying to move on because we had a great future ahead of us. Both of us have far exceeded anything that was expected of us growing up. Anyway, on this trip we have talked more about the happier times in our past than we had in of our previous encounters. It has really been an emotionally uplifting trip for me, and I think for Tony as well.

If you have been reading Tony's blog you know about his brother with cancer. This has really hit Tony hard(keep him in your prayers). I have never seen him as depressed as he has been over the past few months. I don't think he has ever felt so helpless in all his life. This in turn has made me feel like I wasn't holding up my end of the friendship. I haven't been able to help at all. So I too have felt very helpless. It is very difficult to sit by and watch someone go thru what he and his family are going thru. I believe this trip has been a God send for both of us.

Here it is the last day of the trip and we are sitting around talking and blogging and I feel very sad. It is always tough for me to leave not knowing when we'll get together again. Tony's friendship has been a blessing in my life and I would hate to think about what it would be like to not have him in my life. This time we are making plans for our next trip. He and I both are interested in Corvettes so our next trip will be to the Corvette museum in Bowling Green, KY.