Karla Noyes' Captain's Log Series

Two related lessons: One elderly man I interviewed recently told me: if you’re happy or not is your choice. I experienced this once, Brian was a Cub Scout and I took him to a Pine Car Derby held in the lunch room of a local elementary school. I did not want to be there, I can’t remember why, but I had a black stormy cloud over me. Grumpy, sullen, withdrawn I was standing in the middle of the room, someone had set up a boom box playing the Beach Boys. I scanned the entire room and everyone was having a really terrific time: laughing, smiling, talking, helping. At that moment I made a conscious decision to give in and enjoy myself. It worked. Try it. Another elderly man had to tell me that he has no patience with residents who gripe about the Home. “Go to the entrance, do you see a locked gate? No. You can leave at any time.” If you’re unhappy with your situation, your marriage, your job, your ____. Get out. Take action. Look into the alternatives (you might discover that you’re ...

Lesson 1 The best part of my job is going out to the units, or our hospital, and meeting the members to obtain their signatures on required documents. I met a woman who was out on the terrace of the hospital under an awning smoking a cigarette in the light rain. She’s my age and had been in a minor car accident, with only a broken foot (only.) She’s a good story-teller and relayed the experience. She was driving off campus when she was T-boned by a car leaving the champagne business just outside our facility. The police saw it all, she was taken to the local community hospital (they do all the x-rays, surgeries and fancy stuff), then released back here. She said her life flashed before her eyes, then she wondered “did I tell everyone that I love them?” Well, I’m telling you: I love Y-O-U! For some reason I’m feeling quite content this time of year. Usually I feel that the winter holiday season is imposed upon me, like a burden. I’m supposed to be happy, and I say “Bah, humbug!” ...

I’ll be taking a break from composing these Captain’s Logs. Last week I researched how to write a screen play, then how to write a novel and one of the take-aways was: establish a regular time to write. And since I have to be quiet while Kevin’s sleeping I’ve got this perfect time! Probably 8 hours a weekend. I’m going to use it to finish-up my History of the Blue Wing Inn booklet for publication next fall, complete with photos from other sources. I may need to do some crowd-sourcing for funds to help me get it printed, so you’ll hear from me about that J Work goes well. My office is a zoo but the monkeys are hysterically happy. I admit to becoming a little touchy as my supervisor critiques my presentations. He always has one encouraging thing, like ‘you’re getting better,’ but nit-pics everything else, some of it is useful, like getting rid of ‘ums’ and ‘ahs.’ I can do that. I pride myself on being ‘coachable’ but it turns out I have a bit of a limit (remember, Karla, you love t...

Fire, I hope this isn’t going to be a recurring theme… Last Saturday around 5pm the local utility turned off the electricity to thousands of homes and businesses. For us, they turned it back on Thursday at 2:30pm. Five days without electricity. It wasn’t too much of a hardship, we still had running water, unlike people with wells who need power to run their pumps, and we had natural gas so we had hot showers and hot food. Strange how often I turn to the microwave, and the light switches in the dark. I had my little battery-powered lantern and carried it everywhere with me like Little Red Riding Hood’s basket. We have our battery & solar powered emergency radio, and solar powered battery-pack for charging cell phones. Fortunately, we still had cell phone coverage - our emergency communication device (as long as the cell towers have power) - my only tether to the outside world. We received our best news from one or two Facebook groups that offered links to emergency and information...

“Come now, luxuriant Graces, and beautiful-haired Muses.” Sapphos This month we had two executives appointed by our governor: Administrator, and Deputy Administrator. I attended the swearing in ceremony. The crowd was exuberant in their appreciation. The administrator is the colonel I wrote about previously (“No… sir!) and has been acting administrator for 4 months. She had been coming into our office and high-fiving everyone; she announces herself loudly, “Hello, People!” She usually does this on Fridays for sure, when we’re wearing our themed clothing (purple, pink, superheroes, cartoon characters or rock concert T-shirts) but I think her schedule is full and she missed us Friday, or, well, we missed her. I don’t have any experience with the deputy administrator, except that she, too, is retired army, something like the highest rank for a non-commissioned officer? Since this is a political appointment the governor could have put absolutely anyone in these positions, former mili...

This week a 90-year old woman came in the office on her little scooter, frail, dejected and rather grey, like a wilted flower. She had been getting calls from Social Security threatening to cut her off. Her case manager listened to her with sympathy (and nothing else.) I was thinking “Scam!” the case manager in the cubicle behind her, said sotto voce “Scam.” Finally, the really loud, and very friendly, woman in our office went up to her and told her she was being preyed on by scammers, and not to give any information to anyone over the phone. “Remember when Henry passed, Social Security did everything by mail.” She left, still wilted and frail. The next day she wheeled in, very bright, full, smiling and loudly announced she’d gotten a call from someone who said there was a warrant out for her arrest! She was tickled pink that someone thought she’d done something to be arrested for. She left us quietly chortling and proud. (and wary of scammers) You may know that our electric compa...

Work's going well enough. My supervisor and his wife trained dogs for competitive obstacle courses and I think it's influenced his management style - in a good way. Yesterday he laid out a plan for the things I'm expected to become proficient in, with a time-line. It's a relief to see a written plan so we all know the expectations. My concern is that he has slid me into data entry of outside medical invoices and it's incredibly time consuming (and not the best use of my skills, except for 'attention to detail') but I gave the responsibility back to him when I asked him to prioritize what he wants done and when. I'm happy to apply my time wherever he wants and he can experience what is doable. I like him a lot. I think he's one of the best manager I've had and I think his experience training dogs contributes to his effectiveness. He hasn't slipped me any doggy treats, yet. I brought my penny collection (pennies taped to paper sorted by y...