Green World

There was frost on the grass this morning.  I hope the lilacs made it.  Lilacs are my favorite flowers, but I don't have any. Actually, I now have one bush of white lilacs, planted by the utility company as recompense after they destroyed my back yard.  They have a legal easement to clear the area under the lines, but they went crazy.  I actually cried.  They cut down a 100-year old magnolia and a third of the peach trees.  They met with Jay the day before and asked him what to do, and then they did the exact opposite.  "You made my wife cry." Jay told them.

So now we have some scraggly azaleas and a little white lilac bush, doing its damnedest.
A long desultory week at work.  Even though I don't have very many patients, I find myself utterly exhausted.  Partly, it's anger.  I have a friend who works at the VA.  The precautions they're taking are so much more sensible--and it's not like they're hiding them.  They're available to the public.  262 pages of really gripping stuff...

The Magical University of Paloma Hospital.  Where viruses have to abide by OUR rules. Take that, you disobedient thing! Science, schmience.

I had a bit of a snit over the fact the screeners aren't wearing PPE.  You can't have too much of a snit.  Too much gets you noticed.  I just quietly requested the screener put on a mask and gloves before touching me.  She's one of our lovely front desk women.  "I'm a cess-pit" I laughed.  I printed off the latest from the NEJM, on the possibility of airborne transmission (not peer reviewed by any means--but worthy of a nod, I think), left it laying around.  One of our administrators is in the hospital on a vent, but they're saying it's not COVID 19. Nice woman. Single parent. Religious.  Black. Has an autistic kid who shines with care and love. Has a boyfriend who is a professional bass player.  Last Monday she was walking through the halls, nodding and smiling.  Now she's reportedly on dialysis and can't breathe.  She has a rare gift with difficult patients, a saint's touch.  She could find the human thread in an impossible knot of a problem (not that I get into too many of those--but although I mean well, I am privileged, white and stodgy, so I occasionally bang my shins on this, God help me).

Well, that's my half-hour.  Be well.