Return to WiFi

Well, it's been a minute.  What have we been up to since leaving Houston? 

First night, Sanger, TX.  No internet connection, but they had Alpacas!  Who wouldn't trade a wireless internet connection for some cute alpacas.  That let me make jokes about the coming alpacalips. 

Oh yeah, this rig moves. 

Wagon Master RV park.  You just knew a sunken wagon wheel would be somewhere.

Storm clouds heralding the ALPACALIPS!

The next night, we were in Oklahoma.  We stopped at one of our favorite old standby places: Firelake Casino.  They let you stay free for up to three nights with a player's card.  It is just a strip area at the back of the parking lot with an electric and water connection, but you can't beat the price.  Until this time anyway.  Apparently they are under new management.  It is now the Grand Casino and they charge $50 a night for a space in a parking lot surrounded by semi trucks and without sewer hook ups.  $50 a night is more than I paid at Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon.  They should just change it into a regular parking lot, no one is staying there at that rate. 

So, we moved over to the Shawnee Expo Center.  Much cheaper, quieter and prettier. 

And we got to get some visiting done.  My sister lives halfway between Shawnee and OKC.  Mom came down, we had a great time. 

Beautiful sister and her horse friends.

Stinkin' horses.  Don't ask.

Awww. ain't she cute.

The boys found a ready made fort.

Sarah and Nana in deep conversation

We were sad to leave all our family behind, but starting to shake off the lethargy and get a little excited about an adventure again. 

Then we hit Kansas.  And the wind. 

And...well, I'm sorry to say this Kansas, but every time I have ever stayed in Kansas, that is Eldorado, Assaria and now Russell, it has smelled strongly of poo.  Cow poo, to be exact.  Not exactly a ringing endorsement.  Sorry. 

Reminiscent of the 1920's.  Still smelled of poo.

Blowing the kids around.

They advertise for miles and miles, then it's closed with a for sale sign in front.  What have they done with the world's largest prairie dog?

Oh yeah, and no internet connection.  I actually had to interact with my family.  Gross. 

So today we drove on.  We headed west until we finally hit it.

We found a tiny campground called Shady Acres WiFi campground.  Did they have wifi?  You betcha!  So you guys get a blog post. 

We took the kids to a park.  I even got in a run, although I forgot to bring some oxygen.  It is 4700 feet here and I couldn't find any lying around. 

And we finally get to fill a gaping hole we have been after for a few years. 

Done

That's it. 

For a while at least, I get to put down the nursing hat and become a traveler.  Usually the best part of this job.  Hopefully that will entail getting back to writing about things and taking pretty pictures and whatnot.  This contract has been about doctor's visits and dentists and car tags and mortgage stuff, but mostly soaking in the presence of family.  That isn't very glamorous or exciting all the time, but it is essential. 

And now we move on.  We will be taking on one of our trademark once in a lifetime country road trips.  Seems we have done several of these once in a lifetime dealies, might want to rename them I guess.  This one will cover 2500 miles over a couple of weeks and should have some pretty scenery and unexpected somethings. 

So, what did we do in Houston?

I replaced a toilet.

New shiny toilet.  YAAAYYY!

Old gross, broken toilet.  BOOOO!

I'll spare you all the gory details...for now.  MWAHAHAHAHAAAAA.


The kids played..

 

There was school work to be done.

Working on reading.

Working on the latest results from the CERN collider. 

We rescued a very friendly frog.

Oh yeah, there was this wedding thing too.

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Aren't they a good looking bunch. 

We did some of that Zombie Jesus Day stuff too.

But most of Houston looked like this...

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program. 

Closing in on the end of Houston

We are getting close to the end of our time here in Houston.  It can't come soon enough.  This place does something to me.

I want to write, I don't.  At least not much.  Heck, my post count here is abysmal and I usually really enjoy keeping up the blog.

I want to run, I don't.  I signed up for a marathon and I haven't been running much at all.  I don't like to do it near this, the horrible RV park.  There is a park near Sarah's parent's house, but I find little joy in running on a flat oval sidewalk lap after lap. 

I want to take pictures.  I love the camera and finding a great, or even good, shot, is a blast, but I don't find much to photograph here that isn't depressing. 

This place just sucks the soul right out of me.  Instead of finding reasons to do things and go places, I find myself making more excuses to not do things and go places.  This place is toxic I think.  I am beginning to believe that those who live here have become so used to the toxicity that they no longer even recognize it.  It is like the frog in the gradually boiling water. 

But venting about it really isn't going to do anyone any good.  So, I just remind myself.  Two weeks. 

Then we head out, to wherever. 

Hopefully an announcement to follow.

Gone with the Wynns

Well, it turns out Sarah and I have been featured on the website of the fine folks at Gone with the Wynns in their, "Make Money and Travel." section.  This is where they tell show different ways people make a living while making a life on the road.  They run a very interesting website where you can learn a lot about the RV lifestyle.  You can see more...

Here

Unfortunately we will be getting more traffic in something of a lull in our adventures.  Still, welcome aboard and thanks for stopping by.  If you are interested in the nursing profession as a traveler, please feel free to send me an email and I can send you a rough copy of an article I am working on about how to be a travel nurse.  I think it is a good article, so I am going to try to sell it somewhere before I release it to the general public.  If you are interested though, drop me a line. 

Email

I'm in the middle of a work stretch and those 12 hour shifts keep me from blogging much.  Thanks for stopping by. 

Just a little something to think about.

A neat intersection of ideas today.  While I was out for a run (Woohoo!  I went for a run.  Yaaay me!) I was listening to a podcast from You Are Not So Smart.  This is a neat program/website/book series where a guy named David McRaney.  He investigates the multiple ways in which we delude ourselves.  He interviews people who are doing research in that area of psychology and puts together an occasional podcast.  This one was about the power of narrative.  So, of course, I was interested.  What happened though is that I stuck on one fact and found myself thinking more about this one fact than listening to the podcast.  That's fine though, it will still be there next time. 

The other thing that happened was a call from my recruiter at the travel nursing company.  I had written a fairly extensive article about travel nursing and wanted to see if she had any feedback that might be useful.  She told me she loved the article and wondered what I was going to do with it.  She asked me when I had found time, with two kids, a job, a blog and all of the other obligations of a modern life, to write anything. 

Hell, I didn't have it in me to tell her I am finishing up a book about our first few years travel nursing and starting a novel length fiction work.  I did tell her about the article I sold to the RV magazine though.  I was bragging, I admit it. 

Now, back to that first point, the one from the podcast. 

Did you know that the TV series Lost had 121 one hour episodes?  Breaking Bad had 62.  Dexter had 96.  If you watched all three of those series ( I watched Breaking Bad, my hypocrisy only goes so far.) that totals up to 250 hours or so if you count commercials. 

Damn.

It takes 120 or so credit hours to complete a bachelor's degree.  30 more for a master's.  Now, I know that isn't taking into account study time or travel time or whatever other commitments it takes to achieve that education, but damn.  That was only three shows.  Add in a couple more and you have a pretty good college education.  Or a new skill, or language.  Or maybe just a better understanding of the world around you.  Or...

Or whatever you want. 

I'm not perfect.  Tonight, I didn't feel like doing anything.  When we got home from Grandma and Papa's house I was tired and pretty much done.  So I mixed a drink and watched two hours of Hoarders.  Far from perfect. 

But I don't watch much TV and if I find I have something I want to do that will take a time commitment, I know the first thing that will be sacrificed to do it. 

Just living, and keeping busy

Not a lot to report here.  And I hate reporting that there is not a lot to report. 

Just living.  I am currently sucking as a runner and doing reasonably well as a writer.  I am at least getting some things done.  Unfortunately not as a blogger though. 

On the up side, Sarah's sister Rachel is going to watch the kids next weekend giving Sarah and I a rare date night opportunity.  On the not so up side, this is such a rare thing that we have no idea what to do. 

I don't know, what do you want to do?

We both decided we would go for a long hike or something to that effect if we were somewhere else.  Guess that doesn't help much here. 

The one thing that Houston does have in spades is good restaurants.  My waistline is showing it too.  Did I mention I have sucked lately as a runner?  Still going for a marathon this year. 

Wish me luck.

Another weekend at work...

Another pediatric code.  Dang, this is way too regular.  I have equaled my career total of pediatric codes in the past two weeks.

This one was a little different though, we never had a chance.  The only reason it even came into our ER was because a child was involved.  That makes it a bit easier to take, I think.  To fight is to become emotionally invested.  Just going through the motions on the outside chance something startling happens doesn't require much emotion.  Just a numb sadness.  Or perhaps, as Papa likes to say, my sensory strunods have been numbnetized.

After it was called I went back out to my other three patients.  One has a heart rate of 30-35, one is a large man freaked out on PCP and one has a toothache.  Yeah.

Can you guess which one was more demanding?

I've noticed a correlation.  If it is a true emergency, nobody cares how long it takes.  Nobody cares.  Just please do whatever you have to do to make it right.  It is the non-emergency that is demanding things hurry up.  Why is this taking so long?  Can't you see that I am in pain?  10/10 pain!

And as ridiculous as that seems when compared to the other patients, you can't let that get to you.  You have to try to remember that their pain is the most important thing in the world to them, or they likely wouldn't be here.

It's hard though, sometimes.  I don't care if you brought your mom.  I don't care if ibuprofen doesn't work for you.  I am devoting more time to you than a patient that has a legitimate risk of dying...tonight.

And if I don't smile, and don't show enough concern, they fill out a survey and I get in trouble.

Don't worry.  I smiled, I effectively demonstrated my compassion while expressing as effectively as I could why they weren't getting admitted and sedated for their toothache. 

It is amazing to me how much can happen in one 12 hour random ER shift. I have thought about writing one, but I don't think people would believe it who weren't ER nurses.

You know that feeling you get on a Friday after a busy work week?  Hell yeah!  I made it!  I get that after every shift.  I am always a little surprised I and at least most of my patients survived and nobody got fired.

So, I'm taking a couple days off.  Maybe I'll post up about how I fixed my toilet next.  Give everybody a break and talk about a different type of crap.