Catching up on a few things

This will be a mish-mash; all snapshots are from a waterfront walk last Sunday.

Let's see...I had a nice catch-up dinner with my "old" work gang a week and a half ago: the two who retired last year, plus the remaining co-worker who has been there almost as long as I have. (There's less than two months between the time I started and the time she started, so we're the old guard, so to speak.). We call ourselves the "Fab Four" and even when we're all retired, we'll still be calling ourselves that. I couldn't have had a better group of co-workers.

I've been having lots of "firsts" this year (and of course not always in good ways), but more recently I've started having acupuncture, and now this coming week I'll be going for osteopathy for an ongoing ear/jaw issue that my family doctor clinic can't help with. I had chiropractic adjustments years ago, after a car accident, but this will be the first time I've had osteopathy. The clinic was highly recommended by my naturopath, and I do have a bit of coverage via my work health plan which will help, given that osteopathy does not seem to be one of the medical expenses you can claim on your taxes in Canada. Certainly it's not on the CRA list! Anyway I'll be interested to see how things go. 

Below: The boat is flying the Nova Scotia flag (click to enlarge), something I didn't notice until I downloaded the pics from my camera. I smiled when I saw that, a reminder of my east coast past.

On the work front, well, that's less than good news. Everyone is facing mandatory budget cut-backs for the next three fiscal years, and since our department (two units in one) spends over 90% of its budget on salaries, you can do the math for yourselves. I don't know how it will play out: unpaid vacation time, salary cut-backs with no extra time off, layoffs, other? We spend a lot of money for a particular data platform and we could save that if we switched to Microsoft's platform, which already is included in the university license. (There would be huge upfront costs to switch of course, in time and money, but it would save in the long run.) It's up in the air at the moment, but apparently our exec director and the exec director of the other unit have to come up with a working plan by August 30th. If I were a few years older I could take early retirement, but I can't swing that right now. Anyway, I'm sure things will work out in the end, whatever that looks like. Hey, maybe they'd buy me out to the tune of four years' salary and benefits. Ha! (That still would be early retirement, a savings in the long-run!)

Below is a private residence. I know it used to be apartments, not sure if it still is or if it's condos now. The grounds are very well kept. I'd love to see inside!

Below: I managed to catch a muskrat before s/he dove under the water to escape the annoying human with the camera.

On a final note, my dad, who was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in February, was taken to the hospital early yesterday morning, via ambulance. He had not been feeling well for a few days, had been having chest pains off and on. Not a heart attack. His cardiologist thinks that Dad has a blockage, so Dad remains in the hospital while waiting for an angiogram. I just spoke with him, he sounded like his usual self, which was encouraging. Things were very chaotic yesterday, of course, and I didn't really know what was going on. I don't think Dad and his wife did, either. He's not critical, otherwise they'd have rushed the testing (all his other tests were fine, to my knowledge), but he can't go home, either. He does have a private room; he told me all the rooms on the cardiology floor are private. I had no idea private rooms were even available anymore, given the state of our healthcare. He didn't get much rest last night in spite of the "privacy," though, since hospitals are noisy at any hour and apparently nurses were taking his blood every three hours all night long. Jeepers. I suggested he ask for a sleeping pill tonight.

Anyway, I hope he won't have to wait long for the angiogram, and any procedure/operation after that. A stent, perhaps? 

This has been a crazy year.