With all the rain we've had, it had to happen. Rainbows. Two of them. For a little while Thursday evening it was dark and cloudy out back of the house and blue sky/sunny in the front. It was like one of those weird sci-fi movies. Then the sky got all yellowish, (I kept thinking "oh my god, we're going to get a tornado!") but instead we got these beauties. I've seen double rainbows before but never so clear and bright and complete. It's too bad the electrical wires are in the way. Our development dates back to before they buried the wires. It was wonderous and we stood outside for a long time admiring the beauty. Kate took these photos.

That was a lovely way to end a crappy day. They are rennovating the offices on the second floor of my building and we have to move to other spaces to get out of the way. We spent the past two weeks packing up and cleaning out our stuff. After 14 years I have accumulated lots of stuff. Some of it is good resource material and some was just trash. On Tuesday I will go to this tiny little office that I will share with my current office mate until June 4th or so. It's a good thing he and I get along or we'd kill each other in this small space. That wasn't the crappy part . I taught a Crisis Mgmt class and it went well. I really couldn't take part fully because my incisions are still healing and a tad tender. I did most of the talking and made sure everyone got the holds and defenses down. Even that wasn't crappy. What was crappy was at the end of the day, my supervisor asked me to come in and sit down. She looked a little embarassed but told me that I was not allowed to knit during any functions in the building because "it is not professional". Apparently at a recent managers meeting, someone mentioned that they had witnessed me engaged in subversive activities (ie knitting) and it was very unprofessional. Now, I do not knit in meetings or with clients or in supervision. I just happened to be attending a VOLUNTARY presentation on diversity and took some knitting. I sat quietly and unobtrusively working on a pair of socks. Evidently, someone else who was there was offended and I have been told not to knit at work. It was just one more way they are trying to take the joy out of the work. When I started to work for this agency, the role model they espoused was that of the Good Samaritan (Take care of him and I will take care of thee) and they used to give out lapel pins with that on them in orientation. Since we were bought by a large health system, the motto is "what's the bottom line?" and "what's in it for us?". It's all about the money. It depresses me sometimes because I can see the difference. We are a community mental health agency and as such should have a heart and celebrate individuals, both staff and clients, in all their diverse glory. Sadly, we do not. So, from this day forward, I will knit on the train and if the weather is nice I will knit in the small park behind the building at lunch (if I can get away) but not during any other time. I won't be able to introduce colleagues who have asked to the joys of handknitted socks unless it is after working hours. It really bummed me out yesterday.






And today I got up early and went to the radiology place to have my tests. I found out I could only have one test, the CT scan because they both require barium ingestion and they both use different kinds of barium gunk. I was feeling stressed and said, fine. I tried to drink the white, chalky, orange flavored liquid and I even used a straw but it made me gag. I managed to get enough down to have the test. I am not scheduling the other tests in case this one shows enough and makes the others unnecessary. I am not drinking any more gunk than I have to. The doctor and I will talk on May 29th and discuss the test.




But today a miracle occured. On April 29th, Kate mailed the prize package that Amy Lane won in the blogiversary contest. I waited anxiously to hear that it had arrived but it seemed to be lost somewhere between here and California. I was preparing to put together an alternate package and send it out this weekend when the mailman told me he had a package for me that had "come back". I knew without seeing it what it was. It was the box I sent out three weeks ago. It had gone to California and back! I inadvertently put the wrong street name on it (I blame the post surgery drugs) and even though it had the correct town and name on it, the postal service couldn't figure out who it should go to. So, they sent it 3,000 miles back to me. It looked like it had been kicked by angry camels but the contents all seemed to be intact, except for one tiny bit that got broken but it's ok. I took everything to the UPS store and boxed it up and sent it right back out with the correct address. UPS said they would have it there in a week. (Well, June 2 but that's because it's a holiday weekend here). They also said they would have kept it in California and contacted me and asked about the address before sending it all the way back. That would seem to make more sense.



So now with the test out of the way and the grocery shopping completed, I have only to do the laundry and swap out the winter clothes for the summer ones. It still might be premature as the temp was only 48 degrees (8 C) last night. Not what we're used to at the end of May. We are going to take a picnic on Sunday if the weather holds and just have some lazy days.

Amy lane tagged me with a meme but I'll wait until next time as I have already rambled on enough for one night.


If Memorial Day is one of your holidays, I wish you a peaceful one. We should all spare a thought or two for the young (and they are so very young) men and women we have lost in this most impossible of all possible wars.