week's end

Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer. ~Mark Twain

Humor and laughter are essential to easing stress and tension, though in a difficult moment, I have also been overheard forgetting to use my work mouth.

Hopefully I made a tiny bit of difference in a few places this week. Now I have a couple of days to involve myself in things completely unrelated to social work. I love my work (most of the time), but I rather like my weekends and time off, too.

Work is

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. ~Kahlil Gibran

I really meant to meet my goal of a post almost every day. But I got lost in the work for a few days this week. After Monday, I've been trying to locate a new home for everyone living in that group home I mentioned. Plus I still have all my regular work and meetings to make sure other people in other homes or locations are still doing Ok and receiving the supports they need. I am behind on reports and paperwork which is the only thing the bosses look at unless someone complains.

Today I had 9 client meetings at one home with the same professional consultants providing information in each meeting (RN, RD, RT, PT, ST, BACB, QMRP, etc). No lunch, though there were pastries and water. I was very tired and irritable by the time I arrived home.

I love my work. But I am so drained sometimes by the work that I just don't have anything left. I wish that all the service providers loved their work and weren't mostly in it for the money. It would make my job easier and happier.

Monday, Monday...

“When the music changes, so does the dance” ~unknown

I drove out of the garage this morning, got about 6 garage doors away (yeah, I'm a bit slow when I first leave home in the mornings), and realized it felt like I had a flat tire (I did). So I called AAA (30 minute wait), my boss, then checked my voice mail at work. Out of 10 voice mail messages (not too bad for a long weekend), there were two which were very ominous sounding.

Once I was at the office, I called the family who had left the two ominous messages, to discover they had moved their family member home over the weekend. It seems they spoke to their brother at the group home as they do every Saturday he isn't visiting them, and when he was finished he didn't hang up the phone completely. The family listened since the line was open, and heard interactions they never would have suspected from the provider. They eventually taped some of the interactions they overheard. When it became obvious this was not just a one time event they drove to the home to pack up the essentials and get their brother out of there.

Shockingly this is a provider that I would never have imagined would verbally mistreat any of the folks who live in the home (and neither did the family). But they did and not only were they verbally abusive, they were cruel about some of the things they said.

This man with a moderate cognitive disability, OCD, and anxiety disorder has a history of being verbally and physically abused in the past. He is always worried about not doing things right and not doing what he is supposed to be doing. He also just got out of the hospital in the past month after having cancer surgery. These people told him he was a liar, that he was a lot of trouble and he never helped out, and suggested to him that he might need to go back to the hospital if he didn't be quiet and chew his food.

Needless to say, much of my day was concerned with this issue. I was shocked, then really angry. I spoke to one other man in the home and sadly confirmed that this is probably the kind of thing that has been going on for a long time. I am going to find new, hopefully safer, kinder homes for the other three men. No one else will move into this home, ever.

But it worries me on another level. The folks on my caseload frequently can't advocate for themselves. Some of them are non-verbal. If this home which I thought was a good one, was able to fool me and others for so long, what homes can I trust? It is scary.

Unconscious Mutterings Week 426

The power was out for several hours last night for the first time in a very long time (apparently a large tree fell in the park and took out lines and a transformer). It was very strange to be confronted with how much I take for granted about the availability of electricity and what a huge part it plays in my life. It isn't that I didn't know; it's that I seldom think about it.

Anyway-- it came back on. Netflix movie night was saved (The Social Network was our choice this week). And our network, internet access and the satellite were all back up before midnight.

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Recommendation :: I always listen to recommendations; don't always agree, but I always listen
2. Toilet paper :: supply
3. Scissors :: runs with
4. Blaze :: fire
5. Frame :: html
6. Process :: procedure
7. Flight :: booked
8. Irish :: Notre Dame
9. Glasses :: sun
10. Campaign :: contribution

Weekly word list can be found at Unconscious Mutterings

If you know yourself

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War and other Laws of Power (Mobi; Translated from the Chinese by Lionel Giles; Kindle version)

I have discovered many different quotations over the years attributed to Sun Tzu and his treatise The Art Of War, but never actually read it. I discovered it for free on Amazon and downloaded it to my Kindle a few weeks ago. I've been reading through a little at a time during my lunch every few days. I checked and apparently it is no longer available from Amazon to customers in the U.S. I find that odd.

I love my Kindle. In addition to feeding my ongoing addiction to mystery, thriller, paranormal, and romance novels, without causing further storage problems for me, I am thrilled with always having access to books. I would like to build an electronic reference library for myself, but it will take time. I still like the feel of my hard cover books, and for anything that requires a diagram, illustration, or picture for full understanding, a real book is best. But honestly for just reading or even searching, and even for quick reference books, my Kindle rocks.

Monday afternoon storm

Strange clouds, rainbows, and a few minutes after these were taken, there was hail-- very unusual Southern California weather.

rain

This was the view out the window on Sunday. I keep telling myself that we need the rain.

Unconscious Mutterings Week 425

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Jacob :: Black
2. Green :: eyes
3. Cupcake :: Wars
4. Acts :: of treason
5. Thunderous :: sound
6. President :: Obama
7. Anxiety :: provoking
8. Matter :: antimatter
9. Diner :: Diners, Drive-ins and Dives
10. Absence :: does not necessarily make the heart grow fonder

Weekly word list at: Unconscious Mutterings

The way to state the problem

"The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution." ~Bertrand Russell

hmmmmmm..... that sounds true for just about every problem (thinker or no), doesn't it?

If you find the right way to define a problem, the solution is easier to craft or at least begin to see the basic design of the solution. Isn't that the same concept?

Quake/ Plate Activity

I find the earth's movement around the world to be very interesting. I know there are always hundreds of quakes every day. But it certainly looks as if we are in a very active period.
USGS Recent Earthquakes - world wide

Do you have an emergency kit/bag/backpack? I have mine stocked and under my bed. I also have one in my car (and each family member has one). We have a few other supplies stashed in different parts of our home. If I didn't live in a seismically active zone, I'm not sure I would have an emergency kit packed. On the other hand, though I have my emergency kit and my bookcases (and water heater) are attached with straps to the wall studs, I haven't finished putting quake wax and straps on things like televisions, art work, and nick knacks, though I do have the supplies needed to do it.