3:43 PM - 22.08.04
Returns
My financial officer came by with the completed paperwork for the people who hadn't been paid for election work around lunch yesterday. Faxed that off and had an e-mail acknowledgement from the accounts payable person within the hour. Imagine all us government drones working through the weekend, It happens a lot more than people think courtesy of the politicians and press who benefit from painting us in such a bad light. Being that I work in both public and private industry I think I have a better understanding of the dynamics than most.
I was talking with the daughter in law, who just had the surgery, this afternoon and there was a case in point. The provincial politicians have gutted funding for public health care over the past decade,crowing about how they were eliminating waste and sloth in public institutions. Uh huh. Now there is so little funding available that patient care has almost become an oxymoron, unless one has an MD who can and will advocate for you. She told me story after story of what she observed in her week in the hospital - one horror after the next and one inequity after the next. Patient abuse by nursing staff who no longer care if they do a good job or not.
One fellow paralysed and on his own who has been unable to eat for a few weeks. Left in soiled diapers for hours on end with open bedsores being reinfected by the neglect. Told it is all in his head and refused any care, although a patient two rooms down with a doctor who is advocating for them is being treated with palliative measures for the pain and is receiving additional tests until what is wrong is determined. When he asked to speak to the doctor, he was told he was forbidden to ask for help. Even though they can't determine what is causing the problem they are going to discharge him tomorrow. He lost his housing just after he was admitted to hospital and was only able to find an apartment that would take him for the beginning of next month. He will be homeless and sick on the streets for the next two weeks. His government support cheque is for $800+ for the month and he has to buy his meds out of that. Which bridge will he be sleeping under tomorrow? I suggested that he might be nudged to call the media since the social worker attached to the hospital claims she can't do anything for him either.
My daughter in law has said she might take a tape recorder down with her when next she goes out for a smoke break (bad I know) so she can capture all the other similar stories. I offered to write them up and put together a letter for her, so she can send it off to whatever politicians or others she chooses. There is always a risk of retaliation when one does that, but silence is consent where the provincial government is concerned. They are demanding the federal government turn over billions of tax dollars that would be untrackable for health care and they are about to call an election using that as their major platform. Here in a province that is about to cull about $9 billion dollars from taxes on the oil and gas producers of this province. In the interim they are insisting that they are going to allow privatization of the the profitable aspects of basic health care to their buddies so that they can skim even more money away from the Albertans who need and have paid through their taxes and resources for those services many times over. End of rant - for now.
It started to rain just after lunch yesterday and continued on until late this morning. Blessed be. Number four son headed out to the mountains for a camping weekend just before the storm broke with a "see you on Monday" comment. The rain cooled everything off wonderfully and the world has suddenly become a brilliant green again. The pain in my spine that has been continuous for the past couple of weeks is completely gone with the washing away of the heat and I can breathe without struggling again. There are nearly 600 forest fires on the west side of the Rockies and it seemed as if all the smoke was being funnelled here. I feel badly that the rain didn't fall on the fires, but I am thankful that it was raining here. I walked over to the grocery store this morning just in a skirt and bunnyhug (kangaroo jacket or hoodie depending on the province or generation one belongs to)with just a mist covering and infusing the community. It felt wonderful. By the time I returned it was pouring down rain again and the cabbie was marvelling at my sundance tree in front of my home. I'm glad someone else appreciates it. Lungs of the earth - trees are - but people keep wanting me to cut mine down because one has to rake up the leaves in fall. Not. Opened the door and realized I could hear the shower running - number four son trying to warm up after a night sleeping in a tent up in the rain in the mountains. I could have told him that but he wouldn't have listened to me anyway. The kittens mobbed the door knowing that groceries mean treat time for them. The cabbie asked about them and I told him they were free to homes that would guarantee them a lot of love and care. Who knows.
Number four son emerged from the shower and I asked him about the keyboard - did he know a way to cobble it together so I could get some of my weekend reports written. I keep all my dat and my information for my timesheets on my personal computer and I couldn't access any of it. Panic was beginning to set in. He showed me how to fix that one wire that didn't have a home - minuscule little spot on the card - and voila back in business. I immediately e-mailed the data to the other computer I use for election work just as a backup. The wire of misery won't stay put so I've used electricians tape to hold it in place for now. I learned how to use a soldering iron a couple of decades ago when I was learning how to work with stained glass. I loved the art but it is extraordinarliy expensive and the chemicals and materials are too dangerous to have around a home full of six curious and active little boys. Anyway I wouldn't risk ruining my computer right now by trying to figure it out. I'll wait til my youngest comes home from looking after the grandbabies - he's a whiz at those kind of tasks.
Have to get my timesheet ready to go and my supervisor asked that tracking the analytical tasks be as precise as possible wo he could take it up with the liaison when she returns - see if she will pay me for the skill level involved. If not ... well I'll deal with that when I hear her response I guess. Who knows maybe this time I'll be treated fairly. When I left on Friday there was a big party going on in the employee lounge. They stock quite a large range of liquors in there along with the juke box, the foosball table, the large screen television et al. It sort of explained why the company asks people to sign their "hosting" policy that is an agreement not to drink to excess on the job. This is the only company I've been in that supplies their workers with such things - at least the permanenet staff. As a consultant I'm not invited to join in. That is a good thing since I've often noted socializing in that manner is not appealing either, it's hard to say no to an employers requests but that would be one I wouldn't hesitate to say so. Given the dynamics in the office it is hard to cope even with every faculty fully functional. I've gained another person now dogging my footstepsas it is. One of the accounting clerks now buzzes into the liaison's office anytime the co-ordinator can't, when I'm in there working on her computer. She just opens and closes every drawer two or ten times until I finally log off and shut it down. I'm really glad the liaison is back tomorrow I'm tired of the stupid games. Maybe now my supervisor will be able to convince her to ensure I have the tools I need to work with instead. If not my resume is now available on both my computers and autumn is usually a good time for finding ne work. We'll see.
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