02:09 - 11.09.06
cirses
It was a bit of a down day today dear diary. First up the neighbours were fighting again. Yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs. Both appeared sober although that might be a relative term. There were their own children plus a number of other neighbourhood children playing out in their front yard. All of them were likely under seven years old. The two of them came roaring out of the house around noon. One struck the other although I couldn't tell from the sound who had done what. I had noticed earlier another very large branch from my sundance tree had fallen to the ground. There are so many that have done that that I'm beginning to wonde if a human has interfered with the tree since we haven't had any major wind storms for a while. I usually wait until sunset to go drag them in to the compost area in the backyard, but I wanted to interrupt the scene next door without a direct confrontation. Called my youngest up from his cleaning efforts downstairs. The two of us stepped out of the front door as though we weren't awre of anything unusual. He went over to where the tree limb was stuck in our hedge and hauled it toward the back gate. The neighbours stopped their caterwauling right away. I think they believed they were invisible to everyone else as long as no one was within eyesight. The fact that there were a half dozen or more little people frozen in their tracks, all looking frightened out on their front lawn didn't seem to count for anything. I had the phone in my hand where it couldn't be easily seen. If my youngest's act hadn't worked I would have had to decide whether to summon the police based on my guess at the risk to the children. Since physical violence had already been seen it was hard to judge how out of control the two might have become. Not certain how to address the situation yet but if it continues much longer some intervention will have to happen.
Later in the day one of my staff called to add some information to their personnel profile. Got to talking about their regular work situation. They have an administrator on staff who is so insecure that they undermine every other staff member who might shine otherwise. The person calling is one of the most humble people I know. If they are finding this person's behaviour over bearing and frustrating then there is good reason to assume that the administator is abusing their authority. They are even as far as going into the other staff's computer records to alter data to support the administrator's stories. We talked for a while on possible approaches that the rest of the staff might take as a team so that they aren't isolated and bullied out of their jobs one at a time. Something that the bully seems to be skilled at doing. I told them my tales of woe from some of the work places I had been and one person's face kept cropping up in my mind. The perfumed co-worker from last assignment. I'm not certain why that particular person would be more similar to my staff person's tormentor but obviously some corner of my mind picked up a match. Don't know.
After supper as my youngest was heading out to another movie date, the friend whose son died a month ago called. She started to talk about a shared work problem but it soon became apparent that she just needed to work through some of her grief. She described her son's last days at the hospital in detail right up to when he expired while she talked with him. Next she talked about his funeral and the impact it had on each person who attended. A lot of tears interspersed of course. She hadn't realized that I had worked in a hospital but I think that when I told her about that it might have made it easier for her to replay some of the more difficult moments and I suppose that was a good thing. At this stage the fact she can talk so openly about it and cry freely are very good signs. She apologized for being so emotional but I just noted that I would have been a lot more concerned about her well-being if she hadn't cried. Why wouldn't she? I'm glad she trusted me to confide in but I must admit I was pretty wiped out by the time we said good night. Not quite two hours and I'm guessing that the crying didn't stop for quite some time after that. The worst part is that none of the medical staff can explain what it was that killed him. Over the months that his condition deteriorated he was given a different diagnosis almost daily sometimes delivered to him with no compassion or preparation with some background to help him absorb what was being said. Just a very sad story.
My self-care? Watched a couple of Disney movies, one Will Smith movie and surfed the Harry Potter fan sites for a short term escape. Found a couple of interesting interviews of some of the actors - the new Luna Lovegood and the big three. How come the Australian media are getting all the interviews? Anyway the other comfort were our cats. They clustered round and all wanted to cuddle at the same time. During the phone call with my bereaved friend it was all that kept me focused on her needs. All five of the cats were presenting their bellies to be rubbed all posing with as muchpathos and coyness as they could muster. I think now though that sleep is the other healer I need. Good night dear diary.
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