The bugs are moving

Since I have been getting so into taking photos of bugs over the past year, I decided to stop putting them on this blog and give them their own. I have tried to be discreet and inoffensive and put only the cute bugs in this blog but even so, maybe some people think all bugs are yucky, ugly or scary. On my new Bugs R Cool blog, where the title forewarns the visitor, I can put all of my bug shots, even the picture of the creepy garden crustacean that Jacob found this summer. And besides, what do they have to do with my oft used phrase "such is life?" So hop on over...if you dare.

More than odd

It is almost one thirty in the morning and I am at work. I don't mind announcing that because my paperwork duties are done and I must stay awake for several more hours. It is quiet here, finally, with my evening patients all tucked in, and I can hear if one of them happens to get up. I consider myself lucky and/or blessed to have a job that allows me to work evening shift, 3 pm to 11 pm. It suits me to a T. Staying over to work a night shift is pushing things a bit, but I can handle it occasionally. I generally prefer to work with patients who have situational problems, but lately I have been on a unit where most of the patients are psychotic. Psychosis is an interesting phenomenon. I suppose the most common type of psychosis is what is commonly referred to as "voices." Maybe the next most prevalent, at least here now, is delusions. I can still quote the definition that I learned in nursing school: "Fixed false beliefs that cannot be changed by reason or logic." Back when I was a home health nurse and visited a delusional patient regularly, one whom I could not cure or even help, I decided that delusions may be developed as a twisted way to serve some useful purpose. Sometimes a demented person may see things that aren't really there. Manics can develop such an exaggerated sense of their own importance that they become totally off the wall. And there is of course paranoia and delirium that may be from something physical gone awry or the improper use of medications. Bizarre thinking results in bizarre behaviors. I can help take care of these folks by helping to meet some of their basic needs and see that they are kept safe, but I can't fix them. There are some good antipsychotic medications now, and if they are effective, they still may not cure but can ease the disturbances in the mind.

Aptly named

I love the billowy cosmos flowers but had never considered where its name could have come from until today. See all the stars in the center? It looks like an explosion of suns in the sky. Wikipedia included this in its definition of the cosmos: "Pythagoras is said to have been the first philosopher to apply the term cosmos to the Universe, perhaps from application to the starry firmament."

Tete a tete

These little bugs were socializing vertically on a zinnia stem. To see them more clearly, I rotated the picture making it appear as if they were horizontal.

If you live long enough

...you can eventually get Medicare. Mine kicks in today. It would be nice to believe that I will never need it, but probability says one of these days, I will. I am grateful it may be there for me, and I know it covers plenty of legitimate medical expenses, but on the flip side, I think Medicare is one of many good ideas gone bad, partly bad at least. No doubt as soon as it was in place, there were dishonorable people figuring out how to take advantage of it. It quickly became a system riddled by fraud and abuse, sad to say. As a nurse I see all kinds of people, and I have noticed that a fairly good percentage want anything and everything they can get for free whether it is a medical test or an extra cookie and then show no appreciation. I am clueing in to the idea that dependency begets dependency, and perhaps dependency on Uncle Sam for providing us "healthcare" as we get older takes away some of our responsibility for caring for ourselves. At work we were collecting school supplies for disadvantaged children. A few years ago I would have jumped at the chance to pitch in but this time I gave it more thought. Will it foster dependency and take away initiative? Starting Medicare is good news to me; it's an American milestone and a privilege. I hope to use it with responsibility and gratitude.