Experimenting with eggs

What a great gift! Mary Lynn gave me these eggs from her farm on Friday, and I have had fun baking with them. The brown egg is from a chicken. The big white one is from a goose. It has a hard shell and a huge yolk and is equal to about three chicken eggs. The smaller white one is a duck egg. The whites of duck eggs are supposed to have more protein and make a higher meringue, which I haven't tried yet, and make a richer cake than chicken eggs. I have made a quiche and two small cakes using the goose and duck eggs, all of which were really good. The chicken eggs are for breakfast. One of my favorite things - good eggs.

Finished

Tonight at 11:30 when I hear the recorded female voice say, "Clock out recorded," that will be it. My so called "Retirement" will officially begin. When you come to the end, it is amazing how short the time seems to have been. (I have learned that is true for most things.) But when I was going through it day after day after day, I wondered if it would ever be over, and when I entered my sixties, would I ever reach my goal of leaving it all behind at sixty-five and half. Now with this afternoon's shift ahead of me - my last - I can say I made it! There is no easy nursing work, and even a calm day can erupt into a crisis at any moment. Many days however, especially several difficult ones in a row, have left me exhausted, and I am not going to miss the tired legs that came with them. What I will miss is the actual work. What is at the core of the work? I was pondering this and my answer is...timing. Knowing, and listening, and having the antennae up at all times like a mother tending to her babies are all necessary, but putting them together to make it run smoothly? Timing. The days that have given me the most personal satisfaction are the ones in which I used the art of timing with an individual or the group at large to reach positive results. (If I could only adapt that sense to the rest of my life!) It has been a good run. I have finished the course, and am ever so thankful for all I have experienced and learned.

Disorganized and tangential

It has always been interesting to get a glimpse into the thinking of one of my patients. Not too long ago, a middle aged female wrote this, and I could see how one thought connected to another in a way that is different from a person who does not have a thought disorder.

"Today is a sad day. I miss my family. I need to get back to chores for family and friends. That'll be the day when you say bye. That'll be the day when you say good-bye. You swore you'd never leave me but that is a lie - I swear I waited all day for you to prepare - I wish that you could understand the trouble I go to Congressman, Preacher, Press and also the Mayor. I could move up to North Carolina but why should I run because that doesn't satisfy me only true facts. Understand and Faith and also love is the best."

The Yard Sale

The yard sale went well. When I got to Mary Lynn's about 7:30, still fairly dark, her husband was already driving sale items that were loaded in the trailer attached to his John Deere down to the slope in front of their house. It was much colder than I expected, and I continued to freeze much of the day. That's what I get for not checking the weather. The sleepy sun crawled out of bed eventually but never did reach its full warming potential as far as I was concerned. Overall however, I can't complain. It was a lovely day to be outside and greeting strangers, some of whom were kind enough to pay a glad penny for my discards. One thing I was glad to see go was a heavy upright carpet cleaner I bought a couple of years ago that had frustrated me to no end. I couldn't figure the darned thing out. The instructions were imprinted in the clear plastic parts and even with my strongest glasses I could not read them. It seemed as if some jokester Chinese factory worker was playing a trick on me. After spotting it from the street, one couple came to inspect. It didn't take long for them to do some of the same manual gymnastics with it as I had. I offered them to just take it and figure it out at home, but being principled and wanting a trade, they wouldn't dream of it. Eventually they paid the five dollars and I loaded it in their truck. Whew! Maybe Mary Lynn's most interesting giveaway was her roosters. An older man who was milling around looking at stuff heard crowing in the background, and I assume asked if the noise was coming from her roosters. Yes indeed, and they were just what he needed. Into a box and covered with a dark tarp, off they went to torment some new hens. The biggest ticket item I sold was Trip's hot dog steamer and after subtracting that, I made about fifty dollars, about enough for a visit to the Japanese steak house.

Peeling the Onion

Since this weekend is expected to have good weather, I am planning on participating in a garage sale at the home of someone who lives in an area better for garage saling than I. Amazingly I am still finding belongings I can part with. Who would have thought I had so much stuff after weeks, months, years of paring down and simplifying. So far anything that was decent has been donated or given, but now maybe I will make a few bucks. If not, it should be another interesting study in human behavior.

During the purging process, the outer layer of less useful and less sentimental stuff went first, but now I am down to things I have liked but see no sense in taking with me. And I find that it has been easier to say good bye to newer items than the old things that have sweet memories attached to them or represent an era in my lifetime or personal history. Our possessions can validate us and tell stories about who we are.

When I was in my twenties and lived in a busy neighborhood with other young families, we all held a huge, well organized two day garage sale. When it was over and we had collected our money - I think I made about $100 - we all squandered much of it on a restaurant at a Japanese steakhouse. Even though I later regretted selling some of my stuff, it was a fun time.

This time I am hoping for sunny skies, the ability to get up at the crack of dawn, and people who think I have cool enough stuff to help me keep peeling to the center of that onion.