Work stuff

The temporary assignment has become a grind with three hours on the road every day and a steady stream of distressed people we lock in, medicate, and move on in rapid fire fashion. The bed is filled as soon as I empty it. The outpatient resources are swamped, so my daily nightmare is trying to assemble some kind of support system for people discharging back into the circumstances that made them sick in the first place. It can feel futile. But I'm generalizing and being dramatic. You can still make some kind of difference by connecting with the person. People do find some relief. You just have to prioritize doing so somewhere in between all the documentation and the million mostly fruitless phone calls. 

I've reclaimed five of the ten pounds I'd recently lost and pretty much stopped my walking during the week. Drive, work, drive, sleep. I could do better if I was motivated, but there is something to be said for going slower. 

The night before last, traffic onto the highway was blocked after a dog walker spotted a body in the river. Snow and ice melt revelation. Turns out it was a guy who leapt off a bridge to evade the police last Fall in a city several miles upriver. 

I'll be off to Texarkana for a week or two to train the staff in the ER there soon. Looking forward to a little motion. Vaccinated and ready to go forth, with a mask and minimal contact of course. The minimal contact part has become easy.