Close Meditations of a Visual Kind

( I had a title for this, really I did... )

Another selection which may make it into the Mirror Theme for NCFPC next month. I'd been thinking of what word I wanted to describe the scene as I see it, and it floated into my mind as I started the process of prepping for upload. Since I didn't make a note of it then, it promptly floated right on out of my head without waiting or so much as a by your leave.

Not a great day at Hospital, not a bad one at least for me.

( Mirror, Mirror )

Today's entry is preparation work for next month's Camera Club competition. I'm embarking on another experiment here, to provide you folks with time to kick me some on whether the image works or not. Camera Club allows me to enter a total of six photos into the critique/competition: 2 in Colour, 2 in Monochrome, and 2 in Creative (Non-photo-realistic). The theme for next month is 'Mirror', looking to get both the reflecting surface and the subject reflected into the photograph.

For folk around where I live, the Spring Equinox is only a week or so back. However, for my friends in the antipodes, that same celestial event marked the Autumn Equinox.

( So, For My Friends In The Antipodes... )

It is an Autumn photo.

Houdini's life is about to get... discombobulated. No, nothing bad. It's my work schedule. I'm no longer on a 'perfect' Monday through Friday schedule. Hospital does not close for weekends, evenings, or nights, nor holidays. So OR must be staffed for those times as well. This coming Saturday and the next I'll be working Evenings, 15:00 to 23:30. Lest there be (shhhhhhh, whispers) overtime this means I get a different day off. This week, it is tomorrow. Next week, it is Wednesday.

Houdini's life will no longer fit cleanly into his Human goes away for five days, and stays home for two.

( George & the Boys, Reprise )

Not sure which number in succession this one is, since I use that title for the Mt. Rushmore Memorial rather a lot. Summer evening '07. Taken while on the road and getting close, we went for dinner and to watch the summertime lighting ceremony.

That would be today's connection to Flickr, rather than the subject of the photograph.

( Swallows Silhouette )

Swallows on their nesting box, overlooking a salt marsh on the inland side of the dunes at Sandy Neck, Massachusetts. The nesting boxes are part of a study into territorial behavior of this particular species of swallow. I used one of my older telephotos for the shot, in manual mode and not recalling shutter speed or f-stop. Doesn't matter, I rather like the silhouette.

Hospital, specifically the OR where I am once again practicing Nursing, shifted the start times forward by a half hour today. First Case in Room is still 08:00, but our clock-in time is now 07:00 rather than 07:30. A full team Shift Report is also re-instated. This might not seem like much for a lot of folks in Nursing, as most units do a full team Shift Report. Keep in mind, though, that most units are looking at maybe 20 people sitting in that report.

There are 26 OR's in North Tower. That's an RN and a Surgical Tech (or in a good handful of rooms these days, two RN's) per room, plus a dozen or so PST (Patient Service Techs) and Anesthesia Techs each, so we're up to 76 people crammed into our Staff Lounge. Not quite so crowded/cozy in South Tower with only 12 OR's.

Still, starting earlier also means finishing earlier. Today that provided time enough to swing across campus and deliver a CD of proofs to Doozer, then stop for Kitteh of Apocalypse kibbles on the way to Williston to pick up more Kid Milk Replacer. This got me home to teh Ranch a wee bit later than 'normal' for the old quitting time.