Kathy Reno

The past couple weekends I have taken my bicycle down to the bike path near Muncie. The weather has been perfect and the path very pleasant, very scenic by north central Indiana standards. The sides of the paths are grown with wildflowers. I recognize Queen Anne’s lace and thistles, but there are others. Beyond them are lush fields of corn and soybeans, incredibly green this time of year.
All the distance I have ridden so far there have been only two rest areas with benches and information kiosks. One is at the geographic center of Delaware County. It is at this spot that the time capsule from 2000 is buried. It is to be opened in the year 2100. The other is beside a bridge over a ditch, a pretty ditch none the less. I thought of Uncle Harald, he says Indiana is the only place he knows that names their ditches. I didn’t see a name for this ditch, but it was a shady spot and the information of the kiosks discussed the ratio by state of train wrecks vs song written about those train wrecks. Indiana had several wrecks, but no songs about them, the same went for Michigan (they wrote all their songs about ship wrecks). Virginia and West Virginia on the other hand had fewer wrecks, but many more songs about them. Again I don’t know the significance of this I just report it.

In my effort to get rid of the stuff that a family collects in twenty five years of living, I am cleaning out the garage and preparing for a yard sale. Each Labor Day weekend our small community has festivities including a town-wide rummage sale. I usually don’t participate, but this year I will reluctantly.

Prior to being able to organize the sale in the garage, I needed to clean it out. Fortunately the temperature has moderated, and it was not too hot. I have just a little to finish tomorrow it will be done. My goal was to have the garage clean this weekend, and still have enough time to get things set up and priced.

So if you have a need for a weight bench and weights, a pogo stick or any of several old VHS videos, come to Upland Labor Day weekend. But be sure and get here early.

There is an interesting article making the email rounds in my circle. Wisdom at Work: The Importance of the Older and Experienced Nurse in the Workplace . I readily agree to the value of the “older and experienced nurse” What I wanted to find out was what they considered “older”. At this point in my life I have been a nurse for thirty years employed fulltime the entire time. Experienced I accept, old is what I wanted defined. Page six of this article “The terms old and older worker continue to be redefined as well. For statistical purposes, older workers are often considered those between the ages of 55 and 64, but the law defines an older worker as anyone 40 or over (40, even my young friends are over 40). The legal definition tallies with a pervasive attitude among many corporate recruiters who consider 40 and up unacceptably old. (unacceptable for what?) Some sources further stratify the group: younger aging worker (ages 45-54), middle aging worker (ages 55-65) and older aging worker (over 65). For the purpose of this paper, the older nurse is considered to be 45 years and up.”

So this paper considers me an older nurse, I prefer “younger aging worker”. This is an interesting point, lets start with the 20-30 year old worker, would they be called “infantile aging worker”?….then maybe “toddler aging workers”. I think I have worked at the VA long enough to appreciate wordy meaningless titles. Of course in the VA these would be IAW, TAW, YAW etc.

But I digress; this article does promote the advantages of the experienced nurse, even at one point referring to us as “sages”. I have had the privilege of working with some sages in my career, but have probably worked with more who can just not afford to retire.

I would like to sum these ramblings up with a lofty thought regarding all this, but I don’t have one, have a good day!

Addendum: I have had this blog written for some time, but I can’t figure out how to link the web address of the article. My brother emailed me instructions, but I still don’t have it. I will try to edit this later when I figure it out. If you really want the web address, contact me and I will get it to you.

This time of year in the mid west that phrase of the song is well illustrated.  The winter wheat has turned golden and the fields are swaying in the breeze.  Most of the corn is up about 18 inches or so, and the beans are getting a good start.  I grew up in Florida and never thought I would be versed in crops;  corn, soybeans, and winter wheat,  yet I thoroughly enjoy watching the seasons come and go.  The fields of color, the greens and golds are quite dramatic.  I believe each geographic area has it’s own beuty.

Welcome, I am starting this blog for a couple reasons, I am oppurtunistic, (my brother is here and offered to set this up for me), I believe that journaling is a good disipline to develope, and some friends and family might find this of interest.  This will be a humble little blog, nothing fancy, just a forum for my thoughts and cares.  I doubt that the masses will find much of interest.   I will start this journey and see where it takes me.