Family and Photos

I finally finished restoring the photo for the elderly gentleman in the group home. The original picture, a tiny 2" x 3" black and white photo was very badly damaged and stained. What I saw in that small photo was a loving family enjoying a warm day in a typical backyard. The parents are grouped close, facing each other with the little boy in the middle being held by his father. The toddler has such an engaging smile while being embraced by his parents. There is the cat caught up in this family moment, patiently being hugged by the little boy. I restored and enlarged this picture to an 8 x 10 and made it in sepia tones. We framed it and gave it to him as a Christmas gift.
When we first found the picture I was real motivated to restore the picture. I thought the gentleman would have a nice picture to remember his parents by but when I first showed him the tiny picture I was surprised that he did not have any idea who the people were in the picture. Even after telling him who they are and pointing out each person, all he said was that’s nice. The photo had no memory for him, no relevance for him. I started to wonder why I should bother to fix it up but since I started I decided to see it to the end. I guess I was looking for some big emotional payoff where he would see a special moment in his family life and have that connection with his parents and when it didn’t happen I was a bit disappointed.
I had to look at it differently. How do my memories work when I look through old photos? That was the point. I have lots of references; I have lots of family to tell me the stories behind the pictures even if I don’t remember. I can add their memories to my own and have that connection to each photo. The gentleman remembers his mom not that young woman in the photo but as the tiny bent old lady whose creased face would smile up at him from her bed in the nursing home. He recognizes photos of this mother. His dad had passed away long ago and we have only this one picture of him. It is sad that there are so few family pictures that he can reflect on and no close relatives to remember with. There is no thread that connects him from his youth through to adult years.
I can show him that one photo and he can see he did have a devoted family, that he was loved and well cared for. We can talk about what he remembers, helping him keep that precious family connection with his memories. He will have that tiny thread that links him with his past.

The Happenings

Since the last post the following has happened: We hit a young bear on the way to pick up a door for my brother - no damage to the truck (1989 Dodge Ram) and couldn't find the bear afterwards (think it ran back into the woods), my Dad went in for brain surgery for a tumour 1st and was out by 5th of December, we missed my sister in laws birthday but were able to celebrate it this past weekend, non stop Christmas shopping for the gang (8 Residents plus their families) at the group home and still in the process of preparing for the group home Christmas Party. I'm trying to finish several photo's including the one I uploaded here. It is of the Irish Brigade's statue from Gettysburg. Note the weird streak of light on the right side and the little blue orb on the left side near the bronze dog. In the series of photo's of this statue this is the only one that has that anomaly.

By the way if you click on the title it will bring you to my brother's website. He has 3 new Border Collies for sale, one of which is a brown (rare I'm told) coated one. All are extremely cute, intelligent and ready to find new homes.

Sleep, I defy the very word sleep.

The Fridge and the Photos

We had our usual weekly mandatory meeting and it was fairly straightforward. I was starting to feel that maybe things are turning around. Then the supervisor says “I don’t want to open up a can of worms but…” Right away your imagination goes wild. Not to be cynical but sometimes management comes out with an idea and you wonder if they are in the same reality as you are. What the supervisor was referring to were the photos we had on the group home fridge. The pressing issue that has apparently have captured the imagination of this group of supervisors is the presentation of group home fridge art. Our fridge has a large collection of magnets, photos, and several months at a glance sheets filled with activities, milk bag cutters and the week’s current menu. Sure it’s cluttered, but it seems to sum us up pretty well. It’s the center of activity. Life seems to revolve around our fridge. The supervisor questioned why there were pictures of staff’s family pinned up and not many pictures of the people who live there. In fact there were two pictures of children and two pictures of pets, the rest were a mixture of group home pictures. It was a reminder of home. When you work the afternoon shift you miss a great deal of your family’s life. It’s nice to have a little bit of home in the midst of working in our other home. In the office there was a selection our favourite pictures of the Residents that has since been relocated to the fridge. Even on the office door there is a group picture of all of us wearing Toronto Maple Leaf jerseys in a group portrait. The kind of thing you would hope to find in a group home where there is a sense of true sharing.
I don’t know why this has irked me so much. I do have a couple of theories some of which include being turned into automatons. Was the point of this to have a certain picture ratio? Does it go deeper than that or is it all about appearances? Is it just micromanagment gone wild?
We have since removed our pictures.

New Puppies

For all those Border Collie lovers, please check out my brother’s website (click on the Title and it will bring you to the site). He has 3 puppies for sale – 2 females and 1 male. All cute as a button and as you can see my nephew is in the process of acclimatizing the puppies to children. I have a Border Collie (same sire, different dam) from one of the litters and I wouldn't trade him for all the gold in Fort Knox (although I had second thoughts when he got skunked - he does listen to me when I yell for him to run from the stinky kitty). Lincoln's newest trick is to wait until the Leafs score during the hockey game so he can run back and forth trying to catch the laser light. He's real smart and very playful but like me enjoys long naps in front of the TV. I have no doubt that these puppies will bring lots of love and joy to any family lucky enough to get one.

Working Weekends

I’m not going to get into the politics of the decision of management to change our work schedule in the group home. There is so much of it that I wouldn’t know where to begin.
We haven’t had to work weekends in the last 11 years and it seemed like the one perk that made everything worthwhile. You could have a real break from the gang and come back refreshed and ready to tackle anything. I have to point out that those who choose to work in a group home setting sacrifice certain things that most people don’t think twice of, so having the weekends off was a way of keeping things in balance. And now it’s gone. I have been using my vacation on the weekends so I would be spared working the weekends. It has come to the point were I can no longer do that. So here is my first impression of what it is like to work weekends again.
The alarm went off Saturday morning. Not being a morning person my body said ‘Stop you are going insane, this is not right, it’s too early to be awake’. My mind on the other hand said basically the same thing. I tried not to be grumpy but as I was getting ready I heard the snippiness that spewed out of my mouth. It was near impossible to stop. I decided not to talk for a while because of the venom that was frothing behind my teeth. After a hearty breakfast of a half a sandwich I went to work. Our Part time person, Sarah had worked the same schedule as me and was displaying the same lack of energy so we decided to have a quiet day. Luckily some of the gang were already up and dressed, thanks to the Overnight person helping out before she left for the day. The rest of the people were assisted in their routines along the way. I can’t tell you the order of what happened because it seems very jumbled up now. I’m not a coffee drinker at all but there was one point when I noticed that my eyes were fixed on the page writing I was doing. I had zoned out. My face had that slack jawed look and at the same time Sarah walked by and announced that coffee was needed. We did a brunch and sometime around that time Sarah went out for a Timmy’s coffee, taking some of the guys out for the ride. I noticed that both Sarah and myself finished the coffee in record time. With a caffeine boost I managed to finish off the shift. I wish I could have been more upbeat, less tired and more energetic for the gang but it’s not going to happen on my weekends. I’m not sure how I will continue with this schedule. It’s not that you can slowly get used to it. So many things happen during the week that can add that extra layer work so when it comes to the weekend the work doesn’t disappear. Management wants consistency over the weekends, what they are getting instead is staff that are burning out quicker.

Halloween Ontario

What a night. I had finally decided to do a vampire theme for Halloween. In the last two weeks I have dragged family and friends out to the usual Halloween stores looking for bits and pieces of ghoulish items. The Value Village is always a good place to find cheap clothing and they do carry a cheap line of Halloween costumes. We found a cheesy batman cape that we used for one of our vampires but missed out on picking up black-feathered wings. We worked from morning till dusk and still weren’t quite finished when the first trick and treaters were tapping on our door. It was an unusually mild night and we had only between 150 to 160 kids come by. Tomorrow is the real horror as the task of putting all the props away begins.

A Little Sceptical But Trying

Work has been a bit of a trail and triumph. I finally got caught up on a tiny portion of the paperwork but the machinations of management are more than a little frustrating. The meetings are going smoother but even what was supposed to be a ‘Oh there’s nothing to update you on’ turned out to be ‘Here’s a list of new things you must do, and we are changing things to a far more complicated way but not yet’ type of meeting. I keep saying to myself that I will not speak up, not stir the pot then like an out of body experience I watch myself opening my mouth and questioning the wisdom of management. That is the kind of thing makes a short meeting quite long. My only suggestion to the supervisor was if you are going to change certain things that affect the group home and it’s staff make sure that it will work in a practical manner.
It brings me back to that topic of partnership and what it truly means. Strangely last week we had one meeting all about teamwork. Part of it was a survey trying to discover what we thought about our team, how did we work as a team and so on and it was supposedly anonymous. The second half of the meeting the team had to write out then discuss what types of workshops would we like to see implemented to help promote teamwork and what are the barriers that prevent teamwork. The wording was rich with implications. It didn’t seem to include the supervisors, managers and all the powers that be above them in that part of the equation You didn’t want to give pat answers, you wanted to say something that would have an impact for the better. You want your voice heard. Say you had a poor work team there you are sitting in front of everyone speaking about workshops that the team should have. How do you answer, is it communication skills, is it information sharing is it one staff not pulling their weight? Maybe it’s not your immediate team that you’re thinking of when you answer but how the organization works as a team. I think what management wants to hear are suggestions for your immediate team because it is something they think they can fix, everything else is just to big. Under the gun and with the supervisor watching us, we furiously wrote our answers to those two questions. Then each of us had to read out loud what we had written and all of us had to discuss each of the answers. The supervisor wrote down whatever was pertinent and commented on our commentaries. Then we hand in the anonymous survey and our written opinions. The supervisor puts it all into an envelope and tucks it into her briefcase. Luckily we have a strong team that values our different approaches and whatever comes from this survey our team has already explored and probed relentlessly what we do and how we do it as a team.

Closing up the Cottage

It’s hard to close up the cottage for the winter. The cottage itself is somewhat rustic, with the odd creature comforts such as running water. On the other hand the water is lake temperature and hot water is heated on the stove if you must have it. There is an outhouse a walk away from the cottage no comfort there but it does have a water tap and a basin. I think it is the quietness of the place that I enjoy. At night, the absence of sound is somewhat is startling. Except that lone mosquito that seems to be buzzing right near your head when you’re trying to sleep. I’ve gone on mosquito hunting excursions in my cabin, armed with a flashlight and bare hands I would follow that bug until it’s whine has been silenced. Nobody bothers to turn the TV on except late at night and the radio is mainly used for weather reports. I get to read when I’m there. That is a luxury that when I’m in the city I just don’t have the time for. Sticking your feet in the water and just staring out across the lake, letting thoughts skip around with abandon. Helping out with the ongoing projects, which I should do more of but if it involves a ladder I just can’t get up the nerve. Here I am conjuring up images and memories wishing we could make just one more trip up north. On the last boat trip back to the landing where the truck is parked the waves were horrendous and for the first time I was actually worried that we were going to be swamped by the waves. The weather in the fall is so unpredictable that it is too chancy for another trip across the lake. I guess the closest I’ll get to the cottage until the springtime is a desktop picture of the lake.

Happy Birthday Dad

We are celebrating Dad’s birthday today!!! I found a poem on the net (link is in the title) and it just seemed to fit Dad.
Happy Birthday Dad
Love
Karen

On the Edge of Burnout

I have been experience some work burnout lately. In a job that has built in stressors sometimes it’s the little things that are overwhelming. I have always worked with adults with the more difficult or severe conditions and that means more challenges. Our gang is getting older and more prone to the negative side of aging. More physical work, more paperwork, added responsibilities and less support all contribute to a difficult work situation. I would love to get on my soapbox and explain what downsizing and budget cuts can do to a group home. When it happens in a business there are all sorts of articles in the paper on the net explaining how it affects the typical worker, their family even the community. When it happens to a group home the effects are magnified because it’s not just the worker that is put through the stress but it affects the care and the quality of life of the people living in the group home. As a counsellor you have to pick up on the extra work and responsibilities so the people in your care do not suffer.
So here I am at home after a long day at work. Jangled nerves and an eye twitch after dealing with yet another outburst from one of the gang is more typical than not. Trying to unwind by listening to Podcasts and playing online games is the norm. A few days off is what is needed and I’m trying not to feel guilty of leaving my co-workers a staff down. I will be going up north with some of my family to close up the cottage and to take many pictures of the fall colours as a necessary medicine to combat work fatigue.

The Photo's Memory

I have been trying to restore an old photo for someone in the group home. A fellow staff person found this old 2-x3 inch old black and white photo on the floor in one of the bedrooms. It is stained, wrinkled and creased and there is no identifying dates or names on the back. We showed the photo to the person we figured it belonged to and he did not recognize the people in it. Considering the condition and the size of the photo it is no wonder. In the picture it shows a family in a nondescript backyard. The father is holding his son in his arms. The mother is cradling a fat cat in her arms and is standing close to her son and her husband. Their son has a big grin on his face and his arm is wrapped around the cat’s head. The centre of the group is the cat and the young boy. Looks, love, contentment and the cat connect all three. The cat has the look of one used to being mauled by humans. Did it realize it gave a young boy happiness in that moment? Somewhere along the way that boy became a man who will tolerate cats to some degree but no other animals. In that moment they were unaware of what the future held. They may have had an inkling of the course of their lives, to work, to live, to endure, to love. At the moment they had their problems but who didn’t. At that moment a fat cat was part of their group, sharing a moment that would be frozen in time. What is lost is the story that goes with the picture. The cat long since deceased, the father passing away long ago and the mother just a few years back. There are no close relatives to look at this photo and regale and remind the son of what once was. So I started the long and tedious process of fixing this picture to make it as clear and presentable as possible. Maybe there will be something there to spark a memory of that family that seems so lost in time.

Lessons

I found this on someones tagline:



A Cherokee elder sitting with his grandchildren told them, "In every life there is a terrible fight – a fight between two wolves.
One is evil: he is fear, anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, and deceit.
The other is good: joy, serenity, humility, confidence, generosity, truth, gentleness, and compassion.

" A child asked, "Grandfather, which wolf will win?"

The elder looked the child in the eye. "The one you feed."

The Horror of Meetings

You walk into the room. The silence is deafening. Everyone shuffles, gathers pens, paper, bottles of water. Polite greetings are uttered with no friendliness. Where you sit is one of the most important factors. You need to make eye contact with allies but not be directly across from the person you want or need to avoid. Eye contact could mean you get volunteered for some unwanted task. It also means that you may have to express your opinion. A dangerous thing, this speaking out. All members of this alliance toss their emotional baggage on the table waiting for the moment that it gets opened, the contents new and old awaiting exposure. Hidden agendas are checked and on the ready. It would be lovely if everything were straightforward. But it’s not and words are weighed as if they were poker chips in a high stake game. Information sharing begins with trust. Trust, a commodity that at times seems to be in short supply. A spattering of information is given and taken, nothing that would upset the balance. An uneasy truce Experience makes you do new mistakes instead of old ones.

Happy Birthday

Just wanted to give a big Happy Birthday to my sister Arlene who is turning (fill in the blank) years old. Heartfelt wishes on your special day!

Love All Trust Few

I have become addicted to listening to Podcasts and have found some wisdom in the most unlikely places. There is a Podcast called Sales Strategy Radio with Tim McMahon that I have subscribed to that deals with increasing sales. He always has solid examples and always has an interesting way of getting his point across. In a Podcast titled “The Meaning of Partnership” I have found that at this time how much it applies to my work. In a group home you have people who depend on you to help them with life skills, a partnership that if the person is to have any measure of success depends on mutual trust. There is the person’s family who joins in with this partnership of trust. They have to trust the counsellor, the organization and the person in our care. There has to be a measure of trust between all parties including the managerial personal. Which brings me to the Podcast.

In his Podcast Tim McMahon talks about partnerships. Partnership is about helping each other over life’s little obstacles. This applies in all relationships including work, home and out in the community. What is doesn’t include is trying to be victorious over your peers. Competition and control destroy trust. A single mindedness that is focused on victory or getting something on or over someone seems to be the norm in a lot of businesses. The point of trust is having a partnership with all. Partnership is based on real values not products or politics and it takes time to create and effort to be maintained. The currency is trust and it's measure is mutual success. The measure of maturity is when the achievement of results becomes more important than victory.

I paraphrased his Podcast to what I had been experiencing at work. In a business that stresses compassion, safe learning, and accountability for whatever reasons it sometimes misses the mark on trust. I met an elderly woman in a nursing home years ago, she said out of the blue “Love all, trust few.” It’s an odd insight that has stuck with me but expresses so much about us as humans.

Adventures in Cottage Land

Adventures in Cottage Land

We had a visitor at the cottage and not one that we expected. Every time we went up to the cottage there would be odd noises, the hummingbird feeders would be knocked down and we thought we heard a meowing of a kitten. The possible culprits could be a skunk, a raccoon, porcupine or something more insidious. It all came together one night when from under the cottage a banging sound started, not all time, just a random scurrying and the occasional bang. Stepping out into the cool air with flashlights and a fearless dog in tow we looked around to see if we could spot the intruder. There wasn’t the distinctive odor of skunk but we didn’t want to rule it out. Lincoln has tried to play with the stinky kitty a couple of times and I wasn’t looking forward to getting out the bathing implements. Finding nothing we went back to the coziness of the living room. Sometime later I decided to check my phone messages, which means I have to find that sweet spot for phone reception. I ended up by the boathouse with a weak signal. I heard an explosion, looked across the lake and saw fireworks being set off. The calmness of the lake reflecting the brilliance of each burst of colour created a beautiful fiery painting in the sky. I had to run up to the cottage so my nephew Kevin and my Dad could see the fireworks. Once down at the lake I realized that Lincoln was there. This is the Border Collie that is afraid of thunderstorms. I figured that if I blocked him in the boathouse and held him he would be ok for the few fireworks. It’s hard to admit when your wrong and boy did I learned my lesson. Lincoln ran up the steps with me in hot pursuit. I ran yelling his name following him past the cottage. Lincoln headed up towards the outhouse. All my commands were seemingly not taking affect. So there I am flashlight in hand screaming “Lincoln come!!! Get over here now” just to hear him go further out into the woods. My heart was pounding, I couldn’t see him. I would hear him rustling around through the leaves and he appeared far out in the woods. My yelling alerted Kevin and he started looking for Lincoln. Kevin’s flashlight illuminated the dog as Lincoln rounded the corner of one of the cabins. I guess Lincoln had to use the outdoor facilities to relieve a nervous tummy. I missed the rest of the fireworks but at least Lincoln was safe. We laughed about how sound carries over the lake and how the people doing the fireworks heard me screaming. The four of us settled in to watch a bit of TV and relax. Sometime later we heard a loud metal banging in the boathouse. To clarify the boathouse houses everything but boats. It is used for storage, home to many odd tools, swim floats and goggles, paints, part of ball return from a bowling alley and many lawnmowers. Arming ourselves with flashlights and baseball bats we headed down the stone steps towards the lake and the boathouse. Lincoln would not be accompanying us on this mission after his last excursion into the woods. There was no noise anywhere, an eerie void where our voices seemed too loud. A classic horror film moment. While Kevin and my Dad checked out the inside of the boathouse I went around to the other side. In the boathouse there was a couple of tins knocked over but no sign of the intruder. I called out to say that I had found something. There by a tree was the culprit of all the strange noises, his eyes lit blue by the flashlight. A raccoon. I banged the baseball bat against a metal drum and he scurried up a tree. With all of us now by the treed raccoon it was agreed that it was time to quit and go back into the cottage. Strategies will have to be decided on if the raccoon takes up residence here.

Vacation

I've been net surfing non stop, hence the following sites
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050902/ap_on_sc/clever_whale
checking the news about the flood
http://mgno.com/ <---- has a live cam and a blog,
I got this one from Coast to Coast's web site http://www.coasttocoastam.com/
which lead me here -------> http://www.wired.com/news/planet/0,2782,68725,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1

Just copy & paste the above if you want to check the sites out.

I'm trying to get up to the cottage so I can de-group home myself. One person is not in a happy place and it can get a tad trying at times. So much stuff going on at work that I even dream group home stuff. Must get the gang out of my head. Until I can get to the cottage I will be playing on the computer (changing the icons, playing games) or watching season 3 & 4 of Stargate.

Quinton at the Park

Quinton's fascination with trucks and all things mechanical is only surpassed by his love for the playground. He is quite at home at the park, climbing everything. My nephew is very inquisitive and handy with a screw driver and a hammer as his mother found out recently.

Halloween

It's that time of the year to start planning what to do for Halloween for the front yard. What to do. Should it be pirates, vampires, devil dolls, something gruesome? So hard to choose. I've done a Civil War cemetery & hospital theatre, freakish farming experiments, aliens, dungeons, zombies, etc. I love to plan it but I definitely have a procrastination problem. There is a wonderful site that has all sorts of links to projects for the yard. I use it for the resources. One suggestion from co-worker Sarah is to have a zombieish Alice in Wonderland. A worthy project but must talk to cohorts to see if we can put it together.

Any suggestions are welcome. Except that I should have started sooner. I get that one all the time.

How to Take a Shower

During my internship we were challenged with the question on what order do you do your shower. This is in reference to our job when you are assisting a person with disabilities with a shower. But the professor ask us which is most expedient, most convenient, what do we do out of habit and which order of cleansing leaves you most clean. Do you wash your hair first or last and would the order affect your cleanliness? There is a proper way of doing this but what is usually done. Habit or training? Is it as simple as top to bottom?

So there I am years (many, many years) later assisting a person with their shower and dang I have to get another facecloth because I forgot that simple rule. Not something I usually do but whatever distraction flittered upon the moment replaced the ingrained routine happened. This got me thinking about that question again.

How do you take a shower.

Lincoln

Introducing Lincoln the Border Collie. A great little pup deserving of many a belly rub. He is totally fascinated with cats especially ones that are beyond his reach. Soon he will have step brothers and sisters and my brother will update his website with news of the puppies. The website has pictures of Lincoln's family and farm buddies. Lincoln's passions are the laser, riding in the truck, flashlights, swimming and bull winkies. He has couple of favourite toys, the rubber chicken and his evil Santa puppet. Evil Santa is his nemesis. When he plays with it he usually does so with gusto and I'm sure that he feels he is defeating a great foe. On the other hand, the rubber chicken is his comfort toy. Lincoln will not bite or carry the chicken by the neck, head or feet. He will gently pick it up by the middle. When his people leave the house without him Lincoln will take the chicken out and lay by it or carry it around. We will find the chicken in different rooms where ever he has last rested. Lincoln will play with the chicken and do so will people involvement in mind. Sometimes around 2 or 3 in the morning I will hear the familiar squeak of the chicken and I will have to decide whether to ignore it or check to see what is going on. There is nothing like playing chase in a pitch black room with a dog and a chicken. It is a sense of pure freeing abandonment with no rules and testing of skills to chase Lincoln with only fun in mind. Try and explain to co-workers the bruises on your shins are due to the rubber chicken game and the end table you couldn't see in the dark. There is a book that I must recommend. I have read it several times, it is called The Dog Rules: (Damn Near Everything!) by William Thomas. Humourous and well worth the read.

Pastafarianism

Just a quick note about Intelligent Design vs Evolution.

I came across a web site that has inspired me. It is about how universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It's very intriguing especially when you see how many people were touched by His Noodly Apendage. I for one will be looking deeper into the mysteries of this alternate theory.

Karen

What you get out of a Trip

We went to an American Civil War Re-enactment on Sunday. This is a trip that I’ve done many of time. It was a beautiful day with humongous fat clouds with a straggly bit of a cool wind that would whip through the area every once and a while. The reenactment was set in Brawner's Farm in Milton Ontario. http://www.countryheritagepark.com/
We watched the artillery demonstration, the cavalry event and the battle. There was music from persons from the First Nation who also participated in the battle.

I guess it is when you speak to the various re-enactors you pick up their passion for what they do and why do they do it. That’s what makes the trip worthwhile. There was a blacksmith who gave us a demonstration of his smithery but more than that he told us of his work. He gave his time and answered our questions but more than that he involved us in his enthusiasm in his craft. Each person we encountered had a story that they were willing to tell. One person took the time to answer a very silly question of mine. I wondered why the horses didn’t have more protection, I’ve read so many stories of what happened to these poor animals and couldn’t imagine that there wouldn’t be some kind of protective covering to save at least a few of them. It was nice that my question was treated with respect. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/07/0714_030714_gettysburg.html

A nice day out with friends and family, interesting people to talk to and oh yes I did bring back a nasty sunburn.

My First Ramblings

Sometimes, it’s was a matter of timing, grace or just plain luck how so many people can survive the same but not the same type of existence. Longevity in the Association is a tricky thing. I guess it depends on your role. There are many labels where I work, both for staff and the people we serve. I have the title of assistance supervisor, staff, counsellor, friend, co-worker, union member and part of the team at the Association. I have worked for the Association since 1986 as a counsellor for developmentally delayed adults.

I went through many years without a being jaded but as with many jobs the feeling that you’ve seen it all begins to creep in. This happens gradually you hardly notice it at all or sometimes it hits you all at once. For me it was a combination of both things. To combat the burn out I up graded my training. This was to keep things fresh. It helped but I decided to take up photography as a hobby and to find myself. So as time goes on I will post more on the Association, Photography, Stargate, Border Collies and who knows what.

Karen

A Day on Redstone Lake

We had a nasty storm and we put the boat up to keep it from smashing against the side dock. Lincoln (the Border Collie) usually keeps vigil at the end of the dock. Here he is checking out passing boats and keeping the world safe from marauding squirrels and at the time of this picture he was trying to make do with the boat taking up his spot.