Recovery

It's been a while. Visit to distant children and then a brief stint in hospital took me off my game. At the moment…no excuse. I don't feel as though I have anything to say.

Oh wait…hospitals. Things have changed a good deal over the dozen years since I left the Spiritual Care service. Volunteers deliver meals a lot of the time. On some units, there is no choice given patients about the meals. It's "Take it…or leave it." Actually, the meals were quite good…better than five years ago. Thin staffing for a surgical unit. Better pray there are no emergencies. No medical Residents running around, either. Just nursing students. And they were delightful, and competent. Great commitment to learning. My student was doing "vitals" on me (heart, BP, etc.) and excused herself to find her instructor. The Instructor came in and listened to my heart, then said, "Yes, there is a murmur there." GREAT excitement. A. The student recognized it, and B. She identified it correctly. They told me that the student had never heard a murmur before, except on DVD. Could she bring hr partner in to hear it too? Of course. Within five minutes I had eight beauties lined up at the foot of my bed just to hear my heart beat! I explained that I knew about it, that it wasn't judged urgent, and that surgery will come after a bit. What a blast.

Some surprises came with the surgery. It wasn't serious serious, but it took a lot out of me (forgive the pun.) Can't believe how quickly I tire four days post op. I'm convinced they should have kept us until today, as they said they would at the start. The unit closes for Sunday, so they have to kick everyone out. I imagine to get transferred to another unit, you'd have to be really sick. They avoid the paperwork. In any case, I was sweaty and weak all day yesterday, better today, but my attention span is very short. I have agreed to preach next Sunday, and at the moment I'm regretting that choice. Let;s see what Monday and Tuesday bring.

This afternoon I started teaching Beatrix how to run the snow blower. The boy with whom we had arranged snow clearing is nowhere to be found this weekend, after a major/minor blow. I am not allowed even to wrestle the machine or shovel for six weeks. Beatrix is a quick study, but the machine is heavy, and I was trying to do the odd thing. She spent some energy screaming at me, but the machine is so loud I couldn't hear her…mercifully! In any case, she has the basic, and with supervision, can do it again, with me alongside to guide her. So"if the boy is a no-show, we blow snow."

Speaking of short attention spans, mine has disappeared. So I'll stop. Too many preachers keep on talking long after they have run out of things to say. Til next time…

Sleeper!

Our video store is closing! Disaster! Anxiety! But wait…we have Netflix. True, we never can get reasonable first run movies…but it's cheap! When we discovered the closing, we went in to purchase a few of the remaining DVDs, of which there were only a few. We'd missed the rush for all the up-to-date good stuff. However, we scored a sleeper: Iron Sky. This is a space spoof, plus a wickedly funny political satire about current US politics! Made by Finns, in cooperation with Germany and Australia, it features nobody you've ever heard of, having a wonderful time camping it up as German Nazis, who've been hiding on the dark side of the moon since 1945, mining Helium 3, which powers their space crafts. They are planning an earth invasion anytime soon. Everything they have is up-to-date 1945 clunky Nazi design. Their one computer is as big as an apartment block, but has less computing power than an iPhone. (They plan a mission to earth to get more iPhones and a charger so they can work their computer!

The head Nazi is big and beautiful and Aryan; the head maidchen is small and blond and very cute, whose stocking seams are always straight! They are the projected parents of the next generation of Aryan perfect children.

Meanwhile, on earth, there is a Presidential election going on. The current president, a gum chewing woman who seems to spend all her time in workout clothes working out on a StairMaster, is desperate for an Issue to thump to get her elected. Her chief of staff is a witchy, hot and bitchy woman, who appears to be unscrupulous as as she needs to be to get things done.

Some examples of guffaw lines: the President, accused at the UN of lying, says: "Knock it off…that's what we do!" Upon being warned of the impending Nazi space invasion, she is overjoyed! "Oh, boy! A war! Just what I need to get re-elected. No one defeats a war President in the middle of a war! And this against a really tough enemy! We haven't won a war since WW2 - we NEED this war!"

When the Pres meets the head Nazi, they get along fine! She listens to his Nazi "master race" line, and with very little polishing, it shows up in her Republican acceptance speech as good Republican policy!

By the way, the US's biggest space ship is the "George W. Bush"! And it goes on…At times, the camp is a bit heavy, but as long as you keep "Spoof" nearby in your brain, you can see the point. I can't imagine this being released anywhere in the US, but it's a great chuckle at the Americans expense.

I have no idea where you can get it, but look in the dark corners of your local video store, should you have one. It's worth the 92 minutes it takes to resolve the plot and have the good guys win.