26- Facade of USPS changes

First For Fuck’s Sake Friday of 2026!

This has been slightly delayed because the cat was sitting in front of the keyboard.

No idea why, just cat things I guess.

But the fuck’s sake must go on!

Have you seen this nonsense?

There has been a new USPS rule change that piggy backs onto a 2017 nonsense change where the USPS, supposedly a non-partisan body, closed half of its distribution centers. All the way back in 2017.

Under you know who.

These jokers think that the USPS needs to turn a profit. As if we the American people and our business are the commodity.

New year, same bullshit.

But the new bullshit is that there is a new rule that the mail that you mail on Tuesday may not be postmarked on the day you mail it, you know the day that they take possession of your property. Instead the postmark will be affixed as soon as the piece of mail gets to a regional professing hub.

You know the one that was impacted by the bs 2017 rule.

This has the potential to impact your tax return.

This has the potential to impact your prescriptions.

This has the potential to impact your ballot.

All extremely time sensitive pieces of your mail that impacts your life.

Especially those who live far away from one of the remaining post-office regional processing hubs.

Education is always the cure for all that ails society. This is vital information that needs to go out. But of course this was announced on Christmas Eve. It is as if they don’t want us to know.

Of course.

Fuck that. Tell your friends, tell your relatives who live in far off place. Tell them often and definitely tell them weeks before April 15 and weeks before the midterm elections.

I come to bury 25, not to praise it

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury 25, not to praise him.
The evil that years do lives after them;
The good is oft interred in their days;
So let it be with 25.

This is, of course, a knock off of Marc Antony’s speech from the Shakespeare play Julius Caesar.

Normally it starts ‘Friends, Romans, country men, lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.’

This after the Roman Senators, led by Marcus Junius Brutus, assassinated Julius Caesar by stabbing him. Having so many assassins makes it difficult to know who dealt the killing blow.

This was after Caesar had proclaimed himself the dictator of the Roman Republic.

And that is where I am going to leave it.

Draw your own conclusions.

The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year of 2025 has died.
(apologies to Judith Viorst)

It lived for what seemed like more than the 365 days it was allotted and dragged on and on and on. Each day was seemingly more horrible than the last.

I broke down much of 2025’s crimes against the world in yesterday’s post. Yes, I know that the crimes were done by actual real live people but the year bears some culpability.

Today I want to celebrate 2026 and tell you how I bid good riddance to 25.

I threw 25 a wake.

A wake, according to Wikipedia, is a part of death ritual in many cultures. The rite allows for last interaction with the dead (25), and allows for thoughts and feelings to be expressed to the body. 25 left no corporeal body and so this all had to be done in absentia. Or the absence of a body.

To be fair, I waited until the year was well and truly dead before I celebrated its ending. I didn’t want to leave it any loop holes, you see.

I made all the lucky foods I could think of. I had grapes, I had mandarin (round food). I made collard greens and black-eyed peas. I had Lucky Charms. Sushi of the vegetarian type also felt right to me so I bought some of that too.

I made 2025 a casket, stickered with gold numbers. I had a voodoo doll, I had a Dammit Doll, I had a sage candle. I had a stuffed crocheted dumpster fire. Dot decided that it was hers and batted it off the table.

I arranged several of these around the little stickered casket and took a picture (of course). Did I write that I cut out flames to further bedazzle the casket? That part was a lot of fun.

The little casket only came in a pack of two so I of course had to make a 2026 one. I collected many good luck symbols to herald 2026. I had a Lucky Cat charm. I had an academic success sachet as I am still working on my dissertation and finishing my PhD. Too bad, the last year kinda derailed me as I thought, and still do, that my attention and writing skills would be better used in resistance.

I kept the voodoo doll and put it in the 2026 casket.

Only time will show if any of these had any impact on the world and the new year. But I had a lot of fun thinking about what to use to wake 2025, and also what to have on hand to prompt 2026 to be on its best behavior.

It gave me some sense of closure to list all the things that it had done wrong and it gave me a sense of hope to show 2026 the mistakes of 25 and a roadmap of what I would like to accomplish this year.

2025 was well and truly waked.

And 2026 has been given its marching orders.

Fingers crossed.

2025, don’t let the door hit you on your way out

It is FINALLY New Year’s Eve and I am here for it.

It feels like 2025 was three thousand, nine hundred and ninety four years long. ***

Please see footnote for where that number came from. If you know, you know.

This year felt like a long, slow slog through unmentionable farm waste, up to our knees. I’ll say it, a long slow slog through shit. Wow, that felt good to acknowledge and write.

This year, I have seen the meme, is compared to a colonoscopy, without anesthesia.

Yeah, it’s been like that.

These are the waning hours of 2025, may it rot.

Too much has happened to sum up.

Most of it deplorable and served only to line the pockets of the administration. And their families.

Little of what “work” was done this year in Congress was for the American public.

I know and you know what they were doing. They were flooding the zone with shitty legislation and shittier heads of departments that were and are gleefully pulling the guts out of America.

DEI, grant funding, no no words for grants and for the CDC and NIH, yanking people off of healthcare, yanking food out of people’s mouths. Yanking people off the street who had the temerity to be brown.

Women dying from abortion bans continued. That continues to be terrible.

Children dying or being sickened by their own parents’ unforced errors in not vaccinating them with safe, effective vaccines. Instead they listen to a mad man and influencers who don’t know what they are talking about. Follow the money that leads to them. Misinformation kills.

The stupid tariffs that forced many small businesses to close.

The beyond reckless refusal by our government to assist with healthcare subsidies, if a person were to apply and meet the criteria. Even if you do not qualify for the subsidies and used the Affordable Care Act Marketplace to purchase healthcare, your prices have gone up.

I could continue but I won’t. The list is unfortunately very, very, very long.

There were bright spots that we the people made.

The waking up of a lot of people to know that this is wrong.

The pocketbook protesting for one. Especially toward Target and their lack of spine in standing up to the administration. I’ve been keeping lists, as has many others, of places that either give money to the administration or bootlickingly follow the administration edicts.

They don’t need my money and they won’t get it. These companies also won’t get money out of a lot of other people either. Good.

The first No Kings protest on June 14th as people reacted to the stunning shit show and declared that America has no king.

The second No Kings protest on October 18th that affirmed, again, that America has no king.

The smaller protests that are often area specific. The most recent one in Charlotte was actually one in support of Mo Naser, a Greensboro resident who was doing all the right things (he had a permit to work in the US) but still was swept up by ICE in the summer. His deportation case was just dismissed on 12/30/2025. He was detained after ICE got his country of origin wrong. Libya is not Iran.

Oopsy, says ICE, our mistake. Eye roll.

Student walkouts, a lot of them, to demand change. Good for them, we need more of that kind of energy.

2025, you won’t be missed by the vast, vast majority of us. Burn.

2026, please be kinder.

***(this is a parody number from Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies by Agnes Nutter, Witch. this book, which everyone should read, was written in 1990 by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. yes, that Neil Gaiman. we don’t hold it against the book. in the book, Archbishop James Usher put the creation of the universe at October 21, 4004 BC. if you aren’t going to read the book, at least watch Good Omens on Prime Video starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen. It is amazing.)

Tuesday Top of Mind 12/30/25- Nursing homes to no longer require nurses on site 24/7

Fun fact I bet you maybe knew, I started as a CNA in a nursing home.

I worked nights in a small 4 wing nursing home. There was the acute wing, for people who had just had surgery and were getting better or who just needed a little more time to recover from their injury/illness. And then there were 3 other wings that had 12 rooms each, with only 1 room being private. The other rooms either had 2 patients or 4.

That’s a lot of patients.

I worked nights and it was the four CNAs, one for each wing, a registered nurse for the acute side and a registered nurse for the rest of the hospital. Yep, that is over 100 patients for the sub acute registered nurse to chart and to medicate and to declare death and to call doctors’ offices if there was an emergency overnight.

This is per shift.

I worked 4 nights on with 2 off at the end of the stint.

Not good for the bank account as there were some paychecks that always ended up a bit short.

But the point is that there were at least TWO registered nurses onsite per shift. I believe day shift had more because of med pass.

There has now been a federal staffing rule change from the 2024 federal staffing rule that Biden’s administration put into place.

The Biden’s staffing rule for nursing homes was that
1) there were at least 3.48 hours of nursing care per resident, per day, with 0.55 hours from registered nurses
2) at least 1 registered nurse had to be onsite 24 hours per day, 7 days a week
3) these were the minimum standards for Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing homes. Nationwide.

In late 2025, HHS and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issues an interim final rule rescinding these mandated staffing levels. Including the hours per resident per day and the 24/7 nursing requirement. But wait, there’s more, they left the assessment and planning expectations in place

This was touted as a savior to the rural and tribal nursing homes due to the, you guessed it, nursing shortage. Folks, there has been a nursing shortage for as long as I can remember. But HHS ran the numbers and realized that 100,000 additional caregivers, CNAs, LPNs, and RNs, would be needed to fulfill the 2024 staffing rules.

There was pearl clutching I am sure.

By the owners, who didn’t and don’t want to hire additional workers to fulfill the 2024 staffing rules.

This is a gift to the nursing home owners.

Registered nurses are expensive. Because they are the front line between their patients, numerous as they are, and HHS. They recognize medication errors and mistakes. They recognize when a patient is not acting as expected and may be having a heart attack or a stroke or sepsis because of a UTI. They do the daily dressing changes and are expected to assess the wounds to ensure healing

Who cares about the disabled person, or the elderly person who will no longer be expecting the minimal level of care? This is a roll back of safety standards. The RNs will be replaced with cheaper staff. No shade to the LPNs but they are different job classes with different job roles. And assessment? Is in the registered nurses’ toolbox.

And if an elderly person dies because of the lack of supervision? Not the nursing home’s fault, they cry.

More savings to HHS and an increase to the profit margin for owners.

It isn’t about the people who have lived entire life times in the beds, it is about the bucks in their pockets.

The Thirteen Days of the OR Christmas

Adapted from a Little OR picture book by the same name.

Once there was a snowy Christmas, cold and snowy, snowy and cold. Nothing would be better than staying home under the covers with a good book and a cup of tea. But, of course, the patients still made it to the hospital for their surgeries. J. Ashe, my charge nurse, assigned me to a different room each day. These are the my thirteen days of the OR Christmas.

Bah Humbug.

On the first day of Christmas, my charge nurse gave to me
a surgeon in a good mood.

(Dr. G. Mood declined to be pictured for this book or even named as he doesn’t want to ruin his reputation among the other surgeons)

On the second day of Christmas, my charge nurse gave to me
two shoulder scopes
and a surgeon in a good mood.

(get out the hip waders)

On the third day of Christmas, my charge nurse gave to me
three appys
two shoulder scopes
and a surgeon in a good mood.

(this is not looking good)

On the fourth day of Christmas, my charge nurse gave to me
four cataracts
three appys
two shoulder scopes
and a surgeon in a good mood.

(at least the eyes are quick)

On the fifth day of Christmas my charge nurse gave to me
FIVE C-Sections
four cataracts
three appys
two shoulder scopes
and a surgeon in a good mood.

(babies, hurray!)

On the sixth day of Christmas, my charge nurse gave to me
six bowel resections
FIVE C-Sections
four cataracts
three appys
two shoulder scopes
and a surgeon in a good mood.

(this is not trending well)

On the seventh day of Christmas, my charge nurse gave to me
seven hip revisions
6 bowel resections
FIVE C-Sections
4 cataracts
3 appys
two shoulder scopes
and a surgeon in a good mood.

(well, at least the surgeon is in a good mood)

On the eighth day of Christmas, my charge nurse gave to me
Eight Septoplasties
7 hip revisions
6 bowel resections
FIVE C-Sections
4 cataracts
3 appys
2 shoulder scopes
and a surgeon in a good mood.

(I must’ve been bad this year)

On the ninth day of Christmas, my charge nurse gave to me:
Nine bladder tumors
8 septoplasties
7 hip revisions
6 bowel resections
FIVE C-Sections
4 cataracts
3 appys
2 shoulder scopes
and a surgeon in a good mood.

(Santa, am I getting coal?)

On the tenth day of Christmas, my charge nurse gave to me:
ten fractured ankles
9 bladder tumors
8 septoplasties
7 hip revisions
6 bowel resections
FIVE C-Sections
4 cataracts
3 appys
2 shoulder scopes
and a surgeon in a good mood.

(Okay, who told Santa about that time at the holiday party?)

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my charge nurse gave to me:
Eleven breast reductions
10 fractured ankles
9 bladder tumors
8 septoplasties
7 hip revisions
6 bowel resections
FIVE C-sections
4 cataracts
3 appys
2 shoulder scopes
and a surgeon in a good mood.

(Or the time at the 4th of July picnic?)

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my charge nurse gave to me:
Twelve carpal tunnels
11 breast reductions
10 fractured ankles
9 bladder tumors
8 septoplasties
7 hip revisions
6 bowel resections
FIVE C-Sections
4 cataracts,
3 appys
2 shoulder scopes
and a surgeon in a good mood.

(Make it stop!)

On the thirteenth day of Christmas, my charge nurse gave to me:
the day off.

Yeah, right.

On the thirteenth day of Christmas, charge nurse Jack Ashe got from me:
my resignation
and a California birdie.

Tuesday Top of Mind 12/23/25- SC measles

Unless you’ve been living with your head in sand, or under the blankets, or under a rock, measles is running roughshod over Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Y’all, Spartanburg county is only 76 miles from the county I live in in North Carolina.

All the data has been gleaned from Department of Public Health South Carolina website.

As of the Friday Measles Update, there have been 9 new measles cases in upstate. This brings their total number for THIS outbreak to 144.

This just in (the website hasn’t been updated yet). The newest total that has been reported for this measles outbreak is 153 confirmed cases. This doesn’t count the 249 in

Some children are on their second round of 21 days of quarantine.

In this latest update of confirmed cases, 34 are children under the age of 5, 101 are 5-17 (so school-aged), and 12 are adults and older.

Measles is no joke. It is at the top of the contagious disease list.

The MMR vaccine, which contains the measles, is one of the safest and most reliable vaccines that is in the vaccination playbook. According to the CDC, the MMR vaccine is 97% effective. It remains one of the most effective vaccines for the MOST contagious disease that there is a vaccine for.

What is the disconnect? Never mind, forget I asked that.

The MMR is 2 doses for those over 1 years of age. There is also an MMRV vaccine that also covers chicken pox for children 1-12 years of age.

According to the DPH South Carolina website, there are no scheduled vaccination events in this county. But you can request a visit from the Mobile Health Unit for vaccination.

You know what is worse than the fear that is being mongered around vaccines? Listening to these monsters and deciding that you, as a parent, know best, disregarding the hundreds of years of experience that public health workers have, and not vaccinating your children or yourselves.

Worse than that is actually getting the disease with its risks of death and disability.

But what do I know, I’m just a nurse who cares deeply about other people and their children.

Perhaps I should write a parody about the 21 Days of the Measles Quarantine. That is a Christmas song I don’t want to write/parody.

Or do I? Stand by for that one.

Also your grandparents and your great-grandparents are rolling over in their graves at the thought that the vaccines that they would have killed for are being discounted by spoiled brats who think a social media influencer who just wants likes and clicks knows better than most of the public health nurses and doctors.

Maybe public health has been too effective.

FFS Friday 12/19/25- Flu increasing in NC, spreading like holiday music

This is your yearly December PSA. And a warning.

The best time to get your flu shot was 2 months ago in October.

The second best time to get your flu shot is today.

Come now, don’t tarry.

This is the warning part of the post.

If it seems that everyone is sick this holiday season, it is likely because they are.

The waste water monitoring data for North Carolina just increased. The NC level for the entire state is moderate. This is specific to flu A. But by the CDC map there are multiple areas of the state that are marked as very high and high levels of flu A in the wastewater.

This is well worn and timeless set of instructions.

Wash your hands.

Wear a mask

Cover your mouth when coughing.

Avoid crowded areas.

Avoid people who are actively coughing.

Drink your fluids.

Get plenty of rest.

And, for pete’s sake, get your flu vaccine!

If not, don’t come crying when you get the flu.

You are protecting not only yourself, but others in the community.

Just do it.

Cookie Thursday 12/18/25- 5 chips chocolate peanut clusters

The stove I ordered had to go back as it wasn’t the stove I thought I had ordered. I wanted dual fuel, gas on top, electric oven, and what was delivered was gas on top, gas oven.

I am not sure if you’ve ever baked with gas. Let’s just say it isn’t ideal.

Back to drawing board.

I picked out a new stove and they are supposed to keep the deliver/installation charge from the first stove.

Confused? Because the installation people are. I have a phone call in to them.

Guess what? The holidays are mucking up the timing.

New stove #2 will be delivered to my house on the Saturday after Christmas. It would be ideal if I could get the installation worked out before the end of the year.

Don’t worry, I will be calling them back.

So no new stove to try out for the last Cookie Thursday is a Thing of 2025. Instead I will hopefully be ringing in 2026 with a new oven.

Fingers crossed.

I mean, the airfryer is an airfryer/toaster oven combination so I am not totally in the weeds.

But still.

This left me cookieless on the last CTIAT of the year.

I pulled out a recipe that I’ve been wanting to do for No-Heat August for literal years.

It is 5 bags of chocolate chips, 2 containers of peanuts.

In hindsight, it makes entirely too much candy.

Like way too much.

Like who at the hospital can I give the excess to too much.

If I make this again, I will halve the recipe and use half bags of chips and 1 container of peanuts.

It is a good empty out the baking pantry recipe though.

The 5 bags were

caramel chips
semi-sweet chocolate chips
white chocolate chips
butterscotch chips
milk chocolate chips.

I used the crockpot to melt the chips, added the peanuts, heated it some more and used my cookie scoop to portion out the candy. And portion out the candy. And portion out the candy.

I placed the candy scoops as close as I could on 3 parchment paper lined cookie sheets and I still ended up with 3 full to the bursting sheets of 5 chip peanut clusters.

Did I mention it was a lot?

I took an entirely full cookie containment device to the hospital. And portioned out 2 full smaller containers for the other at the 0700 meeting.

I still have an entirely full sheet of peanut candy.

I will be handing these out to other units.

But I really should’ve realized I was in trouble when the chips and the peanuts filled up my entire crockpot.

Call Secrets of the OR- Call shift is great until something wakes you up

I still call my job the coolest shift I’ve ever had.

There are a LOT of positives. And I’ve written about them. As well as some instructions on how to deal with them. And how to sleep on call.

Now let’s talk negatives.

The first negative is that you now have a hair trigger sleep habit. Because when the call comes, you have to be awake, dressed, and at the hospital within 30 minutes.

I live stupid close to the hospital (less than 3 miles) and it still sometimes takes me 20 minutes to get there.

Because of this hair trigger sleep habit you are especially aware of every little noise the pager or your phone makes. Because it might be a case. Or it might be a pager in need of a battery.

Or it might be a stupid political text at 0400 (four in the morning).

Or it might be the university that is 90 miles away that you are attending virtually anyway with a new announcement regarding the snow day. Or the hurricane. Or once, memorably, a car fire in the parking garage.

Or it might be a text alerting you that the delivery drivers/installers will be there sometime in the next 12 hours with whatever you ordered.

Ask me how I know…

Or it might be your brain going off. For no apparent reason except to get you of bed at 0300.

Regardless of the time the hair trigger has been pulled. You are now awake and there will be no more sleep tonight.

You could toss and turn and read on the Kindle and check your email. Or try all the myriad of things that past insomniac you used to do to get to sleep. I mean counting sheep is an option. So is sleep hypnosis. I use repetition of one particular number, just that number, until I am asleep.

But you know that it is useless and your brain is now engaged and awake.

So you get out of bed.

This makes the cat happy.

You brush your teeth and get dressed to start the day.

Who cares that the sun isn’t even up?

There’s a new crossword puzzle to do and emails to catch up on and a cat to feed and a sunrise to watch.

Don’t worry, there will be a nap in your future.

I hope that for you.

Now this negative doesn’t happen every night. No.

It is just often enough to be obnoxious.

I still wouldn’t change a thing and this remains the coolest shift I’ve ever done.

School Me Saturday 12/13/25- Winter-freaking finally-break!

I know this semester has been, well, odd.

Hell this entire year has been odder.

So many changes on the federal level, including new intrusive FAFSA questions.

Including the grinch swiping away what little student loan relief that the Biden administration was allowed to do by the courts.

I mean, we all know who the grinch is, right?

Put that aside.

Things will still be bat-shit-crazy in the new year and the new semester.

Take a deep breath now, and count the good things.

Finals are done and your grades most likely in by your instructors.

Winter graduations and hoodings for graduate students have occurred. Including two of my cohort. Congratulations, guys, well done.

I’m not jealous at all. No, really I’m not. This is a process and I am just not as far along as them.

It is too early to plan for Spring Semester.

Christmas is over 10 days away.

Now is the time to breathe. And maybe nap. In fact, I hope your sleep is as good as Dot’s on her warming pad and window perch.

My winter hope for you is that you rest well over Winter Break.

Think about school only if you want to but don’t obsess about it.

Read that book you’ve been meaning to get to.

Watch that hot new movie in the theater before it is pulled.

As an aside, Hamnet was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.

Watch that television show that you’ve been saving up for the end of the semester.

Wrap your presents (if you do them), ready your travel plans (if you are going anywhere), but be safe.

The crazy things will be there after the first of the year.

Take this time to re-center yourself and remember who you are and why you are on this journey.

And have a happy, safe, and restful holidays.

Spring Semester is just a breath away.