Scratch that

OK, so what I wrote last week about the day shift … it’s irrelevant now. I’m back on nights.

So, for those keeping score, I was on nights, then went on days for two days, then had to move back to nights for a week because we had a spare day person due to a non-publish date on the Islamic New Year (a Sunday). After that, went back to days for real, but it wound up only lasting a week.

Through this month – and possibly longer – I am back on nights because we’re short staffed (again) and people are taking Christmas leave plus the last two weeks of the year, we will not publish on the two holidays, both of which fall on Sunday. We have a small paper that day (new since I arrived) and one person copy edits it. Since she won’t be doing that those two weeks, she will be able to assist on days.

So all those pluses are out the window. Oh well. I just hope I do get to eventually go back to days. I really liked being able to craft, rather than perfect, the stories. It was more editing than copy editing.

But, come Dec. 28, I will still get a paycheck. At this point in the game, that is what matters. Eye on the ball, etc.

Since I haven’t re-set my alarm clock to reflect a later start time, I am completely exhausted after a week of being back on nights. More or less, I’ve left pretty much on time, too, so I might have to rejigger the alarm.

But I also need to work on Word. I’m hoping to take a Microsoft Expert certification test at some point and, although I am a typing machine and can format text, I am not a bells-and-whistles, dog-and-pony-show, whole-nine-yards type of person. Uncomplicated, please.

But for the certification, you have to be an expert so I need to practice. I’m already in a hole because what I need is the 2007 certification but I only have Word 2003. That could be a problem.

Anyway, I’ve penciled in playing with Word for about an hour, so that’s why my alarm is still set for an ungodly hour. But honestly, I’ve done the Word game twice and have opted for naps after working out in the mornings. I’m just whipped.

Oh, I did learn today that Grunter is from Cameroon, so I was right in my Sub-Saharan Africa guess. He told me today that he has family in Washington. He bothers me less. I see him less and although he still grunts sometimes, he’s cut back.

Today, my day off, I have the usual routine plus washed my sheets, which still aren’t dry but what can you do? It’s lightning badly outside and raining a little.

One of my goals for the weekend was to see if I could finagle a refill for the antibiotic I got for the it’s not-ringworm-but-something-close. The doctor had given me a week's worth and it worked, but I don't think I had enough -- the fungus never went away and now it's getting bad again. I'd taken two pills daily for a week. I think I needed two weeks worth.

In Malaysia, I was able to just go to the pharmacist and buy a prescription drug, so I thought I'd try it here to avoid a doctor visit. The visit, which was paid for by insurance, was Rp 800k, I think. (Not that it matters for comparison, that's about $90). I believe my prescription was included in that fee. I did have to pay an additional for the cream because it was considered "cosmetic," but it wasn’t too bad.

Well, neither pharmacist had the exact drug, but one had a different brand name of it. They had six pills and said it would cost 100k. Uh, no thank you. I didn’t have near that much on me and really didn’t think a three-day supply would do a lick of good since a week’s worth didn’t kill it off last time.

So now my dilemma centers around health insurance. It’s a PITA here, too.

I can go to the doctor and have it cost another 800k but have someone else pay for it or I can just go the cheap route and pay out of pocket. So, America isn't the only place with health insurance issues. Overall, fiscally it is smarter to just go cheap. But if I return to the doctor and have insurance cough up another 800k, that drives up overall costs.

What I will probably wind up doing is going back to the doctor and also scheduling an X-ray for my hip, which has been hurting on and off for awhile now. It originally began during PC and has flared up frequently since then but is now a fairly constant pain. Not sure why. It might be sympathy pain for Kocur, who is also having hip trouble. My poor old girl has trouble jumping and off Zippy's bed these days.

Sigh. Always something. My next day off is Wednesday, so that might be what I wind up doing.