What, Christmas is OVER

No way, don't tell me that Christmas is over.  I missed the whole thing due to having to work the dabgum weekend.  All the hype and hoopla and now it is gone.

But wait, I do have memories, although brief, of the day.  I did have a great dinner on Christmas evening with my wife at a German restaurant.  The food was fantastic and we ended up bringing over half of our meals home.  Spent the evening with my wife and then it was off to bed because another of day of dreaded work lay ahead.

But Christmas past does bring back some memories.  When there was snow on the ground but the sun was shining.  My daughters dog was playing in the snow chasing her toy.

And the deer bedded down on the south side of the house in the wooded area trying to stay out of the wind.

But next year will be different.  I won't have to work and can relax and enjoy the whole day.  That is worth looking forward to next year.

You can't make this up

When you have to work Christmas day you can really get some strange phone calls such as:

Caller:  Is this the pharmacy
Response:  Yes how can I help you
Caller: Are you filling prescriptions today?
Response:  Yes that is why we are open!

And then you have people all over the store on CHRISTMAS DAY. Two young women show up at the prescription counter and ask if we could get them some cheese from the cooler since the shelf was empty.

You have to get the manager in the front of the store to help you with that. 

Oh, they are too busy and the lines are long.

Sorry, we don't have access to the cooler so you will just have to wait!

Caller:  Oh, so you are open.
Response: Yes, this is a 24 hour store that is always open
Caller:  So you are open all day
Response: Yes we never close.  They have lost the keys to the front door so we can't close!!

It is truly amazing the things people will do on holidays.  Don't people stay home on holidays, especially Christmas.  Don't they want to have family time?

I know one thing, if I didn't have to work, I would have been home with the family!!!!  You never know how long you have on this earth, so I enjoy being with the family as much as I can.

Thoughts on Christmas 2011

As the season is closing on us fast, time is needed to reflect on the blessings that were bestowed on us this past year and a half. First to be thankful for our health.  Without good health life would be a constant battle.

Next would be being a part of a loving and caring family.

The family has expanded by two more males.  Both daughters are now married and their mother was there to help both.  The first wedding took in Columbia, South Carolina.  That wedding planning started in March of 2010 and mom and daughter were talking via phone or e-mails on a weekly basis.  Both mom and daughter planned and coordinated the wedding with the daughter carrying the most of the planning due to the wedding being five hours away. A week prior to the wedding mom goes to Columbia to make sure all is in order and things are good to go.  The wedding when off without a hitch and the weather was a beautiful sunny day in October.

While in Columbia, the other daughter's boyfriend ask both of us for permission to marry that daughter.  Well, the engagement was not suppose to take place until the end of October but a week later the engagement was set.  Now mom and daughter have to plan a second wedding but this time the date is set six months out so the time is compressed.

Oh, what a frantic time was spent during those six months.  First a place for the wedding had to be found as our local church and a friends church were both booked for the Saturday that the wedding was to take place.  Then the place for the reception had to be determined.  Oh, decision decision.  Well, it all worked out and the whole wedding and reception were held at Hollins University in Hollins Virginia.  Weather in March can be iffy but things went off without a hitch, except dad dropped the wedding cake when unloading it from the car.  Sisters husband was with him when it happened and both were speechless.  Oh, not to be done in, the local Walmart redid the cake and the bride and groom did not know any different.

Now that those hectic moments were over with things settled down and the rest of the year proceeded without a hitch.  I must take my hat off to my daughters and my wife.  They went through all the stress and strain and not once were any cross words exchanged.

I must say I could not ask for any better son-in-laws.  Both are well grounded and treat both girls with love and respect. Both daughters are happy and so are mom and dad.  That is the main blessing.  To have two wonderful daughters and a very loving wife one could not ask for more.

This year since I have to work Christmas Day and this is the year the guys and girls are spending time with their families, we won't have a traditional Christmas Tree.  Instead the wife opted to decorate the tree that is in the living room. I call it her tree. 

Now for my tree it is so simple it makes you want to laugh and it also plays the Charlie Brown song.  Just had to have it because Christmas without some evergreen just did not seem right!!

For Christmas dinner, after I get off from work, we are going to a local German restaurant.  This will be our first Christmas with just the two of us.  Nice to get some quiet time and get away from the hustle and bustle of the holiday

To all that read this, have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and
may God bless you and Keep
and keep his face shining upon you and give you PEACE!!

The HOLIDAY STRESS!!!

When you work in retail you know what stress is.  This time of year it is ramped up more due to people having to deal with their daily lives and also having to shop for presents. 

People just add to the stress by putting things off to the last minute and they let things go until it is always and emergency.  A little planning would go along way.  Take a breath, sit back and look at the next few days and take things in stride. 

So you forgot to stop and get this item or that item but do not take it out on the store employees.  They have a job to do also, but you are the one in a hurry.  You forgot to get the prescription filled and come to find out it is out of refills and it would be tomorrow before you can get it filled.  Oh no, what I am going to do without my medicine I take for my nerves.  Again, things will work out.

But I depend on this medicine to get me through the day.

What did we do as a society before we had all of these medications?  We were probably a lot happier.  So many people today rely on antidepressants and pain medications you wonder how do they function.

So the next time you are buying groceries or your prescription, take time out to thank the person helping you because they also have to deal with stress.

Spring can't be far behind!!

Oh my, it is that time of year.  It is cold outside, the ground is moist from all the rain, and it is time to plant next season's garlic.

Garlic is one of the bulbs that is best planted in the winter, usually during the coldest weather.  This year the planting area for the garlic was covered with at least sixty year old manure.  How does one know the manure is that old, well since there have not been any livestock on the farm for that long one have to say it is true.

This is my wife at the start of the row of garlic.  This year the crop will "MUSIC" garlic obtained from an organic farm in Vermont.  The other row was purchased from our local Kroger store and was listed as heirloom garlic from California.  It is going to be interesting to see which produces the best garlic.  The organic produced garlic is supposedly a little hotter garlic.  Take the garlic bulbs and break them apart so you have the cloves.  Take each clove and plant the pointed side up.  Each clove will produce one bulb of garlic.  If you look hard enough, you will see several wire cages in the background behind my wife.  This will be several American Hybrid Chestnut trees being grown from nuts.  More about that in another posting.

When covering the cloves, cover about 2 to 4 inches deep and then cover with hay or straw to keep the moisture in during the winter.  Garlic is a hearty plant and survives the cold weather extremely well. 

Deer do not like garlic or for that matter onions.  Last year a couple of the garlic shoots were bitten off by the deer and one could see the bite off shoot laying next to the row.  Must have been too bitter for the creatures.  They eat enough of the other vegetables grown in the garden so a fence will be built around the perimeter this year to keep them out. 

Does mail order pharmacy customer services get it??

A patient calls to tell us that their mail order shipment had not arrived and asked us to help. They still had a refill left on a previous prescription and could we call the mail order company to get an override.

We called the company to discuss the situation. First the customer service rep asked us why the order has not arrived. How do we know as we only want to get override. Well, she said, you have to call this number to find out where the package is located. Whoa lady, we are a retail pharmacy just wanting an override for a patient.
Well she says, when are you going to deliver this to the patient? We are not going to deliver it as the patient is coming here to pick it up.

Ok, let's start over as you don't seem to understand. We are a retail pharmacy wanting an override for a patient whose mail order prescription has not arrived. We need a 7 day override from your company to make sure this patient has their medication.
Ok she says let me place you on hold. She returns to the phone and says our override has been processed.

I am sure this person missed the class on listening. What should have been a five minute phone call turned into a fifteen minute debacle. And patients wonder why we can't get their prescriptions ready for them in 10 minutes. When you deal with idiots from mail order it makes for a long day.

No price reduction for bald head haircuts?

Why is that no barber shops or hair stylish businesses don't offer a reduced price for people with no hair on top.  All the prices show what to expect for hair styling, hair cuts, shampoo, perms, coloring, etc.  Why not a reduced price for those of us that don't have any hair on top. 

Most haircuts average about ten dollars are more for a complete cut. What about a non complete cut? 

When I get my hair cut at a barber or other hair cutting facility, if I sit in the chair at the same time as another customer, with a full head of hair, and the stylist or barber starts at the same time I am usually finished well before the other person.  So the person that cuts your hair gets paid $10 for one hair cut and they can cut 3 heads per hour or $30.  Now consider a reduced price of say $8 for bald heads.  At $8 per head and the person can cut 5 heads per hour that equals to $40.  That is an extra $10 per hour. 

Where is the logic on charging the same for all heads of hair.

Yes, There is Justice

While driving on the interstate Saturday evening, I was following a tractor trailer in the passing lane.  The speed limit in this section of road was 60 mph which I drive almost daily.  I was passing a slower moving vehicle when I noticed in my rear view mirror that another vehicle was approaching very rapidly.  Just after clearing the slower vehicle the fast approaching vehicle was now on my bumper.  I did not want to move over as there were merging lanes ahead of traffic approaching from the right.  The car following now rapidly moves to the right lane and disappears beside the semi.  Well, as would happen the faster vehicle was now behind another slower car.  It was an out of state vehicle driving a Lincoln SUV with very distinctive rear tail lights.

As the semi and I pass both the slower vehicle and the out of state driver, the out of state vehicle again gets on my bumper.  Just after passing this slower vehicle, again the driver behind me gets back into the driving lane and accelerates around me and the semi.  I was thinking, "just when you need a radar patrol there never is one."  But to my amazement there in the medium of the interstate a few hundred yards down the road was a state trooper running radar.  I noticed he turned his headlights on and was trying to get into the flow of traffic but was hampered due to the high volume of traffic.

I proceeded down the interstate in  the passing lane thinking that the trooper would never catch the speeding vehicle with all of this traffic.  I kept checking my rear view mirror and suddenly there appeared the state trooper behind me.  He was still not running his blue beacons but with the traffic lights behind him I could see his light bar on top of the car.  I moved over to allow him to pass and continued to watch the traffic ahead.  I could still see the out-of-state vehicle about 3/4 mile ahead of me due to the different tail lights.  The trooper was not running his blue lights but also had to weave in and out of traffic due to the high volume of traffic.  At this point both the speeder and the trooper were out of view.

As I topped the hill, lo and behold there was the trooper, blue lights flashing, and the speeder pulled over on the shoulder.  I was all smiles as justice had been done!!

Who should use drive throughs?

I have noticed that the drive through lanes of fast food and now pharmacies are subject to abuse. The fast food restaurants are really subject to abuse as people sit in their cars waiting to place their orders and then, still waiting in their cars, to pick up their order. They sit there with the engines running wasting gasoline and wasting time. When pulling into a fast food restaurant you notice that the drive through lane is wrapped around the building why would one go to the back of the line to sit and wait. Why not park your car, get out, walk inside, place your order, pick it up and return to your car. Usually this can be accomplished while only two cars have exited the drive through.

Now, since working in a pharmacy with a disgusting drive through window, it is easy to notice those that should and should not use a drive through.

One day a lady pulls up to the window and is at least 3 feet away from the push out drawer. I say to her that she needs to get closer so she doesn't have to get out of her car. She says " Well I got a little to close to the drive through at Hardee's and took my drive side mirror off." I then told her she should not be using the drive through.

You do wonder when a heavy set individual pulls up to the window and their stomach is rubbing the steering wheel, why not get out of the car and walk in. A little exercise goes a long way.

Should use drive through
1. A parent with a sick child in a car seat
2. Handicap individuals
3. Elderly that struggle to walk

Should NOT use drive through
1. Young adults that don't want to get out of the car
2. Individuals that are overweight
3. Individuals that are morbidity obese
4. Elderly that struggle to drive or shouldn't be driving.

Only one coupon

Lady comes by the pharmacy to pick up her medication. She was given a discount coupon by her m.d. to offset the price of the medication. The technician tries to process the coupon but she gets a notification from the computer that the day supply was incorrect. She checks that but all is correct. She then reads the fine print on the coupon and discovers that the coupon can only be used once per life of patient. When the patient is asked if she had ever used the coupon before she stated she had. When told she would have to pay the $88.00 for the medication because it is a once in a lifetime deal she gets indignant and wants to know why the company limits the offer. Sorry lady we can't answer that so you will have to call them. The next thing she says is why would my doctor give or to me. Because the doctor is told by the drug rep to hand out the coupons when he writes the medication prescription. He has no idea when you used the coupon and probably doesn't care.

Sent from my iPhone

Question of the day

Patient calls stating that she just got home from hospital from delivering a baby. She had eaten some onions and had breast fed the baby. Would this hurt the baby?

The baby may suffer some indigestion and some bad breath so don't let the baby breathe in someone's face.

Where is the common sense? That is something you can't teach.

Sent from my iPhone

Can people really be that dumb

When you work in a pharmacy you begin to understand how little people know about the workings of the pharmacy workflow.

First the patient either hands you a prescription or you receive one directly from the doctors office electronically. Now you have to find the patient in the computer files and make absolutely sure it is the correct patient. You can now scan the prescription into the computer. Once this is done then a technician via the computer files searches for the medication. Now all the remaining information is added such as date written, quantity (#30 or #10) of medication tablets or capsules, instructions on how to take the medication, days supply and physicians name that wrote the prescription.

Once this has been completed the pharmacist now checks the prescription online to verify all of the above items are correct. Once approved the leaflet is printed for the technician to fill. Now the technician has to retrieve the medication from the shelf and scan both the leaflet bar code and the medication bar code to verify that a match is correct. Once filled the medication is given to the pharmacist to review again via the computer by scanning the bar code. If all is correct and the medication image matches then the pharmacist places the medication into a bag and staples the leaflet to the front of the bag. Now the prescription can be sold to the patient.

You really get annoyed when the patient questions why their prescription(s) are not ready and they reply "All you have to do is pour the pills in a bottle and slap a label on the bottle."

No what you would like to do is SLAP them for being so DUMB!!!!