Cruise 10/11/2003

[bettemom]

Hi,Just testing picture...

 

[matty204]

Papa,

Sorry to hear about your back problems. I can understand your concerns regarding the car. Nice referrence to the cannonball movies. I personally found the GumBall Rally a closer representation of the actual event. Additionally, there is that great Raul Julia line as he rips the rear view mirror off the Ferrari ”first rule of Italian racing, what's behind you does not matter”

 

[Sarah'sMomfrom PA]

papa..can appreciate your back problems..Sam had back surgery back in 1985 and works at a job that he is constantly lifting 120-150 lbs. at a time (his company makes the faceplates that go in front of the tv picture tube) and had been out of work from before Thanksgiving and just went back to work at his regular job (prior to that they had him on light duty) but is still having problems with radiating pain in both of his legs. (The company doctor won't send him to a specialist because he is blaming his problems on the prior back surgery (which wasn't work related)--claims it is just scar tissue and he is going to have to learn to live with it.

BTW..Sam got home from third shift at 6:45 a.m. this morning and came into our bedroom (I was still sleeping) and informed me that "we" had a problem (how "we" were involved is a mystery because I was just woken up!) and our dog was..(he didn't have to say much more because at that point, I smelled it) sprayed by a skunk in our backyard. Wanted to know what he should do so I told him to go to the local store and buy tomato juice--needless to say, my entire house (and outside the house since it is pouring rain) smells like a skunk. Just be glad you don't live near us!!

 

[matty204]

Sarah'smom,

Oh oh oh, there comes JCAHO (hospital accreditation). If you think they are fun, you should spend some additional time with CAMTS (Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Services). Makes for a well rounded visit.

 

[papa]

Good thing we are in Nashville Mary Jo. Maybe Cathy can smell you as you two are only 20 miles apart.

I don't think that Key West will know what hit them. Mike

 

[Sarah'sMomfrom PA]

Matty204...what is CAMTS accreditation? I never heard of it before. My boss is paranoid with JCAHO as we had them three years ago and our department got a Type I (due to Biomed not keeping up their records) and he must have taken some heat over it because usually we are getting ready for Joint one month before (like crazy people--sealing penetrations, checking for dirty ceiling tiles, etc.) but he has been going like a house on fire since January so this year we should be ready. Our entire hospital only got 2 Type I's and we got 3 years with distinction which over all wasn't too bad (second Type I was due to problem with Human resources) and none were related to patient care. The problem we have is that we are a small city and there are three hospitals within a two block area so we all compete for the same customer base. Didn't know if you caught President Bush in January--he was in PA addressing the medical malpractice insurance issue (was at the hospital two blocks down from us)--we actually had all of our orthopedic surgeons post notices that they were leaving NE PA and all of our OB/GYN doctors stopped taking patients. We shut down our OR in December because there were no surgeries scheduled except for emergencies (which we handled on an on call basis)--Governor Rendell has given the doctors some hope and has been actively trying to address this problem.

 

[matty204]

Sarah'sMom,

CAMTS is a group that accredits medical transport services. The air service is a CAMTS service. Accredition is not require but is a nice plus. I think CAMTS used JCAHO as a model. Lots of review of records and etc. When i was an operations manager for one of the ground services they interviewed me as they were doing the accreditation of the air service.

 

[dan and scott]

Tina,

Please add Chuck and Dean to the hunt list.

Dan

 

[Hopkins]

Thanks Dan of "dan and scott" for finding 4 more people for the scavenger hunt.

We have the following people pre-registered. Welcome Aboard!

dan and scott (Dan & Scott) - 2
cdnmickeylover (Fiona & Jim) - 2
Viking (Eric & Anja) - 2
DizneeDenna (Denna & David) - 2
Hopkins (Tina & Bill) - 2
RellingTwin (Mary, George, Regina & George) - 4
Twinave (Ave, Mark, Mary & Casey) - 4
Windermere (Nancy & George) - 2
scootersmom (Colleen, Don & Josh(maybe Mandy)) - 3
Missy and Tammy (Missy & Tammy) - 2
@GoofyNut (Cathy & Art) - 2
papa (Mike & Kathy) - 2
padisneyfan (Nancy & Norm) - 2
bettemom (Kim, Bette, Joseph & Jada) -4
Sarah'sMomfromPA (Mary Jo, Sam & Sarah) - 3
alikat99 (Amy, Chris & Emily) - 3
Okwmiester (Doug, Christy, Cori & Connor) - 4
pohnate (Nate & Jean) - 2
Chuck and Dean (Chuck & Dean) - 2

That's 49 people!!!!!

www.keywesthunt.com

*Cost?
It's $20/person for 3 hours. Kids 10 years and under are FREE. Prepayment by check is required three months prior to excursion (July). They don't take credit cards. If we miss Key West, the checks will be refunded. I'll provide an address and more info on this in July so we can mail our checks to them.

*Place and time?
We are going to meet on Sunday, October 12th, 2003 at 1PM in front of the stairs to the Hilton Hotel Lobby. It's to the right of the red brick building (Custom House) as you leave the ship. The Magic usually docks in front of the Hilton Hotel.

*Electric Cart?
If one needs an electric cart, the scavenger hunt people can point you in the right direction to rent one. The two electric cart places they use are Key West Cruisers @ (305)294-4724 http://keywest.com/keywestcruisers/ on Truman Ave at Truman and Duval and Reef Mobile (formerly Randal J Scooters) @ (305) 296-0208 www.reefmobile.com on Greene Street (near Sloppy Joes Bar on Duval). The Reef Mobile Electric Carts are themed, but have changed management and are going to be themed according to "reefs", like shark, manatee, dolphin, baracouda or octopus in a reef theme instead of the polka-dotted one on the hunt website. Call these companies to make reservations if you require an electric cart. An electric cart isn't necessary to experience this tour.

*Sites?
Southermost Point, Hemmingways House, Shipwreck, Cigar Place, Shrimp Dock and off the wall places you might not normally have known about. The normal Key West sites plus some interesting wacky ones, too. Learn about interesting facts and trivia of these landmarks and sites.

*Hunting for objects?
In addition to searching for the sites and answering the clues (all for points are counted at the end for prizes), there is an object named "PINKY". He is their mascot and if you find him, he is worth an extra 50 points. People in Key West know of Pinky the Flamingo. He's famous. As our award winning scavenger hunt is, too. At the end of the hunt, people gather at the "mystery location" for the awards ceremony where all the points are tallied and stories of our hunt are told.

That's it for now. They will be checking in on us to give our group more information, so they will be posting shortly and I will also. If more people want to join the group, just reply to this thread. If I missed someone, sorry. Just remind me, and I'll add you.

Tina

 

[Tulirose]

Good morning all - oops - Good Afternoon. It is a rainy miserable day here on Long Island. I was up early and went to my jazzercise class at nine (had attended Mass Saturday night - ). Had a great workout. Came home, had something to eat and then while DH was in shower, I was going to just rest.... for a minute. I ended up falling asleep quite soundly!!

It is a miserable day to go anywhere and a GREAT day to sleep!!

I remember my days working in Medical Records in the hospital and all the prep for JCAHO. I was even made to postpone jury duty at one point because they were due to come and my boss wouldn't let me take time away from work. Now I work for a cardiology group so we don't have that worry any more!

 

[Viking]

It's great, that you work out, Rosemary !!! We're proud of you We' ll show them on Key West what "Survival of Fittest" really means
I'll do an reduced workout this week to regenerate my power-reserves for the Halfmarathon next Sunday with slow runs at 6 to 7mph for an hour each day. And from Wednesday on it's Pasta-Time every day to load up some Carbs for the race. Thursday We'll do some iron pumping and saturday we'll do an hour Badminton in the morning and sunday at 0900am I'll have the Moment of Truth I just hope that weather will be a bit more favourable: It poured cats and dogs today over here, which was especially bad for all the people celebrating carnival, because we had Frankfurt's Annual Carnival Parade today. All the participants looked like drowned rats
Tonight we'll watch "A Fish Called Wanda" in the original English version on DVD. It was realeased last week as a special edition and I had it on pre-order with Amazon. And I also ordered "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" which is one of my all-time favourites.

Mike,
the Subaru is a nice car. And it's a good buy for an old Beetle-fan as it also has a flat-four-engine. OK, it's in the front and watercooled, but it is a flat-four, which is very rare nowadays.
We have some of these tiny micro-vans from Subaru at our ambulance service for the training department. They have a 1-litre-inline-four which is rearmounted and drives the rear wheels, but the all-wheel-drive can be activated by a button on the shifter. This should only be done on slippery surfaces, because there is no differential between the front and the rear axle. The car is only abot 12 feet long, but 6 feet high, and has seats for 6 people. We usually load it with all the stuff you need for a First-Aid-Training: Bandages, motobike helmets, 15 to 20 CPR-dummies, etc. These cars are ugly like hell, but very useful and we get them at a great price because the local Subaru-dealership is a sponsor.
Subarus don't sell very good here, but in Bavaria, Austria and Switzerland they sell like hot bread, because they all come with standard 4x4, which comes very handy in the alpine region.

 

[Tulirich]

Eric -- My DW is doing really great with all those gerbil exercises but I need to feel I accomplish something. So I prefer a sport-type workout. This is not to say repetitive exercise is not good, but it can be boring. I grew-up playing all kinds of sports and in gym class I never like doing the same workout over and over again. The one I did and do like to do is use free weighs. I know this is repetitive, but I don't do too many and it's good for the heart.

Mike-- If you buy a new SUV car will you keep the VW for the long trips? A Subaru Forester may be a little hard on the butt. . Also do all the Foreign car companies make their products in Tennessee? If so, parts should be easy to come by.

 

[RellingTwin]

We had our JACHO inspection last year. Thank goodness it only comes around every 2 years!Because we are a hospital clinic, in a detatched building we have missed being visited by the inspectors for the last 2 visits, BUT...we still have to prepare to be inspected. Mostly this is chart review, but still a royal pain in the you know what!

Matty204..I've always LOVED that line!

MaryJo...do you have the smell removed yet! What a thing to wake up to!

Tina...the hunt is going to be a highlight of the cruise

The patient I mentioned is truly crazy. But her hubby is even crazier. The last youngest baby (4 mo old) the prior pregnancy (a set of twins) and the current pregnancy are from her boyfriend!

Rosemary...rainy days are perfect for napping

 

[RellingTwin]

Where is Sheri? I saw the thread about someone using her photos. I hope that is not the reason we have not seen her!

 

[Viking]

Mary,
Shari said she's going into lurk-mode for some time. She got heavily bashed by some je*ks, who don't know crap about copyrighted photos. I can understand her.
But she's still with us.

Rich,
the ship's gym also has a nice set of weights and some nautilus-style machines and cable-pulls. Perhaps we can pump some iron together to earn ourselves a double dessert

 

[Tulirose]

Shari is a little gunshy right now and spending some time away from the DIS, and frankly, I don't blame her. I feel she was unjustly attacked and criticized on that thread. I've only seen attacks like that on my rare visits to the Debate Board and on the Cruiseboard in that old "Dress Code" thread debacle a year or so back.

Shari - we're here for you when you wanna return.

 

[Viking]

I know that you Americans are very fond of akronyms, but sometimes it's hard for us non-Americans. So what the heck does JACHO mean? I got so far that it must be some kind of Quality Management Certification in the health business, but I would like to know details. Could some of you please explain?
But take your time - We've gotta go to bed now. I'll read it tomorrow during my lunchbreak, when you're still in Dreamland

Have a great Sunday evening

 

[Sarah'sMomfrom PA]

Viking...JCAHO is Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and it is a mandatory "requirement" that all hospitals and related clinics, etc must submit to in order to operate as a hospital and receive government funding. The inspections usually take place every 2 or 3 years (depending on their whim on what they decide to give you--either a 2 or 3 year window for inspection) (I think it depends on how many violations are found) they usually give you advance notice (ie, we know that they are coming sometime this summer but don't yet know when) but whenever you get a Type I violation, JCAHO has the right to just pop in as a surprise element. They have never done this yet to us but there is always a first time. We also have to comply with the PA Department of Health both the Nursing Division and Life Safety Division (my boss is head of all building projects and before we can even consider a building project, we have to submit our plans to the department of health. Hope that answers your question--I'd forgotten that we have alot of "healthcare" people on this thread!!

 

[cdnmickeylover]

Sarah's Mom -- Oh I read that your dog got sprayed by the skunk and had to laugh. Our last dog, Freckles, was soooo stupid when it came to skunks. She once got sprayed three times within 10 days. I know the smell well. There is a product called "Skunk Off" that is specifically for animals to get rid of the smell and it works really well. We got it at the local pet store and keep a supply on hand. So far our present dog, Lily, has only gotten sprayed once.

Actually my brother got sprayed when he was about 12 -- he was out in the backyard cleaning the pool at about 6am one morning and rescued a baby skunk who had fallen into the pool. The skunk thanked him by spraying him full on. He didn't realize it was a skunk until after he was sprayed because it was a baby and the stripe wasn't totally visible. When he came back into the house he woke everyone up though.

The patient with 13 kids is a bit crazy -- doesn't she realize that if she has 13 kids she then has to deal with 13 teenagers!!! One is a challenge enough. He actually joked this afternoon about what time I was going to get him up tomorrow morning. At the same time he reminded me that March Break starts on Friday so he only has to catch the bus 4 days this week.

Fiona

 

[Tulirich]

Eric-- Okay kid I'm up to a challenge That is as long as there are no young women around. I am easily distracted at my age.


Sarah's Mom--- Years ago, when we were camping, our dog saw a skunk and thought it was a kitty. Lucky she was on a leash and just barked at it. I've heard of people keeping Skunks as pets.