At Odds with the Law and Other Life News

I'm definitely all for watching out for child abusers, but this one strikes me as going way off the deep end.

Heard a blurb on the noon news yesterday about how some places are planning on prosecuting known child molesters if they hand out Halloween candy to children.

I mean, really. Now doesn't that seem to be just a little off the scale for reasonable thought? Taking things into consideration, yes, people in a neighborhood should be aware if there is an offender living close by. But, hell, we're talking about handing out candy to kids for chrissakes! Just *how* does that become a bad thing?

Unless, of course, parents are stupid enough to not be out with their kids, and haven't put the fear into the kids about how they shouldn't go *into* anyone's house for any reason when they're out trick or treating. Parents who don't have the sense of a gnat to make sure that their kid doesn't go out alone, etc. Any child molester who would even think about trying to entice kids into their lair on Halloween would deserve to have body parts removed, from cajones to brain matter.

It really comes right down on the parent's head. It's *their* responsibility to protect their kids. That includes awareness in all aspects of raising the kiddos. And teaching the kids how to have a clue, too.

Now, those sex offenders, on the other hand, could be very relieved that they don't have to put up with the hoards of costumed kids coming to the door, don't have to spend vast amounts of money on candy, etc., but the simple act of handing candy out your door to kids should not be something that people get all in a dither about.

Yes, I know about all the other potential problems that could happen. But at its absolutely most basic form this should not be an issue.

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I heard from daughter Lyn that our grandson Luke had issues with Halloween this year. It sounds as though both she and Jared have tried to take Luke shopping for a costume on more than one occasion prior to Halloween, but the kid got all bent out of shape about it. Last night they took the kids and went to a friend's house for a kind of party/take the kids trick or treating sort of thing. Some parents stayed at the house, others went with the kids. Luke had no costume, but one of the other kids had an extra, so they tried to convince Luke to dress up.

"No! I'm OOK!" And "OOK" wouldn't give up his identity to be someone else, even for candy. But I guess he did finally go up to the door at a few houses - wouldn't say "Trick or Treat", but he did say "thank you".

And, while in this conversation with Lyn, we began discussing Lainie's and my birthday on the 17th. I asked Lyn if she was going to make Lainie a "theme" cake. You could hear the kid roll her eyes as she said, "No problem...we've got to make her a "Miss Piggy" cake." And I busted out laughing, because Miss Piggy was Lyn's nickname when she was a tot. That kid could chow with the best of them, and I'm fully convinced that Lainie is the kid I wished on Lyn in the mother's curse: (I hope you have one just like you some day!")

Robert and I went out for dinner last night. Robert is a Halloween child, so he'd requested that we skip handing out candy and go to dinner at a favorite Chinese restaurant. We called our friends, Frankie and Ralph to go with us. Frankie and I go out and do things together a lot, including lunches, so it felt strange to sit across a table from her at a restaurant with our spouses attached! LOL Anyway, we were just finishing up our meal when another long-time acquaintence of Robert's and mine came into the restaurant with his wife and other friends. He asked what we were doing there. Robert said we generally always tried to come there on Halloween. "Me TOO," said Tom. And Tom proceeded to tell us it was his birthday. And he couldn't believe it when Robert told him it was his birthday, too.

Isn't it just like men to know each other for 30 years and not have a clue that they share a birthday? *shakes head and mutters*

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Had my trainee, T, out with me again. I have her with me again tomorrow and then Dean has her on Thursday and Friday. Today was a very slow day. T only got three draws out of three attempts, which is good, but it took us 3.5 hours to do nine patients, and others had to come to help finish our assigned floors. And, T did okay, although I had to keep making sure she was going to poke the patient in the right spot - she has a habit of palpating the vein, then she'll look at me and say something like, "Here's the vein, now I'll go in right here, right?" And she'll show me a spot off to the side of the vein. I'm boggled at this coming up time and again. And again, in one of my periodic requests to find out if she has any questions, she said, "Now, I just don't understand this - the book says that you go on from the side of the vein, but you keep telling me that I don't do that."

I'm flummoxed, because I know she's not using the training manual I had in school, but I'm familiar with the workbook that Kathy built for training within the lab and I can't think of *anything* that might be in there, so I told T she would just have to show me what was hanging her up.

Later today she showed me what was in the workbook. It was a "cross-section" picture showing what it would look like if one went "through" the vein. But to T, she's been interpreting that flat picture as a method of showing that you enter the vein from the side. *sigh*

After the patient load was done, I asked Kathy for a few minutes and she said she needed to talk to me, too, so we went in the office and closed the door for a bit.

I told her of the other phlebotomists coming to help and giving me distinct body language about how they resented having to come help on my floor(s) because of my trainee slowing things down. I just wanted to make sure in my own mind that it was okay to take my time with T and not rush things - of course Kathy said that was exactly what she wanted me to do, and everyone else would have to deal with it. I'm a trainer precisely *because* I have the patience to deal with this kind of stuff; most of the others are too interested in hurrying up and getting back to sit around in the lab. My training methods wherever I've worked and trained people is to be patient, make sure they are comfortable with each step before going on. It might take a little longer, but in the long run, you end up with an employee who knows what the heck they are supposed to do! Part of my job is to help trainees develop confidence in themselves and their work; something that was neglected totally when I was trained in this job! (That's probably why I'm good at it now.)

After that conversation, Kathy handed me a sheet of paper to read...which is what she wanted to talk to me about. It had two dates on it and a note at the top and was from one of the women who runs the Med Lab, which is where a lot of the med students train while in school. The paper was a request from the woman who is in charge of doing a lot of the training of the physician assistant students. She'd gotten in touch with Kathy to request that she ask me to come help her train the PA students to learn basic phlebotomy. And they'll even *pay* me! LOL! I'm so tremendously pleased and honored!

And enough out of me for now. This is my one TV night of the week and my shows are on! More later!