Now given the fact that I do have a few years on Jim, he still unfortunately has to work since he can not collect his pension or social security. So, work he does.

Once again, I found myself able to retire as in not work, stay at home, do nothing if I wanted to. Ironically that wasn't going to happen, well at least not fully.

Jim really wanted the adventure of being a full time RVer, and secretly I enjoyed that lifestyle. So, he began his job search again. Damn government got us twice now. First the boat business and then the oil business.

I was thinking just the other day that my life had a distinct pattern. My sister was older than I was and by the time I was four she had her first child. I learned the skills of changing diapers. This talent expanded in the next few years to the loveable aunt to several nieces and nephews with their diapers and barf, all for free of course. Then for a couple of years I earned money babysitting for other people, and with the circus. My accident took away four years of my life of babysitting but not the circus, my family just worked with me.

When I recovered I decided with the help and guidance of some of my tribal elders, that I wanted to become a nurse. Now I was cleaning up poop, barf and blood. I never thought of it at the time, but a pattern was growing. I enjoyed my career immensely. I loved caring for those in need, for their family members who shared that caring, and for the ability to teach them along the way. Along the way I became an instructor, an ICU nurse and then a hospice nurse/administrator. I never minded the patients and their close family but did find the well-wishers, the goody two shoes, some of the doctors and testing techs to be annoying.

The student nurses and medical students really wanted to learn. I got to play a part in a program change for the medical students. The last part of their first year, they were to be partnered with a seasoned RN, whatever we did, they did. They learned to clean patients, changed beds, change dressings, take out staples or sutures, put in NG (nasogastric tubes), give bedpans and enemas to name a few. They became assistances to the nurses for three whole months. Sorry but I digressed again.

Somewhere along the way, I got my first of many cats and later a dog. After I met Jim, I discovered he had a different theory regarding litter boxes and walking a dog. I was elected to do the litter box changes. Only after a neighbor's dog had dumped several times on our yard, when we still had the house, did he fully understand the concept of cleaning up. But still to this day, I do the litter box, clean up pet barf, and bag doggie droppings unless he walks her. In that case he makes sure he finds a ditch. The camping parks make it mandatory to clean up after pets. (smile and giggling)

So, the long and short of this rant is that I seem to have been destined to clean up the nasties. Perhaps that is why I have always had the attitude that 's**t happens, and I carry a big shovel.'

To be continued (no more nursing stuff or poop)