This Place Still Strikes Me as Odd

• My short timeframe here has forced us to work longer hours. The guys have figured out that if they martyr themselves and act like they don't have time to eat lunch that I'll go to my bungelow and make lunch for everyone and bring it back. At least that's the way it has been working for most of this week. My only problem is that I don't have a cost center to charge my cooking time to.
• Medical care here is pretty sketchy. Last time I was here, a guy down the hall had a stroke in his office. It was so bad that he couldn't talk before they got him out of his office. They took him to the hospital and the next day they sent him home with baby aspirin!!! That seems bad enuff, but something happened yesterday that I still don't believe. One of the new operators who is in class down the hall [those guys have been in 'school' here since February] came to work with a little bit of a limp. We asked him what was up and he said he had a sore toe from an ingrown toenail. I took him to the first aid clinic here in the refinery so he could get some Motrin and the 'sorta EMT' took a look at his toe. Next thing we know, this dude [and he isn't even trained to EMT status] grabs a can of liquid nitrogen and sprays the toe for a while with the nitrogen. Then he breaks out a scalpel [or it could have been an exacto knife] and cuts around the toenail and then pulls it out with some forceps. Meanwhile, my guy is just watching him cut his toe up like there was nothing going on!!! I was [still am] horrified!! Where did first aid boy learn that trick? How can they get away with that? The answer...socialized O'bama-style medicine. Both guys said that a doctor here would do the same thing but it would be a week or so before he could get in! I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if you went to that first aid station with a toothache or constipation.
• Got some bad news from the other end of the island. The Marriott luxury high rise laid off 200 people Wednesday. With the refinery in jeopardy, tourism is all they got. People are getting a little morose.
• OH...I think my giant iguana is back [the one jumped out of my garbage can a couple of months ago in the dark]! This morning there were some huge tracks in the sand just outside my gate by the car. The tracks are pretty obvious. The feet overlap each other on each side and the tail makes a groove between the foot prints. These feet are about as big as a chicken foot and they're about a foot apart. Can't wait to walk up on this guy in the dark again. I'm guessing his head would be close to softball size.

Of course it could just be a chicken...

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