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Posting is still on hold. Vacation. It sure is warm here, but strangely comfortable. Here is the temperature as recorded by my rental car:

I am in Las Vegas. Just a few minutes ago (1230 Pacific time) a pair of Blackhawk helicopters (the variant with the refueling probe on the front) flew from the west and made a left to fly north, directly above the Las Vegas strip. Altitude was less than 300 feet, as they were below the level of my hotel.

Doors were open, and personnel were seen inside. Seems kind of odd, but not the first time seeing spooky stuff here.

The ransomware attacks continue. There are several hospitals (at least five) that are rumored to have been attacked by ransomware in the past two weeks. They are trying to keep it quiet, but the attacks were largely successful in at least a few of the attacks. Two hospitals are known to have been without computer support for over a week. I know, because one of them is the one where I work.

Some systems were not affected because they were on different servers, but the common thread here is that all of the hospitals that were attacked used the same medical record reporting software. That may or may not be important. At any rate, the loss of this server affected everything: medical records, prescription tracking, payroll, scheduling, email, you name it, it has all been down for over a week. They can’t even make people pay for food from the cafeteria because the POS system isn’t working. No cash register means that they are letting us eat for free.

Payday is Thursday, and we are already wondering if we are going to get paid. We can’t issue new account numbers to patients, and everything is being done on paper. We are tracking patient location and status by writing on windows with dry erase markers. everything has been reduced to using pen and paper. My unit alone has three people per shift, and we are generating over 800 pieces of paper during every 12 hour shift. That works out to each of us filling out one form every 23 seconds. Every second for 12 straight hours. We aren’t administrative- we are a clinical unit. Those papers are there to document what we are doing. I don’t even know how we are getting anything done with patient care because we are so buried in paperwork.

Some people are being furloughed because their jobs are completely dependent on computer technology. Other departments (mine included) are working overtime to handle the additional workload. I suggested that it would be cheaper to send people with nothing to do up to the departments that need help with paperwork, rather than pay people overtime. That suggestion was ignored. The extra paperwork doesn’t require technical or medical training, it simply needs hands and a functioning brain. Instead, my unit is working overtime. I worked 60 hours last week, and 60 hours the week before. So yeah, I really hope that we DO get paid.

That has cut into my personal time, as well as into my blogging.

The other thing that I wonder is why are all of these ransomware attacks happening all of a sudden? In this case, the hackers are demanding $5 million from EACH hospital that has been hacked. Is it money? Some other motivation? Why now? Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. The question is: Who is the enemy? Are we at war? Is this China? Russia? Iran? Or is it the Democrats trying to sow confusion? All of those sound farfetched, but what events of the last two years haven’t seemed even more unlikely?

We have already seen a bioweapon unleashed on the world, only to find out that our own government not only knew about the virus, they instructed us on countermeasures that they KNEW were untrue, but also that the guy in charge of responding was part of the team that developed it, and that our own government sponsored it. Then a part of our government used it as cover to rig a national election. I don’t thing anything is impossible at this point.

Because this may just be their handiwork.

The first case of over 500 stemming from the January 6 Trump rally is being dropped for lack of evidence.

No evidence. That doesn’t surprise me.

So that was quick. The job that I applied for two days ago? They called me while I was at work on Thursday morning and had a telephone interview. Nothing like interviewing for a job while you are at work.

Two hours later, they called and offered me the job. The offer was laughable. The woman said “We are making this offer in consideration of your four college degrees, as well as your 22 years of experience.” Then she told me what they were willing to pay: $16 per hour.

I told her that this was FAR too low. An entry level job running a cash register at a convenience store in this area pays more than that. I know, because my high school students were getting jobs at that rate of pay. I don’t know what kind of medical employee you think you are getting for that, but it won’t be me. I would sooner not work at all.

So, the search for a job continues.

This guy likes airplane food so much, he has been cooking food that imitates it at home during the lockdown. I thought it was unusual that he liked airline food that much, until I read the article. Now I know that he his idea of a good mouthful isn’t the same as mine.

How many times have we been told that you should just “be a man” and take your beating? A black man, employed by a Tampa Dunkin, punched a customer once in the head, killing him.

Punches are not harmless. I don’t allow people to attack me. Period. The fact is, more people are killed every year by fists and feet than are killed by so-called ‘assault weapons’.

In his defense, the employee is claiming that the customer used a racial slur. Even if the man did so, that isn’t an excuse for violence. It especially not a crime punishable by death.