Another day in Paradise! The old psychiatrist left. The new one arrived, and immediatly her blood pressure spiked. She is in the hospital, and we don't know when/if she will return. The fat white guy who gave us so much trouble, hurt his back again (Right!) and is on medical leave. This is right before his 1 1/2 week vacation. We are left with only 3-4 staff on. 2/5 Pool people I hired are off with sick family. They didn't even make it through the 2 week orientation. My PM manager finally came back from maternity leave. Before that, she had been severely assaulted by a kid, so could not be on the floor. We had not had her on the floor for 10 months. The hospital admitted a hemophiliac who is bleeding inside his head. He acts more like an end stage Alzheimers pt than a kid. Most of our girls are retarded and hyper-sexual. It is tough keeping them away from the boys. One boy is facing adult charges for public sexual behavior. We have 7 kids about to be admitted, one who has been admitted 3X before. She is a horribly assaultive kid, large and muscular, so we are even more worried abt our bleeding kid. I am hiring people as fast as I can, but it is not fast enough. On a bright note, it is only 4 weeks until I go overseas for 3 weeks. I'm sure I will return to an even bigger mess than it is now.

Another week closer to the big "R". I have decided to travel more, and hope to just trek around the UK for awhile. I did that in Scotland and Ireland, and it was wonderful. Rec'd my cabin number today for the cruise. It looks like it will be quiet and out of the traffic. Met with the Juvie prison people this week, and they think the Feds are about to bow out. One of their psychologists (and prior cronie) confided in me that she is leaving in the next few weeks, and can't wait. Our new, incompetent psychiatrist is about to leave, and only has another week on the unit. The kids have straightened out despite her mismanagement of their meds, and I have hired 5 new staff. I intend to put many, many staff on each shift. Admin will have a fit, but that will be my parting shot. I will hire 4 more people before I'm done. Last week's 5 star meal was just too wonderful. It was abt 10 courses, which included scallops, squab, and filet mignon. Next week will be my darling nephew's 10th BDay. He has been the absolute joy of my life. I am forever grateful to his parents for allowing me to be so close to him. He and I are good buds, and he tells me stuff about his life that he doesn't tell anyone else. I am honored!

OK, this is a "must see".

Astronauts recall time as men on the moon
Updated By Stan Godlewski for USA TODAY
Friday's release of a documentary film, In the Shadow of the Moon, brings together Apollo astronauts, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, 77, Charles Duke, 71, Ed Mitchell, 76, Alan Bean, 75, and Harrison Schmidt, 72. "We never talked about anything that was going on in the rest of the world. We had tunnel vision," Duke says of those days.

Apollo 17 astronaut Captain Gene Cernan salutes the US flag on the surface of the moon in a NASA photo used to promote the motion picture "In the Shadow of the Moon." Cernan was commander of Apollo 17 and was the last man to walk on the moon.
By Traci Watson, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — The men who flew to the moon in the 1960s and '70s wasted little time then musing about the meaning of their historic adventures, let alone their own emotions. They were macho test pilots, and they had a job to do.
"The mind-set then was, 'How do we get to the moon?' " said Alan Bean, 75, who strolled on the lunar surface in 1969. "We weren't thinking about the philosophical things more than in passing."
Today the moonwalkers are in their 70s, and the passage of time has allowed them to mull over their feelings about the extraordinary things they did. Their memories and opinions have recently gained fresh relevance as NASA, at the direction of President Bush, works to send humans back to the moon by 2020.
Lately, the astronauts who flew the Apollo missions to the moon have been much in demand, this time by filmmakers. Two new documentaries capitalize on the willingness of the astronauts to wax poetic about their journeys — and to talk more candidly than they could when they made their flights.
Five of the astronauts who appear in the films gathered at a hotel here Wednesday to promote In the Shadow of the Moon, an audience award winner at the Sundance Film Festival, held in Park City, Utah.
In the Shadow of the Moon features eight of the 12 men who walked on the moon. Three others are dead, and the famously media-shy Neil Armstrong did not participate. Also featured are two men who circled the moon but didn't land there.
The documentary will be released Friday in New York and rolled out nationwide in coming weeks. The astronauts received no compensation, other than $4,000 apiece for their expenses.
The other documentary, The Wonder of It All, includes all but one of the moonwalkers from the first film. It has been shown only at film festivals.
The surge of interest may be due in part to NASA's new lunar program, said Harrison Schmitt, 72, who in 1972 was the second-to-last man to walk on the moon.
"People have finally begun to spend some time thinking about what it was like to be on the moon," he says. "Apollo was a successful effort to go the moon."
One of Schmitt's colleagues was less idealistic. Filmmakers realized "a part of history was about to pass them by," said Edgar Mitchell, 76, who spent 1½ days on the moon in 1971. "We're all in our 70s now — better grab us before we're gone."
Even for the participants, Shadow was a revelation. It was "very, very enjoyable … for me to watch and to get to know the emotional side" of his colleagues' moon trips, says Charles Duke, 71, who walked on the moon in 1972.
In conversations Wednesday, the astronauts talked about what it was like to compete in the Cold War's space race and visit the moon:
•Bean emphasized how engrossed the Apollo astronauts were in their work. "We never talked about anything that was going on in the rest of the world," he says. "We had tunnel vision. … I found out about the '60s after the (Apollo) program was over, on the Discovery Channel."
•"I was in awe of the beauty, as Buzz (Aldrin) captured it, 'magnificent desolation,' " said Duke, referring to Aldrin's words in 1969 as the second man to set foot on the moon. "The only color is that lunar module. … It's just fantastic!"
Aldrin, 77, interrupted Duke: "You guys had so much better scenery to look at, and more time to go out and monkey around. Three different times, you went outside."
•Though Mitchell walked on the moon, he had what he calls his "profound experience" on the way back. On his three-day return to Earth, he had little to do but look out the window. Mitchell says he got the "big-picture story" by "seeing the Earth in this tiny little perspective in the huge cosmos, and seeing its beauty. It's a little oasis in this vastness of space."
James Hansen, a space historian at Auburn University and Armstrong's biographer, says most of the astronauts from the Apollo era had a hard time articulating their feelings because they were trained as engineers and lapsed into technical speak when they discussed their missions.
Today's lunar astronauts are "half a lifetime at least away from (the Apollo) era," says Hansen. "They do have a lot more perspective. … It does tend to bring out emotions in them."
Now, that perspective is also helping to shape the moon missions NASA hopes to launch in the coming decade. Schmitt is chairman of NASA's advisory council, which examines the space agency's activities, including the lunar campaign. Duke was a consultant to Lockheed Martin while it drew up the first design of the ship that will carry astronauts back to the moon.
Aldrin serves no formal role but proffers his advice — such as having an odd number of crewmembers for long flights, so there's never a tie vote in an argument. He says it's better than being a paid consultant. "A consultant is somebody who tells the customers what they want to hear," he says. "I don't tell them what they want to hear."

Happy 60th B-day! It was a wonderful celebration. We spent 2 1/2 days visiting, cooking, eating, playing! I was worn out upon return to work! One day we had an "Iron Chef" cook off, with everyone voting and critiquing. Incredible food. A foot tall chocolate cake that was to die for. A few days prior, I went to the last required retirement seminar.

Work! It has sucked! Last week, one girl slit her wrist, and ODed. So, to the ER! It ended up not being as bad as we thought, but still caused a lot of drauma. Her intent, of course. This week, a kid drank a bottle of Purel, an alcohol based hand cleanser. Again, to the ER! He said he just wanted to feel tingly inside, but that did not happen (not enough alcohol). Staffing issues included: a staff out b/c of a positive PPD, a staff quit without saying goodbye .... just picked up his pay check and turned in his keys and badge, a staff's wife was severely assaulted and is out on leave, a staff's father is deathly ill and she is out, the PM manager is still on maternity leave, a staff is on vacation ... therefore we are too short. Plus, we got a new kid yesterday who is a hemophiliac, and has internal cranial bleeding, therefore dementia, and will probably die soon. Next week, we get a six foot, 230 pound criminal to restore to competency.

I am interviewing and hiring staff right and left, and have hired 3 staff for our pool ...but of course, they have to attend a two week training off the unit and a 3-5 day training on the unit, before they can be of use to us. The permanent position that is open, finally posted yesterday, so I have to interview 3 people before I can hire for that job. It is TOO much!