Some people feel good during the heat of summer, others like to take to the slopes in the winter, reveling in the warm feeling of their bones snapping as they ski into trees or have a Wide World of Sports-style wipeout. For me, the crisp autumn air is the best, with the vernal months taking a close second.
On my way in, I stopped at Starbucks. We have a Starbucks with a drive-up window here…
Truth be told, Starbucks isn’t my favorite coffee, but it’s not bad. Also, our local coffeehouse, Brownstones, is currently on my S-list. They’re using cups and/or lids that leak way too easily, and I’m really tired of brown coffee spots on my freshly laundered white dress shirts.
So I got my cup of coffee and headed south to the hospital. I tried to snap a picture of the trees along the side of Route 110 to show the lovely fall colors out here on the Island. We get beautiful colors on Long Island, but I’m afraid the point-and-shoot camera (an excellent one, actually, but still…) just couldn’t figure out on what point it needed to focus.
So take my word for it—that’s a tree (beyond my dirty windshield). It’s just a very blurry picture of one…
I continued to drive south, following a Volkswagen ToeRag into Amityville, arriving in time for my first meeting of the day. I knew this was a meeting on bioterrorism, but it seems I had the rest of it wrong. I had planned a whole attack, but it seems we’re against bioterrorism. Who knew? :)
I had the whole thing planned out. I figured that a massive pre-emptive strike against the hospitals to our north and east would do wonders for our business. Aside from their having to send patients to us in the aftermath of the attack, people would stay away from them for a long time. Sadly, it seems my plan isn’t needed. This meeting isn’t meant to plan for an attack launched by us. Rather, it’s to plan for an attack against us or the contamination of a local resident. How dull!
I actually had planned to launch into a brief, “okay, here’s what I think is best—we hit Good Sam and New Island [hospitals] before they get a chance to hit us. Something aerosolized and fast-acting would be best. We could bring them to their knees and take their business before they knew what hit them!” Yes, I would actually say that to get everyone to laugh—if you have a sense of humor, I’m fun to work with. Unfortunately, there were people there from the State, and I didn’t know if they’d appreciate my warped sense of humor.
So the day started on a more mundane note. We planned for a contamination drill for this weekend, while I multitasked, building a salary analysis spreadsheet to address a possible retention problem in one of our divisions. I think the people in the meeting probably figured I was taking copious notes of our grand plans.
I had to pack up the computer when we went for a walk to plan the drill—“an employee steps in a liquid substance here and then feels a burning sensation (I resisted the urge to ask if said employee had been on a hot date lately). The employee heads to the ER.” We then debated which way a panicked employee would go—this would determine the areas through which potential contamination was spread.
On and on, we plotted this all out, as if such things (the reactions of frightened people) can be predicted. I was relieved when our Director of Staff Development stopped some of the debating with, “Don’t worry so much about what will go wrong. One of the best learning experiences in a drill like this comes from examining what went wrong to find where we can improve.”
Okay, the drill should be useful. I just have to put off my “attack the competing hospitals” idea for a later date. ;)
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