Ouch!!

Our weather over New Year’s was especially warm and sunny by Canadian standards. So when the relatives in Sherwood Park (near Edmonton) invited us to bring our snow gear and have some fun, we gladly did!

Some of us visited while the guys assembled goal nets for a friendly, family street hockey game. With goals in place and sides picked, there was need of one more player. Not being one to stand on the sidelines, I volunteered enthusiastically. I had played a little hockey in high school and was up for a challenge.
 

The game was no more than five minutes long when my nephew slipped me a nice pass for a break away. My husband was in goal, so I ran for the puck to shoot a first goal past him. Nobody saw me go down.

Suddenly, my running went into slow motion. I could see my feet still going but my body was no longer coordinated with them. As the sidewalk came closer I thought, “This is going to hurt!” It did!

My shoulder took the brunt of the fall and I lay along the curved edge of the sidewalk, unable to move an arm that was screaming with pain. Daughter jumped in to access me, and later took me to the hospital emergency department. There an x-ray revealed the joint of my shoulder broken in two places, chipped, and pushed out of the socket. I was given a prescription and sent home in a sling & swathe.

After reporting to the emergency department in our local Red Deer hospital, I was referred to an orthopedic surgeon. By the time I attended that appointment, the medication initially prescribed was reacting and making me very nauseous, dizzy, lightheaded, and all-round sick. The surgeon explained the pros and cons of surgery and left me a couple days to make a decision.

Surgery seemed to be the best, and really the only logical, choice. On January 6, 2016, my 2:15 pm appointment resulted in my admittance to hospital by 4:00 pm and surgery at 9:00 pm! Having the shoulder back in place and reinforced by a plate with 11 screws eased the sharpness of the pain. I was thankful to get it over without having to lay and think about it very long. Then I could take a different, more effective painkiller and begin healing!

I have since discovered many people who have had a broken shoulder or arm, so I won’t detail the many challenges of those first weeks in a sling. Suffice it to say I really hope never to repeat them. Being unable to work/play on a computer or play the piano did not make me a happy camper. Eating spaghetti and meat sauce makes a mess. Reading is easy with the Kindle app on my smart phone. I persevered with my pulleys and stick exercises and, little by very little, improvement came.

Monday, April 25, I had another follow-up appointment with the surgeon. He found no concerns with the x-ray, said the bone has just about healed, and was satisfied with the range of motion I have attained. Finally the words I had been waiting for – “just use it!”

Thank you to my understanding family for their help, and to my many friends for their encouragement, and to Eugene at Protea Physiotherapy for his generous advise!

Aiding the Political Process: Part 2 – Canadian Federal Election

As everyone in Canada is aware, the federal election was called early. Though most people complained, this was a huge benefit to an otherwise unemployed but experienced election worker. My phone rang the morning after the election call, August 3, and I started work two days later.

First we helped to unpack supplies – lots of supplies – until furniture arrived and the phones and computers were hooked up. This time the office computers had their own server from Elections Canada, so the assembly was done by computer specialists.

 

Then I filled in on the Reception Desk while other office staff and election workers were being hired. Few people knew that the office was open yet at  this point, and the phone system was not fully operational, so the calls were few!

After a couple weeks, I transferred to a Revisions Clerk position. There we worked two and three clerks per shift, answering phone calls to help people know where to vote and to make corrections to the voter’s list. The closer the big date came the busier we were. If one cannot read a county map when one begins that job, one will learn and be an expert at it by the time one is finished! The change of boundary lines in our constituency was a challenge, with many wrong land locations for rural addresses. But in some quirky way it was fun!

On election day, October 19, I worked as Deputy Returning Officer at a polling station. There I handed out ballots to voters and gave instructions to help them mark the ballot correctly so it would count. At the end of the evening, the Poll Clerk and I counted the ballots for our poll and sorted all our supplies for return to the Returning Office. It was a long, busy day but interesting to meet people and see the Canadian electoral process work.

After the big day, a group of five or six Revisions Clerks and our supervisor worked for another five days to enter corrections and additions that were made to the voter’s list on election day.

With three month’s work behind me, I was then ready to hook up the RV and take a break!

Aiding the Political Process: Part 1 – Alberta Provincial Election 2015

Working in the Returning Office for an election is an experience like no other. I had this unique opportunity twice in 2015.

The Alberta election was held on May 5. My interview was in January, followed by training in Edmonton in February. In our Red Deer North office there was a Returning Officer, Elections Officer, Trainer and myself. My position was called Administrative Assistant, but was equivalent to being an office manager. Permission was granted to rent office space on April 1, so the Returning Officer, the Elections Clerk and I were busy sorting materials when the election was called. Suddenly, instead of spending a couple hours setting up our space, we were working all day.

My job for that day was to have three desktop and two laptop computers set up and functioning with internet and printer connections. That was no small feat, considering there wasn’t a piece of furniture in the office until after lunch! But with teamwork, it was accomplished by day’s end.
 

Each day’s activities were laid out on a calendar from Elections Alberta, and if followed completely, everything ran smoothly. Days were busy with phone calls, visitors, training and administrative duties.
 

 

Election night was the time for the Administrative Assistant to have the spotlight for a couple hours! It was my job to enter the election results into the Elections Alberta system as they were phoned in. As I did so, the results of each poll were immediately shown on computers and televisions across the province, including one laptop projected to a screen in the office for all the helpers to see.

In keeping with election workers’ policy, there is no comment here regarding the results. We are required to be non-biased in our work and are not to give opinions. Our role is to make the election in our riding run smoothly and provide everyone the chance to vote.

When materials were sorted and packed, all the poll workers pay requests submitted, computers repacked and the furniture returned, our employment was complete.

…watch for part 2 – Canadian Federal Election