Last night work was a weird one...

Two of my coworkers went outside for a smoke. While therey were there, a moving van backed into the ambulance driveway. Of course, the first thought of anyone who works for the government when something like that happens is "Oklahoma City. Bombs. Someone is coming to kill me!" The driver hopped put and threw some stuff into the trash. And of course the thought, "More bombs. Slimeball hates the govennment and is going to take me out." It turned out to be two women in the truck. One of them claimed to be a patient and wanted to know where to park the truck for her morning appointment. My coworkers told her, then went to try to find the police officers. When the police officers were found, the woman had vanished, but the truck was parked in the suface employee lot. The cops called the moving van company, and the truck was supposed to have been turned in a week ago in Massachusetts, so might have stolen...a few hours later I noticed two women sleeping in recliners in a little used (at night it is little used, anyway) patient waiting area. I told my coworkers what they looked like, and they said it was the two women from the truck. They immediately called the police, but it was near the end of the night, so I didn't hear what happened after, and if the women were actually patients, or if they really were driving a stolen vehicle...

Th VA was in the news a week or so back as being on the short list for terrorists to hit. The Washington office sent a followup email, telling people not to worry, and just to come into work as usual. I found out last night that we really are on the short list. We are a soft target among federal government facilities because we have to have at least an entrance or two open 24/7 for the emergency rooms. The VA where I work is thought to be on the short list for the short list, because we are located directly across the street from a small nuclear reactor. Since the news came out in fact, there have been two (at least) incidents where suspicious people have possibly been checking us out as a target -- by the time people thought to notify the police, the suspicious people are gone...

You know, maybe it's time to start looking for a new job. I have been there nearly my entire adult life, and I love some of my coworkers like family, and I love working with the veterans -- so many of them remind me of my father -- but in this age of Oklahoma Cities and September 11s-- is it enough to love your job to stay there when you know there are people who would gladly kill you because of it?