Bill Bryson

Last year Becca gave me this book by Bill Bryson. It is about his time on the Appalachian Train. She knows that I have a certain reverence for the Appalachian Trail and thought I would enjoy reading about someone's travels on it. She was right, I loved it. Actually, I found his writing style absolutely engaging and have continued enjoying his books as I've proceeded to read 2 more of them. I just finished In a Sunburned Country about his travels through Australia.

What he does is to travel through an area describing what he finds and what experiences he has. He enjoys going to places that are not always listed in travel guides but that help give a better feel for and understanding of the area. Actually sometimes he just describes random things. Like if you ever wanted to visit a store that sells both pet supplies and pornography (why?) he'll tell you where to find it in Australia. Additionally, he is not afraid to tell you that he didn't like certain areas. For example 'It is possible, I suppose, to construct hypothetical circumstances in which you would be pleased to find yourself, at the end of a long day, in Macksville, New South Wales--perhaps something to do with rising sea levels that left it as the only place on earth not underwater, or maybe some disfiguring universal contagion from which it alone remained unscathed. In the normal course of events, however, it is unlikely that you would find yourself standing on its lonely main street at six-thirty on a warm summer's evening gazing about you in an appreciative manner and thinking, "Well, thank goodness I'm here!"' I also, by the way, find him to be absolutely hilarious and am laughing a good part of the way through the books. One critic states 'Bill Byrson could write...about dryer lint or fever reducers and still make us laugh out loud.' That reminds me of a story about my grandfather humoring a crowd while reading from a phone book.

But the travel aspect really isn't the best part of it. He reads a lot. Throughout his books he breaks off and describes the wildlife, history and surroundings. Thats the part that really helps grant a feel for the area, and what really makes it interesting. How did the Appalachian Trail come to be? Is it safe and how many people have been killed on it? How did they die? Or out in Australia, how many ways can Australia kill you? (He was fairly fascinated with that and with people drinking their own urine due to dehydration. BTW, crocodiles can kill you VERY quickly.) More out in the outback, how did the area come to be explored? How did the Aborigines (native Australians) get there and what role in society do they play today? Or ever want to know about the Australian equivalent to the likes of Bonnie and Clyde, who at one point captured a few police officers and killed them by shooting off their testicles and letting them bleed to death? I didn't either but it makes for interesting reading.

He has written books about the United States, Britain, I think some of the rest of Europe, Africa and Australia. He has also written one called A Short History of Nearly Everything which I haven't read yet but look forward too.

This isn't what I'd consider my normal reading which would typically be fiction, action and suspense, fantasy, dragons, that kind of thing. But I do think he's become my favorite non-fiction author. And unlike Robert Jordan, who I lamented in a previous blog, he's not dead. I don't know if I do him justice with my descriptions or not. I have significantly enjoyed his writing and would be happy to recommend him to anyone.

My month in Arizona

I just got back yesterday from spending the month in Tucson. As I'd said in a previous blog, I was doing a Neurology rotation which went very well. So today, instead of discussing that anymore, I will tell about some of the extracurricular events Becca and I did while there.

On the first weekend, we went down to Chiricaua National Monument. It's in Southeastern Arizona and is an area with a lot of interesting rock formations predominantly composed of vertical pillars of rocks. Its a fascinating place in part because I have a hard time understanding it. I understand how a place like the Grand Canyon could have formed, but how does this happen? The explanation they provide there states that there was a volcanic eruption, lots of deposits in the area from it, then progressive erosion leaving these formations. It still doesn't really make sense to me. That said, however it formed, it's a beautiful place. We took a hike down there and this is a picture from the hike.

The second weekend Becca was on call Saturday night, so we we're going to go anywhere far away. Instead we went Saturday morning and took walk of about 6 miles in Sabino Canyon of which I've posted pictures before. If you get down to Tucson Sabino Canyon is right there and certainly worth going too. We went back there the last weekend as well and did a different hike, this one somewhere between 6 and 8 miles. We weren't exactly certain where we turned around so I don't know how far we went.

The 3rd weekend was Becca's class retreat in Rocky Point, Mexico, also known as Puerto Penasco. It's the same place Becca and I had gone to visit last fall. We spent Saturday morning on the beach swimming, tossing a football around, reading, enjoying the sun, etc., basically enjoying a beautiful beach. We also went shopping a bit this time like we had done last trip, but this time we didn't but anything. On the way back we waited at the border for 1 1/2 hours, but some of the others left later than we did and waited up to 3 1/2 hours. I thought our wait was bad enough.

The last night I was there we went west of Tucson to watch the sunset. There were a few clouds that somewhat obscured the view, but it was still beautiful. I think the next time I'm out there we may go out to that spot again and see if it's a better time for pictures, but we did get some decent pictures anyway. We took a few of the two of us with our backs to the sunset, but the lighting didn't come out too well.

Then I flew back to Albany yesterday and spent today getting settled back in here. Tomorrow I get back to work and start my Endocrinology rotation.

Excessive Sorrow

Today I discovered something that has brought me great sorrow. What, might you ask, could make me sorrowful. Well let's see.

Is it Becca? Well, we've just spent a month together and I think we are closer now than ever. The worst part of it is that I'm leaving on Wednesday. But even that is tempered by the fact that I will be back within a month. So that can't be the source of my depression.

The weather? Hmm, good thought when I'm living in Albany. In Tucson, however, the sun shines around 99.89975% of daytime. Except for some sunburns I have developed from our weekend in Mexico and a hike this morning, there is no cause for saddness due to the weather.

Sports? Those can often be a significant source of living in the dumps, especially for people like me who get far too excited about them. That said, the Buckeyes are likely to play in the National Championship, the Patriots haven't even come close to loosing, and the Red Sox are a game away from winning the World Series. No cause for grouchiness there.

So what could it be? Let me tell you. I was reading a website this morning when I read something shocking and depressing, at least for me. Some of you may not care, others may already know. In fact, the entirety of my avid reader base may fall into one of those 2 categories. Now that I've run out of ways to stretch this out, I will tell you. September 17, 2007 the world lost a great man. A man who has captured the imagination of thousands of avid readers. A man who wrote probably the single best fantasy book I've ever read. A man who took a great novel, and stretched it out as far as anyone could possibly imagine, then just kept stretching. A man who could describe someone taking a bath using 4 pages, not make any progress in the story, and in fact not say anything even the least bit interesting during that time, then proceed to do that again with her brushing her hair, then getting dressed, and so on and so forth. A man who I am attempting, buy the simple process of extending this beyond the limits of reason, to emulate. But most importantly a man who wrote 12 books in a series that I have grown to love only to die before writing the last book. That's right ladies and gentleman. Robert Jordan has died. The author of the series The Wheel of Time will not write the final chapter. He apparently left behind some notes describing his intentions for the 13th and hopefully last book. But he will not write it. I don't know who would be willing to pick up the torch, or how I would feel if someone did, but I sure would like to know how the story ends.

Alright, if you read all of this I should really feel sorry for you. That was a fascinatingly long way of presenting news that is over a month old already. However, that doesn't change the fact that I was sorely saddened by hearing the news.

Rental Cars

While I've been out in Tucson, I've needed to rent a car in order to be able to get to work. As I am here for over 28 days, I was having a difficult time finding a place willing to rent a car for the entire time. Instead, I split the month approximately in half and returned the first car last Thursday, then picked up my second car on Sunday. That worked out well as we were going to Mexico for Becca's class retreat, so I wouldn't have been using the car during that time anyway.

So I ended up renting two cars. I signed up for economy class for both rentals, but when I picked up my first rental, I was given a free upgrade to the next level and ended up with a Chevy Impala. It was quite nice. The coolest thing to me was that it had a remote car starter, which I've never gotten to use before. I just had fun starting the car as I walked up to it, and that way the air conditioner was already running before we got in. Additionally, the car only had 334 miles on it when I got it. I had never driven a car with that few miles on it. I even got to drive the car past 1,000 miles which felt like a kind of rite of passage. That was pretty exciting.

For the second rental, however, I was not fortunate enough to get a free upgrade. Instead, I ended up with a Chevy Cobalt. It's small. It smells like a wet dog. It does not have a remote car starter. It doesn't have power windows or even power locks. It's depressing. But worse yet, it had 26,000 miles on it. Admittedly, that doesn't sound like all that much. Unfortunately, it drives like it has at least 75,000 - 100,000 miles on it. It sounds bad. It even shakes while driving. It's really quite pathetic.

The moral of the story? It is OK to rent a cheap car, after all the price is right and you just accept that you get what you pay for. But seriously, don't buy a Cobalt. They suck.

Tucson

I've been out in Tucson for the month doing a Neurology rotation and spending a lot of time with Becca. Its been going really well. During the day I've been working with the Pediatric Neurology group here which has 3 Attendings, but I've been working with 2 of them. Most of what I've done is outpatient at this point, but I may be doing more inpatient this coming week. The primary Attending is a unique individual but I've really enjoyed working with him so far. One additional piece is that the office works on a computer based chart system which just went live the week I started. Its been interesting seeing some of the problems they've had and the solutions they've come up with, as our continuity clinic is planning on a similar transformation in February.

I'll get on later and write about some of the places we've been so far this month. But for now I need to watch the completion of the Red Sox game. Go Sox!!!

Steady hands are a beautiful thing

They are good for surgeons. I certainly would not want someone with shaking hands doing my cardiac surgery. They're good for mechanics, seamstresses, chefs, etc. They would be good for me if I had them. Instead, my hands shake. The have a minimal shake when I'm not doing anything. The beautiful thing, the more still I need to be, the more they shake. Great isn't it?

I have medical examples or times when I shake. It makes me appear really nervous. It makes me feel nervous. However, I've found ways to work with it and still be able to succeed at procedures such as intubations. So instead of a medical example, I thought I'd give an example from my apartment, that happened today.

It was dinner time, and I was getting hungry. So, I decided on macaroni and cheese. I boiled the water, put in the macaroni, and waited for 8 minutes. So far so good. Then I was ready to drain the water. Now I live in a small apartment, and the smallest part is the kitchen. As such, I have opted not to have some of the items that I would consider standard kitchen supplies, in this case a colander. So instead of draining out the water with a colander I grabbed the lid for the pot and held it so that I could drain out the water. I've done this many times before without problems. Today, however, was not such a day. Instead while holding the pot full of recently boiling water with macaroni in it, I was unable to simply keep the lid on the pot. Instead I managed to, while holding the pot and lid by their handles, each intentionally out of the way of the flowing boiling water, spill the water on my right wrist. I don't especially recommend that action as it is followed by a significant amount of pain that I have been limiting with an ice pack.

I'd love to have steady hands, wouldn't you?

Good to be the Chief?

I don't know for certain yet, but I'm sure going to find out. On Tuesday Dr. Hopkins, our program director, paged me and told me I was selected to be one of the Chief Residents for next year. Subsequently I will be spending another year at Albany Medical Center. Then she told me I had to keep quiet about it until after the faculty meeting on Thursday and since at least 2 of the residents know about my blog, I couldn't even post it here.

Then on Thursday they announced it at the Faculty meeting and over the course of the day people were coming up to me and congratulating me. Dr. Comber from pulmonary was the first person to say something, and he told me "it's a thankless job but someone has to do it." Not quite the words of encouragement I was looking for, but I'm still excited.

Then Friday at noon, when I was post-call, I had a meeting scheduled with one of my attendings. I forgot it, went to sleep, woke up at 5, and then remembered. So one thing's for certain about being chief, I need to do a better job of keeping on top of my schedule and not forget meetings. Actually, I've been realizing I need to be significantly more organized to do this job well and have been working on it. After all, I have another 9 months before I'm formally chief, so I should use it well.

All the negatives aside, I am pretty excited about next year. It'll certainly be interesting.