Full Circle

At this point, I'm doing another locum, at Purdue University. I did one here last summer before we started blogging, so like the Michigan State trip, this second trip gets the description. So why the title of "Full Circle"? Purdue University is where I learned that veterinarians x-rayed animals. Now, I'm doing a locum here at the "cradle of my awakening". When I went to veterinary school in the fall of 1964 my view of veterinary medicine was the country vet, pretty much like James Herriot, only with the farm portion. A dog or cat at our place was something you honored and enjoyed, but never did you spend money on them. My second year in vet school, I got a work study job in radiology. During the next few years, I not only learned that people paid to have their dogs and cats x-rayed, I developed an interest in this mysterious craft. Last year while I was here, I had a Deja Vu experience while getting a drink from this fountain. I realized that during my time as a student in the large animal clinic, I drank out of this very water fountain. Several things here are just as they were those 41 years ago. (We celebrate our 40th anniversary of graduation for the class of 1968 this year.) However, the overall layout of the veterinary school has changed drastically. There have been some great upgrades since I wandered these halls during the Vietnam era. I believe we were the smallest class ever to graduate from Purdue as Veterinarians. Of course those of us who made it through have become super vets. (in our opinion). There are 2 classmates working at the vet school, one of which is a radiologist who has been the "main" radiologist at Purdue since about 1970 or 71. One point of interest is that although there are probably 10 or 12 veterinary radiologists who recieved our DVM from Purdue, there are 2 from our class and 2 from the class of 1969, 4 of us from 2 consecutive years. So I'm enjoying this locum as I did last summer from 2 standpoints; first just the fun of working "somewhere else" and secondly, getting to rediscover my veterinary beginnings. Because Purdue is relatively close to home and to Gas City, IN where Georgia's mom and sister live, rather than staying in a rented room, I am driving from home or from Gas City (about 2 hours). If you go back to "Perspective" (Feb 20), you will see a reference to Mulberry, Indiana, a small town that I traveled through last year as I drove from Gas City. I went this way because of serious roadwork on 26 east in Lafayette. That was about a year ago. I assumed they would have this finished, so expected to do a straight shot down 26 from Lafayette to Fairmount (where cool was born). In going to Gas City from home, we decided we should go via Lafayette so I could check the roads between Lafayette and Gas City. A really good thing we did. First of all, the work coming out of Lafayette on 26 is still in high gear and most likely will be so for another year. When we discovered this, I made the decision to go through Mulberry again. Perhaps I would run into Amanda Overmyer (american idol). As we drove on east on 26 we neared Russiaville and found another of what appears to be the most common sign in Indiana this summer, accompanied by these really interesting orange and white cylindrical pieces of roadside art. We were detoured all the way up to 22 which was good because it runs right into Gas City. The down side is that it runs through the whole of Kokomo. Because of this, I decided to go a proven, but longer route by going south on 31 to 28, then across to 52 and back up to Lafayette. About 20 miles out of the way. But it works. Being basically a morning person, I rather enjoy the drives to Purdue in the mornings, however a few mornings have been a bit testy because of fog. The worst was my first day. Others have been tolerable and some have been really mystical as patchs of woodland and farmsteads rise into sight out of the mist as I approach them. It's interesting to see the fog gathering around these larger parts of the landscape. One little aside was that while we were traveling from home to Gas City, we came on an area that appeared as fog, but really had an odor. Just before that, I had pointed out a low flying plane that was dusting bean fields.... It wasn't fog, the dust had drifted over the road. We haven't noticed the twitching of organophosphate poisoning yet. This picture is of true fog. Kind of neet! Before I forget it, another great place to eat. In the little town of Linden, Indiana, just north of I-74 on 231 is a tiny place called the Lindy Freeze. Great Ice Cream products and monster breaded tenderloins..... mmm good. http://web1.userinstinct.com/17053235-lindy-freeze-inc.htm

freedom from the gasoline engine

OK! My guess is that you have already misjudged the intent of this post. Although I would appreciate it if gasoline didn't cost so much, I have to relate a couple of figures. Although the grandkids may consider it the dark ages, I do remember buying gas for 23 cents/gallon. However at that time, I was bucking hay bales for 50 cents/hour. (And I weighed about 135 pounds.) So, I could work my butt off for an hour to buy enough gas to drive about 25 miles. That would be a drive to Warsaw to go to the movies. (Another hour of work would by the movie ticket.) In this regard, I don't see today's gas prices so bad. So why am I at war with gasoline engines? Although I think we could be a little kinder to our environment, that isn't my motive. At this point, I have replaced my string trimmer and my "leaf" blower with electric models (Not battery powered cause I spend enough time recharging my drill batteries.) The only small gasoline engine I have left is the lawn mower. This brings me to the reason for this post. I have come to the conclusion that small gasoline engines and I don't work well together. I'm sure my neighbors have enjoyed watching me stand in the driveway pulling that blasted rope. Well, I have finally reached the age and body type that I am concerned with these little monsters actually killing me. Or visa versa.... visa versa??? As I was contemplating this post, I heard Paul Harvey Jr. reporting on Milwaukee's Keith Walendowski. You see, last week, Keith was about to mow his lawn. He seemed to prepare himself by raising his blood alcohol level. Problem is, his Lawn Boy mower wouldn't start. Well, Keith got the last lick in. It seems he went into the house, got his sawed off shotgun and shot the mower. I went to the internet to see what I might find to support this post and found Keith all over the web. You see, his sawed off shotgun was illegal, so now he is facing jail time for shooting his own lawnmower in his own yard. Boy did he touch off a firestorm of righteous people condemning him, gun laws, and booze.... everything but the lawnmower. Although I don't drink or wield a shotgun, I have had those moments when his actions seem perfectly justified. You pull and pull, then it sputters and you pull some more. You set it down and sometimes when you pick it up and pull it again it starts and sometime it just burps at you. I swear I can sometimes hear it chuckling at me. You see, I don't want to be pushed by these evil machines to the point to pull a Walendowski... So I got rid of them and feel so much better for it. I am much less likely to fall over dead while tugging on a little rope. As a side note, Lawn Boy apparently voided the warantee on Keith's mower. You can read all you want by simply putting walendowski into google, however, there is a blog that I especially enjoyed at: http://freedomeden.blogspot.com/2008/07/keith-walendowski-and-his-lawn-boy.html The moral of this story is simple. If you don't know much about small engines, don't own them. That's me. Don't let an inanimate object control your emotions. I really learned this when I was about 10 years old. We had a very large tree in our yard with a very long rope swing. One day I was swinging and jumped out while swinging. Somehow the board on the swing hit me. I grabbed one of the ropes and kicked the swing as hard as I could... Guess who got in the last punch... When you hold one rope and kick the board attached to it, the board will swing around and hit you... I guess you knew this, but my anger had blinded me to the reality. Having come close to heaving my small engine appliance across the driveway, I have decided that as long as I remember to check circuit breakers I can rest in the reliability of the old fashioned household outlet. Now that I have a power cord that will reach all corners of our property, I'm good to go. Keith.... take a hint.

It wasn't a cold

My last rant about the noble handkerchief was stimulated by a "cold" that caused my nose to flood and overflow the morning after my sleep study. I thought it was strange that it only lasted 2-3 days and didn't follow up with the usual ropy mucus stage and 2 -4 weeks of coughing. That's because it wasn't a cold. I met with the respiratory therapist to get my cpap mask yesterday. In my sleep test, I favored the "Swift II" version of mask, which I now understand is more likely to cause nose and sinus irritation. Ahah! Here is a picture of the Swift II on a model. She said that sometimes if you use one of the "nosecone" types for a while, your sinuses can get used to the air blowing, then you can switch to the Swift II if you want. So, here is the plan. I got the ResMed Mirage Activa mask. http://www.resmed.com/en-uk/products/masks/mirage_activa_nasal_mask/mirage-activa-nasal-mask.html?menu=products I will use it for a couple of weeks, then try the Swift II to get away from the big aparatus. If that works, then I will stick with that, but if not, I can go back to the Activa. I have been hearing of all the people using cpap who have newly discovered energy. Thinking back to 50 years of being yelled at for falling asleep, in class, in movies, in church, etc. as well as catching myself falling asleep while performing ultrasound exams as well as while dictating reports, I obviously am looking forward to this part of the future. Although I haven't yet met with the medical specialist for my total report, I did find out that during my test, I stopped breathing over 90 times/hour. An incident is described as over 10 seconds without breathing. So, my situation is described as severe sleep apnea. I hope this doesn't turn out like the whale sighting hopes because I am really looking forward to the change. Last nite was my first nite with the machine. Got to do some adjustments on the humidity because my mouth got really dry. My nose was slightly runny this morning, but is much less than after my test. So the grandkids don't freak out when they see me in bed in the future, here is a picture of me in my mask. Darth Vadar style????

Hanky Panky

As this subject came to mind, the lyrical masterpiece of the song from my youth by Tommy James and the Shondells came to mind. I really didn't even realize that a more gross version with that title was popularized much later. (Not giving you lead on that).

So why this subject?
Earlier this week, I did the sleep test, and it appears I will be wearing a cpap to bed. It's a plus and a minus. I'm looking forward to the fact that I might not be so sleepy during the day, but we'll see. On the negative, it will most likely inhibit spontaneous romance after bedtime, with me wearing this mask on my face. Well, after the test, I noticed that my throat was sore and dry and my nose was stuffy. The technician said the humidity of the airflow could be adjusted to reduce the dryness. I was also asked if I felt more rested than before since at least part of the night, I wore the cpap mask. The answer was, "no", which of course was disappointing to me. A couple of hours later later, there was a faucet running from my nose... Aha! It wasn't the mask, it was the perfect timing of a cold that I had contracted. In about a half hour, I had soaked my handkerchief, so since I had come straight to work from the sleep test (after dropping off payment for yard mowing to our grand-daughter in Urbana) I decided to go pick up a package of handkerchief's at noon. Here's where the Hanky Panky began. I finally found men's handerchiefs at the third store I visited at the mall. I was beginning to panic about getting back to work at a decent time. I about flipped out when the second store told me that they carried them at Christmas time... This really set me off. I'm thinking, "if not enough people buy these during the year to carry them, then why would they make good Christmas gifts?".. Hmmmm. Guess that makes them a pretty meaningless Christmas gift. The other concept that was rushing to the forefront of my thought process was, "What has happened to the hanky?" In my 66 years, if there was ever a time when I did not have a hanky, I felt naked and unprepared. You never know when your lady friend may have a crying spell. Your responsibility is to have a hanky to hand her. What if you cut yourself? You don't want to take off your sock (if you're wearing them) to tie around the wound to stop the blood. Then of course what do you do with the products of your nose? One of my frustrations of raising our boys was trying to get them to carry a hanky. The reason was, "I don't want to carry my snot around in my pocket"... Right??? How gross?? Well, these same boys were not hesitant to blow "snot rockets". Here is a video to demonstrate this to the uninformed. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://thumbnail.search.aolcdn.com/truveo/images/thumbnails/FA/09/FA09BF9F1E4F4D.jpg&imgrefurl=http://video.aol.com/video-detail/snot-rocket/4258792842&h=90&w=120&sz=3&hl=en&start=16&um=1&tbnid=AaA3ASol7ALxhM:&tbnh=66&tbnw=88&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsnot%2Brocket%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-US

And besides, for those of us who work and live indoors, this really isn't an option. (Unless you're Rosie-http://cooterpunch.blogspot.com/2006/09/rosie-odonnell-blows-snot-rocket.html
The other choice, I guess is the blessed "Kleenex", or other similar tissues. I have to say, that when you have a good heavy mucous flow going, you might as well blow it in your hand, because that is where it usually ends up unless you have a handfull of tissues. Then what are you going to do with the tissue. I can't believe it is any more gross to carry a cloth in your pocket than to leave used tissues lying around for others to pick up. Who has time to run to the trash can every time you blow your nose??? You can see in the video that the guy blew snot rockets at least 3 times in the length of the video.
Obviously, I'm nearly alone in my opinion here. If not, I wouldn't have had such a difficult time finding them. I did find it interesting that there is still some controversy as attested to by the following post.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080618081519AA0RRoy
Well, I did find what I needed, in fact, they were on sale. What a deal. Here's to those of us who know how to handle our excrement.

my education continues

On our way home from Michigan, I did not want to run the south Chicago/northwest Indiana gauntlet, so we wen't down 69. We had thoughts of stopping by the Comer's, but got away from Lansing too late to make that work. As we came near Angola, Indiana, we stopped at a rest stop. To me, Angola means Buck Lake Ranch. As a kid in the 50's that was one outing that seemed to be the highlight of the summer when we got to go. Georgia even with there with us at least one time. At the rest stop was a guy cleaning up. I asked him if he lived around there and he said that he had just returned. So I asked him if Buck Lake Ranch was still active and as it was. He assured me that it was. That really brought me some warm fuzzies. I remember all 4 of us wearing shirts alike that were either boughten or sometime mom would make them. Took picnic lunch and watched "the show" with Harry Smythe as the master of ceremonies. So I found the website and find that I am not alone in my querie. http://www.bucklakeranch.com/. That was neet, but wasn't my education. As I grew up, there was a term for something that was big or bad or noteworthy, called a doozy. A black eye was often a doozy as was a wreck. As we passed Auburn, Indiana which is the home of the Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg Museum http://www.auburn-in.com/ there was a billboard that said, "It is a Duesy" with pictures of the vintage Duesenberg auto. It hit me right between the eyes. For the next 40 miles, I'm thinking, "there is something else that I've had wrong all my life. Of course a Duesy is something really noteworthy because it is being compared with the Duesenberg automobile which was noteworthy, though short lived. Well, I'm glad that I have that straight now. I wonder how many other people have this misconception. After all there is nothing I know of that would be a doozy, right?" Couldn't wait to get to the computer to check it out. So here is where my education came. There does seem to be some confusion over the term. You can find it as "doozy" or doozie, or "doosy". http://wandersponders.blogspot.com/2006/10/doosy.html But their doesn't seem to be a concensus, if fact, some folks even had the Idea that it related to the Duesenberg, but the word was apparently coined before the automobile was developed. If you have any interest, you can read http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-doo2.htm This guy says it is a bastardization of daisy, which seems to me even more out of line, but what do I know. This site http://www.thefreedictionary.com/doozy even plays the middle with the following definition:

Getting a little more "official, Merriam's Webster says:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/doozy
Now that I've found out that all possible versions of the truth seem to be acceptable, I guess my life will not change over this little incident. I need to ask my cousin Mike who lives in the Auburn area which version he uses. I expect that I will have about the same conviction about that as I will have toward the election this fall. Which one is the best, or is there any difference???

Heading home again

After a great weekend, we spent evenings this week at more great eating places. Monday nite, we ate leftovers from Sunday at the Mermaid. Tuesday at PF Chang's, probably the tastiest oriental eating establishment I know http://www.pfchangs.com/ , Wednesday at Claddagh's Irish Pub at the prompting of a Spartan vet at the U of I. http://www.claddaghirishpubs.com/ Oh! Wow! I had corned beef and cabbage and Georgia had Shepherd's Pie. We again both had enough for lunch the next day. Not only was the food great, but the Irish music took me back to when I remember sitting in my grandpa Herron's "living room" with "uncle Roy" and others, all sitting in a circle, each with a different instrument. We would play a song (me on my ukelele) then they would pass their instrument to the next person and play another jig or reel, etc. (I of course held onto my trusty Uke.. After all, I couldn't have been over 8 or 10.. I might need some help on dates here from my sister or aunt Pat or Donn.) Mom and Dad loved to square dance. Sometimes dad would "call" the dance. I remember going to at least one "Grange Hall" several times. When the hours got late, we kids would sleep in the coats on the bleachers. As I got a little musical, I would sit in the band with my Uke and strum along as with the Herron clan, watching the fingers of the guitar player to know which chord I should change to. Later on we kids joined in the dancing. What wholesome exercise we got back then. I know that people still square dance, but line dancing and clogging seem to have replaced much of it. http://www.dosado.com/articles/hist-maca.html http://www.ceder.net/ That brings us to Thursday nite. This was one of the most pleasant evenings we've had along with the most original meal. Dr. Russ Stickle, a retired radiologist and his wife, Dr. Julie Stickle, an active clinical pathologist at Michigan State invited us out to their 80 acre farm east of town. Since Julie had to work until quite late, Russ prepared the meal of fresh garden salad including sugar snap peas, rice, and venison steaks on the grill, with root beer floats for dessert. These root beer floats were phenomenal because the root beer was from the local Michigan Brewing Company in Webberville and wasn't your average A and W. http://www.we8there.com/rest_detail.php?busid=8650busid=8650 The meal and the conversation was great, but the highlight of the evening was meeting Dolly, Chucky, and George. George took a liking to Georgia and I'm afraid I have a rival now for her affections. As you can see he certainly is more "buff" than I. Oh, I didn't tell you. Dolly, Chucky and George are Percherons. George and Chucky weigh approximately a ton each. Here is a picture of Dolly and Chucky, a couple of George, and one of George and Georgia. We got to look over their pasture fields with a few cows, calves and a bull surrounded by a nice woods and flanked by a just harvested hay field. Eat my heart out!!!! Well, if we can't have it, we're glad such a nice couple as the Stickles can enjoy this little bit of heaven on earth.

That brings us to our last nite in the Lansing area. Although we weren't blogging last fall when we were here, you may remember that Georgia's favorite place here is the Italian place in the Eastwood Towne Center http://www.shopeastwoodtownecenter.com/ is Bravo http://www.bravoitalian.com/ . We ate there twice this trip, but last fall it was 3 times. I might also remind you that the Eastwood center is really great in all. The Hampton where we are staying is just across the highway (127) from this mall. All of the eating places mentioned here except for the Stickles' are in that mall, along with Mitchell's Fish market, Smokey Bones, Johnny Rocket, Champs, etc. As usual, the meal was great and a fitting "last meal" in the area. Two great places we missed this trip, but enjoyed last fall are Clara's http://www.claras.com/lanwalk/lanwalk2.html A converted train station with great decor and food and a quaint little "hole in the wall" italian place downtown where the radiology faculty took us last fall, called Emil's http://www.10best.com/Lansing/Restaurants/Best_Restaurants/Emil%7Cs_Bar_&_Restaurant_Lansing_MI_BID_52359/

Although most of my ravings are about non-chain establishments, there are a few chains here that seem to rise above the average "same place/different name" eating places. We'll probably stop at the pie company on our way out of town http://www.gtpie.com/locations/tc.php. There is a little story about the Grand Traverse Pie Company. Last fall while we were at the Parke County, Indiana Covered Bridge Festival which we hav attended for the last 25 years or so, http://www.coveredbridges.com/ Georgia's neice found this store in Terre Haute where we were staying. Seems there used to be one in Indianapolis. Good Pie, etc. So last Tuesday, the radiology folks here invited me to their "Pie Rounds" where they discuss some medical topic around the fireplace before work ... at the Pie Company. I took Georgia there and we ate there a couple of times last week. Of course, we're not sure when that will be because, although we have been here 2 weeks, there are some "last minute" things we have to do.. Again we really enjoyed our stay in East Lansing. Although I still can't root for Sparty, the people I worked with and those we have met are really great. I guess we can be rivals in sports, but friends on a daily basis.

Our Western Michigan weekend

After our spring of going to distant places, the idea of traveling 2 hours to spend the weekend on the Lake Michigan shore didn't seem like much. Georgia found the Yelton Manor B&B in South Haven. http://www.yeltonmanor.com/ . We really enjoyed being pampered by Robert and Elaine who have turned these 2 houses into a flower lover's dream, a book lover's treasure, and an adventure just to poke around the house looking at the nooks and crannies found there. The only "downer" of the weekend was the rain that came now and then. Here is Georgia taking pictures of the flowers in the rain.

Saturday, after driving around the shoreline town of South Haven, we decided to go to Douglas for a late lunch, etc. We had tried to eat at the Everyday People Cafe http://everydaypeoplecafe.com/ a couple of years ago, but they close while they change decor between lunch and dinner. This time with a little planning, we hit it right. Really good and somewhat different food. There were some shops there that Georgia was interested in and I stumbled onto a vintage baseball game. The Douglas Dutchers Baseball Club was playing a game across the street from the cafe. I was really taken with just how different it was. http://www.preserveamerica.gov/3-18-04PAcommunity-douglasMI.html http://mattgritter.blogspot.com/2007/05/1860s-baseball.htmlbaseball.html You can see my comment on this second blog. Here are a couple of pictures I took. We got back in time to watch another lakeshore sunset, then went for dinner at Tello Italian Bistro in South Haven. http://www.tellostrattoria.com/ That took me past my bedtime. The food was really good and Georgia said her pizza was just like she got in Italy. Well, they do claim to be authentic. I forgot, on the way back to South Haven we stopped at the Blue Star Cafe, which is a little 50's place (real, not retro) where we ate a few years ago and got ice cream. http://www.mrbreakfast.com/r_display.asp?restid=5479

Sunday morning after breakfast, we packed up, collected our start of "sundrop primrose" from Elaine and headed for downtown South Haven. We turned to corner and Georgia spotted the Seaglass Store http://www.seaglasscottage.com/index.htm Georgia said she had been looking for seaglass in Florida, Oregon and California,yet here it is in Michigan. I asked about seaglass in Lake Michigan and the lady said there is and she showed us several items a local artisan make from glass collected on the shore of Lake Michigan. Anyway, a pretty cool place with lots of lakeshore type decor. After poking around in some other shops, we headed on to Saugatuck for the Mermaid Bar and Grill, where we had eaten on the last trip here... .and remembered just how good it was. http://mermaidofsaugatuck.com/ And it was, again. It seemed a little pricy (Or "spendy" if you're from Oregon.), but we had the rest of our meals for dinner tonite and there is still some left. (Bring your cooler for leftovers). By that time, we had about all we wanted, so didn't even wander Saugatuck (we had been there before). Drove the short trip "home" with the sun at our back. Got to talk with the folks from Briarcliff as we pulled into East Lansing. Today was "another day at work" with 4 more to go before we head home.