As a medical student in the GYN clinic in El Paso, one occasionally needed both language and female standby assistance, at the same time.

Occasionally like 80% of the time*.

I asked one of the clinic technicians to assist me with an exam; after we were done, trying to be med student charming I said “Thank you, senorita!”

She said, laughing, with the clinic staff chuckling at my discomfort, “It’s Senora, it’s only senorita until someone does you The Favor”.

Education takes many forms. Sometimes when you don’t expect it or even want it.

(This is however a family point of amusement, which we sincerely enjoy).

*Medical statistics are made up on the spot: 75% are BS and the other 33% don’t add up.

Tonight I took a beautiful woman to dinner and a movie, and I chose (with assent) Argo based on the recommendation of friends. I have good friends.

I won’t actually review the movie, that’s what Rotten Tomatoes is for.

I will tell you a funny story.

We were driving away from the theater (all of 6 in the hall on a Tuesday night) when I said: “Hey, a movie where the Americans are the good guys”,

to which my lovely wife said

“Well, it’s about actual Americans”.

There ya go. A movie review.

PS: I need to learn to write with fewer I’s.

Tonight we had house alarm false #3 in about 6 weeks. Geez. Gift baskets for my neighbors.

To the alarm panel I go, and it tells me it’s a glassbreak downstairs. This isn’t good, as were I looking to break into the house I’d do it though the basement (and thus the glassbreaks, motion sensors, punjii-pits and laser traps).

So, to the bottom of the stair I go, and for the first time in my house I’m getting really spooked: someone is breathing heavily on the other end of the long room! I sweep the room behind me, and go to have a look, with the Voice of Doom in my right hand and a suddenly tremulous flashlight in the left. I clear the entire area, and nobody there, but the sound remains.

Then I hear a sharp noise behind me. I looked up to hear sound coming out of a glassbreak detector. Freaky. As I was about to curse the alarm manufacturer, hot water dripped on me.

Glassbreaks will alarm and make audible noise when you run water through them, turns out. The leak is in the dishwasher discharge on the floor above. Water and breaker are off to the dishwasher, and Monday will be calls to the trades.

Yes, by the way, this is the same ceiling the dishwasher dropped during the kitchen remodel several months ago. I have high hopes it’ll stay together and dry out well, though the dishwasher needs a different kind of union to the discharge piping.

I’m going to have the flashlight examined, too.

All,

Sitemeter tells me people still visit this site. Probably from a sense of nostalgia, and I thank all of you for checking in here from time to time.

I’m working a lot of shifts, going to a lot of meetings, and still trying to have a semblance of a life. This leaves no time for original writing here.

The meetings: our Gigantic Corporate Overlord has graciously agreed to part with a Princely Sum of Cash, and in March we break ground on a new ED. Nice! (Figures off the top of my head: currently we have about 96 beds in 24K sq. feet and see 96K/yr, and we’re going to 81 rooms and 48K sq. ft.).

In case you missed that, we’re not scheduled to get the same number of beds as rooms, but a bunch of our current beds are hall beds. I hate hall beds. And, many of the new rooms are to be designed to ‘double up’ so we can put 2 beds in 1 treatment room, so we’re going to net more than we have now.

Additionally, 2 CT’s, an MRI, and 24 hour sono. And a designed environment rather than the hodgepodge of assumed spaces we currently have. (When I describe our current condition it sounds like I’m down on it, but I’m not. It’s functional. And our staff is terrific. Fortunately they’re going to make the move too)!

Bizarrely, I am one of three docs to work with the team that engages the architects, and it’s a fun if time consuming process. It’s fun to play ‘what if’ with these differently trained pros, and I feel like the time I’m spending there is worthwhile. I get to help design the ED I hope to retire in, and not many get to say that.

And did I mention we’re remodeling the kitchen in the homestead? No? We (had) a mostly original 1986 kitchen that was awesome 10 years ago when we moved in, but now is worn and dated. Well, was. Now it’s torn out to the walls. Our former bulkheads (fir-downs in Texas) were pulled out so we can go all the way to the ceiling, but they contained a lot of wires and plumbing (which are being moved).  It’s very expensive entertainment watching the trades do their thing, and a tiny part of me wants to be one of them. Yes, my brain, thanks…

Speaking of the trades, the electricians liked our garden trolls, and decided they needed to be fed. Heh.

More to come.