From the Triage nurses: I’ve made it.

More and more patients present themselves at triage, and when asked “Who’s your regular doctor”, they say “GruntDoc”.  Nice to be noticed, I suppose…sorta flattering, and yet…

We have a doc in the group who’s been practicing EM in the county for about 30 years, and roughly half the county identifies him as their doc.  I’ll never catch him, thank goodness.

So, it’s taken me 8 years, but I’m There.

Wow, 8 years, this week.  I hadn’t realized it until I typed that out.

The Move from Midland (nice place, tough job), the Unsettled period, the Money Pit (a work in progress), youngest through and out of grade school and a year of college, eldest married off and a second grandchild, middle through the Rough Patch of his own and now through Law School, several iterations of “pent-up consumerism”, and some cruises.  Another college degree for me.  Not last my lovely wife who puts up with me through it all.

Also, the best EM job on Earth, bar none.  Busy, well supported, excellent colleagues and above-average consultants (and totally awesome nurses, techs, secretaries, etc), I totally lucked out on landing this job.  I had no idea how good it would be, and hope to work here until I’m tired of it, and not they’re tired of me.

Life is Really Good.  Seriously Good.

Thanks for stopping by!

My son Bob just called to tell me he’s finished with Law School!  He took his final final today, and the academic weight is off him (and he sounds more energized than he has in months).

He had an abortive start at law school, which I mention only to praise him for his perseverance and hard work, and that stubborn, quiet ambition of his.

Now to study for the Bar exam (he’s in Florida, and will take it there), in late July, then off to work.  Setting him apart from most of his new-grad peers, he has an actual job offer, which is terrific!  (I half-jokingly asked once if he was going to need to move back into the basement, and he quipped ‘Then I’d literally be in-house Counsel”, which was clever).

Good for you, Bob, your Mom and I are terrifically proud of you.

The Happy Hospitalist has been doing some home improvement, and good for him!  Motivated to post by him, here’s some of my insight.  (This is the second in a series: go get a wet vac first).

I spent some of today working with one of my favorite homeowner tools, my Karcher power washer, which I bought a few years ago at Costco (at the behest of my brother in law, who assurred me I’d like it)(he was right).  I’ve rented a gas pressure washer, but didn’t want to have to worry about gas in the one I owned.  Also, there may be a better brand, but I’m perfectly happy with this one.

I use it yearly to clean my vinyl and aluminum siding, and to clean tree/bird residue from the porch, dirt from the drive/sidewalks, etc.  It’s satisfying, productive, and keeps me off the internet.  Win win.

Now, I’d like to tell you about your choice of accessories when you get any power washer: a wet suit or a set of extension wands.

Picture this: you’re washing eaves, things are going well, and cold, dirty water is raining down on you (which I did, before the extensions).  Or, you can attach the extension wand, and clean from the relative dryness of several feet away, and not get the dirty rain. The wands also allow you to clean higher without getting on a ladder (which I don’t like, especially with water in use).

Today, the front and dirty side of the house.  In a week or so, out comes the man lift, and the rest of the house.

Don’t forget the wet suit.

My brother, the Aerospace Genius, has written a book!

Here’s just part of the description from his web site:

Think Fast is not about the technology, but about WHY TO use some technologies and avoid others in your quest to WIN races. Think Fast can help any race car driver or race engineer tackle the big challenges and cross the finish line FIRST.
Think Fast is a professional racing industry insider’s detailed description of his unique process that makes racing drivers and race cars faster and work together more effectively. Both driver and car development techniques are covered, including very cost effective approaches to problems faced by every motorsports competitor.

So, if you’re in the market for a how-to go-fast book, here’s the one I recommend (nepotism works).

Available on Amazon.com!

I’ll buy you dinner*!

Jim in Plano has been a commenter here nearly since the beginning, and I finally got a reason to be in his area of the DFW Metroplex, so we set up a dinner out.

(Picture removed at my wifes’ ‘request’: said it was silly to post a pic with food hanging out of my mouth).

He and his wife are nice folks, pleasant, interesting and funny!  He did about 27 years in the Air Force, and has at least that many stories, and tells them well (he should blog).

Anyway, a good time was had by all, and we’ll get together again someday.

*Not an actual offer.

Look at the picture of the new WD-40 can. It has a new pivoting gadget that combines spray or straw use without any plugging in, trying to find the little orifice with a stiff red piece of plastic, etc.

As an engineering piece ( and without having used it ) it looks terrific.

But, I usually buy a new can shortly after I lose the straw. How will their sales do with this unlosable straw gadget?

I love you.  I always will.

Thanks for marrying me, and taking me away from all that.

Yeah, the 70′s were like this. Vests, awesome belts, and a smile into the great unknown.

He’s the smart one (math is hard), I’m the pretty one. (Give me that, otherwise I have nothing…)

Really, Happy Birthday!

I like living on the edge of built-up civilization, but it means our little development has one electric line coming in.

Today it wanted some time off, fortunately only 4 hours. Didn’t get that cold inside, but having an all electric house has some drawbacks in that circumstance.

My wife figured out the electric-less coffee, thankfully.

Well, how I remember.

I’ve been fortunate enough to travel in and out of DFW several times recently.  I fly American most of the time, because I like to see just how small a seat I can get into, and guessing which terminal I’ll return to is unpredictable, which is what every traveler wants at the end of a journey.  Win win.

I’ve taken to snapping a photo of the nearest parking lot ID post.  To their credit, no “Itchy vs Scratchy” lots at DFW, and terminal D is well marked indeed:

You’re about to say ‘how can you forget where you parked’, and congratulations on your superior memory.  Me?  I have a picture to remind me.

By the label.  Funny > interesting > anything else.

I’m not an oenophile.  Hardly.  I’m becoming a beer-o-phile, but that is a work in progress, and so far as I know there’s no specific data on beer drinking being cardioprotective (as opposed to the 2 drinks a day isn’t bad for you dictum).  Therefore, wine with some dinners (and never on a work day, I’m not a pilot…)

I bought this the other day, strictly based on the label:

It’s got everything I could want: interesting label, aviation link, and history!  Oh, and it’s a wine of some sort.

So, not a sophisticate.  Again.

Seems very simple: concentrate on what you’re doing, and you lessen (but not eliminate) the risk of car crash.  How much higher is the risk of accidents from texting?  Twenty Three times, that’s how much (VTTI, .pdf).

That’s just not worth the risk.

Unfortunately, apparently it’s hard to resist…

I am so proud.

My daughter just called from college, where she just smoked out the frosh chem lab.

Seems the instructions for how much granular drano to add, then how much water (yes, after the drano) were not described clearly.  Or, just clearly enough to make a lot of caustic fog.  No injuries, no harm/no foul.

Given my history, she called on the way home to tell of her escapade.  She said it reminded her of me, which is amusing.

I miss her, and wish she’d gotten someone elses’ lab skills….

Writing about shooting is probably not going to broaden my audience (as this isn’t a shooting blog, I’m not an expert by any means so there’s no reason to consider what I write) and runs the risk of driving away a few readers.

OTOH, it’s my blog, and this is what interests me.  Also, there’s no HIPAA for shooting, so I can talk about it.

I’ve recently become interested in long-range shooting, have taken a long class, gotten myself a very nice setup, and done a little practice.  I do it for a lot of reasons: I like the precision and self-control required, there’s plenty of technology (more than I thought), feedback is immediate on the target, and I finally found a sport I can do lying down.

(I’m not a hunter.  Mostly because it doesn’t interest me, and I’m not hungry.  Should I miss a few meals, I’ll have no trouble becoming a hunter, and this training would come in handy.)

Speaking of training, I am fortunate to live fairly close to a high-end training center that specializes in just that.  I took one of their courses, bought a very much better rifle after the class, and did some training afterward, though not enough (dang job).  One of the best ways to see if you’re learning something is to compete, so off to a long range shootout yesterday.

The competition was quite well organized, well (and safely) run.  The competition was to shoot sporting clays, which were 120mm (4.7”), 90mm (3.5”) and 60mm (2.4”) orange targets.  From 400 yards.  Clays are fun to shoot as they usually break very nicely, visible through the rifle scope, so hit/miss is easily discernible.  Big=10 pts, medium=20, little=30, so relay max =150 points, with 5 relays in the competition.  Oh, and you get 8 minutes to fire a maximum of 10 shots per relay.

There was a sighting-in period, then the competition.  I had to move my firing position after sight-in, as my rifle has a muzzle brake (it reduces my felt recoil substantially: my rifle goes boom but doesn’t kick) but it blows air backwards.  This was showering the shooter next to me with dirt.  So moved, built a little barrier with a soft rifle case, and he’s good.

First frame I had the first-competition jitters: all these guys are better than me, and I haven’t actually practiced at this distance; there were a bunch of shooters who brought massive shooting benches from home, with clamps to hold their amazingly detailed rifles and their 40 power scopes in place, I’m shooting prone.

Before my first shot, my goal: be in the middle.  At the end of my 10 rounds, new goal: don’t be last.  Terrible shooting, just awful, and it’s all me.

Second frame: better, but left the two little ones; cleaned the third frame, and left one little one on 4&5.  I might make the middle!  As with most things, being comfortable makes all the difference.

There were 6 perfect scores, all bench shooters, and they had a one-shot shootoff; 48 shooters, I scored 550, for 16th place.  Upper third!  That’s encouraging, but the gunner in me now has to do better.  I enjoyed it, and exceeded my expectations quite a bit (especially with quite the inauspicious start).

Next: handloading!  Time to get the variation out of the ammo…

Many thanks to the Tarleton State High Power Rifle Team for pulling and resetting targets.  They did a quick and terrific job, helping the competition go as smoothly as I can imagine.

From my 2003 vacation…