I have a blog?

It was pointed out to me (very politely) that I’ve left the blog fallow for more than a month. That’s a first, and hopefully a last.

I have some excuses, and while they’re stronger than ‘the dog ate my homework’ they are still excuses, and I owe the nine of you better. Mea Culpa.

Something I didn’t talk about after the Christmas Cruise was the disappointment of the missing travelers: my folks, for their first cruise. Not quite a total tragedy, but not good. We’d planned ahead, bought the recommended trip insurance from AAA Travel, and we were going to spend a day in Miami before boarding so flight disruptions couldn’t screw up our cruise. Every plan has a flaw: it doesn’t matter spending a day of there are no flights/they’re overbooked when yours is cancelled. That’s what happened to my folks. Oh, the airline did reschedule them for a flight 30 hours later, which would have taken off after the boat shoved off, so they couldn’t come.

Well, there’s always tomorrow, and we have trip insurance, right? The folks got their money back from the airline. The trip insurance company has decided to play the ‘not covered’ card, so we’re appealing through AAA as they recommended this insurance vendor. I’m not going to mention their name on the off chance they do the right thing (eventually), but there’s a bus waiting for them should they reject the AAA appeal.

The Global Warming Winter of 2013/14 has been harshly cold here in Texas, and we have had two days of 70 degree weather back to back, so hopefully that means the CO2 has ganged up to help us out.

I work in a highly functional and generally well regarded ER seeing a little over 100K a year, and January 11th we got to move into our new construction ED. Longer and wider than a football field, 89 rooms (many, many of which can hold two patients in a pinch), it’s so pretty and so big all of us are just now recovering from the shock. We’ve had more than a hundred patients in the ED at one time several times in the new place, and while the staff and docs were humming, and: not crowded! In the legacy ED, we’d have patients on gurneys very literally next to all of us, having to turn sideways to get through the spaces, etc. It’s so nice we aren’t sure we deserve it.

The downside of new construction in an existing hospital footprint means long walks from the hospital to the ED (like, 100 yards down a million dollar bridge). Consultants like the space, but don’t like the walk, especially several times a day. Time will make things better, or at least more normal.

In other news, I’ve briefly mentioned (probably) that I have a man lift, which means a mechanical bucket on an hydraulic set of arms. It all works well when it does; add a squirrel and a winter and there’s wire damage; rather a lot of wire damage, like at least 8 wire bundles eaten through and others denuded of their insulation. The eviction was brief and had I known the damage would have been quite a bit more terminal, and now the lift’s gone to the Land of the Fixer, my father the mechanic. (I’m aware that in modern movies ‘Mechanic’ often means killer or brute, but in my world and my experience it means a guy whose hands and mind can create anything and destruction is secondary to creation, which seems right). In my life Dad has made me and my brother understand mechanics, work and the life it presents.

I have a Tesla Model S car. It’s the closest thing to driving a UFO you can imagine, as it’s all electric and the torque seems limitless and unending. Get one now.

I intend it won’t be more than a month before my next post. Apologies, and live well.