A few years ago I was at a horse show on a really hot day. As “horse show mom”, my duties were simple: get up early, drive child to show, groom and saddle horse, and stand around all day while trying NOT to offer helpful advice to said child. On this particular humid day the… Continue reading Wilderness Medicine
Category: General Observations
Pass the Butter Please
With gratitude to Doctors Rafael Espada and Michael Madani, for fixing my father’s heart, twice. When Michael Phelps was interviewed during the Beijing Olympics, the world first learned about the extraordinary amount of food needed to fuel the swimmer with the wingspan of a pterodactyl. He said that he ate 12,000 calories a… Continue reading Pass the Butter Please
UGET1GO
Since California is the center of the universe when it comes to vanity, there are a whole lot of folks with so called “vanity plates” on their cars. Here you are allowed a combination of seven letters or numbers and apart from obscenities, pretty much anything goes. Back in Massachusetts, I had a vanity plate… Continue reading UGET1GO
Dear Catherine
When I saw the peonies just poking their new shoots above the ground next to your house, it was almost too much to bear. I love peonies. In 1991 we bought the house on Strawberry Hill back in Dover Massachusetts. The perennial gardens were seventy years old then, and I had no idea what was… Continue reading Dear Catherine
Closing up Shop
They say that as we age, time accelerates. Those endless waits for summer vacations, Christmas and our birthdays that we experienced at age six, become a mere blink of an eye at age sixty. And if you’re approaching sixty, you will remember, like I do, those old Kodak commercials: “Turn around, turn around, turn around… Continue reading Closing up Shop
The Irony of It All
My son wants a government job. After obtaining a Masters degree in Public Policy, with an emphasis on economics, he was the envy of his classmates when he actually got a job. He has been working for the last seven months for a giant consulting corporation. Early every Monday morning, at the bidding of his… Continue reading The Irony of It All
Adjustments
“Old age is no place for sissies.” Bette Davis I am just getting adjusted to the latest adjustments. When I was in medical school, I heard that word “adjustment” used as medical terminology for the first time, as in “He’s just having an adolescent adjustment reaction.” Before that, I had experienced the word more frequently… Continue reading Adjustments
Back at the Ranch
“The sun is riz, the sun is set, and we ain’t outta Texas yet!” It takes a full day to waltz across Texas. I’ve been reminded of this twice in the last four years—once in July of 2009 when I drove my daughter from California out to Houston to start medical school, and the second… Continue reading Back at the Ranch
Tchotchkes
I’ve always been a collector. The first things I remember collecting were trolls. Does anyone else remember those? Those little plastic guys with round bellies and wild neon colored hair that stuck straight up from their heads—I would always have two or three of them sitting on the starting block at the end of the… Continue reading Tchotchkes
Happy Place
“Think of a place that’s really perfect. Your own happy place. Go there, and all your anger will just disappear. Then putt.” Happy Gilmore, 1996 I don’t know if I have ever heard my radiation therapists say this to a patient, anxious on the treatment table, “Go to your happy place.” I think I may… Continue reading Happy Place