Tag Archives: Ferry

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A friend for Mordechai

I drove my daughter back to school in Bellingham on Friday. On the way back I hike at Deception Pass and then stop in Coupeville before going to the ferry. In Coupeville, I found friends for Mordechai, my clinic skeleton. This is a sea lion and there is a whale and a dolphin, all skeletons hanging from the ceiling. I suspect that they are real skeletons and not plastic, as Mordechai is.

My daughter says, “Mordechai was not alive before.”

“I could argue that she was. She is made from plastic, which is made from oil, which is formed over millennia from plants fallen and slowly changing.”

“Ok, you win on that one, mom.”

Doesn’t this sea lion look like she is flying?

 

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Wings and fog ferry

Wings

I try out
for a solo
singing

my director
is pleased
I am growing

she says
I am beautiful

she says
I look like a different person

she knows
a little of what I have weathered

 
my patient
is 86

and her husband died
in December

she misses him so

as she comes into the room
one day

she says
you look as if you have wings
and are ready to take off

and I freeze
for a moment

in surprise

that she can see
my wings.

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Ferry rider

Here I am with Mordechai, the plastic skeleton. I brought Mordechai back from Seattle in 2014, all bundled up to carry. However, I walked onto the Seattle-Bainbridge ferry and Mordechai was not in a bag. I have never had as many people talk to me on the ferry. The ticket seller took a picture. Mordechai did not have to pay. A tourist from southeast asia wanted a picture with me and the skeleton and her, and a man started asking me about the hip joint. It was a very fun and funny ride….

Mordechai is in my clinic. During October, she sits in the waiting room. Last October we had a contest to name her. I have an anatomy book in my exam room, to pull out and show people the eustacian tubes or the knee joint or the muscles of the rotator cuff. But sometimes the skeleton is more useful….