Tag Archives: Ragtag Daily Prompt

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Work dream

Last night I dream that I am back at work.

I get called to do an emergency surgery. I am a Family Practice Physician. I assisted in surgery, C-sections, and did minor repairs of lacerations (yeah, we don’t use small words like cut) and biopsy of skin lesions (lumps, right?). In the dream I do the surgery, but it worries me. I am not a surgeon. I talk to Dr. L. afterwards. He is a surgeon and has worked here for longer than me, and I’ve been here for 23 years. We get along well.

“I shouldn’t be in the surgical call schedule.” I say.

“Don’t you have the certificate for appendectomies?” he says. Now, that isn’t really a thing. My brain made it up.

“No.” I say.

“Oh.” he says. “I thought you did. Great job on that surgery. We need you.”

“But I am not a surgeon, I would need more training.” I say.

“Oh, we’ll figure it out.” he says. I am worried that I’ll be called for an appendectomy. Or something way worse.

I wake up with a very stiff neck. It has relaxed now, but clearly some part of me is not totally on board with work. I need to be careful what I am getting in to. I am not sure, what if I get pneumonia number five? We are short on physicians though. I can argue with myself very easily. Ok, ok, says the part of me that really wants to return to work: we won’t do appendectomies.

The head of our Legion says that some of his people wish I were working again. I really got along well with my veterans and liked them almost always. They could be really gruff and growly and I would growl back. Then they’d be cheerful. Another person at an outside dance said he missed visits with me and appreciated the time I took. Last night a third person asks how they will know if I start a Long Covid clinic. They have two friends who may have it.

I don’t know. I am mostly absent from medicine right now, but still doing my continuing medical education. I have about 30 hours on Long Covid now, which means I have a lot of strategies to improve things but I can’t cure it. May the research will get there eventually. I am maintaining all of the certifications: medical license, board certification, DEA, membership in the American Academy of Family Medicine. But I also listen to dreams.

For the RDP: absent.

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Spidergirl

Wow! My spider who has set up just outside my desk window and right by the hummingbird feeder, has such a beautiful web! It is raining today and she is hanging out in the center. She did not move when I went out to take pictures.

She is enjoying the flies and bees attracted to the feeder. I watched her wrap two up the other day. Does she stash them somewhere? The web was down the next day and I was afraid she was gone, but she is back up today.

Some people find spiders beastly but I like them. As long as they aren’t the deadly sort and don’t bite me.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: beast.

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Changing season

My non-native maple, tipped by the sun, but also just starting to change colors. This is my second lot, the wild lot, where the deer often bed down at night. We have two families coming through. A doe with a younger doe and a pair of twins who have lost their spots, and another doe with some younger twins. We have a three point buck with one deformed and broken horn, and I had a young spike in my yard the other day. Looking polished and sharp, too. I kept my distance.

The cats are a bit cautious with the deer. Here is Elwha. He is checking that I am still there and that it’s still safe. This was taken in August.

Here is Sol Duc, checking out a buck, also in August.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: season.

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Port of Port Townsend party

What is this strange picture you ask?

Party last night, Barbecue at the Port of Port Townsend, and it was lots of fun. I missed the first couple of bands, but arrived for this one.

The stage is not one but two nested travellifts! How cool is that? Full moon, there was a rainbow and beautiful sunset that I missed, and there was food with three choices. They were out by the time I got there. It got prettier and prettier in the dark.

And heading home, many boats are lit up and beautiful.

And one more moon picture.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: moon.

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Storm tossed

The word tethered makes me think of the year and a half on oxygen. I had a standing concentrator for in the house. This means that I have oxygen tubing following me on three floors. I had to have connectors and I got caught on everything. I tripped over it. I wondered why it wasn’t helping and discovered the tubing was unplugged. The kittens chewed holes in it.

The sea plants are tethered too, to rocks, to grow up from the deep. I think this looks like a distressed stranded mermaid. Poor thing, her rock, her foundation has been thrown on shore by a storm. She can’t get home. I took this in May 2021, when I was still on continuous oxygen.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: tethered.

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Garden tour

On the day my daughter and I explored two Florence gardens, I tripped. I did not knock myself out, nor my teeth, but I scraped both knees a little and bruised both palms.

I fell on gravel. Can you tell? I held lots of pressure on the knees first, and then palms together. Less bruising with pressure because the bleeding stops sooner. I still had these nice gravel prints on the photographs taken the next day. I was looking at the garden and did not see a ridge to divert rain and fell quite hard. I rolled and did not break a wrist, which is nice. After that, my daughter warned me when she thought the ground was rough and I was looking up too much. “No texting while walking, mom.”

The cobblestones could be rough too.

And this garden sculpture is not watching his feet either.

This one might not need to, since he looks like he’ll be airborne.

Happily, I did not fall down any steps nor with my big pack on.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: explore.

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Guide

The Ragtag Daily Prompt is latibule: a place where you feel safe and cosy. I was going to say my house, but I wrote this poem near the end of my stay in Italy. My latibule is my mind. The poem is named Guide.

Guide

I want to write a travel guide
To the interior
No matter where I am
nor who I am with
nor what the circumstance
Ok, in a disaster or crisis I act
I don’t withdraw
But barring that
What does your space look like inside?

My interior is a garden
And an ocean
And the universe
Monsters, angels, demons, daemons
Friends
Many dead
People remembered and loved
Even if they don’t love me
Even if there is no reconciliation
Flowers birds insects science sex philosophy
A universe of stars and math
Tiny atoms, shy electrons circle protons
Whirl happily at the atomic level
Nebulae and black holes
Other worlds and beings
Of course there are other beings
In this wide universe

I am riding on a train in Italy
And traveling my vast interior
At the same time.

Written September 10, 2023. The photograph is from a friend’s doll house.

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What martians drink

The Ragtag Daily Prompt is traipse. I looked up Tiny Tim’s Tiptoe through the Tulips, but I don’t want to post it. So instead, another Peter and Lou Berryman. I saw them live while I was in college at UW in Madison, Wisconsin. Once I got my MD, I can especially enjoy the chorus about Dr. O.

And yesterday I really enjoyed watching the Osiris land. How exciting! Gravel from Bennu, the asteroid! Space and science geeks are high as kites, me included!

My photograph is from the Vatican Museum. Look at that ceiling, they were space geeks too.

Let’s traipse to Wisconsin, hop on Dr. Otto’s rocket ship and find out what Martians drink and when they close the bars.