Have you ever started talking to someone, only to find out that they throw amazing accusations and lies at you? I have had a patient say “You are FORCING me to use heroin.” It’s a bit disconcerting.
Imagine this in a debate. I can leave the room and end things in clinic. I can ignore family members that tell made up stories about me over and over. They want to believe what they want to believe. They don’t fact check. Aren’t you glad I don’t do that with people in clinic? Make stuff up? I don’t want a doctor who does that nor a president.
I don’t find it “presidential” to spend an hour and a half snarling lies, false blame and accusations. That is not leadership.
I am not voting for the biggest liar on the block.
The sky is bigger here than in Washington, at least, it seems bigger than on the Olympic Peninsula. It’s the lack of trees. Yes, there are mesas, but they are on the edges of Grand Valley and have very minimal foothills and then just go UP. I am enjoying the amazing cloud formations here. Maybe it’s also that often the clouds at home feel like they are two feet above the roof instead of way up in the sky.
Cee is getting better, so Cee, this sky is for you!
Yesterday we had an amazing thunderstorm with heavy rain and hail and water pouring under the front door of the clinic. The sidewalk must be tilted the wrong way. There were flood warnings and I waited until it calmed down a bit before driving home.
I like the sky, weather I am in Port Townsend or here. (Yes, wordplay on purpose).
On Saturday I spent the day at the Palisade Bluegrass and Roots Festival, hearing band after band. The crowd got bigger and bigger, listening to the bands. We had a pretty jumbo crowd by the time the last band started up. Lots of fabulous music and a happy crowd of all ages.
On Friday in the morning I took notes on paper. I was attending a conference on diabetes on Zoom. There are three new things added to the diabetes guidelines. It is now impossible to do a visit about diabetes and actually talk to the human being who has diabetes. We’ll be too busy doing the stupid checklists.
The personnel person stopped by. I said I was taking notes. “On PAPER? You are killing me!”
“Ok. I will use yarn this afternoon.” I drove home and got my knitting and worked on a sock in the afternoon. All the clinics were having a slow day. I guess the kids are getting out of school and everyone is feeling good. Or panicked.
I retain as much information knitting as I do taking notes. Tactile-auditory learner and the controlled fidgeting of knitting helps me stay awake, retain information, and produce socks and others items. I wear the socks more than I reread the notes.
I still like paper. I keep a paper journal. I wanted notes from the most complex lecture. The new medicines are jockeying for position but right now there are different indications for each one, so it’s rather confusing. They said that Type II Diabetes takes two hours daily to manage “correctly”. And that Type I and Type II on insulin take 3 or more. We are supposed to check for Diabetes Distress, which is not depression, exactly. I think I need to be checked for Guideline Distress and Contact Diabetes Distress, sigh. At least the Diabetes Distress speaker thought we should talk to the patient, though I think the talking should have been long before that. Medicine in the US is a mess.
I used the back of the clinic schedules for notes. I do print it out daily. It’s to try to run on time. What time am I supposed to see the patient, but they can be up to 7 minutes late and then the medical assistant still has to “room” them (yes, room has been verbed). Then I can go see them. So the theoretical starting time and the actual starting time can vary quite a bit. I don’t feel bad about being twenty minutes late if I didn’t get to go in the room with the last patient until twenty minutes late. Maybe a no show will let me catch up. Or not.
Sol Duc and I moved yesterday. The place we were in was billed as having a kitchen. It has a refrigerator, dishwasher, sink and microwave. NO STOVE! AUGH! I could check out a hot plate with one frying pan. I would describe this as a fast food kitchen. Ugh. I like to COOK. I also found a nice farm stand and bought a bunch of vegetables. The farmer said, “Thank your parents for raising you right with vegetables.” Heh. I will go back.
We are now in a small house, at the western edge of Grand Junction, with two bedrooms! Now my daughter can visit again. Sol Duc worried about the ceiling fans and hid under the bed for most of the day. This morning the fans are off and she is exploring. We have a fenced yard, though she won’t go out without harness, leash and me. We are in the southwestern corner of the development and there is another development across the street. It only has three houses, so we have lots of area to wander around. This am we are out at 5 am and can hear roosters from the farm kitty corner to us. And cows. We have a fabulous view of the mesas to the south and west and we are no longer surrounded by parking lot and highways. The local Coloradans seem to really love their pickups and especially loud ones. The valley acts like a bowl and highway sound travels a long way.
We both miss Elwha. Sol Duc was fairly panicked when I loaded the car and put her in the crate. I think she was afraid we were going to drive for three days again. She likes the house though and came out to purr last night. This morning she is exploring. I am keeping the second bedroom closed since my daughter doesn’t do very well with fur.
We still hope that Elwha turns up. Come back, Elwha!
I will go finish checking out today. I had to have Sol Duc out of the room we were in twice a week for an hour, so that they could come in to clean. That was fairly stressful for both of us. The instructions they gave us were confusing and it was eight days before they explained the rules. Which did not match the written rules. Anyhow, I am OUT OF THERE. Some of the staff were really nice. Others, well.
I had more stuff to move than when I arrived, all food. The new place is great though built for tall people. I am not tall. I am now on the lookout for a desk, because all the chair/table heights are wrong for me. I will ask the rental folks first.
My Ex and I used to dance to Saffire, way back in Richmond when I was in medical school. Fabulous and here is a song about rising.
Two of the ferries, that cross Puget Sound from Port Townsend to Whidby Island, are in this photograph from January. But it’s the sky that distracts. The ferries and the dock look small in the sound and the sky.
It is high desert here. One morning it was really pretty cold when I walked Sol Duc in her harness. Really she walks me. Cats are like that. But I wished for mittens. The temperature was 38. The last few days the low is in the high 40s or low 50s. Two days ago it was 90 driving home from work.
The consequence is air conditioning. I do not have air conditioning on the Olympic Peninsula. My house is from 1930 and well designed to stay cool in the summer and we rarely hit 90 anyhow. Two summers ago my heat pump switched to cooling when we had one hot week, startling me. We did hit 100 one day in Port Townsend, but it still dropped thirty degrees at night because of the cool Salish Sea surrounding us. My patients would complain of the awful heat when we got to 80 degrees. It’s all relative, right?
Here in Grand Junction, we are just starting to heat up. The hottest time appears to be around 4 or 5 pm.
I was cold at work all day two days ago. I wore a linen shirt over another shirt and it was not enough. I went outside at lunch and heated up nicely in the sun. Yesterday I took a wool jacket with me. Air conditioning is very strange.
This morning it is 51 now and projected to reach 85. The high desert temperature change of 30 to 40 degrees is not that different from home, but the air conditioning is different.
Discover and re-discover Mexicoβs cuisine, culture and history through the recipes, backyard stories and other interesting findings of an expatriate in Canada
Engaging in some lyrical athletics whilst painting pictures with words and pounding the pavement. I run; blog; write poetry; chase after my kids & drink coffee.
Refugees welcome - FlΓΌchtlinge willkommen I am teaching German to refugees. Ich unterrichte geflΓΌchtete Menschen in der deutschen Sprache. I am writing this blog in English and German because my friends speak English and German. Ich schreibe auf Deutsch und Englisch, weil meine Freunde Deutsch und Englisch sprechen.
KO Rural Mad As Hell Blog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.