Day 2 Of Winter Storm 2014

The morning started off OK. The streets, miraculously, were dry and not at all icy at 28 degrees. I poured a cup of coffee and scooted out the door to visit Sherbet one more time in case the predicted storm materialized. He came running out of his little house when he heard me and we schmoozled for a good long time, him nestled on my lap and inside my coat against my chest.

An hour after I got home it started to snow an icy snow and the wind started up. I went out to protect my car even further so it'll be easier unearthing it next time I need it. I intended to go back in the house but the weather was so exhilarating that before I knew it my feet were taking me on a walk around the neighborhood. I also got a text: the office will not open today. Whee!!

From the top of the driveway you can hear the wind and the icy snow hitting objects:

Everyone in our neighborhood with steep driveways parks at street level.

I've learned that if I put multiple small things on my car it's easier to pull them off when they get stuck. I used to put one long towel but that was actually harder to remove. I've also tucked some things into the door handles as they often get frozen shut. Looks like a hobo car!

At least one dog owner had already taken a walk. The next time I came around the block these tracks were all but covered over with fresh snow.

Doesn't look like SC.

The dreaded two hills that are my only way out of our subdivision. The first one going down once caused a school bus to slide into the second yard on the left. Going back up there at the end is pretty scary when it's icy. Beautiful though.

Since it's still snowing and hasn't stopped I imagine there will be more than this snowman in Devonshire.

An ecstatic snow worshiper about to go out. As I'm typing this I can hear some teenage boys outside pulling each other on sleds with a small snowmobile. Wish I were with them!

Day 1 Of Winter "Storm" 2014

We'll see if it turns into something worthy of the label "storm."

Today it snowed non-stop for 12 hours. It accumulated on some things but melted on the streets and sidewalks. Life was normal. Patients showed up. No big deal.

Tomorrow may be another matter. The forecast predicts more snow, then ice, then snow, then ice lasting into Thursday afternoon. We cancelled Wednesday morning patients hoping that we could open by 1 pm, but if the forecast proves to be accurate the Carolinas will be locked down. I just hope we don't lose our power.

In preparation for my next drive (not sure when that will be) I've backed the car into our front gravel walkway. I explained to Sherbet that he might not see me for a while and left him several bowls of dry food; canned food freezes. He'll need to stay in his little house and hibernate like a bear for a couple of days!

Continued From Yesterday

I got my reward this morning!

Inside Gladys' box...

... was a gorgeous pale brown egg.

I'm ashamed to say I don't know the kitties' names.

The black kitty is very schmoozley and loves to go outside.

The ragdoll kitty keeps her distance but does let you pet her.

My fun discovery!


Poor Gladys has the proverbial toilet paper stuck to her shoe.

Saturday Of Superbowl Weekend

Since this is Superbowl weekend the plan is to get stuff done so we can lounge in front of the violent entertainment that is the NFL. Also, our neighbors are out of town and we are "chicken sitting."

We found out our neighbor's name is Gladys. This is a great name for her as our human neighbors explained she is named for the character in the old TV series "Bewitched" that was the snoopy lady that lived across the street, Gladys Kravitz. Both Gladyses have a tendency to crane their heads around to look in the window to see what's going on inside the house. Having the name Gladys also means we will have to clarify in our conversations whether we are talking about Gladys the chicken or Gladys the lady who come to clean our house. Hopefully the context will be enough. "Hey Saeed, did Gladys poop on our sidewalk?" really shouldn't be confusing.

Thursday evening we went over to Kelly and Mark's house to receive our chicken training session. I admit to being slightly nervous since she is my first chicken experience. Saeed took the Friday night shift and I took the Saturday morning shift; so far so good and we will continue to care for her till Monday night. We also get to schmoozle with their two kitties who perform tricks for treats. They make our cats look really bad.

One of the AM chicken chores is to remove the egg that may be in her nest although I did not find an egg this morning. After feeding her I walked back to our driveway and began cleaning out my car. Gladys is very friendly and likes to hang out with people. She followed me over, singing to herself in that slightly warbley chicken way, and promptly hopped inside my car to check it out. She found nothing of interest in there and hopped back out while giving me the stink eye. Sorry Gladys. Let's go to the house so I can find something to redeem myself.

Saeed is on a sweet potato kick so I cut a piece off his supply and voilà! Pay dirt.



I will let you know if we find an egg one of these mornings. Meanwhile I will clean up and do laundry till Gladys needs us again.

Addendum: Gladys puts herself to bed. When sunset approaches she goes into her wired enclosure where her hutch is and sits on her nest. No worries that we have to catch her and put her in there. How cute is that?

Pics Of Montessori School

We had a wonderful weekend with the kids. For some reason I only took a couple of pics of our visit to the boys' school, so I'll post those, but Daniel joined us on Sunday and I wish I had snapped a few pics of all of us playing Apples to Apples. We had a lot of fun and I'm ready to do it again!

This classroom is one of the elementary (grades 1 to 3) rooms where Cyrus may go next year. His parents and Baba interviewed the teacher for this room but there are two others; they don't yet know which of the three to which he'll be assigned. Meanwhile Nama wandered around looking at everything and...

... Tita read to the boys. They are always happy to be read to even though Cyrus does quite a good job by himself nowadays. This weekend he read an entire book about whales out loud to us. And he's only 5! Both of the boys are clearly thriving at Athens Montessori School.

Bad Joke?

Ok so I thought it was really funny, but...

The hospital system I work for had a health event that involved employees waiting for the next available kiosk. There were three seats in the waiting area and I was sitting in one of them. A nurse came and stood next to the three seats. I gestured that she was free to step in front of me to get to one of the empty seats so she could sit down. She said, "Yeah, I guess, if you don't bite." I answered, "Oh no, I would never do that; I'm a vegetarian." She looked stunned and confused and said absolutely nothing.

This means that either my joke stunk or that RNs have no sense of humor.

Addendum: The event was a pre-diabetes screening event. The quiz I took said I could be at risk due to my age and lack of daily exercise. I'm happy to report that my Hemoglobin A1C was normal at 5.0. This is a measure of your blood sugar over the last three months. That means my body handled the holidays amazingly well.

Bread & Milk

The forecast tonight is for a slight chance of snow that won't stick. What is everyone doing? Stopping off at the grocery store on their way home from work to buy "bread and milk." It's really true. After all these years down here my Midwestern self still can't believe it.

Eating To Get Sick

The Consumer Reports magazine for Feb 2014 has an article in it that blows my mind. Here's the cover:

 "How to protect yourself" is a phrase I associate with attacks by muggers, rapists, and thieves, not with something I choose to put in my mouth.

I remember when I used to buy chicken for my family. It felt good. It felt healthy. It made me feel satisfied that I was cooking healthy delicious meals for my growing family. I remember standing in front of the meat counter looking for the 'best' appearing meat, one that didn't have any discolorations or peculiar looking areas. Never did I dream that I was possibly introducing deadly bacteria into my children and husband's mouths. That was in the '80's and it's gotten much worse.

According to the article, 48 million people get sick every year from eating chicken tainted with Salmonella, campylobacter, E. coli, and other contaminants; "more deaths were attributed to poultry than to any other commodity" during the analysis from 1998 to 2008. How can this be?

It be because "more than half contained fecal contaminants"... "and about half of them harbored at least one bacterium that was resistant to three or more commonly prescribed antibiotics." This has led to 23,000 deaths per year. 23,000 deaths per year? The number of motor vehicle traffic deaths last year was 33,687 (from CDC) and the number of deaths due to cancer was 580,350 (American Cancer Society.) THERE ARE PEOPLE I LOVE EATING THIS. DOES THIS NOT FREAK YOU OUT? The article highlighted a 51 year old healthy man who was horribly sickened by tainted chicken. Happily he did not die, but 23,000 other people did last year alone.

(Click photo to enlarge for easier reading.) Bacteria can live on surfaces for hours and even for days. Every one of the four major brands they tested contained worrisome amounts of bacteria, even the chicken breasts labeled "no antibiotics" or "organic".

How does all of that contamination make its way into those nicely packaged chicken breasts displayed at your store? The bacteria that is normally in the intestinal tracts of chickens is transferred to the meat during the slaughtering process. "Or if a chicken living in cramped conditions regularly comes into contact with feces the bacteria can cling to its skin and make their way onto your dinner plate." Eew. 

 So called "cage free" chickens:

A 2010 study led by the CDC found that 13% of kids riding in grocery store shopping carts were exposed to raw meat products. And the Consumer Reports tests did not find any brands or types of chicken parts that had less bacteria than the others, so there's no 'better' chicken to buy.

About 80% of all antibiotics sold in the US each year are used in animal production. As if that weren't bad enough antibiotics NOT used in animal production can still become ineffective due to their position within a 'family' of antibiotics, in other words, bacteria become resistant to antibiotics not even used in animal production.

"And if antibiotic-resistant bacteria continue their scary spread, they could lead to deadly infections after routine surgery or even a seemingly innocuous cut because the drugs that doctors prescibe will have lost their effectiveness." Holy s**t.

The end of the article discusses what needs to happen to make chicken safer. Of course to my way of thinking people should quit eating it at all. It's a cruel industry. Male chicks are literally thrown away, dumped into grinders while still alive. Layers are kept awake 24 hours a day with artificial light to stress them into laying more eggs. Meat hens are forced to grow so fast they break their legs because of their own obesity. Viewing the slaughter process will give you nightmares.

But for those of you who don't care about the compassion factor I still think a boycott is in order. You know our industries respond only to the bottom line - their wallets. Added bonus? You won't end up the hospital with intense abdominal pain, vomiting, puking your guts out.

(credit: text and pics liberally taken from Consumer Reports issue February 2014.)

A Peek At The New Office

In April we will be moving into our new office using the LEAN philosophy. It is supposed to both save money and improve patients' experiences as they 'travel' through their appointment. The idea is to be streamlined with fewer episodes of waiting and fewer processing steps to get to your doctor.

I snapped a few pics but it's clearly not finished and I'm sure I'll take more pictures in April. I wish I got the check-in area since it's so different from what we currently have. Basically it's like a hospital: one centralized check-in for all the offices in the three-story building. Also one centralized check-out.

A portion of the front entrance:

This video should be titled "Stating the obvious." It is interrupted by someone needing to ask me a question, but what I am so relieved to show is that we have plenty of access to windows/sunlight. When folks were describing the new building to us in the early days they lead me to believe there were no windows which would make me miserable. I need to see Mother Nature and that there is an outside to which I can escape!:
 

(Sorry Laura, I lied, but nobody reads my blog other than family.) I can't get over how much of a fishbowl the doctors and assistants will be in. The patients will be able to see and interrupt us on their way to their rooms. The last area you see on the video is my & Dr. R's desk. At the end Laura asks, "Could they hear your voices?" I bet so:

Our hospital system is going with neutral colors in all the new buildings. Makes sense.

The "pee station" is a definite improvement over what we currently have.

When they called my name in the first video they wanted my input on the position and angle of the exam table. I pointed out that that was the least of our worries. Look at the view from the exam table out into the open office area. That furthest wall you can see is by the elevators. Yikes! They'll have to do something about that... maybe have us enter the room through the ceiling?!?

Jackie posing at her new desk in her new office.

Part of the LEAN process is having less wasted space. This break room will be shared by all the practices in the building instead of each of us having our own. It looks like it will be nice but with a large family practice, oncology/hematolgy practice, cardiology practice, pediatrics practice, a full phlebotomy lab and our practice, this room is going to get pretty full at lunch time.

There are several places on the outside of the building for picnic tables for lunch breaks when the weather is nice. Smoking is not allowed anywhere on the campus so that won't be a problem. (that big trash bin won't be there)

The break room has three large refrigerators, four microwaves, and plenty of counter space. It also has Dr. Barkley hamming it up for my picture! I'll probably be the only one using this area since most staff members get take out fast food. Ironic, no?

Happy Sylvester?

I love that my cousin is Austrian and does things in such non-American ways. She sent a lovely postcard for Christmas and enclosed a little trinket the likes of which I've never seen. Fortunately she explained it's presence and meaning on the back of the postcard.

Postcard: "Schönbrunner Allee im Schnee" (Schönbrunn palace's walkway in the snow) is so lovely I want to go there. Hey big sis - you been there?

The trinket is clearly a "penny" (ein Euro Cent) but on the other side...

.. was this cute little lady bug! She explained that at Sylvester, which coincides with New Year's Eve, people put these little trinkets in their money bags so that they will have enough money in the next year.

Well I don't have a 'money bag' but clearly need to get one before next New Year! What fun.