The Photos Speak for Themselves

These are all from our last full day on vacation and were taken in the subalpine region near Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. Lets just say it was a terrific vacation. We probably crammed way too much into one week. Drove 1300 miles. Hiked 36 miles. Had some wildlife encounters (including multiple bears).

Dealing with that first week back to work is always the worst, although a light schedule and my fellow physicists made it easier this time. We had a lot of adventures. Great times!

Quick Hits

A dogwood tree fell in our yard during Thursday evening's storms. Not a big deal since it didn't hit anything and isn't in the way. It seems almost a shame to have to remove it -- the cats think it is their personal feline jungle gym. They are all over it.

I've decided that planning our vacations is nearly as much fun as actually going on them. It finally got slow at work the past two days so I started working on our August plans. We're going to Washington state to see North Cascades, Olympic, and Mt. Rainier national parks. And since we're flying into Seattle, I think we'll have to make time to see the Science Fiction Museum just because.

Work is still kicking my ass, but in spite of that I am glad that they switched me to the Midtown location. Change is good. Still covering the "gritty downtown location" two days a week. Also still forced to "share" my Midtown office with a physician two of my three days there. And by "share", my employers mean when she is there I don't get to use it. Not fun.

So why haven't I been around here more? Ironically, my near constant access to the internet provided by my smart phone is the reason that I haven't been around very much. Now that I don't need a computer to read my email and get directions and stuff, I have less of a reason to get on the internet. I'm too busy to do it at work any more and don't really want to sit behind a computer at home since I spend so much time staring at a screen at work.

Tomorrow is my birthday. Forty five sure feels like halfway (or -gulp- more than half way) to something. Anyway, I decided to get myself a present: I'm hiring a housekeeper. I suck at cleaning, don't do it often enough and don't like it. I am more than happy to pay someone else to do it. So that's the plan. We've talked about hiring people to do the yard work also, but I am on the fence about that. I don't dislike yard work. I just don't like doing it when it is hot (kind of a problem when you live in Atlanta - it is hot all the dang time). I'd rather mow the lawn than vacuum any day, even if it is 95F and 95% humidity.

Alive and Kicking

'Been a while. Figured I should let people know I am still alive (PDM and the cats are all OK as well - I know LL must have been worried sick). I haven't been posting since my work assignment changed a month ago*. When I feel like posting, I don't have time. When I have time, I don't feel like posting. Thus my month of silence.

I don't really feel much like posting right now, so I will leave you with the little blurb below and this photo of the morning sky over the north Georgia mountains, where PDM and I had a short getaway last weekend. We stayed in a cottage at a state park, and this was the view from our back porch. Not bad, eh?

*Still covering the gritty downtown location, but now I spend the other three days at the upscale midtown location. I was feeling burned out at the main location, so I am generally happy that they switched me to new horizons. Traffic is more of a hassle since I am going into the heart of Atlanta every day, but on the plus side my lunch choices have improved dramatically. You gotta look at the positive. This is a good thing long term, but in the short term there is a situation that makes this change very challenging and sometimes irritating. It should smooth out in a few months (fingers crossed). Maybe I won't be quite so damn busy after that. One can always hope.

Solo

The last night of a business trip is my alone time. By this time, I've seen everyone I wanted to see, and socialized with my co-workers who are here on several occasions. Brain is full. Body is tired. And I've got one more night alone before I go home to PDM and the cats. The last night of a trip is my time for indulgence.

After my last session, I came back the room and took a long nap. Got up and went for a long walk around Philly, solo. After sundown, I enjoyed a room service supper and a bottle of local wine that I bought at the Reading Terminal Market (which is a wonderful place). Pretty good wine for east coast winery.

I fly home tomorrow. PDM tells me that Stray Cat Romeo isn't eating very much this week. Maybe he misses me. We'll find out tomorrow! On Friday, it is back to business as usual.

Traveling Again

Q. What's dark, ridiculously loud, and kind of stinky?

A. The last row of a MD-88 aircraft.

I'm in Philly until Thursday, for a frenzied week of continuing education activities (oh, joy). The 7:30am start time doesn't thrill me, nor do the long days, but it will be fun to see some old friends.

The Peep Toe Rebellion

Like most places of business, my employer has a dress code. Some of it makes sense, and some of it doesn't. For example, you can wear a short skirt, but not capri pants or city shorts or skorts, all of which are more modest than a short skirt. Unnatural hair color is not allowed (but seen all over the place), as are "prominent visible tattoos" (which the chairman's secretary sports very visibly on her upper arms). Red nail polish is on both the approved and the prohibited list! The kicker is that the dress code isn't evenly enforced, at least as far as I can tell. I see gross violations on a daily basis. So when our administrator wants our department to toe the line, it causes a lot of resentment when we see other departments getting away with a lot of stuff that doesn't fly in our neck of the woods.

I can see the need for many of the provisions if an employee has patient contact, or works in a lab, or does other dangerous or messy jobs. For those who spend their days toiling behind a desk with a computer, some rules appear to be quite arbitrary. At any rate, when the person who enforces the rules doesn't strictly adhere to them, they lose any moral authority they had in being the person to say "no". And that is exactly the situation in my department.

Thus... the peep toe rebellion. Sure, we are supposed to wear closed toe shoes. But this is the deep south in hot weather. And the admin has been seen upon multiple occasions wearing peep toed shoes. With no hosiery. Also a violation. Hah!

So I've stopped just walking on by the rows and rows of cute shoes in the shoe store that don't exactly fit with the dress code. I won't do a flagrant disregard of the rules and wear completely open toed shoes. But if a toe or two happens to just peek out of my shoes, I ain't sweatin' it. I'm a (tiny little) rebel.

Why Do I Stay Up So Late?

Probably because I end up working so late. Got home at 8:45 tonight. Still up. Go figure.

I'll probably have to do it again on Thursday just to keep caught up.

I love my job...

...some days more than others.

I left work at 10pm today. [I knew I'd be working late, but in my mind "late" was 7ish, not 10ish.] Trying to resolve technical difficulties. Sadly, still unresolved. I left the computer working on it. Tried to wait it out. Bailed when a back-of-the-envelope calculation showed that I'd be waiting several more hours before it finished. Not that patient. Plus -- hungry. I'm having wine and cookies for dinner. Any port in a storm.

The Badge Nazi

I should have known that my day would be a total suck fest. The workday started with me being late for work and then getting hassled by the Badge Nazi, literally the minute I walked into my office. This woman, as far as I can tell, has a job with the sole purpose of trolling around the facility catching people not wearing their name badges, and then being snotty and condescending to them while she tallies the offense in her reports. No, I wasn't wearing my badge. It was in my hand, since I had just walked in. I hadn't even had a chance to hang my coat up and log into my workstation. Sigh. And then things took a turn for the worse. I won't bore you with the details. I'm mighty happy to be home, even though the commute was a drag and Silvio had done some extracurricular peeing during the day. At least I don't have to worry about the Badge Nazi. Until tomorrow.

Damn You, Safety Guy!

The Safety Guy just took away my space heater. Bastard.

I don't care if it's a fire hazard. It was the only thing keeping my fingers flexible. It's hard to use a computer with gloves on.

NOT happy.

Isn't it ironic?

There was a recent meeting at work to discuss the dangers of sleep deprivation, aimed at the resident physicians in our department. I found it amusing that they scheduled this particular meeting at 7:00am.

Cat Proximity Alert!

My three cats usually do not mix well - no two of them get along (except temporarily, if some special food is involved to keep them occupied). Silvio seems to know he got away with something here. Moxy was too relaxed to put up much of a fuss when Silvio joined her on the back of the couch. Notice how he settled into a position facing away from her. She's got a look of quiet resignation on her face.

We're back from our brief trip to the mountains. A couple of days alone in a cottage and a few hikes in the woods did us a world of good. We also got together with an old family friend last night. There is still another day to relax before I go back to work. Strange how today feels like a Sunday. PDM is on his state-mandated furlough next week. Even though it is unpaid leave, I am a little jealous of the extra time he'll have at home to chill. My Monday back on the job is shaping up to be a very long day.

And last, there was good news/bad news about the old laptop. The good news is that it was a hard drive problem that is easily fixed (cheap, too). The bad news is that my old hard drive was so messed up, none of the data could be retrieved. I've had it so long that I am not entirely sure I remember what has been lost. Maybe that is a kindness. The take home message is that if your computer starts making strange noises and acting up, you might want to back up your hard drive sooner rather than later.

A-A-A-Aaaa-chooooooo!

I'm sure y'all already know this, but working when you're sick really sucks. I would love to be back home in bed with a cat or two. I'm settling for a big bowl of cheese grits and bacon at my desk with a mug of hot tea. When I blow my nose (about every three minutes or so), I feel lightheaded. Trippy...

Nickeled and Dimed

I'm in Chicago on a business trip. Had to pay $15 to check my suitcase on the flight. The very expensive hotel I'm in charges for wireless internet access. Cheaper hotels usually give you wireless for free, along with breakfast. (Right now, I am using the free wi-fi at the convention hall.) I skipped the expensive breakfast at the expensive hotel and grabbed some tea and banana bread from Starbucks. My 16 ounce hot tea costs more than a 12 ounce tea, but they both only use only one tea bag. The vending machines for Chicago's rail system do not accept credit cards, and they don't give back change. I will have to hunt around for correct change next time. You also don't get a receipt, which will complicate my expense reporting. My employer wants proof of every little thing to a ridiculous degree, so I guess I will try taping the used transit card to my paperwork and see if that satisfies the corporate overlords. If nothing else, now I can say I've ridden the 'L'.

Working In Exile

A few weeks ago, my boss told me that my work location would be changing two days a week. I was not thrilled about this news.

Today was the first day. My new assignment is in our grittiest, most urban location. (Dave, I am sure you can put two and two together and figure out where I am spending my Mondays and Tuesdays now, although I am not going to come right out and say it on the blog.) The day got off to a rough start.

I left the house earlier than usual in an attempt to avoid rush hour traffic on the new, longer commute to downtown. Didn't work. The drive in was an adrenaline-laced, white knuckled, profanity-inducing experience that I am not looking forward to repeating this afternoon. Parking? Hassle. Neighborhood? Not the greatest. I won't be working after dark. Ever.

It turns out that a procedure I had been told I only needed to be physically present for was something I was expected to handle on my own. I've never used this equipment before, so I ended up calling for someone to come over from main campus to show me how to use it. Less than ideal.

And now I am sitting in a very cold, austere office at lunchtime. I'm staring at blank white walls and a tiny monitor. I cannot play music because there are no speakers. This is unfortunate, because the office seems to share a wall with the staff restroom and I can hear pretty much everything that goes on in there. As well as every conversation at the front desk and waiting area right outside my door.

The good news is that it cannot possibly get much worse, so it has to get better. Right? I'll repeat the often-used mantra of unhappy employees everywhere in these troubled times: "At least I have a job."

Oh, Canada!

Photograph: Victoria Glacier and reflection from Lake Louise early in the morning, August 2, 2009.

We're back.

The Canadian Rockies are incredibly beautiful in August. Photographs do not do it justice - you have to take in the entire vista with your own eyes. Even the money is pretty. We had a very good time and might even have lost a bit of weight with all of the hiking we did. I took over 850 photographs, which will take a little time to sort out. I will no doubt share them one area at a time.

If any of you are contemplating a trip to the Canadian Rockies - do it! And get this book, which was an indispensable guide: Parkways of the Canadian Rockies. I have the third edition, copyright 1988 that I purchased during my 1994 visit, but there is a spiffy new 5th edition that I saw in a bookstore at Lake Louise Village that looked great.

We were sorry to have to leave it all behind to go back home (and to a heat wave, no less). We both have a lot of bullshit to "look forward to" at work. But it was a great week off - no TV, no news, no internet (except trail reports, weather, and checking in with Mom once a day), no phones, no nothing except boots on the trail and some good chow when we got back to our temporary home base of Lake Louise Village.

The "explaining later" part...

Things have been pretty crazy at work. Short-staffing for much of the time (a maternity leave, plus some meetings and vacations), and an increase in the usual patient load by about 25% have made for a tough time getting everything done. I have been working long hours and getting a lot of tension headaches. I REALLY need a vacation (which is coming very soon, thank goodness).

On Friday, when I was in the midst of handling a crisis, I got an email from my boss. Unfortunately, I opened it immediately. It was distracting. The good news is that I still have a job. The bad news is that they are splitting my work assignment between two locations. NOT ideal. I've dealt with this situation before. Don't really care for it. I tried my best to talk them out of it, and who knows -- maybe they will change their minds. It isn't scheduled to happen for another two weeks.

But if it does happen, then I have no choice but to go along with it, and give them my best effort. As always, there are positives and negatives about this new situation. All I can do is try to accentuate the positives and deal with the negatives. One thing is certain - things always change. Don't get too comfortable.

Comfort Carbs

After a bad day (or three) at work, a couple of beers and a big plate of pasta can do amazing things for your mood. The downside is that if things don't change at work I am gonna need a new (larger) wardrobe.

Thank You For Not Smoking!

One of our patients lit up in the bathroom at work. Probably only smoked a couple of minutes. Stunk up the entire hallway. That bathroom reeked for hours. It is amazing how strong that scent can be now that most places are free of it. It is hard to imagine working in a smoky environment, but my first jobs were like that. I guess it's all what you're used to.

I feel sorry for that patient who couldn't go without for even an hour or so. No such thing as sneaking a smoke anymore. It is obvious as hell, even if we hadn't seen the cloud of smoke appear when the door opened.

Wireless?

I'm convinced that the thermostats at work aren't hooked up to anything. They're just there for the placebo effect. My office, and the entire physics hallway, is a meat locker all year 'round. I pried the cover off the nearest thermostat and turned it all the way up, and... nothing. The only place in the whole department that is warm is the breakroom, which is practically a sauna.

In my employer's defense, they tried to do something about the situation. They gave all of us polartec jackets and blankets. I kid you not. And space heaters for all of the offices. They could save so much money if only the climate control system could be brought under control.