Broken Glass

On this lovely past weekend, when K and I were walking Pep at the Arcata Marsh, one of her favorite jaunts, we came back to this:

 

The ever-parked guy in the blue van by the marsh told us, when we were headed back to round the last corner, that he had heard a (presumably our) car alarm go off and saw someone in a blue "hot rod" pick up a friend from by our vehicle (but he hadn't a cell phone to call the police or anyone). When we got to my vehicle, we were speechless and angry that some idiot in our little town would do this to my car.  Who knows if the blue van guy had anything to do with it (but I doubt it).

Even more puzzling, initially, was that nothing seemed to have been taken; however, when we looked more closely, it appears that someone took Pepper's "gear bag" from the backseat floor-- which was filled with extra poop bags, baby wipes, her famous sling, travel water bottle, and some doggie treats. Score, obviously (I am imagining what those jerks felt when they opened the bag of doggie stuff). I recall that, in Sacramento, the same window was busted one evening while the car was parked outside my apartment, again with no obvious losses, which allowed me think, at that time, that it was random vandalism [or, naively, extreme weather changes] that was responsible. However, my bike seat and my license plate were also stolen maliciously on other occasions in Sacramento!

I was on primary OB and ER call this weekend, which was quite busy, and it was a bit of a drag (for him, although he didn't complain a bit) for K to drive me back and forth to the hospital every time I had to go in... as he needed a car for errands and church, and we didn't want to leave my one-windowless car parked anywhere for lengths of time if we could avoid it (thank goodness the forecast has been sunny recently!). Absolutely NO auto glass places were open on the weekend (odd, right? in a town of 17,000. We were totally willing to go to Eureka, but even that "big city" had no open auto glass shops!). 

Exhausted from being up for about two nights and two days, at 8am on Monday I called to try to get my car into a shop in Mckinleyville, hoping I could drop it off while at clinic and pick it up later in the day, but alas, the glass needed to be ordered and my appointment isn't until the end of the day today.

SIGH.  It's just frustrating to have to spend this extra money and time (the latter which bothers me more than anything) dealing with this act of idiots. Since this repair cost will be under our deductible for the year (our expensive rock incident repair [see here and here] is long in the past), I sort of feel that I should now get some glass-only car insurance!  Is there such a thing?

"Good Care"

A couple of good medically-themed articles were going around FB recently.

Many of my co-physicians may have seen/shared/reposted this one, "When doctors tell patients what they don't want to hear".

Early in the article, the author, Lisa Rosenbaum, a cardiologist, writes "Will our patients still like us if we tell them things they don’t want to hear? The challenge of communicating unpleasant, possibly profoundly upsetting information to patients is timeless. What has changed, however, is that physicians are now being judged, and compensated, based upon their ability to do it."

I really try to be nice to all patients, and really everyone I meet. I am a people-pleaser by nature, and always want people/patients to "like me." However, I also have to be a good doctor, profesionally... which really does require me sometimes have to tell people things that are hard to hear, to help change behaviors and make them more healthy.

I used to get upset when patients didn't like or agree with my care or preferred not to see me any more (what we call being "fired."); however, I now try to really take things less personally and realize that patients "need" different things from their doctors and that, while I may not always provide what all patients want, I provide the best care I can.  [On a side note, I would ask that, if you have ever criticized a doctor for being short or running late, please try to understand just how much we are asked to do and try to do safely and competently (with good documentation) in a 15- min visit. I loathe running behind, but it happens and, truthfully, most of the time it is because we spent a few extra minutes to really make another patient feel like we took care of all their concerns or "squeezed someone in."]

Char posted another good article, "Sorry.... are you really a doctor?" which captures well some of the frustration of the stereotypes surrounding medical professionals and particularly with being a young female practitioner. Being perhaps less confident by nature than some of my peers (but getting better), I also wish I didn't have to constantly "prove" that, despite my youth or gender, I feel that I'm quite a competent physician.

Tying together the two articles' themes above was a coincidentally-timed report on "patient satisfaction" (which included comments from patients at Kelvin's clinic), which was forwarded to the providers last week. One such comment stated, "Dr. Vu and Mrs. Vu are great!" Other comments were not so glowing.

I just (shrugged and) smiled.

Fortuna Rodeo II and other summertime fun

Chamreun came up this weekend (his birthday weekend!) to hang out in Humboldt County. We were thrilled to show him some good ol' Humboldt fun by going to the Fortuna Rodeo on Saturday night.

If you recall, K and I went to the rodeo last year; however, there were only junior events on that evening.

The rodeo fair

It's cold in July!!

We were excited to watch bull-riding for the first time. It was these riders' goal to stay on their bucking bull for at least eight seconds... which apparently is a really hard feat even for professionals! Out of about 24 rides, only about 5 guys stayed on!

What would a true rodeo be without corn dogs and funnel cakes? :)

The eve got darker... and then it was time for "Bull Poker."  It was also our first initiation to this semi-barbarism... How it works is that there is a table-full of guys seated in the ring, and then a bull is let loose in there! 

 

As you can see, the loose bull generally charges at the table, knocking down "players," and the last man seated takes home the pot (which was about $1000!).  Chamreun didn't take our offer of $300 to enter the competition -- he does better in other gambling endeavors with better odds and fewer chances of being gored.  :) Fortunately for all of those involved, no one seemed to have gotten seriously hurt in any of the events above.

In other news, we did have some afternoon sunshine this weekend, so we took advantage of it to:

-have oysters on our front porch....

- play some ultimate frisbee...

  

... and go to "The River."

It was our first chance to visit Mad River, which, in Blue Lake at least, is shallow and thus warm enough to be swimmable, even if it is only 65 degrees outside :)

Pep got in!

Her doggie paddle is the cutest!

Yay for summertime!

my black thumb

When we moved to Humboldt County and were out of residency, I thought I would have *all* this free time for new hobbies... including the very and attractively "green" hobby of gardening, in which I have never really dabbled for lack of space, time, a yard, etc. My grandparents lived on (and my dad grew up on) a farm in NW Minnesota, managing land including sugar beets, and my Grandma continued a lively vegetable garden in the back of the main house, so one might assume that I'd have inherited at least a smidgen of a green thumb. One would be very, very wrong. When I assumed I'd have a lot of time, I also had assumed very wrong.

Soon after we moved, here I got into composting. While I don't harvest the compost, I do take pleasure in seeing my food scraps decompose in my tumbler.

Growing living things, however, has been another story.  I started with a few succulents, which supposedly tend to do really well because they don't need a lot of watering/attention.  While somehow I can remember to walk and take care of the dog, I really have a hard time with plants.

Here is the result of my attempt to keep succulents alive in the house:

(I call it the plant graveyard)

Despite not being able to keep succulents alive, I didn't think it unreasonable to try my hand at growing another, different kind of plant, this one edible.  We are very inspired by the farmers' markets here in Humboldt. I'd love to be able to grow some herbs or small veggies. I thought I'd try to grow basil. Here is the result:

See a pattern here?  "Don't worry," said some kind folks. "Basil needs far more sun than we get here on the North Coast." Somehow, though, I wasn't convinced that the (lack of) sunshine was the issue.  The farmers producing the spectacular basil that is sold at very reasonable prices at the Farmers' Market seem to grow it just fine!

Then, this past week, we looked out to our back fence, and Kelvin noticed a little apple tree sprouting these juicy-looking specimens.

Wow!!! We also have lots of blackberry bushes behind our neighborhood and the marsh where we walk Pepper. These plants seem to do extremely well despite their complete lack of attention. Similarly, we have a crazily-growing artichoke plant in our front yard which has prompted past neighbors to even inquire if they might take some artichokes to eat ("Be my guest!" I don't even like artichokes).

I think I have decided that I should relinquish any attempts at intentional growing to "accidental gardening" as above, and focus my time and efforts in other places. :)

Stopping to Smell the (Oregon) Roses

After our nice mini-break, we are now back at work in Arcata. We enjoyed our road trip home through Oregon a bit more by stopping multiple times along the way.
First, since the flowers weren't in bloom when we were last in Portland (which is about equidistant between Seattle and Eugene, OR) in February, we stopped by the Rose Garden in Washington Park this time to check them out.  I love rose gardens (I mean, who doesn't?), but this garden is particularly spectacular (and, best of all, free!).

Rose Gardens have to be pretty overwhelming (in terms of smells) for dogs (who, surprisingly, were allowed on the grounds)!

We then hit REI and the Columbia Outlet (as there is no sales tax in Oregon!) and got some great deals in preparation for our Kilimanjaro/safari trip in October.

We were in Eugene, Oregon, by late afternoon on Monday and visited the quaint (and also free) Conger Clock Museum, both a display and a store with tons of very old and unique specimens.

(At 80 degrees, it really felt like summer! It was too hot to leave Pep in the car even for a brief few minutes).

I loved this dog, and owl, who tell time through their eyes!

 
Gone with the Wind display

Wizard of Oz Display

Eugene, Oregon, is known as the Track Capital of the United States, which is famous for many athletes, particularly Steve Prefontaine ("Pre") who competed in the 1972 Munich Olympics but then died tragically in his 20s in a car accident.

Alton Baker Park is home to "Pre's Trail," which we walked with Pep.

"Historic" Hayward Field is where the track meets are held ("where the Ducks run!").

"Waffle-iron" track shoes were created by Oregon Track Coach Bill Bowerman

Outside the track is a post with signs pointing towards the various Olympic venues of the past century (with their distances in miles).

Eugene is not only a very running-friendly city, but a bike-friendly one as well. Near the University of Oregon, there is a traffic light devoted entirely to signals for bikers in a designated bike lane. And the cars get to follow the signal on the right (meaning something like "proceed straight, right, or left, but watch out for bikers when turning!!).

Everything in Eugene seems coated with the saying "Go Ducks!"

(I'm not an ornithologist, but I think these may be geese?)

The University of Oregon grounds also includes the (independent) Eugene Pioneer Cemetary, founded in 1872, which includes graves of many early western settlers as well as Civil War veterans.

We concluded the day with food and beer (a wheat brew for me and an original-recpie rootbeer for Kelvin) at Steelhead Brewing Company, which lies near the 5th Street Market.

On Tuesday, we headed back to Arcata. We drove up to the Oregon Caves National Monument, intending to go on their cave tour; however it was too warm to leave Pep for any length of time, so we checked out the sign, and then headed home. 

Here's to road trips with lots of fun stops and catching up with friends along the way!!