Work

Crazy work -- saw 22 patients head spinning

Holidays come and gone

Sometimes a little goes a long way. I am happy to say that very little packaging accompanied our holiday giving and receiving, with nearly no exceptions.

I planted about 100 hawthorn tree seeds this evening, and spent over 30 minutes practicing with my new guitar lesson book.

We had a quiet little holiday week mainly at home and enjoyed our dogs and the relative quiet.

Possible resurgence

We are not amused.

Well, I am, at least. I am thinking of resuming my so-called blog.

One of the best things about marriage is making up. There have been so many ways I needed to improve myself. My lovely wife is just wonderful about helping me brush myself off and pick myself up and moving forward. I am so grateful for this.

My work is a good thing overall, yet leaves me unsatisfied in a few respects. I am hoping to reach out more to friends and spend more time developing new local friendships. During this effort, I expect to make some blunders as well as some gaffs. This is part of life I just have to accept. I think part of my delay in doing this when we first arrived was fear that I would make mistakes I have made before all over again. That I would have to check my enthusiasm and keep my boundaries cooly intact. I am glad for the chance to start anew, but miss my old friends in Western New York. I hope to be able to find likewise kindred spirits.

I am looking for a creative outlet. My parents gave me a guitar a couple of years back, but I haven't done it justice. My grandmother left me her piano back in 1991, and it sounds gorgeous. I still would like to do some blacksmithing with my forge, which I brought from our old home but haven't used since about two years ago.

Overall, I have been too immersed in work and adjusting to the "new" circumstances (new = January 2010) to set up a new support network, keep in shape, and get involved with something creatively. I am hoping to grab the bull by the horns and make it all happen now. Gradually...

Non-Celebrity Roast

I will be roasted at WORK! I can't believe this!! On 12/29/2009, I will be enduring an inglorious and ignominious rendering of comically sadistic affection. Oh my goodness...

Lessons in Adversity and Humility from Mary Verdon

I was a co-participant in a teacher-student challenge during my residency in which a gifted teacher (Mary Verdon) asked me to participate in a mini triathlon (called a "sprint"). I was 20-something and she was about 40, and beat the socks off me (not literally). Her mother had had a very minor event categorized then as a stroke in her late forties or early fifties, which was for unknown reasons, but I of course wasn't aware of it.

We often swam with the same pair of fast-swimming guys at the Y early in the mornings. One day I came to work to hear she'd been behind them about a lap and as they came back they saw her thrashing near the bottom of the relatively shallow lane. It was determined to be a stroke, and the community hospital (1997 or so) had just implemented a stroke protocol. Miraculously she was left-brain (rationally and intellectually) completely intact. Thus, she was in on the decision to get tPA (tissue plasminogen activase which was an early clot buster still in use now) but had such a large stroke that she developed cerebral edema (brain swelling). After weighing uptons she ended up deciding with her husband not to go for neurosurgery, not wishing to live with the very likely major compromises to her (obviously) active lifestyle.

That event really affected me and I knew she was proud of defeating me in the triathlon. I sheepishly avoided coming to her bedside (giving her privacy and dignity I thought) assuming her pride would be hurt to be seen that way. She was the sort to really try and help us less-humble sorts (I admit it) to get away from all that by being taken down a notch in a very good-humored way. I think I was very afraid of how humbling such an event could be and identified with her intellect, health, and youth too much to maturely handle it. I think it was self-preservation. My awareness of this developed too little too late to be there as a support, but I believe the lesson I learned was a good one. I now try hard to face death and dying issues very head-on, and talk about the feelings. I will readily admit (when appropriate even to the suffering person) that childish parts of me want to get away from the trauma, but that it meets my greater needs, to help out and overcome adversity, to be in the midst of it.

(C) 2008 Christoph A. Sahar

Winter Coming

Leaves drop, grasses brown, skins dry, birds fly,
Snows swirl, winds howl, lights fade, temps down;
Plants droop, skies grey, minds numb, coats fray,
Fires warm, friends come, patterns race, hopes churn.

Colors run, fades the sun, shadows lurk, greys murk,
Noses sting, sleighbells ring, voices sing, newborn king;
Shovelers earn, Yules burn, fields turn, souls yearn,
Sun's flight, lengthy night, nature's might, sleep tight.




(C) Christoph Sahar

Thanksgiving Joke (NOT!)

Nicole sent me out shopping at Wegmans to get a large bag of Purina for our Viszla "Rusty" and Beagle "Biscuit" and was in line to check out.
A woman behind me asked if I had a dog.
On impulse, I told her that no, I was starting The Purina Diet again, although I probably shouldn't because I'd ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.
I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry & that the food is nutritionally complete so I was going to try it again.
I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was by now enthralled with my story, particularly a tall guy behind her.
Horrified, she asked if I'd been poisoned and was that why I was in the hospital.
I said no.....I'd been sitting in the street licking my balls and a car hit me.