Oak creek canyon

Since the forest fire has the road closed 12 miles up the canyon, it is one of the few times you can reasonably travel up the narrow winding road by bicycle. I rode along with the road mostly to myself. First uphill with oak creek dropping down below me and red cliffs still riding above. Then I reached the beautiful bridge spanning the creek which was far below, with the narrow valley it has cut through the red rock lush with greenery. Then the road gently drops down into the cool of the canyon, now the green trees are a canopy above me and the air picks up the coolness of the creek and the smell of wet sandstone as I ride next to the water. There are deeper cool areas, and white rapids.. All of it flowing along swiftly but without any rush.  Around one of the bends are little cottages to rent or a private home and a sign for a general store. 

Mmmmonsoon

Mint chocolate chip ice cream and the first monsoon rains after a hot Tucson summer- both so cooling and delicious!

Red rock dweller

The tall cliffs dominate the landscape, so it is fun to spot the little details as I go running through the soft red dirt. The foliage is so green against the oranges, pinks, reds and yellows of the stone and dirt. It makes me wonder about using this dirt for clay. Definitely imagining the feel of adding water to this ground and squishing the mud into clay, and molding that into pots, sculptures, images of things like this beetle.

There and back

it is good to travel and come back.  From the Hopi Lands to home, on bike rides to class and back. entrances and exits we get to try out again and again. the doors shut and open again.

Down the road a bit

Today I checked the mail and found a glossy alumni magazine from my highschool...As I turned the pages looking for familiar faces I realized that my 20 year reunion for highschool will correlate (hopefully) with my graduation from Medical School. It made me think of a letter we wrote to ourselves in highschool that was meant to be delivered after 10 years..and maybe there was another for 20 years later. I remember some of what I wrote, but I am sure that much of it would surprise me now. I am both humbled by and grateful for this late arrival in med school. The adventures, jobs and friendships I could not have predicted sometimes hold my attention. On other days I think of all I have left undone, unfulfilled expectations I have for life, for myself.
I am glad there is no mail on Sundays.

Sew Sleepy

 Tough to sleep tonight even though I am tired.  It could be the street-vendor taco I had for lunch, or maybe it is the back-ache from sewing.

Well, I am glad I did that suture practice clinic a few months back. It came in useful today for a fellow with multiple facial and scalp lacerations.  They needed more hands on board sewing him back up, and he was not the most serious trauma in the small ER.  So I could keep suturing him up, while other staff members rushed to another patient brought in by ambulance, who coded right there.   Two hours of leaning over a hospital bed, two of us at once suturing, sometimes three. and there was more left to do.

I heard the Code behind me go from deathly silence, to the beep, beep, beep of  steady heart rhythm, to the patient crying on the bed from behind the bag mask.  Sobbing, grateful to be alive.  And we kept sewing. And the patient with the lacerations was relieved and so were we all because we were all in that room together.  The doctors with the patient who coded were laughing, that joyous laugh, and saying, man, don't cry you  are alive, you were spared.

And I think we all thought about what we were grateful for, and the patient still covered in black dried blood and fresh oozing red blood under my needle asked if his parents knew he was there and if he could go home, and wash and change. I think the shock was wearing off, but I also think that hope and gratitude are contagious, and right there, in that room, we had just seen a dead man come back to life, and a guy who seemed cut to pieces slowly put back together.  Makes me pretty damn grateful just thinking about it.

Dog in Disguise

 My dog, dressed up as the Saltillo tile floor. Clever. He also does great impressions of a dingo.  

I wish I had some sheep (or chickens, or ducks) for him to herd because he is smart and clearly wants a job .  And I know from our childhood Collie "Gus" that some breeds can herd anything..including the aforementioned and kids too.

And it makes me wonder about breeds of people...(NO, emphatically, NOT what you are thinking in terms of race) I am thinking of something more subtle that has to do with personality etc.  I guess these inventories we are taking right now to figure out our future medical specialty has me thinking about natural leanings and skills v. training and absolute choice.

I am definitely a 'mixed breed' in the personality/medical specialty leanings area....making those inventories one thing one day and another the next!  

Dingo today, Shepherd tomorrow...