Life in the E

It's nice to be "home", to get 8hrs of sleep per night without the threat of a pager, to have a hot breakfast everyday (thanks mom!), and a healthy dinner (thanks mom, again); to have a backyard with a wilty vegetable garden, to have rain that lasts only 10min, cookies that don't become soggy when left out overnight, taxes that are reasonable, daylight that lasts well into the evening, and an awesome hairdresser.

However, I have never had to drive sooooo much as I have in the last 2 weeks. Why isn't the grocery store, the optomistrist, the eye glass store, the hospital, the university, church, cell phone store, post office, all within 3 blocks of eachother? Is that too much to ask? Every major road is under construction, and overpasses are being built left, right, and center so that people care drive MORE! Ahh! I paid $2/30min for downtown parking the other day...so unlike me.

The hospital here thinks it's the mayo clinic of the north, and the sick kids of the west. They really think they're the only ones with acuity, and research, and god-status. Perfectly well trained physicians are being held back just so that they can do more training - masters, PhDs, fellowships, sub-fellowships while patient waiting lists aren't getting any shorter. If we are so unprepared after 8years of training, maybe there's something wrong with your training. A doctor with a master is not a better clinician for his patients! Maybe they'll realize that one day.

Okay...end of rant.

I had the chance to go to the Rockies after a 6-8 year hiatus. It's less magestic than I rememberd, the mountains aren't as tall as when I first laid eyes on them (I couldn't have grown that much taller!), the glaciers have visibly retreated, and where's all the snow on the peaks? Global warming is truly scary. We saw a deer/buck (?) feeding beside the highway and I wondered why it's head didn't fall down from the weight of its antlers. There were also significantly less tourists, maybe because of the strong dollar.

It was all still beautiful and untouched, and I look foward to going back and attempting the lake Agnes trail.