Well this is the second addition of "What's a Blog"... #1 got pulled for a variety of reasons. My blog will be a lot like Seinfeld... A whole lot about nothing! Maybe mildly entertaining to you, but mostly for me to go back to and get a chuckle. However, it is a little scary to be inside my head even for a few minutes.
Again, I am not totally sure what a blog is or what it's for... but I thought it might be fun to try. Since I seem to not be able to sleep much these days, it presents a good time to sit and write. The main reason I can't sleep is this blasted vertigo... the solution seems to be caffiene and sudafed. Which is good for vertigo but bad for sleep. In school, they told me sleep was overrated, so there you go.
The vertigo started last week when I awoke in the middle of the night and got up to go to the bathroom. I ended up in the closet instead of the bathroom and was lucky enough to be standing and not on my rear! My head has been swimming on and off ever since. I really think that it's related to a late summer cold that has been lingering in the house. Girl #1 (my permanent girlfriend) has been advising me to take an antibiotic. Being the good anti-medicine, male doctor that I am, I have refused. And as is usually the case, she will likely be proven right. We will see how long my pride (and the vertigo) persists!
The vertigo has made my typical duties of house work difficult, since any movement of my head sends me careening into a wall. My extra duties of tending the tomatoes/garden are also difficult, as well. Since every time I bend over to pick a tomato/bean/etc, the veggie's start spinning and I end up in the dirt. It's not pretty!
The other project that has taken a hit is the building of a chicken coop in the barn. I have been trying to do this all summer and for one reason or another, it has been delayed. Why chickens? I am not really sure what has possessed me to start caring for them. I thought it would be a good project for girls #2, #3, and #4. They, however, have found it difficult to help care for the 2 dogs, 2 cats, and horse that already are here! That is probably a little too harsh since they do help, even to the point of going on (dog) bomb finding expeditions in the yard (for a small fee from dad)! I have gotten zero done on the coop this week though, since power tools and vertigo seem to be a bad idea! (I am stubborn, but not totally stupid).
This blog seems to be a lot of whining and complaining so far. So I will try to change course. I have been reminded this week why complaining is generally bad... it seems that I have so many blessings around me, yet I don't really take notice of them. I seem to focus on the challenges and difficulties instead. This has been brought into sharp focus for me this week by a couple of situations.
One of the situations was a lecture given at grand rounds on friday by one of my retina fellows (for my family... don't make fun of the use of the word "fellow" here... it's just a description of a trainee). He spent the last academic year in swaziland... yes, the one in south africa. Apparently, there is only one ophthalmologist per 1 million people in swaziland. That's a lot of cataracts and a lot of job security! The other thing that jumped out at me from the talk (besides the national geographic style photos) was this, the average citizen lives on $2.00 a day.... that's $60/month! (That's not even a tall pike place with room for cream, for the love of Mike!) Cataract surgery costs about $90 to $100 for the average person, and there is no such thing as health insurance. And when they do cataract surgery, it's cause the person is blind (like not being able to walk through a door, blind!) But somehow, families will pool together enough funds to get it done! Hello Mr. perspective, it is nice too meet you, my name is Peter...
So after hearing this talk, I promised not to whine or complain because if my veggies don't get tended to or my chicken coop doesn't happen, I can just go to Kroeger (there is a Starbucks in Kroeger, too). The no whining from me lasted about 3 hours. But hopefully my brood of girls and I can keep this lesson in the back of our mind for a while, at least...
That's a wrap on the final addition of Blog #1.
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