Monsoon Season
One of my patients once referred to California's rainy winters as "monsoon season." He hated them. I'm starting to agree with him; we've had days of rain, punctuated only by New Year's morning sun (yes, Pasadena pulled off its annual miracle once again). I find it hard to do anything in weather like this: I spent New Year's weekend either on call or moping around the house staring at the rain. Lately, instead of writing, I've been mindlessly clicking on other people's blogs. No doubt you've noticed.
Must. Snap. Out. of Seasonal Affective Disorder. What shall we talk about?
Hmm. I never told you about the Christmas Eve disaster at my sister's house. The night of December 23 it froze hard (she lives in Colorado). The pipe under the kitchen sink froze, but thanks to quick action and a space heater, it was thawed and a rupture was averted. We thought. My father came to pick me up at the airport the morning of the 24th, told me the story and complained about the cold overnight; we stopped off at a mall so Dad could do his last minute Christmas shopping, and I checked in with my mom by cell phone. That's when we learned that
another pipe had frozen. And burst. And the guest room in the basement had flooded. (All my parents' stuff was in there.)
My brother-in-law, Mr. Fixit, got the water turned off and the pipe repaired with the help of his dad and mine. We spent Christmas Eve mopping up, doing laundry to dry all my parents' clothes, and shopping for a new mattress. Interesting marketing fact: apparently the Christmas shopping season is a big time to buy mattresses. We had to go to two stores to find the size we wanted (there was not a queen size to be had at the first store).
Other than that things have gone on without too much excitement. I wound up covering a lot of urgent care shifts the last two weeks since all the residents left town like lemmings for the holidays and decided at the last minute that they didn't want to work. As for the patients: cough, sniffle, wheeze. What you'd expect.
I also have been coping with a couple of traffic tickets, of which more later. Gotta start seeing patients.
posted by Dr. Alice at #
