What I learned last week

1. Increasing age makes one forgetful. That does not equate to dementia. I have spells of forgetfulness. There's just too much in my brain to remember everything.

2. DO NOT do a big work out after a lunch of sausage, peppers & onions, no matter how good they taste and how much you think you're prepared.

3. People who are excited about telling you all about their religious beliefs have (literally) no interest in yours

4. I can play with the White Dog, or I can run with the White Dog. I cannot play AND run with the White Dog simultaneously. The right-sided road rash I have -- which extends from my hip to below my knee -- testifies to that.

5. Remember! If you're making apple sauce, it tastes way better if you use multiple types of apples, no just one variety.

6. W really is a complete and total idiot. He believes his biggest failure is not privatizing Social Security. How quickly he's forgotten the tanking market and economy, the million plus Iraqi's killed because of our invasion of a sovereign nation, our young men & women coming home in body bags or brain damaged because of IED's. Oh, right, don't forget Katrina (hmmm, related to #1?)

7. There's still time to get a bunch of bulbs into the ground for next spring, and the time to plant garlic is after the first hard frost. Also, those damn 4-footed, white tailed locusts have to be stopped from eating the branches and stripping the bark off the trees in my brand new mini-orchard.

Ups and downs

'My' Akita rescue group always has a big raffle as a fund raiser during the Akita Nationals show held each year. I always purchase tickets, to support the group. While I've thought 'it would be nice to win,' I've never expected it.

This year I thought the group members might rig the raffle so I'd receive a beautiful urn for The Big Guy's ashes. So when director NL contacted me & asked 'guess what?' after I finally remembered it was raffle time, I thought 'it's the urn.'

Nooooo! It's an iPad! Complete with a gzillion gigs and wireless access. This to someone who is a technological laggard to beat most technological laggards. While I do indeed use the computer (and actually have a flat screen monitor), I don't have a cell phone.

Actually, let me correct that. I have a cell phone a patient has given me, but have used it maybe 6 times in the past year. I leave it a home, it gets uncharged, it sits in the car for weeks at at time, I have not a clue about texting and tweeting or whatever people do with mobiles.

And when I have computer problems, I immediately contact my techno-guru friend PJ, who can usually tell me what minute thing I'm doing incorrectly from his Atlanta location.

The iPad is still in its box, waiting. Maybe I'll open it today!

Two weekends ago, tri-training buddy S & I drove to Amherst for the Score-This multi-sport banquet, in which we both won our fossilized age groups. At the end of the event, Rich Clark, race director, timer & VP of the company (as well as a very funny, unbelievably patient guy) ran a raffle.

AND! At the very last minute, and for the very last prize, I! won! A! VO2 Max Lactate Threshold Test! I think I'm more excited about this than the iPad. I'll have to go to Buffalo to do it, but hey, I'm thrilled. Only a sports-geek would be this excited.

To add to the UP!, yesterday I was searching cragislist here in Ithaca for a dog kennel. I need kenneling for the White Dog, so she can be safely contained once the new dog door goes into the new porch.

I found a month and a half old listing for 10 10'x6' panels, being sold by someone on the other side of the lake. I emailed, thinking they'd be sold. But no, they're mine now! G & I picked them up this a.m. The guy knocked $150 off the price, too, so they were a bargain.

And now, I think it's time to retrieve Kuro's ashes from the friend who has been keeping them for me. I've asked my dear friend R, who will be visiting with her husband next weekend, whether they'd go with me. I"m getting teary eyed just thinking about him.

I finally pulled the photos I took of him off my camera, over 4 months after he died. My heart breaks just thinking of him. My prince.

I miss, miss, miss him.

It's a Dog's Life

The first of the photos of 'One Take Princess' are here. And the patients' whose ring bearer she was came for appointments over the weekend. She responds to them unlike she responds to anyone else -- barking with joy at their arrival and grinning widely with pleasure the entire time they were here. They're her god parents!

The White Dog has been acting out. I suspect Princess Dog has been boasting of her success and popluarity. I told TWD: 'as long as you act the way you've been acting, you'll be kept on a leash and/or crated.' The power of that statement has clearly worn off!

The cool, crisp weather (and down right cold tonight) has White Girl bouncing around and filled with more energy than usual. Wish I had some of that!

Wednesday evening

Nikka is still basking in the glow of being 'just like a movie dog' on Saturday. Except better - movie dogs need multiple takes: Nikka needed just one try. I'm proud of my Little Princess!

The White Dog is acting out. She's stealing things off the counter, chewing up whatever she feels like chewing, and not listening to me. I told her yesterday: 'That's it. You're being crated when I'm away, and you're being kept on a leash. Both of these will continue until you start behaving.

I crated her when I left today. When I came back, she'd somehow snagged a running shoe and chewed the bejeezus out of the shoe laces.

I probably need a Teflon floor around her crate.

This evening: fresh (organic!) kale for chips. Saw a full rainbow on my way home from town.

My Perfect Girl

The Little Princess was the ring bearer at the wedding of two of my patients yesterday. She was The Perfect Dog. Polite, mannerly, she seemed to know exactly what to do with minimal or no prompting.

She tolerated the garland of flowers I made for her to wear, walked sedately into the pavilion, knew where to go, and then calmly waited through the ceremony.

After the Big Event, she was off leash, visited everyone, or trotted around in on the lawn but stuck close enough so I could see her most of the time. She came immediately when summoned.

During the reception, someone gave her a barbecued chicken breast. I saw it, and took the breast away from her, peeling the meat off the bone. I put the bones in the trash and presented her with the meat. Although she looked longingly at the carcass, she listened when I said 'leave it!' She ignored all of the bins although I'm certain there were many temping odors wafting about.

I'm most proud of how she behaved for the photos, both of the wedding party and of the congregation. At one point, the photographer shepherded everyone together for group shots. I led The Perfect Girl Dog to a spot in front of the bride and the groom.

She sat, and then laid down for about 10 minutes, waiting patiently as everyone got organized and shuffled around. She continued her stellar performance through dozens of photographs. Unleashed, unbidden, she simply waited for us humans to sort ourselves out.

The amazing part to me was that I did not tell her what to do. She *knew* exactly where to sit, how to position herself and how long she had to be in that position. I didn't have to correct her or resettle her or, in fact, say anything but 'You are AMAZING!'

She looked beautiful, too. She'd been groomed a couple of days before by her Auntie Nancy, who owns The Grooming Room here in Ithaca. Her coat was spectacular. Her black fur shimmered and her white sparkled. And she's so soft!

The groom just called, and left a message: "She was precious! And so well-behaved! She was perfect."

And she was.

Patience, patients

I had a conversation a few days ago with a person who prides himself on taking care of his health.

He takes ibuprofen every day, to deal with or avoid muscle aches and pains. I suggested massage as an alternative. "I've never thought of it." And "it's too expensive."

Typical American approach: let's treat the symptoms and not the cause. Let's take a pill to fix the problem. It's true there are far worse drugs to take. There is, however, a limit to the number of ibuprofen one can take before permanent liver damage occurs. And I wonder how much of his discomfort could be changed by nutrition.

He went on to tell me that he eats a healthy diet. Chicken and vegetables. When I recommend kale chips, his response is 'I don't eat chips.'

The 'chips' part of kale chips is simply because they're baked. Apparently he couldn't get his head around the fact kale chips are home made, need a minimal amount of olive oil with which to prevent the chips from burning. They're an excellent, tasty way to get green leafy vegetables into your digestive system while enjoying a treat at the same time.

I didn't even broach the subject of his allegedly healthy diet. On the surface, it seems healthy. White meat, veg.

Is the chicken store-bought? If so, when you eat it - or beef, or pork, or turkey, not only are you supporting factory farms you're also bombarding your immune system with copious amounts of antibiotics, and your endocrine system copious amounts of steroid hormones.

Roughly half of the antibiotics used in the U.S. is fed to livestock to keep them healthy. Steroids pollute feeds -- in an effort to get livestock fatter more quickly.

In addition, factory farms feed their livestock corn. Chickens, cattle, pigs did not evolve eating corn. Corn was introduced to speed the growth and fattening of our livestock. It's also a (the?) major reason for cholesterol problems in store-bought eggs and beef.

Let's go back to that anti-biotic thing. Bacteria are increasing in their resistance to antibiotics, because of our over use of them. Antibiotic soaps, wipes, cleaners, and antibiotics in animal feed are breeding 'Super Bugs' -- bacteria which can live through megadoses of the most powerful antibiotics on the market.

Doubt me? Google 'antibiotic resistant bacteria.'

On educatin'

I teach an anatomy course at a local college. This year's class is huge -- the school opened another lab section, providing more slots for students. Between that and the uncertain economy, enrollment has more than doubled.

We're 4 weeks, one quiz, and one exam into the semester. It's kind of scary to look at the grades for these two assessments. It's particularly frustrating for me as an instructor as I can literally stand up in front of the class and tell them 'this material will be on the exam.' And they still get it wrong.

It's even more frustrating when students then blame the instructor. And I guarantee that many of the students that are struggling will be blaming this instructor.

I've given a similar exam every single of the 5 years I've taught this course. Some classes do better than others. My favorite A&P class ever had phenomenal students -- the core group that made it to the second semester all got A's on the first exam.

It mat be that the lousy economy, which is driving students to continue their educations, has spiked the number of weak students to struggle into and through health care curricula.

I don't want people who don't know the material in the field. They'd be working on me -- and you. No grade inflation or 'pass 'em through' attitude here!