Love design!!! I just came across your blog and wanted to say that Ive really...Everyone Reminds Me Of My Blog
Posted by Erik Rupard on June 30th, 2008
Not in a great mood tonight, and I can’t entirely explain why. Read: time for a good old-fashioned rant. Sit back, dear reader, relax, and bask in my unmitigated irritability.
Our AFN has been down for going on four days now. This, of course, happened on a weekend where the Armed Forces Network broadcast the Yankees-Mets game (a rare opportunity to root against BOTH teams). At home, no TV is not such a big deal, as there are lots of other things to do, but here in Al Asad, our measly six channels are precious company. When I think about it, there are really only eight things that we actually do here: eat, drink, sleep, work, poop, pee, lift weights, and watch tube. That’s it. I want my AFN!
I cleaned my room this weekend, and even went to the considerable hassle of not only borrowing someone else’s vacuum to do my carpets, but also of borrowing my neighbor’s heavy-duty transformer, so that I would not kill my last remaining outlet. When I went to bed on Saturday night, my room felt clean for the first time in a long time. And then when I woke up this morning, as I was attempting to peel my sticky eyes open, I could smell that unmistakable chalky scent, and felt like someone had been banging erasers over my head all night. When I finally got my lids pried apart, I could see the Orange Glow Of Death through my windows, and I knew that I was doomed to a day of coughing, snorting, and unintentional guffawing. And, ask anyone who knows me, I don’t guffaw easily. Chortle, maybe; snicker, occasionally; hoot, sometimes; but guffaw? Rarely, if ever. And, my freshly-vacuumed carpet now has a slight orangish hue (except for the footprints).
Also on Saturday, I took my sheets in to be washed. This is a relatively rare occurrence for me, because I do not have an extra set of sheets, and thus for the 48-hour laundry turn-around time, I have to sleep directly on the pillow-top which Lorri sent me many moons ago. So I went to pick up my beloved bedding today, along with three other bags of laundry which I dropped off at the same time. All of the laundry bags were ready for pickup except one. I’ll let you guess which…
On another note: I am giving a big Hematology presentation at the hospital tomorrow afternoon. It is just about ready to go, and looks pretty good, jokes and all. Gonna put some finishing touches on that now, so will check out for the moment.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Sorry you are in a p*$$& mood. When Maddy told me she had asked about $$$, I could somehow feel the vibe quite tangibly and I said, “Not today Maddy.” Isn’t marriage amazing? After 18 years…. I just knew, even from 7000 miles away.
That stinks though; honestly I can’t imagine waking up to that dinge every morning but I truly appreciate those who do wake up to it and go headlong into it and who have to keep doing so for a very long time.
Just remember E, that it gets darkest before dawn (or in your case, darkest before orange) AND…. here’s the even-better news….21 August you rotate back to EAMC the endearing, overwhelmed Hem/Onc clinic full of patients who are, at this very moment, patiently awaiting your arrival.
But first and foremost…… you get to take leave!!
I hope/pray that your hem presentation goes well tomorrow. Or by the time you get this–today.
Hang in there!
Love you!!
July 1st, 2008 at 6:41 am
Erik, regards and good wishes on your presentation. Can you share some of it with us laypersons? You’re not using Power Point are you!?
July 1st, 2008 at 8:51 pm
E: Check out WSJ for 7/1, my edition page B6, Technology, Talking Tech (Lee Gomes). Article is “Former Marine Discusses IT in Iraq.” Pic shows a marine at Al Asad Airbase using the free internet service. Interesting article about sr. officers spending time reading subordinates emails and second-guessing the officers under them. You can probably pick this up at http://ptech.wsj.com if you don’t have this edition. That’s a free website. BTW, did you forget to add No. 9: Read for fun and profit? Or, don’t you do that anymore? Carry on, technoman.
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:15 am
Lorri and Dad (et al): I had a really good night’s sleep after I wrote the above, and feel a ton better now. I’m entitled to a crabby moment every so often
.
The presentation went very well. Here it is, by request, though probably not too interesting for non-doctor-types: http://rupard.org/Pix/Al%20Asad%20CME%20Lecture%20clean.ppt
The intro is a bit of ribbing directed towards the Army Medical Corps. Much of the presentation is spoken, rather than simply represented on the slides, so you miss a bit not seeing the punch lines delivered by me, but there it is.
AFN is back up now; my room is covered in dust, but hey, that’s how I’m used to it… Checked out the WSJ article dad–very interesting and helps explain why the soldiers are a bit wary of officer-types. I have been a religious WSJ reader since coming to Al Asad.
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:11 am
Very interesting, impressive (and, entertaining) presentation, E. Thanks for sending it. I’ve read enough medical reports, op notes, letters from medical people, and creative reasons for disability, etc., to catch some (very little) of the technical stuff but I’ll bet the comments were funny. The smiley face on the blood cell was a nice touch! Glad you’re feeling a bit more chipper. I always knew you would be an “annoying” Dr. The kind who always makes the extra effort to get it right.
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:28 am
Nicely packaged. Very slick and quite convincing E: I would join based on slide #8 alone.
By the way,,,,at the last swim meet Christine Q asked me if you knew that you rec’d an award for a recent med. publication (why no, my husband doesn’t know anything about it……. or perhaps he forgot to tell me that little detail) but she couldn’t remember which case it was or which one it was published in. I wondered if it might be the Jehovah’s witness case where you had to come up with a synthetic substitute since she refused a transfusion…Maybe I’m confused but that was the only thing which rang a bell.
Anywho…I’m glad you’re feeling better. You wouldn’t be normal if it didn’t grate on you at times. Remember though….You’re on third and poised to slide into home base at this point. Or in the words of the most prolific Neil Young…it’s better to burn out than to fade away…I know you’ll make the best of these last few weeks…. down to 51 days.
Besides, we’ve had so many visitors this summer you’d feel like you’re losing your mind if you were here now. I do and they’re mostly my family….:) Actually it’s been fun and Molly and Drew are now getting along famously. They are both great kids. It’s been nice getting to know Molly; we’ve enjoyed having her Barry and Ellen.
Well…Maya has been (not kidding) meowing for me for the last 10 minutes so I must vamoose. Be good to yourself/cover your bedding with a tarp when you leave in the AM and roll it back at night. Who knows; it’s so crazy it just might work.
Mwah.
September 10th, 2009 at 10:05 am
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Cheers! Sandra. R.
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