Love design!!! I just came across your blog and wanted to say that Ive really...Won’t You Take Me To Trunky Town?
Posted by Erik Rupard on July 31st, 2008
Folks, it has been a long one today. For the past few days, Al Asad has been one big sandstorm, which has grounded many of our planes and created some other problems. Weather was especially bad today, with the rsult being that our clinic power was out most of the day. Because of this, I ended up seeing my last fourteen patients in the 100-plus-degree heat and considerable darkness inside of our clinic. Thankfully the lights are back on now, and the little A/C unit in my can is currently cranking non-stop. It is 9:30 PM, and I just arrived back home from the clinic an hour ago. Therefore, gonna keep it short/sweet tonight, but I do have a few thoughts to share.
Packing My Mental Baggage
For two years back in the late 1980s, I was an LDS missionary—you know, the young, clean-cut guys in suit-and-tie who ride around the city on bikes. We missionaries had a term for the peculiar behavior of those among us who were nearing completion of their 24 months, and occasionally showed the signs of being mentally “home” even before they physically left the mission field. The term was “trunky,” as in “Elder Johnson is a bit trunky, and therefore was not really excited about doing that service project.” I think that the term originally came from the mental image of a missionary sitting on his already-packed trunk, waiting for the ride to the airport. We generally forgave a bit of trunkiness—after all, it’s hard not to daydream a bit about sleeping in your own bed again after being away for a couple of years. Most missionaries fought off the trunkiness pretty well, and kept their eyes focused on the work at hand as much as possible.
I hereby admit to you that I am currently a bit “trunky” about getting back to the green green grass of home (not to mention my wife and kids, the pool, the uninterrupted power grid, etc), though I think I am mostly containing my restlessness. On days in which the lights go out, the sand slaps painfully against my skin every time I walk outside, and the heat is oppressive and uncomfortable, it is easy to dream about better days to come. The other provider in my clinic right now is CPT Daphne Sims, a pediatrician out of Ft Bragg. (And you thought I was practicing outside of my specialty!) CPT Sims and I came to Iraq at the same time, and it looks like we will leave at the same time—may even be on the same “freedom flight” home. So, we are both perhaps a bit on the trunky side. We’ve been keeping each other honest, though, and putting in a solid day’s work every day. But we occasionally talk across our shared desk of the places we’ll go, and the things we’ll be doing this time next month. Our “Calgon moment” is almost invariably interrupted by a medic telling us the sad, sad story of the patient in room three, who has “this thing” on his foot (or some other Al Asad-specific malady). Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.
Becky Anundsen, the Anti-Adkins
A few weeks ago, a study came out in the New England Journal of Medicine which demonstrated fairly clearly that the food pyramid which we have been taught for decades (the one with wheat, grains, breads and cereals as the “base” of the pyramid) is all wrong. In fact, an “Adkins”-style diet consisting of very few carbs, increased protein, and moderate fat intake appears to have superior health benefits on nearly all parameters when compared with even calorie-restricted, carbohydrate-neutral diets. When I read the study, I talked to my TMC staff about it, and the end result was that about half of us have been on a low-carb diet since the beginning of July.
That is, until last Saturday.
That was the day that two boxes sent by one Becky Anundsen (”little sis” to me, “Beckles” to everyone else) arrived via the Army Post Office. As mentioned previously in these pages, Becky’s package consisted of five boxes of cookies (sugar, peanut butter, white chocolate macadamia, and pecan choco chip), and the Al Asad TMC staff have been living off of the things ever since. All of the cookies are good, but those sugar cookies are un-be-stinkin’-lievable. They have that slightly doughy taste that all good sugar cookies must have, and they just spontaneously crumble on the tongue, as if on cue. I have not been able to stay away from that particular ziploc container. Unfortunately, I do not believe that Beckles cookies qualify as “low carb.” In fact, I have it on fairly good authority (two witnesses: my tongue and my stomach) that they are not even “medium carb.” But I simply cannot stay away, and neither can my medics.
So thanks for the cookies, Becky. Trust me, they are well worth the extra few (say 20) hours I’ll have to do on the treadmill this week to negate their nefarious effects. Well worth it, indeed.
July 31st, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Hey Bro:
Wow, hard to believe 5 months is in the rear view mirror and you’re coming down the homestretch. I have an idea for you and your pediatrician compadre: pretend that you are on vacation in a tropical paradise and that you do not want to leave to go back to a sub-zero cold environment (like CT/MA in February). Anytime I don’t want something to end (vacation) that seems to have the opposite effect and serves to speed up the process. Hey, it’s worth a shot….
As you know, the Rooskie draft is now set for the 29th. Should be a good one this year and I love your fifth spot. As usual, I am number 10 but that didn’t stop me from taking the checkered flag 3 of the past five years! So if you or I win it this year, that’s a Rupard W that spells familial domination for what, the last 6 years? Like the sound of that. If we can just bury Neal in the process, it truly will be heaven on earth.
Anyway, glad things are going well and this mission is almost kaput (sp?). Our Florida trip was great, and the kids are at camp all week which has been really the first time Ellen and I have been completely alone together for more than a day here or there. It doesn’t suck.
Stay out of trouble and call me when you get free time. Talk to you soon….
-X
August 1st, 2008 at 10:04 am
Greetings, Doc: Your story about being “trunky” reminded me of an incident that occured during my “mission” for the U.S. Navy. As small-world luck would have it, during my time on Guam, no fewer than three people from my home town were also stationed there. Two guys (both in my brother’s HS class, one married) who were regular Navy.
One fellow (Norman) was a foul-up who was continuously at odds with the authorities and spent many unhappy days in the marine brig. Early one morning he shook me awake from a sound sleep to show me his new tattoo: a marine insignia with the words “Marine Brig, Guam, M.I.” It was emblazoned on his arm in bright red and green. Norman was always a little crazy and, not least, destructively impulsive.
His impulsive behavior got him in a heap of trouble; he got a bad case of the gohomies (navyspeak for “I want out of this chicken outfit”) and, as a group of sailors were enbarking on a troop ship bound for the States, he simply got in line, boarded the ship and attempted to stow away once aboard. The Shore Patrol was called in and in no time ‘cuffed him and returned him to his beloved marine brig for an extended stay.
Later when I returned to Hutchinson, I looked for Norman to show at some point, but I never saw him again.
Poor Norman was unable to control his urges to return to the golden wheat fields of KS. As a result, his return was postponed indefinately.
I understand your hunger to return to the good old USA; the most beautiful place on earth. You’re a downhill racer now. You will be on that freedom flight soon and we will all rest a bit easier. Keep on truck’in, Rupe.
August 1st, 2008 at 10:10 am
Erik,
Sorry about the evil high-carb cookies, but I am glad that you and your medics are enjoying them. I had a lot of fun baking them and shooing the boys away so they wouldn’t eat too many before they got shipped off to you. I look forward to making you a very fresh batch as soon as you are within my reach! Those sugar cookies are dad’s favorite, too.
Not long now, hang in there.
Love, Beckles
August 3rd, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Dear Erik,
We went to Springsteen last night. It was so great. It was fun to introduce Christian to “The Boss”. He realizes that he has never truly seen a concert until Bruce. That man has more fun and energy than any man not doing something wrong has a right to. The concert was delayed an hour due to a thunderstorm and lightning storm right before they were set to go on. We got home around 3am, but it was worth it. I was so wound up from the concert that I couldn’t sleep and didn’t get to slumberland until after 5. Bruce took requests in the form of giant posters some people had made, down in front. He collected them, all the while, people gently touched him and his guitar. He has never interacted with his audience the way he did last night. I would have payed a thousand bucks to be down on the floor where he was. One of the songs he took as a request was “Little Latin Lupe Lu”. It was so obscure the people had written the lyrics on it. Bruce got a huge kick out of that .
He played “Tunnel of Love”, which he almost never does, which is “almost my favorite album. His “Thunder Road” and “Meet Me at Mary’s Place, was so great. He always does it differently and it was great. He also had this Irish feel to some songs that was neat, and he so obviously loves what he does that it’s almost criminal for someone to have so much fun. I realized last night that I just don’t have enough fun in my life. It’s hard to do all the right things and still have fun. I need to practice more.
I don’t want to gloat about being at the concert while you are out in hot Iraq, but I had fun, and only having you and Beckles there could have made it better. Having Christian there was great. It was like sharing the gospel with someone you love. You are giving them some precious gift they didn’t know existed.
I had another letter, I think better and more insightful but I lost it while looking for last nights playlist.
I can’t wait to get you home, and I can’t wait for the ward packages to come to you. It was Becky and Caroline’s idea, so they deserve the kudos on that one.
I love you, Mit ” Setlist”:
Summertime Blues
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
Radio Nowhere
Lonesome Day
The Promised Land
Spirit in the Night
Tunnel of Love
Little Latin Lupe Lu
Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?
Hungry Heart
Who’ll Stop the Rain
Youngstown
Murder Incorporated
She’s the One
Livin’ in the Future
Mary’s Place
The Rising
Last to Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands
* * *
I’m Goin’ Down
Jungleland
Born to Run
Glory Days
Dancing in the Dark
American Land
Rosalita