The cold earth sleeps below, above the cold sky shines

Learning to do digital blocks with ultrasound guidance Conditions:  Con3  Temperature 21°F (windchill 7°F).  Population 915 Although, experience-wise, I feel inadequate to the task of being a primary care doctor, I've enjoyed learning what it might have been like to be a small town doctor in the 1960's.   Things I like: I have unlimited time with any patient.  There's no pressure to move people in and out. I can write notes that convey the important info and aren't cluttered with details to enhance billing.  The note is exclusively for patient care. I can follow-up with patients easily.  Ask them to come back, they come back. I run into my patients in the galley, doing yoga, in the dorms.  I can see how they're doing even without an appointment. I run the labs, ultrasounds and x-rays on my patients myself. I enjoy thinking about what is necessary and actually doing the work. And I enjoy training the mass casualty team on ...

Kevin Dennert, former Marine and CHP officer, basking in the sunlight during a break from his job at Willy Field Conditions: Con3   Temperature 27°F (windchill 17°F).  Clear.  Population = 935 A few days ago, I mentioned that the men on the Worst Journey in the World sang to one another when  lying outside without shelter or fuel in a -80°F blizzard.  Although life here is comparatively luxurious, we do have some slim similarity to the early adventurers.  We don't have fresh food, there are days when we would rather stay in bed than venture outdoors, and our day-to-day jobs can be tedious and in service of other people who get to do the exciting stuff.  Plus things break, planes don't fly, and we can feel remarkably isolated from the world. So we also sing (Karaoke on Fridays).  But more often, people just laugh.  A sense of humor can get you through pretty much anything.  For example, it has been warm here, making it...

Which is the real Neverland? Conditions:  Con3.  Current Temperature 27ºF (Windchill 15ºF).  Overcast with occasional snow showers.  Population = 935 The Thanksgiving Holiday began Friday at 17:30 and ended Monday morning at 7:30.  It's the first two-day weekend that we've had.  Dean was on call on Friday night.  I was on call on Saturday.  Below is the weekend chronology: Friday  18:00:  Work as volunteer in the Craft Room sorting knitting needles.  Talk to the National Geographic film crew about climate change, the focus of much of their work.  Flooded with overwhelming sense of dread and despair. 21:00:  Head to the coffee house with Dean for a glass of hot chocolate with Bailey's but the joint is packed to the gills.  Go home, tidy room and stay up watching Ferris Buehler's Day Off.  Despair nipped in bud by fantasy about the good old 80's. Saturday 5:00:      Awakened...