The crossing guard in his orange safety vest and stop sign-in-hand stays in the intersection, arms extended, after the young boy on his bike passes. He looks my way, and I get to cycle through the stripes, too! I wave, he waves. “Have a good day!” and he nods his Brewer’s cap at me. We do this a lot.
Sitting at the kitchen window, I get up, because the dog is barking and I can’t see her. Out in the back yard, the man who picks up our dog poop to spread on his farmland is there, knotting a full bag and putting a fresh one into the bucket. His heart is doing well, thanks, and they are letting him off the blood thinners after two years now. His son, a vegetarian and a runner–yep!–still lives with them until he makes enough at his nutritionist job to move out. “But I’m an old farm boy”! As a child, four pounds of butter came back to his family on trade every week from the cheese makers that picked up the milk. Every pound eaten every week. Though he tries his son’s healthy cooking, it’s a little too spicy for his taste and butter is a hard thing to change.
Instances in which bicycles are superior to other forms of transportation — Reason #16: Delivering hazardous animal materials to the veterinarian. Bungee onto the rack behind, and it’s upwind all the way!
Missing parts: Musicians and athletes without their instruments or equipment seem a little lost. They are naked and fidgety, disconnected, without their components. There are also other individuals who don’t seem complete if they are not straddling the frame of a bicycle, their contact with the ground is not full, not oriented correctly; they might float away or tip over at any time. But feet planted, bike leaning on an inner thigh and arms crossed, they are certain, and bold, and able to hold forth in fantastic conversation.
"Wisconsin women’s hockey junior forward Brianna Decker was named a finalist for the 2012 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award."
As expected, they played an exciting game and are contenders in the Frozen Four this weekend in Duluth, MN!
The game was part of yet another unique experience here in Madison - including a bus ride downtown with our neighbors, milling with the loud bar crowd on the street.
A Zamboni emblazoned with cheese curds. Fried cheese curds.
Super Fan Phil Dzick - Leading a cross-rink cheer.
Mr. Dzick is the only person allowed to hold up signs during the hockey game. He’s known as the Super Fan, and is especially fond of hockey. We got to participate in his signature cheers. Read more here.
…Lacey is no longer so cold she must be buried in a pile of blankets at all times.
She’s returned to crawling into all available sunspots (as she has here, on top of the end table and couch arm) and looking out the window for extended periods.
More people and dogs moving about the neighborhood + Lacey looking out the windows = plenty of alarm barking.
In my travels through the world of health care academics I recently met a woman working as as a nurse in plastics.
Plastic surgery, that is.
She helps to rehabilitate patients as they are healing from reconstructive surgery, such as face or hand surgery. Part of her job entails attaching leeches to people. Leeches temporarily take over for your veins by getting rid of old blood, and encouraging the flow of new blood – they come with their very own anti-coagulant!
“The purpose of this handout is to explain what leeches are, how they can help you, and what to expect during ‘leech therapy’.”
Leech therapy!
She said sometimes staff enter the room where the leeches are kept, and one lone invertebrate is trying to flee up the window pane.
As fast as a leech can flee, anyhow.
Video: “Houston Hand Surgery and Leeches“
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My classmate Rachel is a ceramicist. At the “Souper Bowl” fundraiser–buy a bowl of soup in an original creation donated by a local artist and benefit local hunger programs–her kingfisher bowl sold for several hundred dollars, beating out the artist who owns the studio and other artists who do this for a living. Nice job, Rachel!
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The coolest birds always elude me until I’m nottrying to find them.
This year’s Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) was especially fun because my nephews Braden and Colin were visiting.
Six-year-old Braden took to avian I.D. like a true field scientist! We spotted juncos and finches and sparrows. “Boy” cardinals in their bright plumage were the favorite; male and female chickadees all look the same!
[Teaching sexual dimorphism to a kindergartener can be done!]
I told the boys that I’d recently heard an owl hooting each time I walked the dogs. At first I thought I’d tripped one of those tchotchkes people stick in their gardens.
I was an excited citizen scientist when I finally realized the owl was real. I’d never logged an owl for the GBBC! I got a conversation started on the neighborhood list. Spottings were shared. We all agreed it was a Great Horned Owl, based on the hoot. A neighbor even captured a photo:
Lying in bed each night we’d hear “h’-hoo-HOO, hoo-Hoo!” Sometimes very close.
Still no sighting!
The day after the GBBC ended, Deb called me across the street as the light was waning and we watched our owl preening his pretty feathers in the neighbors’ tree. He softly hooted for us.
Ah, well. He was not a data point this year, but I did add him to my life list along with the Barred Owl(“who cooks for you all?” – New Hampshire) and the Great Gray Owl (U.P. – Michigan).
Great Gray Owl - Chris Wood
I wish you an owl sighting.
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If a hawk lands on the ground, something is up. Stop to watch.
As I was riding by the lake shore, a Red-Tailed Hawk descended to scavenge. A flock of American Crows soon started harassing her. She tried to find a less stressful perch. She couldn’t get away from us. I finally realized at least Icould leave her alone!
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These aren’t actually polar bears.
It’s Colin and Braden!
…with Auntie Deb…
…dressed in theme-wear to cheer for me and my sister in the 2012 Madison Polar Plunge!
Thanks to those who keep me in their loops by sending them to me.
This is my attempt at a form letter.
Blog. Post. Form. Letter. Form Blog Letter Post.[Uh-oh. This does not bode well for my new goal of "elegant" and "concise"...]
Form Blog.
Do not confuse this with “The Blob“, which is what I’ve morphed into over the semester break: “An alien lifeform consumes everything in its path as it grows and grows.”
Formless Blob.
I hope this isn’t formless. Join me while I recount fascinating (to me, anyway) information and events in my recent life, in no particular order…“all of which I will tell you about right now”…
(It’s been nice seeing you, those exiting here.)
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Speaking of alien life forms, you can call me Seven of Nine (I wish).
I am apparently half human, half machine. (And, living in Madison at times it does feel that I am a member of a collective, whether I am asked to be or not.)
I have tried recently to run as a way to provide some variety to my fitness routines. I have also recently tried to “walk” on ice, as bipeds do. Both things have backfired in various ways.
Thus, I return to my comfort zone: Travel and exercise by bicycle. Studded tires for the ice. Much safer than my own two feet.
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It’s fun to listen to people from the Upper Midwest say things like “hot yoga”.
Try it!
Just sit on the first word to flatten it out, then pretend you are in the movie “Fargo” when you say the second one.
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We visited our family at Thanksgiving.
Quinn getting his bedtime serenade
Braden and Colin waiting for the merry-go-round at Greenfield Village
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My friend Billy saw this and thought of me and Deb.
Not only am I flattered, I am now committed to digging out my Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan Farscape action figure.
I will place it next to Deb’s Edward Scissorhands action figure.
You will just have to wait for the next exciting installment to see this…
OK! I couldn’t wait [imagine]! Here she is!
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I made my very own cervical traction sling.
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I visited two new towns in Wisconsin.
In Portage, I toured Divine Savior Healthcare, a community healthcare facility, and spent time shadowing a fantastic physical therapist who did a lot of hands-on work, including Visceral Manipulation and stretching out the tissue of the face of a patient who had been badly burned.
I am hoping to continue to do this kind of “manual therapy”. This type of facility – serving a large region, including rural communities – would allow me to work with a variety of people; I am considering an internship there.
In Stevens Point*, I spent time at Scoliosis Rehab, a therapy clinic that specializes in treating people with scoliosis (especially adolescents) using intensive exercises that include postural and movement re-training, breathing, stretching and strengthening in very specific ways. I was fortunate to see transformation in progress with a few young patients trying to reduce their malalignment, perhaps even avoiding (what is often considered inevitable) spinal fusion surgery.
On the way there, I got lost and drove by the historic and very active Point Beer brewery.
In Wisconsin. I know!
*A pretty little college town on the lovely Wisconsin River. Birthplace of Joel Hodgson!
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I went back to the DC area last spring.
I made a great effort to visit people and places that I missed.
But I couldn’t bring myself to revisit one of the most important places: The site of my old workplace, Whitman-Walker Clinic (now Whitman-Walker Health)’s Northern Virginia (WWC/NOVA) office.
I spent nine years there. I fell apart, grew up, created a family there, many of whom I did visit, and many of whom I am still fortunate to have close to my heart.
I learned about and got to know queers and people living with HIV, how to be a good worker, how to advocate. So many beautiful people were and still are associated with this place. I was there when we were still training people in death and dying and was there when anti-retrovirals became standard treatment and we had to figure out how to manage so many people living with a chronic illness.*
The Healing Garden is still there, minus the gazebo and labyrinth which were rescued by many volunteers. They are awaiting a new home in one of Arlington County’s parks.
But my friend Lori whom I met there, and who returned to her home there after many years in Utah, recently shared fantastic news with me. Her daughter is now attending the school which occupies the former WWC/NOVA building. She said:
“There is a lot of joy and laughter in the building now. Sadly, the labyrinth is gone but the pond is in the back and the kids love to run on the property and yell, ‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!’ to the big metal tower next door. So far, Rapunzel hasn’t let it down but they still try. The old bodywork room is now part of the teacher’s lounge and [her daughter] likes to tell them how her mommy used to work in that room.”
Joy!
*One of my favorite memories (and most transformative experiences) is riding in my first DC AIDS Ride which benefited WWC. I like to joke that “I have a Badgley Mischka“, because I do: They sponsored our jersey that year.
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Deb and I made a day of it in Milwaukee. The tour included:
Dragonfly consignment shop (my first cowboy boots! real clicky-horseshoe-metal heels and everything!)
Lakefront Brewery tour (Deb and I were the only ones who knew the “Laverne and Shirley” theme song all the way through), adding a new favorite beer, Fixed Gear American Red Ale (no! not just because of the bike reference, but it is a fun bonus)
…and this one is exactly what it sounds like: mucous cast(I dare you to click the link for a graphic – I cannot believe people can function with this in their lungs…)
…and because every time I ride by the lake during spring/fall migration, this is what the coots look like to me as they float en masse searching for food: a coot flotilla
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I studied hard. Highlights:
Working on a field project with a classmate to develop “PT Olympics” for children in a grade school setting (a.k.a. setting up an obstacle course and playing with kids and receiving a grade. Sweet.)
Learning how to manipulate the spine
Assessing a 13-month-old child for her motor skills (a.k.a. “enjoying time talking with her mom and getting on the floor and playing while trying to remember to pay attention to how, where, how often, how refined, how balanced, etc. she moves! Goodness, did she move!)
Assessing a room full of babies and toddlers (a.k.a. “Baby Lab”!)
Presenting an in-service on VM for my classmates and professors – sharing this new excitement of mine
In putting the in-service together, it occurred to me that I have been drawn toward a practice in which some of my ancestors worked. My great-great matrilineal grandparents were osteopaths:
Martine Krudop
Diederich Krudop
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I gave these dogs a bath.
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I did not give this one a bath. He has a pass because he’s got doggie aches and pains.
He does not use it – but all is not lost. The above-referenced clean dogs use it to accelerate into the yard in order to better frighten the bunnies and squirrels.
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Signed the petition to recall Wisconsin’s governor, Scott Walker. I do not take this lightly.
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We were at a local favorite bar when the petitions were turned in to recall the governor and four senators. The staff turned the sports channels to national news talk shows and we watched as they talked about us, here in Wisconsin.
Deb taking a photo of the menu board, offering “Recall Special Pizza: $2 off any pie!”
When another human takes a moment to share with me, I feel more real, more substantial. Solid. Engaged.
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Yesterday I sent out my first emails asking for support in my fundraising effort for the Special Olympics Wisconsin*.
["What is that?" you say?
Why, this year's Polar Plunge! I will jump into Lake Monona, here in Madison, WI, in February, for the second time, with a great group of PT and OT students, our friends, colleagues and family. Could that be YOU who joins the team or makes a donation?**]
First gift: My sister joined the team and is going to come to Wisconsin for a visit and a jump with me!
And I received several donations from neighbors, some known to me and some not, all within hours of sending out the message. Generosity like this keeps me inspired.
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My Dad gifted me this area rug when we went back to Michigan for Thanksgiving:
And my plumber recently gifted me with this mug:
Surely, Gail Ambrosius chocolates have never been so creatively presented…
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*”Special Olympics Wisconsin (SOWI) is a statewide organization providing persons with cognitive disabilities year-round sports training and competition. Individuals who are at least eight years old and are identified as having a cognitive disability are eligible for participation.”
**As a team member, you can be a PLUNGER (jumper) or a CHICKEN (non-jumper). You still get the prestige of helping the Special Olympics and you get a T-SHIRT (or more) proving it!
