Whew! So the wife and I have survived the sprinkling that Southern California has received over the past week with scant damage; our little house is in the downtown area of our city so it's surrounded by concrete and adequate drainage, so the only problem I've discovered so far is that the moisture has made the redwood gate to our newish front fence swell to the point that we can't open it, so we've got to wait for a couple of days of sunshine to dry it out a bit - much milder than the flooding some other places have gotten.
A casual run this morning, and then off to work this afternoon. Now, you'll thank me for this info later, say, in the event that you've got to ever make a trip in, but for any modern Emergency Department the busiest times (and therefore the longest waits) are Fridays, largely because clinics are closing and people can't get in to see their regular doctors and therefore have to see their irregular doctors, i.e. yours truly, and Mondays, because clinics have been closed over the weekend and people haven't been able to see their regular doctors and therefore etc. etc. (Once everyone else realizes that the world actually runs on a 24/7/365 schedule and doesn't shut down simply because you've put out the "closed for business" sign, perhaps I'll be able to get that cocktail at 4:30 in the morning... besides at airports...)
Besides that, the other busiest times tend be the day before, and then the day after, a holiday. You can imagine that in addition to clinic closures, the day before a holiday people are rushing around to finish last-minute tasks, tempers flare, anticipation makes the blood boil, and so on. The day of a holiday tends to be a bit more relaxed, as most people who are well enough to be home stay at home where they spend the day oversalting the food they're overeating, arguing with semi-estranged family members, temporarily trebling their 2,000 kcal ADA diets... it's all of the expectation, I tell you - when you expect people to be happy you're essentially demanding they be happy and when they're not the disappointment can be crushing and then the day following is spent mopping up the destruction that remains.
I'm not encouraging anyone to be grinchy by any means (although I've had that reputation in the past); rather, I would like for everyone to relax with the expectations, let people be who they are, learn to forgive, learn to be grateful, and when things don't go your way, learn to let go. The best holiday t.v. show (besides the Charlie Brown Christmas - best holiday t.v. special ever!) was the M*A*S*H episode "Death Takes a Holiday" - remember that one? (As an aside, I realize that I'm a bit zealous about confirming to everyone that I am, in all of the meanings of the word, an American through and through, but Korean people, you know I still love you, and I want to encourage you all to start writing about something besides the Korean War already - there's so much else to gripe about.) (Double aside - M*A*S*H is the best medical show ever. It was funny, it was dramatic, it was medically accurate - Alan Alda tells a story about being in South America with a bowel obstruction, and as the surgeon describes the operation he's about to undergo, Alan Alda goes, "hey, that's an end-to-end anastamosis!") B.J. doesn't want the man they're operating on to die on Christmas Day, so Hawkeye simply turns the clock forward so they can declare him on the 26th - I love me some Hawkeye Pierce.
The message: stay healthy during the holidays, keep exercising but remember it's okay to take a day or two off, and hey, I like you, so try not to come to my workplace as a guest!
Postdiluvian Sun-Run
5.04 mi. 39 min.:19 sec. 7:48 pace.
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