The Avian Menace

Bird watching is a hobby that sounds awfully strange to anyone who hasn’t gone out in to actual “wilderness” hoping to see cool wild animals. You very rarely see the type of neat animals that one seeks out at the zoo, but what you do see is birds. I can see how this could lead the aspiring animal viewer to decide to seek out birds, as you’re a lot less likely to be disappointed than, let’s say, going on an all day tiger trek, and having the highlight being a chicken running across a 10 meter path.

Now I haven’t capitulated to the point where I go out looking for birds, but in lieu of daily bobcat viewings, Lorna and I did set up several bird feeders (two standard, two humming bird). The initial results were very encouraging, as we attracted lots of cute little birds:

Unfortunately cute little birds where replaced with, IMO rather ugly bigger birds.

I apparently don’t have a picture of these guys on the feeder, but a dozen or more of them would show up and just pillage the feeder in a matter of a few hours. One of the feeders had little doors that could be closed over the access points that made for a much smaller feeding hole. This didn’t stop the ugly big bird, they just destroyed the feeder and ate the food off the ground:

As much as I like the cute little birds, I’m not sure it’s worth it to keep them full for the likes of those savage pidgeon-like-birds. Perhaps I could get a more solid feeder, or perhaps I have another solution…

Up and out of the desert

The other weekend we decided to do some exploration of the area, and took a hike up Mt. Lemon. Contrary to most “back east” hikes where one starts at the bottom of the mountain and hikes up, the standard system with Mt. Lemon seems to be that you drive to the top of the mountain and then hike down a bit then back up. My first reaction was that this was further evidence of the growing problem of obesity in America, but when you get out of the car at the top of the mountain the logic of the system hits you immediately after the cool refreshing air.

It’s a whole different ecosystem up there then down in the desert climate of Tucson, there was also some very cool rock formations. Here are some photos:

Code Brown

Well, I survived my first week as an intern and better yet... Im pretty sure my patients survived too.

My first day was on the Cardiology service at the Veterans Hospital (a mandatory elective lasting one month). Usually this is a service managed by the cardiology fellows (doctors who finished residency in general medicine and are continuing their training to be a cardiologist). Unfortunately, for my first day the fellows did not come in so it was up to me and the new 2nd year resident to manage all the patients on the service. This was quite the challenge since I could barely log on to the computer nevermind write notes and find my way around the hospital. At least I was not alone... the entire hospital was full of interns, residents, and fellows who are new or on new rotations... which makes for good comraderie as well as a steady undercurrent of chaos.

Apparently the attendings (the senior doctors finished with training, aka our bosses) call July 1st "ninja day" because the interns are the silent killers... ha ha. As an intern I quickly realized that there is no shortage of jokes at our expense.

My attending is quite the character. He is a very short, Jewish guy, bald, and old enough to be my grandfather with an "old school" style of teaching which involves calling everyone an idiot and making drastic gestures to emphasize his point. He delivered a very entertaining lecture on Code Blue yesterday... aka cardiac arrest. The hospital uses different codes for different emergencies to use over the loud speakers so the staff can respond appropriately. Other colors include White (pediatric emergency) Yellow (missing pt) etc. It was during his lecture that I learned about "code brown." Apparently it is when an intern responds to a cardiac arrest and forgets what to do.... use your imagination to figure out what the brown refers to.