Shoes make it safe to climb a ladder

Our peaches are ripe enough for the birds to eat, so we are in a race to get them picked before they disappear. Maggie was helping. It was cute. She would pick three or four peaches and bring them over and dump them into the paper box I brought home from work.

She would pick the low hanging fruit that was Maggie high while I was up on the ladder. At some point she started climbing the ladder. She was on the first rung. I told her that I did not want her to climb the ladder. She seemed to accept this and climbed back off that rung. Then she ran into the house. She ran back out wearing her shoes and started to climb the ladder again. I told her to get off the ladder and she balked. She I climbed down to distract her with all the low hanging fruit. And she started yelling, "shoes... shoes... shoes".

Somehow the shoes permitted her to climb the ladder.

I began pondering her reasoning. And I think I understand. Some afternoons after work, I go running with her in the baby jogger. Before we leave I ask her to get her shoes. Sometime she does and sometimes she doesn't. While we are out running, she will often ask to stop at one of the parks. So, we will include the park in our route. But no shoes, no stop. So, I think she associated how the shoes make the park possible with shoes make it safe to climb the ladder.

No, shoes do not make safe for little girls to climb ladders.

We picked a small fraction of the peaches from our tree and we got about two bushels. I took the most ripe and make three batches of freezer jam. It is really good jam. It brought back fun memories of helping the family peal peaches during canning season. Now I understand why jam tastes so good. One batch of jam uses 6 and 1/2 cups of sugar for 2 and 3/4 cups of diced peaches. I was surprised all that sugar mixed in. And as a small afterthought one adds in some pectin.

I did not get home soon enough from work tonight to get any picked. So the birds are pulling ahead.

Another aside: Mother would bring home a station wagon full of tomatoes. So, we had a fair amount of pealing looming over us. Now, pealing peaches is fun. But tomato's are miserable. If you nick a finger it will sting. Even if you have no cuts, after a while your hands itch and sting. So, we would eat as many tomato sandwiches are we could. We would slice the tomatoes quite thick. And of coarse, grandma style (no top piece of bread). You don't want to waste stomach space on the bread.

All those tomato sandwiches is why I love tomatoes so much.

I am excited as a young boy Christmas morning

One of the projects that started months ago with all my free time was a long board. Jess gave me the wheels several Christmases ago. They are beautiful wheels, 95mm. A little bigger wheel makes the bumps feel a lot smoother. And these wheels are fast.

I have had the birth plywood since undergrad. I had an approximate shape traced. I started building this new longboard a couple months ago. I cut it out. I figured out a way to cut out the wheel recesses.

I didn't finish it because of one the holes in my memory had the location for a truck part (trucks = skateboard axles). I tore my garage apart and racked my memory. And nothing. Then today I found it. I was in the middle of another project and there it was. So, I finally finished my new long board.

Maggie "helped" me work on it and she asked to ride it, so we coasted down the driveway on it.

The Penguin for the location of that truck part got pushed off the iceberg.

The following story is a bit of a digression.

I was the assistant scout master during Medical School. I was telling the boys why I was so crappy with names. I told them our brains are like an iceberg. There is only enough room for a certain number of penguin. If more penguins jump up on one side, other penguins get pushed off the other side. I told them that the penguin for names get pushed off my iceberg by some of my medical school penguins, i.e. pharmacology penguins, etc. Just then I stopped at a red light. I was telling this story, so I was distracted and I treated the red light like a stop sign. There were no cars so I went through this small intersection even though the light was still red. So, a member of the peanut gallery in the back seat pipes up and says, "Did you lose the penguin for Red Lights?"

Hi Ho Hi Ho Its Off to Work I Go

I have been back to work for a little over a month. I love being a Radiologist. The first several days back, I would come home giddy with excitement. There are still a few small holes, but a lot comes back with having to think about it. Like riding a bike.

I am glad that back in January the Neuropsych test said to recover longer. It is better not to lose the confident of my Attendings. So far I think they are happy with my performance. One of them told me I was ready for oral boards in his subspecialty. It was a very nice compliment. But I will not be taking oral boards this spring. Because of my unexpected hiatus it will a year from this spring.