So last weekend was Palmer's Homecoming. Heard it was great. Dr. John Dimartini (from "The Secret") who is a chiropractor who has written tons of self-improvement books, gives seminars, and is booked for years out, agreed to speak at Palmer. http://www.drdemartini.com/ Awesome! Wish I could have been there for that, and all the other things happening at the world's greatest chiropractic college.
I had booked a trip to Atlanta to meet with my practice management consultant, Dr. Peter Fernandez http://www.drfernandez.com/ who was hosting a 3 day seminar on how to successfully integrate personal injury claims into a practice, how to market this service, working with personal injury attorneys, the insurance companies, and doing it all ethically with a focus on the patient's needs. Great seminar (what I got to attend anyway)
It was supposed to be Kristi and I both going, bringing our son Dartagnan, who's 14, and leaving our daughter Delaney, who's 2, with Kristi's parents. Unfortunately, Delaney got sick with a fever, and we couldn't leave her with Gramma and Grampa because they both work, and Delaney can't go to daycare with a fever. Kristi elected to stay home with her, as she has more to study for anyway, and was not sure she had the time to devote to a weekend seminar. (Turns out she devoted a weekend to a sick toddler, Delaney had that fever for 6 days!)
So it was just Dartagnan and I going. We left Wednesday night last week, at midnight, after I took a short nap. I wanted to hit Chattanooga by lunchtime, as I wanted to spend the afternoon there with D (we call Dartagnan D for short) We were going to Ruby Falls http://www.rubyfalls.com/ and maybe rock city http://www.seerockcity.com/ because D is a nut for caves and cliffs. We made it to Ruby Falls at 1pm, and we weren't hungry for lunch yet so we decided to go straight to the tour. It was Awesome! There's a 130ft waterfall thats 1200 ft under the mountain. It was breathtaking. The rock formations were so cool too. I would highly recommend it. It was an hour and a half tour, and by the time we were done we were starving, so we decided to head down the mountain (lookout Mountain) into Chattanooga for a late lunch.
When you're up on top of Lookout Mountain, it's easy to get lost, as it's a residential area (very expensive homes, multi-million $ view) The roads wind and switch back to follow the cliff sides, literally hanging on the side of the mountain, or weave through the forest, which is definitely intact. A few wrong turns later I realize, to my horror, that I have no brakes! I frantically go to pull the e-brake, only to find it was already pulled! Evidently I used it at Ruby Falls and forgot to disengage it! In my defense I never use my e-brake, and only did this time because of the very steep decline I was parked on, with a drop-off in front of my car. When we got out of the car D threw his blanket over the brake handle between the seats, and when we left Ruby Falls I didn't see it, and the brakes didn't drag or grind or anything when we left. The car drove normal. I guess they were contacting enough though to heat up the brakes to the point that the fluid boiled, at which point you have no brake pressure at all.
So anyway we're going faster and faster, as every turn I make in hopes of finding an uphill road, I find more downhill roads! Drop-offs are whizzing past me to the right, and big trees are growing right up to the road on the left, where there isn't a rock wall, that is. Finally I make a turn away from the cliff side into a residential street, but it's going very steeply downhill. Now I'm moving at about 30 mph, which doesnt sound fast but believe me it's fast when you have no brakes on top of a mountain! There's trees hugging the road on both sides. Up ahead I see a break in the trees on the right. There's a driveway, with a mailbox and huge tree on the far side of it. Looks like about 6 feet between them, with an ivy covered ditch and burm. Looks like enough room to squeeze the Civic in. If the ditch and burm don't stop us the telephone pole 8 feet in will definitely stop us! So that's what I did. The car just fit, I didn't hit the mailbox, the tree, or the telephone pole, and I was a few inches from each! The back wheels were up off the driveway, and the front was down in the ditch. The car was stopped , and we weren't hurt. Lucky. Guardian Angel. Probably both!
3pm. Standing on the side of the road, trying to get AAA to help us. Worthless! Transferred 4 times! Had to start from the beginning each time. Didn't help that I didn't know wether I was in Tennessee or Georgia. (Lookout Mountain is in both) We're starving, I'm seriously sleep deprived at this point. Hotel is booked and payed for in Atlanta, seminar starts next morning at 8. Things aren't going well, but at least we're alive. Cop shows up. He's helpfull. D went to get the registration out of the glovebox for me and his very real looking toy handgun is sitting right there on top. Nice. Cop doesn't notice, or doesn't care (This is Tennessee) He gets a tow truck for me in a half hour (best AAA could do was two hours)
The tow driver was so nice, but he could have called me an idiot and I would have just smiled and nodded as I couldn't understand a word he said. Thick mountain accent. By the time he had my car out of the ditch it was after 5, and the shops were all closed. So he took the car back to his house on the mountain, but back south into Georgia 20 miles. The cop took us back to the Police station/Fire station/Town Hall.
From there I tried to get a rental car company to come up onto the mountain and pick us up. Bad news, Hertz couldn't spare a driver after 4pm, only one person working. No one else had a car available. So I booked the car with Hertz and next tryed to line up a taxi to come up and get us, and bring us to the airport where Hertz is. All this took over an hour. The taxi took 45 minutes to get to us. The cab ride was almost 30 minutes, and cost me over $40. We get to the airport at 6:30. We haven't eaten since 7:30am. Starving delerious. Dead tired. D is sick with a fever now. Kristi meanwhile is lining up a hotel for us. We have to go all the way back up to the tow driver's house, 40 miles away and back up on the mountain, in order to get our bags to stay the night. When we get there he lets us know the brakes are working (they cooled off) I still wanted a mechanic to check it over as we had 1000 miles left to drive on our trip. So we figured out a shop to meet at in the morning.
Zombie-tired and starving, we made the trek back to town to finally get some dinner. We ate at 8:30 at a nice brewery restaraunt downtown chattanooga, Big River Grille and Brewery www.bigrivergrille.com It felt so good to finally eat, and when I told the waiter our story he brought me a beer on the house.
Kristi booked us at the Chattanoogan Hotel, which was a very classy place www.chattanooganhotel.com . Not that it mattered much as we just slept, but the beds were awesome. D got to sleep in while I went to the service center in the rental Toyota Prius. At first it felt like a tincan, but it grew on me. The car was fine other than some air in the brake lines and some glazing on the rotors, and they promised it would be done within an hour. So I went down the street to a coffee shop where they roast their own beans and had a great americano. www.chattanoogacoffeecompany.com So good I bought a bag to take home. (Drinking some right now) I'm at least a 3rd generation coffee snob. When I was still too young for kindergarden my mom brought me to her parents' house, right next door, for morning coffee nearly every day. I was drinking coffee by the age of 4 (probably mostly milk and sugar) I drink it black now, unless it's lousy, then I'll put cream in it to mask the flavor. I'll drink the worst coffee, as it's better than nothing, but given a choice I love the good stuff!
So got the car back and off to get D up and get on the road. He's feeling lousy. I decide not to drive to Atlanta right away and just take it easy. We lay around the hotel til checkout at noon. We then go have lunch at this great place that Kristi and went to last time through called 212 Market www.212market.com D had his usual, a filet minion, jeez that kid's expensive. Didn't touch his veggies either. A little sightseeing (by car) and it was time to hit the road. We made Atlanta at around 4, sat in rush hour for an hour. That evening we just layed around the hotel room and watched tv. We don't have tv at home so it's a treat when travelling! Went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner but neither of us enjoy it as he's sick and I'm feeling rocky too, in hindsight I now realize it's probably whiplash from the accident.
Next day at seminar was great, although I had a hard time concentrating. D was feeling better and wanted to go to the mall nextdoor, Atlanta's Perimeter Mall. It was huge and overwhelming to him so I decided to stay and walk around with him a bit. We were there about 2 hours and called it quits, as everything there was so expensive. I gave him $75 to spend how he wanted and he didn't want to buy anything. His mom instilled some thriftiness in him after all!
We then went to McDonald's and to go see The Expendables. Great movie! Plenty of gratuitous violence, hardly any of it plausable. Thin plot. Just what I needed! I felt like a super hero by the time we left. Then I realized that everyone in the movie (except for Jason Statham) is a lot older than me and in a lot better shape than me. Oh well. (I meant that Jason Statham is not older than me. He is, however, in a lot better shape...) My self image still includes chiselled abs and big guns, even though they disappeared long ago. I believe a healthy self image is important, however dillusional it may be... I keep telling myself it will be easier to get and stay in shape when I'm done with Palmer. I'll be pushing 40, who am I kidding!
The next day, last day of seminar, I decide because I'm still not feeling great that we'd better hit the road instead. We left at 10am and got home right before midnight. Long day on the road!
Monday was D's first day of highschool. That went well. Going to class was hard for me, and I'm still feeling rocky. My doctor in the student clinic is home sick so I've not yet been in to get checked after the trip and accident, and meanwhile I've been hanging drywall in D's bedroom for the last 3 days. I'm a glutton for punishment.
Test tomorrow in Cervicals class, and I'm nervous about it. So many listings to keep straight.
X-ray analysis is starting to click for me though. I'll let you know how that goes. I better log off now and start studying, as tonight is open house at D's highschool. Fun times.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Back in the swing of things...
New tri at Palmer! I'm taking some fifth and some sixth tri classes, as I'm on an individualized schedule. Also I'm in two bachelor's courses. Seven classes in total, and somehow that's considered a "light load"... 12 - 16 hour semesters are nothing like 30+ hour trimesters, trust me! I worked 60+ hour weeks before coming to Palmer and had much more free time than I do now!
OK enough griping, I'm actually loving the classes I'm taking this tri, and my schedule is starting to make sense. I have to be there first thing at 7:30 for my Cervical Adjusting class Monday through Friday. Before that I have to help get Laney, out two year old, ready for school (We call daycare school, as the one she goes to seems more like a school than a babysitter) and drop her off there. It's conveniently right next door. If anyone is looking for daycare for 18month - 4year olds, they're the greatest! Positive Parenting at Trinity. Check it out at www.positiveparentingpreschool.com Delaney LOVES it there. Oh, I was talking about my schedule, I digress...
So anyway after a hectic morning every day, I don't have class again until 9:20, but only on Wed and Thurs (Philosophy IV) or 11:10, but only on Mon, Tues, and Fri (Physiotherapy I). Then I'm free (I use that word liberally) til 1:55 for NeuroMusculoSkeletal (NMS) I which is every day, followed by OB/Pediatrics every day at 2:40. Those are all the regular classes I'm in, but then Monday from 3:45 til 6:15 I'm in a bachelor's course: Sports Injuries. Tuesday I have my Physiotherapy lab from 3:45 til 4:15, and Thursday I have my other Bachelor's course, Marketing from 3:45 to 6:15.
I'm just starting to get used to the big breaks in the morning schedule, and a crazy busy afternoon. Family life makes the afternoons tricky. Laney has to be picked up no later than 5:30. If anyone out there has ever picked up a kid late from daycare you understand this concept. Our last daycare, before Laney was 18 months old, actually charged us the $1/minute late fee and then fired us as clients! We've not been late at Positive Parenting and we don't plan to either! Don't think they'de react the same way but I'd rather not find out! When we pick her up she's ready for dinner, which is rarely what we eat because she's all of a sudden gotten extremely picky. Everything foreign she says EEEWWWW and pushes away, refusing to even taste. Some things she's always loved she does the same thing with. Every evening we have to solve the mind-frying question of what to feed Laney. Do we try to get her to eat something nutritious or sucumb to Mac and Cheese. ( at least it's organic) I don't know how I'll handle it when she says EEEWWW to that...
Then it's promptly to the bathtub as she's usually wearing half her dinner, where she consistently splashes half the bath water onto the floor...
Then she runs around like a crazed lunatic, into walls...hopefully not down the stairs. When she gets tired she gets reckless and manic. It's fun and terrifying and tiresome all at the same time!
Bed for her by 8 but she's been keeping herself up til 9 or 9:30 playing in bed lately, giving shoutouts for water or for general attention. By the time she's out so are we, virtually exhausted. Now somehow it's time to study and write blogs...
So what about all that time in the morning and early afternoon?
Well there's club meetings. I'm in several, though I can't claim I go every week. AO (Atlas Orthogonal) which is an upper cervical specific technique. I took the elective last tri, and club is a great way of honing skills learned. Activator meets at the same time, so I alternate. Gonstead club is great for perfecting manual adjusting skills, as is Palmer Package club. Then there's ToastMasters, which is actually an international organization for public speaking. Palmer has a chapter, we meet once a week and deliver speaches to each other and critique them. When we get out of Palmer we'll be ready to deliver awesome health talks and presentations, which are integral to a successful practice. Another class I'm taking in the form of a weekend seminar at Palmer is S.P.E.A.K., which has much the same goals as Toastmasters, but is Palmer and Chiropractic specific. It integrates the Dale Carnegie series into it as well. A huge benefit of doing SPEAK is it certifies the student to take part in the Palmer health screening events, which will be great practice for when we run our own clinic. Also it's a great way to get patients as a student intern in our clinic at Palmer.
I'm also taking business seminars in Atlanta and Orlando six times a year from our consultant. These are weekend long events. The next one is unfortunately the same weekend as Palmer's Homecoming so I won't be here for that.
Our son (my step-son) Dartagnan just decided to move back home after a semester and then the summer break up in Minneapolis where his father and father's family live. He stayed with his aunt, uncle and cousins, and his Grandma. We sent him up there when we found out that his Grandma was terminally ill with advanced throat cancer. We wanted for him to able to spend as much time with her as possible, as they've always been close. She just passed a couple weeks ago while they were all on a family vacation. She was a wonderful lady, keen wit, sharp humor, thick German accent. Never anything wrong with her if you were to ask her. We miss her dearly.
So D is back, and while he was gone we moved Laney into his bedroom. So now he's sleeping in our sunroom. Sucks for him in the morning as he loves to sleep in and the room is all windows!
Which brings me to the other thing occupying all my spare time, finishing his new bedroom in the basement. We're coverting a nasty sixties era rec room type basement into a master suite complete with the house's largest bedroom, largest bath, a new laundry room, and a media/family rec room. He has to share the bathroom and rec room with us, and he better share the laundry...
We want to get him into his new room as soon as possible, as he starts highschool in two weeks and I'd rather have him have his own space at this point in his life. While he was in Minnesota I got the Laundry, stairway, and basement hall completed. I had to get the laundry moved to finish the new drain tile and sump pump installed on the side of the basement that his bedroom and bathroom are. Just got that (almost) done during the last break, between our travels. So far I've got his walls and walk in closet half framed in. I'll finish that later this week, after the three tests I have over the next 3 days, so that I can move on to wiring and drywall this weekend. With drywall, trim, and flooring I'm looking at at least a few more weeks, so he'll have already started school but that's the best I can do...
I'm starting to regret being handy...
We can't forget all the other things that invariably keep a dad and husband busy (and blessed). Cram all that in with Palmer and you have one interesting schedule.
So, sorry it's been so long since the last post. It seems I'm constantly running to keep up with yesterday, but such is life. I wouldn't trade a single aspect of it in, honestly, and there's so much more I wish I had time to do. I haven't painted in ages. I can't remember the last time I've been to the gym (though I did go jogging on the mississippi walk a few weeks ago, quads still hurt) I want to take advantage of Palmer's free Rosetta Stone again to improve my Spanish and maybe pick up French. I would love to get more involved at church. I wish I had time to actually read my textbooks, rather than skim and look up specific things. I want to take more special technique electives while I'm here at Palmer. I want to pass boards (got round one out of the way)
Mainly I want to know when I leave here that I'm a capable doctor that's ready to continue learning and growing, is an awesome listener able to get to the heart of a patient's problem, is well equipped to open a practice right away and to not only survive, but thrive. I want to prepare, learn, develop myself without ever compromising the other roles and relationships in my life. It's a tightrope and juggling act at the same time. But plenty before me have done it, so I know I can too.
OK enough griping, I'm actually loving the classes I'm taking this tri, and my schedule is starting to make sense. I have to be there first thing at 7:30 for my Cervical Adjusting class Monday through Friday. Before that I have to help get Laney, out two year old, ready for school (We call daycare school, as the one she goes to seems more like a school than a babysitter) and drop her off there. It's conveniently right next door. If anyone is looking for daycare for 18month - 4year olds, they're the greatest! Positive Parenting at Trinity. Check it out at www.positiveparentingpreschool.com Delaney LOVES it there. Oh, I was talking about my schedule, I digress...
So anyway after a hectic morning every day, I don't have class again until 9:20, but only on Wed and Thurs (Philosophy IV) or 11:10, but only on Mon, Tues, and Fri (Physiotherapy I). Then I'm free (I use that word liberally) til 1:55 for NeuroMusculoSkeletal (NMS) I which is every day, followed by OB/Pediatrics every day at 2:40. Those are all the regular classes I'm in, but then Monday from 3:45 til 6:15 I'm in a bachelor's course: Sports Injuries. Tuesday I have my Physiotherapy lab from 3:45 til 4:15, and Thursday I have my other Bachelor's course, Marketing from 3:45 to 6:15.
I'm just starting to get used to the big breaks in the morning schedule, and a crazy busy afternoon. Family life makes the afternoons tricky. Laney has to be picked up no later than 5:30. If anyone out there has ever picked up a kid late from daycare you understand this concept. Our last daycare, before Laney was 18 months old, actually charged us the $1/minute late fee and then fired us as clients! We've not been late at Positive Parenting and we don't plan to either! Don't think they'de react the same way but I'd rather not find out! When we pick her up she's ready for dinner, which is rarely what we eat because she's all of a sudden gotten extremely picky. Everything foreign she says EEEWWWW and pushes away, refusing to even taste. Some things she's always loved she does the same thing with. Every evening we have to solve the mind-frying question of what to feed Laney. Do we try to get her to eat something nutritious or sucumb to Mac and Cheese. ( at least it's organic) I don't know how I'll handle it when she says EEEWWW to that...
Then it's promptly to the bathtub as she's usually wearing half her dinner, where she consistently splashes half the bath water onto the floor...
Then she runs around like a crazed lunatic, into walls...hopefully not down the stairs. When she gets tired she gets reckless and manic. It's fun and terrifying and tiresome all at the same time!
Bed for her by 8 but she's been keeping herself up til 9 or 9:30 playing in bed lately, giving shoutouts for water or for general attention. By the time she's out so are we, virtually exhausted. Now somehow it's time to study and write blogs...
So what about all that time in the morning and early afternoon?
Well there's club meetings. I'm in several, though I can't claim I go every week. AO (Atlas Orthogonal) which is an upper cervical specific technique. I took the elective last tri, and club is a great way of honing skills learned. Activator meets at the same time, so I alternate. Gonstead club is great for perfecting manual adjusting skills, as is Palmer Package club. Then there's ToastMasters, which is actually an international organization for public speaking. Palmer has a chapter, we meet once a week and deliver speaches to each other and critique them. When we get out of Palmer we'll be ready to deliver awesome health talks and presentations, which are integral to a successful practice. Another class I'm taking in the form of a weekend seminar at Palmer is S.P.E.A.K., which has much the same goals as Toastmasters, but is Palmer and Chiropractic specific. It integrates the Dale Carnegie series into it as well. A huge benefit of doing SPEAK is it certifies the student to take part in the Palmer health screening events, which will be great practice for when we run our own clinic. Also it's a great way to get patients as a student intern in our clinic at Palmer.
I'm also taking business seminars in Atlanta and Orlando six times a year from our consultant. These are weekend long events. The next one is unfortunately the same weekend as Palmer's Homecoming so I won't be here for that.
Our son (my step-son) Dartagnan just decided to move back home after a semester and then the summer break up in Minneapolis where his father and father's family live. He stayed with his aunt, uncle and cousins, and his Grandma. We sent him up there when we found out that his Grandma was terminally ill with advanced throat cancer. We wanted for him to able to spend as much time with her as possible, as they've always been close. She just passed a couple weeks ago while they were all on a family vacation. She was a wonderful lady, keen wit, sharp humor, thick German accent. Never anything wrong with her if you were to ask her. We miss her dearly.
So D is back, and while he was gone we moved Laney into his bedroom. So now he's sleeping in our sunroom. Sucks for him in the morning as he loves to sleep in and the room is all windows!
Which brings me to the other thing occupying all my spare time, finishing his new bedroom in the basement. We're coverting a nasty sixties era rec room type basement into a master suite complete with the house's largest bedroom, largest bath, a new laundry room, and a media/family rec room. He has to share the bathroom and rec room with us, and he better share the laundry...
We want to get him into his new room as soon as possible, as he starts highschool in two weeks and I'd rather have him have his own space at this point in his life. While he was in Minnesota I got the Laundry, stairway, and basement hall completed. I had to get the laundry moved to finish the new drain tile and sump pump installed on the side of the basement that his bedroom and bathroom are. Just got that (almost) done during the last break, between our travels. So far I've got his walls and walk in closet half framed in. I'll finish that later this week, after the three tests I have over the next 3 days, so that I can move on to wiring and drywall this weekend. With drywall, trim, and flooring I'm looking at at least a few more weeks, so he'll have already started school but that's the best I can do...
I'm starting to regret being handy...
We can't forget all the other things that invariably keep a dad and husband busy (and blessed). Cram all that in with Palmer and you have one interesting schedule.
So, sorry it's been so long since the last post. It seems I'm constantly running to keep up with yesterday, but such is life. I wouldn't trade a single aspect of it in, honestly, and there's so much more I wish I had time to do. I haven't painted in ages. I can't remember the last time I've been to the gym (though I did go jogging on the mississippi walk a few weeks ago, quads still hurt) I want to take advantage of Palmer's free Rosetta Stone again to improve my Spanish and maybe pick up French. I would love to get more involved at church. I wish I had time to actually read my textbooks, rather than skim and look up specific things. I want to take more special technique electives while I'm here at Palmer. I want to pass boards (got round one out of the way)
Mainly I want to know when I leave here that I'm a capable doctor that's ready to continue learning and growing, is an awesome listener able to get to the heart of a patient's problem, is well equipped to open a practice right away and to not only survive, but thrive. I want to prepare, learn, develop myself without ever compromising the other roles and relationships in my life. It's a tightrope and juggling act at the same time. But plenty before me have done it, so I know I can too.
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