Unseasonal

Unseasonal, originally uploaded by a b franzen.

This photo makes me think of a lot of different things. One is that the onset of fall in TX has been very odd for me. I am still wearing shorts and wearing sandals around while family and friends have already experienced the first snow of the season. It really does make TX feel like a different world that has a perpetual summer. I have not yet been able to wrap my mind around that.

Here in TX we are likely going to be able to grow plants outside just about throughout the entire year. That is a good thing because Sara likes to have some fresh flowers around in the house.

Last, I was thinking that this flower plant is also an interesting analogy. It used to sit on our porch that does not get very much sun. This poor little guy is the kind of plant that really likes to bask, and in its deprivation, all of the flowers died off. The plant didn't die, just its color; that flare that makes it special. Then we moved it to the small windowsill outside of our bedroom that gets a lot of sun. Now his flowers are back and he is happy again. Put the plant in the context that it was made for, and it will once again bloom.

Not Color Blind

Not Color Blind, originally uploaded by a b franzen.

"No, I'm not colorblind
I know the world is black and white"
- John Mayer

Sometimes it seems that the hardest thing is seeing how reality interacts and impacts my world. Even harder is showing shades of gray to one convinced reality is not in grayscale.

Understanding Shiner

Understanding Shiner, originally uploaded by a b franzen.

So I figured that since I am around books a lot, and books will likely be in a lot of my pictures that go out, I might as well start to get a picture of some sort of each book I have to read. Should be a good time. This is the first one of this series, Understanding Terror Networks. A riveting read if you are into a) terrorism b) terror networks c) network theory d) rational choice theory, or d) some sort of government policy in regards to terror networks.

In other news, Shiner, TX's local brewery (although I think it is owned by some bigger one), actually has some pretty good beers! They are frequently a good study companion.

Just a Perk

Just a Perk, originally uploaded by a b franzen.

When B found out that I drink coffee she started to make it for me everyday. It is a little bit funny because I don't think she normally gets up quite that early and she sets her alarm each day to get up on time. I tell her all of the time that she does not need to change what she normally does just because I am there, but I think she actually likes doing it.

When she first started to make coffee, she would always say things like, "your coffee is perking on the stove," or "I let you coffee perk for you." At first I thought this was something that people used to say when they made coffee and just thought it was an amusing quirk, but then I figured it out. She has this super old percolator to make coffee with. Set it on the stove and when the water boils it does basically the same thing as a drip maker, but just recycles the water. Coffee 'perks' because she uses a percolator.

I was a little disappointed that it took me a few days to figure that out.

Here's your sign

Sorry there haven't been any pictures this week. Last weekend I left my camera cord in Wacko and then just didn't bring the camera here this week. Anyways, I was thinking today as I drove to school that I should start to take pictures of some funny signs around here.

One of them is for a town called Lorena, and it says, "Lorena - rich in community." It makes me laugh every time I see it because it is like they are saying, "we are pretty poor and don't have anything to offer, but hey - we are all pretty good friends!"

Another one is out front of this building that is all boarded up, and it says, "Repo home center of Waco." Maybe I just don't know what that is, but I was thinking that it was like a place where you can buy repo'ed homes (foreclosed?), but the place that offers that service was apparently repo'ed.

I know - short list right now.

Aww, the "Normal Life"

I am so excited to feel like a real person again. I just finished 4 weeks of night float and it was a wonderful feeling to come home at 4 pm today. Night float meant I worked noon Sunday to 7 am Monday, and then 7 pm - 7 am Monday night through Thursday night. Overall night float is just a weird place to be for a number of reasons.....first, you sort of start to feel like you live in a cave, second it is hard to ever connect with anyone as you are sleeping or starting work when everyone else is free (played phone tag with multiple people for the whole month), third the job itself is weird-- your main goal is to keep patients alive until morning (hopefully we did a little more than simply keep them alive though) and answer nurse's pages about a variety of things - starting meds, talking to parents about this or that at midnight (why do parents decide they want to talk to the physician at midnight?!?!!), assessing a patient with fever, fast breathing or who just in general doesn't look too good. By the end of the 4 weeks my life consisted of working, sleeping, eating and then on my weekends off basically the same thing minus the working as despite getting adequate sleep during the week I couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to do anything productive. But we put in our time on night float so we have 4 less months where we have overnight call in the hospital, which is definitely worth it. And the nights were slow enough that occasionally we passed our times with fondue parties and such. But I am glad it is done!

Now I am on hematology/oncology with somewhat normal day schedules. Back to some normalcy, although the other day (albeit it was night float) I walked into the hospital and felt like I was in a movie. The line for the ER registration desk was overflowing into the hallway and everywhere I looked I saw yellow masks. Patients running around with masks over their mouth and nose, parents, siblings, doctors...everywhere were face masks. No one needs to go panic, but the flu season is going to be bad this year! Flu precautions are already in full force at Children's, so anyone in the hospital with any inkling of flu symptoms has to wear a mask. Just several friendly doctor reminders.....get your flu shot!!!! and unless you have a severe underlying medical illness, do not go to the busy overcrowded ER if you think you have the flu, it is fine to go to your regular doctor! Our ER is currently maxed out with flu patients and although it may make for me feeling like I am in the movies, they have had to set up a completely separate area specifically for flu diagnosis for people who really don't need to be there at all.

Looks Different From Here

Looks Different From Here, originally uploaded by a b franzen.

The last few days I have been missing St. Louis, and that is one thing I am not sure I thought I would ever say. It is odd to me that you can arrive at a place, or see a thing, or meet a person and at first they are so deeply foreign to us, but after a bit, whether consciously or not, we take them in and some kind of mutual socialization happens. That is, a part or piece of them creates and makes a piece of us, and same with the other way around. The creation and dynamics of 'community' is a crazy thing. One of my favorite (and least favorite at the same time for different reasons) things about the world today is that we are able to have and maintain some sort of community even when the 'place' is no longer necessarily also the 'here.' The alien feeling of St. Louis seems all the less alien to me now being in the country of Texas. I wonder if St. Louis feels a little more alienated now without us in town? ha - not likely.

I miss you, Kaldi's. I miss you, Forest Park. I miss you, old apartment. I miss you, old neighborhood. I miss you, friends we made while there. I miss you, sidewalk cafes and restaurants. I miss you, free things to do. I miss you, old commute.

home!

Another weekend and I get to see my wonderful wife again. It was an exciting drive home today.

One of the semi-trucks that I passed on the way home today was missing a tire... actually, it was partly still there. It was all gone but still had the sidewalls flapping around.

I saw a dead wild turkey on the side of the road - I think that is a first for me.

I saw some lady with crazy road rage think her little car was intimidating to the semi whose lane she apparently thought she deserved. Best part was that she had one of those 'coexist' bumper stickers on. Thought it was a bit ironic.

Anyways, I have obviously changed the template for the blog around. If you can't read it again let me know and I will... do something. plane background was too boring. BTW, Hannah, I did get that web page from your blog... thanks for sharing. ;)

Left Side Squatter

Left Side Squatter, originally uploaded by a b franzen.

Now with all of the commuting, here is one of my new pet p's (is it p's or peeves?). Left lane squatters. They cause traffic jams on the wide-open highway. They enforce the speed limit at whatever speed they decide to go. They are obviously oblivious to the world around them, and as a result are likely to be very dangerous on road.

Look here buddy - just because you think 50 is a good speed in light rain on a 70 mph highway does not mean it actually is OR that we all agree with you!

(note to all concerned with the safety of this pic: neither myself or any other person was put in harms way to take this picture and I was not at any time obviously oblivious to the world around me)