A Wet August

It’s been a busy but wet August, probably one of the wettest that I can remember. I did a moderate amount of training for the Portland Century but often had to fight the nasty rain. The Portland Century was dry, but it started raining quite heavily as soon as we completed the ride. You can read about the Portland Century in the “Bike Rides” section. I noted that after riding the Century, there were those that had done only 25-50 very flat miles, and were struggling to get up a very mild hill on Broadway in downtown Portland as it goes south. Oddly, that would have been me a year ago. Fortunately, except for minor leg cramping, I couldn’t have felt better on this ride. Other outdoor activities have been limited by the amount of rain that we’ve had.
The top photo shows progress in the construction of the hospital addition. Note the cloudy skies in late August. The construction goes on feverishly, rain or shine.
You might notice that I rearranged my website to make my other events more accessible. In particular, I added a number of movie reviews, music reviews, book reviews, a pitifully failed hike, besides my bicycle rides, to the respective pages.
After great reflection in the past month, I probably will NOT
a) hike the complete PCT at one time ever
b) ride my bicycle completely around America ever
c) sail all the seven seas ever
This doesn’t mean that I don’t want to do some serious hiking or cycling. I’d like to get a real touring bicycle (Cannondale Touring I), and possibly a real road bike someday-I’m currently looking at a bicycle that would be a Torelli frame with Campagnolo Chorus components and Campagnolo Eurus wheels. There is a shop in Tacoma that assembles the bicycle for you if you buy their components, and they are reasonably cheap.
My heart is becoming increasingly desirous of
a)  doing time in a foreign hospital, the current list being possibly China, Bangladesh, or Cameroon. Any would work for me, and hopefully, Betsy and I could try out several places.
b) spending more time in Europe, especially Germany, possibly taking language classes, and hopefully having a decent bicycle to ride around Europe with.
c) taking a break from American medicine. I’ve never felt more at peace about a decision than when I decided to check out of my practice for a while. I am absolutely decided not to continue practice with a call at Good Samaritan Hospital, or any other hospital in the US without adequate compensation and limited work hours (less than 12 hours/day) on call. I don’t think that will happen soon at GSH. So far, my group has agreed to allow me to drop to courtesy privileges at GSH as of 01NOV08, and then take a 1 year Sabbatical during the 2009 calendar year. This will give me opportunity to explore a) and b) above, and to also consider what to do with the rest of my life.