Signs of the Times - Medical Edition

With overseas travels behind me and only a couple of road trips for the foreseeable future I figured I might as well go back to work a bit this summer.  It keeps me out from underfoot and hopefully will allow us to live on a higher quality of cat food when we are impoverished oldsters.

One of the sites I work at opened a brand spankin' new clinic since my last stint there.  It is quite nice albeit with a sense of being heavily engineered for maximum Provider Productivity.  I don't think I have operated out of a cubicle since residency.

Of course my sense of humor being what it is I had to wander about and marvel at things.  Here are a few images of State of the Art Medicine in 2016....along with the odd things that they brought to my mind.

I know we live in unsettled times, times in which bad things occasionally happen in work places.
A big Red Button does make sense.  A big red non functioning button makes less sense.  And I would have hesitated to call it a "Duress Button" instead of the more descriptive "Panic Button".  Maybe they don't want anyone to panic.  But even with a very good employer such as these folks, don't you think employees might, on the occasional bad day, feel like pushing the Duress Button when they are being forced to comply with some silly directive from management?

Ah. Close your eyes and breath in deeply.  Smell the varnish and wood stain?  No?  Oh, that's because this "pod" of patient care rooms is designated Oak.  This is the minor procedures room.

Health care facilities have for some years now been on the front lines in Americas war on obesity. As a result chairs keep getting wider and stronger.  I looked at this and thought, "Huh.  Looks like Forrest Gump's Bus Bench". On the bright side you sometimes find parents and kids snuggled up on it reading a book.

I felt a little badly taking a picture of this one.  It was right next to Administrator Country.  But I could not resist a quick, blurry shot:

I doubt my ID badge would open this one, and I'm not about to give it a try.  I am absolutely sure that if I did open it, this is what would pop out:

I'm just as happy for Data to stay "in the closet".

Walking England - Three Trails Diverge

The U.K. is blessed with a network of great walking trails.  I suppose there are many reasons for this. Walking is a longstanding tradition there, no doubt encouraged by their "Right to Roam" that allows the public access to traditional paths across private property.  And of course it is a smaller country than the U.S., so it is practical to ramble about with the assurance of a pub somewhere in range when the need for a pint or a roof over head becomes acute.

In recent years my wife and I have walked on three different trail systems.  Of course we have not managed to walk any in their entirety, and with the exception of the Hadrian's Wall path have likely only managed less than 10% of each.

Still, it is enough to form opinions, so for my fellow countrymen considering a walking tour I offer a comparison of the three trail systems.

Note please that I have only walked these in the spring time.  Also that my criteria may well be different from yours.

Hadrian's Wall Path

Runs from coast to coast following Hadrian's Wall.  Approximately from Newcastle to Carlisle, the best bits are in the rustic central third of it.  My rankings:

Beauty:  Stunning, if a bit stark.
Ease of travel:  fair.  Hadrian picked this site for the imposing hills and they are still there.
Amenities:  again, only fair.  No bathrooms about, pubs and cafes are few.  Plenty of B&Bs have popped up in recent years.  A handy shuttle bus is reasonably close for the sore of foot.
How easy is the path to follow:  Rather.  The Wall is a good clue.
How much History underfoot:  Tons.
Authenticity:  Well, the Wall has been helped out here and there with rebuilding, but most of what you are seeing is the Real Deal.
Would I do it again: I have done the best parts already, so probably not.


South West Coast Path

Follows the Cornwall coast.  This is the far southwest of England and has much milder winters than the rest of the UK. Heck, bamboo and bananas can be grown in a few sheltered spots.

Beauty:  I, being a non coastal person, may be biased...but it was stunningly beautiful.
Ease of Travel: fair to difficult.  Lots of ups and downs.  Every little creek has washed a deep ravine into the sea side cliffs.
Amenities: few and far between.  Little fishing villages here and there.
How easy is path to follow:  Keep the ocean to one side and keep walking.
History underfoot: Not much Roman stuff but WWII forts, smuggler's caves, etc.
Authenticity: Seems unspoiled.
Would I do it again?  Yes, but I'll train a bit more next time.  It is very nice in early spring when they have gardens strewn with fallen white flowers at a time when Wisconsin is deeply buried under a different sort of fallen white stuff.


Walking in the Cotswolds

West Central England, out past Oxford.  An area of quaint villages and rolling hills.  It was "discovered" by artistic types in the 19th century.

Beauty:  Very nice
Ease of Travel: no serious walking challenge really.
Amenities:  Lots.  Villages are close together.
How easy is path to follow: Actually a few challenges as there are many overlapping trail systems here.  Pretty good sign posting though and you can always call for a taxi if necessary. (Try that in Cornwall!)
History underfoot: Plenty of Roman about.
Authenticity:  Alas, it felt a bit contrived to me.  Olde England theme park in a way.  London money has come west and bought the place up for Preservation.  Better I suppose than letting it decay.
Would I go back: I would need an additional reason to.

Naturally I don't wish to give short shrift to any of other Trails that I've yet to experience.  Wales has some great ones.  Scotland takes the stark natural beauty of Hadrian's Wall and goes even "starker".

I would caution the casual American walker to keep a sense of perspective.  For many UK and European walkers this is a dead serious undertaking.  They are going to put up some serious daily mileage totals and will trek on without regard to weather or blisters.  If like me you actually want to spend time enjoying scenery - and the occasional pub - you have to accept that your daily walks will be 5 to 10 miles, not 10 to 20.  I think it is acceptable to be a little vague over B&B breakfasts regarding your previous and future stopping points!

Thorp Wisconsin - Milk and Munitions

Thorp, Wisconsin is one of those places you speed by on your way elsewhere.  It is classic small town America, deep in dairy country.

But I had been meaning to swing through and have a look at, of all things, a restaurant that intrigued me.  It had previously been visible from the highway but is now partially obscured by unremarkable later development.

The Thorpedo.

It has been around for quite a while, going back to 1965 according to the few scraps of info I have been able to find on it.  I love the classic neon sign.  Its blue back ground has faded more than the rest of the establishment so I assume the current Thorpedo building is not the original.  It is in any event much older than Ian Thorpe, an Australian Olympic swimmer, who has adopted the same nickname. I wonder if in his travels he ever stopped in?

Oh, did I mention we are in dairy country?  Thorp, the village not the swimmer now, has a series of decorative statues perched about town.  Lets visit.

This is "Flower Cow" and her calf "Petunia".  Mom has the patient expression of mothers everywhere.  Petunia looks to me to be in an adolescent rebellion stage.

This is Pumpkin Cow, so named to highlight Thorp's annual Pumpkin Festival.  The inscription stone underneath has the rather needless admonition to not sit on the cow.  Ouch, the leaves and stem...

Across the street is a bank.  This specimen is technically called "Country Life Cow".  But sitting in front of a place that makes farm loans I alternately dub her "Shylock Cow".

She's an upstanding bovine citizen in contrast to this next one.  Sitting outside the local butcher shop we find what I call "Quisling Cow".  (The establishment btw is Nolechek Meats and has some very good products.)

Of sterner and more honorable stuff we find, down in Veterans Park, "Patriotic Cow".  No cowardly appeasement here this gal is ready for martial business.

You might opine that her choice of camouflage is imprudent but if you feel strongly on the point feel free to hunt down the most elusive of the cow sculptures "Cam-Moo-Flage Cow"!

Oh, I'll make it easier for you.  There is a map showing the locations of all 23 of the Cows of Thorp.

Serious fans of such matters will of course recognize these as the handiwork of a Sparta, Wisconsin company called F.A.S.T.  Fiberglass Animals Shapes and Trademarks.  If you want to order something of this sort I offer you their catalog.  Enjoy.

Tree Shaped Tombstones - An Enigma

Here is an attractive specimen I found in the cemetery of Thorp, Wisconsin.

A nicely executed monument with ferns and a rather jaunty bird atop the traditional "broken branch". The lettering identifies this as the family marker of the Holtzhausens.

Oddly, the "scroll" where there should be birth and death dates is blank.  I have run into this on occasion and have no plausible explanation.  Did they forget to set aside a little extra for the lettering to be done after they were gone?

There are of course the usual subsidiary markers.  Next to one of them we find this:

At first this caught my eye for the sheer rarity of a marker referencing the Spanish American War. The whole affair only lasted ten weeks and was essentially a cake walk apart from that unpleasant Yellow Fever.  But when I drove away from the cemetery the few wisps of data I carry around on this obscure subject started to nag me.

The Spanish American War began and ended in 1898.  Walter Holzhausen was only 16 years old when it happened.  Sure, you could speculate on an under age enlistment.  Or perhaps stretch the duration of the conflict to include occupation duty.  In the Philippines there was an insurgency from 1899 to 1902 that actually cost more lives than the preceding fight against Spain.

But no, I think this marker is in error.

The 14th US Cavalry Regiment was formed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in March of 1901.  It was destined to serve in the Philippines during the Insurgency but it appears poor Private Holzhausen never left the United States.  An article in a local paper says he died in an accident at Fort Wingate, New Mexico on Christmas Day of 1901, about a year after his enlistment.

FIRST 2016 Campaign Final Video

Excellent compilation of footage from the beginning of the FIRST season to the end.

Very proud of this bunch.  They will be a Force to be Reckoned With next year...

Only four months before the Robotics stuff starts up again!

Signs of the Times - England 2016

"Two countries separated by a common language" is a bit of an old saw, but it does have an element of truth to it.  Especially in situations where you have no parallel information to help you out.  I find signs in the UK to be a source of entertainment and occasional puzzlement.  Here's a few from the last few weeks.

I had never heard the term "Fake Bands".  Who knew that there were actually "Top Fake Bands" as it says in the fine print.  I neglected to take a picture of it but on the adjacent wall there was an advert for a local "Pub Golf" event.  Yikes.

A garbage truck in the Cotswolds.  As our view of the UK is heavily colored by James Bond flicks I expected spies in tuxedos and dark glasses to be emptying the bins.

It means drive slowly.  In this little hamlet the children seemed just fine but their dog, a scrawny whippet, did seem a bit dim witted.

And speaking of dogs.....Lets just ignore the notion that any spot a dog fouls is likely to be at least fairly warm.  This must be set aside for a larger question.  Are there in fact actual Dog Fouling Enforcement Officers?  What are the qualifications?  Do they have any additional duties?  Do they have to collect "evidence"?

This was over the River Eden in Cumbria.  Now I don't know about you, but to me "Collapse Imminent" suggests that I should get a blanket, set out a picnic and wait for the bridge to go down. I mean, imminent suggests you won't have to wait very long.  Or is this another of the silly Health and Safety things that the Brits kow tow to?

Recent flood damage.  No to the picnic lunch, but also no to going out for a closer look.

Let's close on a historic note, one that surprised me.  First a mile stone:

And then the unobtrusive little brass plate:

Home

Three weeks of being away and roughly 14 hours of travel.  I made it back feeling great.

I suspect this feeling was a little off target as I appear to have had at least one phone conversation and did half of a New York Times crossword with almost no memory of either.

But the next morning I was up early (or slept in if you follow my previous time zone), stretched and went out on the porch with my morning coffee.

Things looked great.  The lawn had been mowed, the flowers were blooming.  The air smelt like spring, and after the sheep meadows and excavation dirt of the prior two weeks it also had an intangible familiar scent to it.  It smelt like home.

The only discordant note was a very pesky robin sitting on a nearby bush lambasting me in chirpy bird talk.  What? Hey, I kept the feeder full all winter, the back yard pond is open for bathing, what more do you expect of me?

Ah.

I've always suspected that if I stayed away too long shiftless squatters would move in, and it seems I had the right of it.