Bad Medicine

I am not a huge fan of going to the doctor. And so I procrastinate and never make appointments. Same goes for the eye doctor and the dentist. Today was my day to stop procrastinating. I have decent health insurance for which I am charged every week in my paycheck and I never use it. So today was the day to make the appointments.

Step one: call doctor recommended by my mom. "It has been six years since you've been to see this doctor, so we have to treat you as a new patient. It will be 14 weeks before the intake people will call you schedule an appointment." You think I'm kidding -- or perhaps exaggerating. Nope. Not even a little. 14 weeks. Goody.

Step two: call the eye doctor as I seem to have lost my most recent pair of glasses (circa 2003, so not a huge loss other than that I don't own another pair) and I think I'm down to one spare pair of contact lenses... "She is booking for May . . . nope actually I'm seeing mid-June . . . How's mid-June?" Just peachy. I'll just squint until then.

Step three: call the dentist. Now I really hate dentists, but I figured ok, well, I'll just make the appointment now and I won't have to actually go for six months so no big deal. "I just had a cancellation. How's tomorrow at 9:20?" Super.

So True

A Dog's Purpose

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a
ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog's owners, Ron,
his wife, Lisa, and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached to
Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I
told the family we couldn't do anything for Belker, and offered
to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their
home.

As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they
thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the
procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the
experience

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat
as Belker's family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting
the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what
was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker's transition
without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while
after Belker's death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal
lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been
listening quietly, piped up, "I know why."

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his
mouth next stunned me. I'd never heard a more comforting
explanation.

He said, "People are born so that they can learn how
to live a good life -- like loving everybody all the time and being
nice, right?" The six-year-old continued, "Well, dogs already know how
to do that, so they don't have to stay as long."

Good Dog

We miss you already.

Fantasy Success and Failure

If you know me, you already know this: I'm more than a little bit competitive. I'm also an unabashed football fan.

So this year, for the first time, I played fantasy football. Two leagues: fantasy and pro-pick 'em. In my fantasy league, I went 12-2 in the regular season and made it to the championship game... and then I lost.
Because Adam Vinatieri only got the chance to kick one field goal and one PAT for the Colts' anemic backup offense.

In the pro-pick 'em league, I won after leading for more than half the season.

It's going to be tough to match this performance next year -- after all, it's mostly just dumb luck. Nonetheless, I just had to take the opportunity to gloat a little. It's my blog, so I'll gloat if I want to.

A Brave New Year

I woke up this morning early to check on Bailey. He's been diagnosed with cancer and had a bad day yesterday. He seems a little better this morning. Anyway, I woke up to a Facebook invitation from an old friend... it was nice to hear from him and it was just the nudge I needed to finally join Facebook. And really, what else was I going to do at 6:30am on New Year's Day?

It is so cool to have Facebook say: "These are people you might know" and see all my best friends listed... gotta love associational algorithms :-)

If I haven't found you yet on Facebook, find me!