Tuesday's Orts

Tuesday's Orts--bits and pieces of happenings and general life that end up here occasionally.

This has nothing to to with this post but sure has lots of scrappy quilty goodness!

It has been quite a while since I had an edition of Tuesday's Orts.  But some random assorted things are pretty easily gathered nearly every day!

• I saw my doctor for an annual physical today.  I had an EKG, a chest x-ray, a shoulder x-ray, a hearing test, a vision test, went over my lab studies, and had a few moles burned off with liquid nitrogen. The EKG was normal, that was the first chest x-ray I've had in 30+ years and it was normal, the hearing test proved I can't hear very well in one ear,  the vision test proved I can't see well without my glasses, and all my labs were declared "perfect".  Sure glad insurance is paying for all this!  
• My family doc had his residency with the doc for whom I am a Scribe.  They both said to say hi to each other :)  Both have been practicing family medicine here for about 35 years.  My family doc has yet to enter the world of computers and hopes he doesn't have to as a solo practitioner. My employer doc threatens his laptop multiple times a day when he gets kicked off the program, though he does like easy access to patient records and the hospital connection--when they function as they're supposed to
• TRAFFIC RANT:  I frequently take a nearby two lane road that has farm fields on both sides.  It is narrow and there are ditches and no shoulder to speak of.  A couple of weeks ago in the morning, as I approached the signal at the intersection with the main road, I slowed down while keeping my eye on some idiot riding a bicycle on the wrong side of the road, not wearing a helmet, and surely close to being creamed by vehicles that might be turning the corner.  The signal light had turned yellow as I got close to the intersection and I stopped just as it turned red.  I had a second to glance to my left at the large dump truck waiting to cross the intersection before being startled half to death by a big pickup truck that had swerved around me into the opposing lane and run the red light, going straight through the intersection at about 50+ mph. I never even saw the pickup truck approaching.  It was scary, but even scarier later to think what my car would have looked like had the pickup truck not swerved, or if the dump truck had started moving and the truck hit it. Yellow lights mean to slow down but most people do the opposite and I guess the pickup driver expected me to do the same.
• A morning walk has been added to my routine.  I'm trying to walk every other day at the very least, only 20 minutes or so.  The other morning as I crossed a neighborhood street, a dark colored bird flying my direction caught my eye.  It had a pretty large wingspan and as it approached I eliminated eagle and crow from my guesses.  As it flew over I discovered it was a heron. 
• A few months ago while oven cooking bacon for breakfast, I noticed it seemed to be coming from a creature other than a pig:

Seahorse bacon strips!