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For the record, I do not endorse any of the products, or political advertisements (look above, I don't even know what state these people are from) that appear at the top of my page. It is funny to see what pops up, though. Todays post is below.

Berries and questions

Ahhh, Saturday in Nome. I was supposed to go hiking today, but the ranger who was scheduled to lead it had to cancel due to a family emergency. I hate not having a car. We are having a beach BBQ tonight with some of the clinic folks, so that should be a good time. Otherwise, it is overcast, and I spent a good part of the morning playing Tomb Raider.

There are berries up here. I have lived in the desert far too long, when the only appealing fruit had spines on it. While the fam was up last weekend, we did a little berry picking. They have salmon berries (which are kind of a pink, salmon if you will, colored raspberry which grows very close to the ground. Actually everything grows very close to the ground. There are no trees up here. Unfortunately all the salmon berries we picked were a little past season, and tasted quite awful. I am sure fermented berries have their place, but not in my mouth. Fortunately while on the quest, we also learned that blueberries were also ripe for the picking. We collected a fair sized container full, which is surprising since I ate every other one I picked. (One for me, one for the bucket, one for me, one for...me, one for the bucket)

So, I am supposed to go to one of the villages in this region for one of my last weeks here. I was originally scheduled to go to Shishmaref, a community of about 150 that is located on a sand bar between the ocean and Grantley Harbor. It is so precariously placed, that the sea wall is being washed away, and the town has voted to relocate some 13 miles away. As intriguing as it sounded, I was glad to be switched to Savoonga, which is one of the two towns on St. Lawrence Island (the other being Gambell). It is a little larger, but also a huge hub of history, and the walrus/ivory trade. The island has been inhabited for at least 4000 years, and the people are still primarily subsistence based (meaning they fish and hunt for all of their foods). You can also seen Russia on a clear day from the island. Crazy things happen, however, and there was a shooting (possibly accidental, 13 year old shot by a 15 year old) last week, and a homicide (wife killing husband after years of abuse) last night. This has thrown the whole village into turmoil and psychological stress. Nearly 1% of the community was directly invovled in these deaths within the past week.

This has raised a number of issues. I have met many people from Gambell and Savoonga, and they have been the friendliest people I have met since I came here. How can such nice people lead such violent lives? Is it the stress of living on the island, isolation, or just the nature of this group of people that leads to violence. In speaking with one of the other Docs I work with, he mentioned how nearly all of the violence is within the family up here. Nobody goes to the bars looking for a fight. It all happens at home. I don't know if any of you have seen the Inuvik (I think that is the appropriate group) Eskimo film Fast Runner, but the violence within that movie is quite appalling, despite the fact that it appears to be accepted within the cultural norm. Other questions revolve around the kids involved in the shooting. Will the shooter ever be able to live a normal life within this small community even if the shooting was a true accident?

I am sure we can all come up with a thousand more questions. The big question for me, is, will I still be going? Hopefully we are still scheduled to go, although they are sending other medical providers in the interrim (the community health aides are related to the people involved - as is most of the town - and are frazzled). I think that although this might not be the most pleasant time to visit, it will certainly be a true opportunity to learn.

Fish story

Sometimes medicine doesn't suck. Remember yesterday when I told you about the lady and the methotrexate? After a lot of research, and contacting several docs in Anchorage, it turns out the MTX is an all or none type of teratogen. So, if there had been any effect, the embryo should never have implanted. Given, nothing is 100 percent certain, but this was much more pleasant news to share with my patient on a return visit today. Also cool in the world of medicine was my marathon casting experience today with three arm casts and nearly a foot cast. It is really kind of fun.

So I promised a story about fishing. I have only gone a couple of times since I have been here, not keeping anything due to my dislike of salmon, but enjoying the catiching part, none the less. Dave (my "little" brother who has a job and a life and stuff) wanted to do a little fishing while he was up here, so we both got fishing licenses for the weekend, and the folks brought a couple of poles. A missing part left us with only one functional rod and reel, but it was more than sufficient. I have never seen fishing like we saw this weekend, and apparently neither had many of the local residents. The first river in which we fished was the Nome River, where David caught two pinks, and I, due to reel malfunction, caught none (despite the fact that we wound up sharing and I still had more fishing time). Thus, Champion Of The Day(COTD) for Friday went to David.

The next day we fished in the Soloman river. While we were driving down the road, nearly 30-40 feet about the river, we could see thousands of fish working their way upstream to that great spawning ground in the sky. We pulled over, and between the two of us, we caught nearly 20 fish in less than an hour. It was amazing, every other cast there was a fish on the line. We just took turns, three casts apiece. No score was kept that day due to the sheer number of fish, but I will crown myself COTD since David is not here to defend himself.

Finally, Monday, last day in Nome, we stopped at the Sinuk river, a few hours before the family's flight south. Looking down from the bridge, the fish were so thick that you couldn't have squeezed another between them. Again with our one rod and reel we cast into the depth. This time, the rule was to take turns every three fish that were caught. The rest of us would watch from the bridge as the lure ("pixies" if you were curious) sank into the writhing mass of salmon and consistently five or six fish would follow the lure as it sank, even before the one fishing started to reel. If we didn't get several strikes or a fish on each cast, it was a little disappointing. Much different from the many hours spent to catch one fish in our youth. As a family (Mom and Dad even tried) we legally caught 30 pink salmon in about an hour and a half, and snagged several more, not to mention the ones that got away. Dave and I, tied at 12 or 13 apiece traded casts to end the tie breaker. Each of us catching a fish for several more casts. Dave finally outfished me by one salmon, making him the final and overall COTD. Congratulations David! ( He's lucky I have to be nice or people won't come visit me)

Enough about fishing. Sorry about the lack of funny, but so many fish. On a final note, I don't know how many of you have gone to alaskaboy.com on accident while trying to find my site, but it is a crazy weird German computer animation site. Everything is in this strange foreign language, and there is the blond Germanic looking character who appears to have created the site. Doesn't seem to have anything to do with Alaska. Weird.

Thanks again to those four of you who have been to my site 50 times or more, the egometer passed 200 hits recently.

Musk ox and medicine

Sorry for the gap. Too much fun the past week. I will have to spread it out over a couple of days to keep the posts to a managable length.

Finally! Muskoxes (?) Muskoxen(?) Muscovites (?) ! Whatever. I finally saw some wild ones (and they are not TLFs, Kyle). Talk about prehistoric. I have seen these things in captivity, but on the wild subarctic tundra, they are a sight to behold. Driving the roads around Nome this weekend we saw four. From a distance, they look very simillar to the discarded oil drums left over from gold rush days (causing many a false sighting). Up close, they are thick and sturdy looking somewhat like a water buffalo with a hula skirt. We saw two single ones (I can't say if they were males or females, as they all seem to have horns and are not particularly shapely). The first was far down the valley below us, grazing and sleeping along a stream bed. The second was right along side the road, allowing us a great close look. The kicker, however, was the final pair. As we drove the 70 mile dirt road toward Teller (a small Inupiaq village to the west of Nome) I saw a couple off in the bushes near the stream bed. I backed our truck up to get a better look, and they burst out onto the road ahead of us. It was totally National Geographic. The first was a huge bull with a light brown mane and a massive set of horns, and the second, I assume, was a much younger, smaller male challenging for hillside dominance and the occupation of such precious turf. We watched for about fifteen minutes, amazed at our luck. A Suburban with some residents of Teller pulled up along side us to watch (and to politely tell us they had to pass on by regardless of the muskoxen) and mentioned that this was a fairly rare treat, something they only see a few times a year. Sweet. Anyway, I was releived to finally have seen the musk oxen I have sought after for the past three weeks, and glad to share the experience with my family.

In other news, the clinic has been keeping me out of trouble. On the good side, I was able to get an ultrasound on a man with chronic back pain, finding kidney stones in the process (special thanks to the nurse who was helping me think things through). He had been suffering for months and had even been to a urologist and had a CT done with no results. It was nice to solve what had been a perplexing problem.

On the bad side, I had to discuss the possibilities with a woman who had rheumatoid arthritis, had been taking methotrexate ( a highly teratogenic - mutation forming for the non medical types), and became pregnant despite birth control measures. A nice woman, a good woman, and a terrible situation. Sometimes being the provider of medicine sucks.

On a last note, the "Unbreakable" was finally broken. I got sick this past week, with some type of viral pharyngitis, for the first time in my recollection. I don't get sick. When I start to feel ill, I have been able to will it away. When others get sick, I stay strong. This startegy has carried me through three years of medical school and hadn't failed me yet. There was a running joke in class as I likend myself to Bruce Willis' character in Unbreakable, some type of super hero who didn't get sick, and was virtually unstoppable despite outwardly being a normal guy. His cryptonite was water, my only cryptonite was my knees. So disappointing, but I got better.

I'll have to write about fish and berries and more philosopical stuff tomorrow. See you then. PS- My family was with for the weekend, so any embellishing that I may do (not that I embellish any of my stories despite the comments of certain friends and relatives) will hopefully be backed up out of love.

Hope your weekend was as good as mine

So much to say, so much to say, so much to say.

No time to expand, but some teasers for the next couple of days

...Battle royale: muskoxen battle it out on the road to Teller

...50 salmon, one pole.

...Pilgrim Hot Springs and the ruins of an orphanage

...Good chinese food...in Nome!

...and countless other blatherings fround a man who likes to hear himself type.

Rob Church, Med. Stud. In the HOUSE

So. I feel a little better about my magnitude of typing after checking out The Boileryard (see the link through Uncle Brian's Rant). Talk about writing a book for each post. The comments are even several pages long.

Today was strange and interesting to say the least. The much anticipated "Disaster Drill" (which I found out about last night) was scheduled for this morning. They wouldn't tell us what was coming, but the clinic and hospital was on heighten alert. I was conveniently tricked into checking on radio traffic, making me one of the first ones in the ER when out chemically contaminated (with diesel fuel) patient with a femur fracture came into the hospital. I have participated in a few of these type of drills, but always as the mock sick/injured. Never as a care provider. Totally different point of view. The leg fracture was quickly followed by a roll over accident with five seriously injured people requiring varied degrees of care. When we divided to conquer, I was given a girl with a leg fracture and cerebral hemorrhage. Go on with your own bad medical student self! Thank God for the nurse that was there helping. It is amazing, the difference between learning for a written test, and actually performing some of the most obvious, step by step procedures in this type of situation. I was initally a little ticked that I, the med student, was roped into a greater role than I felt comfortable playing. Fortunately, I did not kill my patient, she was mocked shipped to Anchorage for trauma care, and I actually learned a little something.

To top it off, Tony Knowles, the Democratic candidate for Senate from Alaska happened to stop by and visit us in the ER while this was happening. He was the Mayor of Anchorage when I was growing up, Governor for several years, and is now running against the current Governor's daughter for the Senate position. If you thought Arizona politics were weird... Senator Murkowski, who has been senator for decades, decided he wanted a change, and ran for govenor after Tony Knowles retired. He won, and as governor, was given the duty to pick the successor for his vacated Senate position. He dug through the rank and file of Republicans across the state, examines those select few with the ability to lead, and chose... his own daughter. Needless to say there are a few that thought this a little sketchy and the race is on. I have been ignorant about the deeper subject matter of Alaskan politics, but thought this tidbit would be interesting.

Enough politics. I got to teach someone how to put staples in a drunk guy's head today. Sadly I have done this a number of times.

Enjoy your weekend. My folks and brother will be visiting, so the posts will be brief if anything. thanks for all of your comments thus far. If you haven't read any of them, most are more entertaining than my own writings. Again, note the visitor counter approaching the century mark. Cool.

As close to brief as I get

Todays issue is dedicated to a semblance of brevity, as I learn my own wife is not reading my blog due to the biblical proportions of my last couple of writings.

Stitiches. Today I got to put stitches in the cheek of a 12 year old. Cool. I have mad stitching skills if anyone needs help. I haven't had to sew anything up since my OB/Gyn rotation several months ago, so there was more than a little trepidation going in. Not to mention there was no one supervising and the kid's mom was watching over my shoulder. Fortunately it was a clean cut, and five interrupted stitches later it actually looked like I knew what I was doing. Who's next?

Can I say enough about the friendliness of a small town. The weather has been beautiful here, so I took a bike ride around town for an hour or so. In that time I saw three people I know, and was waved at by no less than four total strangers. The kids even sell lemonade here still. Given, it is a dollar for a cup (that comes with a free cookie), but a dollar is chump change around here. I paid $11 for a twelve inch combo meal at Subway the other night.

'Nuff said for today. Please note that the link to Brian's blog (all that good angry/political stuff I promised a couple of weeks ago) is actually working now. My apologies about it being down. I am but a simple caveman, and your modern blogging ways are strange and frightening. Also please note the new visitor counter, reaching new heights daily. Thanks for your patronage.

Flights of Fancy and Sausage Poisoning

Started in pain today. That ride yesterday that was supposed to loosen up my legs made them almost immobile. Ahhh, exercise feels great. The past three years of being kept like veal in medical school have definitely caught up to me. Atleast I am tender and tasty.

This is one of those medical-talkin' posts. Arriving at work this morning (after doing my Air Attack routine - note that the ads at the top of the page have scanned my writings and changed from Nome advertisements to jump shoe ads) I picked up the favorite patient of all general practioners, the woman and her child who each came in three times in the past four days. Both, excrutiatingly healthy. Both with no new diagnosis today. A Cox-2 inhibitor and a scheduled barium swallow to fule out the remainder of any illness that may have befallen either one of them. It took me nearly two hours to get everything arranged and squared away. As I finished my paperwork, a call came over the radio that there was a four wheeler accident in Elim, a small village to the east accessible only by plane down the coast. Head injury, seizures, and bleeding out of multiple orafices. This happens a lot around here, but it is still an emergency, and a plane was dispatched almost immediately. Within about 5 minutes, another call came in from Teller, a village to the west of us, about a through and through gunshot wound to the chest, lack of breath sounds on the left, palpable blood pressure of 70 and respirations of 30. Not a good picture. We only have two flight medics currently so they had to split the cases, and another plane had to be found. They also needed a couple of extra medical personel, and "warm body at the right time" got to go to Teller. We had to wait a few minutes for another plane to come in , but a twin engine Navajo was outfitted for medicvac and we were off. Not to diminish the plight of the injured (she is okay) but the flight was beautiful. Flying up the coast, over the second highest peak on the Seward Peninsula (3800 ft), and landing on the dirt airstrip of this small town was spectacular. We arrived and the patient was in the community health center, fortunately much more responsive and in much less danger than we had been led to believe by the radio transmission. We made certain she was stabilized and flew her back to Nome, for evaluation and refueling if she had to be taken to Anchorage. The happy ending was that the bullet, entering in her left chest, missed lung, heart, major vessels, major nerves, and any bony structures, exiting between her scapula and head of the humorus all in soft tissue. A very fortunate young woman, and an exciting day out of clinic. I hope to experience a couple more medivac trips before my time is up.

Now, I promised you sausage poisoning. So, botulism is a big thing up here. Why? You may ask. Well let me tell you, with a little history thrown in. Botulism, or sausage poisoning as it was originally termed, was first seriously studied following an outbreak in Wildbad, Germany in 1793. The outbreak involved 13 people of whom 6 died, and was associated with locally produced blood sausage. Shortly thereafter, the illness became know as "botulism" after "botulus" the latin word for sausage. I won't go into all the toxin details, but the clinical signs are nausea, diarrhea, vomitting, abdominal pain, ileus, urinary retention, dry mouth, blurry vision, diplopia, unreactive pupils, muscle paralysis, fatigue, and dyspnea. For those non-medical types, basically a lot of intestinal and respiratory disturbances and paralysis. Bad news.

So why is it so prevalent up in Northern Alaska? All cases in Alaska (over 200 over the past 50 years, way more than the Lower 48 states combined) have been in association with the preparation and storage of traditional Alaska Native foods. This includes "fermented" foods (lutefisk anyone?) and foods prepared in seal oil. Whale and seal are the most frequently involved foods. As described by Nelson, an ethnographer is 1971, "Meat is frequently kept for a considerable length of time until it becomes semiputrid. At Point Barrow, in the middle of August 1881, the people still had the carcasses of deer which had been killed the previous winter and spring. the meat was kept in small underground pits, which the frozen subsoil rendered cold, but not cold enough to prevent the bluish fungus growth which completely covered the carcasses of the animals and the walls of the storerooms."

There are foods such as "stink eggs" and "stink heads" which are fermented salmon eggs and heads, respectively, which are prepared by placing in underground pits, or inplastic lined barrels above ground. There are decayed until even the bones have become the same general consistency as the flesh, and then kneaded into a pasty compound and eaten as a favorite dish by some people.. Salmon eggs are also left to dry out in a manner which they found a "cheese" which is firm on the outside and soft in the center. There have been increasing numbers of cases due to people speeding up the fermentation process in glass jars or plastic bags, and higher than normal temperatures. This has allowed the toxins produced by C. botulinum to replicate at a maximum efficiency.

There. Lesson learned. If you could see the picture of putrified whale flesh that I am looking at, you would be even more grossed out by this section. I hope you have learned something, and thanks to "Botulism in Alaska" a pamplet produced by the State of Alaska, from which I stole most of the last couple of paragraphs directly.

Today's latin: botulus = sausage

Enjoy

I might actually lose some weight if I keep this up

So, I spoke too soon on how awesome soccer is. I did enjoy it thoroughly (thanks for the bony elbow tip, Marsha) but I also managed to nearly cripple myself. After I got up from yesterday's post, I could hardly walk back to my apartment. I decided to work it out with a 30 mile ride this morning. I think I am still quite crippled, but at least my legs seem to bend for now. The ride...awesome (note my lack of a thesaurus..and spell check). I didn't see any wildlife, but passed a lot of old mining ruins, and rode quite a ways down the west coast, into the foothills. The views and the sheer magnitude of some of the wide, sloping valleys I rode past were worth the hobbling. After arriving back in town, there was a note on my door that a couple of coworkers had gone fishing, so I just continued my ride down the east costal rode and joined them.

I know I spoke at some length about the fish yesterday, so will skip the mushy stuff, but they were thick again today. One of my coworkers had never been fishing, but caught three while I was visiting. I picked up a pole periodically when they were taking a break, and managed to catch and release five, myself. I wish I liked salmon, but and glad I didn't have to clean them. I will save up my freezer space for the silver salmon, which should be arriving in the next couple of weeks, and maybe throw a couple on the barbeque for everyone when I get back.

Nome was a popular place today. Crawling with tourists everywhere. There is apparently a small (114 person) cruise ship in town that goes through coastal Arctic Alaska, over to Russia, down to the Aleutian Islands, Dutch Harbor, Kodiak, and eventually back to Anchorage. Although everyone I saw was well into their retired years, it would be a very interesting way to see a pretty remote part of the world. There was also a Coast Guard ship in town, protecting the coast from...? I am not sure if Alaska would be a good location to be in the Coast Guard. I guess you would get to do a lot of rescues, but the high speed boat chases after drug runners are probably a rare treat around here.

Finally, I was going to talk about sausage poisoning, but forgot my notes, so will have to save that for another day. Instead, I will mention how I was watching ESPN 8 (The Ocho) last night and saw a frisbee dog competition. The whole deal just involved throwing the disk as far as you can, and the dog catching it. No fancy flips, no obedience commmands, no pedigree necessary, simple as a sport should be. Anyway, these dogs were catching disks at a distance of 130-180 feet. Now I know that I can throw that far, and I know that Maggie will catch just about anything I put up in the air for her. Anyone know how we can get entered into something like this?

Tomorrow: Sausage Poisoning

Of children, fishing and soccer

Is it wrong to want kids simply so I can teach them to fish? I rode out to the Nome River last night, where the pink salmon ("humpys" as they are called in Alaska) are coming in thick. The water actually seemed as if it were boiling, there were so many fish, and the newspaper showed an aerial photo of a local river, showing the schools of fish from 500 ft in the air! Now, I'm not much of a salmon eater. Maybe it was too much as a teenager, when I fished all summer long, or maybe it is because I know there are better things, such as ham. Anyway, although my tastes are not for the piscine species (except halibut, I love halibut) fishing it much like gambling. The thrill of expectancy, waiting for that next cast to be picked up by a passing salmon, and then the hope you can get it back to the shore or boat without you line breaking. The next cast is always the one that will bring in the "Big One".

So, back to the children. On one side of the river there was a group of young Nomites (that's what they call themselves 'round here)actually swimming in the river, splashing each other and taking turns throwing each other in, on this balmy 60 degree evening. On the other, there was a family, Dad, Mom, two young boys (6ish) and an even younger girl, getting in touch with their hunter-gatherer selves. Dad had caught 4-5 salmon in the 45 minutes they had been there, and all the little one were doing the best they could, lucky if the lure hit the water with each cast. For the littlest, Mom would cast the pixie into the river and let the girl real it in. Remarkably, and much to the annoyance of her older brothers, she kept hooking fish. She would fight them best she could, with parental guidance, of course, and then the line would break as she got within a couple of feet of the bank. This would then lead to the speculation that the fish must have been huge, in order to snap the line like that. Perhaps it wasn't a humpy, but a KING salmon (or a "queen" salmon suggested by the girl)! How else could you explain the fight and strength of this magnitude! That being said, I could have sat and watched these kids fish all day long. I'm not one for sappy notes and poignant moments, but picture if you will, one tear rolling quietly down my cheek with the joy of children. (The tear thing didn't really happen but the kids fishing thing was cool none-the-less.)

Following my ride and fishing experience, I returned to town to play indoor soccer with a group of folks who play every Friday night. Now, I haven't played soccer for more than ten years. As the four of you who read this blog know, I have had a myriad of knee problems and recent surgery, and soccer hasn't really been a knee friendly sport. But here in Nome, there are not too many alternatives for exercise and social outlet. So I played. I sweat until I had no more to sweat. I felt as if my lungs would explode. I wore most of the skin off of my feet. I scored two goals. I was hit in the face with a soccer ball. And I had one of the best times I have had in a long time. It was exillerating to not play as poorly as I thought I would play, and to actually have some coordination. I fought for the ball, I kicked well with BOTH feet, used my elbows when I had to. The endorphin high upon leaving kept me up for hours and I slept terribly last night because I was so sore. It was great! Needless to say, I will be playing on Fridays for the rest of my stay here. I even may have drafted some folks to play Ultimate. Once again, to my Tucson friends, beware of my mad skills upon my return. Between soccer and Air Attack (maybe I will get sponsored by Nike, Arthur, don't think I couldn't sense the sarcasm in your post) I will be a force with which will need to be reckoned when I am returning thus, yeah.

So today's lessons,:
children: Good
fishing: Good
soccer: Awesome
grammar and spelling: Poor to middlin'
fire: Bad

Movie anyone?

Has anyone seen Freddy vs. Jason? I am thining about renting it tonight. Yes, it has come to that.

Today, he rambles on and on and....

Rode a killer two hour ride yesterday in search for the ever elusive Musk Ox of the Snake River Valley. Once again no luck, but an hour and 20 minutes of up hill riding followed but 40 minutes down. This is such a beautiful place, and I am so glad I brought my bike. I think what topped it off was all the jumping at the top of the pass. Thanks to Arthur, my Canadian friend, I have started the Air Attack jumping program to improve my overall leap. What overall leap? You may ask. Exactly. ( Oh, the dilemma of punctuating that last couple of sentences.) I am well known for my strong sense of gravity while playing Ultimate, but hope to come back a new man. If you have never tried jumping staight up 60 times in a row, you are missing some pain in life. I can't jump at home as it shakes the foundations of the apartment in which I live, so I have found quite a number of scenic and secluded locations to practice my exercises. Fortunately the ride back was downhill, but I am paying for it today.

Needless to say, I have a lot more time on my hands than I am used to.

The people here are great. I have never spent much time in a small town, but I never expected the level of friendliness that I have experienced from total strangers here. Even small children talk to total strangers. Case in point, while I was out running this afternoon, a young boy with a kitten and a bicycle (with a chain that had fallen off) stopped me on the street to ask if I could help walk his bike home since the kitten was all he could handle. I obliged, and even ran into people I know on the way. I felt like such a boy scout, but it gave me an excuse to stop running.

What Nome needs is an artist who makes cool stuff out of junk. I have never seen a place with so much used steel and machine parts. There are literally tons of it left over from the dredging and gold mining heyday (is that one word? Did I spell it correctly?) of Nome and the surrounding area. There is so much junk that it appears to have become ritual to make your yard fit in as well. I have seen exactly three houses that actually have no broken toys/scrap metal/rust snow machine/fourth of july parade floats in their front yard. Perhaps it is because the classic mining era part of Nome burned down in the 1930s and people are expecting it to happen again, so why bother? Maybe this is just left over from the last fire. Anyway, I hear Nome is much prettier in the winter when it is dark, and the snow covers everyone's crap.

Speaking of fire, a historical note. Front Street is the main drag here in town. A fire consumed it (as mentioned above) around 1936. So what did they do? The widened Front Street to about the width of a four lane divided highway. This in an effort to keep the future burning buildings from catching each other on fire. Oddly, this only lasts for a matter of blooks as the road returns to it's 1-2 lane natural self at either end. Ahhh, necessity the mother of invention.

Finally, while I am ranting (ooh, just like Brian and Kyle, and Arthur if he ever gets me his blog address), there are no size nine shoes in Nome, Alaska. Okay, I lie. There is one pair of Reebok Above the Rim Black shiny basketball shoes for me to choose between. Should have thought ahead.

(I see dead people)

I spent a good part of the afternoon at the cemetary. Absolutely remarkable. Many of the graves were dated back to the goldrush of 1899, and there were hundreds of head stones. I guess "head stones" is somewhat of a misnomer around here, as they were all made out of wood. I guess the market is ripe for someone who wants to get into the headstone carving business, because it costs too much to ship them up here. Everything is based on weight. I saw a 2.5 gallon of Sprkletts water in the store yesterday for $12.99! Thirteen dollars for water that comes cold and clear from the tap. Ahhh, sweet capitalism.

But again, I digress. The cemetary was fascinating. Crosses bearing the name of the last Chief of King Island, prospectors, Alaska Natives, and even a few new sites. An interesting note is that all of the new sites were raised 1-2 feet above the ground. I know it is difficult to dig through the permafrost up here, and in some Alaska Native cultures people are actually buried in little houses set above the ground (Google "Eklutna Cemetary" until I figure out the links issues of this thing). What I am wondering, however, is why are the older graves are ground level or below? Does the ground actually settle 3-4 feet after a person is buried?

Another bonus of the cemetary was the presence of the Nome International Airport (not really international, the flights to Russia go through Kotzebue) flight path directly over head. A great opportunity to see large planes very close. Not quite Pushing Tin close, but still cool. I took lots of pictures. Perhaps someday you will see them.

Barbershop 2 - Back in Business

Forgot to mention I watched this movie this weekend. As good as the original Barbershop, okay, maybe not as good, but entertaining none the less. That Cedric the Entertainer gets me every time. House Party was on that smae night, but I missed it. Make note: The pajama jammy jam will occur in Tucson upon my return (using "upon" makes me sound almost regal, doesn't it?). In this time of global instability, where are Kid-n-Play when we need them?

Nome sweet Nome

A full week and more here, and I am finally getting used to the pace of things. As many of you know, I can't slow down very well, but I have managed to limit myself to only reading three books at a time (two more books than I have read in the past year) in my evenings off. It is very strange to have actual time off without a test to study for. I find myself actually studying to understand medicine as opposed to memorizing a group of disjointed facts. Novel thought.

Another novelty was the existance of a completely work free weekend. I honestly cannot tell you the last time I had a weekend off. I was able to make outings both days and see a little of the countryside. Saturday was a hike to Dorothy Falls with the National Park Service crew and Sunday was a drive up Glacier Creek road into the heart of some of Nome's historic mining district. The wildlife count was a little disappointing. Still no musk ox. We did see two moose on saturday, a ptarmagin (grouse type bird) and a reindeer on Sunday. I was excited about the reindeer as I thought it was a caribou (both inhabit the region, the difference being the former is domesticated and the latter is wild...both are tasty). The reindeer, a semifamous Nome resident, named Velvet was going on a walk with her owners and canine companion. The reindeer has been a part of a local family since she was a calf, and actually rides in the back of their truck like a dog (this was observed later in the day when I rode past the grocery store and there was a beat up toyota with a reindeer and a spaniel of some sort in the back (I almost typed "Spaniard" that would have been even more entertaining...crazy Spaniards). To make the weekend even better, I attended a lecture on the "Biting Flies of Beringia" by two scientists who travelled the artic lands looking for mosquitos, horse flies, and black flies. To those of my friends who fall into the scientist genre...kudos for picking bugs you can study in Arizona.

Enough for now. I had some clever things to say, but work has sapped them out of my brain for the time being. I hope all are well, and feel free to comment, let me know how you are doing, and give me feed back on the site.

Musk ox!

Anyone know how I set up a links section?

Last one here, turn out the lights

Good grief! Why am I the last one to leave the clinic every night? There are only 4500 people in this town. Why are there so many people coming to the doctor? Is it my rugged good looks? My charm and wit? A chance for sparkling converstion with an outsider? One can only guess. This is not my beautiful, relaxing Alaskan vacation, but somehow I am actually having a good time anyway, and now I actually have the weekend off. I even received a thank you note from one of my pediatric patients this morning (note: a lone, silent tear slowly rolls down my cheek). My autonomy is a little frightening at times, as I was the only medical type person in clinic yesterday morning. Thankfully we only had a couple of patients, but I did get to use needles and poke at a wound. I am learning by distinct necessity, so should come out of this much stronger, if not more rested.

More on Nome. I have been spending a lot of time on my bike since I have no other means of transportation, and combining it with hikes and romantic, albeit solo, walks down the beach. I rode to and climbed a hill called Anvil Mountail the other day, only to find a road climbing up the other side. I am told there are musk oxen nearby and will publish a picture as soon as I figure out how. I also rode to one of the nearby beaches and ran a mile or two past driftwood, shacks, goldminers, and one attacking killdeer (ocean bird for those who aren't in the know - it flew 1 foot above my head screaming at me for nearly 5 minutes) all the way down to a gold dredge. Insert picture here (again if only I knew how to work this thing). These are behemouth floating machines that dig up gravel, make their own lakes, and sift through the gravel for gold. It is basically a 200 ton version of a sluicebox. Pretty cool. I didn't find any gold. Then I had to run all the way back. Did I mention it is very cold up here? the end.

For my only note regarding current events ( aside from mentioning that I think John Edwards was a smart pick for Kerry) I saw the Continuing adventures of Riddick, or something like that the other night. We actually have a decent small movie theatre (that's for you my Canadian friends) in town, and my only other option was the Garfield movie. I have to admit, it was a decent scifi movie, one of the better ones I have seen in some time. Vin Diesel aside, the plot was interesting and the effects pretty cool. It reminded me a little of Stargate, but with Vin Diesel and less androgeny.

Did I mention how excited I was about the weekend. I am going on a National Park Service led hike tomorrow, and will take a long bike ride to find musk oxen (see picture I didn't know how to insert mentioned above) on Sunday. Barring a sound trampling, I will report on those adventures soon. I also hope to get some fishing in while I am here. Subsistence fishing/hunting is very common up here. I had a patient tell me her family needed 1300 fish, two caribou, and a musk ox (again, no picture) to last the through the winter. I purchased some fish from the docks yesterday in addition to some King Crab legs. These things are at least 18 inches long. The special is live king crab, and I have no idea how they fit those things into a pot. Any ideas?

Finally please not the addition of Brian and Kyle's angry/philosophical/multimedia type blogs in the new links session (assuming I figure that out after this post). Arkybadarky.

Blah, blah, blah

Just to fill you in on the details, I will omit some o the funny (although there is a lot that is inadvertantly funny hereabouts). I arrived Sunday, July 4 following a two day airplane ride via Seattle, Anchorage, and Kotzebue. Got to visit the folks in Anchorage overnight and received a bounty of banana bread nd cream of wheat. Little did I know that I would be living off of these items due to the great expense of food here and my absolute inability to cook for myself. I like to think of myself as fairly independent, but with all my time devoted to school this past couple of years, I neglected to realize that I no longer know how to function normally in the world. I am fairly certain that I can wash my own clothes, but cooking, and actually choosing food from the grocery store is nearly beyond me. I fear my social skills have also faltered but I had few to start with, so perhaps no one will notice.

I digress. Upon arrival, it was a balmy 55 degrees and miracula ously all my stuff ( and it is all just stuff) made it with me. Sorry Kyle, but your bike box has seen better days. I caught a ride on the van which was the version of a local cab, my fears of not being able to fit all of my stuff abated (as all the other people in the van had nearly as much as I). My one bedroom apartment, plush by the trappings of Nome has a kitchen and a washer/dryer, and no out house. Historic downtown, end of the Iditarod Trail, is within walking distance (as is the rest of town), and everything is within a short bike ride. My neighbors actually have a dogsled in their front yard, as do many of the folks around here. However, the vehicle of choice is a four wheeler this time of year.

My arrival was just in time for the July 4 festivities, which included running and bicycle sprint contests for age groups ranging from toddlers to 60 year olds (ever seen 3 60 year olds race mountain bikes 100 yards down a muddy, wet street? I hated being a medical type person at that moment.) to a East Side verses West Side tug o' war. This was all topped off by an honest to God, pie eating contest. God Bless America. Being something of a city boy, myself, I thought much of this type of celebration only happened in old movies and that town owned by Disneyworld (Celebration, USA?). It was a good time for all and an appropriate indroduction to the town.

More on this subject later. Sorry I don't have anything that I am angry about or philosophical to say, but I am sure this will be something of a break from those blogs that revel in those topics. Please see my links if you are interested. Also if you, my friends are those people I know with blogs, send me your blog addresses so I can add them to the list. I am going to buy some fish (Special of the the day: Live Alaskan King Crab)

Brief Overview of Nome

While I am inbetween patients, here are a few factoids. More later this evening.

Population: 4500
Miles of Road: 250 (three total roads)
Industry: Not quite sure. Looks like gold mining and riding 4 wheelers, maybe dog sledding
Weather: 50 degrees today, half of what it was in Tucson upon leaving
Cost of a gallon of Milk: $6.55
Cost of a meal at subway-6" sub, chips, drink (one of the 5 restraunts in town): $9.28

Too much to pack

On my way to Nome tomorrow. A couple of friends thought this would be entertaining, and thus having the time on my hands (did I mention I was going to NOME), I thought I would start writing again. Once I figure out how this whole blog thing works there will be more posts (or is it poasts) from me.