One day
One day, newsworthy, photo worthy? TMI? Will it fit in one post? Have I lost my way? … or purpose. It’s pictures, right? Backstory!
The prodigal son arrived. … favorite son. Well, mine. (Colleen has one too.) Gifts you got that were white elephants? We all got some – one or more – for Xmas. (Shhh… no names please.) Chuckle, ha ha. It snowed! The weatherman was right – on this very rare occasion. (It was merely 60 degrees the evening before!) A clean house – for the visitor? Nah! Sort of, kind of, well, just one project going on…. Snow?! Do you believe how it accumulated? Have a jolly, holly …. Sheep? Insidiously, they snuck into the house to perch on the cross beam of our barn loom. Oh boy! Distortion? Wide-angle distortion? (Oh no! Lessons?!) Nope. Ray is just to large for the basket he has “squoze” into. Yes!! “Squoze” is a word. Honest! And the other (cat)? It ain’t easy to weave with a cat in amonst the middle of everything. Shhh… goofy gifts came from Colleen’s family. Mine (family) already knows there is nothing you can get for me (I already got everything, including Colleen).
Perfect
The quest for the perfect gift is serendipitous at best. You would never guess and can never quite guess what will be a hit. Certainly, capturing the moment of surprise and joy is just as fraught. Sometimes a moment passes too quickly to capture. And, sometimes, you catch the moment perfectly. Certainly, the joy is apparent. It makes me smile as I edit. Have you seen the new plant based food? There is something disingenuous in making fake meat. Either you eat meat or you give it up for … broccoli. You simply can’t have it both ways. ??? So, fake bacon? It was enough to make me an instant vegetarian! The moment? Everyone had their phones out. I reached for my camera/flash. One shot. That was it. One chance. Perfect.
External hard drive
I could use an alternate brain. It’s simply amazing the number of things I have forgotten. I don’t throw things away. I simply put them away… in places… and then promptly forget until… here’s an example. Back in 2007 Carol gave me a gift that I kept safe and never used. I found the card, box, and all, the other day. We are still in touch, so I thanked her again. … yup! It’s back in the box. I’ll find it in another ten years… and thank her once again.
Random acts of kindness
I was on the hunt for a hard drive that held missing image files from 2007. Right?! Things disappear. Certainly, memory fades. I am always appreciative that computer memory is forever. GIGO – garbage in garbage out and all that. And, hard drives fail – always. But, until they go bad, what’s stored is there. My memory decays and degrades and I forget. I wonder what the memory of the human brain…. 2.5 million gigabytes.
Which brings me to – stored in a random storage bin: surgical telescope? I never called them that. “Loops.” It was magnifying lens through which you operated with a magnified surgical field. So, it was binocular magnified vision that was soon supplanted the operating microscope. They were popular just before the microscope took over neurosurgery as the go-to instrument. Dr. Fred Epstein, my pediatric neurosurgery mentor bought every resident a pair. It was his kind gift to us all. I just want to remember his kindness and remember him today as I look at the glasses I hardly used. They were a significant expense and much appreciated. When I graduated the program Fred also gave me the latest (at that time) six volume set of Youman’s second edition (now 6th). He was a brilliant surgeon, teacher, and mentor. In my own career I never forgot his kindness and often I gave back in small ways to people who worked and trained under me.
Two stores, three vendors, two minds
So, we were tasked with three white elephant birthday gifts: two guys and one lady. Off we went on a scavenger hunt. Antique stores. Why not? I found a reticulated plate. Okay! One down. Next, I found a reticulated (different) plate. Okay! Two! In between we found a whole of other things not quite suitable, but in the running. Colleen was after a teapot. ??? Okay? She found one finally. Nice! She liked the teapot. So, it was off the gift list; it was a keeper. Okay! But when we put all these things together – they matched. Really! Nah! Ha! Matched! Who’d have thunk it! What were/are the odds? Pretty slim. Neat, sometimes, things just come together. Related? Yes, they are all labeled Germany and have the same print pattern and reticulation. Imagine our surprise? I sure was!
Xmas in June
Truthfully, we got these gifts right after Xmas. Sale! It will fit in December. Smart? The stuffed animal is hideous, as in ugly. That’s exactly why I got it. Jules had so many stuffed animals as a child, she finally said, enough! And I got her one more….yup, the ugliest stuffed animal ever. Noa should have one too. Don’t you think?
Humor
I’ve been accused of a dry sense of humor. Dry? I attended a black tie optional wedding and wore a black tie – it was dotted with brains embroidered upon it. No one noticed. No one looks at the man as long as he seems to blend in. The wedding couple were both surgeons still in residency. We gave them a cutting board. Careful, the knife’s sharp! I wonder if they will get it? And in keeping with the season…a headless doll seen at the antique store…. afterall I’m a brain surgeon. Last? This basket was displayed too high to read the price. Snap a picture, read the price. It might do to catch my head after this post.
Roses
Are you tired of flowers? This set were sent from a florist. There’s a story. Ha! A patient’s family sent them to the office. I had the brilliant notion to invite two families to dinner the previous Saturday. That would be dinner for twelve. I had offered to cook. Yup! I was gonna do it. And then the call came. I had an emergency operation – an acoustic neuroma. They are tricky delicate operations that required the operating microscope and long hours of careful dissection around the nerve and brainstem. Yup, tricky and delicate. I’d draw out this story but long about dinnertime – say about 5PM – I had my operating room nurse call home and inform my wife I’d be a bit longer – say several more hours. Needless to say, my wife had already made Plan B. Everyone went out instead. I finished up around 8PM and could probably have made it to the restaurant. But I chickened out and had dinner nearby with my PA (assistant).
We’re almost at the punchline. After the surgery an anxious family heard the story of the harrowing operation in which we saved their loved one and preserved brain function so that the young man could live on for many more years. I also told them the story of the aborted dinner. The next Tuesday, these enormous roses arrived during my office hours. I would have difficulty explaining how large they were (bigger than my fist – that would be a 7 ½ size surgical glove). I can only say they were the largest blooms I have ever seen. Ok, I’m a guy. What do you do? Take ‘em home to your wife and apologize for messing up dinner the previous weekend. Right! I didn’t tell her the roses were from the family. I told her I’d gotten them (I left out the “how”) and brought them home. The story and apology would’ve worked except that the nurses ratted me out at the Christmas party nine months later. Nurses! They have a long memory. Be nice to them.
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