Saturday, October 16, 2010

Aberdeen update

Hey guys, it's Jason again.  I thought you guys might appreciate a little more info to flesh out what my work is like up here.  If not, at least it's good to have in this blog so we can have it for posterity!

Our pediatrics office is in a big physician place (doctor mall to some people) only a block from the hospital and as mentioned before, there is a tunnel underground that connects it to the hospital for when it gets snowy or below zero or worse.  It is dated but nice with cute paintings on the walls in rooms and lots of bright patient rooms.  Since we've been here (only 4 months or so), there has been surprising turnover on all fronts.  Two doctors have left, two new doctors have started.  One of the mainstay nurses has left because of schedule and family issues (we really miss her!) and one is about to start new in her place.  The other mainstay nurse is going to part-time at the end of this month.  The receptionist who was amazing, funny, and maybe too organized has left for a better job and a new one is getting trained right now.  At some point next week, there will be a situation where I am the most senior Pediatrician in the hospital and Amanda is the most experienced Peds Nurse in the office...wow.  Below is a picture of the two amazing nurses that have taught me the ropes and kept the place running:
Angie is on the left and Carla on the right.  Both are fantastically spunky and good at their jobs.  Carla cracks me up since she spends tons of time saying how she doesn't understand computers and when things go wrong she says "holy buckets!"

The next thing about my assignment here that hasn't gotten enough love is my rental car situation.  Because of some confusion with my first assignment, my agent thought I didn't need a car since we had Amanda's.  I quickly let him know that even when not working, my wife is not some homebody who will just sit around and wait for me to come back at night with the car...she has to work herself and generally needs to boogie around and take care of business!  So, they couldn't approve a rental care (about 45 bucks a day here in this small town with only about 20 rental cars) but they got me a rental car for the days I work.  I'm now on rental number 4 and luckily it is the same one as number 2 which I liked.  It's a big thing with Amanda to name cars with her past Kitty hawk and current Lexus Stella.  We named my old car at home Rufus and decided any car up here will be Earnest.  So, the first car which you saw a picture of (a red Ford Fusion) was Earnest 1 and each subsequent one has been Earnest #X.  Below are some examples to paint the picture:


The top car is Earnest 3, a Pontiac Grand Am that was very plasticy inside and rattled and I can't imagine why people buy them.  On the other hand, the bottom car is Earnest 2 / 4 (I had him 2nd and 4th same car), a brand new Chrysler Sebring which is a stripped model but surprisingly solid and with a smooth engine.  I've never driven a Chrysler before, and probably won't again unless it's another rental, but this car is actually pretty nice and I can see why someone might buy it.

Oh well, that's my update.  Things are overall pretty good here.  The temperature is starting to fall even though people say this is an unseasonably warm, nice fall.  Today the high is 58 and low 28.  Apparently we should be happy there is no snow!  I work about 10 more days, with tons of call in that stretch because the other two doctors are out of town taking their board exams so please keep my sanity in your thoughts/prayers.  Amanda has about 7 more days so also be thinking of her as we finish with a bang before heading back to B'ham at the end of the month.  Talk to you all again soon.

Jason

No comments:

Post a Comment