Bigger or Better: Life outside of Texas

I've learned a couple of things about the hospital where I work, and so many things about it are making me smile. :) As a state employee, I get discounts on hotels in Texas. At first glance, it seems rather weird to stay in a hotel in your home state. Well, it's a big place. It takes a day or two to drive across it, so a hotel discount is useful. But still, I smile. :) The hospital has several centers around the world, so their 'locations' webpage lists the other sites and organizes them logically--'Regional,' 'Outside of Texas,' and 'International.' This makes me smile the most. Most of the rest of the world would assume "regional" referred to several states, and that "national" would be a better term for 'outside of Texas.' Maybe so. I think it's endearing. :) In a presentation, one of the trainers said, "...route [ ˈ ra u̇ t ] or rout e   [ ˈ rüt, ], depending on what part of Texas you are from." I

Well, there goes another appliance. Our refrigerator broke. Hopefully not permanently--I don't know, I'm not a maintenance man. But I'm pretty certain something's wrong--there's a puddle of water underneath the freezer, and the milk in my cereal was lukewarm. Until the repairman comes, we are using a cooler. At first I could imagine that we were camping, but we still have a/c and plumbing, so the illusion doesn't quite fit. But I think I've got it now--it's like we are in the 1920s. "Could you put milk on the table?" "Oh, sure, let me go to the ice box"  I think it's a perfect illusion--we even have to buy ice everyday to keep the 'ice chest' cold. Now where is the milk man?

So many interesting things have happened these past couple of weeks. Which means so many opportunities to blog! Today I volunteered with the American Red Cross. This is pretty much the only image for this post. I didn't take any pictures Drought conditions have really left the state vulnerable to fire. The chapter I'm in normally responds to 2 apartment/house fires a day, and now we have so many wildfires to respond to as well. [plug for the American Red Cross: volunteer! or donate! or both!] So today I helped load up some trucks with supplies for people affected by these fires, and then we drove them out to a stricken area and drove along the streets looking for people. We had three teams going: one for mental health services to help victims cope, one for medical health services to treat victims/distribute first aid kits, and one for bulk distribution (the team I was on) to give shovels/rakes/buckets/clorox/trash bags/dust masks/water to those cleaning up. [Imagine p

I got downtown today and discovered that my breakfast (a peach) and my morning reading (the Bible) got a little cozy in my bag. The hardcover edge of my Bible cut into one of the softer spots of the peach, which got peach juice on the outer page edges of Genesis through 1 Kings. This provides a great opportunity for some puns. The word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing asunder the flesh from the pit We should feast upon the word of God Man should not live on [fruit] alone, but by every word from the mouth of God The word of God is peachy? Okay, that's all I dare do without risking blasphemy. I may need a new Bible. I cleaned up what I could, but the juice stain now looks like dried blood, which makes my Bible way more symbolic, but perhaps not the best presentation.

This haiku popped into my head on seeing so many gecko-like things huddled in the light fixture. On the ceiling Night lizards gather soaking up the hot porch light a reptile high

I intended to post on my labor day weekend trip. It turns out the trip home was much more exciting than the trip itself. Texas, as I mentioned, is in a drought. A lot of flora in central Texas is dead, and a lot more are dead now because a HUGE wildfire is sweeping the area, which happened to be on our route home. Fortunately for us, we were detoured, but that led us by several fire areas. helicopter for evacuation, maybe? The good news: all of these fires decrease the humidity!!! ...WATER Switching to happier note: my attempts at wakeboarding! i spent a lot of time IN the water instead of ON the water small victory: got up for maybe 30 seconds!