Transitions, Continued

We are packed. I've been reading Connecticut newspapers even though I haven't quite found one I like. There's a house waiting for us in New Haven, and my wife and I are debating the merits of being called Yalies or Yaliens. She prefers the latter. We're squeezing as much as we can out of the nascent Seattle summer. Two recent activities we recommend are hiking at Ingalls Creek (on US Highway 97 between Bluett Pass and Leavenworth) and an afternoon canoeing through the Washington State Arboretum on a boat rented from the UW WAC.

Today's looking like another beautiful day.

Urban Phantom

The Urban Phantom has been relocated.

The black bear that seen earlier this week in Seattle was found yesterday in Everett, WA, just 30 miles north of where is was first sited. The bear turned up in another urban area, so wildlife officials tranquilized him and transported him out of the urban area. Hopefully for him, the adolescent male was dropped off along Highway 2 in an area that is not already claimed by an older, stronger bear. In the end, I'm happy the animal did not meet the same demise that the poor creature found in the University District three years ago.

According to wildlife officials, at no point were humans at risk from the bear; they claim that the bear was more at risk from cars or from dumpster diving. Evidently, human food doesn't do much good for bears. It probably doesn't do best for humans either!

Final Day

Today's my last day in clinic or hospital. At least of medical school. How will my wife and I celebrate? By packing, of course. But school is not quite over. After two days off next week, we teach second years procedures for a few days and then have a week of a summary course called "Capstone." I think that consists of advanced procedure training and learning the basic stuff that may have slipped through the cracks the first time.

Anyway, I am so happy to be finished with one more task that I could yip with joy. Fortunately, I can save myself the embarrassment because the neighborhood coyotes are at this moment doing just that. Well, at least they are yipping for some reason.

If you would like to read more of my reflections, consider following this link to my column at The Differential.

Seattle Bears

No. We are not getting another sports team. (Though I hardly noticed the NBA SuperSonics' absence.) A few years ago, a bear was found in Seattle's University District. It met a grisly demise at the hands of untrained law enforcement officers. Hopefully, the city has learned its lesson. Because there's a bear in Ballard. It's been sited in Seattle's West Shore: Magnolia, Ballard and the area. According to the Seattle Times, wildlife officials are involved. This guy is reading the ingredients on a tranquilizer dart.


I hope this bear is not destroyed. I wonder how much cash has been spent on the bear thus far. Multiple squad car chases and a helicopter have been involved... Read the article. You're not going to believe it.

Update 5/20/09

The bear, now named "Urban Phantom" has made his way back north and east of the city. Hopefully, we will find a spot more to his liking in the Cascades. Here's a map detailing many of the animal's sightings.

Missing Seattle

I haven't even left, and I miss Seattle already.

Perhaps it was this cartoon by Milt Priggee...


Not that I'm not a sports fan. I root for the Cubs and try to find places to watch my beloved Pitt Panthers. But it's the other stuff I'd rather do. And the study has particularly suspect scoring methods for 'misery.' Namely not including pro soccer, for which many Seattlites go bonkers for and for giving more misery points to teams that reach the finals but lose... Maybe Seattle residents just find ways to celebrat that they actually got to the finals...

Lest you think this cartoon inaccurate, I live in Seattle, and routinely see eagles, owls, red tailed hawks, Cooper's hawks and ferocious hummingbirds from my window. Salmon spawn within city limits. Seals hang out near the Ballard locks to harvest said fish. And we see snow-capped mountains on any day with clouds above a 7,000 foot ceiling. You can rent a kayak two blocks from my apartment.

Ahhh, Seattle.

PI RIP

Last week, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer stopped printing newspapers. It was my favorite Seattle paper. All that's left of the storied news agency in town are a few reporters and an online only paper that is a glorified news feed. It's not even worth posting the link. I wonder if they will keep their offices and the rooftop globe downtown. More importantly, will anyone get paid to serve as public watchdog the way formal reporters were? It's just another newspaper that has bit the dust...

RIP PI

We Escaped!

We flew on a different airline and to a different city than initially planned, but on Sunday night, my wife and I escaped the clutches of the winter storm currently incapacitating Seattle. I overheard one Southwest Airlines employee say we were the last plane to leave Seatac. I'm not sure if that was on Southwest, or in the whole airport. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter: we had to wait for more than 30 minutes just so the snow could be cleared on the tarmac between the plane and the runway. Our departure insured that our luggage did not make it into any "sorry, your flight was canceled, please collect your belongings in baggage claim" collections like this:


Susan was able to get to her interview at UCSF on Monday. I spent the day in the UCSF emergency departments for a 'second look.' Today, I interview across the bay at Oakland's Highland Hospital.

There are several reasons to be glad not to be in Seattle! It would be fun to play in the snow and all, but it turns out there's a reason why the city couldn't handle an inch of snow last week: Seattle refuses to use salt on its roads and the sand they do use is not enough to ensure safe motorist transit. The stated reason is the salt might impact Puget Sound's endangered salmon populations. Some biologists argue sand is actually worse because it fills the spaces between streambed pebbles such that insects and other fauna important to waterway health perish. Seattle is the only municipality (according to one article) that has a ban on salt. Sand is also 20% the cost of salt. My guess is that only the tincture of time and climate would benefit this picture:

With grades up to 20% in places, it's Mr. Sun who can restore normalcy to Seattle. Given this time of year's 8 hours of sunlight and perpetual winter clouds, I wish everyone there a hearty good luck! That packed ice takes a lot longer to melt than the fluffy stuff the kids are playing in. From a distance, Denny Way looks more like a ski slope than a road. In fact, there were intrepid young men snowboarding down Queen Anne Ave., NE 70th St., and I'm sure many others.

Snow Geese and Flying Home

On this Solstice Eve, the Pacific Northwest is getting slammed with a winter storm. And winter storms, we do not need! On Wednesday night Seattle received 1-2 inches (in most parts of the city), and look what happened:

Yes, that is a passenger bus that slid down a steep grade and plowed through a guard rail resulting in a cantilevered installation over I-5. Note the topography in the background. It's a good thing Seattle doesn't get winter weather very much. Susan and I are visiting our parents for the next two weeks, and hope to be able to leave Seattle tomorrow by plane. We also interview in the Bay Area on Monday and Tuesday! We'll be heading to the airport by bus extra early to account for difficulties from the the expected 4-8 inches of snow. If you want to see the view of the weather, here is a webcam view from the NOAA station across the street from where we live.

But we wanted to experience just a little bit of the current snow, so just as this evening's snow started to fall, we took a stroll around the golf course near our apartment. We were surprised to see a flock of about 30 large white birds circle and land on a nearby snow covered fairway. Upon closer inspection, I confirmed that it was a small gaggle of snow geese. I can only assume that they were in transit from the North Slope of Alaska to winter grounds in California or beyond.

At the time of writing, the snow has completely obstructed our view across Lake Washington. Unlike this Seattle-softened Midwesterner, I expect these birds to know what to do in the cold...

Eagles

One thing I know about wherever we end up next year after the residency search is that I probably will not be able to sit in my living room and take pictures like this. (This bird was probably 20 meters from my window.)


Granted this is an out-of-focus shot with a point-and-shoot digital camera, but that I can see this on a regular basis from where I type away on my various projects is one of several reasons why my wife and I will miss Seattle. I just wish I could have gotten the snow covered mountains or Lake Washington in the background of this shot. But really: yesterday, I saw a bald eagle, a red tailed hawk and a Cooper's hawk in the span of a few hours.

500 Coyotes

Earlier this week around 6 AM, we caught a glimpse of a bushy black-tipped tail. And this evening, there was the familiar refrain of yip yaweeee. What a great way to celebrate my 500th post! The introspective coyote, searching for his reflection in pavement puddles is not a bad representation of the recent self examination I've been doing in the residency application process.

I'm guessing this season will have more rain and introspection. Hopefully, more coyotes too!

Happy 500 to me!

Water for $4.00 a Gallon!

This past weekend, as many as 15 motorists in Seattle filled up their tanks with water-contaminated fuel. Evidently 500 gallons of water found a way into the Shell-supplied Safeway gasoline at a few stations around town... No one is sure how this happened. Greedy middleman? Honest mistake? Maniacal anarchist? Each seems a possibility to me in this passive-aggressive, economy-conscious, WTO-rioting city. But my favorite part of the story is a quote from one of the afflicted drivers:

"I didn't think I'd pay $4 a gallon for water," Fitts said. "But I didn't think I'd be paying $4 for gas, either."

Um. Wake up Mr. Fitts!!! That case of bottled water in the back of the SUV you were driving your kids to the hardware store in? I bet that water cost more than $4 a gallon...

By the way, gasoline is so expensive in Alaska that they don't even bother putting the price up on the station marquees. This weekend, I paid between $4.15 and $4.75.

And The Sky Went Wild

The Wild Sky Wilderness is a reality!

Just northeast of Seattle is an area of amazing beauty and spectacular scenery that until today was just a patch of government land. Today, after many years of politcal wrangling, it has been Federally designated as wilderness, thereby protecting it for generations to come. This wouldn't be possible if Richard Pombo (R-Ca) had not been defeated in 2006 and if George W. Bush wasn't trying to salvage his 2000 campaign promises of expanding national parks and preservation areas.

The photo above shows an area just up the ridge from the Skykomish River, nearly at the point where I wrapped my canoe around a boulder two summers ago. I'd like to blame the scenery on my faulty steering, but really, I just read the river wrong... What's nice is that the 'Sky' river is just on the border of this soon-to-be pristene area. It will now be difficult to develop the river, thereby preserving the land, the sport and the fishery in that basin.

Put the Wild Sky Wilderness on your list of must-hike outdoors destinations. But not too many of you...

Photo credit to Joshua Trujillo and the Seattle P-I.

Pigeon Brained

This takes the urban naturescape to a whole new level.

According to the Seattle Times, someone has been shooting pigeons with a blow gun. Given that most pigeons have pigeon brains, a shot to the head seems not to be fatal in several instances. The pigeon above was alive and a

quite athletic, good flier.

I have trouble approving of or denouncing this activity without additional facts. Does the shooter intend to eat the pigeon? (Probably not.) Is this part of a larger pigeon eradication effort? (Again, not so likely.) Is the problem with this the sport itself or the failure to quickly kill? (PETA probably thinks both, but I lean more heavily on the latter.) Is the pigeon from Capitol Hill or the University District, where piercing such as this would immediately elevate himto higher social circles? (Actully, the injured birds have been found downtown at Third and Union.) Wait a minute, Third and Union is awfully close to Benaroya Hall and the Seattle Art Museum. Is this some kind of sick urban art project? Hmmm... Where can you get a metal dart blow gun?

Image from Franziska Edwards and PETA

Getting Along Just Fine

This photograph taken in the Seattle backyard of two of my dear friends provides evidence of a harmony between species that some might say is impossible. These two people have a way of making the unimaginable real. They also got married yesterday!

Congratulations A & C!

A Prized Nest

Old-tyme readers may recall that I enjoy cataloging nature around my apartment. Blog posts and art projects are my primary documentation. One of my favorite little birds is the common bushtit. Not only is the bird's name funny, it is a fun bird to watch. I often see them traveling in groups of 15-30 birds, hopping between bushes and trees in search of insects and berries. As very social birds, they tend to cheep up a storm. Last year, one of my birding friends alerted me to the fact that these birds build amazing nests. I never imagined that North American birds constructed anything other than, well, birdnest shaped nests. Bushtits build socks! Employing nature's wonder-material (spider webs) as the main structural element, these little birds build deep (and toasty) sacks.

After a year of casual searching for a nest, last weekend I spotted one during my required daily ambulation period! (Too much studying turns my brain to sludge, and walking/running around is excellent DVT prophylaxis.) These nests are amazing. Here's a photo of the nest I found; it's silhouetted against a typical Seattle grey sky:

Evidently, bushtit nests are warm enough that the jelly-bean sized eggs need only be incubated 40% of the day. The nests are used for a period of 8 weeks and support two broods each year. If they are disturbed, adults will abandon the nest and build a new one. It takes 3-5 days for a nest to be built. In urban areas, crows like to tear apart the nests and devour the babies; some observers report that the crows do this 'just for fun.' Humans also tend to collect these nests. Sadly, a week after I snapped this photo, the nest was gone. Someone clipped the branch from which it hung. I have since spotted two other bushtit nests in the area. Hopefully, those socks will support a few broods before falling victim to predators.

If you're in Seattle and want to know where the other nests that I've spotted are, I'll tell you if you promise not to disturb them!

For more info about bushtits or any other bird in Washington State, visit the BirdWeb site. It's an excellent resource for pictures, habitat, songs, distribution and behavior. (That's where I got the nice little bird picture above.)

One Book, PRN

In medical abbreviations, PRN stands for "pro re nata" or "when necessary." In my article for The Differential this week, I review the practice of giving one book to each kid at every well-child check between the ages of 6 months to 5 years. I learned about this strategy to increase literacy and the love of literature at Seattle's own Odessa Brown Children's Clinic when I rotated there last October for my pediatrics clerkship. Go on over to my article to read more.


Then come back here and pick out your own title from the book pharmacy.

The one about Ceasar Chavez is good. So is Goodnight Moon.

No Place Like Home

Spokane has been nice. It's a good place for students to learn medicine. I've learned a lot, and could probably take the final right now and pass. So, thank you Spokane.

There is, however, something about Seattle that whispers to me: "home."

We head there tomorrow. For 4 weeks. It's been 14 weeks since I've lived in the Emerald City; I have some catching up to do. The truth is that I'll see a lot more of Harborview Medical Center than of my 'real' home. But that doesn't matter to me now. My next post will be from the comfy chair in front of the fireplace.

SPUWing Science and Policy

Hey Seattleites! The Science Policy at the UW social group is meeting this week in the back room of the College Inn Pub. It's an informal meeting where you can chat about, discuss or argue science and politics. Students, faculty, staff and members of the local community are all welcome. If I weren't in Snow-can, WA, I'd be there. Get more info at www.fosep.org.

Wednesday, February 27 5:30 to 7:30

RADAR

Sorry I've dropped off the radar the last few days. I had a last minute trip back to Seattle to take care of about a hundred things - all of which needed taken care of and some of which couldn't wait until March. I'll fly back to Spokane tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, I'm hanging with the undergrads at the UW's Odegaard Library while I finish up a response to reviewers.

The reason I decided to make a post is an observation from Saturday's caucuses. About 160 folks from my precinct showed up. 5 delegates went to Obama & 3 to Clinton. The strange thing about the speeches people gave was that several individuals decided to vote for Clinton because the media had wronged the Clinton family, made fun of Chelsea, or otherwise unfairly represented Hillary. Few people actually detailed the candidates' positions. The most interesting speech was by a man my age who had lived in Obama's state legislative district in Chicago before moving to Seattle.

I've procrastinated enough. Back to the grind.

This post was brought to you by the Doctor.

Voting in Washington State

Washington voters: You're up!

My last post about how to vote in Washington State was convoluted and heavy on personal commentary. Here is a simple explanation, with appropriate links.

Are you a Republican? If so, half of the delegates will be determined by a primary election, and half will be decided in the caucus this Saturday. Go to the state party webpage. That site will connect you with each county's party, but you will need to figure out your precinct in advance. If you are in King County, use this tool.

Are you a Democrat? All of the elected delegates are decided this Saturday at the caucus. You might as well tear up your absentee ballot. Democrats in Washington have never used a primary to decide a presidential candidate; hey probably never will. To find your caucus location, go to the state party caucus finder. You only need a name and a zip code, and that server will tell you where to go for the caucus and will remind you of your precinct number.

What's my precinct number? Good question. If you know your precinct number when you get to the caucus, it will save you from waiting in a long line. Most counties have web lookup tools like this one for Martin Luther King County.

Haven't registered to vote? It's too late for you to vote in the primary/caucus, but it's never to early to register for the vote that counts the most. In the state of Washington, you can register online.

Want to know your voting history and information about where to vote? Go to the Washington Voter's Vault. There you can be reminded of which elections you have participated in back to 2004. Which is pretty cool.

Want to Reed more about the primary and caucus system in Washington state? Check out this useful FAQ sheet prepared by the Secretary of State.

Were you thinking of trying to spoil the other party's election by crossing over between the caucus and the primary? Think again! From the FAQ sheet:

Voters can participate in both the party caucuses and the Presidential Primary as long as they participate on behalf of the same party.

Both major parties plan to hold their caucuses on Saturday, February 9, 2008, ten days before the primary. The parties will invite voters to participate in the caucuses and will require participants to sign an oath declaring their party affiliation.

Voters participating in the Presidential Primary will be asked to sign an oath submitted by the political parties indicating that the voter has not participated in the other party’s caucus process. Each party will receive a list of voters who chose to affiliate with that party in the primary.

Is there anything else you need to know? Well, you should probably have a good idea of who to vote for pretty soon. If you haven't made up your mind, Clinton (Pier 30 warehouse Thursday), Obama (Key Arena Friday) and McCain (Before the 2/19 primary) will all be visiting the state in the coming days. Michelle Obama will visit Spokane and Janet Huckabee will be in the state for two nights. Ron Paul may also be making another stop. (He's been in WA quite a bit already.) Look for them! This Seattle P-I article has the most current details so far.

This post may not have been any shorter than my last one. Hopefully it is more informative.