Clear Creek Monastery Scenes

I just got back from Clear Creek Benedictine Monastery in Oklahoma - formally known as Our Lady of the Annunciation Monastery at Clear Creek - and have a few videos I uploaded onto YouTube. I shall put up still photographs later this week:

Here are some lambs which attacked me:



Here is the worksite. We were stringing fence lines:



Here is a video of the drive from the guest house to the monastery:

In Your Charity of Prayers

Please pray for the repose of the soul of this man who died on this
day, February 24, 2003.

The Shortest Distance/Laureate

The Shortest Distance

Start left on
Pennsylvania
Eighth Street North

Thirty East
Two Eighty Seven
Eight twenty

Twenty East
Sixty Seven South
Windroot South

Midland East
Up the long driveway
into your arms.






Laureate

Perhaps one day for
your first inauguration
I recite poem





SMD
2.22.2010

Re-Boarded

When I initially became a Diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology back in 1996, I was 'Certified Indefinitely,' meaning that I did not need to repeat the process for certification in anesthesiology ever again.

In 2000, the status of indefinite certification was eliminated, and all anesthesiologists have had to re-test for board certification every 10 years.

For many reasons, I decided to take the re-certification exam in December. It was less stressful than the original process: a day-long exam followed a year later with an oral exam in front of some of the brightest minds in the field. I recall one of my stem questions was on an obstetrical patient, and the other was on an elderly patient with laryngeal cancer - typical patients for a pediatric anesthesiologist. Instead the re-certification exam was computer-based and took less than four hours.

Thanks be to God, I passed. While I am still certified indefinitely, I now can demonstrate that 15 years after finishing my training I still have enough knowledge of the basics to continue in my profession.

Of course, I prefer to limit my patients to those a lot lighter, younger, and healthier than me.

What I am Presently Reading: February, 2010.

Life has been rather busy around here, but I took the time to dust off my old 35mm Pentax camera to see if it would work. I am planning on going to Clear Creek Monastery soon, and I wanted to take some good pictures to record the event.

So I had to take some practice shots of some of my children. Here is Bernard:


The other thing which has us all in a tizzy is the massive snowstorm on February 11, leaving more than 12 INCHES OF SNOW. When I heard about it - I was at work - I ordered the children to make a snowman.

So here it is, a Texas Snowman, with Jacinta:

Isn't it funny, how building snowmen is an inherent trait in all children? These children have never made a snowman - or at least not since 1996 - and yet, they easily construct a snowman without consulting any book or website.

It is reminiscent of the ability of bees to make honeycombs.

Speaking of bees, here is the book I currently fall asleep reading every night:


Right now I am reading a medically related book called The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman.

The Subtitle gives some hint about the subject: A Hmong Child, her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures.

I heard about the book while reviewing a syndrome called Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome, where the patient has a particular type of seizure.


But back to the snow. Here are some videos of the children playing in the snow:










...and here is a picture from Saturday, February 13, showing that poor melting snowman:



By Sunday, St. Valentine's Day, most of the snow was gone, as one can see in the picture below. That is Maximilian pushing his bicycle:

We did contribute to some of the global warming by cooking steak on Sunday. Algore, forgive me!


That is Chef Marcellinus bringing in his platter of steaks.

Spork Diary: Love and War

Here I am in the sleeve pocket of Mr. Snaggle-Tooth Garlic-Breath's flight jacket. He got this jacket when he was 'making the world safe for democracy.' Since he was on active duty during the Clinton's presidency, I have my doubts. I usually abstain from political commentary, but I could not resist this time.


Permit me to wish all of you a blessed St. Valentine's Day.

In the opinion of this spork, every day should be St. Valentine's Day for husbands and wives. Man should spend his day showing his wife how much he loves her; woman already does that.

A Flashback from the 70's

1974.

Ten years old.

This explains why those flashbacks can be painful at times.

I posted this on facebook, and thought I would put it on the blog for all of you who do are not 'facebook friends' with me. Not to worry if you are not.

That's me, third from left, decked out in purple and violet plaid bell bottom pants, contrasting striped shirt, and tortoise shell horned rimmed glasses. Tennis shoes - most likely by Converse - rounded out the ensemble. Of all the items of clothing, I miss the glasses the most, because they were indestructible - almost - and I abused the living daylights out of them. Nowadays my lenses cost more than the frames again because I wear bifocals which gradually change power. I wish I had a pair of these horn rimmed glasses to wear while working around the house.

While on active duty in the Air Force, I had a pair of issued glasses which were for deployments. They were commonly known as BCG's because they were so uncomplimentary that they would serve as a deterrent to the opposite sex. Mine looked like the glasses above with a little of the horned part smoothed off.

All of this brings to mind a conversation I had with my wife and oldest daughter recently. We got on the subject of 'girls I dated before I married your mother.' As I started to count the number of young women I dated, my daughter said, in amazement, "knowing what you look like, and your personality, HOW did you get all those girls to go on dates with you?"

I told her there was a simple explanation: I don't know.

God saved me for my beloved Carolyn.




*Who are the other gentlemen in the picture? Those are three of my brothers; from left is Fr. Denis, then Francis - my older brothers. To the right of me is my younger brother Matthew. My youngest brother Patrick was not due on the scene until 1978.

Bernard on a Rabbit Hunt

We start them early here in North Texas: