Quality healthcare and "deja vu"

I had to get a Physical today, for my next assignment in Albuquerque, starting mid January. (I'll be blogging about all that soon!!). It appeared there was no place I could get that done here in Alamogordo, so I had to drive to Las Cruces. I LOVE THAT DRIVE!! I generally don't particularly like car rides, but this one is just so special... Endless views of gorgeous landscapes, over the Organ Mountains,..... I don't think I'll ever get enough of it. I realize that for the majority of people it is an ordinary drive... They're probably questioning my sanity and shaking their heads....

I'm glad it's done. I can confidently say that the place has likely not won any awards for efficiency lately and it would have been challenging for the girl at the front desk to have acted any more disinterested. Being in dyer need of a potty break (3 mugs of coffee and a bottle of water within about an hour will have that effect), the staff re-assured me that a physical does not include a drug test and I could use the bathroom. What a relief!!! As I am walking out of the bathroom, one of the nurses informed me kindly they would "just need a little urine" for glucose / protein tests. Not good. I barely stopped myself from lecturing her about the physiology of bladder control, instead I just started drinking cold water until I couldn't stand the brain freeze anymore, all this whilst fantasizing about overflowing foley catheter bags.
I think I saw the MD for about 5 minutes, 4 minutes and 30 seconds of those were used to tell me about the horrible air quality, nasty traffic jams and unfriendly people in Albuquerque. Considering I feel pretty ambivalent about leaving my small town southern New Mexican treasure here already, I didn't particularly enjoy that one-way-conversation either.

You'd be glad to read my day got better from there. I hiked in the Organ mountains again; Pine Tree trail, a 4.5 mile loop on the Alamogordo side, a little more East than the one I did last time. It was almost 70 degrees at the base and up towards the top I still saw some sheets of thin ice covering the little springs.



I had another encounter with a tarantula, this one was a little more agile than the last one and a little lighter in color. Just note I freaked out a little less and was able to take a picture from a little closer. (I'm so proud !!! ;-) Maybe next time you'd get a close-up of a hairy leg or so...