(Good) Food, Folks, and Fun

I'm amazed at how quickly this second week has whizzed by! I guess it's partly because things seem to go slower when everything's new and you spend every second thinking, adapting, figuring out - it makes the days seem longer, and certainly more exhausting! So by this week I pretty much settled into life in Big Sky and at the clinic. And, I also had three evenings of fun with my new colleagues/friends!

On Sunday night, Doc hosted a Perseid Meteor Shower viewing on his back porch. It was pretty cool to see the shooting stars zip across the sky; but even without the meteors, the sky was amazing! We could see the Milky Way with a clarity that I didn't think was possible outside of the planetariums I frequented in elementary school, and there were so many extra stars visible that finding the constellations was a little like a "Where's Waldo?" page! Also, we saw about half a dozen satellites (as in those manmade things we hurl up into the sky to orbit and do stuff for us) plodding along on their computer-generated path. It was uber-cool.

On Tuesday, Brad was going to take me and Jen for a guided mountain bike ride, but the smoke from the fires was so bad you couldn't even see Lone Peak, the *11,000 foot huge ginormous mountain right next to the clinic*!! It was like the mountain had disappeared into the mist! Crazy. So yeah, we didn't go out then - instead, the new orthopedic surgeon took us all (me, Jen, Doc, and Dr. Fritz) out for a *very* nice meal at the Rainbow Ranch, on behalf of his new orthopedic practice. Note: While I am against pharmaceutical gifts to doctors, I think that it's a *great* idea for all the filthy rich sub specialist practices to take family docs out to dinner (and on trips, and send chocolate, etc) to thank them for the business - since basically they will largely rely on (future) me and the other primary care docs for referrals.

After dinner, Doc invited us all back to his gorgeous house for Scotch tasting (he's a big fan and connoisseur); he vowed to make single-malt-Scotch-lovers out of all of us! I wouldn't necessarily say that I loved it, but when paired with a fine sherry (they go well together because the Scotch is aged in barrels that were recycled from those used for sherry aging, so they have faintly similar tastes), and lured by the prospect of drinking a Scotch that was born in the same year as me (1979!), I - as we say for patients undergoing procedures - "tolerated it well, with no complaints." I expected to learn a lot out here, but identifying summer constellations and drinking Scotch were not on my short list!

Finally, the smoke cleared up yesterday, and so after work Brad
and Jen and I put on our helmets and bike gloves, tanked up on water, and headed out for the Ousel Falls Trail - and the prize at the end of the trail - you guessed it! - Ousel Falls.
It was SO much fun - I crashed thrice, had to get off my bike to walk it up a steep incline twice, lost my phone once, but broke no bones! (and I found my phone again, whew) Here are my battle scar pics from afterwards. P.S. Brad's taking me out biking again tomorrow morning - woohoo! Don't worry mom, I'll be careful... :)