snagle.net

Yesterday I purchased my first new road bike since high school over 20 years ago. Goal: get out and get active. I have great memories of biking in rural southern Wisconsin during high school and college.

I plan to ride 3-4 times/week. Today was a break-in day, getting to know the new “clip-less” pedals and reminding muscles and joints what it feels like to ride. Only 7 miles.

Spring cleaning on my file cabinet today netted a rediscovery of a short essay by C.M. Callahan and published in JAMA, 271(22), p. 1746 as part of the “A Piece of My Mind” series. I couldn’t find it anywhere online or in print. Here is a scanned pdf of it.

It is a powerful piece brought to my attention by my father, also a physician, pointing out the psychic costs that come with a medical training. From the last paragraph:

The early horrors change you on the inside forever. They quietly steal away innocence and dignity and mystery, while providing the protection and insulation of experience. You don’t notice it at first because on the outside they are the very same horrors that provide our baptism by fire, and we aggressively sought out a baptism by fire because we knew it would catapult us among the ranks of the experienced. Most of us asked for the ride, the bath, and the view. But it takes a while to see what you really chose, and what it really cost. That’s what happens with a baptism. Welcome to the family.

We just returned home from a trip to the Lyric Opera’s performance of The Pearl Fishers. I’ve been wanting to see this in person since first hearing the magnificent tenor-baritone duet, Au fond du temple saint, performed by Nicolai Gedda & Ernest Blanc on a compilation of opera classics.

While the performance and the music were beautiful, the orchestra unfortunately slightly overwhelmed the singers on that duet. I was also somewhat surprised at how little of a story there actually was. But nevertheless, Jean and I had a wonderful evening out. Especially notable were the performances by Nathan Gunn (as Nadir) and Nicole Gabell (as Leila).

During my visit to my parents this weekend, I learned that Dad had just finished reading what I believe to be a later edition of the photography book from which I learned the basics way back when I was a teenager and all cameras were film cameras.

Since I’ve been needing a new camera for a while, both for personal use and for work, that provided the spark to do some quick online research and head out to buy a Canon PowerShot SD790.

While enroute, I mentioned flickr to Dad as being to photography what GoodReads is to literature — more or less. My goal: to get to see more of Dad’s self-selected best photography.

Now I’m back home and playing with this new toy.

And against my better judgement, but in the hopes that this may prove a fun and enlightening experience, I have taken on a new project. I am going to post a compelling photograph each day to my flickr photostream. While my primary goal for doing this is personal — getting into the habit of exercising my visual creativity on a regular basis — I hope that the photographs, and perhaps the process itself and my reflections on it, may prove thought-provoking and enjoyable to others.

The photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sknagle/sets/72157607559010644/

I’ve also added the stream to the sidebar.

Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This collection of short stories — almost vignettes — published after his death shines at times, especially in “Happy Birthday, 1951″ and “Just You and Me, Sammy.” Overall, however, I never found myself as drawn into or as affected by this book as by his other, more well-known works.

View all my reviews.