I’m a Woofer! Two years ago I took an intensive 5-day course to become a Wilderness First Responder (WFR), or “Woofer” as we affectionately call each other. We Woofers are trained to deal with injuries and illnesses in a “low resource environment,” such as a backpacking trip in the boonies, where proper medical care is […]
When we lived in Chapel Hill, an obstetrician named Vern Katz delivered our daughter. Subsequently we became friends with Vern and his wife, Debbie, who was also an obstetrician. One day when they were at our house for dinner, Debbie told us that after they delivered a baby, grateful parents would occasionally give them a […]
I hold two different people in my bones. About two years ago I had a cheilectomy on my right big toe. In this rather gruesome procedure, bony overgrowth is scraped off the joint space to reduce pain and increase mobility. To help facilitate the formation of a new joint, the podiatrist mixed “cadaver collagen” with […]
I’ve nearly drowned three times. The first time was when I was about ten. My mother took me to one of her childhood haunts, Jones Beach, on Long Island. She used to swim there in the summers when she was growing up in Brooklyn. It was warm and sunny the day I nearly drowned. As […]
Probably to avoid doing homework, during my freshman year of college my roommate and I commonly stayed up half the night in earnest but otiose discussions. One that I particularly remember was a heated debate about whether a permanent sunset would be as beautiful as a transient one. I know that I passionately argued my […]
On our customary walk around the neighborhood, Ari, my grandson, picked up a stick in the road. Our little troop consisted of me, Ari, my wife Annie, and Ayla the dog. Ari walked along for a few paces, then with a mighty swing heaved the stick deep into the woods. Ayla wasn’t interested in pursuing […]
Several years ago our big, beautiful cherry tree, which grew on the hillside beside our house, toppled over during a vicious storm. We chopped it up for firewood, yielding more utility than did the cherries we were never able to eat because the crows and racoons always beat us to them. Then, after the tree […]
It started to drizzle. On our regular Saturday hike in the Gazzam Lake Forest, Annie and I regretted that we hadn’t brought rain gear. But we’d lived in the Northwest long enough to know that it wasn’t a big deal—eventually we’d dry out. Rounding a corner on the trail, we encountered a woman in a […]
In medical school, during the pulmonary block we learned that pneumonia used to be called “the old man’s friend.” Why? Because before the days of antibiotics it almost inevitably led to the peaceful demise of elderly men. Well, I had pneumonia last month and it sure wasn’t peaceful, and it sure wasn’t my friend. Happily, […]
A few years ago I wrote a story about a couple who, in the course of a meandering road trip, found themselves in Moosic, PA (pop. 5,976). It’s a place I’d never been, and in fact, had never even heard of. I picked it out randomly on a map. To make the story realistic I […]