May 9, 2024

Dateline – Seattle, Washington

It’s a gorgeous sunny day today in Seattle, so I am, of course, sitting inside and working my way through various projects. I should get out and enjoy the weather a bit so I’ll go for a walk later this afternoon. The biggest problem is no car and most of my favorite local walks are not convenient to public transportation. I suppose I can Uber if I’m feeling a real need.

I’m here for a few days to see the family. My nonagenarian father, the only one that’s come around so far, appears to be in reasonable shape. Geriatrician that I am, I worry about falls but assessing his mobility and gait last night and this morning, I’m not overly concerned. He’s doing well with a walking stick and a scooter for distance. The other family members will likely surface in the next day or so and we’re having a gathering on Saturday for my birthday which should bring everyone together for an evening.

I’m not sure what to make of turning 62. It’s not one of those nice round number milestones, but it does mean that I could apply for my social security should I so choose (not doing it for a few more years though…) It also means that this year marks my 40th year in medicine with all of the changes I’ve seen (most not necessarily for the better) and that I will have spent half of my life as medical school faculty (having received my initial appointment just after my 31st birthday). All that of course gets me contemplating what has all of this meant and how do I make sense of the last four decades. But then my brain hurts and I start thinking of other things.

I should be getting together with my editor/publisher this weekend to talk about the new book. I know what it needs to say and what the central themes and arguments are and pieces of it are arranging themselves within my brain. I just haven’t been motivated to do the brain dump to paper yet or something like that. I’ve written a few bits but nothing that could yet be shown to anyone. I figure I’ll hit the right moment and it will all fall out relatively rapidly. That seems to be the way I work. In the meantime, I have theater projects, a couple of legal cases, and an educational program that needs revising to keep me occupied.

Can’t say much about Seattle yet as I haven’t seen a lot of it other than Sea-Tac airport, the light rail and Aljoya Thornton Place. Seems to be about the same as it was when I was here in the fall. It’s been something over 35 years since I left and it’s not the city of my youth in any way, shape or form but, as I have no particular inclination to return (I could afford a semi-detached garge at current real estate prices) I’m not going to fuss too much. You can’t go home again. Neither you nor it have stayed the same.