Nightswimming moons are here.

It's that time of year when summer wanes but fall isn't quiiiite here yet. We've been making the most of it...not actually nightswimming per se (except Richie, who always jumps in the neighborhood pool after he runs or bikes) but definitely making the most of the end of summer.

These pictures are a series from visiting a spot at Lake Lanier 10 minutes from Richie's folks' house and 5 min from the church where we got married (that's us in front of the church as a fam...10 years later). We swim across the lake about 1/4 mile - really don't know the distance - to an unpopulated island. The girls paddle across in inner tubes and Richie tugs a big truck inner tube behind him as he swims. The island gives us a very Robinson Crusoe sort of feeling. There's a ton of mica on the shore, so we imagine we've found a deserted island with gold on it. We admire the heron nest. The girls play on "Stingray Point," which has some real sand that must have been imported at some point. We walk all the way around the island, then swim back. Next, we eat snacks and some of us read while others play in the "sand." That's our day. We've been lucky to have this handy stay-cation practically in our back yard.

I love ambulatory (outpatient clinic) medicine. I like hearing about peoples' lives. My family medicine preceptor is a really wonderful person to learn from. He does a lot of small procedures and tests in-house, so we get hands-on experience doing really simple low-hanging fruit medical stuff that lots of people outsource, like drawing blood, giving vaccines, interpreting x-rays, ekg's, doing small procedures. I am a master ear irrigator. That's a satisfying job. It doesn't hurt the patient and you see/hear immediate results. Small office procedures are really interesting middle ground between thinking and doing. My preceptor's attitude about referring to specialists is: not if we can do it here. It's a fun practice model to see in action.

Of note, I lost my International Year of Chemistry 2011 pen today at my afternoon clinic. I'm pretty sure it got folded into a fat chart and will not see the light of day until that patient comes back.