The Weimaraner is a dog that was originally bred for hunting in the early 19th century. Early Weimaraners were used by royalty for hunting large game such as boar, bear, and deer. The name comes from the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Karl August, whose court, based in the city of Weimar (now in modern day Germany), enjoyed hunting.
Time for a flashback. Funny enough, I have been to Weimar. Way back in 2002, I was living in Berlin doing an internship for an aerospace engineering firm. I took off a week of vacation and was driving to Austria to spend a week at a JAE conference near Salzburg. I took a train to Potsdam, was picked up by this guy I had only talked to on the phone. I told him in my broken German that I'd meet him outside the train station and be wearing a yellow hat. We met and couple of hours into our drive to Austria we stopped in Weimar and picked up two girls. As we continued we drove as fast as the VW Golf would take us and reached 200 kmh (125mph) on the autobahn. The radio was blaring and this weird Fred vom Jupiter song came on and the girls in the back started to karaoke at the top of the lungs. Good times..............where was I? Back to the present, Sandi and my dog's name is Lucy. Lucy is a 4 year old rescue dog. We don't know much about her past, whether she was abused or not, but she does have some interesting behaviors. Lucy stands a little over two feet tall at the withers. Vocabulary lesson: The withers is the ridge between the shoulder blades of a four-legged animal. If you add head and neck she's just short of three feet. She weighs about 60lbs. Loves to run and be outside and will tug you anywhere.
About the tugging, I learned the hard way. I took her rollerblading one day and in the period of 30min I had turfed it three times. First was I bailed because we were going to fast toward an intersection. The second was squirrel and she took off the other direction from me. Third was when she cut right in front of me and I fell over to avoid running her over. Sandi thought it was very entertaining to watch me fall as she watched while following Lucy and I on a bike. My wrists haven't been the same since.
Other than the dog, Sandi is still working for the National Guard doing medical paperwork during the day and waitressing nights. I have been doing rotations. I actually just got back from Portland. I did an obstetrics and gynecology rotation there and Mike and Kathleen generously allowed me to sleep in the dungeon of their chateau.
It was my busiest rotation yet. Dr. Dyson is the hardest working doctor I have and will most likely ever meet. We worked every single day I was there including Saturdays and Sundays. In fact Saturday mornings were just another surgery morning. I participated in deliveries of more than fifteen babies and scrubbed for numerous surgeries. We split our time between Providence Portland and Portland Adventist. In the clinic we saw around 40 patients if it was a full day. You could split the patients roughly into thirds. 1/3 for annual exams and pap smears. 1/3 for ob checks. 1/3 for some other gyn problem. Needless to say I saw a lot and got a lot of practice.
Outside of working, I only had time to visit a few people from my list. I didn't really have a lot of time off. Nor could I predict when I would get a page to come into the hospital for a delivery. I ended up hiking Dog Mountain one afternoon spent a night with some friends on Mt Hood and drove back Sunday morning to the hospital for an induction. Another day we had a late start so I drove to the beach at 6am and was back to Portland for hospital duty by 10am.
After four short weeks in Portland I drove the 1900 miles back to Iowa just in time for Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving, Sandi and I decided to spend some time with her brother Greg. Greg is in the United States Air Force and is currently stationed in Colorado Springs. Sandi fell in love with Colorado Springs. She is really encouraging me to find a residency program in Colorado now. I think she just really missed the mountains.
Anyhow, our first day there Greg took us to the incline. Completed in 1907 the Manitou Incline was a 1 mile cable tram built to support the construction of a hydroelectric plant and waterline. After performing this service the railway was turned into a tourist attraction. It was operated until 1990 when a rockslide damaged the tracks and was closed. Some locals started using it for a tough workout. A portion of it is private property and it’s illegal to hike up the ties of the old cable car. That hasn’t stopped it from becoming the most popular hike in the Colorado Springs area.
The incline is 1 mile long and gains 2000 ft of elevation. It takes you from 6500 ft to 8500 ft. The average grade is 41% and steepest grade is 68%. It is star stepper to the max! The incline was great. Sandi thought it very gruelling and Lucy just ran straight up it. We spent the rest of the day touring Garden of the Gods and then had dinner at Edelweiss.
On Friday, we drove to the top of Pike's Peak. At 14,115 feet (4,302 m), it is one of Colorado's 54 fourteeners. Pikes Peak rises over 8,000 feet above the city of Colorado Springs.
It is famous for a couple things. First is the Pikes Peak Highway that curves and carves its way to the top of the mountain over 19 miles. It is home to an annual Hill Climb Race. Secondly in July 1893, Katharine Lee Bates wrote the song "America the Beautiful", after having admired the view from the top of Pikes Peak.
We later headed to Cave of the Winds and did a 90 minute tour and heard about all sorts of Cave legends about mummies and other ghost stories. The tour was pretty cool in that we were all given kerosense laterns and gave the tour an old school feel.
Next to see in Colorado Springs was the U.S. Olympic Complex in Colorado Springs is the headquarters for the U.S. Olympic Committee administration and the Olympic Training Center programs. Between 300-500 athletes train here for both summer and winter olympic events. We even got to compare our wingspan with that of Michael Phelps. Being only an inch shorter than Phelps my wing span was actually fairly comparable. I couldn't say the same for Greg or Sandi.
It was really fun to see Greg and get away for a bit. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and have so much to be grateful for!
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