Well, we missed Earth Day this year, which fell on April 22nd. The theme was to protect threatened and endangered species. One excuse is that we’ve been too focused on the cardinals building a nest in our back yard this spring. They are neither threatened nor endangered. I would call them fussy, especially when we get too close to the nest in our evergreen tree.
My other excuse is that April 22, 2019 was the day I had my last official work-related CPR recertification. It’s valid for two years but I’ll be retired next year. CPR is very important and I take the class seriously. I always seem to have a problem getting the bag mask tight enough on the mannequin’s face to get a good breath in.
This year there was an electronic device to monitor the quality of your chest compressions. It lights up green to let you know when they’re adequate. Orange lights means you have to fix your technique. That was new for me and I was probably not letting up enough to let the heart fill. Imagine that. I’ve probably had poor technique for years.
Getting back to the cardinals, we’ve noticed that there are two eggs, off white with brown speckles. We’ve never seen eggs like that and we can distinguish them from the eggs of robins and chipping sparrows. The cardinal parents chirp pretty loudly at us whenever we get too close to the tree.
Also, it’s Hosta planting time in the back-yard garden, a job my wife does because my form with a shovel is just as bad as my chest compressions and bag breathing on the CPR mannequin.
Last year, we got out for Earth Day and I found an old polaroid camera while we were out on the Clear Creek Trail. I’m not sure how harmful it was to the environment. Judging from its condition, the environment was more harmful to the polaroid.
On the other hand, we did spot a plastic bottle, which is harmful to the environment. We did the appropriate thing by dropping it in the proper trash receptacle.
Today is National DNA Day, which celebrates the discovery and understanding of DNA and the scientific advances that understanding has made possible. About the only thing important to me about it is that there are a few things that are definitely not in my DNA:
Cooking—unless it’s sticking a frozen pizza in the oven.
Planting Hostas.
Bag breathing the CPR mannequins.
Reading, listening to, or watching political news.
Eating shredded coconut.
Sitting in a psychiatry outpatient clinic, waiting for no-shows.
Waiting in airports.
Shopping for anything.
Removing or spreading mulch.
It’s an incomplete list, of course. Happy DNA Day!
Go Retire Psychiatrist 