sept 14, 2014

Dear everyone,

I am anticipating the next Bears game with some trepidation after their second rate play from the opener.  I think Mom is going to have the winning bet this year.  Cindy and I just signed off on a bunch of tax forms; I hate to think how sore Roger’s wrist must have been over the years.  There is all sorts of doom and gloom in the newspapers about war(s), terrorism, Illinois’ budget woes, climate change (well not enough about the last).  And my friend Rebecca seems to be doing pretty poorly, with memory problems, losing weight, etc. Of course, between my personality and my profession, I don’t see much unadulterated joy.  And yet the sun is still shining, and the cockroaches are still multiplying.  The world will go on.

Lucas and Jasper are back in school.  Jasper has started out with his new swim club, the Hornets.  They practice in Hinsdale South, which is another couple of miles southwest of the house, and Downers Grove South, which is much further west.  He will get a lot more driving in.  This team is better for him because there are more boys his age who can give him some competition at practice, and companionship at meets.  Nicola still has a few more weeks before she starts up her senior year.  We have seen her a few times this summer, coming west for either eye or dental appointments.  I think she enjoyed her summer job, and they liked her enough to offer her part time work this year.  

Work was pretty busy this last week.  I front loaded a couple of call days this week because Bob Garza and Joan Dehnert, the head of my aikido club, and its office manager, respectively, are going to Japan for two weeks, and I need to help cover the dojo while they are gone.  I think I put in a 60-70 hours this week, which is more than I am used to.  Of course, having the computer system screw me out of an hour yesterday morning was unpleasant - - I ended up working until around 3.  I finally have come to realize that the crappy computer system we have now is as good as we are going to have, and so this has elevated some of my frustration, since I no longer expect it to work properly.  Big news in Chicago medical business was the announced merger between the Advocate System (about 5 billion gross per year) with North Shore University Health System (about 2 billion per year, but my guess is they have a higher recovery rate).  This might help me a bit because Jack Lee, the former chair of pathology at Loyola who recruited me to Loyola, is their neuropathologist.  One issue I have been worried about is that Lutheran General poached a dementia expert from Northwestern, and I didn’t want to have to deal with dementia neuropathology - - but this is one of Jack’s specialties.

Last weekend we had a family business meeting, and then dinner at a Venezuelan restaurant in Highwood.  The food was good, but the restaurant was very loud.  Hinsdale has developed about 4-5 restaurants in the last 2 years, all within walking distance from our house.  There are still a few we have yet to visit, if you want to come out and explore.

Love, H.

P.S. Jasper will be 17 in two days - - and Meeko (our cutest and furriest child) is 10 today!