water constantly pounding against my mirrors
my reflection ill-defined
i lose myself in street lamps and brake lights
spicules of light through moist eyelashes
the music ethereal
pedal unrelenting
until confusion reigns

Pyotr,

Eyes half peeled-open, I basked in the morning sunshine on a white iron chair underneath the falling maple leaves, and listened to your cathartic church bells and cannons and the retreating Frenchmen and felt like the whole world was mine... for a minute.

Thanking you,
Chris.

Ludz, I'm looking to you for some inspiration right now. I'm having a Heiligenstadt moment.

I feel like I need to break tradition...
     break free of expectation...
           and re-evaluate life...
                 turn a few things upside-down
                       and acknowledge my shortcomings...

                                           and above all...

                                                              let me be me.

Nagging nurses...

I find myself to be quite a diplomatic character. I seldom find myself in situations of conflict and I do my best to stay out of arguments. I often wonder how some people seem to get themselves tangled up in so many. I am the cool-headed party-pooping fight stopper. The horn on my car rarely gets used as my anger threshold is really quite hard to overcome.

But one thing makes my blood boil. Nurses who say, "It's hospital policy".

Today I entered the operating rooms at the hospital. I used my security pass to enter the change rooms, get changed into surgical scrubs, and thence to reception to sign-on as a student entering the operating theatres to be issued the highly conspicuous fluoro green sticker which yells "STUDENT" - the hospital equivalent of a scarlet letter...or yellow star of David. Annoyed at the fact that I was made to wear this stupid sticker which serves no purpose, my tolerance for useless regulations was wearing thin.

As I was signing on, the nurse behind the counter pointed to my scrubs. "Excuse me, did you get changed before you signed on?"

I am bemused by those who state the obvious. "Err...yes?"

"You're not allowed to do that. It's a breach of security and it's against hospital policy. This is your last warning. You are meant to sign-on before you get changed."

Policy... is a word I hate. People who take policy as gospel... I hate even more. This was war.

"But I came in to sign-on anyway. What difference does it make that I got changed before I signed-on?", I replied, more than slightly exasperated by the ignorance she was exuding.

"Look. It's hospital rules. It's a breach of security. We want to monitor everyone who goes into that change room", she annoyingly replied in her high-pitched authoritative nasal tone.

"Why?", I asked. I knew I was picking a fight, but this was a worthy cause. I wasn't going to be a victim of unquestioned and unnecessary inconvenience.

"Because things get stolen and peoples personal belongings are in there."

"If people really wanted to steal things, why would they even consider signing-on? I still don't understand how the order of how you do things really matters..."

"Look, it's hospital policy. This is your last chance."

I left shaking my head, wondering why and when people stopped using their own intuition to make decisions...

It reminded me of a time when I was in an operating room in New York. The surgoen had just finished a hernia repair operation, and before we woke the patient up we needed to pull some old stitches out from an older operation that the patient had a few months ago.

The scrub nurse stopped us in our tracks. "WAIT... what do you think you're doing?"

"Uhh... pulling out some old stitches that the patient wanted us to pull out?", the surgeon replied.

"I didn't see that procedure listed on the consent form"

"But we're just pulling out some stitches, woman!"

"You can't do procedures that the patient hasn't consented to. I'm sorry it's state health policy"

"But WE'RE JUST PULLING OUT SOME DARN STITCHES!!"

"Look, I'm sorry... but it's state regulations. I'm going to have to report you to the health department if you go ahead with this..."

We all stared at each other, amazed... wondering how empty this woman's head was...

In the end, the nurse at reception, and the New York scrub nurse both got their way... because there seemed to be almost no hope of making them change their minds...

This is not an attack on nurses. Most nurses are great and darn helpful. This is a heckle about empty-headed men and women who make no room in their brains for common sense and intuition. Why does it seem as if people are slowly losing this fundamental trait of human intellect?