Quick Update

I have been very busy, surprise, of late with school. My second exam was quite harder than the first one, but I did do well. My 92% may be the highest grade in the class, I won't know till next week, but the class average on the test was a 75%. Passing is 78% in this class. 

Last Sunday, Jennifer met with her new cycling coach to do some heart rate testing to establish a baseline and create her training zones for the season. Her coach's name is Laura, and she is quite an accomplished cyclist herself. Laura rides for Advil-Chapstick, check out her squad here: http://www.teamadvilchapstick.com/

Laura is the one on the far left in the team shot on the home page. After the test, Jennifer rode out to Black Mountain to meet me at Bird Creek (our new land). 

After dropping Jennifer off at Laura's house I went straight to Bird Creek, and was blown away with what I found. Two days earlier, Feb. 1, Black Mountain was hit by a big ice storm. Although our lot did not sustain much damage, route 9 that leads to our side of the divide was devastated. Many of the trees lost their tops, and there were limbs down everywhere. I stopped counting the number of utility power trucks at around 20. When I got to our new road, I talked with the only neighbor we have, and he told me it took him three hours to chainsaw his way out of his driveway. Like I said before though, our lot did not sustain much damage. The neighbor told me it was the worst storm he had been in since moving there in the 80's. First came the ice, then 60 mile per hour wind, a terrible combination. 

I spent the better part of four hours looking for the placement of the existing septic tank on the house site. I was able to locate the 100' X 7' drain field, but I can't seem to locate the 1000 gallon primary tank. Bummer. I was hoping to be able to drive a 1/4 inch rebar into the ground and hit it, then dig out the top to locate the connection. My next step is to try to rent a powerful metal detector to find it, via the rebar used in construction of the tank, then hire someone with ground penetrating radar if that fails. The last option is going to be expensive, but still cheaper than a complete rebuild of the entire system.

Jennifer is headed to training camp this weekend with her team, so I am going to go out there again Sunday to pick her up from her meeting point at a friend's house in Black Mountain. I plan to spend some more time looking then. Jennifer is excited about the prospect of riding all weekend with her new team, and she promised to take lots of pictures we can post here for everyone's enjoyment. 

My preceptorship at Harris Regional Hospital is almost over. I have completed most of my 96 required hours. This week was spent in the outpatient surgery center getting patients prepped for their procedures, and a day at the pain clinic in Bryson City. The pain clinic was really fascinating, I saw many epidural steroid injections under the fluoroscope. Next week I have another day at the surgery center, then I think I will be done. Just three months to graduation at this point, I can't wait!