I have not fallen off the end of the Earth, even though some of you might think Okinawa is close to it. I haven’t written anything in a while because I’ve been busy. I fit two months of activities into the very short month of February And I only got a half month’s sleep.

My X-ray project consumed a lot of my time. The AF consultant came here for a visit to help us. We justified bringing him here by getting him to give us a day’s worth of Continuing Education. So, not only did I have to meet with him around my now very busy patient schedule, but I had to coordinate his lectures. We invited the Arm and Navy dentists and the boss closed the clinic for an afternoon so everyone could attend. The consultant came here on short notice so it was a scuffle to find a location for the lecture. We eventually had it at the movie theater,

Work-wise my patient load has become busy. We have only one oral surgeon where we are supposed to have two. Rick works long hours and sometimes for a month he’ll be the only oral surgeon on call for the entire island. The means he sees all the trauma for about 40,000 military families. I try to help out by doing some extractions and most of the biopsies. It’s kind of fun because I get to do something different. I’ve applied for privileges at the Navy hospital here so I can go to the operating room with him to do cases.

The Air Force made me do some field training and that meant sleeping in a tent. I knew that there was a reason that I preferred the Air Force. They know how to go to war. Our tent was air conditioned. That happened at the end of the month and was a very welcome break for me. We set up tents and practiced carrying litters and stuff.

So with a l lot that going on I’m trying to meet the Air Force physical fitness standards after my surgery. I exercise regularly and have worked my way up to 30 pushups. This is far more than I ever expected to do with bilateral torn biceps. I also have to run a mile and a half. I want to cut my time down another minute or two. Who would have thunk. I might even chase women now.

Along with this is my pottery class. I’m making a pair of shisas. The shisa is a mythical lion-dog that is extensively used to guard the entrance to buildings in Okinawa. I’ve been going every Saturday for two months working on this project. I finished yesterday. No they have to dry for a month before they can be fired gazed and re-fired. So I’ve become interested in pottery which is one of the things Okinawa is known for. These are some photos from last weekend’s pottery show.

Speaking of animals, I have a new cat. She’s a youngster that I’m teaching English. She must be Japanese. That’s the only reason I can think of that she doesn’t listen. I’m only foster parenting her for my dental assistant until she can move off-base. Smoky is entertaining . Just a few minutes ago she was playing with a thick rubber band. It got caught under a broom. She toppled the broom to get at it but it was still struck under the bristles. So, she pushed the broom across the living room floor with her nose trying to get it out.

I’m planning to go to China in April with a bunch of friends that are school teachers. We went to the travel agency to sign up and bumped in to the wife of one of the dentists at Kadena who happens to be a friend. She was signing up for the same trip. So it looks like we’ll have a lot of people for party-time.