Eastbound On Easter

Happy Easter!!I just wanted to write a quick blog to all my followers before we pack up and head east on I-40 for about 5 hours. We are looking forward to a few days with family and friends. Of course for you sparta kids we will be able to fellowship with The Kings but me and tara will also get to see our little nephew who we haven't seen since Christmas. He is in the ballpark of 4 months old now so i'm sure he looks nothing like we remember him. The little NC weekend trips have transformed alot in my eyes over the last year. In the past I would be chomping at the bit to go and 5 hours however a long trip I always had my lovely friend waiting for me so my mind was always focused on her which passed the time nicely. Now since my lovely bride is always with me its alittle hard to get motivated to pack up pretty much every pair of socks/underwear i have and drive 5+ hours for only a few days time then turn around and do it again. All will be well though, I have my XM radio all wired up and ready to go along with the fantasies of being a race car drive as we weave thru the NC mountains. I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and Hopefully i shall return with crazy stories with Tim and "jumping man" furches.

Winter Wonderland!

What do myself and Donny Haley (WC School superintendent) have in common? Well 99% of the time I would say not awhole lot but this morning I got a little jolt of the power that comes with snow falling. Many of you know that for the last few months i have been working the Saturday Walk-in clinic here in Sparta. It has its good and bad sides. It was really good when we were out of income for 2 months. Well yesterday afternoon I talked to the practice manager and she informed me that in the event of bad weather It was my call whether the clinic would be open or not. At that moment i knew that I was doomed and the great power had lots of potential to corrupt me. This morning I was to call my nurse and secretary to see if they were able to make it in. I called the nurse first and she had already talked to the secretary. I heard the words, "Mindy is not 100% sure she can make it but its your call and she will get there if you want to work." and at that moment I was already in another world watching channel 4 Snow Bird scroll across bottom of screen saying "Cumberland Family Care Walk-in Clinic closed Saturday morning". Sure i could have made it work but was not at all fully stoked about going into work. So This morning I was giddy like a little school again just like all those days when school was closed. As i write its still spitting some snow and quite beautiful. On the ground i would say .5in to 1.5 in. Never the less its enough to make my heart flutter with excitement. In other news, yesterday i found myself giddy like a little school girl again awaiting a package from UPS. I'm not sure which one is more exciting...awaiting a good snow? or awaiting a anticpated package arrival. I'm just glad God has blessed me with those two back to back. The moment me and Don got done filing my income tax papers i started to think about all things i would like to do with that money. For about 3-4 weeks now i have been trying to decide between the Newest Nikon release D300, new lens and flash or new lens and older Nikon body but upgrade from my current camera body. Much like Jones flip flops on dome vs. hanger I was up in the air with my decision. Finally after many internet recommendations i decide to drop my money into a flash and nice "glass". Photography lingo for good lens. My day was a little anxious cause the package needed a signature and i knew UPS route ran around our house around noon. which was a problem and keeping the Pizza hut appointment. I called in the Don for back up as i ran to the Hut but it turned out our UPS guy was a step ahead of me and dropped it off at Tara's work cause he thought no one would be home. Which is why I love ole Greg Winton!! God Bless that little brown suited man. The lens is really amazing. It has Vibration Reduction built in which automatically takes away hand shake and essentially giving you more sharp,crisp pictures. It allows you to get pictures in low light and longer zooms that you probably wouldn't have been able to get unless with a 2-3k dollar lens. I have taken many test shots so i will try and pos some on our flickr page to illustrate the difference.
I do have one other bit of exciting news that i will pass along in this every growing blog. About 4 years ago when i was deciding which Graduate schools to apply to. I decided that i would go against some peoples logic and only apply to one school. Most people apply to 15-20 schools at minimum. I wanted to stay local and in making that decision I inherited probably one of the most expensive PA schools in the country. Trevecca being a small Christian school and the graduate PA program being the most expensive program on campus above all doctorate and undergrad degrees makes for a painful debt. Not uncommon for Grads to walk away with total cost well reaching over 100K in only 2 short years. Luckily i was not that bad via help from my family. In October when i was jobless for 2 months I started looking at many loan repayment jobs that would allow me to sign a contract to work and get my loans repaid. We seriously looked everywhere from the Caribbean Islands, snowing Colorado and Indian reservations in north Carolina. Almost pulling the trigger to pack up and leave for 2-3 years just to get this weight off our backs and have a good adventure at the same time. While looking I stumbled on an opening in Spencer,Tn. Intrigued I emailed just wondering if this was true. I got a response back saying it was not available but it was Dr. Ty Webb clinic from here in Sparta. The loan repayment position turns out wasn't available at this time. I started talking to the practice manager and she told me there was a good chance it would become available in about a years time. So that possibility is what led me to take my current job. Because I thought it would be easy for me to slip into that position if I was already associated with the practice. Well it looks that may very well happen. I had a meeting this week with our Practice manager and she said she wanted to make it happen for me that my loans would be repaid. currently i work in Spencer one day a week but to be eligible to start getting money in January 2009 I have to log so many hours in that clinic in 2008. So over the next few months I will begin to take over more responsibilities in the spencer clinic. I'm really excited about the chance to get paid and get my loans repaid but also I have grown to love the flexibility and freedom of only working 3-4 days a week. But hey i wouldn't be able to find this opportunity anywhere else close to this area cause i have looked. It will probably mean i will become only a honorary member of many lunch meetings but will still be there in spirit. i will let you know more as this story plays itself out. Well I have said to much and I don't wanted to be blasted as a long poster.

Cam and Tara update!

Hello friends and neighbors! I hope is all and well in your parts of the land. I just wanted to make a quick post and update everyone on whats been going on around the Heady home. The last few weeks have been good but different. As many of you know we have said farewell to our friends the Kings and are adjusting back to Sparta life with out them. My work is going really well right now and I really enjoy the group i'm working with alot more than my last place of employment. I still have this lingering question in the back of my mind sometimes whether i really want to do family medicine forever. Family medicine is a neat thing and gosh you basically see a little bit of everything walk thru the door. There is a lot of the same that can get boring but so much diversity that ultimately i think thats what makes me want to move on. I think deep down i have a desire to be really good at a few things. In family medicine lots of times your just pretty good at a lot of things. I would ultimately like a mix of medicine and not medicine employment i think. Find something that i just absolutely loved like a hobby that i could do while being a PA and still get paid some little something for it. Well on to my lovely wife... The last few days have been a struggle for my bride. Around 5pm on sunday night, I heard the dreaded words of..."My stomach feels funny" those words then progressed to "I think i'm dying" Much of her sunday night was spent looking very pale laying in the bathroom floor. yesterday was spent just vegging out on the couch with an occasional rumbly stomach but no throwing up so that was good. She was off to work today not a 100% but much improved. On a lighter note, many of you know that we have become quite the little bird ranch. We have two regular bird feeders, a finch feeder and a woodpecker suet. Well this morning i come and sit down at the computer only to see a little squirrel on top of bird house raiding our feeder. Not uncommon for that to happen really but don't want that going on here at the Heady Bird Sanctuary. So I grab my little Air Soft pistol and run to the door to fire off a shot. (okay squirrel lovers its not going to kill him so calm down) My first shot was horribly off and i figured well it will scare him off for awhile. Well evidently squirrels have like 3 minute memories cause he was right back almost before i got sat back down. Once again i missed horribly mostly because i was having to throw the door open and shoot before he moved. As most of you know i'm smarter than the average squirrel, so i propped the door open just enough to get my gun thru the door. Sure the first time like that i missed again but oh the second door shot Hit Center Mass. I think he was stunned actually that i hit him cause he sat there for like 2 seconds and then jumped to run for his life. I'm pretty sure if you flash forward 50 years this is what i will be doing all day then too. Course then i will just blow up the bird house cause i won't be able to see any detail just large fuzzy objects. I will let you know how the great squirrel adventures go but i think i have shown him who is the sheriff around these parts already. I'm gonna jump on the bandwagon and try the new poll feature. so please vote.