Warning

Warning

I have heard a lot of warnings in my life. And not just the ones from my mother – you know, ‘Don’t try that again’, ‘Your face will stay that way’, ‘Wait until your Father gets home’. Growing up in Northern Ohio, I heard winter storm warnings and tornado watches; in Florida it was hurricane and tropical storm warnings; in DC we had heat-index warnings and (the scariest one) presidential campaigns. All very scary stuff – made you want to run for the cellar. Especially the presidential campaigns.

But I’m sitting in my apartment earlier this week, listening to the weather on the evening news (gotta know which shorts to wear...) when I hear a very odd warning. Not high winds, not heavy waves, not even the Prime Minister coming to town. No, I hear on the weather report a ‘Sheep Grazers Warning’.

Huh?

I wasn’t sure I heard right. I wasn’t really paying attention, so I figured between my hearing (suspect) and the weather girl’s Aussie accent (very suspect), I had probably misunderstood. I mean, unless a large contingent of Kiwis are heading to South Australia, a warning to the farmers about the safety of their sheep was a bit beyond me. Even if the New Zealanders were invading, wouldn’t it lead the news not be on the weather report? So I dismissed it.

Until last night. There was another one of these ‘Sheep Grazers’ warnings on the weather report. Perplexed, I went and asked a classmate, Emma, what the heck was going on. Emma is a former veterinarian who grew up on a sheep farm (or would that be a sheep faa-aaaa-aaarm?) who is in my PBL group. She told me I did hear correctly, it was a warning to the sheep farmers that it was going to be cold out that night. Happily, I went off. Only later did it dawn on me: don’t sheep have wool coats? I mean, I may have gone to a high school next to a corn field, but I’m far from a country boy. But isn’t a sheep a wool factory? And when they get cold, well, why don’t they just snuggle up to each other? As usual, I have more questions than answers...

We had a fun practical session earlier this week: otoscopy! It’s where you take an otoscope (expensive flashlight – we’ve all seen them), shove it into a patient’s ear and hope you don’t tickle their brain. It took a little getting used to, but it was neat looking at ear drums. I got a little disturbed though; one classmate was looking into my left ear, and another classmate was making shadow puppets on the wall from the light coming out of my right ear...

But it’s another fun weekend of studying for me; thankfully, only one study group on Saturday so I’ll be able to enjoy a little bit of free time. I hope to see the new Terminator 3 movie on Saturday night, but Sunday will be more studying. Exams are 2 weeks from Monday, so I need to make sure I understand the finer points of the nervous system and the muscles of the body. Not to mention worrying about more Sheep Grazers warnings...

As always, Love to All and keep working on your 101 List!
Bryan