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I arrived at the UC Davis Medical Center on Sunday at about 11:45 a.m., still early enough to say good morning to everyone I met as I checked myself in.
My wife, Kate, and I were separated almost immediately when a nurse took me back to record my symptoms and vitals. Later, Kate said that she should have insisted on staying with me. I had my phone, but she had the backpack containing snacks and reading material. I wouldn’t be reading much; I was trying to rest my eyes.
Something strange had happened after I stepped out of the shower that morning. My left eye was suddenly filled by a Rorschach tangle of threads. Kate was about to head out for a walk with friends in the Arboretum, but when I described what I was seeing, she immediately changed plans.
“Get in the car,” she said. “We’re going to the medical center.”
Both Kate and my brother Oliver have experienced retinal detachments in recent years, so she recognized the symptoms more quickly than I did. Always reading about health, wellness, and longevity, Kate has become an expert who spots trouble before I do.
Thinking for a moment about my dad who was legally blind by the time he was my age, I fell asleep on the drive to Sacramento.
The first nurse who took my vital signs looked at the monitor and asked whether my heart rate was always so low.
I glanced over at the number.
Forty-eight.
“Usually,” I said. “Though not quite that low.”
I explained that I had meditated that morning and had just taken a nap in the car. She suggested that an EKG would be in order.
I was first brought to the eye room and then, I think, promptly forgotten. It was Sunday, after all. When a nurse later entered to retrieve some equipment, waking me from a nap in the examination chair, she stopped in surprise.
“Oh!”
She had not expected to find a patient sitting there.
Soon they moved me into an overflow waiting area because another patient needed the eye room. One might assume patients assigned to the eye room would eventually see an eye doctor. Yet I felt no real discomfort, and I had an audiobook and no wish to do any scrolling, so I settled in.
Eventually, a physician came by to explain that the ophthalmologist had been called into unexpected surgery and would be delayed for several hours. How different was I from the patient now in surgery?
I texted Kate and told her she should bring me the backpack and then head home.
Instead, she brought me vegetarian chili.
She later observed that she had grown used to airport prices and found medical center food surprisingly affordable. I suggested that perhaps we should return sometime for a lunch date.
As the afternoon wore on, I sat in a hallway away from a coughing eye-trauma patient, watching the Sunday parade of humanity pass by.
My favorite was a man in his thirties who walked the hall laughing and gesturing animatedly. He appeared to be carrying on a delightful conversation with absolutely no one. At first, I wondered whether he might be struggling with mental illness. Then he drew closer and I noticed the discreet earpiece tucked into one ear. He wasn’t talking to himself at all. He was enjoying a conversation I could hear only half of.
A little later, I watched an older man being wheeled down the hallway by a young orderly with cornrows. The patient had both an arm and a leg in fresh casts, yet he enthusiastically showed the orderly photographs of his motorcycle.
The orderly smiled politely, asked questions, and examined each picture.
I wondered whether he would ever ride that motorcycle again.
The longer I sat there, the more I realized that the medical center had become an accidental retreat.
Most Sundays I move from greenbelt to greenbelt, and from task to task. My weekends this quarter have been filled with papers to grade, emails to answer, and events to organize.
Instead, I had been given a chair, an audiobook, a bowl of chili, and nowhere I needed to be.
Every few hours another nurse would arrive to take my vital signs, and every few hours the same question would return.
“Is your heart rate always this low?”
By the fourth or fifth inquiry, I began to regard my heart rate with a certain affection. It seemed to be providing reassurance to everyone except the person whose heart it actually was.
Perhaps the meditation that morning had something to do with how calm I felt. Perhaps the audiobook helped. Perhaps I was reassured by the competence and kindness of the people caring for me. Perhaps Kate’s presence in the background of the day gave me permission to relax. Whatever the cause, I spent most of the afternoon observing rather than worrying.
I had come to the hospital because something was wrong with my vision, yet as the unhurried hours passed, I found myself paying closer attention than usual.
I noticed conversations, acts of kindness, and uneasy smiles. Watching the passersby, the patients with their medical wristbands, like mine, and their families, wearing their temporary badges, I noticed boredom, patience, humor, anxiety, resilience, and the thousand small dramas that unfold every day in a large public hospital.
I never learned whether that motorcyclist’s doctor told him if he could ever ride again, just as he never learned what I was doing in the hallway while transfixed by floating spiderwebs. We were both temporary residents of the same strange Sunday community.
My vision had become less reliable, but my attention had sharpened.
Finally, around dinner time, I received a thorough examination and some good news from the ophthalmologist: No retinal tear. No retinal detachment.
What I did have was a vitreous detachment, a condition common among people in their late fifties and sixties. It sounds alarming until you learn it’s a routine part of getting older.
Only doctors and small children are allowed to tell us that we are getting old.
Even so, somehow I had missed that chapter in the handbook on aging.
When it comes to aging, no one hands us a syllabus. New developments arrive without warning. One morning you discover that your knees have made other plans. Another morning you hear everything except your dinner date in crowded restaurants. On a Sunday in June, you step out of the shower and discover spiderwebs on the inside of your eye.
Doctors learn from their patients. Sunday visitors to medical centers learn patience.
As for me, I learned that an unexpected day spent waiting can become a day spent breathing slowly and paying attention.
What an unusually hot Wednesday evening we will enjoy tonight, especially those who join us outside for the pub quiz at Sudwerk! I anticipate wearing shorts. In addition to misters, expect 31 questions on a variety of topics you should know something about, this week with questions on conveyances.
In addition to topics raised above and below, expect questions tonight on the following: Africa, alternatives, ancient history, aristocracy, audiobooks, batteries, beverages, bestselling books, black-and-white, bookmakers, botany, British performers, cable networks, champions, classic cinema, comebacks, comedy, coordinates, deadlines, efficiency, epic poetry, estimations, expansions, feathers, fossils, geometry, habits, Halls of Fame, headlines, Hollywood, independence, leadership, live performances, logistics, mall culture, medieval imagery, monarchs, mythology, new wave, nutrients, plant families, playwrights, presidents, priorities, privacy, procrastination, productivity, psychology, quadrants, rationalism, real estate, reconciliations, reformations, retail operations, role-playing games, romance, scheduling, schisms, strip malls, systems, television news, the 1980s, unity, vines, warehouses, workplace wisdom, workflows. current events, and Shakespeare.
For more Pub Quiz fun, please subscribe via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/yourquizmaster.
Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. Certain friends have upgraded their memberships recently, which I really appreciate.
We are now past 100 Patreon members, including people who have upgraded their paid memberships! You know who you are, and I salute you! I also incidentally salute Cathy, Christine, Bobby, Esther, James, Damian, Jim, and Meebles! Thanks also to new subscribers Prescott, Bill and Diane, Tamara, Megan, Michael, Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, The X-Ennial Falcons, and The Nevergiveruppers! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. Maybe next week it will be you! I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, Still Here for the Shakesbeer, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions and bakers of marvelous and healthy treats, The Mavens. Hello to Bill and to Jude’s dad. Thanks in particular to my paid subscribers on Substack. Thanks to everyone who supports the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of pub quiz boosters. Also, I sometimes remember to add an extra hint on Patreon. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine!
I also want to recognize those who visit my Substack the most often, including Elaine, Michael, Luna, Jean, Ron, Myrna, Maria, to whom I send sustained compassion, especially this week
Best,
Dr. Andy
Three questions from last week’s pub quiz:
- Mottos and Slogans. What product uses the slogan “You are not you when you are hungry”?
- Internet Culture. Sony recently launched the Reon Pocket Pro Plus. Is it a new type of headphone, audio recorder, or portable air conditioner?
- Newspaper Headlines. With fewer than 5% of its population made up of regular smokers, what country whose name starts with the letter S has recently been declared smoke-free?
In each newsletter, we recognize the causes of our gold supporters of the pub quiz on Patreon.
The Mavens support Meals on Wheels Yolo County
For over 50 years, Meals on Wheels Yolo County has prepared and delivered freshly cooked meals to seniors in Yolo County. in 2026, MOW Yolo County is providing approximately 1,200 aging adults in the region with the nutrition and social engagement they need to eat well and age well – safely and with dignity. Join the Mavens in supporting Meals on Wheels Yolo County!
Lynne Conrad-Forrest MD and Quizimodo support Planned Parenthood
Both these institutions do a lot of good and are in need of financial support in these dangerous times. Planned Parenthood provides primary care including contraception, hormonal therapy and sexually transmitted infection screens and treatment, as well as pregnancy counseling.
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-mar-monte
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