August 1st, 2015
Fort Drum, NY

My departure from Fort Bragg was slightly delayed due to complications on the urinalysis.  Eager to get going on the road, I stepped up first and proffered that I was ready to perform the required function.  The monitor escorted me to the men’s room where I…failed to provide an adequate sample.  I misfired.  That’s never happened before.

This caused much consternation for Paul, the friendly if not terribly bright older guy who was in charge of the process.  What to do?  Would I be allowed to top off the current sample when I was ready to try again, or did that need to be destroyed and an entirely new sample collected?  This involved many phone calls, all of which he had to do elsewhere as his cell phone did not work in the room we were in.  He explained this to me several times.  And every time he left, he had to take the box of collected samples with him for security.  He would announce to me (the only one left at that point) that he had to take the samples.  Then he would announce that he was taking the samples.  For security.  This happened repeatedly.  He seemed quite flustered.

Finally, after about 90 minutes during which time I was guzzling water with abandon, it was determined that I had to provide a whole new sample and by that time I was more than ready.  Mission complete, I hit the road north and spent the night in Harrisburg, PA.  I made Watertown the next day by noon and, upon calling to check in with my contact on post, was told to attend to housing matters and come see her the next morning, Friday.

The Digs

Since I had to put all my stuff in storage in Riverside and have with me only what will fit in my Tacoma, I needed a furnished apartment and had already placed a deposit on one in Watertown.  I checked with them and it was ready, so signed the lease and moved in.

It is much nicer that I had anticipated and the furnishings are a lot nicer than the photos had appeared.  The outside of the building is so-so, but the location is excellent – 60 seconds to jump on the highway and 7 miles from the main gate at Fort Drum.  One very nice surprise was a washer/dryer in the apartment.  I really hadn’t expected that.  The only real bummer is they don’t allow BBQs.  That’s gonna be hard.

After two nights, including a Friday night, zero noise from my neighbors.  That’s priceless.

One oddity is Mr. Groundhog.  He lives in a hole he burrowed under the concrete slab of my back patio.  When checking the apartment out, the assistant manager mentioned she would get the groundskeeper to set a trap for him.  Mr. Groundhog doesn’t bother me at all.  He also doesn’t seem in the least interested in whatever bait they put in the trap.  I’ve seen him just stare at the trap and laugh.  Or at least I imagine he’s laughing, as I don’t really know what a groundhog laugh sounds like.

The Job

I’m done with my formal Army in-processing, but have to do the medical end of things now to get set up to practice medicine here.  Anyone who hasn’t ever worked at a large clinic or hospital would have a hard time believing the number of administrative hoops one has to jump through to achieve this.  I barely dented it on Friday, but confirmed I will be working at Guthrie Ambulatory Healthcare Clinic, in the Family Medicine Department.  I’ll be seeing almost exclusively military dependents and kids, which will be a big change for me.  I love kids, but babies freak me out.  They can’t tell you what they are feeling and screaming “Just tell me what’s bothering you!” to a baby is frowned upon in medicine.  I’m going to need to bone up on pediatrics.

I am used to a very informal medical environment.  Just me, two or three medics, and a couple of exam rooms.  Radiology and lab was just 30 seconds down the hallway.  Getting an ortho or general surgical consult was a snap.  Having an ED doc lay eyes on my patient was available for the asking if I wanted a second opinion.

Guthrie is a nice, large, modern clinic and will be a lot more formal.  I will have two LVNs working with me on any shift, rooming patients, doing vitals, starting the electronic documentation.  The clinic does have ortho, podiatry, urology, and dermatology, but all other specialty consults are off-post with civilian providers.  Labs and radiology are available, but in a different building.  One cool thing is they have MRI here at Drum – we did not have that at Fort Irwin.

I met my new OIC, LTC Wallace, who seems like quite a nice guy.

Fort Drum

The post is, by Army standards, quite modern.  It existed as Pine Camp as early as 1908. Prior to 1984, however, there wasn’t much here. The 10th Mountain Division was reactivated that year, so most of the buildings date from after that time.  Most are really nice, newish, red brick buildings.  The PX and commissary are large and well-stocked.  The buildings are scattered around the post nicely with a lot of intervening green, mostly small stands of pine and deciduous trees.  The contrast of the green forest and red brick buildings is visually pleasing.

The Area

This area is referred to as North Country, though Watertown is on the western edge of that, just off the eastern edge of Lake Ontario.

I haven’t yet explored but have gotten lots of advice on things to do.  Lots of exploring available and the area is ripe with outdoor sports opportunities.  People here seem to have a love-hate relationship with the area.  Most really like it here, but the winters are famously bad.  I was advised to get snow tires.  The public roads will be completely cleared, but I’m told the roads on post are never completely free of ice.  “You’ll just slide into most stops.”  LTC Wallace, with a wry smile, told me “The weather here is just like California, so long as you stay indoors.”

Today, after I run, I think I’ll drive to Old Forge.  It should be a pretty drive and they have the largest kayak store in the state.  I don’t yet have a kayak mount for my Yakima roof rack, so coming home with an expensive kayak is highly unlikely, but coming home with some very expensive idea is almost entirely guaranteed.