Monday, November 05, 2007

Orlando, Coyotes

Orlando is sunny and warm and gorgeous. This hotel is a bit of a disappointment though. No wifi except in the lobby and pool areas. Essentially one restaurant (the concierge tells me: No one really eats here"). Buses come every 20 minutes and take people to "Downtown Disney" which is a pretty awful "family friendly" place, jam-packed with tourists, and a lot of chain-type restuarants. A group of us went to Portobello, and had a decent meal, and great company. But DisneyWorld is really just not my cup of tea.

The electronic medical records company that is putting on this conference is in ultra-hype mode. I am hoping to get through the hype and figure out how to use this program's reporting tool. We'll see . . .

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A strange email from a neighbor today, about being woken up in the middle of the night last night, by some strange noises in their backyard. What they thought was a dog turned out to be *three* coyotes, who were dining on their neighbor's cat. The coyotes were not at all scared by their flashlight or shouts, and kept feasting. So they called the police, who came with their squad car and lights, and chased the coyotes away.

Amazing. Coyotes. In the middle of the city. Though we do have some large open space areas nearby, it is really not very *wild* here.

But now Dean and I have a good reason to go tell some "other" neighbors to keep their cats (who are always shitting in our garden beds) indoors -- so they don't get "coyoted."

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I brought some notebooks along, so I could maybe work on poems while I was here. I dunno. I am not in a poetry state of mind. These kind of conferences are kind of mind and soul-numbing.

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9 comments:

Kelli Russell Agodon - Book of Kells said...

Hi Peter,

We're in the country and some nights we hear the coyotes howling in the forest near us.

I have a few friends who have lost cats to them. Though our coyotes seem to be more skitterish. It's strange to hear about them in Seattle.

I've been startled by a raccoon at Madison Park, seen a few possums in North Seattle, and when I was little North Seattle was full of foxes. Of course, now replace "fox" with "apartment complex."

best,
Kelli

T. said...

Coyotes. Yikes. A cat was killed about a half mile from me just last week by one of our new urban critters. I don't like this!

Radish King said...

North Seattle has bears, the occasional cougar and of course those Aurora hookers.

A. J. Patrick Liszkiewicz said...

"So they don't get coyoted."

Snorktastic.

RJGibson said...

LOL. "coyoted." And if it keeps them out of your beds, good on ya.

It's always curious what animal life lives and thrives in cities. I grew up in the country, still live in the country, but never saw a fox (not in captivity) until I lived in Miami, FL.

Anne Haines said...

Poor cat. :( I've always kept my cats strictly indoors and would probably do so even if I lived way out in the sticks. In town, too many cars. In the country, too many other bad things. My cats are happier inside anyway ... outside would be too far away from the food bowls for their liking. :)

I saw a fox running across the street in the middle of town here a few years back, very late at night. Raccoons and possums are run of the mill, but seeing a fox kind of freaked me out.

Pamela Johnson Parker said...

EMR--Peter, ask if there's a way for this EMR provider to import/export records between your office charts and your hospital charts. Anything faxed to your office from a hospital should be able to upload directly to your EMR, and your office notes ought to be able to be part of the permanent hospital EMR if you so wish. One of the hospitals for whom I work even lets an office HP suffice for dictation of a hospital HP (as long as the OV led to the admission). If you want this service, a good EMR provider ought to link this up for you--a reporting tool, indeed!

Pamela

Joannie Stangeland said...

Back those coyotes--I haven't seen or even heard one yet (just the raccoons and possums in the yard), but we're pretty sure that was the fate of our last cat. New cat is an indoors kind of guy. The city is getting wilder and wilder.

cornshake said...

argh! Downtown Disney is one of the minor levels of hell on earth...