Category: Work stuff

The Exploranium GR-135 we’ve been waiting for finally arrived. It’s a radiation survey meter with brains. The thing I like about it most is that if you find something, you can acquire an energy spectrum and the unit will even tell you what it is, if it’s something that’s stored in its library. It will even send data to the PC via serial cable too. Pretty slick device. Made by Canadians too!

The guys over at Radiation Safety got one about a year ago, and we couldn’t let them trump us with cooler toys, so we got one too. It’s going to be a fun tool to play with.

State inspectors are going to be cruising through the department the rest of the week on one of their bi-annual surveys. This means there are a lot of people scurrying about (myself included) making sure that everything is where it needs to be, and stuff that needs to be posted is posted. And then later on this year, I think there’s supposed to be a JCAHO survey going on. Luckily for me, I think I’ll be gone by the time that happens.

My wife is spending the summer working in a medical research lab, part of a summer research program at MUSC for undergraduate students. She’s got mice to take care of as part of her research project, which means working late during the day, then making another trip in sometime in the evening to do more things with the mice.

So for the last two weeks, and for a few more weeks to come, our daily routine has been:

• Go to work around 8, 8:30
• Leave work around 6 (5:30 if she finished early)
• Go back in around 9
• Back home around 10:30 or 11
• Repeat.

Long days for her, and for me as well, since I usually go in with her because it’s late at night. It’s been making for some pretty long work days. Can’t wait for it to be finished with soon.

About 6 weeks ago, I accepted a research associate position at Duke University. A big jump for me, although mostly in a lateral direction.

My current employer, the Radiology Department at MUSC, likes me so much that they’re trying to tempt me to stay with a substantial increase in salary.

Should I stay, even though I’ve already accepted the new job, or go on to newer fresher pastures and new challenges. It’s a tough decision to make, more so because I don’t think either decision will be a bad one.

On the one hand, my current location is about as ideal as it gets, aside from the constant worry about hurricanes. And the higher salary is very very tempting.

On the other hand, it’s Duke University. In my field, it doesn’t get much more prestigious than that. Plus I’ll be working with old colleagues again, it’s a much larger and diverse population, research is something I’ve wanted to get into more and I’ll finally be in an environment where I can start work on a PhD. And did I mention it’s Duke?

Oh, decisions, decisions….