Thursday, May 21, 2015

"Is Dr. Gjerde still here?"

It is becoming a regular topic with patients as to why I have not retired yet.   After all, I am turning 65 years old this year and lots of my peers have already gone to the greener pastures of leisure and retirement.   The question reminds me of a discussion that I had with a patient years ago.  We were discussing a recent trip my wife and I had made to Los Angeles to visit her parents and brother and so I could attend the California Dental Association meeting in Anaheim (by the way, have you ever wondered why the Anaheim Convention Center is directly across the street from Disneyland).  Since Disney’s California Adventure had just opened along with the Disney Grand California Hotel we decided to stay there.  It worked because I am such a Disneyaholic and then we could commute to my in-laws' house in Downey.  Our conversation was about what I was doing while Karen visited with her parents and that question has stuck with me for years.  She said, “I certainly hope that since you were at Disneyland you left out time to have fun.” my response was, “you don’t understand the Dental Society meeting is fun.”  Interestingly enough, it still is just as exciting and as much fun as it was when I was in dental school at UCLA in the early 70's and my wife and I were newlyweds.  Now the kids are gone, and it is just Karen and I along with our 5 dogs; Pudge, Bell, Crush, Tucker and Bolt, and two horses (a topic for a later blog).  While I love my family I also love my work as it has been a huge part of my life for over 40 years.  Thus I just can’t leave my huge family of 4,000 current patients and 15 staff members.  I will obviously be here for quite a while.



Friday, May 8, 2015

In Memory of Mickie Baker.



I am here to tell you a little story about Boulevard Family Dentistry.  It's a question that I am often asked about and that is our large clock in the window of the front of the building.  I view it as our Elk Grove version of the "Back to the Future" clock tower.  Our building was built in 1974 by one of our patients and a builder.  He called our building his "little bit of Paris in Elk Grove” due to the masonry roof and the brick façade that he placed on the building.  The building went through a couple of different owners, all of which were my landlords, until the building was sold to Mickie Baker.  Mickie Baker traveled extensively worldwide and loved to bring back items of interest.  One day when she was in Belgium, she fell in love with a little clock shop that made hand crafted clocks.  She had them fabricate a custom window clock for her “little bit of Paris” and she hung it up in  the window on her side of the building, which is currently the hygiene side of the office.  Before she passed away in 2000, she rented us the entire office space and had me place the clock on our side of the building.   She made me promise that I would always maintain her beloved clock.  After I purchased the building I made it my goal to  grant her last wish.  Despite the fact that we have remodeled the building to update to current American Disabilities Act standards, and we lost the French masonry roof and the brick work across the front, I have kept my promise to Mickie as you can see whenever you drive by.  The clock is still there keeping accurate time for whomever passes by, maybe Michael J Fox in the Delorean.