Foiled plans

Even though I don't have a hard and fast schedule, I do make some plans for the day ahead. That was true of yesterday, but they just didn't happen.

Mondays mean that G is usually off. He works a 4 day week, and that gives him Mondays off which is good when we go to the SSB.

Since he was off, as usual, and we were in town, he decided that Sunday would be the best time to do the 24 hour urine collection for the endocrinologist. So bright and early yesterday, he took the collection to the office. That went pretty quickly.

We had decided it was time to get our flu shots. Our primary care doc retired - about a year ago. We neither need a primary anymore because we have specialists out the kazoo. But those specialists don't have the flu vaccine.

We called the "old" number for our doctor because it is still being answered by the doctor that bought the practice. They have moved close to us - like right here in our bedroom suburb's city limits. I knew they had because son, B, had gone to them for something. But I got the wrong impression of where they had located.

When G had called earlier in the week, they said we didn't need an appointment. Just come in, sign in and put "flu shot" by the name. OK! Great. After he got back home, we got in the car and set out for the office.

We drove to the new office complex. There were no signs on any of the four offices in that complex. So I thought it was the next one over. Nope! B had told us, and I think the office told G, that they were on Village Green. After looking through the second complex, I called to find out exactly where they were. They are in the "old" strip center. In fact they took the office of another retired doctor. So success.

We were in the office and signed in. From the inner office we could hear the crying and moaning of a woman. As people came in, they would say that they were running behind. This was the second emergency walk in of the day. I was really puzzled. If I were in that much pain, I would opt for the ER, not the local Family Practice doc!

We sat and sat and sat. After about an hour, we had just about decided to leave, but they called us back. In the mean time, the woman who was in pain had been taken out the back door via a wheel chair. She was still crying and shouting and moaning in the parking lot. Another patient who was waiting got up to see just what was going on.

Even when we got into the inner office we had to wait. Finally the shots came, and we got them. When we were leaving, I asked the guy who was still sitting out in the waiting room what happened to the woman. Turns out it was a 16 year old girl with muscle spasms of unknown origin. I still would have rather been in the ER!

Our wait for the shots threw off the rest of the day. We had planned our trip - as we got used to doing when gasoline was so expensive - and the next stop was the med center out in the next "city." G needed inserts from the foot doc. Unfortunately, her office was closed for lunch by then.

We still needed to go to the "fancy" grocery store that was a little further out. They had a free turkey if you bought a spiral sliced ham. Can't pass up those free turkeys when feeding 8 for Thanksgiving. They also had pork butts that we need to make venison sausage.

G suggested we eat lunch first, so we set out to find food. In our area, if you find a strip center, you will find a cleaners, a nail salon, and a Mexican restaurant. That's where we ate. We found another good place! It is between the churches we attend (one where we have been members for over 25 years with the pastor who is so boring that he drove our kids away, and the other mission church that we really do enjoy, but have mixed feelings about - torn between loyalty and the fact they are into contemporary worship).

Then on to the store. That was a snap. Then back to the foot doc who was back open by this time!

To say the least, my time frame was off - a lot. But then what else do I have to do. Well, calling the ortho for one. So that is my focus now.

Peace.