Wednesday, August 10, 2011

A long day?

Yesterday started out early, 1:30AM, well not really THAT early; normal is 2:00AM.  That's an improvement over the midnight stuff of past years.  That was my benefit for spending a winter with pneumonia - a later wake up time. 
  Anyway, after a couple of hours milling around the house, coffee and cereal, you know stuff like reading the news, writing the blog, reading more news - all of a sudden it's time to hit the road.  I start out about 4:00AM every morning to walk a mile, have coffee and newspaper, meet friends at coffee and walk a mile.  So.....that's what I did.  I came home at 7:30 and hung out here for a while, shower, shave and all that "look presentable" stuff, drive back into town and take a family friend to an appointment.  I told her on the way over I was going to run, get into the waiting area before she did and say "Damn it, I told you to wait in the car!", she got a good laugh.  I waited for her, read a magazine and saw how many farm animals we have in Maine.  Of course I don't carry a pen, or paper!  Why on earth would I want to do that?  Oh, because it's helpful to take notes, so I took a photo with my phone, I'll you know if I can read the fine print.  And, of course (again), I still don't know how to download photos from phone to computer - and it's been, let's say, four to six years.
  When Flo was done with her appointment, I took her back to Brewer and went for lunch, it was 11:00 - so a late lunch for me, I eat at 10:00.  I had an appointment at 1:45PM so I just stayed in Bangor/Brewer for that.
  My appointment was with "the lung quack", and that office is in a building attached to the hospital.  At 1:00 I was hanging out in one of the many lobbies, more lobbies than rooms almost.  I was sitting on a bench looking out at the river, fell asleep and dreamed I was in either Iceland or Norway.  Some "doctors?" were looking at me asking for my genius (you know genius, species, kingdom, order, phylum) but my answer was "genius isn't a species - it's a lifestyle".  I guess me telling my wife that I'm a genius, doesn't affect her, but now I believe it:).
  I made my appointment, and a nurse called "Lawrence" so I went with her.  She had me on the scale (209 - now you know), and we went over for a breathing test.  The nurse put the name into a computer to see if I was in the system, yes Torrie M. was in there.  I asked if that was her name, she said yes, I let her know my name; she said you're not Torrie M.  She led me back to the waiting room and got Torrie.  WELL - I was sitting in the back row, there was a newspaper there, and I swear she said Lawrence.  It just shows, hearing aids magnify sound, they don't actually improve my hearing!
  After the really wanted me in there I waited in a exam room for 20 minutes, spent five more minutes with the doctor, and went back out front; they sent me for a blood sample and a couple of x-rays (normal stuff).  Of course for the hospital to do those things I have to pre-register, the girl in the lab intake was more than happy to do both of those at once for an old geezer.  After the lab work was done I went next door and up three floors for the x-ray, that didn't take long either.
  Those digital machines are impressive.  I was sitting in the room where the machine is (x-ray) while the woman checked if they came out.  After she gets a "picture" she dumps it in a slot in one machine and the "picture" shows up on her computer screen, it takes about 40 seconds - they looked good to me.  They sent me on my way.
  I got home about 3:30, it really was a long day.

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