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What a day!
Aug. 8th, 2007 08:20 pmI caught a cold Sunday afternoon. I hate colds. So we took it easy. Monday it was hitting me big time so I didn't go in to work. Monday night it seemed to break, Russet said my breathing got a lot easier while I slept. Tuesday I was feeling pretty good, still stayed home, taking it easy. Tuesday night I began to really feel like crap. It moved into my lungs and nose at the same time, and not long before Russet had to head back to Cloudcroft to do some work at the observatory.
So today I go into work. I'm still feeling cruddy, but I'm not coughing (much) or sneezing (at all). Just blowing my nose a lot and making sure that I wash my hands often, also not getting too close to people. Fortunately nothing broke in my absence, in fact, one problem was actually behaving better. I wanted to see a doctor but didn't have a local one, so I pull up the list of doctors for my medical plan on the web site and start calling DO's. The first one that I call is taking new patients, but she can't see me for at least two weeks, nor can anyone else in their office. Second one I call is also taking new patients, but he's on vacation this week. There aren't a lot of osteopaths in the directory, and a few of them say that they aren't taking new patients. Fortunately I strike gold with the third -- taking new patients and not only can I get in today, I can get in in about an hour!
So I get there at 10:45 for an 11am appointment to make sure that I have time to do the new patient paperwork. In fact, I have time to do the paperwork and write four pages of a blog entry -- I don't get called back until 12:15ish. Turns out that he had an earlier patient suffering from extreme depression who took a lot of extra time.
We talk, he prescribes antibiotics, something to hopefully clear my nose and lungs, then he surprises me with an injection -- I got a steroid injection to accelerate clearing my nose, and let me tell you, it worked!
I take the scripts, make an appointment for a physical next month, and head off to Walmart to get the prescriptions filled. I wouldn't have had them done there except apparently one of the drugs isn't carried by Walgreens and KMart was not well located for my current needs. I drop off the scripts, then go to Arby's for a leisurely lunch and catch up on reading my flist. Head back to pick up the drugs, get in car to head back to work (I'm now down two hours on the day) and the car won't start.
I'm 99% sure that it's the battery. Go back into Walmart, turns out that the auto department doesn't have a jump cart, but they will lend me jumper cables: the guy tells me just to flag down the security guards in their little golf cards and they'll jump me. I pop the hood on my car and wait. Fortunately I refilled my drink at Arby's (it was almost 100f here today). Absolutely no sign of security, and no one seems interested in helping me. A good 15-20 minutes pass, I go into the store to customer service and ask them to page security to Row 2 to jump my car. No problem, they tell me. Spend another 15-20 minutes, no sign of security. Finally this guy walks up and asks if I need a jump.
Thus the car gets started, I drive across the freeway to Sears and get a new battery. Total time at Sears for a battery, plus buying a new set of jumper cables (mine were trashed by my own stupidty) and a new set of wiper blades (found out that my driver's side needs 21" blades, the passenger side 18"): less than 20 minutes.
Get back to city hall at 3:30. I'd been gone for FIVE FREAKIN' HOURS. There's no way that I could make up four hours today, especially with some of the crap I was experiencing with a vendor's web site. It was amazing -- they had a "click here to start a problem report via email" and clicking there caused your browser to spontaneously abort. It didn't matter if it was IE or Firefox, it was GONE. So they received a nastygram about that!
So now I'm home, drugged, fed, and feeling better. I put in an hour extra, I'll have the other three hours covered by the weekend. Total out of pocket for doctor, meds, battery, and automotive miscellany? About $200. I'm VERY glad that I paid off my credit card last month!
So today I go into work. I'm still feeling cruddy, but I'm not coughing (much) or sneezing (at all). Just blowing my nose a lot and making sure that I wash my hands often, also not getting too close to people. Fortunately nothing broke in my absence, in fact, one problem was actually behaving better. I wanted to see a doctor but didn't have a local one, so I pull up the list of doctors for my medical plan on the web site and start calling DO's. The first one that I call is taking new patients, but she can't see me for at least two weeks, nor can anyone else in their office. Second one I call is also taking new patients, but he's on vacation this week. There aren't a lot of osteopaths in the directory, and a few of them say that they aren't taking new patients. Fortunately I strike gold with the third -- taking new patients and not only can I get in today, I can get in in about an hour!
So I get there at 10:45 for an 11am appointment to make sure that I have time to do the new patient paperwork. In fact, I have time to do the paperwork and write four pages of a blog entry -- I don't get called back until 12:15ish. Turns out that he had an earlier patient suffering from extreme depression who took a lot of extra time.
We talk, he prescribes antibiotics, something to hopefully clear my nose and lungs, then he surprises me with an injection -- I got a steroid injection to accelerate clearing my nose, and let me tell you, it worked!
I take the scripts, make an appointment for a physical next month, and head off to Walmart to get the prescriptions filled. I wouldn't have had them done there except apparently one of the drugs isn't carried by Walgreens and KMart was not well located for my current needs. I drop off the scripts, then go to Arby's for a leisurely lunch and catch up on reading my flist. Head back to pick up the drugs, get in car to head back to work (I'm now down two hours on the day) and the car won't start.
I'm 99% sure that it's the battery. Go back into Walmart, turns out that the auto department doesn't have a jump cart, but they will lend me jumper cables: the guy tells me just to flag down the security guards in their little golf cards and they'll jump me. I pop the hood on my car and wait. Fortunately I refilled my drink at Arby's (it was almost 100f here today). Absolutely no sign of security, and no one seems interested in helping me. A good 15-20 minutes pass, I go into the store to customer service and ask them to page security to Row 2 to jump my car. No problem, they tell me. Spend another 15-20 minutes, no sign of security. Finally this guy walks up and asks if I need a jump.
Thus the car gets started, I drive across the freeway to Sears and get a new battery. Total time at Sears for a battery, plus buying a new set of jumper cables (mine were trashed by my own stupidty) and a new set of wiper blades (found out that my driver's side needs 21" blades, the passenger side 18"): less than 20 minutes.
Get back to city hall at 3:30. I'd been gone for FIVE FREAKIN' HOURS. There's no way that I could make up four hours today, especially with some of the crap I was experiencing with a vendor's web site. It was amazing -- they had a "click here to start a problem report via email" and clicking there caused your browser to spontaneously abort. It didn't matter if it was IE or Firefox, it was GONE. So they received a nastygram about that!
So now I'm home, drugged, fed, and feeling better. I put in an hour extra, I'll have the other three hours covered by the weekend. Total out of pocket for doctor, meds, battery, and automotive miscellany? About $200. I'm VERY glad that I paid off my credit card last month!
