Be advised, this is of no redeeming social value or benefit.
Gloria has a cardiology appointment this morning – house-keeping, screening procedure. She asked me to come in with her and I agreed. The magical scheduled time is for 1030. It is 1045 and we're in the waiting area.
In addition to the adult population that one expects in a cardiology office, there are at least two whiny children who are going to be even more so as the day progresses. The adults are coughing, sneezing, and hacking. Although it is high allergy season, I'd be willing to bet that some of them are infectious.
Gloria has found a group of women and engaged them in conversation. I've withdrawn into the frustration of Open Office and a net book. The net book is slow to open, to load programs, to save work, and to shift between programs. I don't care to write using the resident text editor, Notepad, as it is limited in capability. Open Office gives me greater capability with text but seems to interact poorly with the keyboard on this net book During entry it randomly inserts the cursor into the higher body of the document. It usually occurs when I enter an “e.” There is no common point that receives the cursor. This quirk is truly annoying.
1106, and Gloria has not been called. She's been fasting since around midnight. We're planning to have lunch in town today. If the pace doesn't pick up, we may be looking at dinner out instead. I had breakfast, orange juice, and coffee about 0700. But that was long ago after a very short night.
Gloria was called into the procedures area at 1115.
It is high allergy season and I am sorely afflicted. It is, of course, no wonder since we live surrounded by brush and trees at the edge of a national forest. My sinuses are filled with highly viscid exudates that can make it hard to breathe normally. Last night's medications wore off about 0400. It became impossible to find a position that was both comfortable enough to allow me to sleep and that allowed me some normal airflow and exchange. So I gave up at 0445 and moved out onto the couch so that my tossing about didn't keep Gloria awake. She was having her own sleepless night. So I can't serve us soup for dinner lest one or both of us fall asleep and land face down in the bowl.
There is an Iraqi restaurant nearby that we like. It may provide lunch and dinner. There is also a Thai restaurant that we are hoping to try on our anniversary. We may consider soup for lunch. We will need to get something for dinner as I don't believe I'm up to cooking much tonight.
Tomorrow, there will be laundry to do and Gloria will need to pick up meds in Greeneville. She picked up other meds earlier in the week, Tuesday, but the insurance company wouldn't authorize a refill for the medication she needs tomorrow because there were two days remaining in the 30-day refill cycle. So she will make an extra round trip and consume an unnecessary gallon of gas to satisfy the bureaucratic restrictions of a private sector insurance company.
That, of course, will go un-noticed and overlooked by the teavangelists and GOP hierarchy. Regulations and restrictions that are formulated by energy, pharm, and insurance lobbyists, to keep money flowing in to their corporate pockets seem to be OK in the eyes of the Congress.
Gloria was released for lunch. We found ourselves at a Subway for the first time since 2006. We had an hour for travel, dining, and finding another parking place.
We've decided to carry in dinner from the Thai restaurant.
The noise level in the waiting area is higher now, a lot of background clutter. One man has been shouting about the recent tornadoes and the previous lack of tornadic storms in this region. Another is talking about eating groundhog, raccoon, and other wild game. It amuses me to discover that I've eaten far more wild and exotic meat than the group of people now talking about wild game.
There is a young girl sitting and rocking erratically. She appears to be 7th or 8th grade age. She is obviously bored and has announced her boredom several times. The waiting room has many and various magazines but she has not touched one in the entire time we've been here.
There is a posted notice in this office asking people to turn their cell phones off. I've heard at least six conversations today and noticed over ten annoying ring tones that would cause me to throw the phones into the path of a car or truck. There is no guarantee of quality in the musical taste of the mob.
The effort now will be to get out of here, get dinner, and get home before the afternoon storms. The trash can needs to be retrieved and returned from the road. It normally doesn't sit out at the roadside. I don't like advertising our absence.
I'm hoping for a quiet night tonight with better sleep for both of us.
Surprise! Gloria has to be back at 1130 tomorrow for additional scans. I have to be home tomorrow to sign for a package that I couldn’t sign for today. Yippee!
This entry does not really address my behavior as a patient. It does confirm that I lack patience in situations where patience is a virtue. It does suggest that I don't really belong in a waiting room unless restrained. To date, Gloria has done a rather good job of restraining my tendency to protest too loudly.
Dinner tonight, Pho with beef. One of us will have to pull lifeguard duty while the other dines.
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