As expected, we got the snowstorm today - not as bad as we were fearing, but it's not over yet.
Also as expected, knowing we were going to trapped indoors, Sam and I made pizza today. It is, after all, Saturday and anybody who knows us (or rather, knows Sam), snow or not, Saturday is pizza day.
Keeping with my recent trend of all photos, all of most of the time - here are said photos. Feel free to refer to them when you're ready to make your own pizza...
We're supposed to be getting a major storm tomorrow so Sam and I, like pretty much everybody else in town, headed to the grocery store.
While others wasted their time buying foolish supplies such as bottled water and milk and eggs, Sam and I used our heads and bought all the ingredients we need to make pizza (three pizzas, in fact). We'll be all set for tomorrow - as long as we don't lose our power.
Side note: I was going to wait in the car with the heat blasting away but the problem is, the fence (partly seen above) creates a blind spot between the parking lot and the exit from the school - and traffic occasionally whizzes between the two.
When Sam leaves work, he comes out of the building as if he were fired out of a cannon. He seems to have one thing on his mind - getting home. This means he's even worse than usual when it comes to remembering to stop and look for cars.
So the idea of waiting for Sam in comfort of the nice, warm car - during six degree weather - will have to wait for some other day. Hopefully.
Here, used without permission, is a photo sent to me the other evening by a friend who was kind enough to text it to me while on vacation in Aruba.
I let them know that, at the moment, it was currently twenty-seven degrees at home.
I figured if they weren't enjoying their vacation enough already, this little piece of information would help.
For a change of pace, instead of more photos, here's a music video from late last year.
Though I was never much of a Led Zeppelin fan (another one of those things I don't hate- just was never into it), I enjoy seeing (and hearing) Robert Plant, and I especially enjoy hearing him sing with Alison Krauss. There are several videos of them performing this song but I like this one best.
Ok, it's hard to top the exciting photos from the visit to the antique store, so I won't even try. Instead, here are a few random nighttime photos to help you come down off that high...
In case it's not obvious, here's a photo of a telephone pole. What's less obvious is why I took this photo in the first place. (Though, come to think of it, I guess you could say the same thing about all the photos I've been posting.) Oh, and in case you're interested, this photo was taken back on August 16th, 2019.
This photo is of the famous "City That Never Sleeps". That's right, good 'ole NYC! I took this photo on a visit to see Rachael back on August 21st, 2015. Rachael's not in this photo and neither is anything else I recognize.
Here's a more recent photo, this one taken on November 12th of 2020. This is what happens when you're trying to take photos of the Christmas lights, while driving through town and fumbling with the camera. The Christmas lights still look kind of pretty, though. So does light from my speedometer.
This one is from September 2nd, 2016. It took me a while to figure out what this one was. It looks kind of like my backyard but my backyard is so tiny, I could never get a photo with an angle like this. After much head scratching (mine), I realized, this photo was taken from my upstairs hallway window and it's a photo of one of the many backyards adjacent to my tiny backyard. This particular backyard belongs to a rental property and at the (thankfully brief) time, this rental property was occupied by a group of, shall we say, "rambunctious" college students. Those crazy rascals had a habit of having (presumably drunken) weekend bonfires. I'm pretty sure I had taken this photo in case I needed to give the insurance company an explanation as to why my house burned down.
And finally, we'll close with this photo, taken the night of November 19th, 2011. This is a photo of a crowd as it leaves the just completed college football game. You're probably saying to yourself, "You were at a football game!!??? But you hate football!!!!" Not correct. I have zero interest in football, true, but to say I hate football is a stretch. Not much of a stretch - but still, a stretch. Anyway, if you look closely, you'll see that many of those ghostly images seem to be wearing non-football type uniforms, which they are. In this case, they're marching band uniforms - which is the only reason I was there - to watch Jake back when he was in the marching band.
And that will do it for tonight. I'll let you catch your breath and I'll be back with more later. (Probably.)
You're in for a treat! Today we have a TON of photos! Sit back and enjoy! These were taken a local "antique" store I was visiting with Helaina, back on April 3rd, 2016.
As you can see, the term "antique" apparently covers any piece of junk someone is looking to get rid of, short of bringing it to the dump. My only question is/was, why did anyone buy any of this stuff in the first place?
Let me know if you see anything you're interested in. Even though this visit was close to six years ago, I'm pretty sure most of this stuff is still there.
Since I have absolutely nothing going on (other than dealing with SSI , which I'm sure you're as sick of hearing about as I am) and since I don't expect this to change for quite some time (both the dealing with SSI and the nothing else going on stuff), I though I'd start posting random pictures from the past. At least that way, you'll know I'm still semi-alive - which should come as a great relief to everyone (and by everyone, I mean me).
Let's start with these photos. These were taken on July 24, 2016 in West Virginia. I was there with my sister, Laura, to see a play Rachael was performing in. As I recall, they didn't allow photography during the performance, so I, for some reason, took these photos later, on a trip into town.
Enjoy 'em before I delete 'em...
Today is one of those rare, very rare, instances where I won't be home to make dinner for Sam. Because of this, I've staged his dinner in the refrigerator (leftover baked apple pancake - which he helped make) and I walked him through the steps to heat it up.
We've gone through this routine a few times before - heating up pizza and making oatmeal come to mind - and it's a routine that seems to have worked pretty well for him.
It's a process. We walk through the directions together, breaking it down into simple, step-by-step directions. Then we walk through it again, even more slowly, so Sam can write it down.
I feel as if writing it down does two things for him. First, I think the process of him doing the writing helps him to better internalize the directions. We take it slow - because that's his writing style - and he repeats it out loud as he writes. And second, it gives him a handy, simple reference guide for when it's time to heat things up.
The problem isn't that Sam doesn't understand the words (that is, it's not a problem depending on how the information is given to him). The problem is that he can't hold the different steps in his head.
I think this routine of ours helps. At least, it has when it comes to heating up the pizza and making oatmeal. We'll see how well it works when it comes to heating up baked apple pancake.
I usually have my annual physical in early October. Normally, I would call about a month ahead of time to schedule it. But several years ago I was warned that I would need to book my appointment two months in advance. Otherwise, my normally early October appointment would become an abnormally early November appointment.
Ok, fine. So that's what I've been doing for at least several years now. That's also what I've been doing when it comes to scheduling Sam's annual appointment. Sam's appointment is supposed to be in March and though he goes to the same practice as I do, he sees a different physician.
This year, I set my usual reminder in early August to call and make my appointment for early October and when I finally got through to the nice scheduling person, I was told the earliest appointment I could get was in late December - four and a half months out. I asked if I could I be put on a list if there are any cancellations. No, I was told, they don't do that kind of thing. The best I could, according to the nice scheduling person, was to call every day and see if there had been any cancellations. This is just the kind of B.S. response someone gives you when they know you're not happy and they want to get rid of you and make you someone else's problem.
Normally I wouldn't care about the later date but this year I had a few, likely minor, concerns. Waiting two months to cover them with the doctor didn't matter much to me but I wasn't crazy about waiting four and a half months.
But I waited and finally had my appointment in late December and now, as a result, I am again waiting - this time for additional tests. (Nothing to be concerned about. Just a P.I.A.)
Also as a result of my annual appointment, I was once again emailed a link to a questionnaire following up on my visit, because they "care about my opinion". I ignored it, just like I always do. These things never address what my complaint is. Instead, they ask multiple questions along the lines of, "Were the chairs comfortable?" I wasted enough time already. I didn't need to waste more.
But anyway, back to the scheduling...
Back when I discovered my doctor was scheduled so far out, I figured I better make a note to call four months ahead to make an appointment for Sam's March checkup - which is what I did - or rather, what I attempted to do.
Four and a half months before Sam's tentative appointment, I called - and once I finally got through, this time to a different scheduling person, I was (eventually) told that his doctor was not scheduling that far in advance. I was told I needed to call back in a month.
A month later, I made another call and it was the same thing. I feel like I may have even called another time after that but I'm no longer sure. It's all becoming a blur.
At this point, we're starting to get down to the wire. We're about two months away from when Sam would normally have his appointment and as I've learned, two months is no longer an adequate amount of leadtime - at least it's not if you want to see my physician. So yesterday afternoon, for the third (or maybe fourth?) time, I called again.
After hearing all the prerecorded announcements and getting through the automated menu, I waited on hold. And I waited on hold. And I waited on hold. For over thirty-five minutes. Finally, I gave up. I figured I would try again today.
After hanging up, I went to my emailed questionnaire and as I expected, it asked me questions about everything except what my complaint was. Luckily, there was a spot for comments at the end.
It's hard to remember word for word what I wrote, especially since I was in a blind rage, but it was something along the lines of: Everyone was great. Everything was great - but you're scheduling is "AWFUL" (note the all caps). I recounted, in a more abbreviated fashion than I have here, all of the above. I ended my commentary with a remark about how the most discouraging thing about all of this was that I was now wasting even more time by filling out this questionnaire, knowing it would make absolutely no difference.
This morning, I called again. This time, like all the other times, I was met with a litany of prerecorded messages. But unlike all of the previous times, there was now an additional announcement. This one said:
"...Due to a recent surge of COVID-19 in our community, we're experiencing high call volume and apologize for any extended hold time you may experience. At this time... if you are calling to schedule an adult wellness visit, or routine appointment - for example, a physical ... we are unable to assist you at this time, and will resume scheduling after February 14th. We realize this scheduling update may be an inconvenience..."
What am I to make of this? I don't mean the message itself - that's certainly understandable. What I mean is, what am I to make of the fact that they now have this message up there, a message which wasn't there yesterday?
I would like to think that someone, likely the CEO of my doctor's practice, diligently read my questionnaire late last night and as a result, called an urgent all-hands-on-deck meeting to address this urgent situation. and that, after the initial panic over the fact that they might have an unhappy patient, it was decided that this new message should be recorded "ASAP". I also like to think that all of this happened around 3:30 this morning. That makes me feel better.
More than likely though, it was probably the fact that every other patient was also complaining and they finally got sick of listening to it.
It would have been nice if they put this message up a couple of weeks ago. I would have given up way back then. But it also would have been nice if they had booked Sam's appointment months ago. Maybe by the time this latest wave is over, if it's ever over, Sam would have a chance to eventually see his doctor. And these people wouldn't have to talk to me. At least, not for another year.
Yesterday I helped Sam write - and deliver a Thank-you letter/Christmas card/ Happy New Year's card to the trick-or-treat lady. The instigation for this was our briefly seeing her on New Year's Eve - even though we realized who she was just a little too late.
On New Year's Eve, Sam and I went to pick up our Chinese food and at one point, near the end of our hour-long wait (after calling in the order two hours earlier!), a woman in the hungry crowd of still food-less patrons said 'Hello' to Sam - and she made a comment about almost not recognizing him "outside of his costume".
I didn't quite catch all of what she was saying but Sam did. Naturally, he was polite and agreeable, even if he couldn't quite place who she was. It was only after we left and I asked him what she said that we realized that this was the woman who always gives Sam his choice of a toy or stuffed animal on Halloween.
Once he realized it, he felt a little bad that he didn't stay and talk a bit longer. This was the reason for the Thank-you letter/Christmas card/ Happy New Year's card.
So on Sunday, he took the card that he made back before Christmas, wrote a short letter to go with it and stuck them both in an envelope. Then we drove over to her house.
Unfortunately, after knocking and ringing the bell, it was apparent that nobody was home, so we put the note in her mailbox where, hopefully, she found it today.
Sam put his name and address at the bottom of his letter so I'm hopeful about two things. First, that she takes a minute to respond to Sam. And second, that this was indeed who we saw at the Chinese restaurant.
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| Front of card |
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| Inside of card |
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| Sam's note |
