Visit One, The Trip Has Begun.

And there we sat. The waiting room was crowded but I hardly noticed. I had the iPad and I could sign on to the Internet so waiting for the Doctor to see us wasn't as boring as usual.

I was a little nervous about this doctor's visit. The specialist I chose was a doctor I've worked with many times and he has a wonderful reputation for knowing what he is doing though he lacks a lot in the "bedside" manner part of his practice. I can deal with that. He knows what he is doing and for that I'll deal with his lack of humor.

The insurance we have is "catastrophic" coverage meaning it pays for yearly exams and blood work and inpatient and outpatient surgeries. Having to pay for an inpatient surgical procedure would be catastrophic. Seeing a specialist  is not covered and neither is any procedures he orders so I wanted to make it clear that I wanted to have the husbands' gallbladder tested. Some doctors are not receptive to a patient specifying what they want so I was a bit nervous about this visit.

He was in agreement with having the gallbladder checked first before proceeding with any other tests. I was relieved. An ultra sound of the abdomen will rule out gallstones. If stones are found, the tests will end there and the gallbladder will be removed. Should no stones be found, a Heida Scan with ejection/fraction will be done to determine if the gallbladder is ejecting an adequate amount of bile into the intestine.

We have scheduled this for the 15th of this month with the option to cancel and reschedule this appointment should the husband be on a job. We are on a path now to correct the gastro problem the husband has been enduring for the past three years.

As soon as that visit was over, we headed for CiCi's Pizza for lunch then to the casino for a few hours. Again the iPad was along to keep me company while the husband played blackjack. I sat in the lounge and sipped on coffee, read a book I have downloaded to the Kindle reader on the iPad. Occasionally the locals sitting around would strike up a conversation with me or I would sit and listen to their conversations with the bartender. The local talk was about the theatre group in Franklin and the play that was being performed this evening. I had no idea there was a theatre group in Franklin nor how often they put on a performance. I might have to check it out and make a drive there for one of their plays.

3 hours  of blackjack later  and the husband found me in the lounge hangin with the natives. I grabbed my iPad and purse and followed him to the truck. I was ready to go home; to the home I left this morning at 0930.  I'm never gone this long from home unless I'm spending the night somewhere.

Carrie called soon after we got back so another trip was made to collect her. We are now in for the night. She is playing games on the iPhone, I'm on the laptop and the husband is browsing in the refridgerator for food. He will be disappointed. I browsed earlier and there wasn't a thing in there.

Tomorrow is planned. A trip to the grocery store is mandatory. Right now I'm going to take an Ambien trip to sleepland. We'll do this again real soon. I'm done! 

Early Morning Chores

Carrie spent the night and it appears as though we have misplaced the remote control for the television in the bedroom where we slept so the TV is spitting out news information while Carrie sleeps on.

I think the Ambien I took last night would have kept me asleep for a few more hours had not the sound and flickering of that TV not pulled me to the surface of my sleep and then all the way out of it. My brain wants to be awake, if only my eyes would cooperate.

Carrie will go home as soon as she wakes. The hubby has a doctor's appointment this morning and I will be accompanying him and Carrie won't. She wanted to go along but Doctor's office can be boring especially if the wait turns into hours.

This must be the month to see the doctors. I just had my GYN visit last week and now all the tests he ordered have been scheduled so I will spend this month getting those. Now--the dentist needs to do his 6 month check up and cleaning for both the husband and myself. I'm sure the doctor the husband is seeing today will want to order tests on him and I need to see a family practice doctor to manage the blood pressure medications I will be taking.

Finally, it's time to take something for my blood pressure. I try to take no more then one pill prescribed but I think those days are gone. This will be prescription number 2. I don't really count the Ambien as it's my choice on whether I want to take it or not and most of the time I don't.



up close view

 It is almost 0600 hrs. here and it's time for me to find the water hose and water the bare spots of ground that dot the front yard. I'm waiting for something to poke it's head up from that soil. When this happens, it will signal that our grass seeds have decided to be stalks of grass and we can continue on another section of the yard. I want to get this done before next Monday. The husband leaves for Oklahoma on Tuesday and there goes the "help". Had it not been for this scheduled appointment with the doctor, he would have been already gone. 

Though the temperatures here have been hovering around 105 WITH the heat index, he is anxious to get back out there and go to work. Me? I would wait until fall. I've been tolerating this summer really well. I'm outside in the morning when it's dark and then another trip out in the evening when it's dark. My solution to this heat of August is to totally ignore it. It's nice and dark and cool beneath that fan in my bedroom. The remote control clutched in my hand, I surf the channels on the television or grab my laptop for some online reading. I see fall at the end of this tunnel and that's my goal. 

My fall is still months away. December is nice and usually comfortable. With a little luck, maybe November might even have cooled down enough to spend time outdoors. It is what it is and  my bitchin about it has never changed the fact that I'm gonna sweat in the summers here. 

Before the temperatures rise more then what they are right now,which is still too hot for me, I'm off to water the still bare patches of dirt and hope for grass to show up soon.

And to think, I didn't want pets or animals to have to be feeding. Hopefully this is a temporary arrangement. I'll quickly ignore this grass as soon as it makes' it's appearance.

Weed

And I thought I was done. Early this morning we headed to the store to pick up some lawn dirt. We spread the dirt and drifted over it with the grass seed, raked it and then saturated it with water. Twice a day I water these patches of raw ground and hopefully within the next seven days some green will cover the patches of dirt.

I planted Bermuda grass. What I know about grass would fit in a thimble. I think the grass in this yard is St. Augustine but finding seeds now is impossible. That's what I was told by the young fellow at Home Depot. Then I get home and go online to learn something about grass and find that you don't seed St. Augustine. You have to buy plugs or sod. I figured grass was grass and as long as it was green, what did it matter so I grabbed that bag of Bermuda grass seeds and that's what got planted.

Again I go online only to find that a lot of people consider Bermuda grass a weed. Is this just a regional thing? Bermuda grass is what is used on golf courses. How bad could it be? I read some more and then followed a link to an online source that sells the seeds and read some more. I still don't know if it's a mistake to be planting this but I talked to an "ex-sister-in-law" and she assures me that it is a pretty grass and is NOT a weed.

Another definition of a weed is any grass that grows where you don't want it to grow.

I can always use "Round Up" and kill it off as I did with the crab grass which is why I have huge bald patches in my once-pretty green lawn. Bermuda has to be better then crab grass which is harsh on the feet.

Since we are on the subject of green stuff, an update on the peas might be in order. Have I mentioned that the husband is planting a winter garden? He bought a Farmer's Almanac and today he planted the green beans. The peas were to be planted in July so that is what he did. Hopefully following the Farmer's Almanac will be the ticket to some winter vegetables. This is an experiment for us. Using the Farmer's Almanac this winter will help us succeed in a summer garden. I think our previous attempts at a summer garden were disasters because we didn't plant early enough in the spring.

The peas are reaching upward to the strings that have been strung harp like above them so they will have something to climb up on. So far, so good. Now about that hurricane that might be heading to Florida.......

Let's hope that we don't have a hurricane wipe out our fledgling gardening attempts.

I'm off to water the bare patches of ground and wait for grass.

I'm Chillin

It has tried to rain for the past two days. I can hear the thunder rumbling in the distance, the purple clouds are swirling and the air is thick and heavy. A few drops dot the concrete and the storm moves over us without shedding any moisture.

This morning we were out early to do a little yard work. The husband assures me that I am no gardener and I'm not at all insulted as it was never my desire to be one. I like flowers. That doesn't make me an expert on planting them.

The flower bed directly to the left of the walkway onto the front porch is a stubborn place to grow anything. Limp and ragged, the flowers I plant there never live more then a month. I planted 3 flats this spring and they expired. I changed tactics and bought 5 knock out rose bushes. They looked a bit puny so I bought packets of seeds and carved out some rows and planted those seeds. Zinnias. I had no idea Zinnias could grow so tall and had I known this I would never have planted them in that area. Soon they were shoving up through the soil, reaching a nice height of 5 inches. I assumed they would start flowering but that was not the case. A few weeks later they were 3 feet tall and popping forth the prettiest flowers. The problem was, they over shadowed the pretty roses that were trying to grow and they looked out of place in the front of that bed. Of course the husband had to make a few comments about my choice of flowers for that area so I moved them.

We pulled weeds and moved plants around. I was back in the house and showered by 0900 hrs and again had no desire to go back outside again. It's August and it's hot and it's expected. I'm not bitchin'. I'm coping.

I'm saving the complaining in the event that the low pressure area in the Atlantic develops into a hurricane and then finds it's way into the Gulf and then heads due north to this town. If I lose the a/c due to a hurricane, there WILL be some bitchin' goin on...

It's time to find someplace for dinner. It looks like it will be dinner 'out'. I'm good with that. I don't want to break this 8hr streak I have going on of 'doing nothing'.

I'm gone.