Now You Tell Me

We were up and out the door early yesterday morning because we had a lot to get done. Our first stop was at Chase Bank in New Smyrna Beach to make a deposit, and we chatted for a couple of moments with one of the employees who is interested in RVing and follows me on Facebook.

A couple of weeks ago, I paid off my pontoon boat, and I received a letter from Huntington Bank saying that they had sent an electronic lien release to the state. So when we left Chase, we went to the title registration office in New Smyrna Beach to pick up the clear title. It was pouring rain, so Terry waited in the van while I ran inside. I had about a fifteen minute wait, and when it was my turn to come to the window, the young lady looked things up and said that the electronic lien release had not been received yet, or else it had not been processed on Volusia County’s end. She suggested I call back in a day or two before making another trip there for nothing.

It was still raining hard when I went back outside, and I opened the driver’s door of the Pacifica and was trying to close my umbrella before I got in, but meanwhile, the driver’s seat was filling up with rainwater. Poor Terry was trying to keep up with it but there was no way to do that, so I told her not to worry about it, got the umbrella closed, and just sat in the wet seat.

My semiannual appointment at the VA medical center in Daytona Beach had been scheduled for 12:30, but they called first thing in the morning wanting to know if I could come in earlier. I told them I had a couple of things to do, but that I would get there soon as I could. As it was, we arrived at 11:30, and not two minutes after I checked in, I was called back.

The first stop was at the nurse’s station, where I was weighed, my blood pressure and temperature were taken, and she asked all the standard questions – Was I in any pain? Was I sleeping well? Was I depressed? Do I have any thoughts of suicide or of harming myself? Am I being abused at home? Terry always goes with me for my appointments, and we know this nurse well and know that she has a great sense of humor, so I told her yes, I am being abused at home and that Terry hits me all the time. Then I looked at Terry and said, “Please don’t hit me again! I promise I’ll behave!” The nurse laughed and looked at Terry and said, “I can’t blame you, honey. I’d beat him, too if I were in your shoes.”

Then she asked if I wanted a shingles shot. I told her that we had gotten the first of the two shots at Walgreens a few weeks ago, and we are due for our second shots the end of May. As I mentioned before here in the blog, the shots are $198 each, which comes to almost $800 for the two of us in both rounds of shots. The nurse said that I should not have done that because the VA gives them to vets for free. She told me to e-mail her the receipt or something from Walgreens showing that I’d gotten the first shot, and they would schedule me for the second one there at the VA at no cost. Darn, I wish I’d known that before. I could have saved some money.

It had stopped raining by the time we left the VA, but the closer we got to New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater, the harder it began to rain again. I had to make a quick stop at the post office to mail off something, and then we went to the Blue Moon Deli for their delicious Cuban sandwiches, which we have not had in over a year. They only have a few tables and are spaced wide apart, and the food was as good as we remembered.

They are doing some remodeling, and a couple of workmen were trying to bring in a big bench type seat that must have been 15 feet long. Our van was parked right in front of the door, so I offered to move it to make their life easier. The rain had let up, and it was only sprinkling a little bit when I went out to move the van. By the time I got that done, they already had the bench halfway through the door but were having problems with it because it barely fit.

By grabbing the door and pulling it towards me just a little bit past its normal open position, I was able to give them another inch or so, which helped, but they still had to struggle. Meanwhile, the rain started coming down in buckets again, and by the time they finally got it forced through the doorway, and I got back to the table, I was pretty wet. Miss Terry looked at me and shook her head, laughing, and said, “No good deed goes unpunished, does it?” When I heard her say punished, I was tempted to say, “Please don’t hit me again! I’ll be good” but I didn’t. It’s one thing to be a smart ass when there are trained medical professionals on hand to save me, but I wasn’t pushing my luck in a deli where they have sharp knives.

Thought For The Day – A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.