Catching Up

There has been a lot going on this week, so I thought I would bring you up to date on what’s been happening in our little corner of the world.

The first thing, and it was disappointing news, is that Volusia County will not allow us to build the carport that we wanted to on the front of our place. According to the survey we had done, we have 35% of our lot covered with structure, which is the limit they will allow. I was told I could apply for a variance, which would cost a lot of money, and it would take a lot of time before I would get a hearing, and they still would not grant it. Well, darn it anyway. ☹

I have been working on my new Big Lake book, and I’m close to 25% of the way through it. I need to get my butt in gear because I had hoped to have more progress made by now. I guess I’ve just spent too much time goofing off.

I’m one of those people who absolutely hates being late for anything. If I have an appointment, I always try to arrive earlier than scheduled. That way, if I run into traffic or some other problem on the way, I still have a little buffer to hopefully get there. But I really screwed up on Wednesday.

I had an appointment at the VA medical clinic in Daytona Beach and was supposed to be there at 12:30 to check in and see the nurse in time for my 1 o’clock appointment with the doctor. We got up early to give us plenty of time, but then somehow Terry and I had a simultaneous brain fart and both thought we didn’t need to leave the house until 12:30. And that’s what we did.

Something just didn’t seem right to me and I couldn’t put my finger on it, but then it hit me. We should have already been there! I called the clinic and apologized and told them what I had done and asked if I needed to reschedule. The man on the phone told me that I should go ahead and come in, and the doctor would fit me in one way or another.

It was about 1:15 when we arrived, and a nurse immediately took me in and checked all my vitals, then gave me a pneumonia shot and took me back to see the doctor. As it turns out, the person who was scheduled for an appointment after me had arrived much earlier, so they just switched our positions.

As happens so often with the VA, the doctor I have seen for the last couple of years is no longer there and I had a new one. But she was very thorough, and Terry and I both really liked her. All my lab results from the week earlier were in and she was surprised that a fat old guy like me had such good numbers. My cholesterol, A1C, liver enzymes, and all that stuff are well within the normal range.

One thing that did surprise me was that while listening to me breathe with her stethoscope, she detected a heart murmur. Back when I was about 12 or 13 years old, a doctor diagnosed me with a heart murmur and they ran a bunch of tests and told me that I would never be able to join the Army because of it. That really disappointed me, and when it came time to enlist I tried anyway, even though I thought they would reject me when I told them about the diagnosis. But three different Army doctors checked me out and said they could not detect it, and pretty soon I was raising my right hand and taking my oath.

I have had umpteen physicals since then and nobody has ever mentioned a heart murmur. I have had two mild heart attacks in the past, one in 1986 and another around 2010, but even then, nobody said anything about a heart murmur. Now I have a referral to a cardiologist, whom I will be seeing soon.

You know what, it’s amazing. A couple of weeks ago they did an MRI of my head and found out I have a brain, and now it turns out I have a heart, too. Who knew?

I did have a chuckle while I was at the VA when a person ahead of me was trying to check-in for an appointment that was scheduled for the previous Friday. The young woman behind the desk said, “Mr. Johnson (or whatever his name was), your appointment was for last week, and you never called to cancel or reschedule. I’m sorry, but we don’t have any openings, and the next time we can get you it will be in December.” He immediately corrected her and said, “It’s Colonel Johnson, not Mister. I’m sure you can get me in before that. After all, I’m here.” Yeah, he had that kind of attitude. The young lady apologized again and said that there was nothing she could do. There just were no openings for whatever it was he needed. That’s when he told her, “There’s always something you can do. When I was a Colonel, people learned to accommodate my schedule.” I loved it and almost laughed out loud  when the young lady said, “Yes, Mr. Johnson, but you’re not a Colonel anymore.”

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. Just in time for Halloween, this week’s prize is an audiobook of The Ghost of Halloween Past, Book 5 in my pal Bobbi Holmes’ excellent Haunting Danielle mystery series about a bed and breakfast on the Oregon coast that is haunted by the ghost of a former owner.  To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

Thought For The Day – Some people just suck the nice right out of you.