I saw a new medical care provider last week. I had been seeing one in Dunsmuir, but that’s nearly an hour each way for me. This one is in Weed, only 20 minutes or so away. It can be difficult to get admitted to a practice in this area, but Mark, Paul, and Tyler already see this PA so I got in.
Everything is fine. My physical health is fine. My cognition is fine. Only concern, albeit a small one, was my left carotid. He said it didn’t sound like a bruit but because of my age he wanted me to have an ultrasound. It was done two days later and the tech said my carotids both look better than his 48-year-old ones do. Of course, he’s a tech so we have to wait for the official decision. But I would be surprised if an endarterectomy is in store for me.
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Another “care” item … getting admitted to a dental practice in this southern section of Siskiyou County is even more difficult than getting into a “medical” practice. I thought I had it solved when I found a DDS over in McCloud. Last week I got a phone call reminding me of an appointment yesterday at 1400, so I arranged my day and drove over. I hate that drive! Hwy 89 is the main route east to Reno, is only one lane in each direction, and the drivers are all speed happy.
I got there and the door was locked. The expected dentist was part of a local rural clinic and their office was next door, so I went over to ask “What do I do now?” It seems no one had bothered to call to tell me the dentist is no longer with them and the next closest is in Burney which would be another hour each way on 89.
As a consequence I am once again in the market for a dentist.
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Paul and I have only one more Paul-and-Nuna day before the family’s trip to Disneyland. We’ll do our regular chores and maybe share dinner at the HiLo … chicken strips, fries, and green salad with strawberry lemonade for Paul.
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It pays to know the librarian. I am about third or fourth on the waiting list for any new book. Just now that was Margaret Atwood’s “The Testaments”. Wow …
It is a good read (if you read and liked “The Handmaid’s Tale”) and has some spectacular word moments.
“… the inventor of the mirror did few of us any favours: we must have been happier before we knew what we looked like,”
and
“… regrets are of no practical use. I made choices, and then having made them, I had fewer choices. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I took the one most traveled by. It was littered with corpses, as such roads are. But as you will have noticed, my own corpse is not among them.” (Yes, I know the road less traveled isn’t hers, but she winds around it so smoothly.)
and one that caught my eye as a knitter “they are densely interconnected … by a network … that resembles a piece of surreal knitting …”
Words …
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And speaking of words …
New assignment for the COS class…
“Write,” he said.
“What?” I asked.
“Just write,” he answered.
“But what?” I repeated.
“Words,” he said.
So I wrote.
That which Hamlet read, I wrote …
Words
Words
Words.
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Chicken times are nearly out of hand. Mornings are almost 0800 and evenings are moving toward 1800 (6 pm). That will change when the time changes, but they will continue to get closer together.
And it is chilly at both times.
The red carpet under the maple tree is spectacular. I do so enjoy it every autumn.
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It is interesting how even when you are missing the old family pattern, the new pattern can become your life. Tyler (the 22-year-old grandson) was gone over the weekend, and it felt strange without him, even though he lives a “young” life and seeing him at regular times isn’t a given.
It is hard to imagine what next week will be like when all four of them are away. I’ve begun writing reminders for myself so I don’t lose the pattern.
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This week’s reminder …
Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
So … ‘til next week …