March 3, 2006

March 3, 2006

RainBOw Plantation, Summerdale, Alabama

YEAR 2 DAY 259

 

Today was another beautiful "June 18" day. Sunny and warm !

I spent part of the morning attempting to repair the exterior door latch. I have been working on getting it adjusted for a few days now. Nothing I did seemed to make it latch properly. Today I disassembled and removed the latch components from the door and frame, and ascertained that the door frame itself looked slightly bent. Interstate 10 has been a very bumpy, rough road, and I think the bouncing on a rough road at high speed, and resultant twisting and flexing of the trailer, bent the metal door frame just slightly enough to cause a problem with the door latch. I took a large hammer, and chisel, and did some "persuading" to the metal door frame, in an attempt to straighten it. I was successful. After reassembly and reinstallation, the door latch works great ... finally. I drove Joanne to the laundry room, and I went to the adjacent phone room to make some phone calls. I had a calling card that I wanted to use up, so I was going to use the pay phone to make a bunch of calls to Ottawa to set up medical appointments for the beginning of May. My first phone call was to my gastroenterologist at the Civic Hospital in Ottawa, for a colonoscopy. As a result of colitis, I should have a colonoscopy every 2 years. I left a message on Dr. Champion's answering machine. My next call was to our family physician, to set up appointments for general physicals, prescription renewals, etc. As I was dialling Dr. Trepanier's number, my cell phone rang. It was Dr. Champion's office calling back, just a minute or two after I called them.

I was stunned. Dr. Champion's receptionist / nurse / assistant / wicked witch of the west was exceptionally rude. I don't know why. She got up on the wrong side of the bed ? She just had a fight with her husband ? She just dealt with a difficult patient ? Her cat or father just died ? I don't really care ! I don't expect to have to tolerate that kind of attitude. If I had been less stunned by her attitude, and thinking faster, I would have told her to take her colonoscopy and shove it up her ass. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA !

Dr. Trepanier's office was closed. I'll have to phone back Monday. I managed to make an appointment for a mammogram for Joanne at Orleans Imaging. I wonder if they bill O.H.I.P at half price for women whohave had mastectomies ? HA HA HA < SNORT SNORT > ! I failed to make an appointment for Joanne with her gynaecologist. He has joined a new medical clinic, and they refuse to make an appointment without a referral from the family physician. They don't care that Joanne has been his patient for 18 years. They don't care that I was calling from Mobile, Alabama. They don't care that we will only be in Ottawa for 1 week this spring. So ... of 4 appointments needed, I managed to make one. Shouldn't be that difficult, should it ? ! ?

I got online, sent and retrieved e-mail, and updated my blog. I’m very glad to hear that Bruce in Thunder Bay is home after 40 days in the hospital. Get well soon, Bruce. I used a dial up connection, plugging into a data port in the side of the pay phone. I have tried to use those pay phone data ports in the past, and have never succeeded. Today I did it successfully, although I didn’t really like either the process, or the cost. Joanne wasn’t finished with laundry, so I returned to the trailer for awhile. I did some work on the computer, then took Bo for a short “drivey” over to the clubhouse to pick up Joanne and the laundry. She still wasn’t quite finished, so I did an obedience session with Bo. Once again, he didn’t quite perform up to his abilities / my expectations. I wonder why ? There’s “redneck” in the air here ?

Back at the trailer, we had lunch, then did some Florida planning. There are 2 Escapee parks in Florida we want to visit, we want to visit our WorkCamper friend Julie at her Florida State Park workcamping job, we have to pick up mail at General Delivery in Wauchula, and our friends from Kingston, Ontario may fly down to Tampa to visit us for a weekend of lying on the sand at St. Pete’s Beach. I fell asleep and napped. Then I did some computer clean up, scanning for viruses, scanning for spyware, defragmenting, that sort of stuff. I did today’s accounting. I started working on today’s blog. I reviewed and responded to today’s incoming e-mails. I downloaded and processed some photos I took of Hurricane Katrina's impact on Biloxi, Mississippi.

We left for the nearby town of Foley, to have supper at Lambert's ( Home Of The Throwed Roll ) and to shop at Wal-Mart. As we drove into Foley, we stopped at Walgreen's, to buy some of the advertised specials we saw in their flyer, mostly chocolate bars on sale. We went to Lambert's, a restaurant we ate at 15 months ago. The soft drinks are served in huge mugs that hold about 2 liters. The meals are very large portions of southern home style cooking. Serving personnel walk around with large pots, offering deep fried okra, fried potatoes and onions, black eyed peas, pasta & tomatoes, sorghum molasses for your rolls, etc.. Every few minutes, a young man comes out of the kitchen with a tray of fresh from the oven, large dinner rolls. He walks around the restaurant, announcing the fresh rolls, and throwing a hot roll to anyone who wants one. For the young, male patrons, he throws rolls from 20 to 30 feet away. For Joanne, he tossed it gently into the air about 6 inches from her outstretched hand. She missed it and it fell on her lap. HA HA HA ! No wonder I caught more Mardi Gras beads than her. From Lambert's we went to Wal-Mart. It's hard to shop for groceries when feeling stuffed from over eating.

DSK