Yet Another Journal

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cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of.

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» Saturday, June 27, 2020

Medical Probes and Dashed Plans

It's been a very quiet week except for Friday, and that was just a long day. We had to do the usual shopping on Wednesday, and James had physical therapy then as well. Thursday we both had to pick up prescriptions at Kaiser and I had a blood test so they would renew one of my prescriptions, plus we went to Costco for trash bags, popcorn, and mandarin orange cups. The highlight of the day was going to JoAnn, which is having a moving sale (their new Kennesaw store opens mid-July). James scored eight tiny bottles of Testor's enamel. I got mostly "to do" and "remember" stickers for my journal, a few autumn-themed iron-on patches, and three more rolls of Scotch tape, since there is no such thing as too much Scotch tape. 😃

Tonight we went to Fried Tomato Buffet for the first time in months. We found out they were open when James stopped by Hobbytown on Thursday to get some paint. They have changed it so you are served like at a cafeteria instead of picking your own food. I made the server laugh. "What would you like?" "Barbecue ribs. I want the ribs. Lots of ribs." She piled about seven in my plate. "What else?" "Nothing. I came for the ribs." 😉 (I did get some black olives, too!) I was pleased with their solution to the problems. All staff were wearing masks and gloves. Instead of going around the bar, you stand on one side, behind plastic barriers, and tell the lady on the other side what you wish on your plate. You walk down the bar and pick things, and she hands the plate to you at the end of the bar. There's a separate line for the salad bar. The server puts your drink on the table and then steps backward.

(We didn't take the power chair, and a good thing: as we got closer and closer to the restaurant—we went when dinner started, at four o'clock, because we knew the tables would be limited—the sky got darker and darker, and then it started to mist, and as we turned on to Greer's Chapel Road the wind picked up and snapped something on a light pole next to us. The bang made us jump! By the time we arrived at Fried Tomato, the wind was whipping the rain into a frenzy, but, oddly, it wasn't raining all that hard; we hardly got damp. Usually when it starts to storm like this the rain comes down in sheets, what I call "Georgia Monsoon Season.")

Friday was our "adventure." Unfortunately it was a truncated adventure. Originally, since we had to go to Kaiser's Southwood office for James' urology exam, and that was practically halfway to his mother's house, we had planned to finally deliver his mother's and his sister's Christmas gifts, Candy's birthday gift, and the Mother's Day gift, all excursions that had been put off due to the COVID-19 restrictions, and treat them to lunch. Candy has also had some health problems lately not associated with COVID (an infection in her foot) and been back and forth to doctors, had her foot in a cast, etc., and we wanted to see her. We planned to get things done at the doctor, then drive down to Warner Robins, go out for lunch, and come home after rush hour was over. But we got a message from Candy on Tuesday asking us not to come; she wasn't feeling well again and didn't want to spread any creeping crud.

So we went off to Southwood via the freeway. I swear that since the shutdown people are driving even crazier than before. You have your heart in your mouth half the trip.

The appointment took a little longer than expected. Dr. Starr wanted to go over James' recent CT scan with him. He showed us the kidney stone (very small, seemingly attached to the kidney wall), the little gallstones, and the lipoma. He does not believe either of the stones is causing the chronic UTI, but, if it does turn out the kidney stone is responsible, it would need to come out. He also checked to see if James was properly emptying his bladder, and did some other exams. James also had an x-ray; the doctor wanted to get a shot of the kidney stone so he could monitor it to see if it was getting larger. Unfortunately it didn't show up on the x-ray.

When we finally got done with all this, we headed back, stopping at Krystal for lunch. Traffic on I-285 was just as bad as on the way back. What fun.