weekend countdown

Just over four hours until the weekend. My weekend isn’t so much of a weekend this week, though, as I am definitely, one hundred percent certain to work tomorrow morning. I don’t MIND working Saturday mornings, mind you… but it does take away from my vegetative time. My quiet Friday night will be sacrificed to Austin and his best cousin. I don’t MIND having Austin’s cousin over… because truly, this was one of the big reasons for me to move here. It just means that I won’t have my usual peace and quiet. I went on lunch and bought Pringles for them. Austin has also requested cheeseburgers for dinner. I suggested Creekside Deli – this quaint little mom and pop place that is literally creekside near our home in Cleveland. Austin said no… they want to make their own. So it’s a do-it-yourself cheeseburger end of the summer bonding session for Auggie and Devvie. And then mom will get up on Saturday morning while they’re hopefully still sleeping and drag herself to the office to hopefully make some money that will make having less vegetative time worth it.

I ran some errands in Cornelia on lunch and it was crazy. This is a no sales tax weekend in Georgia… which makes no sense to me… we’re having to furlough teachers to balance the budget but we’re giving a sales tax free weekend? Between no sales tax and it being the day that everyone gets their guv’ment check… the Walmart was packed. I thought that with the opening of the new Walmart in Cleveland that the Cornelia Walmart would not be as busy. It was complete insanity! I needed a money order (remember my Kmart ordeal?) and since there were two cashiers, I got in the shorter line… all of a sudden this seasoned citizen with a shopping cart near about took my right hip off. I was so startled. I said, “oh dear! Was there just one line?” And another lady laughed. I don’t know why people can’t use words to communicate… running over someone with a shopping cart was pretty stiff punishment for not knowing the system. It’s a tough world out there!

Then as I was leaving… I watched the same car almost back into two other cars in two separate incidents. I promise… we get more claims from accidents in the parking lot of the Walmart than all other locations combined. I don’t know if it’s the angle of the parking places or the fact that it’s always busy and crowded and people drive aggressively… I just know that it’s muy loco. Finally, after the second time of this same car (a Jeep Grand Cherokee – same as Michael’s car – at least the same as the one he used to have – who knows what he’s driving now!) a pedestrian got in front of the car where he could make eye contact with the driver and motioned for him to back out when it was safe. Then someone else almost backed up over me as I was walking! I decided to play it safe and walked in the inside of the parking places – although you have to walk through a lot of oil, at least it was sorta safe. Safer, anyways.

Last week I spent a long time helping a widow figure out how to handle her homeowners insurance since her husband passed away and he was the only one on the loan. I spent a lot of time talking to the mortgage company… I emailed Mary (who is a paralegal and therefore knows a lot of random legal stuff) and just basically tried to put things together for the lady. I had to have pictures of the house, though, because it’s older, so we couldn’t do the insurance that day. She came back today and we finished things up and she was so relieved to have that weight off of her shoulders. She said, “I love you! I’m so relieved to have that taken care of!” She was a young widow… her husband died of emphysema and some liver disorder. Michelle, I couldn’t help but think of the whole AAT connection with Tony. They never got a liver diagnosis for her husband but they know that was a contributing factor to his death. He was 42. I had talked to this lady last week after I had my CT scan so she asked what results we got. She wanted to know what pulmonologist I’m seeing and gave me some pointers.

Part of my research into this whole issue (via Dr. Google and Dr. Yahoo) has shown that the main difference in what I have – with the scar tissue vs. damage from smoking is that smokers see damage from the top of the lungs working their way down. Mine started at the bottom and sides. The doctor’s office called back this morning to see if I was going to be able to come in today to be re-evaluated – they want to recheck my blood and see how my chest sounds now and blah blah blah. I want to go back when I can see the doctor I’ve been seeing. They gave me an appointment for Monday. Nothing like having your doctor’s office hunt you down first thing in the morning. My cough is worse today than it’s been in awhile and I have the whole blisters in the back of the throat phenomenon. Good times! Salty food – spicy food – rough food – all on my “don’t touch” list for now. I don’t really FEEEEEL bad as far as being tired. My chest is tight, like I can’t draw in a full breath. I hate to admit it but I felt better while I was on the steroids.

So… now there are three hours left.

Happy Weekend, y’all.