Thursday, November 17, 2022
I had a doctor’s appointment and a dentist appointment today. Mmmm. Why did I apostrophe doctor and not dentist? Dentist’s appointment. That doesn’t sound right at all. Doctor appointment. That’s okay, but not what I say. Anyway, I saw medical professionals today and celebrated that my co-teacher is back until Thanksgiving break and I will not see those ninth graders again. Ta daaaa!
I checked in with the doctor regarding my blood pressure medication – making a minor tweak – and the muscle cramps I have been having. I don’t know if many people are lucky enough to get frequent, long-lasting cramps (known as Charley horse (horses?) when you get them in your calf – I don’t know if that name is specific to the leg…) pretty much anywhere – back, thigh, inner thigh (extra bad) abdomen, throat, hand, etc. I say long-lasting because let’s face it – pain is bad and anything longer than bam! done! is lousy. These average 15-20 minutes or more, with the longest one coming in just short of 3 hours. (In case you are wondering, I do not wish that on anyone.) So, I was telling my very nice doctor and she kept saying, “Wow”. Tests are being run, thoughts are being thought, and hopefully these painful times will go away.
Dentist said I have the nicest teeth he has ever seen.
Hahahahaha! That made me laugh. No, he didn’t. But no issues, come back in six months. May 24. May 24 I will be in the pool! (I assume) But I made the appointment at 4pm, just in case I am somehow at Woodbury High School that day. I can get out of the pool by 4:00. Oh, I nearly forgot: the exam room I was in has a big window looking out on nature. There is a tree with red berries right outside and two squirrels were just sitting far, far, far out on the tiny branches, eating the berries. Then they were upside down eating the berries. I am not a big squirrel fan, but I was very entertained by these squirrels. I tried to take a picture, but it captured none of the joy. As my teeth started to get clean, I realized that the wall stops in front of the window and the window itself is shared between two exam rooms. I could very clearly hear the two people there talking. The patient was telling about her alcoholic (self-denying, but serious descriptions were included), bipolar, liver-illness-having sister. It was quite sad, and I wanted to jump up and tell her I was sorry she was dealing with so much. The story suddenly pivoted to a niece (the sister’s daughter, I assume) who lives in California (and is NOT coming to MN to help) who has a new baby named Felix Morris. The lady said very shortly, “I told her that those are both cat names and what was she thinking?” I couldn’t help it. I laughed out loud. Those are indeed both cat names.
We were supposed to go to Shakopee (other side of town – 44 minutes according to the maps) to go on an Amazon Fulfillment Center tour. We drove over the Mississippi River bridge and it was snowing. We went a couple miles and it was SNOWING. There was a sea of red taillights ahead of us and all three lanes of traffic were stopped (or barely moving), so we slowly (I wanted to say quickly – because we made the decision quickly, but we were going less than 30mph) took the exit and swung around to return home. I had seen the opportunity online and made our reservation about a month ago, because I love seeing how things work. I was very disappointed (this is the last scheduled opportunity at this time. Maybe there will be more in the new year), but it looked doubtful we would get there in time anyway. As Keith took the overpass to get to the eastbound on-ramp he said, “It’s really slippery. This is awful.” I pointed out (very pointedly) that I didn’t need to be told that, I was concerned enough (CRAZY WOMAN ON BOARD) about the roads without confirmation. He said oh, yeah, should have thought of that. Yep, shoulda. We drove back east over the river and the sun was peeking and there was no snow. Stupid going west.
I picked up a library book and there I took the picture of the day. We have a great little indoor park connected to the library. It is a very cheerful place to visit year-round. There were four ladies playing Mahjong at a table upstairs – my fantasy life: meeting people for games!
It was quite a nice day of no fifth hour.