Not a fan of the telephone

 

I never was a fan of the telephone.  I hated calling up stores and asking for stuff, making appointments, etc.  This dates back to childhood.  Nobody was more surprised by my reticence than my mother, who was a lady tiger with her telephone.  But there it is.  I'm a "be patient and it will get done" sort of a customer.

BUT!  And as Lynda always says, it's a big butt... I ran out of one of my meds this week.  The status in the pharmacy app kept saying "We are working with your doctor".  But I ran out.  Completely out.  Of my morning eye drops.  Not today, but Wednesday.  I put off calling until Ember was off in daycare Thursday morning.

I got a human on the other end.  They told me they had been faxing my doctor for ten days and never got a response.  I called the eye doctor's office, and they never got a fax from the pharmacy.  They promised to call the pharmacy and get it straightened out.

I waited four hours.  The status in the app did not change.  I called the pharmacy again, for a human status report.  They didn't have a fax from the doctor's office yet.  They had received a new fax number from them via voice mail.  I called the doctor's office again.  They had "only just received" the fax from the pharmacy and would "get a response faxed right away".  I was in wait mode again.

I find this exhausting.  Socially exhausting.  OK, neuro-divergent, anyone?  

The eye doctor's office did call me back to report they had sent the authorizing fax back to the pharmacy.  The pharmacy did not call me back at all, but after all, they have an app.  Right before I was due to go pick up Ember from daycare, I checked the app.  By then, the prescription was "ready to pick up".  I got Ember, and we took a longer than usual drive home so I could pick up the drops.  Phew!  Friday morning, the bottle of drops was in my drawer and ready for use!

Other random days

Wednesday's afternoon practice car ride with Ember took us through the coffee shop (Scooter's) drive thru, and while it was the 17th of February that was "Random Acts of Kindness" day, I was surprised by a random act in my favor!  The car in front of us paid for our coffee and dog bone!

Friday morning's weirdness began when I woke early and chose to pay bills online.  I have "two factor" authentication, where the bank texts me a code on my phone to log in.  The text did not come.  I did a "try again" and it did not come.  I switched to a different authentication method, which worked, and only later noticed that my phone had "No Service" in its message spot!

This continued.  I messaged (the internet was working) my family members who tend to check up on me in the morning via text message or sometimes call that my phone was not connected at the moment.  We are so addicted to being connected, at the same time as we have trouble connecting with our next-door neighbors these days!  Imagine back in the day if your phone went "offline"!  You didn't have an internet for a backup!

When I went to drop Ember off at daycare, the bars were there, I had service again, even 5G service.  And the service remained when I got home.  Whew!  Back in business!

Friday afternoon our temperature gave us a head wave over 20℉.  I went out on poo patrol in the backyard.  I had avoided this duty during the past four really chilly days.  I managed to fill 8 poop bags, that's two a day, so I figure I got the usual output covered.  LOL... measuring poop to determine the health of your dog... it's one of those things.

Friday was a court date for the foster children.  Bottom line, son and DIL still have their little guy at least through the next court date, which is a week and a half away.  This dribbling out a week or two at a time may seem agonizing, but I figure every day this boy gets with the dependability and stability of living with them, he gains from it.  He's safe, he's fed, he's encouraged in his schoolwork.  I ache for the kids and all the uncertainty that swirls around their young lives.

With that, the weekend begins

Saturday morning at 5 a.m. my blog editing was interrupted by a whimper from the crate.  Since Ember is not a very vocal pup and I was already dressed and up, I just dropped everything to go down and let her out of the crate.  Sure enough, she turned her nose up at the "morning treat" I offer when letting her out and went right to the door to be let out.  Straight down the steps, no dawdling!  It took her a long time to come back.  When she did, she was carrying a large chunk of ice from the yard.

She carried it into her X-pen and proceeded both to lick it and to crunch on it while I dished up her breakfast.  She seems in a fairly quiet mood this morning, only chasing the ball down the basement stairs once, and hopping up on the couch to watch an old Murder, She Wrote episode with me.  She stayed on the couch while I made my oatmeal and ate it.  I washed the pan and made her a crate treat, so she's down for puppy nap #1.

I noticed on Friday that the light at the top of the basement stairs had burnt out.  I can't remember how many years it had been since I last changed that bulb.  It might have been the first compact fluorescent bulb I ever installed in the house.  It is an awkward space.  As I age, I am more cautious about ladders and such, too.

I had a crated puppy Saturday morning, and this is the task I took on.  I got the step ladder out of the garage, and wedged it into the landing space, and carefully climbed up and down.  Let's see... once to take off the shade.  Second time to unscrew and discard the old bulb.  Third time to put in the new LED bulb.  Fourth time to put the shade back on.  So, yeah, four times up and down that wedged in ladder.  But there is now a fresh new bulb in place.

Ever wonder just when changing a lightbulb became "a project"?  Yep, about this time of life.

I hope this bulb lasts as long!

When Ember gets up, the plan is to drive out to a cabin where "the kids" and foster grandchild are staying.  It's in a state park a few miles up the road.  It's not as bitterly cold as it was during the week, and I'm hoping the roads are clear and dry.

Life is good.  Spark on!