My doctor’s appointment almost made me late for physical therapy. That’s what you get for scheduling those three hours a part.
The receptionist at the doctor’s office kindly explained that they only had two doctors working. This, after you’ve been there 82 minutes, suggests a scheduling error and not a problem on the patient’s part.
That this has happened twice here, well, that suggests I’ll try not to come back.
Curiously, as soon as you say “I don’t want to be that guy” while proceeding to be that guy, they manage to find a room to put you in. And then, of course, the extra waiting begins.
Eventually the doctor shows up. Nice guy. He’s intent. He listens. He’s happy for your successes. He’s a shoulder expert. He does things to my shoulder, is proud of our progress and then, without thinking, claps me three times, right on the trapezius. Thanks, doc.
So I barely made it to physical therapy in time, where today they gave me a series of weights and we swapped up a few stretches. Everyone is pleased with the progress, me most of all. The doctor rightly noted that what we’ve done so far is basically with a month of new therapy work. In three or four more months, he said, I’ll be good as new.
And the equally good news is that I didn’t have to schedule another doctor’s appointment in the near future.
Picked up my bike from the bike shop this evening, where it has been held since last Friday. It needed a new front derailleur. They were so excited to give it back to me that they called twice yesterday.
When I picked it up tonight I was happy to have it back, too. I set out for a quick twilight ride … and the chain is rubbing the new derailleur cage. So I guess I’ll take it back to the bike shop, because one visit begets three.
But I rode the time trial route, and then climbed up two of the ‘biggest’ hills we have. They are tiny, really, but they are in a sequence. The second one is the largest. Today it was the easiest.
I turned left instead of right. Right was home, but the thing was already clicking and there was a little descent to take and then weaving through some easy road construction, past the museum, through a park and then back up the other side of that earlier big hill. There’s a side road there that takes you down into the neighborhood, and for a minute or two it makes you feel like a real rider. There’s a curve, a right turn that falls immediately into a curve and then a switchback to the left. Then there are houses, kids on bikes and adults unloading their cars with groceries and old men walking dogs. It keeps swooping down until it has to go back up and that’s the point where the darkness started to seep in under the tree canopy.
I met a cyclist going the other way. I only do that when I’m soft pedaling. So I had to stand up out of the saddle and finish the last bit of the neighborhood route home.
Can’t believe I have to take my bike back again.
We had dinner tonight, pizza, with our friends Adam and Jessica. Mellow Mushroom put us in the very back of the restaurant. We had pretzels, of course, and pizza, of course. And we had a fine time with friends.
They’re getting married next weekend. We were there when they got engaged. I get to be in the wedding.
Tonight I told him that I’d contemplated backing out as I paid to rent the tuxedo.
He joyfully threatened me with physical harm.
Things to read which I found interesting today …
This will only get worse. And more incorrect. Doing drone journalism in Texas? You could be fined $10,000 or more:
As of the first of this month, taking aerial photographs of someone’s land in the state of Texas, without the landowner’s permission, is punishable by up to $2,000 and 180 days in jail, each time such a photo is distributed. Journalists are not exempt from this law.
[…]
The law also applies to photos taken in public places, at an altitude greater than eight feet above ground level (AGL)
That’s a good site about drones, by the way. (I want one.)
I remember the first time this happened to me. Rep. Todd Rokita To CNN’s Carol Costello: ‘You’re Beautiful But You Have To Be Honest’ OK, maybe it wasn’t that. But a senator told me I asked too many questions. The nerve of a reporter to do such a thing. When an interview subject says things like this, the odds are good that you’re taking them somewhere they don’t want to go. Keep at them, I say.
A followup from yesterday: 2 of 4 found shot to death in car in Winston County faced child molestation, pornography charges in Tennessee, sheriff says
Mice and fungi and skin scrapings are on the line: How the Shutdown Is Devastating Biomedical Scientists and Killing Their Research. This is actually an interesting perspective and a necessary story. There are many of them. None of them come with easy answers. You wonder how many times we can cut research budgets and stay on the forefront of science.
Some things shouldn’t be made to wait.
