…The Cherry Pits! Yes, my loyal followers, it’s been like a soap
opera during the past month for the Cherry Clan! Let’s see, where shall I
begin? It seems like we’ve spent half of our summer in doctors’ offices. Dorothy met her health insurance deductible
for the year in February when she was in the hospital. She is not working this
summer, so she took the time to go to a physical therapist and other doctors to
have her body checked out from head to toe. After all, it doesn’t cost her
anything for the rest of the year! I often went with her. Since I am a retired
physical therapist, I attended all of her therapy treatments, twice a week for
four weeks. It was interesting. The treatments for back pain have changed since
I last practiced thirty years ago. I learned some new techniques for myself
also.
Al
had his teeth cleaned but the dentist office called him back in because they
saw something suspicious on the x-ray. One of his eye teeth, one that anchors a
six-tooth bridge, was decayed. He spent three hours in the dentist chair having
the decay cleaned out, rebuilding the tooth, putting in a post, and then when
the dentist made the impression for the crown, the post came out! So he had to
wait two weeks for it to heal and then go back. On the Friday before the Monday
that he was to return for further dental work, he fell. He got an ugly wound on
his knee and sprained his back. We dressed the wound, but he could not take
anti-inflammatory medication for his back because it increases bleeding time.
The dentist had instructed him not to take such medication for a week before
his dental procedure! So he was limping around the house, propping his leg up,
using hot/cold packs on his back, taking Tylenol, and feeling utterly
miserable! I had to be his caregiver!
On
Monday, July 29, we went back to Al’s dentist. He had arranged appointments
with a periodontist and an endodontist. So in six hours we saw all three
dentists – and went back and forth to three different dentists’ offices four
times! (Al had to see the periodontist twice on that day!)
No
sooner had we arrived home when we heard a loud clap of thunder! It sounded
like it was right over our house! It took out our land phone line, our
internet, and our television. All three are bundled with the same company,
Comcast Xfinity. So Al called them; they said they could not send a repairman
until Saturday! Yikes! Six days with no phone, internet or cable TV! They said
they would notify us if there was a cancellation. In the meantime, poor Al, the
political science major, city civic volunteer and local community activist, had
no 24-hour news programs to watch! He could not even go on the internet to
catch up on the news! But the biggest problem was the lack of a land phone line
because that is the one we rely on for our doctors to call us. Al called
Comcast every day to check on the status of our repair request. Each time he
told them that I was being treated for lung cancer and he was in the middle of
dental surgery. Of course, we had our cell phones, but they are not as reliable
as the land line. One never knows when the battery will run out.
To
make a long story short, Comcast did move us up to 3:00 on Friday. And somehow
we got through the week without Cable TV or internet. Just before the repairman
was scheduled to show up, I told Al, “This time, I am going to act sick. You
did tell them we needed the land line to keep in touch with my doctors.” So I
got an ice pack for my head, leaned back in my recliner, put five prescription
bottles on the table beside me, covered myself with a blanket, and closed my
eyes. The man arrived, spent an hour fixing our televisions, and then announced
that he did not have the equipment to repair the internet or phone, which is
hooked into the internet. However, he informed us, Al could take the non-working
modem to the Comcast office the next day and they would swap it out for one
that works. I was incensed! The repairman wanted Al do his job!! So quiet,
timid little me spoke up loudly and said, “What
do mean you don’t have the right modem for us??? My husband has been calling
Comcast every day this week and screaming and hollering to them that we need
our land phone line to keep in touch with my oncologist office!!! I also get
emails from my oncologist’s office!!! And you came out here without another modem
for us when they knew our situation???? Just wait till I get the customer
satisfaction survey on this call!!!!”
The
man became very quiet, and then said, in a small voice, “I may have something
in my truck to help you.” After another hour of working on the computers, we
had internet access and land line phone service! And, by the way, we had five
new messages on our land line answer machine. One of them was from Comcast, confirming the Saturday service
call!!!!So Comcast is calling on a phone that we reported to them as dead, to
confirm a service call to repair it!!!!! That makes no sense, but it does
reveal something about their business practices. Their left hand doesn’t know what their right hand is doing!!!
That evening Al went to visit friends at a local café.
However, after acting sick all afternoon, I really did feel too tired to
socialize, so I went to bed! Hmmm, it’s true, after all! If you act sick,
you’ll feel sick, and you’ll be sick!
For this blog, I thought pictures of the weeds in my
garden would be appropriate. Please note that the last picture shows my ribbon
of faith, belief, and God’s truth. The weeds cannot hurt my flowers and the cancer
cells cannot hurt me. Both weeds and cancer cells have been bound on earth and
in Heaven. Also, the dollar weed is the plant kingdom’s version of
the cockroach. It can survive in a drought when all other plants die. It has roots
that extend eight inches underground and they have large nodes filled with
water!
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Weed in the red lava rocks |
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| Weeds in the marble rocks |
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| Dollar
weed surrounding planter of heather |
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Weeds
growing in paver stones
(The frogs posed for this picture) |
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Weeds in the mulch with Ribbon |
