Garden - 2007

Word of the Day

Hu - A 3rd person gender-neutral pronoun. Its brevity and morphological structure (one open syllable: a consonant + a vowel) make it similar to other 3rd person pronouns -- a typical, easily recognizable member of this class: he - she - hu.

We're Home! PTL!

Yesterday was a "fun-filled" day. Sometimes it's hard to express sarcasm in the written form of a blog. I did have some fun yesterday but.... Our drive to The Big City started a 2 AM on Sunday. #1 Son and I entered the hospital to get #1 Son registered for surgery at around 5:30 AM...as per schedule. While #1 Son and I were doing the register bit, HTP was finding a place to park the car. He joined us later in the Surgery Family Waiting Room. There we waited until #1 Son was called for surgery prep. 6 AM. Nothing to eat or drink for #1 Son so....HTP and I honored this and waited until after he'd gone for prep to sip on a bit more coffee. We were called into a back prep room to join #1 Son after he was all prepped for surgery. We got to meet the anesthesiologists and helpers. We got to meet the nurses and helpers. We got to meet the surgeon. This hospital is part of the University. Lots of helpers in training for titles. At around 7:30 AM, they wheeled #1 Son off to surgery and HTP and I were free to explore the culinary delights of a hospital cafeteria. Actually...it wasn't too bad. Either that or we were just too tired and hungry to care. They even had Starbucks coffee. I've decided that I'm not fond of Starbucks coffee. Tasted a bit like cigarette ashes. But...that might be because I was tired and coffee never really does anything to wake me up.

After dining on the culinary delights offered by the hospital cafeteria, HTP and I returned to the Surgery Family Waiting Room to wait. And we waited.... I didn't kill the man who was waiting for his wife who was having surgery. I was tempted. He kept humming. Tunelessly humming. I worked on Sudoku puzzles, read a book, worked on more Sudoku puzzles, gritted my teeth and took deep breaths and attempted to ignore the tuneless humming. People came and people left. The hummer remained. And then....

Enter The Yuppie Family. It's rare to see such a stereotype outside of a cartoon. First to enter was The Yuppie Wife and The Yuppie Husband. They were late. They weren't upset that they were late. Their attitude was...so what if we got here an hour late for surgery. Doctors are supposed to accommodate the stereotypical Yuppie Family...and apparently, they did. Enter The Yuppie Wife's Sister. Ms. Yuppie Sister. Enter another Mr. Yuppie (I'm not sure if this was Yuppie Sister's husband, or brother or....he was another Mr. Yuppie). And then...too round things out...enter The Yuppie Wife's Mother. Yuppie Mom! Yuppie Mom and Yuppie Sister discussed the great job that Yuppie Mom's doctor had done on her latest face lift. The Yuppie Wife entered complete with three suitcases! I have not idea what kind of surgery she was expecting for herself but apparently she felt that she needed to pack for all contingencies. Of course, with yuppies come Yuppie Cellphones. They ALL came equipped with Yuppie Cell Phones. Name dropping began. The merits of eating beef or going vegan were discussed. Clients were discussed and NAMES were dropped for spice. Entertaining at the lake for the weekend. Menus were discussed.

Needless to say, I was so intrigued by The Yuppie Family and all their entourage that "The Hummer" faded away from my consciousness. The Yuppie Family didn't seem to mind my goggling stares of amazement.

In the meantime, HTP found a computer terminal, which, after a few tweaks and adjustments was able to keep him entertained for quite some time. HTP is really good at tweaking computers. He noted that after he'd wandered off to read the paper, several other people raced over to use the computer...the newly functioning computer.

Finally, around 12 PM, the doctor (surgeon) came out to tell us that #1 Son made it through his surgery just fine. Relief! Four long hours of surgery don't seem long to someone like #1 Son because he's out in la-la land under the influence of the good drugs. HTP and Me were sitting in constant worry and discomfort in a Surgery Family Waiting Room. Nevermind the entertainment factor of The Yuppie Family. Those who sit and wait aren't spending their time playing cribbage...oh...wait a minute... The hummer's family were playing cribbage...come to think about it. 15-1, 15-2, a pair and that makes.... Shuffle the cards and.....

At around 1 PM, we were able to go see #1 Son in his room up on the 10th Floor. We didn't stay long. We just wanted to see him. Hey! I'm a Mom. I'm allowed to see my son, especially after sitting in Surgery Family Waiting Room for seven hours. He was fine. He was sleepy. He was uncomfortable. He didn't want visitors. But...he got a hug before we left him to the squads of nurses.

OK...here we were in The Big City and nothing to do...right? Wrong. Since we knew that #1 Son wouldn't be released from the hospital until today, we checked into our hotel, dropped off our bags and went to see HTP's Mom and Dad. Just a short visit. HTP's Mom and Dad don't deserve that we come to The Big City and don't stop in to see them.

After that, we drove to a movie theatre where we bought tickets for that Indiana Jones movie that just came out. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. HTP has been dying to see a movie at this particular movie theatre with REALLY GREAT SOUND SYSTEM. Blow you out of your seat sound system. Actually, it was pretty good. I guess I'm not into sound systems all that much. HTP is and he loved it. The movie? Well...I have to say that I preferred the other Indiana Jones movies to this one but, aside from a couple of hokie bits of special effects that were a bit over the top (the monkey scene and the prairie dogs and...well...maybe the nuclear bomb test thing was a bit over the top too but...), I loved it. I think I'll probably end up buying the movie...just because. Aliens? Huh?...oh well.

After the movie, HTP and I connected with MC Daughter and D Buddy. We also managed to get a call through to #1 Son at the hospital. He was doing just fine...oops...another nurse. Gotta go. We (MC Daughter, D Buddy, Me and HTP) went to The Outback for supper. The Outback is pretty much the same wherever you go but sometimes consistency is a wonderful thing. They've always been consistently good. If you order your steak rare, you get your steak rare. The loaded baked potato soup is wonderful. The chopped blue cheese salad is (ditto) wonderful. And, they know how to make onion blossoms. Besides, they bring you a really nice frosty beer. You can't go wrong with that. I ate half my salad, I ate half my prime rib, I ate all my baked potato soup and I drank all my beer.

After taking MC Daughter and her hubby (D Buddy) back home, HTP and I retired for the evening at our hotel.

****

Flash forward to this morning. We got up and enjoyed coffee and rolls. Free. Gotta love free continental breakfasts. As we were sipping on our coffee, we get a call from #1 Son. He called to let us know that things were going just fine and it looked like he'd be checking out of the hospital by 10 AM. Cool. We checked out of the hotel and hit the road for the hospital. Rush hour. However, we did get to the hospital before 10 AM. After circling the parking lot several times, HTP finally found a spot that wasn't too far from the elevators and wasn't out in the rain. Oh...it was raining.

It wasn't long after we got up to #1 Son's room that we were all packed up and ready to wheel #1 Son off. They really do insist that patients sit in wheel chairs for this last bit. HTP raced off to get the car while one of the charge nurses and I wheeled #1 Son down to the front door.

It's a long drive from The Big City to The Lake. We had to stop a few times for #1 Son to stop and walk around a bit but we arrived in the city to do some shopping and pick up the prescriptions for #1 Son at around 2 PM. Here's where we encountered a bit of a rub. Walmart had never heard of the doctor that had signed the prescriptions for #1 Son's medications. Argh! Cell phones come in handy! I called #1 Son (resting in the car) and got the number for the hospital which wasn't on the top of the prescription paperwork. HTP called that number and they redirected him to the 10th Floor of the hospital where a first year resident had signed the prescription paperwork but failed to enter certain important numbers that Walmart requires. The nurses on the 10th Floor put in a call for the first year resident. He returned the call and then called Walmart in the city. Numbers were given. And...after two hours of waiting...the prescription was filled. Was it? After all this I'm proud to say, I wasn't so trusting. I checked. The bag only had two prescriptions where there should have been three. The Walmart pharmacy in the big city filled two of the prescriptions but didn't see the third. I ran back inside Walmart, dodging raindrops, and pointed out the error. They filled the third prescription and cut $5 off my bill for the error of their ways.

We're Home! I picked up Gypsy from my folks' place. She sure did look comfortable sleeping the that little basket at Dad's feet. However, I'm glad to have her home too. I'll blog on about my garden tomorrow. Tonight? I'm making spaghetti with Italian sausage for supper.

Murphyism of the Day

Lowe's Law

Success always occurs in private, and failure in full public.

Noteworthy Quote of the Day

Doing a thing well is often a waste of time.

Robert Byrne