Chicken-fried steak and doctors

Today is National Chicken-fried Steak Day. What? You missed it? I used to know a man who insisted that the word steak was redundant. All you had to say, he claimed, was “Chicken-fried.” I always wondered what would happen if he ordered that way at my favorite Star Café and they brought him chicken-fried chicken.

There’s a local Facebook page that features memories of Fort Worth, and today someone asked about favorite chicken-fried steak. The trouble with that question is twofold: it rolls around so often, it’s repetitive. Seems to me we just listed our favorites. And by far the most votes go to Mary’s Café in Strawn—a bit of a drive from Fort Worth and today one woman said she had the toughest piece of meat ever there. But the other winner is always Massey’s, a beloved down-home restaurant that has been out of business for at least fifteen years. What’s the sense of naming that? It doesn’t tell us where to go today for good CFS. As an aside, on Fridays Massey’s used to serve salmon patties, and I loved them.

As for CFS, my favorite is the Star Café, and Fort Worth Star-Telegram writer and food critic Bud Kennedy always rates it highly. Yes, of course I’m prejudiced—good friends own it. But it is still the most mouth-watering, tender CFS. The breading sticks to the meat, and the gravy has legs. Try it sometime. Individually battered, not frozen, pre-cut pieces of meat. All fresh and all good.

Otherwise today was a doctor day. I had an 11:00 appointment with the cornea specialist who claimed, way back in January, that I would have to have cornea replacement surgery after my surgery to fish out the wandering lens. But my vision has been so good, I was prepared to stand my ground and say no more surgery. I needn’t have bothered. She practically did a happy dance over the improvement of my eyes, said I probably only need over-the-counter readers. My vision is 20/40 in both eyes. Hooray! The surgeon dismissed me to go back to my regular eye doctor and I feel like a great burden has been lifted.

Poor Jordan did not fare so well in the doctor’s office. She has a stomach bug for which they gave her medications and recommended isolation. Poor Christian said, “But I’ve already kissed her this morning.” Last I heard tonight she does not feel a whole lot better. And the worst of it is that this weekend is her 25^th high school reunion. They were to go to the football game tonight and a dinner tomorrow night. I am really sorry for her—and hoping none of the rest of us get it. I hesitate to check on her because I don’t want to wake her.

Beautiful weather coming this weekend—in the low 80s and sunny. Just perfect. Enjoy!

My device has an issue

I really did not want to spend the day in endless waiting, dealing with the niggling problems of everyday life. First an appointment with the retina specialist. I went knowing that eye appointments always take an eternity. To my amazement I was called right in to have my vision checked and my eyes dilated. But then I spent almost an hour and a half back in the waiting room before I saw the doctor. Waiting is an apt term for that room. I watched other people arrive, get called back, and leave—and still I sat.

Don’t get me wrong. I have had excellent care and come out on the lucky side of what could have been much worse. But patience is not my strong suit. I think some people can go to an instant state of meditation in such circumstances—I watched some people close their eyes and sit in apparent peace, and I envied them. Not me. I fidgeted. I checked my phone every few minutes. I tried to read on my phone, but it’s small for that.

And when I did see the doctor? Five minutes max. Again, I can’t complain—a good report. Come back in six months, no eye drops, everything is great. But, oh, go see the cornea specialist. Sorry, but I’m not in a hurry for that appointment.

Once home I tackled the pharmacy and the expensive prescriptions they gave me that I don’t need. This has been an ongoing battle, with Jordan running interference. The last time she tried to return them (we’re dealing with the only polite pharmacist so have to time our visits when he’s on duty), he said she had to have the card she’d paid with. I looked online, found the payment in my bank statement, and have the credit card. And he’ll be on duty tomorrow. Hope we can wrap that one up. You will not believe how expensive eye drops are. Those of you on Medicare will understand when I say I reached the “donut hole” by early May because of the eye drops in addition to the medications I regularly take. Christian said today, “What’s the donut hole?” Of course, he doesn’t know.

So to finish my day I got online with AT&T to find out why my phone doesn’t ring. Those chat sessions are useful, especially since I don’t hear well and do type fast, but sometimes I wonder how slowly the tech types or if perhaps they’re chatting with two or three people at once. I decided it was best not to multi-task, so I sat there staring at the screen, watching those little dots and the word, “Agent is typing.”

Long story short, my device has an issue. It’s not eligible for replacement, so the agent referred me to their insurance agency. Just give us the number where we can call you, she said. I explained that there was no number—after all, we were working on the problem that my phone is not accepting phone calls. She had a hard time with that, kept wanting an alternate number. I could hardly give Jordan and Christian’s numbers without telling them what’s going on and they aren’t home yet. So that’s at a standstill. I gave up my landline at exactly the wrong time.

Only good news on the niggling problem front is that I successfully set up and registered my Medical Guardian, so I’m all set to go—with no place to go.

I think I’ll have a glass of wine—or two!

The nothing-to-say blog

No inspiration for a blog tonight. Sometimes when that happens, I just start writing and see what happens. We were to have more storms today, but far as I know we were lucky to get a bit of rain. But it was not an inspiring day—cloudy and dull. I understand though that sunny days are ahead for us. Can you believe it’s the last day of February? I’m stunned.

I went to the eye doctor today, and while I wouldn’t say he jumped hoops over my progress, he didn’t seem alarmed. Said it’s getting better, but there’s still a lot of blood in the back of the eye—those of you who are squeamish just skip that part, please. I don’t see him again for a month, which I took as encouraging. If he were worried, I’d be back there more often. Of course, there’s an insurance problem with renewing the drops he prescribed but given the rate at which the government is un-insuring people I guess it would be churlish of me to complain.

I am so close to the end of the novel I’m working on! But today when I sat to write, it went off in an entirely different direction than I expected—sort of like I hope this blog will do. I wrote an entire scene, and then took a nap during which I rewrote that scene. Haven’t gotten back to it yet, but I will.

Tonight, friends of Jordan’s came for a glass of wine. Jordan is doing wine tastings for a company that markets organic wine—no sugar, no sulfites, no preservatives, etc. Translate that into no hangover. I read somewhere that all California wines have a trace of some chemical that is also found in Roundup weed killer. Not a comforting thought, so Jordan’s organic wines are pretty interesting. The chardonnay I tasted tonight was on the clean and crisp side, whereas I prefer something oakier. But it was good.

In honor of visitors, I turned on the projector that throw green twinkling lights on the casita across from my French doors. Tonight, I’m noticing that it also covers some branches in the yard with a profusion of lights. Maybe I see it because it’s balmy enough to leave the doors open. In February?

And that’s how the day went—nothing spectacular, neither good nor bad. But I guess we must treasure each day. I got a notice from Twitter that someone calling him- or her-self Crazy_Sex_Life is now following me. Does that count as excitement?

Over and out. I really don’t have anything brilliant to say. Not even anything dumb. Blessings on all of you. Sleep tight.

A wasted but big day—figure that one out!

I’ve been up since 6:30 this morning—way too early for me—and I didn’t sleep well. I never sleep well when I have an early appointment, partly because I’m afraid of oversleeping. I wish I could figure out the alarm on either my bedside clock or my phone, but I haven’t. Part of my techy challenge. This morning, I was particularly anxious because I was to see the retina specialist about a symptom I thought he should know about before he went to cutting and slicing on my eyeball—the very idea gives me the shivers. But he gave me a clean bill of health, and the surgery is now scheduled for January 4. I’ll be asking for prayers!

The downside of that was that my eyes were dilated. One of the things I love about my cottage is all the windows and the bright sunlight that streams in. Didn’t love it so much today, and while I could pretty much read on the computer screen, I really couldn’t concentrate on doing much. So it was a wasted morning, of sorts, though I took care of some odds and ends.

Christian had dropped me off at the eye doctor’s office this morning, and a kind neighbor had agreed to pick me up. But Jordan emailed to say she was unexpectedly home, and I replied I was in an examining room, waiting for the doctor—always a good sign that the appointment is almost over. She said to call her. I did, no answer, so I called the neighbor. Then when I was in the downstairs lobby of the building, Jordan called and demanded, “Where are you?” I told her, and she said, “I’m in the doctor’s lobby.” I cancelled the neighbor and got back to Jordan—after a bit we got it straightened out. The ophthalmologist and the retina guy office in adjacent building Whew! I got home, thanks to my daughter.

The big news of the day is that Jordan booked the two of us on a Great Lakes Cruise at the end of next August—8 days,7 nights on a ship that holds only 200+ passengers and hits most of the spots on my bucket list.  The Great Lakes—specifically Michigan and Ontario—are home to me, and I’m more intrigued with this than the Alaska cruise we talked about. This one leaves from outside Toronto, and we may take a day or two there—I might explore family sites. The cruise ends in Chicago, and we’re hoping some of Jordan’s siblings will want to meet us there.

Another nice event of the day: good friends came for wine and happy hour. Sue calls me her Fort Worth mom, because her mom is far away in Ottawa, Ontario. She and the love of her life have announced their engagement, with a June wedding in the offing. So tonight, I got to share in their joy—they are both radiant—and hear all the details.

Jacob sort of chased them off about 7:15 when he announced he was hungry—his parents are out tonight. I ended the day by frying sausage and potatoes for him and, after he was served, adding caramelized onions left from a take-ou dinner for me.

For me, today illustrates the way our lives are filled with equal measures of stress, even fear, and joyous events. I often work on strengthening my faith, but I think today, as we head into the season of joyous celebration, is a reminder to rest assured in faith and let go of fear. Hope I can live up to that.

Cold and blah

My day started off badly as you may have read in an earlier post. I got up at 5:15 by mistake. I washed my hair and did some other stuff and waited for the 7:00 news, which turned out to be the 6:00 news. What a bummer. I’m pleased to say I did read a project I was reading for someone else and made good use of the time, but I was still out of sorts—and by lunchtime I was sleepy. At least now, thanks to Christian, the clocks in my cottage are all fixed. Probably tomorrow I’ll wake up, look at the clock, and think it’s an hour ahead—then I’ll go back to bed and be an hour late with everything all day!

Today was an appointment with the retina specialist. Every new office insists on doing the full eye exam like you haven’t seen two other doctors in the last two weeks. If anyone comes near me wanting to dilate my eyes, I will probably throw a screaming fit and collapse in a puddle on the floor. Nothing new today, although I liked the doctor and felt confident about him. Long story short is the same old story—I will have surgery, but I don’t know when.

Ever since I’ve been old enough to go to the eye doctor, I’ve dreaded it. Mostly, the doctors I’ve seen have been knowledgeable and kind; one is even an old friend. So I don’t know why I dread it—dilation? Could be. Anyway, an appointment drains me and I’m off kilter for the rest of the day. Today, the combination of too-early-to-rise and the eye appointment really got me, and I slept for two hours in the afternoon. Brightened for happy hour company, a jolly gathering, but still feel sort of out of sorts. Fragile? Not how I like to think of myself.

I am cheered by early voting returns—it appears that the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey have both gone to Democrats. In Virginia, that seems to demonstrate that racist propaganda doesn’t cut it with the voters. What a comforting thought in these times that one minister referred to as our period of darkness.

It’s really not that cold tonight, though I have the heat on. Tomorrow the high will be in the forties. Now that’s winter in Texas. It’s 51 and falling out right now. I view this with mixed feelings—I love keeping the patio door open and bringing the outdoors into the cottage, but honestly, folks, it’s time to get rid of this head.

‘Night. Sweet dream, sleep tight. I’m going to crawl under the comforter with a good book.