Parking Garage Ettiquette

How to get assistance in a parking garage from Security in 30 minutes flat:

1. Do not take note of the level you parked on.
2. Make sure the parking garage is tiered, allowing sound to bounce from one area to another.
3. Randomly chose a floor to start looking
4. After a few minutes, depress the panic button on your vehicle
5. This is where the acoustics come in to play... Continue to depress the panic button and follow the sound.
6. As the sound bounces, you will lose your bearings and become more confused.
7. Repeat steps 3 through 5 until security asks if they can be of assistance.

Really, I found my car within a few minutes. I had spent the last 48 hours in the ER of a hospital. The light of day had not come near my being in two days. Parking was the least of my worries when I entered the hospital. Human kindness and assistance would have greatly assisted me that day. I now park on the top level of every parking garage I enter. One less detail to remember. 

Risky Business and a 9 year old

I was rushing to clean the house before picking the husband up at the airport. It is a 3-1/2 hour drive each way, so timing is vital. While cleaning, my youngest daughter, Sophie, asked to mop. I told her not to worry about it, we would do that tomorrow. I went on my way, to attend to more pressing tasks. 

I came back into the room about 15 minutes later. Sophie had stripped to her underwear and attached kitchen sponges with large rubber bands to her hands, elbows, knees and feet. I just watched without her without her knowing for a few minutes. It was so hard not to just give myself up by laughing. 

Sophie had wet the sponges and was using every dance move from ballet, jazz and tap to sh-sh-shuffling to mop the kitchen, dining room, living room and hallway floors with her make-do sponge-mops. You have to love a kid that looks at a job like mopping and comes up with a system too fun to pass up :) Thanks, Sophie!
As much as I wanted to document this moment in pictures, my cell phone makes too much noise...Damn, another missed photo opportunity.

Warning: USPS hazards

After a thirty minute rant concerning my failure to complete things in a timely manner, given to me by my youngest daughter, I thought I would prove her wrong by mailing the letter she said would only collect dust on my dresser. This task required I visit the United States Post Office, as I needed a stamp.  It is a rare occasion that I need a stamp since I have chosen to do anything possible electronically. When I do need them, I never have the correct denomination and this time was no exception. While running errands with my Mother and oldest daughter, I stopped at the post office. I was driving. Mom and daughter waited in the car.

After I enter the local USPS, I remember that I needed to pick up a few priority mail boxes. I grabbed those and waited in line for the one damn stamp that I need. Bought the stamp, mailed the letter, deed done and checked off of my list. I left the USPS deep in thought, contemplating the facts that stamps are now .45 cents, I need to change the cost of a shipping fee on an auction item and that my youngest daughter needs picked up in 10 minutes.

I approach my car, still deep in thought and decide I need to put the boxes in the back. I attempt to open the rear passenger door, which was locked, when a horn sounded. At the sound of the horn, I look up to see a terrified child and Mother staring at me from the car I was trying to enter. Not my car...I am sure the look on my face was priceless. The horn honking had come from my Mother, trying to alert me that I just walked passed my car. Lost in thought, I completely missed my car. What makes my carelessness epic? The fact that my Mother and oldest daughter witnessed the entire incident and were laughing their asses off when I found my way back to my car. Nope....I won't ever live that down.

And to the family I scared.... I am so sorry. If counseling is required, I will gladly pay for your sessions.

Health Care in a Rural Area

1. There are good doctors that work in the rural health care sector. There are unqualified, dangerous doctors that work in the rural health care system. No different than urban care. What makes physicians with lacking skills acceptable in the rural health care system, is the lack of choice. The basis of practicing physicians has to do with the number or a particular specialist. There is no mention of competency, skill level or experience.

2. Specialists do not exist. Unless my child is currently in a life threatening emergency, meaning I will need to transport them to the closest larger city and deliver them to the emergency room, the standard wait time for a specialist is 6 weeks to 6 months.
Visiting specialists offer clinics as often as once a week and as infrequently as once a month. The appointment that your child gets will be exceptionally quick and standardized, as the visiting specialist is on a tight schedule. Many of these appointments are standardized. My confidence level plummets when the specialist doesn't bother to take the time to confirm the patient's name.

There are caring physicians. As with other necessities, rural living has it's challenges. Health care is one of many.

Family Ties

I haven't blogged before. I don't read other people's blogs. After one too many Facebook posts that turned into a novella, I determined that I have more to say than a post on Facebook will allow, so blogging it will be. I live in a rural area and am raising 2 and 1/2 half kids and a husband. The half of a child is my step-son. He stays with us one week, off to Mom's the following week. Co-parenting. Now, that is a wonderful theory.

This was something I wanted to start, so that is what I am doing. I don't know if blogging will provide some of the stress relief that I am seeking or if it will become a source of more stress. I suppose I will figure that out....