Friday the thirteenth of never

 

I swear that today is Friday the Thirteenth of Never! 

It began when we stepped into the garage to hop into the truck and head down the road.  Cathy peered out and asked, "What's that on the ground?"  A long wire had been laid down by the telephone repair guys yesterday afternoon.  It snaked around the hillside and at one end it snaked around the corner of the house and down to the lower level while the other end curled behind the propane tank and generator, across the trail to the water tank and disappeared down the left hand side of our road.  It appears that instead of repairing the existing line, the repairmen just hooked up new service.  Easy for them, bad for us who will have to have it buried.  We found that it hooks into a connection halfway out to the county road, about 1,000 feet altogether. 

At least this event gave us something to chew on as we headed along highway 101 toward Shelton.  It's about an hour and twenty minute drive.  We pass through Quilcene, Brennon, Elton, Lilliwaup and Hoods Port, and some of the most spectacular scenery in the world.  Hood Canal on the left and the rugged Olympics on the right.  On a good day we pass deer, elk, coyotes, black bear and mobs of little bunnies and birds.  Not to mention the Kamikaze bugs. 

Still, it's a long drive but I was focused on reaching Dan's Broiler and the state's most delicious Monte Christo sandwich.  It is made with ham, Turkey, cheese and stuff.  It is then dipped in egg batter and deep fried and served with a bowl of black berry jam and piles of fresh fruit.  It is so tasty that it has to be good for the body. 

The second sign that this was a cursed day came when Cathy announced, "The Monte Christo isn't on the menu.  The blood drained out of my entire body.  "Not what?"  I bleated.  "Please", I begged the young waitress, "Tell me it ain't so!"  She tried, really tried to get the cook to create just one final Master piece.  But he had no egg batter, nor anyway to deep fry it.  I wept shamelessly and settled on some really fine fish and chips.  Still...not the same. 

Then came the crowning blow.  We arrived at our client's apartment only to find that she had already received all the services she needed from Seattle.  She had just moved to Shelton from Seattle about two months ago.  The agency in Seattle had provided her with all the gadgets, gizmos and tips that we normally provide.  Given the fact that her vision loss is fairly recent, she has a reasonably positive attitude.  At 92 she is doing fine.  Her hearing isn't what it might be and her legs don't want to hold her up for any length of time, and her memory keeps losing proper names, but all in all we could not find anything to do for her.  It turned out that she wants to walk to her doctor's office several blocks away.  She uses a walker and thought we might have some sort of brightly colored jacket with the words "Blind" on it.  We suggested that she confine her walking to the paved walkway around the outside of her building.  The roads in the area have no sidewalks and she would need to hug the edge of some very busy streets. 

Her other problem was turning on her DVD player.  The folks in Seattle had written out the directions in large block letters.  Several problems.  First, she has Macular Degeneration and as a result she is missing letters when she attempts to read.  So she must go back and forth to get the entire sense of the sentence.  By the time she figures out what to do, she has to start all over again.  But even if she did access the DVD player she would need to work with an on-screen menu. 

Well, to make a short story really long, we had to agree that we could not provide her any useful services.  That's okay for her but not so okay for us since we can't claim reimbursement for services we did not provide. 

Other than that, it's been a fine day.  Oh yes, it's raining again. 

 

Curious Carl

 

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